I have said it here previously that grabbing relievers from a hot team or a team on a winning streak is usually a fantastic strategy from a holds perspective. I really have said it multiple times, so my memory is better than your’s. The Indians are in unprecedented territory as the team is in the midst of a win streak for the ages. It seems like two Hatteberg’s and maybe half a David Justice ago that we remember the A’s had a win streak of twenty. But now the Indians are on their own 20-plus win streak. Winning is a team effort, but Holds are what we care about in the Bullpen report. The Indians Bullpen over the course of their win streak is just over a buck fitty, and that’s not what matters for this post. The accumulation of goodies is what makes them all shiny. The group of Bryan Shaw, Nick Goody, Tyler Olson and Joe Smith have totaled 20 holds over their last 20 games. That total is just crazy, because since the all star break (which was 40 plus games ago) the have more holds than six teams do in total since said All Star break. So investing in Cleveland for bullpen stuff is where it’s at currently. Chase the win streak to aide in your pursuit of a Holds championship. Let’s see what else is going down in the world of holds and bullpens…
- The Yankees bullpen K/9-rate over the last 14 days is 13.39. A full two K’s higher than everyone else.
- The Royals, with all the Herrera injuries and side tracking, the stand out is Scott Alexander, not Brandon Maurer. Maurer is the most hittable RP in baseball allowing .360 BAA. That is not good. It’s like facing Tony Gwynn every at bat.
- Juan Nicasio now has a save or hold for three different teams this year. I went to go look through the annals of time and history but had an otter pop instead so I don’t know how many times it happened previous.
- Damn you business of baseball preventing Archie Bradley from being the closer. This falls into the best reliever on a team Andrew Miller category.
- Need a save/hold guy to keep an eye on look at Drew Steckenrider. Zig-zag is shaky with a back injury and Barraclough blew his first chance the other day.
- Sleeper reliever of the week: Carlos Ramirez of the Blue Jays.
Hold Stats over last 30 days:
| Player | Holds/BS | App with Lead |
|---|---|---|
| Tommy Hunter | 9/0 | 11 |
| Bryan Shaw | 8/0 | 10 |
| Anthony Swarzak | 8/0 | 11 |
| Peter Moylan | 7/0 | 10 |
| Archie Bradley | 7/1 | 11 |
| Kyle Barraclough | 7/1 | 10 |
| Brandon Kintzler | 7/1 | 9 |
| Nick Vincent | 7/0 | 10 |
| Marc Rzepczynski | 7/0 | 9 |
| David Hernandez | 7/0 | 10 |
| Tyler Olson | 6/0 | 11 |
| Sam Freeman | 6/0 | 9 |
| Trevor Hildenberger | 6/2 | 8 |
| Pat Neshek | 6/0 | 9 |
| Josh Hader | 6/0 | 8 |
| Luis Garcia | 5/0 | 8 |
| Scott Alexander | 5/0 | 10 |
| Yusmeiro Petit | 5/0 | 7 |
| Jose Ramirez | 5/1 | 7 |
