What’s poppin’, Razzpimples?
Week 7 is in the books. SAGNOF Bullpen Report time!
Don’t forget to keep that there Razzball Bullpen Chart bookmarked. It’s been totally revamped into this awesome, dynamically-updated masterpiece! The calendar view of usage patterns is just pure gold.
Subscribers: Check out the Autopen for today/tomorrow projections (vulture SVHD, anyone?), which also has the same look at the Last 7 Days usage patterns. Another great tool is relief game logs from the last 14 days! Filter/sort/export to your needs.
Player Rater Top 25 (5×5 Standard)
Player Rater Top 25 (6×6 w/ Holds)
2026 SVHD Leaders
Weekly RP Leaders (By Razz $)
Weekly SVHD Leaders (By Total SVHD)
Weekly Notes:
Note: All stats and Player Rater values are accurate through Sunday’s games.
Cade Smith 3 SV, 6:0 K:BB. Said in preseason he was basically Mason Miller for a fraction of the cost. The ratios haven’t been as elite as many woulda reckoned, but the counting stats are there. The ratios will likely level out, too. That there FIP is a good long way from what the ERA says, and that there K-BB% suggests the WHIP will in all likelihood creep down to his career norm — despite the 1.25 mark so far, it’s still below 1.00 altogether. I love this feller. Very little not to love in the image below. The guy is seriously an elite talent who will be rather expensive next year, I wager. So the trick will be picking who will be 2027’s Cade Smith. That’s a September problem…
Riley O’Brien 2 SV, 1 BSV, 4:0 K:BB. Still has barely walked a soul this year. So locked in as the Cardinals closer.
Rico Garcia 2 SV, 4:3 K:BB. Trying to tell everyone out there that this guy needs to be rostered everywhere out there. Only 67% rostered in Fantrax leagues?! I swear like 94% of Fantrax leagues count holds anyway. This is insane.
Gregory Soto 2 SV, 3:1 K:BB. Since Dennis Santana is boo boo butter, Soto is closer again. Get him if you can. I’ll take an L here: I’ve been hesitant to fully trust Soto, but we’re at 20.1 IP on the year now, which is a nice sample for a reliever. Bro has allowed just 6 H, 3 ER, and 7 BB while striking out 26. His career sample tells another story, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt at this point. Was worth over $20 in Razzbucks this week. Hot diggity!
Devin Williams 2 SV, 4:0 K:BB. Has he rounded the corner? Guy with his pedigree probably needs scooping while he’s there for the taking. Finished just behind Soto as the #2 RP this week in terms of Razz $.
Bryan Baker 2 SV, 1 HLD, 2:1 K:BB
Brad Keller 2 SV, 1 L, 3:2 K:BB. Welp, so far he ain’t what he was last year. You can drop in all SV-only formats now that Duran is back, but I am choosing to believe bountiful holds are coming his way in the coming weeks/months.
Aroldis Chapman 2 SV, 3:0 K:BB
Kevin Kelly 3 HLD, 2:0 K:BB. Rays have had lots of small leads in late innings lately, so plenty of SVHD have been going around. With Cleavinger back, Kelly is at best third wheel here.
JoJo Romero 3 HLD, 3:1 K:BB. Boring but effective.
George Soriano 3 HLD, 3:2 K:BB. I’ll need like two more weeks in a row of this before I can buy into George Soriano.
Garrett Cleavinger 3 HLD, 5:0 K:BB. Like I just said, he’s back and playing second fiddle to Baker back there.
Anthony Nunez 3 HLD, 3:2 K:BB
Bryan King 2 SV, 2:0 K:BB. Can’t say I like the WHIP lately, and Hader will be back before long anyway. Decent holds option in deeper formats until Abreu figures it out.
Notable fellers with 2 HLD this week:
Matt Festa 2 HLD, 5:1 K:BB. Lots of holds over the last two weeks. I’m not sold yet. But I also can’t say I like Gaddis all that much anymore either.
Keaton Winn 2 HLD, 1:1 K:BB
Jose Ferrer 2 HLD, 4:0 K:BB
Jeremiah Estrada 2 HLD, 5:1 K:BB. Looks like the strikeout upside is still top tier.
Jeff Hoffman 2 HLD, 2:0 K:BB
Adrian Morejon 2 HLD, 5:0 K:BB.
Garrett Whitlock 2 HLD, 4:1 K:BB
Grant Wolfram 2 HLD, 2:0 K:BB
Erik Sabrowski 2 HLD, 5:1 K:BB. Up to 14 HLD now. I don’t have many victory laps to take this year, but I tried to put Sabrowski on everyone’s radar. Was iffy about the BB% last year…reckon a 29:7 K:BB quells those fears.
Eduard Bazardo 2 HLD, 1 BSV, 1 L, 3:1 K:BB
Andrew Nardi 2 HLD, 1 L, 3:2 K:BB
Notable bummers for the week:
Tyler Rogers 1 BSV, 1 L, 20.77 ERA, 5.38 WHIP. Abysmal stuff, but c’est la vie. He’ll turn it around.
Tyler Kinley 1 BSV, 1 L, 15.65 ERA, 2.61 WHP. When will Dylan Lee claim his rightful throne as elite setup man?
Jack Perkins 1 BSV, 1 L, 1 HLD, 13.50 ERA, 2.50 WHIP. I pumped those Perkins tires over the last couple weeks and here we are. He’s in the doghouse but has upside to get back out into the yard at least.
Fernando Cruz 1 BSV, 1 L, 1 HLD, 3.46 ERA, 1.92 WHIP
Emilio Pagan 1 BSV, 1 L, 25.71 ERA, 2.86 WHIP
Injury news this week:
Emilio Pagan hit the IL. Hamstring. Gonna be several weeks probably. Tony Santillan and Graham Ashcraft are boosted the most.
Carlos Estevez was rehabbing, aaaand then he hurt his shoulder. My guy might be cooked. I can hear all you Lucas Erceg owners slowly rubbing your hands together from here.
Josh Hader is currently rehabbing. He’s pretty close.
That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading. Leave me a comment below so I feel all warm and fuzzy.
Odds are quite good I was drinking either black coffee, dark beer, or some form of bourbon while writing what you just read. In the daylight hours, I’m a high school English teacher. I have completely left X/Twitter, so you can find me on Bluesky: @jkj0787.bsky.social, where I serve up daily bullpen recaps to my loyal tens of followers.
Saves and Holds as separate categories 6×6 Holds. Redraft 12 teamer.
Baker, Varland (Tor), Duran, Scott and Brash (IL).
Who’s my three best ROS
Three doesn’t seem like enough, but I don’t know the roster limitations. I almost always roster extra RP instead of bench bats.
Varland, Duran, Baker. Just take your steady saves if you’re rolling three.