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
- After what was a light day of work for closers yesterday, plenty of high-end options should be available for a relatively full Thursday schedule. Only six teams have the day off: TB, DET, HOU, ATL, CHC, and COL.
- The Angels’ Jaime Barria and the Orioles’ Keegan Akin will face off in Baltimore tonight in what is almost certain to be a pair of short starts. Neither pitcher has a strong record of being able to stay in the game for 4 2/3 innings, making both teams interesting options for streaming. If you’re a coward and want to bet on the Angels coming out on top, Andrew Wantz looks like the most likely option to appear first out of the bullpen. But if you’re looking forward to the Orioles pushing their winning streak to two, Jorgé Lopez is rested and ready for a multi-inning appearance.
Transaction and Injury Notes
- Tejay Antone, who was activated from the 10-day injured list only two days ago, is headed back to the IL after elbow discomfort in his most recent appearance.
Yesterday’s Performances
- In a 16-inning war of bullpen attrition, the Dodgers beat the Padres 5-3 after surviving ten consecutive scoreless half-innings with ghost runners. The Dodgers’ bullpen combined to give up just one hit over 9 1/3 innings: a home run to Fernando Tatís Jr. that scored two to tie the game in the 15th. Corey Knebel, who gave up that home run and nearly cost the Dodgers the game, was then credited with the win after the Dodgers retook the lead on an AJ Pollock home run to lead off the 16th. I cannot think of a more obvious example of pitcher wins being just totally meaningless and in need of a permanent move to the scrap heap. There’s no reasonable world where we should say that Knebel won this game.
- Both the Dodgers and the Padres will be running on fumes as they get set to go another round today. On the Dodgers’ side, only four pitchers haven’t appeared in back-to-back games now: Brusdar Graterol, Justin Bruihl, Shane Greene, and Joe Kelly. Graterol threw 25 pitches last night and Kelly is returning from the IL, so Greene would be the best bet to chase on the Dodgers’ side.
- As for the Padres, neither Emilio Pagán nor Pierce Johnson appeared last night after long outings on Tuesday, and both should be ready to go again tonight. Mark Melancon is also reasonably rested after not appearing on Tuesday, so he should be available as well. Expect business as usual from them, except that top-end options might be more likely to appear if the game is out of hand.
- Adam Morgan picked up his first save of the year in the Cubs’ first game of the day against the Rockies. Morgan is an interesting slider-first pitcher who has put up excellent strikeout and ground ball numbers this year, and some bad LOB% numbers have tarnished his previous ERA numbers, there’s something worth watching in his approach. Just don’t roster him if you’re hoping for a good number of saves or holds.
- The Diamondbacks’ Tyler Clippard picked up his fifth save of the year in a 5–2 win over the Pirates, striking out one. Clippard has been extremely effective for the Diamondbacks this year, allowing just three earned runs so far over 13 innings, and his walk numbers in particular have been excellent. That said, this success does look to be driven in no small part by good luck on the basepaths and a lack of home runs over a small sample. Without the stuff to sustain this success, he’s not the sort of arm that we should get our hopes up for.
- Jordan Romano picked up his 13th save of the year, as the Blue Jays defeated the White Sox 3–1. The biggest story out of the Blue Jays’ bullpen, though, is that Brad Hand appears to be completely out of the picture in terms of saves and only barely in the picture in high-leverage spots at all. Hand’s swinging strikes had been falling over the past few years, and while he’d gotten lucky to have many of those turn into foul balls last year, his luck has run out to a degree this year. He’s by no means a bad pitcher now — his 4.00 ERA can still make him a meaningful middle-innings bullpen arm on a good team — but the closer job looks to be comfortably Romano’s, and for good reason.
- The Giants’ Jake McGee is now just one save away from 30 on the year. He did manage to load the bases with two outs, but a soft groundout from Pete Alonso sealed the win for the Giants. McGee labored somewhat through this inning, so given his team’s options, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him get some rest today in favor of Tyler Rogers, who needed just 12 pitches to get through the 8th. Having them both pitch today and then both be out of commission on Saturday seems unlikely.
Bullpen Depth Charts