Closing Time: Mark Melancon and the Infinite Sadness

For a solid 20 years, the Pirates didn’t have to evaluate their bullpen situation with any great deal of urgency. The Bucs downshifted into non-contender mode after the 1992 season (not coincidentally, when Barry Bonds left town), and Pittsburgh didn’t see a single winning club from 1993 to 2012. When you’re not a threat for the playoffs, every situation takes on a little less gravity. Small brushfires don’t turn into ten-alarm calls.

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Ah, but the 2015 Pirates are different. The Men of Clint Hurdle are coming off two straight playoff appearances, and they’re expected to contend again this year. So when their closer goes off the rails, even in a smaller sample, it’s something we have to take seriously.

Mark Melancon, you’re on the hot seat.

The Pirates closer suffered his first blown save of the year in Tuesday’s 9-8 loss to the Cubs, giving up three hits, two walks and three runs over a messy ninth inning. It’s the second three-run hiccup for Melancon, who now sports an 8.53 ERA. Batters swung and missed at his pitches 13.7 percent of the time last year; in the short sample of 2015, that number has tumbled to 7.6 percent.

It’s important to look at the genesis over the results, and that’s really the crux of the problem. Melancon’s velocity has fallen off a cliff thus far in 2015. His fastball is down almost five mph, and his cutter and curve have dropped a couple of ticks on the gun. The Pirates insist Melancon isn’t hurt, for what that means, but something seems wrong.

Pittsburgh has one of the best pitching coaches in the business - take a bow, Ray Searage - so if there’s any team that can get this fixed in short order, it’s the Bucs. But what if Melancon’s velocity drop is tied to a physical issue? We need to do our full diligence here, take a look around the bullpen. 

Lefty Tony Watson has been a key bullpen deputy for the last few years, posting superb ratios. He collected 10 sneaky wins last year, a couple of leftover saves, along with a 1.63 ERA and 1.02 WHIP. He’s the type of reliever you can roster simply for the quality innings. He hasn’t been terrific through his first nine innings this year (4 R, 2 HR), but then you see nine strikeouts against zero walks and you feel better.

Of course, you know a lot of teams really don’t want to close with a southpaw.

Tall right-hander Jared Hughes is coming off a 1.96/1.09 season of his own, though it was a pitch-to-contact special (19 BB, 36 K) that makes you suspicious. On the plus side, the strikeouts have been there in 2015. Arquimedes Caminero has a fastball in the mid-to-high 90s, if you want to see the radar gun pop, but he hasn't been anything special to this point.

If I had to speculate on a non-Melancon option here, Watson’s my play. The velocity drop makes me nervous. And while smarter teams tend to be patient with most of their early slumpers, if there’s one position where the rules don’t completely apply, it’s at closer. Whatever gets you through the ninth.

• Just when we get excited for Jake Lamb, he goes out and wrecks the story with a foot injury. He’s on the DL, will miss a couple of weeks at minimum. This opens up the door for Cuban import Yasmani Tomas.

No one trusts Tomas as a fielder, but the club thought his bat was worth $68.5 million. Tomas picked up a start Tuesday against Texas and went 2-for-3 with a run scored, working out of the No. 6 slot in the lineup. Might be worth a kick of the tires. He's still unowned in about 60 percent of Yahoo leagues.

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For one night at least, Taijuan Walker found the answer to what ails him. If you spend a few hours with the Astros lineup, good things happen. Walker piled up 102 pitches before six innings were complete, but the line was fantasy friendly (5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 8 K). He started off 17 of 25 batters with a strike, a huge key going forward. I’m not confident in Walker's upcoming turn at Texas, but dial him up on May 2, when he draws Houston again. Keep hacking, hackers.

Of course the Astros got the last laugh, scoring five runs in the eighth inning and flipping the game, a 6-3 victory. It was a favorable night if you own Fernando Rodney - he fanned the side in the ninth (on just 15 pitches), in a get work inning, while Charlie Furbush and Danny Farquhar blew up in the eighth. Shoot that poison arrow through my heart.

• I dialed up a few Timmy Lincecum shares in DFS for Tuesday night, so I enjoyed his win over LA as much as anyone. But it’s not an easy story to invest in long-term.

Lincecum has somehow posted a 2.00 ERA despite a two-mph dip in velocity, a modest strikeout rate (7/9) and an ordinary WHIP (1.22). Getting ground balls 60.4 percent of the time has helped, sure, but he’s also been lucky on the FB/HR rate, after three years of gopheritis. You obviously can’t use him at Coors Field this weekend, and a game against the Angels is no bargain, either. For now, Mitch Kramer's lookalike is just one for the streamer pool. Look out for O'Bannion, I hear he's on the warpath.

For the struggling Giants offense, a six-run output was reason for celebration. San Francisco still ranks 28th in scoring, but maybe a weekend trip to Coors will perk up some of their hitters.

Buster Posey could be worth the outlay in the DFS world, especially when the Giants face a couple of left-handers. Posey is a .330/.391/.573 career batter when holding the platoon advantage. And if Posey needs a day off (or a start at first), Andrew Susac is a tremendous fill-in, a Fan Duel giveaway at $2200. On a lot of teams, he'd be a 20-homer catcher right away.

• Better days are surely ahead, but Carlos Rodon wasn't ready for his closeup Tuesday against Cleveland. Check that - Rodon's outstanding moustache (straight out of the Sabotage video) made for a lovely picture, but he might have been a touch nervous (call it "amped up" if you prefer) in his big-league debut.

Rodon couldn't locate most of his pitches during the laboring 60-pitch relief appearance (2.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 1 K), and the Indians only swung and missed three times against him. A shift to the rotation certainly isn't imminent, no matter how mediocre the back end of Chicago's rotation may be. It's not going to happen overnight.

• The Reds and Brewers played a keg-tapper, with Zack Cozart getting the best of it (5-3-3-3, two homers, one steal). He’s now clocked four homers in four games, and is up to .353. It’s tempting to simply dispatch the guy after his awful 2014 season, but Cozart was a .254-74-12-63 man two seasons ago, and he has the potential to be around 6-10 steals. How desperate did you say you were in the middle?

We should also mention, he's batted eighth in all but one game this season. Cozart is free to add in 83 percent of Yahoo leagues, if you're frisky for a pickup. 

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