Bullpen Report: August 22, 2012

• Former closers around the league busted down their manager’s door this week demanding they be returned to ninth-inning duties. Well, maybe that was just the John Axford approach — but hey, it worked. On Tuesday, Ron Roenicke signaled for the “mustached one” out of the pen with two down in the ninth. Axford strolled to the bump and induced a Welington Castillo ground out to earn his 19th save of the season. Milwaukee’s manager called on Axford again on Wednesday to seal a 3-2 victory over the Cubs, and he did just that. The right-hander struck out the side while allowing just one single en route to his 20th save on the year. Axford is available in 20 percent of Yahoo! leagues.

• The Padres selected the contract of Tom Layne last week from Triple-A Tuscon of the Pacific Coast League. Layne, a 27 year-old career minor leaguer, recently reinvented himself as a situational reliever in order to get “the call.” Layne adjusted his arm angle and moved from the third base to the first base side of the rubber to create difficult angles for left-handed batters.

So far, so good. In five appearances since being promoted, Layne is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA (0.46 WHIP) and a 8.0 K/BB. The lefty entered in the ninth-inning today and retired the middle of the Pirates order (Garrett Jones, Gaby Sanchez and Pedro Alvarez) to earn his first major league save.

Bud Black admitted he went to Layne given interim closer Dale Thayer has worked the previous two days, so besides the inspiring story, I don’t think there is much to see here.

• J.J. Putz nailed down his 25th save of the season tonight in a 3-2 Diamondbacks victory over the Marlins. The mighty efficient year rolls on for the Dbacks’ closer, who is now 25-of-28 on the season and has earned saves in each of his last 16 chances dating back to May 22nd. Putz is now the owner of a 3.02 ERA (0.98 WHIP) and a 6.0 K/BB in 43 trips to the hill.

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: Jonathan Papelbon (PHI) vs. CIN

Cole Hamels and Johnny Cueto will take the hill tomorrow for the Phillies and Reds respectively, in what is easily the pitching duel of the day. Papelbon took the loss on Tuesday against the Reds, surrendering a ninth-inning moonshot to Zack Cozart. Redemption will likely be on the right-hander’s mind tomorrow should the Phillies be in save situation. Papelbon is 27-of-30 in save opportunities this year with a 2.86 ERA and a 5.08 K/BB.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	Off 25-Man
Arizona	J.J. Putz	David Hernandez	Takashi Saito
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Eric O’Flaherty	Jonny Venters
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Pedro Strop	Darren O’Day
Boston	Alfredo Aceves	Andrew Bailey	Andrew Miller
Chicago (NL)	Carlos Marmol	James Russell	Shawn Camp
Chicago (AL)	Addison Reed	Brett Myers	Matt Thornton
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jonathan Broxton	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Vinnie Pestano	Tony Sipp
Colorado	Rafael Betancourt	Matt Belisle	Rex Brothers
Detroit	Jose Valverde	Joaquin Benoit	Octavio Dotel
Houston	Wilton Lopez	Francisco Cordero	Wesley Wright
KC	Greg Holland	Kelvin Herrera	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Scott Downs	Jordan Walden
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brandon League	Javy Guerra
Miami	Steve Cishek	Heath Bell	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	Jim Henderson	John Axford	Kameron Loe
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Alex Burnett	Matt Capps
NY (NL)	Frank Francisco	Bobby Parnell	Jon Rauch
NY (AL)	Rafael Soriano	David Robertson	Boone Logan
Oakland	Grant Balfour	Ryan Cook	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Josh Lindblom
Pittsburgh	Joel Hanrahan	Jason Grilli	Chris Resop
St. Louis	Jason Motte	Mitchell Boggs	Edward Mujica
SD	Dale Thayer	Luke Gregerson	Brad Brach	Huston Street
SF	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt	Santiago Casilla
Seattle	Tom Wilhelmsen	Stephen Pryor	Charlie Furbush
Tampa Bay	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	Kyle Farnsworth
Texas	Joe Nathan	Mike Adams	Alexei Ogando
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Brandon Lyon	Darren Oliver
Wash.	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen	Sean Burnett

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