FanHouse Fernando Rodney

Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel replaced Brad Lidge with Ryan Madson once before as the team's closer, but that was due to a Lidge injury. Now Lidge may be losing his job due to poor pitching.

On Tuesday night Lidge gave up a hit, walked one, let loose a wild pitch and hit a batter in the ninth inning while only recording one out. Manuel hopped out of the dugout and took the ball from Lidge, giving it to Madson with the bases loaded. Madson recorded his fifth save as he retired the next two batters, striking out one and ending the game with a ground ball to shortstop.

Manuel said later that he had no idea who would be the Phillies closer moving forward. He was only trying to win games.

The Detroit Tigers are playing their best baseball of the season right now, winning their last six games and 10 of their last 13. Because of this recent stretch they've basically wrapped up the AL Central, putting 6 1/2 games between them and the second-place Minnesota Twins.

But even though they're winning games doesn't mean their frustrations can't get the best of them from time to time. After nearly blowing a save on Friday night in Tampa, Tigers' closer Fernando Rodney threw a baseball into the stands that landed in the press box. It was a pretty nice throw that earned Rodney a three-game suspension and a fine from Major League Baseball.

Poppin' out of the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

While the majority of the American workforce got a day off on Labor Day, some major league hitters were getting their power stroke on in a big way. With only 11 games on the docket, four players left the yard twice in one game: Derrek Lee, Billy Butler, Mark Teixeira and Juan Uribe. The fantasy fallout isn't huge, save for one; Lee's having a resurgence, Butler a breakout campaign and Teixeira an MVP-caliber season. Uribe, though ... that's news.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

For the second consecutive year, the Indians have given a playoff contender a huge boost. For the second consecutive year, they traded the previous season's AL Cy Young award winner. And for the second consecutive year, he's absolutely dealing in the National League.

Through five starts, Cliff Lee is 5-0 with a 0.68 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 2 complete games and 39 strikeouts (with only 6 walks) in 40 innings. Sound familiar?

An interesting statistic just flew by me. Over the last two weeks three pitchers have blown two saves. While that's not earth shattering stuff, it is odd that two of these three pitchers play for the Seattle Mariners.

In addition to David Aardsma and Mark Lowe's inability to close out games over the last two weeks, they've also seen spikes in ERA. Aardsma hasn't had a month yet where his ERA was above 2.25. But, in August he's exploded for a 7.36 ERA. And, his 2.16 WHIP is approaching those low ERA's he enjoyed earlier. Lowe's high ERA of 4.34 from April to June has now risen to touchdown status as his post-June ERA is 6.84. These aren't the trends you want in your late inning pitchers.

Randy Wolf was good on Sunday. Really good.

Let's start with his 7.2 innings of work on the mound. Wolf gave up three earned runs and five hits. But he struck out an amazing ten batters while walking none. And this isn't the first good outing for Wolf in a while. In fact, quite the opposite.

If you take out the four earned run game on August 6th against Atlanta, you have to go all the way back to June 24th to find another day where Wolf didn't provide the Dodgers with a quality start. Nine of his last ten outings have been quality starts and he's sporting a 3.13 ERA over that time. He only has four wins to show for it, but that sounds like a run support issue and not a dig on Wolf.

Detroit Tigers closer Fernando Rodney has only one blown save this year. He's recorded 23 saves, has almost a strikeout per inning pitched and at 3.86, his ERA, while not superb, is manageable. So, why is his job on the line?

It could be the 18 walks he's issued since June 1st in only 28 innings of work. It could also be the five home runs he's given up since June 1st compared to only allowing one prior. But, most likely, it's the way he's started out the month of March. In five appearances Rodney has two saves and a win, but he's allowed four earned runs in only five innings. Patience is wearing thin in Detroit, and they have other options.

It's always nice to know how secure a closer's job is and who's next in line if somebody loses their 9th inning job. The Closer Report will give you that info. And if that wasn't good enough, we'll rank the closers from top to bottom.

As you'll see, Heath Bell has taken over the top spot on this edition of The Closer Report. A few big-name, top-of-the-charts closers from years past have fallen off quite a bit. How weird is it to see Brad Lidge near the bottom of the closer rankings and Joe Nathan stuck in the middle?

It's always nice to know how secure a closer's job is and who's next in line if somebody loses their 9th inning job. Each week The Closer Report will give you that information. And if that wasn't good enough we'll rank the closers from top to bottom.

Here's an interesting statistic. Somewhere between 30 percent and 40 percent of the closers who are listed as the the team's official closer will not be in that role by the end of the season. It's the case every year. Whether a closer loses his job due to injury or just plain can't get the job done, you're going to learn that you can find saves on the waiver wire throughout the season. You just have to know where to look.

It's inevitable. Injuries are going to take a toll on Major League rosters as players get ready for the grind of a long regular season. It's not terribly relevant whether the injury was Spring Training related or the effects of World Baseball Classic games. All you need to know is that most teams are headed into play next week without a few of their key stars.

The Los Angeles Angels have three of their starting pitchers (Escobar, Lackey and Santana) on the disabled list. Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus suffered a setback and Yankees Alex Rodriguez, while apparently ahead of schedule in returning from Labrum surgery, will be out for a good portion of the early months of baseball. But, those are old news stories.

Let's take a look at the players who have been placed on the disabled list just this week.