I think we need to sit down and have a talk about Cody Allen. He does his chores by striking people out on the regular, but other than that, what exactly is he doing to make us feel all cuddly as a RP-2? I will tell you, because that’s sorta my job here at Le Razzball. That, and I think I am the designated golf cart driver at the bi-millennial golf outing. So I have basically looked at every facet of Allen’s year to date and even compared them to last year’s goodness that he dropped on us. The velocity is still there, and has risen slightly over the last week, but has just one counting stat in the last 18 days. That, my friends, is not very good at all for someone you drafted expecting a good 30 plus saves from.
So getting back to the whole speed thing, his fastball and his curve are right where you want them to be, a nice cool 10 MPH apart. The one factoid that is sticking out to me is the BAA when he throws his curve. Teams are batting a robust .314 on the year on that one particular pitch, and he’s currently getting prison-style manhandled by RH batters to the tune of .423. That is not an error, that is four hundred twenty-three, for those just learning long-hand number spelling. I mean, I am no genius of mathematics or anything, but 42% of anything sounds like a good deal. The number of opposite field hits he has given up is not a fluke either. That percentage counts for 54% of his hits given up, and it is not helping his decreasing ground ball rate, which if you are counting at home, is down 31% from last year.
Listen, I know one thing, and Cody Allen is a darn good pitcher, but his location is off and teams are figuring him out on a repeat basis. The only problem with that is it isually leads to a melt down and a job demotion. Best advice is to wear two seat belts… for now. He will/should turn it around, the only question is: does it come before his demotion? Stick around for some more bullpen chotchkies.
- A hot team breeds a distinctively hot closer. The two go together like peanut butter and banana. So the Twins bullpen was previously lambasted by me for being a pile of meh. Since then, Glen Perkins has 7 saves in 15 days time and only surrendering one earned run.
- Greg Holland returns from the DL this week and I am confident that he will jump back in the fray and regain his closer role. Though Wade Davis has done nothing wrong (5 saves since Holland DL) and is a better closer than 24 other teams in the league currently employ. You should own Davis, still and if you don’t go get him on the cheap after he gets demoted.
- The Jordan Walden injury in the ‘Lou has shoved everyone up the set-up ladder and it seems to be lead by Seth Maness for now. Maness doesn’t offer the K potential that I would want to roster and I am throwing my hat on Kevin Siegrist to be the droid that you are looking for as the cuff for the Cards.
$12 Salads
You know that restaurant your girlfriend/wife/what-have-you likes to go to that charges, like, $12 for a salad? Every time you go there, you have a thoroughly solid meal. No complaints, except you just paid $12 for a salad when you could’ve went to McDonald’s and stuffed you and your woman for ten schmools and had $2 in quarters left over to make the hotel bed vibrate. These closers are $12 salads.
1. Craig Kimbrel – (Joaquin Benoit, Dale Thayer)
2. Aroldis Chapman – (Tony Cingrani, Jumbo Diaz)
Donkeycorns
Imagine you’re following a donkey, who’s wearing a wool cap, through a desert for 1700 miles. Why are you following a donkey? Because he promises you something wonderful and you just need to trust him. Does the donkey talk? Yes. Yes, he does talk. So when you and the donkey in the wool cap arrive at his destination, he removes the wool cap to reveal a horn. The donkey is a unicorn and his gift to you for your trust is saves. These closers are Donkeycorns.
16. Greg Holland– (Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera, Ryan Madson)
3. David Robertson – (Zach Duke, Dan Jennings)
4. Andrew Miller – (Dellin Betances, Chris Martin)
5. Trevor Rosenthal -(Seth Maness, Kevin Siegrist)
6. Huston Street – (Joe Smith, Mike Morin)
7. Jonathan Papelbon – (Ken Giles, Jake Diekman)
8. Fernando Rodney – (Danny Farquhar, Carson Smith)
11. Glen Perkins – (Aaron Thompson, Tim Stauffer)
9. Drew Storen – (Aaron Barrett, Blake Treinen)
17. Jeurys Familia – (Carlos Torres, Alex Torres, Bobby Parnell -DL)
10. Zach Britton – (Darren O’Day, Tommy Hunter)
12. Francisco Rodriguez, (Jonathan Broxton, Will Smith)
13. Koji Uehara – (Junichi Tazawa, Alexei Ogando)
14. Hector Rondon – (Pedro Strop, Jason Motte)
18. Mark Melancon — (Tony Watson, Jared Hughes, Arquimedes Caminero)
19. Joakim Soria – (Joba Chamberlain, Tom Gorzellany)
20. Santiago Casilla – (Sergio Romo, Jean Machi)
15. Cody Allen — (Bryan Shaw, Scott Atchison)
Employed
These guys are the men that make the save market go round. They punch in, punch out. Have the job, no real threat to speak of, and are basically just there to collect great benny’s so they can take care of their crippled brother. Who is only really crippled because he is scared of the sun.
22. Luke Gregerson – (Chad Qualls, Pat Neshek)
24. Jason Grilli – (Jim Johnson, Luis Avilan)
21. Steve Cishek – (Mike Dunn. A.J. Ramos)
26. Neftali Feliz – (Shawn Tolleson, Keone Kela)
27. Addison Reed – (Evan Marshall, Brad Ziegler)
Brain Freezes
I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples, bananas and Carlos Marmol– Wait, he just gave up 12 earned runs and hit Castro in the head with a pick-off throw. Brain freeze! Make it stop! Use the following closers at your own risk.
28. Brad Boxberger – (Jake McGee -DL, Kevin Jepsen, Ernesto Frieri)
29. Tyler Clippard – (Sean Doolittle -DL, Dan Otero, Evan Scribner)
25. John Axford – (Boone Logan, Brooks Brown, Rafael Betancourt)
23. Brett Cecil — (Miguel Castro, Roberto Osuna, Aaron Loup )
30. Chris Hatcher — (Yimi Garcia, Pedro Baez)
