Fantasy Baseball Reliever Roundup

Arizona Diamondbacks
Kevin Ginkel	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	2 K	4 Whiffs	41% CSW
Ryan Thompson	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	3 K	5 Whiffs	45% CSW

Ryan Thompson getting 3 K’s here throwing 19/20 “fastballs” is pretty impressive. It does not change my interest in him for holds leagues.

Philadelphia Phillies
Tim Mayza (HLD)	0.2 IP	0 ER	1 H	0 BB	1 K	1 Whiffs	33% CSW
Orion Kerkering (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	21% CSW
José Alvarado (HLD)	0.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	33% CSW
Brad Keller (HLD)	1.0 IP	1 ER	2 H	1 BB	2 K	8 Whiffs	39% CSW
Jhoan Duran (SV)	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	1 K	1 Whiffs	8% CSW

Brad Keller did not have his best fastball command here, either missing the zone or locating middle/down in the zone. The stuffs not quite good enough for him to be missing spots like this.

Miami Marlins
John King	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	2 K	1 Whiffs	30% CSW
Michael Petersen	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	12% CSW
Anthony Bender	1.0 IP	1 ER	1 H	1 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	28% CSW

The command was all over the place for Anthony Bender here, missing up too often with his slider and sweeper (and changeup). He’s working his way out of leverage usage, but the skills are still here for him to turn things around.

Detroit Tigers
Drew Anderson (SV)	3.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	2 BB	2 K	4 Whiffs	21% CSW

Drew Anderson’s below-average fastball keeps me hesitant to buy in, but I like the offspeed offerings.

Pittsburgh Pirates
Mason Montgomery (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 ER	1 H	0 BB	2 K	0 Whiffs	54% CSW
Justin Lawrence (HLD)	0.2 IP	1 ER	1 H	1 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	31% CSW
Gregory Soto (HLD)	0.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	0% CSW
Isaac Mattson (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 ER	2 H	0 BB	1 K	3 Whiffs	25% CSW
Dennis Santana (BS)	1.0 IP	1 ER	1 H	2 BB	0 K	3 Whiffs	37% CSW
Yohan Ramírez (W)	2.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	3 BB	2 K	2 Whiffs	25% CSW

Maybe, just maybe, we are seeing some signs of better command from Mason Montgomery. I don’t want to get too excited, but he’s at least in the zone more with his fastball as of late. Still not ideal command as he’s leaving a lot of pitches in hittable locations, but the stuff is so good that it may not matter much. Limit the walks for now, and fine-tune the command as the season goes on, that works for me.
Dennis Santana struggled here, pitching on the second day in a row. Maybe he’s someone that shouldn’t be pitching on back-to-back days, or maybe this was just a one-off, but I think I still prefer Gregory Soto here for now.

Chicago Cubs
Ben Brown	2.0 IP	2 H	1 BB	3 K	7 Whiffs	38% CSW
Jacob Webb	1.0 IP	1 H	0 BB	2 K	4 Whiffs	47% CSW
Hoby Milner	1.0 IP	0 H	0 BB	0 K	2 Whiffs	25% CSW
Daniel Palencia	1.0 IP	0 H	1 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	0% CSW
Caleb Thielbar (L)	1.0 IP	1 H	1 BB	3 K	4 Whiffs	37% CSW

Daniel Palencia’s stuff was down here, as was his command, and please, Daniel, not you too (it’s been a rough week for relievers). Zero whiffs is crazy for someone with his stuff, but hopefully this is just an outlier and not a sign of things to come.

Minnesota Twins
Kody Funderburk	1.0 IP	0 ER	1 H	1 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	12% CSW
Cole Sands	1.0 IP	2 ER	2 H	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	18% CSW

Not sure who needs to hear it still, but we can all move on from Cole Sands, in all formats. The only interesting arm here remains Eric Orze, whom I’m still skeptical of as well.

Toronto Blue Jays
Spencer Miles	3.2 IP	0 ER	1 H	1 BB	2 K	5 Whiffs	28% CSW

Los Angeles Angels
Brent Suter	3.2 IP	0 ER	2 H	0 BB	2 K	5 Whiffs	31% CSW
Ryan Zeferjahn	2.0 IP	1 ER	2 H	0 BB	1 K	4 Whiffs	23% CSW
Chase Silseth	0.1 IP	1 ER	0 H	4 BB	1 K	4 Whiffs	36% CSW

Oof, no command at all for Chase Silseth here, and this is part of the reason why it’s so tough to trust splitter-heavy relievers. He had been seeing hold chances, but that’s likely to change, especially with Kirby Yates (another splitter guy) returning soon.

Cincinnati Reds
Connor Phillips	0.2 IP	0 H	2 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	25% CSW
Pierce Johnson (W)	1.1 IP	1 H	0 BB	3 K	6 Whiffs	42% CSW
Graham Ashcraft (HLD)	1.0 IP	1 H	0 BB	0 K	2 Whiffs	27% CSW
Tony Santillan (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 H	0 BB	1 K	1 Whiffs	45% CSW
Emilio Pagán	1.0 IP	0 H	1 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	7% CSW

Connor Phillips with no four-seam command once again. One of these days, he’ll figure it out, hopefully.
Tony Santillan is still around 94 MPH, but maybe it doesn’t matter? The lower arm angle is giving his fastball more horizontal break, and the curveball has been looking great. The command is still hit or miss, but this new Santillan might work the more he gets used to his new fastball.
Emilio Pagán once again had no fastball command and now has a 37% Zone rate with the pitch on the year. The Reds will continue to be patient with him, but the command needs to improve here.

Athletics
Joel Kuhnel (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 ER	1 H	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	0% CSW
Justin Sterner (HLD)	1.0 IP	1 ER	2 H	1 BB	1 K	5 Whiffs	29% CSW
Mark Leiter Jr. Jr.	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	3 K	5 Whiffs	50% CSW
Luis Medina	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	40% CSW

Not only trying to predict what role each reliever here will have, but also which reliever will be effective on any given day has been one of the biggest challenges in the early stages of the season. Mark Leiter Jr. Jr. had his best performance in years, but is it something that will actually stick? I doubt it.

New York Mets
Huascar Brazobán	2.2 IP	0 ER	2 H	0 BB	3 K	4 Whiffs	32% CSW
Brooks Raley	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	1 K	1 Whiffs	15% CSW
Craig Kimbrel	1.0 IP	0 ER	1 H	0 BB	2 K	2 Whiffs	50% CSW
Luke Weaver	1.0 IP	4 ER	3 H	1 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	26% CSW
Luis García Jr.	1.0 IP	0 ER	1 H	0 BB	1 K	5 Whiffs	33% CSW

Craig Kimbrel is back, and he looks better than at least half of these bullpen right now. He could wind up seeing some holds sooner rather than later, but shouldn’t jump Raley or Weaver in the pecking order.
Luke Weaver was not as bad as the stat line looks. He threw three or four bad pitches, and the A’s were able to take advantage. Purely speculating, but it feels like there could be a tipping issue, maybe, because he hasn’t pitched all that poorly to deserve these results.

Chicago White Sox
Sean Newcomb	2.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	30% CSW
Jordan Hicks	1.0 IP	1 ER	1 H	0 BB	1 K	3 Whiffs	38% CSW

Jordan Hicks was sitting 100 MPH in this one, and when he’s throwing that hard, he’s typically had success. He had no command, so that would be the next thing, but this could be something to monitor if the velo sticks.

Kansas City Royals
Lucas Erceg (SV)	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	1 K	0 Whiffs	25% CSW

Still not the fastball we are looking for from Lucas Erceg, but then again, Carlos Estévez made things work last year with questionable stuff, and Erceg himself was “fine” with this arsenal last year, so maybe this will just be fine again this season.

New York Yankees
Fernando Cruz	0.2 IP	0 ER	1 H	0 BB	1 K	3 Whiffs	42% CSW
Tim Hill	0.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	0% CSW
David Bednar (L)	0.1 IP	1 ER	2 H	1 BB	1 K	3 Whiffs	46% CSW

There was some bad luck involved here for David Bednar, but I’m also not sure he is “right” as the stuff is still down, and the command being so poor is also not a great sign. You may want to stash Camilo Doval just in case we get an IL stint for Bednar to figure out what’s going on.

Tampa Bay Rays
Kevin Kelly	0.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	75% CSW
Ian Seymour	1.2 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	3 K	4 Whiffs	57% CSW
Griffin Jax (HLD)	0.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	50% CSW
Bryan Baker (BS)	1.0 IP	2 ER	2 H	1 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	15% CSW
Hunter Bigge	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	2 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	8% CSW
Cole Sulser (W)	1.0 IP	0 ER	1 H	0 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	18% CSW

Bryan Baker dealt with a turf double (ground ball hammered into the ground that bounced over the first baseman’s head), and the double to Caballero was just a terribly hung slider, but overall, I’m not concerned with anything in this outing. If anything, it may help you get a FAAB discount today.

Washington Nationals
Brad Lord (HLD)	1.2 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	3 K	4 Whiffs	50% CSW
Cionel Pérez (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	1 K	1 Whiffs	43% CSW
Clayton Beeter (SV)	1.0 IP	1 ER	1 H	2 BB	2 K	1 Whiffs	25% CSW

So at least we got a save from Clayton Beeter here, and the stuff looked great as usual, but this is the command we had worried about. I’m still hopeful it improves over time, but expect some bumps in the road until then.

Milwaukee Brewers
Grant Anderson	0.2 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	1 K	1 Whiffs	38% CSW
Brandon Sproat	3.2 IP	1 ER	4 H	3 BB	3 K	4 Whiffs	20% CSW
DL Hall	0.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	11% CSW

Grant Anderson remains super underrated (even by me), but he looked really good here, even if it was only 8 pitches.

San Francisco Giants
Caleb Kilian	0.2 IP	1 ER	1 H	1 BB	2 K	4 Whiffs	47% CSW
Ryan Borucki	1.1 IP	1 ER	3 H	0 BB	3 K	8 Whiffs	34% CSW

Caleb Kilian just has different stuff on a game-to-game basis, so it’s really hard to judge him. At his best, or even near best, there’s an intriguing high-leverage skill set, but finding some consistency would be nice (maybe he’s just consistently inconsistent?).

Baltimore Orioles
Grant Wolfram (W)	1.0 IP	0 H	1 K	2 Whiffs	21% CSW
Yennier Cano (HLD)	0.1 IP	0 H	0 K	0 Whiffs	0% CSW
Rico Garcia (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 H	1 K	1 Whiffs	38% CSW
Anthony Nunez (HLD)	1.0 IP	1 H	2 K	4 Whiffs	44% CSW
Ryan Helsley	1.0 IP	2 H	0 K	2 Whiffs	14% CSW

Anthony Nunez getting the 8th inning again is certainly an intriguing development. I still prefer Rico Garcia, and thought he’d be safe once Andrew Kittredge returns, but the team has a ton of trust in Nunez right now, and I get it, the stuffs electric. He’s far from a finished product though, as the command is not where it needs to be on a game-to-game basis.
Ryan Helsley did not have his best stuff here and couldn’t command much, just slinging his slider over the middle of the plate for the most part. This inconsistency is what keeps him out of that next tier.

Boston Red Sox
Greg Weissert (HLD)	0.2 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	19% CSW
Danny Coulombe (HLD)	0.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	20% CSW
Garrett Whitlock (HLD)	1.0 IP	1 ER	1 H	0 BB	2 K	3 Whiffs	42% CSW
Ryan Watson	1.0 IP	0 ER	1 H	0 BB	0 K	2 Whiffs	23% CSW

Garrett Whitlock gave up a bomb to Jordan Walker, but otherwise, this was an encouraging outing from him as the stuff looked better here.

St. Louis Cardinals
Gordon Graceffo	2.1 IP	0 ER	1 H	1 BB	2 K	2 Whiffs	9% CSW
Justin Bruihl	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	1 K	0 Whiffs	27% CSW
Matt Svanson	1.0 IP	5 ER	6 H	1 BB	1 K	4 Whiffs	14% CSW
Jared Shuster	0.2 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	12% CSW

I feel for Matt Svanson at this point. It’s quite clear he needs some time in AAA to fix/work on his fastball, but the team keeps rolling him out there to get obliterated. He’s allowed 15 ER this year now after allowing just 13 ER over 60+ innings last season.

Cleveland Guardians
Connor Brogdon (HLD)	0.1 IP	0 H	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	0% CSW
Erik Sabrowski (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 H	0 BB	2 K	2 Whiffs	29% CSW
Shawn Armstrong	1.0 IP	1 H	1 BB	2 K	3 Whiffs	29% CSW

Another day, another Erik Sabrowski hold. He’s just incredibly locked in right now, and he didn’t even have his best fastball command here. This is the hope for Mason Montgomery (who has Sabrowski-esque stuff, just better).

Atlanta Braves
Joel Payamps	0.1 IP	1 ER	2 H	0 BB	1 K	3 Whiffs	36% CSW
Aaron Bummer	0.2 IP	0 ER	0 H	2 BB	0 K	2 Whiffs	18% CSW
Osvaldo Bido	2.2 IP	3 ER	2 H	2 BB	1 K	3 Whiffs	22% CSW
Tyler Kinley	0.1 IP	1 ER	1 H	1 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	6% CSW

Not the best for any of these Braves relievers here. Tyler Kinley threw five fastballs, which is surprising, but given that was the case, the results check out.

Colorado Rockies
Zach Agnos	1.1 IP	2 ER	1 H	3 BB	0 K	5 Whiffs	21% CSW
Brennan Bernardino	0.2 IP	0 ER	1 H	1 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	25% CSW
Michael Lorenzen	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	27% CSW
Jimmy Herget	1.0 IP	0 ER	1 H	0 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	25% CSW

Zach Agnos and his 8 pitch mix is a headache to try to follow. Nothing’s really working. He had looked good this spring and is a totally different guy now for some reason.

San Diego Padres
Wandy Peralta (HLD)	1.1 IP	0 ER	1 H	1 BB	2 K	6 Whiffs	36% CSW
Ron Marinaccio	1.2 IP	1 ER	2 H	0 BB	2 K	4 Whiffs	31% CSW
Bradgley Rodriguez	0.2 IP	0 ER	2 H	1 BB	1 K	3 Whiffs	29% CSW
Jason Adam (SV)	0.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	0 K	2 Whiffs	50% CSW

Hey look at that, Jason Adam getting the one out vulture save. He only needed to throw four pitches here, but it’s still nice to see his stuff look like it did last season.

Texas Rangers
Tyler Alexander	2.1 IP	0 ER	2 H	1 BB	2 K	3 Whiffs	24% CSW
Robert Garcia	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	20% CSW
Chris Martin	1.0 IP	1 ER	2 H	0 BB	2 K	5 Whiffs	29% CSW

It’s unfortunate to see where Robert Garcia and Chris Martin are now on the depth chart, but it’s also not surprising given how they’ve looked. Martin doesn’t have much left in the tank, and Garcia has had poor command.

Los Angeles Dodgers
Jack Dreyer (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 BB	3 K	3 Whiffs	69% CSW
Tanner Scott (HLD)	1.0 IP	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	22% CSW
Blake Treinen (HLD)	0.2 IP	1 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	24% CSW
Alex Vesia (SV)	0.1 IP	0 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	33% CSW

Tanner Scott would be the logical answer to replace Edwin Díaz if he lands on the IL, but we saw Scott get the 8th inning here with Treinen and eventually Vesia finishing the game. Scotts looked the best of anyone here, but that’s not always going to be the closer, as we all well know.

Houston Astros
Steven Okert	0.2 IP	1 ER	1 H	0 BB	0 K	0 Whiffs	18% CSW
Kai-Wei Teng	0.2 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	2 K	2 Whiffs	20% CSW
Bryan King	1.1 IP	0 ER	0 H	1 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	12% CSW
AJ Blubaugh	1.0 IP	0 ER	0 H	0 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	18% CSW
Bryan Abreu (L)	0.1 IP	1 ER	1 H	3 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	22% CSW

AJ Blubaugh outside of Sacramento and Colorado is still interesting, but this still wasn’t the same guy we saw earlier in the season, unfortunately.
The wheels are fully off the bus here with Bryan Abreu, and I’d be shocked if we don’t see him on the IL in the coming days. The velo was back down here (way down), and he once again could not command anything. This was in Seattle, so the Colorado/Sacramento excuse doesn’t work.

Seattle Mariners
Casey Legumina	1.2 IP	2 H	0 BB	2 K	2 Whiffs	40% CSW
Jose A. Ferrer	1.0 IP	1 H	0 BB	1 K	2 Whiffs	24% CSW
Eduard Bazardo	1.0 IP	2 H	0 BB	2 K	2 Whiffs	50% CSW
Matt Brash	1.0 IP	1 H	1 BB	0 K	1 Whiffs	17% CSW
Andrés Muñoz (W)	1.0 IP	1 H	2 BB	1 K	3 Whiffs	17% CSW

Andrés Muñoz did not have his best stuff and couldn’t really command anything here, but that could be due to him pitching on back-to-back days. Not worth worrying about yet.

If you’re looking for potential relievers to stream today, check out RP Streamers

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Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitcher Roundup: 4/11

Rick Graham

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Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitcher Roundup: 4/11

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