July 5, 2016
Milwaukee Brewers – Tyler Thornburg has not pitched in a week and it is not entirely clear why. Last night Will Smith set-up Jeremy Jeffress, but there is little to suggest that Thornburg is injured or otherwise in Craig Counsell’s doghouse. Considering the fact that the Brewers batted out of order last night, pure incompetence cannot be ruled out. We’ll switch Thornburg and Smith for now.
Updated hierarchy: Jeffress | Smith | Thornburg.
Tampa Bay Rays – Ryan Garton snagged a sneaky vulture save last night with Xavier Cedeno getting the night off. The Rays have used a number of pitchers in the late innings recently, but Kevin Cash has shown confidence in Garton in the last few weeks. We expect him to continue to get late inning work going forward.
Updated hierarchy: Cedeno | Ramirez | Garton.
Houston Astros – In the last week, the Astros have used Luke Gregerson as Will Harris’s set-up man over Ken Giles. Giles has had a tough year following high expectations, and now seems to be second in line in Houston with Gregerson re-establishing his footing.
Updated hierarchy: Harris | Gregerson | Giles.
San Francisco Giants – Sergio Romo, the longtime Giants set-up man, has been activated from the disabled list and will be available to pitch tonight. However, Bruce Bochy told the press that Romo will not be getting his old job back right away. For now, Cory Gearrin will continue to get the 8th inning. We do not expect Bochy to be shy in deploying Romo in the late innings, however.
Updated hierarchy: Casilla | Gearrin | Romo.
Pittsburgh Pirates – The Pirates have used Tony Watson as the primary set-up man recently, but they still went with Neftali Feliz for the vulture save chance last night. Serves us right for not trusting our own hierarchy.
Hierarchy remains: Melancon | Feliz | Watson.
Oakland A’s – Ryan Dull set a record last night for stranding inherited runners. His reward is the first in line spot on the Closer Monkey hierarchy, as his appearance last night was the second time in a row that he’s been used to set-up Ryan Madson.
Updated hierarchy: Madson | Dull | Axford.
VULTURE SAVE WATCH
1. Cory Gearrin, San Francisco Giants – Santiago Casilla has pitched in back to back games and three of four.