Archive for Kyle Barraclough

When Kyle Barraclough had to get bailed out to prevent him from blowing his fourth straight save on Monday, that was the last straw for Don Mattingly. On Tuesday, the Marlins’ manager announced he was removing Barraclough from the closer’s role, though his replacement “was not going to be one guy.” Drew Steckenrider, who has been used consistently as the eighth-inning setup reliever, would be a strong candidate to get the Marlins’ next save chance, though a report from MLB.com beat writer Joe Frisaro cited Adam Conley and Tayron Guerrero as candidates to close as well.
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Thursday’s slate of games did not feature that much closer intrigue, as five of the 12 games were decided by at least six runs. Three of the blowouts were won by teams scoring 15 or more runs.

Yet for fantasy owners counting on Kyle Barraclough or Wade Davis, there was more than enough drama. Barraclough may have blown a save against the Phillies, but the Marlins’ closer had another nemesis to battle: his own control. He threw only six of his 24 pitches in the strike zone and did not issue a first-pitch strike to any of the six batters he faced. His one-out walk to Asdrubal Cabrera loaded the bases, and then Nick Williams‘ groundout brought in Scott Kingery for the tying run. Three pitches later, Maikel Franco finished off Barraclough and the Marlins with a walk-off home run.
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Kelvin Herrera got his first save with the Nationals on Sunday, tossing 1.2 scoreless innings in a 6-2 win over the Braves. While Herrera has posted a 1.62 WHIP since leaving the Royals, he should receive at least a few more save opportunities. That’s because Sean Doolittle has been diagnosed with a stress reaction in his left foot that could keep him out for a few more weeks (though probably not for months).

Ryan Madson could be in the mix as well, either if Herrera continues to put runners on base or if there are situations where Davey Martinez opts to use his primary replacement closer to face the tougher part of the lineup prior to the ninth inning. Then again, Madson has had difficulty getting hitters to chase bad pitches, just like Herrera has. Over his last six innings, Madson has a 2.17 WHIP and a paltry 21.7 percent O-Swing rate.
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For the skills over role consensu, Kyle Barraclough continues to thrive as the closer for the Marlins in spite of starting the season as the primary setup reliever. Barraclough notched his fifth save firing a clean ninth inning with two strikeouts in his fourth outing over the last five days. He’s yielded no runs his last 16 games spanning 15.2 innings and only allowed one hit in these appearances. During the season, Barraclough’s not given up a hit in 25 of his 32 outings and been scoreless in 28 of them. Although he’s battled control issues in the past, Barraclough’s 1.15 ERA and 0.80 WHIP suggest he’s settling into the role quite well. Just plan on Miami giving him a day off on Saturday if possible to keep him healthy going forward.

It feels like one step forward and two steps back with Felipe Vazquez this season. He did record his 13th save allowing a hit but striking out two, including Joey Votto, to secure a win for the Pirates on Friday night. On the surface, Vazquez has blown four of his last eight save chances with an ERA of 4.55 yet a FIP of 2.87, so which number should fantasy owners focus on? Vazquez has cut down his hard hit percentage allowed by 5.6 points. However, he’s traded ground balls for line drives. His underlying discipline statistics do not display complete erosion of his skills as his swinging strike percentage approaches his 2016 numbers, but owners drafted Vazquez for the upside he displayed in the first half of last year. Over the last 14 days, Vazquez has worked 5.1 innings with nine strikeouts against five walks with a 3.38 ERA and 2.53 FIP. Almost a encapsulation of his season so far with hints of upside paired with the high amount of walks. Perhaps he can turn this around like Kenley Jansen did in April, but it’s not for the risk averse. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pirates may have been insisting that Felipe Vazquez is healthy, but something appears to be wrong. After rebounding from a string of subpar performances with solid outings on Tuesday and Wednesday, Vazquez blew his fourth save in 12 days on Thursday night against the Cardinals. He was entrusted with an 8-5 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, but before he could get an out, he loaded the bases and then gave up a two-RBI single to Luke Voit. (In fairness to Vazquez, Tommy Pham reached base by way of a Sean Rodriguez fielding error.) On Vazquez’s very next pitch, Yairo Munoz homered on a 96 mph fastball in the middle of the plate for a walk-off victory.

Clint Hurdle summed up his closer’s performance when he said Vazquez “couldn’t get any swings outside the zone and they barreled up everything in the zone.” That has not only been the case for Thursday’s performance. Over his last six appearances, Vazquez has induced chases on only 26.0 percent of his pitches that have missed the strike zone. He has allowed 23 hit balls over this stretch, and nine of them have been line drives. These trends have contributed to Vazquez allowing nine runs (seven earned) on 12 hits and three walks over just 3.2 innings.
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Before getting on with the business of breaking down Friday’s bullpen developments, there was one closer situation worth checking in on from Thursday’s short slate of games. The Angels brought a 2-1 lead into the ninth inning against the Twins, and manager Mike Scioscia entrusted it to Jose Alvarez, rather than Bud Norris. The Twins had Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco and Eddie Rosario coming up — in other words, a pair of lefties sandwiching a switch hitter who is batting .218 against southpaws. As it turned out, Alvarez blew the save and was tagged with the loss, as he stuck around long enough to give up a single to Jason Castro (another lefty) that scored Polanco and Rosario.

Norris came in after the Castro single to face Brian Dozier, so this had the look of a closer platoon. However, Scioscia told reporters he did not bring Norris in to start the ninth inning because of his lingering knee soreness. While Huston Street has had a setback in his rehab stint, experiencing tightness in his right triceps, Cam Bedrosian is expected back next week. Not only are Norris’ days as the Angels’ closer possibly numbered, but it doesn’t appear he will be a reliable source of saves between now and when Bedrosian returns. Read the rest of this entry »