All the Bay Area closers stink

September 20, 2016

Oakland A’s – Ryan Madson continued his free fall last night, getting touched up for two runs on three hits and taking the loss. He has struggled mightily in September, going 1-3 with a 7.71 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP. While this is terrible news for Madson owners during fantasy playoffs, it is an opportunity for those owners desperate for saves. Both Ryan Dull and Sean Doolittle are good speculative options should Bob Melvin demote Madson.

Hierarchy remains: Madson | Dull | Doolittle.

San Francisco Giants – Another day, another Giants bullpen meltdown. Following a sterling performance by Madison Bumgarner, where he surrendered only one hit in seven innings, the bullpen gave up five hits and two runs while only recording three outs before Hunter Strickland gave up the walk-off double to Adrian Gonzalez to end the game. We have no answers here, and neither do the Giants.

Hierarchy remains: * Law | Strickland | Romo.
* = closer-by-committee

St. Louis Cardinals — Reminder: vulture saves win fantasy championships! As we predicted yesterday, Kevin Siegrist snagged his third save of the season, filling in for an unavailable Seung Hwan Oh.

Hierarchy remains: Oh | Siegrist | Bowman.

Miami Marlins – A.J. Ramos locked down the save after giving up a lead-off double to Wilson Ramos, and the Marlins are still in the wild card chase, albeit four games back. With Miami engaged in a race for the playoffs, we expect Ramos to be the clear number one option for saves for the rest of the season.

Hierarchy remains: Ramos | Rodney | Phelps.

VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Ryan Dull/Sean Doolittle, Oakland A’s – In addition to his recent struggles, Ryan Madson has went 1.1 innings last night. Seems like a good time for some rest.

Ryan Dull might get a few chances down the stretch

September 19, 2016

New York Mets – Jeurys Familia and Addison Reed were both given the afternoon off on Sunday, so the Mets mixed-and-matched their way through the late innings, culminating in the second save of the season for Jerry Blevins. But even though both those saves have come in the last week, Blevins remains largely a LOOGY, and it’s unlikely he’d get the first crack at closing if Familia and Reed both went down suddenly.

Hierarchy remains: Familia | Reed | Salas.

Baltimore Orioles – Darren O’Day returned to the Orioles bullpen yesterday, surrendering a solo home run in an inning of work. He’ll need to get up to speed quickly if he’s going to be a source for holds in the season’s final two weeks, but he’s been such a reliable guy in recent years that we’re not discounting the possibility.

Hierarchy remains: Britton | Brach | Givens. 

Oakland A’s – Due to recent struggles against the Texas lineup, Ryan Madson was given Sunday off, and Ryan Dull got the save in his place. After a subpar August, Dull appears to have found his form again, and with the A’s out of the race, he could get another look or two down the stretch.

Updated hierarchy: Madson | Dull | Doolittle.

Boston Red Sox – After pitching back to back games, Craig Kimbrel was given Sunday off, and Koji Uehara got the save in his place. Uehara remains Kimbrel’s handcuff for the stretch run.

Hierarchy remains: Kimbrel | Uehara | Ziegler. 

VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Kevin Siegrist, St. Louis Cardinals – Seung Hwan Oh has pitched three innings over the past two days.
2. Dealer’s choice, San Francisco Giants – Hey, Matt Cain pitched the 9th last night. Maybe he’s an option.

Santiago Casilla continues his quest towards double digit blown saves

September 18, 2016

San Francisco Giants – If you are a fan of the Mets, Cardinals, or Dodgers, your favorite player this year might not even be on your own team.  Santiago Casilla did his best to help the playoff chances of those three teams on Saturday night by blowing his ninth save of the season.  Sergio Romo started the ninth inning protecting a one run lead, but after giving up a single to the second batter of the inning, Romo was pulled (and he didn’t seem to agree with the move).  Santiago Casilla came on to face Yadier Molina, which was the plan from the beginning if somebody got on.  Casilla walked Molina and then gave up a game-tying single to Randal Grichuk.  Casilla was removed without recording an out and the next batter hit a sacrifice fly for the go-ahead run.  Hunter Strickland was warming up in the bullpen after Casilla and Romo, but the fact that Bochy didn’t bring him in means he doesn’t trust him very much after he couldn’t get the job done last time he pitched.  We will speculate and move Derek Law to the head of the committee since he is only the one who hasn’t failed yet.

Updated hierarchy: * Law | Strickland | Romo.
* = closer-by-committee

Pittsburgh Pirates — Wade LeBlanc picked up his second three inning save of the season yesterday.  LeBlanc only gave up one hit and zero runs in his three innings, which was much better than his last three inning save where he gave up three runs.  Also for those following at home, Juan Nicasio got another strikeout yesterday and now has the longest streak of consecutive relief appearances with a strikeout in the league this season.

Hierarchy remains: Watson | Rivero | Bastardo.

VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. J.C. Ramirez, Los Angeles Angels – Andrew Bailey has pitched in two straight and three of four.
2. Addison Reed, New York Mets – Jeurys Familia has pitched in two straight, throwing a total of 45 pitches.  Reed has also gone in two straight but has been much more efficient, only throwing 20 pitches.
3. Anybody but Santiago Casilla, San Francisco Giants – We think Derek Law will get the next save chance but with Bruce Bochy continuing to play match-ups, it could probably be anybody (except Casilla).

Sean Doolittle ever more likely to return to closing in Oakland

September 17, 2016

Pittsburgh Pirates — Tony Watson converted his 13th save in the tenth inning of Friday’s game, but the real stories happened in front of him. Swingman Juan Nicasio set a club record with his 28th straight relief appearance with at least one strikeout, and Antonio Bastardo picked up the win with a clean ninth inning. Neftali Feliz hasn’t pitched since September 3, and though the team believes he’ll pitch again this season, it’s time to reward Bastardo for his legit work setting up Watson.

Updated hierarchy: Watson | Rivero | Bastardo.

Boston Red Sox — Koji Uehara pitched a clean eighth inning last night, his fifth straight scoreless appearance since returning from the DL. Over that time, Uehara has a 0.60 WHIP and has thrown 78% of his pitches for strikes. Koji seems to be returning to his eighth-inning role, and we’ll edge him in front of Brad Ziegler.

Updated hierarchy: Kimbrel | Uehara | Ziegler.

Oakland A’s — Ryan Madson’s seventh blown save of the season on Friday renews speculation that the team will return Sean Doolittle to the role next year, if not sooner.

Updated hierarchy: Madson | Doolittle | Axford.

VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Fernando Rodney, Miami Marlins — A.J. Ramos took the loss last night in the 12th inning, after throwing 30 pitches. He has pitched in three of the last four, so he is likely going to get a rest today.
2. Ryan Buchter/Kevin Quackenbush, San Diego Padres — Brandon Maurer blew a save with 36 pitches on Friday. Buchter has pitched in two of three, so Quack might get another shot.
3. Brad Brach, Baltimore Orioles — Zach Britton has pitched in three of four and five of seven.

Dellin Betances getting worked to death

September 16, 2016

New York Yankees – The “D” in the former “No Runs DMC” trio has had a rough couple of days, culminating in a disastrous outing Thursday that could cost the Yankees a chance at making the playoffs. Dellin Betances was not called upon to begin the ninth when the Yankees had a 5-2 lead over the Red Sox, as Joe Girardi was hoping to avoid using him. Instead of turning to Tyler Clippard as the Vulture Save Watch predicted, Girardi tried playing the matchups. He went to Tommy Layne to start the 9th. With one out, Girardi brought in Blake Parker, who hit Chris Young and was pulled. He then brought in Betances anyway, and things began to unravel. Betances walked Dustin Pedroia and got the second out when Young was thrown out at home. After allowing RBI singles to David Ortiz and Mookie Betts, he yielded a walk-off 3-run shot to Hanley Ramirez. Ugly. He’s certainly going to need some rest this weekend for you Tyler Clippard owners.

Hierarchy remains: Betances | Clippard | Warren.

Arizona Diamondbacks – Patrick Corbin tossed the last three innings of Arizona’s 7-3 win over the Dodgers to earn a vulture save, his first of the season and second of his career. He probably won’t get another save chance the rest of the season, but with this sorry group of relievers, who really knows?

Hierarchy remains: *Hudson | Delgado | Barrett.
*closer-by-committee

St. Louis Cardinals – Former closer Trevor Rosenthal was activated from the disabled list (inflammation in his throwing shoulder) Thursday. With the Cardinals in the playoff race, it’ll be interesting to see how Rosenthal factors in with just a couple of weeks left. Meanwhile, the team has been mute on the status of closer Seung Hwan Oh, who is battling a sore groin. Expect Kevin Siegrist to fill in if Oh needs more time.

Hierarchy remains: Oh | Siegrist | Bowman.

VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Tyler Clippard, New York Yankees – Dellin Betances has pitched in three straight, including taking losses Wednesday and Thursday.
2. Kevin Siegrist, St. Louis Cardinals – Seung Hwan Oh has been battling groin soreness and hasn’t pitched since last Friday. Siegrist gets the next save chance if Oh can’t go.