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Hypothetical Bullpen Days and Why People Love Big Sexy Bartolo Colon

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Bartolo Colon

Remember this guy, Minnesota Twins fans? It is Bartolo Colon way back in 2000 pitching for the rival Cleveland Indians. Big Sexy celebrated his 45th birthday Thursday.

It’s closing in on two months into the major league season and not a lot of action yet with closers losing jobs. I’m trying hard folks to get some changes but it isn’t working out too well.

However, there are a couple other roads we could look down. With the Tampa Bay Rays starting Sergio Romo two days in a row against the Los Angeles Angels last weekend, I thought I would look at some potential situations in which teams might be able to pull something like this off just for fun. It will look more like a “bullpen” day for each team, assuming they have a pending off day or a long stretch of games.

New York Yankees

The first team I want to look at is the New York Yankees. With all of that fire power in the back end of the bullpen, it would be interesting to see how far Dellin Betances, Aroldis Chapman, Chad Green and David Robertson could go. For the sake of argument, I think I would break it down as follows: start Betances, Green, Chasen Shreve, and Robertson for two each, then bring in Chapman.

Houston Astros

Houston Astros is the next team not because of the greatness of their bullpen but more because of the versatility of the pitchers they have. I honestly think this team could do it and not miss a beat. The wild card would be Collin McHugh starting. He is listed as long relief which means he could throw multiple innings. I’ll take that and assume he can give me three. Even though he only pitched 19.2 innings in 15 appearances this season, he has some starting experience.

I’ll follow McHugh with Brad Peacock for two, Will Harris for two, Ken Giles (typed that very nervously), then Chris Devinski. The great thing about the Astros is that I could switch around Peacock, Giles and Devinski and really not miss a beat. The Astros bullpen is one major reason why they are the team to beat in Major League Baseball.

Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers are my third, what if they had a bullpen day, experiment. If you’ve been reading my column the past few weeks, you’ll know that I’m very big on Josh Hader. Stud. Now that closer Corey Knebel is back, that moves Hader into the setup role, although I still think he should and will have the closer job sooner rather than later.

That being said, the Crew’s bullpen is legit. I’d start with Dan Jennings and as he is long relief, and try and get three innings out of him. Then it’s a piece of cake: Matt Albers for two, Jeremy Jeffress for two, Hader and then Knebel closing it out.

I think the Crew is a starting pitcher away from being mentioned among the contenders in the National League. Their bullpen is better than the Nats, Dodgers, Rockies, Cards, Cubs and Braves. A July trade may give Mr. Baseball, Bob Uecker, another world series in Milwaukee.

Extra Innings

Last week I went on my soap box about Robinson Cano and how people have a tough time taking accountability for themselves. This may sound hypocritical because the guy I want to talk about today is about as beloved a player there is in the league right now. Happy Birthday to Big Sexy Bartolo Colon, who turned 45 on Thursday.

Watching Colon over the years, he is a guy that as a Minnesota Twins fan, I was terrified to see when he was with the Indians. He threw heat plain and simple. I don’t know the exact record against the Twins while he was in Cleveland but I do know I didn’t go to bed happy very often when he pitched.

Then came the PED suspension in 2012 while with the Oakland A’s. Katrina Hamrick of Fanside’s Call to the Pen wrote an article on why we as fans celebrate Colon even though he had the PED suspension. Colon’s quote, in my opinion, is why.

“I apologize to the fans, to my teammates and to the Oakland A’s,” Colon said in a statement released by the players’ association. “I accept responsibility for my actions and I will serve my suspension as required by the joint drug program.”

Yes he apologized but he also took accountability for it. It wasn’t a doctor’s fault or he didn’t know what he was doing. He said I did it and moved on. We are a country of second and third chances and Colon fits into this.

So with this I say happy birthday Bart. You’ve brought smiles to a lot of fans around the country and in the game. You are all of us 40-somethings living through your successes on the field.

Closer News Roundup Week 5 – Astros, White Sox, Cardinals, Twins

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Houston Astros Ken Giles

Is it time the Houston Astros move past Ken Giles as their primary closer, and give Brad Peacock or Chris Devenski a shot? Andy says yes, expect a change soon.

April couldn’t have passed by any quicker both as a baseball fan and, more specifically, a Minnesota Twins fan. Mother nature didn’t do anybody a lot of favors the first month of the season and, well, the Twins maybe aren’t as good as I thought they’d be, but I digress.

From an offensive standpoint, this week brought up three, three homerun performances by Mookie Betts, A.J. Pollock and Edwin Encarnacion, and a 524 foot blast off the bat of Mike Trout against the Baltimore Orioles. Pitching though – specifically, closers – is where we’re concerned so let’s get caught up with the first full week of May coming up.

Houston Astros

I’d be remiss if I didn’t start out with the Houston Astros closer situation, again. Ken Giles beat himself up, literally, on May 1st after giving up four runs in 1/3 of an inning. If you missed the main event, here it is courtesy of MLB network:

Not only is it a big deal that he blew the save, but he blew the save against the New York Yankees. The Yankee lineup is a dangerous one through nine, so having Giles give up four in a third of an inning should be alarming.

This latest blown save for Giles is making it harder and harder for me to justify that he is the Astros’ solution at closer. They have Brad Peacock and Chris Devenski in the bullpen both with better numbers than Giles.

Name G IP W L SV BLSV HLD K BB H HR R ER ERA WHIP
Chris Devenski, HOU 15 14.1 1 0 2 0 6 17 2 9 1 1 1 0.63 0.77
Brad Peacock, HOU 12 13.2 1 1 1 2 1 17 4 9 3 4 4 2.63 0.95
Ken Giles, HOU 12 10.1 0 1 3 0 0 8 0 10 1 6 6 5.23 0.97

If you haven’t done so already, I’d pick up Peacock or Devenski and stash them because I think there will be a change soon.

Chicago White Sox

Another situation that I looked at last week is that of the White Sox with closer Joakim Soria and set up man Nate Jones. As of May 3, and compared to last week, Soria’s ERA is up more than a full run. He has two blown saves and four total. Granted, he’s not getting the opportunities for closing out games but the Sox need him to get the job done when called upon.

Nate Jones’ ERA is at 1.50 which is up from 1.04 last week but still much better than Soria’s. Jones still only has the one save but from a pure numbers standpoint, I would expect him to take over the role sooner rather than later.

St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals seem to have nailed down Bud Norris as the closer for the foreseeable future. He has six saves and is sporting a 1.72 ERA. I had mentioned last week that Norris is a placeholder until late free agent signee Greg Holland got into game shape, but that looks like it’s becoming less and less a possibility.

Holland gave up three runs on six hits in two appearances last weekend for the Cards. His ERA now is up to 7.36 while appearing in 10 games. He has a WHIP of 2.32. Any pitcher wouldn’t want these numbers and in this case, they make it impossible to justify putting Holland in the closer role, even if that was the intention when they signed him.

Minnesota Twins

Finally, my old friend Fernando Rodney was up to his early season tricks again. He has three saves to go along with his three blown saves. He is walking batters and those walks are turning into runs.

The Twins have maybe one other option as I’ve moved on from the idea using Addison Reed to Ryan Pressley to close out games. My mind tells me that the front office will stick with Rodney until he figures it out or they can flip him to a contender at the deadline (for what, I’m not sure) but my heart says please let the experiment end.

Until next week.

Closer Roundup – Rays Alex Colome, Astros Ken Giles

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Alex Colome

Tampa Bay Rays closer Alex Colome is struggling and that could prompt a change, but is Sergio Romo a capable replacement? Andy takes a look at the Rays, Astros and Brewers closer situations for us.

We are over half way done with April but haven’t played a whole lot of games yet thanks in large part to Mother Nature. Even dome stadiums aren’t safe from the elements. We’ve had one significant injury among closers to Corey Knebel of the Milwaukee Brewers, and some shaky late inning bullpen situations. Here are three teams to monitor for a potential change before they cause any grief to your fantasy baseball team.

Tampa Bay Rays

Alex Colome Current Closer Sergio Romo Waiting

Although I don’t see Colome necessarily losing his role as closer, mainly because Romo isn’t really a valid option, he’s blown two saves already raising some red flags in Tampa. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times discusses why Colome has been struggling this year.

Kevin Cash said out loud what others have been suggesting, that opposing hitters know Colome is going to rely on his cutter much more heavily than his fastball, and they are able to take advantage of it.

According to FanGraphs, Colome is throwing his cutter 75% of the time so far this year. This is up from 67% in 2017 and 52% in 2016 (Topkin). Teams are indeed sitting on the cutter and much like you would teach a young hitter: sit fastball and adjust to everything else.

Houston Astros

Ken Giles Current Closer Chris Devinski, Brad Peacock Waiting

Giles hasn’t really been setting the world on fire so far this year. He has one save and has been shaky at best during his outings. As of April 8th, manager AJ Hinch committed to Giles as the closer. Since then, Peacock (one save) and Devinski (two saves) have picked up the saves that Giles normally would have earned.

From Astros beat reporter Brian McTaggart, Hinch made comments after the April 13th game that the schedule, matchups and way the games have played out resulted in opportunities for Peacock and Devenski. Hinch added, “I think that at the end of the season Ken Giles will have the most saves, but I don’t know”.

If you trust Hinch, and more importantly Giles, then you have nothing to worry about. I, on the other hand, don’t necessarily like the tone of Hinch and his overall feelings towards keeping Giles in his current role. I prefer Devinski over both Peacock and Giles.

Milwaukee Brewers

Committee Current Closer Josh Hader Waiting and Willing

The good news is Corey Knebel is progressing from his hamstring injury, estimated six weeks recovery from April 5. Speaking from experience, hamstrings are always tough to judge because they can pop or get tweaked again if you step just right or if not warmed up properly.

That being said, the Brewers are using Matt Albers and Jacob Barnes extensively, but Josh Hader is leading the Brew Crew in saves, holds and strikeouts (stats). What this tells me is that Hader is arguably the most valuable relief pitcher the Brewers have.

If you are into sabermetrics, you could argue the reason for the high number of holds is that manager Craig Counsel is using Hader in important situations. If you’re an old school stat person, it might tell you Hader is your prototypical set up person. It tells me Hader is their best pitcher and he will have the full time closer job soon.

Discussion – Cleveland Indians

I thought about everything that I’ve written this season about closers and potential changes that may occur sooner rather than later. I’d like to throw this out there and see what other people think: Is Cody Allen a better closer than Andrew Miller?

Miller is a hard throwing lefty with a wipe out slider. Miller also comes three-quarter delivery and is a beast against lefties. Allen is a righty that depends very much on his curveball as his fastball is 93-95. Although Allen is the current closer, would Tito ever go to Miller?