Bullpen Depth Charts: Relievers To Stream — 7/5

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

 

• Eight teams have a scheduled day off on Monday and will be fresh going into Tuesday’s action: BAL, NYY, TOR, HOU, OAK, SEA, ARI, COL
• Your best opportunity for a win vulture appears to be in New York where Tylor Megill takes the mound against the Brewers. Even in the minors, Megill was limited to 80-85 pitches, so there’s a solid shot he doesn’t last five. Given the workloads from yesterday, I’d say Drew Smith may be the best option. He did go two innings on Saturday, but it was a quick two innings as he needed just 21 pitches. With Sean Reid-Foley hitting the IL and Corey Oswalt being asked to spot start yesterday, Smith is one of the few long-relief options the Mets will have available on Monday.

 

Transaction and Injury Notes

 

• None

 

Yesterday’s Performances

 

• The Dodgers decided to go with a bullpen game in the absence of Trevor Bauer and used eight different pitchers to get 27 outs. David Price picked up the win with Blake Treinen and Jimmy Nelson picking up holds. Kenley Jansen was used in a non-save situation after the offense put up a couple more insurance runs. I don’t think bullpen games can go much better than this.
• Brad Hand hadn’t been used since the previous Tuesday, so they tried him out in a fireman role in the seventh. He ended up giving up a double that gave the Dodgers another insurance run, but allowed no other baserunners. It was overall a very rough series for the Nationals’ bullpen, so I guess Hand should count himself lucky to not have been roughed up any more than he was.

 

• San Diego needed five innings from their pen after yet another short, inefficient outing from Blake Snell, but they were up to the task. They allowed just one run and Austin Adams snagged the win. They’ve been arguably the strongest bullpen in baseball so far this year.
• Somehow using Héctor Neris as a middle reliever is going even worse than using him as the closer. Neris got lit up to the tune of four hits (three of them over 100 mph exit velocity), two walks, and six earned runs.  Stay far, far away.

 

• Just keep throwing Jake Cousins out there. It’s absolutely gorgeous. He’s up to six and a third scoreless innings to start his career with 11 Ks. Where do the Brewers keep finding these guys?
• Richard Rodríguez posted save number 11 for the Pirates while David Bednar earned his fifth hold. Good to see Rodríguez bounce back after a tough outing and see Bednar put a good stretch together, allowing just one run in his past eight appearances. 

 

• The Rays have rebuilt Collin McHugh and somehow made him even better than he was in 2018. He put up an especially dominant 52% CSW in this one driven largely by 11 swinging strikes. He’s most interesting from a fantasy perspective, however, if he’s used after an opener and not a traditional starter like he was here.
• Rafael Dolis made his first appearance in a couple of weeks after an IL stint and he continued to struggle as he had before hitting the shelf. He was once in the conversation to close for Toronto, but he’s fallen way out of that discussion now.

 

• Dan Winkler gave up a pair of runs in the seventh and earned the loss, his first of the year, along with his first blown save. The Cubs bullpen was lights out for the first month of the year, but has been mediocre recently, putting up a 4.35 ERA over the past month.
• Art Warren picked up his second win in four days while Amir Garrett earned his sixth save and third in his past seven appearances. Heath Hembree had worked each of the past two days, so the Reds opted not to use him here. I think save opportunities will continue to be divided as the most talented guy, Garrett, also has some pretty nasty R/L splits. Honestly, if anyone runs away with this job, it’s Warren, but I think it stays a committee.

 

• With Ryan Pressly having worked three days in a row, the Astros turned to Brooks Raley who earned his second save of the year. Blake Taylor also picked up his first win. It was a bit of a surprising decision to see Houston go to Raley here whose last save was way back on April 3rd and who had struggled quite a bit in the meantime. I wouldn’t expect the opportunities to keep coming.
• Emmanuel Clase was the tough-luck loser as he allowed no hits or walks, but still allowed the extra-innings runner to score. Clase didn’t help his case by allowing a runner to reach on a wild pitch and also committing an error in the inning, but he was dominant on the mound throwing 19 of 22 pitches for strikes and recording seven whiffs. He still holds a claim on about half the saves that will fall to Cleveland’s bullpen.

 

• It’s been a rough season for Codi Heuer as a lot of folks, myself included, had high hopes for him this year.  He’s put together a good stretch in his past seven appearances allowing just one run in six and a third innings, so here’s hoping he’s figured something out and will deliver a solid second half.
• José Cisnero earned the rare one-pitch save—his fourth—after Gregory Soto nearly blew a four-run lead in the ninth. They were the first runs Soto had allowed since June 1st, a stretch of 11 innings. If Cisnero ends up running away with the job, he could be a solid closer down the stretch given his performance over the past couple months.

 

• Richard Bleier and Anthony Bender earned holds, but Yimi García couldn’t hold a four-run lead and the Marlins ended up dropping the game. It doesn’t count as a blown save in the stat book, but it sure does in our hearts. García put up an unimpressive 5.40 ERA in June with two blown saves and three losses, so this outing doesn’t give much hope that July will be any better.
• Will Smith earned his third win of the year by pitching a scoreless tenth inning, He’s worked three out of four days, so his availability for Monday is not certain. Also, every time I think Shane Greene has turned a corner in his recovery, he just goes and blows up again. Oh well. Sometimes, you just have to admit that you were wrong and take your lumps.

 

• No holds or saves for the Mets in either game of the double-header, but Jeurys Familia walked away with his third win in relief. Seth Lugo has picked up right where he left off and has immediately returned to being a highly effective late-inning reliever after coming off the IL in late June.
• Oh, how the mighty have fallen. On June 6th, Aroldis Chapman’s ERA stood at 0.39. After Sunday’s outing, just five and two-thirds innings later, it’s 4.71. The Yankees didn’t even seem to have much confidence in him, pulling him after the minimum three batters even though it was still a high-leverage situation. I can’t imagine the Yankees moving Chapman to a lower leverage role for anything but an appearance or two, so fantasy owners will just have to hope he rights the ship soon. On a side note, it’s been interesting to see Chad Green get stretched out a bit. He’s gone over two innings in three out of his past four outings.

 

• It had been a light week of work for the back end of the Twins’ bullpen, so they decided to use their A-team to protect a 5-0 lead. I wouldn’t worry too much about the runs given up by Hansel Robles here.
• The Royals rested their A-team relievers. Nothing more needs to be said.

 

• Giovanny Gallegos took the blown save, his fifth, and Alex Reyes took the loss, his third after allowing runs in the eighth and ninth respectively to lose 3-2.  Reyes has really fixed his walk problems recently; however, a wild pitch is what allowed the Rockies to get into scoring position to win the game, so control is still a bit of an issue.
• Justin Lawrence picked up the win, his first of the year. This was more of a ‘right place, right time’ type of thing, so I wouldn’t expect Lawrence to start getting more high-leverage opportunities soon.

 

• Cole Sulser was tagged with a loss after giving up a walk-off two-run double. It doesn’t count as a blown save since he was in line for the win, but it’s a BS in spirit. Tanner Scott was effective in the seventh and eighth and is coming off a stellar June, so the Orioles could continue to test out new guys as the closer.
• Raisel Iglesias was brought in in a tie game, which fantasy owners likely know has spelled bad news for Iglesias over the past two years. He allowed a go-ahead home run, but his team picked him up allowing him to walk away with his sixth win of the year. He capped off a stellar fantasy week dating back to June 28th in which he logged two wins and three saves while allowing just one hit and striking out eight. That’s three games in a row for Iglesias, though, so look for Steve Cishek to be called upon if the Angels need a closer on Monday.

 

• Matt Barnes notched his 19th save of the season while Garrett Whitlock got his eighth hold. Barnes has been a model of consistency this year and has allowed multiple runs in just two of his 37 appearances so far. Whitlock has worked his way up the depth chart and is now potentially second in line to Barnes for saves.
• Nothing much to say about Oakland here. Just two innings of work and nothing too spectacular.

 

• It was a maintenance game for Ian Kennedy as he hadn’t worked since Tuesday, June 29th.
• Kendall Graveman earned his eighth save of the season with Drew Steckenrider and Paul Sewald getting holds. Graveman struggled a bit in his return from the COVID-IL earlier in June, but he appears to be back on track. He’s been brought on in save situations in four out of his previous five appearances and seems to be the number one guy in Seattle.

 

• The Giants opted to use Tyler Rogers to secure the one-out save Sunday night. Facing a stretch of the lineup with three straight lefties, it made sense to deploy the lefty-dominating Rogers here instead of Jake McGee who, while good against lefties in his own right, can’t compete against the .116 batting average allowed against lefties by Rogers on the year.
• Joakim Soria has been one of the few bright spots for Arizona over the past few weeks. Since June 18th, he’s allowed one run in six and a third innings. If the Diamondbacks ever get another save opportunity, he’s likely to get it.