The Relief Brief: Thursday, August 11th

by Collin Campbell (collinman005@gmail.com) Last Updated 2016-08-12 01:52:18

Somewhere around 35% of at bats come against a team’s bullpen. Most DFSers, however, pay attention only to the matchup an offense has with starting pitchers.

In order to give RotoGrinders readers an edge on the field, we have developed a Bullpen Pitching article that focuses on bullpen usage and skill, as well as the elements that may come into play on that day in terms of the bullpen pitchers an offense is likeliest to see. Although we developed this article as part of our Premium Content Package, we decided to make this article free to all readers for the remainder of the 2016 MLB season!

Feel free to comment with any other ideas for this article that you would find useful in your own daily research.

Thursday features a split-slate. We will cover games from the late portion of the slate. While I won’t break down every bullpen situation, we will begin with the bullpen highlights as described above. Let’s get to it!

1. Bullpen Highlights

Michael Pineda has epitomized inconsistency in 2016. Pineda has 22 starts and has allowed two or fewer runs in in ten of those starts while allowing five or more runs in eight others. In all of his successes and failures, Pineda has managed to go at least five innings in 21 of his 22 starts, but never more than seven innings. The Yankees bullpen has taken a noticeable dip in production since the trade deadline, but is still an above average group. The Red Sox are always in play, and if they have a lead late in the game, they won’t have to worry about facing Dellin Betances.

Eduardo Rodriguez is still trying to figure things out at the big league level. He continues to allow home runs (12 dongs in 11 starts this season), but has also put together some modestly good numbers in streaky fashion. In his last five starts, E-Rod has allowed a total of ten runs. Unfortunately, he only worked into the seventh inning in two of those starts. He’s not a likely candidate to go deep into a ballgame at this point, but the Yankees struggles against lefties are well documented. The Red Sox bullpen has really struggled over the last 30 days to the tune of a 4.11 SIERA and a K% that is more than six percent lower than the full season splits.

The Angels traded for Jhoulys Chacin in hopes of acquiring a reliable pitcher to help their pitiful starting rotation. Chacin made ten starts with the Angels before his demotion to the bullpen. In those ten starts, Chacin went for more than six innings only twice, and went for five or less innings six times. Tonight, he will get to start against Cleveland. The Indians figure to see plenty of the bullpen in this one as Chacin has not started a game since the first of July. The Angels have a bottom five bullpen, and are a prime team to attack tonight.

Dandy Danny Duffy has been downright, undeniably delightful lately (alliteration, so they say). In his last eight starts, Duffy has allowed a total of 16 runs while striking out 61. He has also been very economical, managing to go more than six innings in seven of those eight starts. I see Duffy as a pitcher in elite form going up against a team that is just about average against lefties on the season. The Royals bullpen is still beat up with injuries to key pieces, so don’t be surprised to see Dandy Dan tally up a strong seven innings here.

Miguel Gonzalez has been remarkably consistent lately. His peripheral numbers are rarely encouraging, but he has done a good job of working around trouble of late. Gonzalez has gone seven straight starts with six or more innings while allowing three runs or less. Across those seven starts, he has spread out a whopping 40 hits. I see Gonzalez as a regression candidate, but the Royals bats have been less than enticing lately. Keep in mind that the White Sox bullpen is one of the worst in baseball and has been dreadful over the last 30 days (1.95 HR/9, 4.82 SIERA).

My Top 2 Bullpen Situations To Attack

1. Los Angeles Angels
2. Chicago White Sox

2. Bullpen Personnel Movement

The Astros called up lefty Kevin Chapman from AAA. He’ll serve as the 26th man for the double header today. The Astros also called up Jandel Gustave from AAA. Gustave racked up more than a strikeout per inning in AAA, and could make an impact immediately for the Astros ‘pen.

Cubs’ reliever Pedro Strop exited last night’s game after injuring his knee. He will undergo an MRI today. I’ll keep you updated in this section in the coming days.

The Blue Jays called up Ryan Tepera from AAA. Tepera is likely to pitch in meaningless situations.

The Twins called up JT Chargois. JT throws hard, but lacks control. He was lit up earlier in the season and will likely be inserted in low-leverage situations.

3. Other Notes and insights that I find along the way.

Since I began writing this article, I have coined several nicknames for starting pitchers or relief pitchers. If you can name them all, I’ll give you a shout out in the next article and I’ll play you in a h2h match of your choosing.

Feel free to follow me and ask me questions on Twitter – @collinman005

Legend