April 18, 2017
St. Louis Cardinals – Finally, in their 13th game of the season, Seung Hwan Oh notched his first save for the Cardinals. But he struggled in doing so, giving back half of the Cardinals’ two-run lead before and letting the tying run reach second before inducing a hard groundout from John Jaso to end it. Oh hasn’t been his normal self to start the season (5.2 IPs, 6 ER, 2 Ks, 1 BB, 2 HRs), with his K totals being especially alarming after he struck out 103 hitters in 79.2 IPs last season. Would-be set-up man Kevin Siegrist has also struggled, having walked 8(!) in just 4.1 innings thus far. Instead, it’s been Trevor Rosenthal who has been solid since returning from an early-season injury — the former closer got the 8th inning hold ahead of Oh last night. If The Final Boss continues to struggle, Rosenthal may get a chance to return to the spotlight.
Updated hierarchy: Oh | Rosenthal | Siegrist.
Texas Rangers – The Rangers had a comfortable lead going into the late innings yesterday, but used Jeremy Jeffress when things got a little sticky in the 8th, and then used the just-recalled Keone Kela (who now vows to actually try hard and stuff) finish off the 9th inning once they’d pushed their lead to 7-0. Hopefully you picked up Matt Bush after reading yesterday’s update, because Jeff Banister said that the former first overall pick would indeed get the majority of save chances. But Kela, in particular, is an intriguing arm to watch going forward. (Also, Sam Dyson went on the DL yesterday but hopefully he’s already dead to you.)
Hierarchy remains: *Bush | Jeffress | LeClerc.
* = closer-by-committee
Los Angeles Angels – Huston Street was moved to the 60-day DL yesterday, meaning he won’t be back until June. Did you draft Huston Street this year? That was silly. You should not have drafted Huston Street this year.
Hierarchy remains: Bedrosian | Parker | Petit.
VULTURE SAVE WATCH
Today
1. Jorge de la Rosa – Fernando Rodney has gone three straight and JJ Hoover pitched two innings yesterday.
2. Matt Barnes – Craig Kimbrel has gone three straight.
Wednesday
1. Corey Knebel – If Neftali Feliz goes today, it’ll be three straight.
