MLB Bullpen Report

Bullpen RAW stats over last 30 days (source:  Fangraphs)

# Team W L SV G GS IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 BABIP LOB% GB% HR/FB ERA FIP xFIP WAR
1 Indians 2 5 7 87 0 70.1 8.96 2.94 2.18 .294 63.5 % 40.3 % 20.5 % 6.40 5.36 4.14 -0.7
2 Cardinals 5 6 6 90 0 89.0 9.20 4.25 1.52 .333 66.9 % 41.7 % 15.2 % 6.07 4.69 4.31 -0.3
3 Blue Jays 3 6 4 95 0 94.0 8.52 3.73 1.72 .307 67.1 % 34.5 % 14.3 % 5.55 5.16 4.85 -0.5
4 Rockies 2 10 6 87 0 93.0 8.52 3.77 1.45 .336 66.4 % 41.0 % 16.0 % 5.52 4.79 4.33 -0.4
5 Mets 3 12 6 81 0 96.1 8.97 4.30 1.21 .350 68.4 % 38.1 % 12.1 % 5.33 4.36 4.41 -0.2
6 Marlins 4 6 6 86 0 95.1 6.33 4.34 1.23 .288 65.0 % 44.8 % 12.5 % 5.29 4.95 4.95 -0.7
7 Phillies 2 3 5 75 0 74.1 9.08 2.18 1.57 .319 68.8 % 45.2 % 18.3 % 4.96 4.16 3.44 0.6
8 Pirates 6 5 5 81 0 87.1 8.97 3.81 1.34 .308 72.7 % 41.7 % 14.4 % 4.64 4.48 4.23 -0.4
9 Royals 5 4 7 76 0 98.1 8.51 3.29 1.56 .284 72.0 % 45.1 % 18.3 % 4.58 4.58 3.87 0.0
10 Orioles 0 3 7 68 0 73.2 6.96 5.99 0.61 .319 76.6 % 41.4 % 6.3 % 4.28 4.59 5.48 0.5
11 Braves 6 4 7 85 0 93.0 9.19 2.81 1.35 .288 74.2 % 41.5 % 16.3 % 4.16 4.11 3.66 0.3
12 Tigers 8 4 9 97 0 104.0 7.88 3.72 0.95 .288 75.0 % 41.7 % 11.3 % 3.72 4.14 4.28 0.5
13 Giants 5 3 4 94 0 103.2 9.38 2.86 0.69 .295 70.0 % 42.0 % 8.5 % 3.65 3.06 3.53 1.5
14 Angels 5 6 8 83 0 87.0 9.31 3.62 0.83 .318 75.6 % 42.1 % 8.9 % 3.62 3.54 4.02 1.0
15 Reds 5 2 8 89 0 111.1 7.11 3.88 0.89 .292 77.0 % 47.0 % 10.8 % 3.56 4.15 4.36 0.3
16 Rays 7 5 9 86 0 146.1 7.87 2.83 1.05 .258 72.2 % 47.6 % 11.1 % 3.51 3.89 4.07 0.9
17 Dodgers 7 6 10 110 0 113.0 8.44 3.03 0.64 .292 72.9 % 45.1 % 7.3 % 3.42 3.39 4.04 1.1
18 Padres 7 4 10 76 0 100.1 8.25 2.78 1.17 .285 82.3 % 40.7 % 13.0 % 3.23 4.06 3.99 0.8
19 Athletics 5 5 10 82 0 97.2 9.22 4.15 0.92 .250 82.7 % 40.9 % 9.9 % 2.95 3.83 4.18 0.6
20 White Sox 4 4 8 90 0 92.2 9.23 3.21 0.97 .284 77.7 % 47.3 % 11.9 % 2.91 3.62 3.69 1.0
21 Nationals 5 2 11 79 0 74.1 9.20 1.82 0.73 .281 78.5 % 35.0 % 6.9 % 2.78 2.91 3.76 1.7
22 Diamondbacks 2 4 3 79 0 77.2 7.53 2.55 1.51 .268 92.1 % 48.6 % 16.5 % 2.78 4.45 3.93 -0.2
23 Twins 5 7 8 92 0 98.1 8.15 2.11 1.19 .283 87.2 % 42.7 % 13.0 % 2.75 3.89 3.83 0.6
24 Astros 4 3 7 83 0 80.0 11.14 2.25 1.01 .325 85.8 % 40.3 % 13.2 % 2.70 2.87 2.79 1.3
25 Mariners 7 6 10 88 0 83.2 10.00 2.69 0.11 .322 70.7 % 42.0 % 1.5 % 2.58 2.14 3.31 3.0
26 Brewers 7 2 5 83 0 92.2 10.49 3.79 0.97 .277 86.6 % 46.7 % 14.1 % 2.53 3.47 3.31 1.1
27 Rangers 7 3 7 78 0 91.0 7.22 2.47 0.79 .262 78.3 % 44.4 % 8.7 % 2.47 3.63 4.13 0.7
28 Cubs 6 2 10 97 0 99.1 9.79 4.62 0.45 .249 80.9 % 45.3 % 6.4 % 2.45 3.15 3.77 1.2
29 Yankees 6 1 8 68 0 76.2 10.92 4.34 0.70 .234 80.2 % 36.3 % 7.5 % 2.35 3.26 3.93 1.3
30 Red Sox 3 1 11 76 0 89.0 9.00 3.13 0.81 .249 90.8 % 47.4 % 9.8 % 1.92 3.35 3.68 1.0

 

Data above is sorted by ERA — still the most basic and consistent measurement of all.

 

THE BAD

The Indians went through a disasterous stretch in their bullpen, one where they were casually blowing 8 run leads every other day.  They have settled down somewhat, but still remain thin on the back-end.  The challenge here is that their starting rotation is so good that it’s hard to stack against the Indians and get a full game upside and the same can be said for the Cardinals who remain right behind them.

Toronto on the other hand continues to roll out John Axford in the 7th and 8th innings, he is legit one of the worst arms in the league and has been crushed by RH bats.

A team who is reeling right now and showing signs of completely falling apart is Colorado, they’ve got the most home games remaining of any team and that’s not good with the warm summer months here.  The bullpen has shown cracks and the nights could get long in Colorado as good teams come to town.

Texas‘ bullpen has some okay numbers early and they did the same thing last year.  But once again we have some underlying stats that show signs of regression.  An xFIP of 4.13 and only 7.22 K/9 from their bullpen indicate that Texas pen has been getting lucky of late.  This is a team who is going to be selling off anything good they can here shortly and I expect them to take a huge nosedive later this month.

THE GOOD

  • Boston
  • NY Yankees
  • Chicago Cubs
  • Milwaukee
  • Seattle
  • Houston
  • Arizona

 

WHO’S HOT

Image result for seattle mariners closer diazGood Team to take note of:  Seattle.  I was dead wrong when I said this would be a bad year for Seattle.  They have overcome a lot and they’ve made moves to really shore up their bullpen.  No team is winning more 1 run games right now and that 7-8-9 stretch that every team covets is really coming through for Seattle of late.  Once you get deep into the game you aren’t scoring on them.

 

 

 

 

 

WHO’S NOT

Image result for orioles bullpen sucksBad team to take note of:  Baltimore.  It’s only a matter of time until some of their veteran and good arms are shipped out and they let some rookies start to pitch.  In Camden Yards and other AL East ballparks in June-July-August that really spells disaster.  Plus, outside of Dylan Bundy none of the starters are pitching into the 7th inning.

Baltimore has the following schedule coming up:   Boston, Miami, Nationals, Braves, Mariners.   Four of those five teams are loaded with power and I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw Buck Showalter fired somewhere in that stretch or the team start to make lots of moves to completely throw in the towel on the season.

 

 

 

 

About Steve Renner 1215 Articles
Steve has been a part of the Full Time DFS team from the beginning when we migrated over from Scout Fantasy Sports. As a former contributor on the message forums at Scout he developed a following for his unique writing on MLB DFS. He continued this over with the launch of FullTimeDFS and built a team and platform focused on the common every day DFS player and not those who are just looking for a quick win or to build out MME in every sport for screenshot glory. Steve (sdchickens) specializes in MLB (Dongers Club), NHL (Slap Shot) and NFL (The Ambush). On a personal level he also loves College Sports and will dabble in them for DFS purposes a ton. And yes, he's an avid Saints fan.