Bullpen Depth Charts: Relievers To Stream — 8/2

Welcome back to Relievers to Stream for Wins and Saves! This will bring you up-to-date bullpen depth charts every morning for the day’s games and makes for a great tool for those of you looking to stream saves or wins. This series runs seven days a week, so be sure to check in every morning to get your daily bullpen fix!

 

Notes

 

Schedule Notes

 

• 14 teams have a built-in rest day coming up today and are not viable for streaming: SD, LAD, COL, STL, CIN, CHC, ATL, OAK, HOU, MIN, KC, DET, CWS, BOS.
• Ranger Suárez is scheduled to throw just three innings against Washington today. Phillies’ middle and long relievers get an extra bump in value due to the matchup and the possibility of getting a win in relief. Just like last week, my official pick is Connor Brogdon.

 

Transaction and Injury Notes

 

• Robert Stephenson started a rehab assignment for the Rockies. With the departure of Mychal Givens, Stephenson probably moves into a position to collect a few holds upon his return if you’re desperate and willing to risk his ratios.

 

• Tanner Rainey was optioned to AAA-Rochester. As a Nationals fan, my reaction is “he can’t hurt us anymore”.

 

• Tanner Scott hit the 10-day IL for Baltimore.

 

• Milwaukee placed Hunter Strickland on the 10-day IL.

 

• Tampa Bay placed Jeffrey Springs on the IL. If you would like to try out to be a Rays reliever, please contact their Player Development department.

 

• Ryan Pressly is on the paternity list meaning that Kendall Graveman will temporarily take save opportunities in Houston. This won’t last long. Pressly should be back either Tuesday or Wednesday.

 

Yesterday’s Performances

 

• We don’t know much about how the back end of the Cubs bullpen will shake out, but it appears that Codi Heuer is definitely seen as one of their top setup men. After earning his first hold as a Cub on Saturday, he was called upon in the bottom of the eighth of a tie game and kept the game tied with the help of a double play. Kyle Ryan, who earned the save on Saturday, was used in the bottom of the seventh down a run. Wait, that’s not where you use the closer. Don’t think for a second that we’re done updating that depth chart. We just need more data before we do.
• On the other side of the tank bowl, Kyle Finnegan seems to be pretty firmly planted as the team’s new closer. He delivered a clean ninth that allowed the Nationals to walk it off in the bottom of the inning and grant him the win.  Add that on to saves in his two previous outings and an eight and two-thirds inning scoreless streak and you have a decently valuable closer.

 

• Welcome to Philadelphia, Ian Kennedy! He hadn’t worked since Tuesday, so the Phillies saw an opportunity to give him a low-leverage maintenance inning as his first on the team and, as you may know, these maintenance innings don’t always go well for closers. Don’t read too much into the usage or performance just yet.
• What a treat it was to see first baseman John Nogowski pitch in this one. His fastball topped out at 68 and one of his curveballs was 45 mph with 145 inches of vertical break. Ain’t Statcast grand?

 

• Scott Barlow continues making short work of Major League hitters. He had a bit of a rough patch to end the first half but has allowed one run in seven innings to begin the second half. Can someone please explain to me why he’s in a timeshare with Greg Holland?
• Toronto was up five going into the late innings, so they opted to save their top arms after having used them Saturday. From a fantasy perspective, we all want Jordan Romano to keep getting all of the save opportunities, but I can’t help but think Toronto brought in Brad Hand to give them a bit of flexibility.

 

• They’ve tried him as a piggyback, they’ve tried him as a pure starter, now they’re trying him as a pure reliever. Keegan Akin is back with Baltimore as they try to figure out if they can get him to be a serviceable major league pitcher in any capacity. It did not go well.
• Facing a sweep, Detroit used all its top bullpen arms at the end of this one which ended up being a four-run victory eliminating the save. The order was José Cisnero, Michael Fulmer, then Gregory Soto and my money is on that being the order we see the most the rest of the way.

 

• Mychal Givens earned his second hold as a member of the Reds in three appearances. As expected, he’s fallen right into a high-leverage role in a team that sorely needed more reliability at the back end of their bullpen. He should be a quality piece moving forward in SVHD leagues.
• The Mets tried to keep themselves in it, but were unable to do so. Yennsy Diaz has quietly come out of the All-Star break throwing really well. He’s allowed just two runs in eight innings of work in the second half and could be another solid piece for what is shaping up to be a fairly deep bullpen.

 

• Aroldis Chapman notched save number 22 on Sunday with Zack Britton earning his sixth hold and newly acquired Joely Rodríguez earning the win in relief. That’s five saves in nine days for Chapman who has squarely put to rest any kind of nerves Yankees fans and fantasy managers may have been feeling in early July.
• Anthony Bass took both his sixth loss and thirteenth hold while Richard Bleier was charged with his sixth blown save as they combined to allow two runs in the top of the eighth to allow the Yankees to take the lead. It looks like it was shaping up to go from Bass in the eighth to Dylan Floro in the ninth, so that’s the depth chart we have right now; however, this is likely a fluid situation.

 

• Josh Hader finally tallied save number 22—a whopping 24 days after getting number 21. It was a strange and frustrating July for Hader as he was barely needed between the All-Star break and a weird set of games where the Brewers won just two games by three or fewer runs all month while winning seven by four or five runs. There were even situations where Milwaukee declined to give Hader even a maintenance inning to keep him fresh, so I believe they were all too happy to give him a month with a very light workload after a very dominant, but very busy first three months so that he’s ready for their stretch run.
• Richard Rodríguez was used for the second straight game and how has two scoreless innings under his belt in Atlanta. For any of you holding out hope that he’d still get some save chances, sorry. The writing is on the wall with how he was used in this series.

 

• After a long outing for both James Karinchak and Emmanuel Clase on Saturday, Cleveland was forced to turn to Nick Wittgren to hold down the fort in the eighth and ninth. He was unable to do so allowing a walk-off solo home run. Cleveland traded away some bullpen depth at the deadline, so there may be more holds opportunities coming for guys like Nick Sandlin if Wittgren continues to falter.
• In the first game where we saw them both together, Craig Kimbrel worked the eighth and Liam Hendriks the ninth as both went scoreless, but Hendriks was awarded the win after the White Sox walked it off in the bottom of the inning. We still don’t know for sure how they will be used, but Hendriks has a three-year contract while Kimbrel is a rental. If they’re going to be loyal to one guy, it’s going to be Hendriks. So far, their usage seems to support that theory.

 

• The Twins are in full “see what we’ve got” mode as we saw newly acquired John Gant out of the bullpen and another couple innings from youngster Beau Burrows. Anybody worth having either left or is hurt, so I’d hold off on looking too hard at the Twins bullpen for the rest of this year. But hey, Jovani Moran is one of my favorite reliever prospects in all of baseball, so you’ve got that going for you, Twins fans.
• St. Louis used their top two arms to secure the win on Sunday. Giovanny Gallegos nabbed his 18th hold, but Alex Reyes got only a GF (Game Finished) as the Cardinals added two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth. No walks, though!

 

• Erik Swanson was next in line for the save opportunity after heavy workloads for both Diego Castillo and Paul Sewald in the first two games of the series. He, like Castillo the night before, allowed a walk-off home run to Jonah Heim. On paper, this is still a really solid bullpen with several guys worth owning in SVHD leagues. It was a very rough series for them, though.
• Dennis Santana earned his first win of the year working a 1-2-3 ninth inning. The Rangers are also no longer interested in pumping up the stock of a couple of their relievers and are most interested in seeing what they have for the future. There may not be one clear-cut guy that steps out of this bullpen as the guy to own.

 

• It was the Astros debut for Rafael Montero and the second day of work in a row for new acquisition Phil Maton. Montero figures to be pretty low in the pecking order for holds, but Maton seems to be in the mix for them down the stretch. Although, his ratios leave a bit of a bitter taste to any holds you might get.
• It was yet again Tyler Rogers (hold #19) in the eighth and Jake McGee (save #23) in the ninth. On May 30th, McGee’s ERA was 4.37. Now, 21.2 innings without an earned run later, it’s 2.23 and the Giants are looking very smart for sticking with him.

 

• Working with a five-run lead, the Athletics bullpen delivered four scoreless innings to keep the game in hand. Newly acquired Andrew Chafin seems to be settling into a late-inning role in Oakland, as expected, and should be a good source of holds the rest of the way.
• Los Angeles found themselves down big going into the late innings and bulked Junior Guerra for three innings to give their other guys some rest.

 

• The Dodgers made short work of the Diamondbacks and didn’t need their top arms. Yefry Ramírez made his season debut for the Dodgers, but he figures to just be a bulk arm.
• It was a rough day for Arizona’s bullpen as none of the six relievers they used came away unscathed.

 

• Colorado needed seven innings from their bullpen after a disastrous start from Austin Gomber. They got three solid innings from Ashton Goudeau, but it wasn’t enough to keep the game close and they rested their top arms.
• It was a bullpen game for the Padres and Craig Stammen walked away with the win, his fifth. It was an overall impressive team performance from the bullpen which featured six different pitchers who combined for 6 IP, 0 ER, and 8 Ks.

 

• Garrett Whitlock delivered two scoreless innings to keep the Red Sox within one run. The offense didn’t reward him for his efforts, unfortunately. Whitlock had a little blip in May where he allowed five runs in five appearances but has otherwise been otherworldly in his rookie season with a 1.21 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 52 IPs.
• With nearly all of their other relievers unavailable due to either injury or workload, unlikely candidate Matt Wisler walked away with his first save of the season on Sunday. Holds went to Drew Rasmussen and Ryan Sherriff. With so many injuries, it’s no telling who the Rays will go to on any given night. Andrew Kittredge is likely the highest leverage arm and, therefore, the best one to own, but Tampa Bay opted not to throw him in back-to-back nights here, so the Rays clearly are willing to put their faith in other guys to close out games.