Bullpen Report: Knowing When To Fold ‘Em

I mean, who doesn’t like a good old Kenny Rogers reference?  I appreciate it, but was more keen on Islands in the Stream, which in reality still works for this post.  This week, I wanna focus y’alls attention on when to keep relievers of hold value or when to fold them and grab someone new.  I wanted to bring this up because the near-leader in holds currently is Juan Nicasio.  (Who for all intents and purposes is a fantastic Holds pitcher when you just take into account the hold total of 12.  Which trails only Archie.)  The hold total is great for holds leagues says captain obvious.  The peripheral stuff is absolutely poop though. Commander Poop, for the full nautical theme.  He checks none of the boxes from the non-hold league boxes, his  K-rate is just a tick above 9, HR/9 at 2.0, a BAA over .300 and an ERA over 6…  Those are not the four checks that I was referring too.  So for mixed leagues, the guys you want to own are all over these standards: The K-rate has to be at or above 11 K/9, which includes over 60 relievers in baseball. HR/9 has to be tiny, think under 0.50, BAA against has to be anything at or below league average of .243.  And lastly, the ERA has to be respectful, but not the end-all-be-all of determinations, because unluckiness does happen with relievers.  So when doing your homework for reliever adds, make a checklist of those three stats and let the ERA be the tie-breaker in determining your add.  In holds leagues, quantity does matter, but if you are only going to eat one banana why buy the whole bunch and let them ruin all the other categories?

• I missed writing about the Blue Jays closer situation and I have it Clippard/Tepera and then Oh and Axford in a far third.  First appearance saw Tepera get the 7th inning save/hold/win with Clippard getting the save, so let’s see if that pattern continues.
• The Rays may have only 15 wins but have holds quality in Chaz Roe and Jose Alvarado.  Both lads sit at 9 for the year and seem to have the 7th and 8th in some order to their own.
• If Carl Edwards Jr. isn’t owned in your league, no need for the checklist thing above.
• At some point the Orioles are going to start trading assets… I mean, they kinda have to, especially with O’day and Britton on DL and losing value daily.  Brad Brach has to be a tradeable asset sooner rather than later.  So go grab Mychal Givens and sit on him for a few weeks.  He is a mini-Edwards in every form of the stat world.
• Richard Rodriguez is blossoming into the artist formerly known as Felipe.  High leverage usage rate over the last 14 games and he is a K monster.
• I love me some Kirby Yates.  Two wins, three holds and better than 11 K-rate over the last seven apps.
• Sleeper reliever of the week? Seth Lugo because that SP/RP thing and the Mets futility right now (namely Hansel, who Mugatu still thinks is hot) is why I am setting sights on a non-entity.