SAGNOF Bullpen Report Week 4: Ride The Gus Bus

What’s poppin’, Razzpimples?

Week 4 is in the books. SAGNOF Bullpen Report time!

Don’t forget to keep that there Razzball Bullpen Chart bookmarked. It’s been totally revamped into this awesome, dynamically-updated masterpiece! The calendar view of usage patterns is just pure gold.

Subscribers: Check out the Autopen for today/tomorrow projections (vulture SVHD, anyone?), which also has the same look at the Last 7 Days usage patterns. Another great tool is relief game logs from the last 14 days! Filter/sort/export to your needs.

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Player Rater Top 20 (5×5 Standard)

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Player Rater Top 20 (6×6 w/ Holds)

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2026 SVHD Leaders

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Weekly RP Leaders (By Razz $)

Weekly SVHD Leaders (By Total SVHD)

Weekly Notes:

Note: All stats and Player Rater values are accurate through Sunday’s games.

Gus Varland headliner?! Last week was Junis, and now we’re at the Varland most people haven’t heard of. I remember Gus making a little noise once upon a time…actually, no, that was Louie. A large part of the fantasy RP battle is jumping on guys who are getting opportunities and just hoping they can hang on. Right now, Gus is getting late-inning looks in Washington. He’s incredibly fringe in SVHD leagues, but you gotta pounce in a SV-only format if you’re desperate. Injuries and bad performances across the league are making desperation a more common sighting as the weeks go on. Gus had 2 SV and 1 HLD this week, with a 4:1 K:BB. The most recent SV came on a day Clayton Beeter pitched earlier, earning a HLD. So this is clearly at least a co-pilot situation now. I hoped Beeter would fix his walk issues and ride that strikeout prowess to a full-time closing gig. Instead, it’s the Gus Bus with the 9:3 K:BB while Beeter’s is an ugly 7:8. Neither one inspires a ton of confidence for the rest of the season at this point, but again, ya gotta try Gus if you’re desperate. In my RCL league, I’m desperate, and thankfully, he was still there.

Mason Miller 4 SV, 8 K. He looks like the most perfect closer to ever grace this planet.

Paul Sewald 3 SV, 4 K. No hits/walks/runs. Love to see it. The metrics suggest he’s getting lucky, especially given how hard he’s been hit and how few of those have been on the ground (1st-percentile GB% paired with a 50% hard hit rate, woof). Results are all that matters to managers, though.

Raisel Iglesias 3 SV, 6 K. As long as he’s a Brave, I reckon he’ll be the one closing games. There’s a reason they paid Bob Suarez seven figures thru 2028 when Iglesias’s term is up this year, however. EDIT: Iglesias just hit the IL this morning. Suarez time.

Abner Uribe 2 SV, 3:2 K:BB. Pretty ugly week from him. Looks like he’s still the favorite for the 9th for the time being.

Robert Suarez 1 SV, 2 HLD, 4 K. Doing a fine job as Atlanta’s 8th-inning man. Should do a fine job once the 9th is his, whether that’s this year or next. Who knows, Braves are off to an excellent start. Having two All-Star caliber closers come postseason sounds nice to me. And let’s not forgot about Dylan Lee, whom I’ll touch on later.

Tony Santillan 1 SV, 2 HLD, 3 K. Doing everything he did last year.

Graham Ashcraft 1 SV, 2 HLD, 3:3 K:BB. Started super hot and is still churning out the counting stats, but you can see strikeouts have dipped and the baserunner count is starting to climb over the last two weeks.

Dylan Lee 3 HLD, 4:2 K:BB. Lee has been a sneaky favorite of mine for a few years now. Finished last year with a 0.98 WHIP, and so far this year it’s a teeny tiny 0.70. The xBA has been either a hair above or a hair below the Mendoza Line since 2024. Guy is the real deal. Helluva 1-2-3 punch those Braves got.

Jason Adam 3 HLD, 1:1 K:BB. Also gave up 4 H and 1 ER. So, not the cleanest week, but let’s cut the guy some slack. Has some rust to shake off. Already up to 4 SVHD after starting the year on the IL.

Erik Sabrowski 3 HLD, 6 K. Leads the league with 9 HLD. Breakout year is upon us. Don’t think Gaddis coming back will ding him too much.

Justin Bruihl 3 HLD, 2 K. No idea who he is, even as a Cardinal. Looks to have a firm hold on the 6th/7th inning setup duties, for the time being. JoJo Romero had 2 HLD with some ugly numbers, but figure he’s still the primary setup option for O’Brien. Bruihl is the type I’d only be looking at in really deep formats. Quick glance at past numbers shows zilch K upside and a tendency for free passes.

Riley O’Brien 2 W, 2 SV, 6:0 K:BB. This dude just absolutely cannot and will not stop. Wins, saves, even a hold to his name…what can’t he do for you?! In 12.1 IP, he’s allowed just 5 H, 0 ER, and 0 BB, all while striking out 14. Add up all his decisions and you get 10 W+SV+HLD.

Enyel De Los Santos 2 SV, 4:0 K:BB. By default, he’s probably the best saves guy for Houston right now. Abreu is still booty juice, and King took the L in his last 9th-inning appearance.

Emilio Pagan 1 W, 2 SV, 2 K. I don’t love him, but I can’t hate him. Never thought he’d last a year+ as a full-time closer.

Caleb Thielbar 1 W, 1 SV, 1 HLD, 5:1 K:BB. Gotta favor him over Ben Brown right now for saves. Palencia could be on the shelf for a good long while. Obliques are so annoying. Maybe it’s a short stay. Really can’t say with any degree of certainty right now.

Joel Kuhnel 2 SV, 2 K. If you need saves from an Athletic, he’s the one to take a shot at.

Juan Morillo 1 W, 1 SV, 1 HLD, 3:2 K:BB. Another dude who is just pumping out the counting stats. How long can he keep it up?

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Other notable fellers with 2 HLD this week:

Adrian Morejon, who’s looking much better than he did at the start of the year. Add everywhere holds count. His stuff is fantastic.

Gregory Soto, struck out 3.

Drew Pomeranz, also struck out 3. Extra valuable in leagues where you can slot him in as SP.

Matt Brash, struck out none but also didn’t allow any baserunners or runs. Thought he’d have like 15 HLD by now. Keeping the faith that they’ll come along sooner or later.

Cole Winn, struck out 4 but also walked 3.

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Notable BSV bummers for the week:

Trevor Megill, struck out 4 at least?

Ryan Walker, 3:2 K:BB. Really hard to recommend holding onto this fella. Giants are just a mess top to bottom.

Jeff Hoffman, 3:4 K:BB. The stuff looked so good metrics-wise until lately. Last three outings have been so ugly. EDIT: cheating a bit to include a result from Monday, just to make you feel a little better: Hoffman got the 9th again and fired off a scoreless/walkless save with 3 K.

Cade Smith, 4:0 K:BB. Unlucky result. Really looked pretty good this week, earning 2 SV.

Bryan Baker, 2:2 K:BB. Still probably the saves favorite for Tampa. He’s batting .500 in his last two outings: 2 SV, 2 BSV.

Devin Williams, 4:1 K:BB. Otherwise, he was trash, destroying your ratios.

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Injury news this week:

Daniel Palencia: oblique. No timetable. Thielbar and Brown boosted for SVHD since Harvey/Maton are also out.

Jhoan Duran: oblique as well. Keller/Kerkering/Alvarado all boosted. Despite his slow start, gotta pick Keller here.

Edwin Diaz: elbow. Sidelined for at least three months. No telling who the saves favorite could be. Tanner Scott? Alex Vesia? Both? Someone random? You definitely want Scott and Vesia in SVHD.

Josh Hader: moved to 60-day IL to make roster space. He’s due back mid- to late-May, which was always the most realistic case anyway. So the 60-day IL looks scarier than it really is.

 

That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading. Leave me a comment below so I feel all warm and fuzzy.

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