August 4, 2015
Miami Marlins – Carter Capps has recently become a target of baseball writing’s OG, due to the success he’s having with his probably-should-be-illegal delivery. But Bill James won’t have to fret about Capps for at least the next few weeks — the otherworldly set-up man has been placed on the DL.
Updated hierarchy: Ramos | Dunn | Morris.
Arizona Diamondbacks – Up by six runs against the Nationals, the Diamondbacks sent set-up man Daniel Hudson out for the 9th inning, whereupon the righthander had his worst outing of the season, allowing four runs to score while only recording one out. Brad Ziegler had to come in to put out the fire. If you’re in a holds league, a name to watch in the Arizona bullpen is former closer Addison Reed, who has pitched 5 solid innings (6 Ks, 0 BBs, 1 ER) since returning to the bigs.
Updated hierarchy: Ziegler | Hudson | Reed.
San Francisco Giants – Santiago Casilla blew the save last night, allowing a 2-run home run to AJ Pierzynski with 2 out in the 9th inning. The Giants went on to lose in the 12th inning, and Casilla received the usual wave of Twitter hate in the aftermath of his outing. An interesting dynamic is developing in San Francisco, where the top two relievers in the hierarchy (Casilla and Sergio Romo) are being handily outpitched by the second-tier guys (Hunter Strickland, George Kontos, Javier Lopez). We will cover this situation more when the Hot Seat column makes its return on Thursday.
Hierarchy remains: Casilla | Romo | Strickland.
VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Andrew McKirahan/David Aardsma, Atlanta Braves – Arodys Vizcaino has pitched in three straight. Normally, this would mean a chance for Andrew McKirahan, but he’s also gotten a lot of work lately (55 pitches in the last four games), meaning David Aardsma could get a shot.
2. Fernando Rodney, Seattle Mariners – Carson Smith has pitched in three straight.
