Bullpen Depth Charts: Relievers To Stream – 9/27

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 an excellent 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

 

• Only ten teams play on Monday; CHW, CLE, DET, KC, OAK, SEA, WAS, CIN, PIT, COL. The rest will have a day of rest going into their final two series of the regular season.
• With so few games, there often aren’t great vulture opportunities, but there’s a solid one in Cincinnati. Reiver Sanmartin has been called up to make his debut against Pittsburgh and he’s a decent candidate to be pulled early. Luis Cessa is the guy to stream here. He’s been excellent for the Reds and is working on a couple of days of rest.

 

Transaction Notes

 

• Boston placed Josh Taylor on the 10-day IL.
• David Bednar was activated by Pittsburgh before the game on Sunday.

 

Yesterday’s Performances

 

• Scott Barlow logged his 16th save of the year and sixth in the month of September working around two hits and two walks, but logging three punchouts. One of those walks was intentional, but Barlow still only escaped by the skin of his teeth here. He’s not a bad one to look at if you need to steal a save in the final week of the season. The Royals have home series against Cleveland and Minnesota and are one of six teams with a seven-game week due to the makeup game in Cleveland on Monday.
• Four and a third scoreless from some unlikely sources for Detroit. Derek Holland had a rough beginning to the season, but he’s finishing strong. He’s allowed just one earned run in 13 IPs in September.

 

• Joe Barlow—no relation to Scott—recorded a one-out save on five pitches for his ninth of the season and sixth in September. With his performance, you have to think Barlow goes into camp next year with at least a shot at beginning the year as their closer. I don’t know if his stuff would play over the course of a full season, though.
• Another rough day for the Orioles bullpen as they allowed four runs in four innings and let the game get out of reach. It’s hard to believe it, but this team’s bullpen ERA for the first quarter of the season was 3.44, sixth-best in the majors. In the second half, it’s 6.49, bad enough that I’m wondering if it’s the worst stretch of relief pitching in baseball history. What happened?

 

• David Bednar returned and worked the seventh inning earning him his 12th hold of the season. He’s got a good shot at breaking camp as the closer next year, but it looks like Chris Stratton is set to get the chances in the final week.
• It was a bullpen game for Philadelphia and it went poorly. Eleven walks and seven strikeouts to the Pirates?! When you’re fighting for a playoff spot?! This isn’t it.

 

• If it weren’t for the Orioles record-setting levels of ineptitude, the Nationals would be wearing the crown of the worst second-half bullpen. September has not been kind to Ryne Harper. He entered the month with a 2.17 ERA and he now sits at 4.08.
• Another intriguing young arm in Dauri Moreta for the Reds as their new pitcher development system is starting to pay dividends even though their bullpen was kind of a catastrophe for large chunks of the season. As for Moreta, he’s got great numbers in the minors, but he’s a fly ball pitcher who relies a lot on his fastball for success. In the Great American Ball Park? No, thanks.

 

•  Liam Hendriks logged save number 36 and Craig Kimbrel gave up another run on a homer to raise his ERA in the AL to 5.32. The White Sox are clinched and this is the 1-2 punch they’re going with for the playoffs. They’re likely only going to get one or two more innings in the final week since the White Sox are mostly locked into the third seed in the AL, so plan accordingly.
• The most important thing to note here is that we saw Logan Allen out of the bullpen which all but confirms his departure from the rotation for the rest of the season. There’s a slim chance he gets the ball again in the final game of the year, but I’m not sure if anyone knows for sure right now what the chances of that happening are.

 

• Just some maintenance work here for Anthony Bass and Dylan Floro. I wouldn’t expect any changes in usage or any further opportunities for Anthony Bender in the season’s final week.
• Nick Anderson logged save number 1 of the season here on September 26th, just as we all were hoping when we stashed him. However, that also came with a bit of bitterness as he allowed a home run as well. His fastball velocity was improved and he nearly sat 94 in this one, but it’s still diminished velocity and his fastball is still getting clobbered. Do. Not. Trust.

 

• Jordan Romano logged the final four outs for the Blue Jays earning his 21st save in the process. I think there will be questions as to whether he keeps the ninth next year because it seems to me that they preferred him as a fireman, but those questions are for the offseason. Enjoy him as a top-notch closer for the final week.
• Ralph Garza Jr. might end up being a solid waiver wire pickup for the Twins. Fourteen strikeouts and four walks on a 1.96 ERA in 18.1 IP since they claimed him. For fantasy purposes, though, he’s likely not going to be a hot commodity.

 

• The Mets seem to have recovered the career of Brad Hand after his disastrous stint in Toronto. The two losses he’s saddled with may well cost the Blue Jays a playoff spot. But now he has a 3.48 ERA in 10.1 IPs back in the NL East.
• The Brewers had a division title on their minds, so they rolled out their big guns even though it wasn’t a save/hold situation. Josh Hader has now thrown 45 pitches across three straight days of work. The Brewers are off on Monday, but look for Hader to be given at least one more day off after that as well. With as cautious as they’ve been with his workload, I’d put the over/under at 1.2 IPs in the final week of the season and my money’s on the under. Devin Williams also returned from a brief injury and seems to be good to go.

 

• Giovanny Gallegos continues racking up the saves. He worked around two walks to secure his 14th of the year and his whopping 11th in September alone. Turns out when your team is winning every single night, you end up with a lot of save opportunities.
• Rowan Wick took a blown save and Codi Heuer took a loss as the back end of the Cubs bullpen continues to struggle. The two have combined for five blown saves and just three conversions in the month of September.

 

• Camilo Doval earned his fifth win in relief after tossing a scoreless eighth. The Giants pen was heavily taxed and they needed some length from their starter and got it. This plus the scheduled day off Monday will give most of their top arms two days of rest in a row and allow them to be ready to go on Tuesday.
• Daniel Bard had seemingly found his footing again after a string of bad performances led him to be removed from the closer role, however, he allowed three runs while recording just two outs in the top of the ninth and was tagged with his eighth loss of the season.

 

• Ryne Stanek was deployed for a second inning in the bottom of the ninth to try to keep the game tied instead of using Kendall Graveman for a second straight day and the decision came back to bite the Astros. He left Ryan Pressly with a bases-loaded, one-out situation that he couldn’t escape and they were walked off for the second straight day.
• It’s worth noting here that Andrew Chafin worked the eighth inning while Lou Trivino was brought on for the ninth and picked up the win, his seventh. They have both worked two of three, but have a scheduled day off on Monday and will be fighting to stave off elimination in their upcoming series against Seattle, so look for them to have everyone available on Tuesday. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trivino is the one who ends up getting the save chance.

 

• Paul Sewald and Diego Castillo combined for four strikeouts across two scoreless innings to shut down the game and lock up the key victory that moved them two games out of the second wildcard spot. They go into the final week of the year with Sewald and Drew Steckenrider as 1a and 1b in terms of closer options with Castillo as a clear third in line.
• Despite the lackluster performance today, Austin Warren has had a pretty successful second half for the Angels. The earned run brings his ERA up to just 1.96 in 18.1 IPs. He had an ERA over six in AAA this year, but his performance in the majors is backed up by advanced metrics so far. The PCL can be really weird sometimes, so it’s worth it to continue to keep an eye on him.

 

• Kenley Jansen logged save number 36 on the year striking out two and allowing one hit. Thanks to the Dodgers pitching depth, they’ve been able to be more careful with Jansen’s workload throughout the season and he’s therefore avoided the second-half problems that have plagued him in his career. His regained velocity on his cutter is also playing a big role in his production. Continued reduction in cutter velocity and his increased walk rate will eventually catch up with him, but he likely has another year or so of solid production.
• Good on you D’backs bullpen! Six-and-a-third scoreless to prevent the game from getting out of hand. It’s the small victories in a season like this one.

 

• It was a bullpen game for Atlanta and eight different pitchers saw the mound. A.J. Minter ended up picking up the win and Will Smith got the rocky save working around three walks. Smith was the beneficiary of two generous called third strikes here. He really deserved to blow this save, but sometimes the home plate umpire just decides he doesn’t want extras.
• There was a Ross Detwiler sighting! I was excited about what looked like a more strikeout-focused approach at the beginning of the year, but that hasn’t quite held up. Oh, well. I’m happy to see him sticking around the league anyway.

 

• Chad Green picked up his 10th win in relief and Aroldis Chapman earned his 30th save as the Yankees finished their sweep of the Red Sox. Chapman is back in a groove going six for six in save opportunities and striking out 21 batters in 11.1 IPs in September.
• Another rough day for the Red Sox bullpen as they took a blown save and a loss for the second straight day. This time it was Garrett Richards and Adam Ottavino teaming up to hand the game over.