Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
Yes, the Dodgers' solar system revolves around Manny Ramirez. He's their star on the field and their main attraction.
But they wouldn't have Ramirez, nor many of the players who carried the team in his absence, were it not for a farm system that has been remarkably productive.
"It's nice that management kept us all here," ace Chad Billingsley told FanHouse. "There's some teams that maybe just start trading guys away. And believing in us, that's a huge thing."
In the 2002-03 drafts, Los Angeles took Russell Martin, James Loney, Jonathan Broxton, Matt Kemp and Billingsley. Those five players made their big league debuts within an 11-month span, from July 2005 to June 2006.
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 Cubs might be making a charge.
Saturday's 5-3 victory over Cincinnati put Chicago five games over .500 for the first time in more than two months. And the Cubs now trail the first-place Cardinals by just a half-game in the National League Central.
"Let's not get euphoric about it," manager Lou Piniella said.
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.
"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.
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
Starting Five
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.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
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 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
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 
Earlier MLB FanHouse 
