June 10, 2017
Pittsburgh Pirates — Hours after officially losing his job, Tony Watson was back in the ninth inning for the Pirates. Granted, they were down five at the time, but he did pitch a clean inning. Clint Hurdle said that he’ll use a committee for saves going forward, but we give Juan Nicasio the edge, since Hurdle seems to view Felipe Rivero in more of an Andrew Miller role. As we noted at the beginning of the year, Hurdle has a tendency to stick with the roles he has laid out for his relievers longer than he should (see: Watson, Tony), so the next few save opportunities could be vital in determining who will get the bulk of the chances going forward.
Updated hierarchy : *Nicasio | Rivero | Hudson.
* = closer-by-committee
Colorado Rockies — Adam Ottavino was activated from the DL and immediately saw action in the eighth inning ahead of Greg Holland. Ottavino looked healthy, pitching a perfect inning with 2 Ks and picking up his 16th hold of the season. A healthy Ottavino is the best option behind Holland for the Rockies, moving Jake McGee back to second in line.
Updated hierarchy: Holland | Ottavino | McGee.
Chicago Cubs — C.J. Edwards struck out the side (and allowed a run) in the seventh, while Koji Uehara again got the eighth inning ahead of Wade Davis. Both are reliable options, but the more experienced Uehara appears to be the backup to Wade Davis.
Updated hierarchy: Davis | Uehara | Edwards.
St. Louis Cardinals — As pointed out to us last night by an enthusiastic Cardinals fan (15 exclamation points!!) suspiciously named Matt, Kevin Siegrist has indeed been eclipsed in the Cardinals bullpen by Matt Bowman, who struck out the side in the seventh last night for his 12th hold. Did Bowman himself take the time to harangue us with four postgame paragraphs about our “glaring mistake”? Does he have the tech savvy to spoof a Chicago IP address from the Cardinals’ locker room? Let’s just go with probably yes.
Updated hierarchy: Oh | Rosenthal | Bowman.
Baltimore Orioles — Darren O’Day has been placed on the DL with a right shoulder strain, marking the second time in a month that he’s been shut down. In Zach Britton’s absence, Brad Brach has settled into the closer’s role, putting up seven straight scoreless appearances, and Mychal Givens has been excellent as well. Behind those two, however, lie several question marks. Lefty Donnie Hart was sent to the minors, leaving the seventh inning to the likes of Edwin Jackson, Mike Wright, and lefty Richard Bleier. Jackson may end up in long relief, and Bleier is the only lefty remaining in the pen, so we’ll tab Wright for now.
Updated hierarchy: Brach | Givens | Wright.
Seattle Mariners — Edwin Diaz has fully re-established himself as the Seattle closer and has no further need of the committee asterisk.
Updated hierarchy: Diaz | Vincent | Pazos.
Los Angeles Dodgers — In his first relief appearance since he was a 20-year-old Hiroshima Carp, Kenta Maeda picked up his first career save, pitching the last four innings of a five-run game. Maeda was excellent, striking out six and giving up a solo home run. Maeda hopes to be back in the rotation soon and, with performances like last night, he may get his wish.
Hierarchy remains: Jansen | Baez | Fields.
VULTURE SAVE WATCH
Today:
1. Arodys Vizcaino — Jim Johnson has gone in two straight and the Braves have a doubleheader today.
2. Jake McGee — Greg Holland has gone in two straight (42 pitches) and Adam Ottavino might not be ready to go back-to-back.
Sunday:
1. Adam Ottavino — If Holland does pitch again on Saturday, Ottavino could spell him on Sunday.
2. Keone Kela — Matt Bush has gone in three of four (with only seven pitches yesterday).
3. Jacob Barnes/Carlos Torres — The Brewers have used their top relievers heavily, so anyone who goes today will probably be off Sunday.
4. Andrew Miller/Bryan Shaw — If Cody Allen pitches on Saturday, he’ll need Sunday off (three of four). Andrew Miller threw 30 pitches on Friday.
5. Brad Hand — Brandon Maurer has gone in two straight.
6. Trevor Rosenthal — So has Seung Hwan Oh.
