FanHouse FranciscoCordero

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

There I am. Bottom of the 10th inning. Promenade section of Citi Field.

With my hands swollen from furious applause throughout the night and my legs bobbing to stay warm, Fernando Martinez laced a hit to right field. We came alive once more, while the old man sitting next to me grumbled: "Another friggin single? Pelfrey's the only one who drove somethin'."

Sixteen hits and pitcher Mike Pelfrey was the Met with pop.

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.

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

One fantasy baseball question becoming increasingly more prevalent these days is very succinct: Is David Ortiz done? The problem? It's a tough question to answer. What do we actually mean by "done?" Is he ever going to be the guy who hit 54 home runs or the one who drove home 148 runs again? No. Not a chance.

Dan Haren has been awful this spring. Adam Jones is raking, as is Chris Shelton. Michael Bourn has been a completely worthless hitter. Of the above players, two have stat-lines that matter, and two have ones that don't.

You see, judging spring training stat-lines in fantasy baseball can be helpful, but you don't want to get too caught up in it. After all, the games are meaningless. Most established veterans are just going through the motions in attempt to get their body ready for the real season. For them, the stat-lines are meaningless. Thus, I don't care that Haren has sucked thus far. I'd still draft him with confidence.

Let's take a deeper look at a when they matter, when they don't, and why.

When drafting in fantasy baseball, I often find rankings are a lot less useful than using the tier system. Simply group guys together with others who will perform similarly, and you won't focus on single players. Being frazzled when that single player is taken immediately before your pick is a good way to ruin your draft.

We're definitely not proponents of drafting closers high, but getting the last member of a tier at good value could work in the right situations.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Team who definitely won't be clogging up the bases. That joke never gets old, but, seriously, this is a team who has the potential to make some noise. Their lineup and rotation are both good, and there are several solid fantasy players here. If you want stars, though, keep on moving. There are lots of really good players here, just no great ones.

Before the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds played tonight, Tom Hardricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel talked to ex-Brewer and current Reds' closer Francisco Cordero about his decision this off-season to leave Milwaukee for Cincy. Cordero essentially told him that the Brewers didn't take him seriously when he said he had another suitor. As a result, Coco is a Red. Knowing that has to give Ned Yost heartburn every time he sees Eric Gagne on the mound.

Tonight, Gagne blew a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning by giving up a home run to Corey Patterson, only to be bailed out by the Brewers' bats again in the tenth inning. That's his second in three chances this year, if you're keeping track at home and if you think the Brewers are going to keep bailing him out and winning these games anyways, well, you're much more of an optimist than I am. In fact, you're much more of an optimist than most sane people.

Relegated to a side note from this game was another solid outing from Johnny Cueto (8 strikeouts and 2 runs in 6 and 1/3 innings tonight, still with no walks), and a bad night for Dusty Baker haters. He pulled Cueto after his 95th pitch in the seventh, even though that 95th pitch resulted in a strikeout of Corey Hart. And of course, Corey Patterson hit a big homer in the 9th. Then again, Dusty probably doesn't care what I think since the Reds lost and all.

Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan has wanted a contract extension with the Twins for a while now. He's wanted it even though he saw Johan Santana traded to New York, and Torii Hunter sign a huge contract with the Angels out west. It's apparent that Nathan loves his situation in Minnesota, and no matter what the expectations for the team are, he wants to stay.

He will be staying, too, and he'll probably be doing so in a very large house. Last week I told you that it appeared a contract extension was imminent, and minutes ago it became reality.

The [Twins] announced on Monday that it has agreed to terms with closer Joe Nathan on a contract extension through 2011. The deal also includes a club option for '12.

The financial terms of the deal were not immediately released, although it is believed to be worth between $11-$12 million per year.

The contract is very much in line with the deal Francisco Cordero got from the Reds, but it's not quite as much as the $15 million that Mariano Rivera will be making with the Yankees. Which is just another reason why I don't understand why Nathan did this.

Given the current state of the Brewers bullpen, I think it might be safe to say that the Brewers losing Francisco Cordero is a much bigger deal to them than it is for the Reds to sign Cordero. Unless they can pull off a trade or something, Derrick Turnbow is probably their closer going into 2008. How'd that work out last time? Apparently Doug Melvin didn't up his offer to Cordero because he thought he was bidding against himself. From Tom Hardicourt's blog at the Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel:

In the end, Melvin stopped at four years and $42 million, with an option year included in the package. That turned out to be $4 million shy when Cordero agreed today to a four-year deal with the Cincinnati Reds for $46 million, with an option year for another $11 million.

[...]

"It's a tough loss for us, no doubt," said Melvin, who was "a little surprised" to learn Cincinnati made the top offer to Cordero. "We'll just have to move on."

If you're not good at reading between the lines, what Melvin is really saying is this: "Holy #*^&*%# &#!* #@%%$!!! The Reds are going to pay Cordero how much?!? Without a rotation? Or a shortstop? Or anyone in the pen to get the game to him?!? Really? I mean, I know they need a closer and everything, but that's not all they need! Now I have to get to the playoffs with Derrick Turnbow? Oh, I am so screwed."