Closer Report

Every week I take a look at the going's on in the life of relief pitching in fake baseball. This week, like the ever growing trend of this year to date the relief pitching corps are in flux. Never in my existence in fantasy baseball, and this is my second decade chasing saves, have I seen such an injury/demotion type of thing happen. Well on to all the good stuff of spoken word, or in this case typed. Enjoy the rankings and snippets.

• Brandon League has been given the hook, temporarily I would have to believe. He has zero value right now for the Mariners or any other team looking to acquire his services. Tom Wilhelmsen seems to be the natural heir apparent here, with a mix of Shawn Kelley. For really competitive leagues T-Will needs to be owned, if not for the fact that he has a great K rate. AL only leagues can roster and other option whether it be Kelley or Steve Delabar.
• Rafael Dolis stint in the closer's role was short lived yet exciting. I didn't even notice the difference between him and Marmol. Speaking of Carlos he has been activated off the DL and will be in a set-up role initially. James Russel and Shawn Camp are the guys to chase here for now.
• The Angels keep flip-flopping their closing options as both Ernesto Frieri and Scott Downs have gotten multiple chances in the last week. Frieri has a redonkulous K rate and should be rostered anywhere and everywhere anyways.
• In the Nations capital, the Nationals have removed the human walk machine Henry Rodriguez from the closers role. Tyler Clippard is the main guy to own here, with a little dash of Sean Burnett mixed in just to make us stretch our roster limits.
• Sergio Santos was scheduled to start a throwing program with a return in late June the original idea. Well he hasn't started his tossing sessions and this should push back his expected return date a couple of weeks. My guess is the AS break. Casey Janssen is settled in as the save harbinger north of the border.
• Heath Bell does what Heath Bell do. While Cishek is the better pitcher statistically Ozzie is showing his loyalty with the 27 million dollar pitcher. Weird but Ozzie does realize the object is to win the game with your best option right? While Bell will still see most of the options he will destroy your peripherals for a meaningless 1-2 saves a week. Is that really worth a roster spot?

HOLDS:

Tier 1.

Jonny Venters ATL

Mike Adams TEX

Sergio Romo SF

Vinnie Pestano CLE

Joaquin Benoit DET

Sean Burnett WAS

Ryan Cook OAK

Sean Marshall CIN

David Hernandez ARI

Jason Grilli PIT

Antonio Bastardo PHI

Tier 2:

Steve Cishek MIA

Tim Byrdak NYM

Edward Mujica MIA

Francisco Rodriguez MIL

Pedro Strop BAL

Kris Medlen ATL

Greg Holland KC

Alexi Ogando TEX

Vincente Padilla BOS

Joel Peralta TB

Josh Lindblom LAD

Bobby Parnell NYM

Franklin Morales BOS

Tier 3:

Jared Burton MIN

Juan Cruz PIT

Bryan Shaw ARI

Randy Choate MIA

Darren O'Day BAL

Andrew Cashner SD

Marc Rzeczypnski STL

Boone Logan NYY

Kelvin Herrera KC

Matt Thornton CHW

Jose Arredondo CIN

Brad Ziegler ARI

Jesse Crain CHW

Steve Delabar SEA