June 3, 2023
Texas Rangers – With a fully rested bullpen the Rangers gave the ball to rookie Grant Anderson in the 8th inning of a 2 run game. He successfully bridged the gap to Will Smith for his first career hold. Anderson turned some heads with a 7 strikeout debut, and this hold suggests he may already be in the mix for the late innings. We will slot him to second in line for now, but he may ascend quickly if Texas keeps giving him chances.
Updated hierarchy: Smith | Sborz | Anderson.
Colorado Rockies — The Vulture Save Watch predicted that Justin Lawrence would get the save last night, and that’s what happened, although it wasn’t a very conventional. Colorado entered the 9th with a 5 run lead, but after Daniel Bard loaded the bases with 2 outs they went to Lawrence. As all bullpen junkies know rule 9.19 says that a save is recorded when a pitcher (1) finishes the game, (2) is not the winning pitcher and (3) meets one of the “save criteria” the second of which is entering the game, regardless of score, with the tying run either on base, at bat or on deck. Congratulations to the vulture save watch and to Justin Lawrence for his 5 run lead, 1 batter save.
Hierarchy remains: *Johnson | Lawrence | Bard.
* = closer-by-committee
Milwaukee Brewers — An 11 inning game saw both teams empty their bullpens, and the last man out for Milwaukee was Bryse Wilson. He allowed the ghost runner to score, but with a 2 run cushion that was enough to earn the save. Wilson has been quite effective out of the bullpen and already has 3 saves on the year, although this was the first one that wasn’t a 3 inning affair.
Updated hierarchy: Williams | Strzelecki | Payamps.
Arizona Diamondbacks – With a series of righties coming up it was Miguel Castro who got the ball in the 9th inning of a 1 run game. It wasn’t his smoothest outing, giving up a pair of singles, but got the game ending groundout to strand the tying run at 3rd and pick up his 6th save. Castro and Chafin continue to trade save chances in Arizona, but Castro has gotten arguably the harder workload in the last week and this is as it’s close to a 50/50 share as there is right now.
Hierarchy remains: *Chafin | Castro | McGough.
* = closer-by-committee
Vulture Save Watch:
- Jorge Lopez (MIN) — Jhoan Duran threw 26 pitches over 1.2 innings last night.
- Andres Muchado/Carl Edwards (WAS) — The entire Washington hierarchy has seen a heavy workload, with everyone throwing at least 40 pitches over the past 3 days, leaving Muchado as a solid off-hierarchy vulture save option.
- Michael Fulmer (CHC) — Mark Lieter and Albert Alzolay have both gone in 3 of 4.
For Sunday:
- Erik Swanson (TOR) — Today would be 3 straight for Jordan Romano
- Peter Strzelecki (MIL) — Today would be back to back and 3 of 4 for Devin Williams.
