Am I recycling a headline pun? Yes. We have two weeks left in the baseball season, are you going to hold it against me? Oh, you are? Fine. I don’t blame you. Just as long as you don’t hold it against me when the closers I offer up gash your ratios. The 2020 season has been very, well 2020-ish in regards to bullpens.
- Stefan Crichton was the reliever that made sense to get the Diamondbacks closer gig based on performance so of course, they handed it to the struggling Kevin Ginkel. That experiment turned bad quickly enough. Crichton has gotten the call since to earn three straight saves.
- Ken Giles goes back to the IL just as quickly as he returned from it. That does it for his 2020. Rafael Dolis should stay firmly atop that pen.
- It appears more is going on with Brandon Workman than Joe Girardi just trying out all his closer options. He came in to a tie game last night and served up a homer and RBI triple. Workman had last appeared in the seventh (of a nine-inning game) and walked two while giving up three hits. Hector Neris has moved back into the closer role but literally dropped the ball in his last appearance, resulting in a balk that led to that runner scoring from second. Something is barking in his kinetic chain if I had to guess.
- Just when we thought it was safe to go back into the San Francisco waters Gabe Kapler starts getting all Gabe Kaplery. He used Tony Watson to face the bottom of the order in the seventh and went with Sam Selman for the ninth. G’abe la vie.
- There’s no lack of blown saves for the Cardinals back end options. I really can’t tell you who gets the next crack it. Maybe the just say yolo and try to let Alex Reyes cook in the ninth.
Saturday: You were expecting Sunday? That’s the bread and butter of NFL days but the rarity of Saturday NFL action gives it an allure that edges out its weekend partner.
- Kenley Jansen (Blake Treinen)
- Liam Hendriks (Joakim Soria)
- Josh Hader (David Phelps)
- Rafael Montero (Jonathan Hernandez)
Sunday: It’s not fall until Sunday’s are spent realizing how dumb you were with your summer fantasy decisions on Sunday afternoons.
- Raisel Iglesias (Archie Bradley)
- Taylor Rogers/Sergio Romo
- Brandon Kintzler (Brad Boxberger)
- Mark Melancon (Will Smith)
- Trevor Rosenthal (Drew Pomeranz)
- Aroldis Chapman (Zach Britton)
- Daniel Hudson (Sean Doolittle)
- Brad Hand (James Karinchak)
- Ryan Pressly (Andre Scrubb)
- Stefan Crichton (Junior Guerra)
- Daniel Bard (Mychal Givens)
Monday Night: I’m personally not a big MNF guy. It’s lost all it’s novelty and the announcing crew has been a revolving door of bozos for years.
- Greg Holland (Scott Barlow)
- Alex Colome (Evan Marshall)
- Matt Barnes (Ryan Basier)
- Edwin Diaz (Justin Wilson)
- Yoshihisa Hirano (Yohan Ramirez)
- Brandon Workman/Hector Neris
- Nick Anderson/Diego Castillo/Peter Fairbanks
- Richard Rodriguez (Kyle Crick)
- Jeremy Jeffress (Rowan Wick)
- Tony Watson/Tyler Rogers (Sam Coonrod)
Thursday Night: Who could have imagined taking away half of a team’s preparation time would to the season’s sloppiest football? It’s no accident the AFC South is heavily featured.
- Ryan Helsley/Andrew Miller/Alex Reyes/Tyler Webb (IL: Giovanny Gallegos)
- Ty Buttrey (Felix Pena)
- Hunter Harvey/Tanner Scott
- Anthony Bass /Rafael Dolis (IL: Ken Giles)
- Buck Farmer/Bryan Garcia/Gregory Soto
