FanHouse JonathanBroxton

ARLINGTON, Texas -- At the start of this three-game series, there was a thought this would have been a good test for the up and coming Rangers, who lead the AL West.

It turned out to be a nice test -- and confirmation -- for the Dodgers, who own the best record in the game.

After three humid days and nights at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Los Angeles took two of three games here and will head back to Southern California happy.

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.

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.

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 ...
Eventual landing spot for Manny Ramirez. Seriously, it's going to happen sooner or later, so we'll just assume it's already happened for the purposes of this post. Obviously, if he either signs elsewhere (unlikely) or sits out this season (as unlikely as the holier than thou media embracing A-Rod), we'll have to re-fantasy-spin the entire offense. He's that important to the lineup.

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.

Due to trades and free agency, many teams will be simply promoting from within or using someone in the closer role who has never done so for an entire season before. We won't be covering Francisco Rodriguez, Kerry Wood, or Brian Fuentes here. No, instead, this is for the Jonathan Broxton types, who are embarking upon a new phase of their respective careers.

Let's do a heat check (scorching, hot, mild, cold, freezing) on each man who has never been his team's closer for a full season, but plans to do so in 2009.

Earlier MLB FanHouse put together a stellar roundtable -- yeah, I'm biased, I know -- about the NLCS and we briefly discussed the Dodgers' closing situation. Since then, news broke that Takashi Saito will not be the Dodgers closer in this series. So that means they'll head into the NLCS against the Phillies with Jonathan Broxton as their man. This isn't huge news, because Saito struggled in Game 2 against the Cubs and Broxton was straight filthy when he took the hill.

The rest of the report, however, is big news. He may not even be on the Dodgers NLCS roster.

"There's a probably a good chance of that happening," Saito said. "I would never tell the team that I don't want to be on the roster. The decision is theirs. If they judge that I can't help the team in this series, I'm fine with that."

The Dodgers bullpen is deep and strong, but this is still a big blow to the back end. It moves everyone back one spot from where they're accustomed. Luckily for them, they dealt without Saito for about two months in the regular season.

Of course, the Phillies' offense is a ton more imposing than the Dodgers' meek NL West foes.

With just over 24 hours to go before the first pitch of the National League Championship Series, the writers of the MLB FanHouse gathered for a discussion of the Phillies and Dodgers. It didn't take long for the discussion to veer away from who will win and onto the ever fascinating and potentially otherworldly Manny Ramirez.

Josh Alper: Is it just me or is it really hard to find a clear edge in this series? The Dodgers and Phillies each have strong rotations, bullpens and offenses. The biggest difference, to me, is that the addition/return of Manny Ramirez and Rafael Furcal give the Dodgers a stronger 1-8 lineup than the Phillies. Not by a lot but by enough to give them a slight edge over seven games.

Tom Fornelli: Both these teams are incredibly hot right now. The Dodgers are 20-8 (including playoffs) in their last 28 games, and over that same time period the Phillies are 20-9. A strong series from Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, or Pat Burrell can easily propel the Phillies past the Dodgers. Which is why I'm leaning more towards the Phillies because I think they have more options on offense, whereas the Dodgers are basically centered on Manny.

Stop that, Cubs fans. You know what I mean -- the repeated mumblings of "That's why they call it a series" followed by the "Something-something ... don't mind if I do!" Homer Simpson-like behavior. Seriously, stop. It's totally okay to freak out.

After all, you are down 1-0 in the National League Division Series to the Dodgers, and as TBS was kind enough to squeeze in between "I Love This Town" soundbites, the team that wins the first game of such a series has gone on to win said series 24 of 28 times.

Of course, it didn't have to be this way. There were a lot of things going in your favor. On paper (in theory) you had the better team. You also had a hefty wind (17 mph at last check) blowing into Wrigley. And Joe Torre made the mistake of using ground ball pitcher Derek Lowe tonight instead of saving him for a change in weather.