FanHouse Heath Bell

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Yankees are still fired up despite their large lead in the AL East.

After two Yankees pitchers hit Blue Jays batters in Tuesday's game, Toronto's Jesse Carlson threw behind Jorge Posada in the bottom of the eighth.

Posada glared, benches briefly emptied, but there were no punches. Yet.

Instead of letting it end there, or charging the mound, Posada waited until he walked and then scored a run to give Carlson a shove after he crossed home plate.

And then it was on.

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ST. LOUIS -- When Heath Bell met President Obama before the All-Star Game, he proudly greeted him in a T-shirt that said: "I'm kind of a big deal."

A few hours later, Bell was another kind of Big Deal. He was the latest in a line of National League losing pitchers in the All-Star Game, a group that oddly includes three Padres in the past four years.

Bell didn't seem to mind the notoriety, though.

"It's unfortunate I didn't execute my pitches and we lost," he said. "You can blame it on me. It's OK. I'm a big guy. I can take it."

One of the more popular discussions over the past few weeks has been what to do with Jimmy Rollins, whether you own him or not. We've spoken about him on a small scale in one of our recent Cram Sessions, but the topic deserves so much more.

I didn't want to trust just my opinion, so I asked the Fanhouse fantasy baseball crew to chime in on the following question:

Jimmy Rollins, a late first-or early second-round draft pick, is batting .229 with seven home runs and 16 stolen bases as we watch the All-Star Game tonight. However, over the past week he's batting .304 with five stolen bases. Most of us agree that Rollins is a superb buy- low candidate, but what would you give up right now to get him?

There haven't been many reasons to smile for members of the San Diego Padres this season, but Heath Bell and Adrian Gonzalez could at least take solace in the fact that they were heading to St. Louis for Tuesday night's All-Star Game. It seems that the "Curse of the Swinging Friar" follows you wherever you go, however, as the two players had a devil of a time making it to Busch Stadium.

Their plane had a three-hour mechanical delay in Las Vegas, which meant they missed their connecting flight from Indianapolis. The next flight wouldn't have gotten them into St. Louis until Monday afternoon so the two players chose another, very un-millionaire-ballplayer, approach to finishing their trip.

They rented a minivan and hit the open road.

In the ever changing topography of closers in Major League Baseball three names remain on top of the standings as pillars or consistency. Leading the league in saves as of Monday are Brian Fuentes, Heath Bell and Brian Wilson.

Wait... Who?

That's right. Instead of names like Papelbon, Rivera and Rodriguez we get Fuentes, who leads all of baseball with 22 saves. Bell and Wilson are tagging along closely behind at 21 and 20 saves respectively.

This just goes to prove the point that everyone should adhere to in pre-season drafts and auctions. Do not pay for saves.

Speaking of Brian Fuentes, did you know that he hasn't given up an earned run in June? He's also recorded nine saves and struck out 11 batters in 8.2 innings pitched. His three hits given up and three walks issued give him a June WHIP of 0.69 to go along with his perfect ERA.

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?

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

Big Apple, we have a problem. And one that could be a major concern in fantasy baseball leagues, too.

Jose Reyes, undoubtedly a top-10 fantasy pick, left Wednesday's game against the Dodgers after aggravating a right calf injury while trying to leg out an infield single. Reyes had missed five straight starts with the injury, and it looks like a trip to the disabled list is a possibility at some point. The Mets can consider alternatives to watching Ramon Martinez twirl his toothpick bat -- like the versatile Mark DeRosa -- but the solution isn't so simple for fantasy owners relying on his speed.

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's an awful, awful fantasy baseball stigma that's attached to players who struggle in April and May. See: Papi, Big. Although his is much worse because he's a bulky DH declining swiftly; additionally, he's not a pitcher with the potential to be labeled "inconsistent" or "a slow starter."

Like, say, you know, CC Sabathia. Or Cole Hamels. Or Dontrelle Willis. Okay, scratch that last one -- he's just kind of insane kooky. But the point is this: Tuesday night was a suddenly wonderful bit of relief, because we got to see some big pitching names come through with nice outings.

MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.

Let me put this simply: you want no part of being No. 1 in the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings. It just brings discord, losing and possibly suspensions to your baseball team. Such was the case with the white-hot Dodgers and Manny Ramirez, who now have to deal with a 50 game-ban of their star slugger. Who's doomed this week? Let's just say that no one would be too shocked if they weren't there again next Wednesday.

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

Who would have thought that Dexter Fowler's five stolen base game wouldn't even last a week as the high steals game in 2009. Carl Crawford did him one better Sunday, taking six in as many chances. Crawford is now 17-17 in stolen base attempts this season. Lost in the shuffle was that his 4-4 day at the plate caused his average to rise all the way up to .317.