Bullpen Report: June 20th, 2012

• Matt Capps served up a two-run blast in the ninth frame of a non-save situation to Martin Maldanado of the Milwaukee Brewers last Friday, and hasn’t pitched since. The long ball was the fourth allowed by Capps this season — giving the Brew Crew a 5-3 victory over the Twinkies — and dealt the veteran righty his fourth loss of 2012. Since the loss, Capps has been sidelined with shoulder inflammation but is expected to return to action this Thursday or Friday. In the meantime, manager Ron Gardenhire suggested Glen Perkins and Jared Burton could each see an opportunity to close out games based on matchups. Despite the aforementioned loss, Capps has been pretty reliable for the Twins in save situations, nailing down 14-of-15 chances with a 5.00 K/BB.

• Tyler Clippard locked down his tenth save as the interim closer for the Washington Nationals. He faced the minimum three batters in the ninth, inducing two strikeouts and a line out to left field. Drew Storen, who is currently on the 60-day disabled list due to surgery to remove bone chips from his left elbow, continues to progress and is aiming to return roughly around the All-Star Break. Storen should regain the closer’s role shortly after his return, however, Clippard is still a viable arm for some fantasy teams given his excellent ratios (2.15 ERA, 0.99 WHIP).

• A two-out rally in the final frame initiated by Ty Wigginton and continued by Hunter Pence, led the Phillies to a 7-6 victory over Rafael Betancourt and the Colorado Rockies this evening. The blown save was the third in just 13 chances on the season for the right-hander, who seemed to be a late-round favorite for saves among “fantasy analysts” heading into 2012. A prime reason owners haven’t been seeing a lot of save opportunities from Betancourt this year is, well, the Rockies aren’t that good. Betancourt has been to the hill 25 times this year, but is on pace to see a drop in K/9 for the second consecutive season (12.85, 10.54, 9.00) and an increase in walks from 1.16 per nine in 2011 to 2.25 per nine in 2012. Betancourt should be fine, but if you have excess at the closer position, it can’t hurt to to see what you could fetch for him in your league.

• It definitely wasn’t pretty for Frank Francisco, but he earned his 17th handshake of the year tonight to preserve the victory for Dillon Gee and the New York Metropolitans. Francisco entered the ninth with a two-run lead but yielded two walks, two hits and an earned run before escaping the ninth inning jam. On a side note, Francisco failed to strike out a batter tonight for just the fourth time in his 20 save opportunities this season.

For those of you who play daily fantasy games like FanGraphs: The Game, or just like to stream players, here is a matchup you may be able to exploit.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Glen Perkins (MIN) vs. PIT

With the possibility of Matt Capps being shelved until Friday, Glen Perkins would likely get the call in the ninth should the Twins be in a save situation tomorrow against the Pirates. Perkins has the strikeout ability (11.30 K/9) to man the ninth, however, the 3.77 BB/9 are something he could improve. As of publishing time on Wednesday, Perkins had just sealed his first save of the season against the Pirates, pitching a scoreless ninth while walking one and striking out two.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	Injured
Arizona	J.J. Putz	David Hernandez	Bryan Shaw
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jonny Venters	Eric O’Flaherty
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Pedro Strop	Matt Lindstrom
Boston	Alfredo Aceves	Andrew Miller	Mark Melancon	Andrew Bailey
Chicago (NL)	Carlos Marmol	James Russell	Shawn Camp
Chicago (AL)	Addison Reed	Hector Santiago	Matt Thornton
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Sean Marshall	Jose Arredondo
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Vinnie Pestano	Tony Sipp
Colorado	Rafael Betancourt	Matt Belisle	Matt Reynolds
Detroit	Jose Valverde	Joaquin Benoit	Octavio Dotel
Houston	Brett Myers	Wilton Lopez	David Carpenter
KC	Jonathan Broxton	Greg Holland	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Scott Downs	Jordan Walden
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Josh Lindblom	Shawn Tolleson
Miami	Heath Bell	Steve Cishek	Edward Mujica
Milwaukee	John Axford	Francisco Rodriguez	Jose Veras
Minnesota	Matt Capps	Glen Perkins	Alex Burnett
NY (NL)	Frank Francisco	Bobby Parnell	Jon Rauch
NY (AL)	Rafael Soriano	David Robertsonn	Boone Logan
Oakland	Ryan Cook	Brian Fuentes	Grant Balfour
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Chad Qualls
Pittsburgh	Joel Hanrahan	Jason Grilli	Juan Cruz
St. Louis	Jason Motte	Mitchell Boggs	Eduardo Sanchez
SD	Huston Street	Dale Thayer	Luke Gregerson
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Javier Lopez
Seattle	Tom Wilhelmsen	Brandon League	Charlie Furbush
Tampa Bay	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	J.P. Howell	Kyle Farnsworth
Texas	Joe Nathan	Mike Adams	Koji Uehara
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Jason Frasor	Darren Oliver	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Tyler Clippard	Sean Burnett	Henry Rodriguez	Drew Storen

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]