There was movement in Oakland last night however as Huston Street recorded his first save since coming off the DL last month. Alan Embree had been doing a very good job in Streets absence and continued to hold the job longer than we expect after Huston’s return from an ulnar nerve injury.
Last night however Embree gave up two runs in the 8th to let the White Sox pull to within one run of the A’s at 3-2 setting up Street for a perfect ninth to close out his 10th save of the year, his first since May 6th.
In 29.2 IP this season, Huston is fanning 10.9/9 while walking 2.73. Opponents are hitting just .185 off him, helped a little by his favorable .274 BHIP% (still, his career rate is .280).
That K rate is actually up from his fine rookie season where he fanned 82. while walking 2.99. Huston does not throw a ton of GBs (0.96 career) but he keeps the ball in the park (0.4/9 career) and punches people out.
He seems healthy. He has the closers skill set. Street should resume his place among the above average closer options.
Dave Trembley’s handling of the end of the Orioles game with the Yankees on Wednesday pretty much spells out his mind set. Handed a 3-0 game, Danys Baez gave up hit to the first two batters he faced before recording a strikeout. That left lefty Bobby Abreu as the tying run at the plate. That prompted Trembley to go to lefty Jamie Walker. He got Abreu on a GO to 1B but
This tells us that while Baez is still the primary closer, Walker will be used in a lot of situations where a left hander is called for … whether it’s called for or not.
Baez has a career 0.85 HR rate while
Trembley could have seen it coming, and he probably over managed the situation.
Meanwhile Mo Rivera took the loss in this game giving up 3 runs in the 10th inning on three hits including an Aubrey Huff homerun. Mo has now allowed 5 runs in his last 3.1 IP on 9 hits, 0 walks and 2 Ks.
He was asked the question last night and denies any arm issues. One of the great closers of our time, Mo’s indicators are still solid. He is fanning 9.1/9 while walking a career-low 0.87. His HR rate is 0.6/9 this year, a little higher than his 0.4 career rate but still pretty spiffy. Opponents are hitting .262 off him which is high (.220 career) but he’s suffering from an unfavorable .339 BHIP% this year, much higher than his .270 last year, .254 ’05, and his .279 career BHIP%.
Mo has converted 19 straight save opps, his numbers look gook. No need for anyone to panic here.
Brian Fuentes return from the DL on Wednesday going two outs and allowing a hit and a walk while striking out 2.
Manny Corpas owners need not be concerned at this point. He has closed out 9 straight save opps and he is punching out hitters (7.5/9) and throwing GBs (2.28). That GB ratio is a lot higher than his GB rate in 2006 (1.32). He can throw GBs but it seems unlikely he can sustain that rate. Corpas might nag you with a walk or two (2.8/9) but his numbers are good.
Manny is being helped by a favorable BHIP% (.268) which is holding his OBA down (.221), as well as a favorable strand percentage (84.2%) which accounts in part for his 2.24 ERA. We do not have enough history to really project where those indicators are going to settle when they correct. For now, know that Manny is maximizing his skill set with some help from those two columns. I do not how much worse things could get, but it is hard to imagine his performance level rising from here.
