Bullpen Report: Uh-Oh Ottavino

The season to date leader in holds heads to the DL and one of the better bullpens in baseball is in a tailspin… not so fast!  The Rockies have reliable arms that can cement games just as well as Adam Ottavino has done for the year.  With the likes of wily veterans in Mike Dunn, Chris Rusin, and even a little smattering of Jake McGee, the sedimentary bunch is going to attempt to hold down the fort. The comforting thing is that the Rockies lead MLB in holds as a pen, least amount of blown saves and have the most games pitching with a lead with 99 total.  The scary thing with the shoulder injury is that Ottavino is a stash, or a dash, and replace with new military holds parts made from recycled relievers.  Wait a week, see if the 10-day DL stint is a pain in the tuther end, and I can see if you need the space in Holds leagues, the move make sense.  I would most likely grab Dunn, Rusin, and McGee in that order, as the setup game in front of the Dutch Master is going to be pieced together differently than what we saw so far.  No need to panic though, there are tons of saves in the 6-8 innings to go around.  Speaking of which, let’s see what is going down in the neighborhood of hold-dom…

• Cash rules all the holds around me, 2% milk, Andrew Miller y’all.  Five holds over the last 13 games means the most owned non-closer reliever is paying dividends.  Finally with quantity.
• With Biagini in the rotation now and Grilli basically sucking like a 40-year-old should.  Joe Smith has emerged as the guy for a team that can generate some holds in a bunch, as witnessed by his 4 in the past 11 games and his almost 18 K/9 rate to boot.  Used to call me Joe Smith now they still call me Joe Smith… or Batman.
• Remember what I said last week about Marlins relievers?  Forget it.  Zig-Zag has an ERA with 4 numbers and bear claws is poop.
• Seriously, at what point is Craig Kimbrel in the Cy Young discussion.  Honestly?
• Taylor Rogers checks none of the boxes for being a dominant reliever.  Except that he is elite in hold sitches.
• I am fully a believer that if you want to build a solid holds pen, you have one from the best team in baseball.  The Astros are that team and I want one of Harris, Devenski, Gregerson… or if being sneaky, Feliz.
• Sleeper reliever of the week: Paul Sewald.