Bullpen Report, Week 4: Blue Jays Love Turnstiles

Step right up folks, only $5 waiver wire bucks gets you the admission of a lifetime!  It brings you wonderment beyond compare, unfulfilled roster spots with the snap of a finger, and most of all, it gives you zero return on your initial investment sometimes.  Yes, that’s right gents (and gals too!), it’s the ever growing laundry pile that sits in the corner, but without the physical stench its the bullpen keystone capers.  Key the music!  The Blue Jays started the year thinking the man with the poor eye sight would be nice a cozy in the head bullpen chair.  Unbeknownst to them, he sucked and failed at his job and was demoted to a set-up role.  Fast forward two and half whole weeks, and he is somehow back to being the man again.  Did he develop a new pitch, started throwing with his feet? Nope, he is still the same ole Brett Cecil.  He isn’t throwing any harder and didn’t change his wind-up.  He is just the next man up after Miguel Castro went all bay of pigs, making us all buy into him, and then poof went the dynamite.  I personally didn’t think it would be a forever type scenario, and as far as I’m concerned, Cecil isn’t the man either as he sits right now.  That just opens the door for possiblities… a trade (Papelbon perhaps), a free agent signee off the street (Rafael Soriano), or eventually going back to Castro or letting Roberto Osuna get a shot at the title.  My answer is yes to all the above.  I think it takes another failure by Cecil for the contending Blue Jays to realize that they need to shore that thing up.  So in a month we could see a whole new bullpen there, and no, I am not kidding.  So now that the team beyond the wall is taken care of this week, let’s peruse what else is happening around the league in bullpen situations.

• The lincoln log of a bullpen that the Dodgers have strung together has been quite, well for lack of a better term, completely terrible.  No one expected it to be a revolving door of Winnie the Pooh that Mattingly seems to miss-match and mold into brown colored Play-Doh.  Fortunately for him, Jansen is working his way back and looks to be three weeks away. Until then, it’s the Yimi Garcia show.  The only thing that worries me about Yimi is that I think he gets totally over-worked as a setup option when Jansen comes back, which sucks, because he has the goods to be a 12-plus K guy and a hold monster.
• I really hope, well not really because I own him universally, that Jordan Walden‘s arm stays attached long enough for him to continue to do what he is doing.  He is a horse in front of Rosenthal this year, having already appeared in 11 games for the Cards.  He is on pace for 111 games pitched.  Crazy.  Crazy effective, it’s like a magical fairy dust being in that bullpen.  Year after year, they finish in the top-ten in ERA, Holds, and Appearances with the Lead, and over the last five years aggregate, they have the highest leverage situation.  If I made you crossed eyed there, those are all good things.
• Raise your hand if you are sick of the Steve Cishek thing in Miami….  Yeah, me too. He looks to me as to be flinging more then pitching this year. The time to roster A.J Ramos and Mike Dunn is probably now, even if they sit there and do nothing to be first.  For those in way deeper leagues where both are gone, look at a guy named Nick Donatello, (Splinter is sold separately).
• For those of you worried about Dellin Betances having value in any league, check out his last five appearances. 17 consecutive batters faced, 17 consecutive outs.  Oh, and you should also throw in 10 K’s in that span.  That is front line porn star stuff… think Johnny Wad, Chestor Copperpot, or for fun, tell me what your porn star name would be.  Take your first pet’s name plus the street your grew up on… put it in the comments.  Mine is Chipper St. Charles. [Jay’s Note: Mine ended up being Lady Sakina. I’m so exotic!]
• Jared Hughes is the co-leader (Walden, Johnson) in the clubhouse right now, 20 games into the season in the Holds category.  The Pirates have 11 wins and Hughes has appeared in 9 of those wins, good for 7 holds this year.  Mix that in with what Watson is eventually going to do by years end, and the Pirates are contenders just on bullpen goodness.
• The news on Adam Ottavino is not looking good.  Which moves everyone up the line in Colorado, so extra rocky mountain oysters for all.  Look for Brooks Brown, Boone Logan, Rafael Betancourt and Christian Friedrich to keep doing what they do in front of John Axford.  I would pick them up exactly how I listed them.  Oh and Colorado still has more holds as a team (23) as the bottom six teams in the league do combined.

In case you’re sick of baseball already, come on over and join me for some Fantasy Premier league action, it so easy all you have to do is click a tab located at the top that says Soccer.  Read and enjoy.  It’s like a good book that you play with your feet.