FanHouse Jose Valverde

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

You Oughta Know ...
That you can add the Marlins to the list of fringe contenders fading away with three weeks to go in the season.

Florida wasted an opportunity to gain on wild-card leading Colorado, which lost in San Francisco, in an 11-6 loss to the Cardinals. The Marlins fell behind 4-0 in the first, but managed to take a 6-4 lead by the fourth inning, only to squander that lead in large part due to Ricky Nolasco's five-inning, seven-run outing.

Poor starting pitching has been a big reason why Florida hasn't been able to make a run.

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The Astros announced that they had taken steps to correct a "discrepancy" in the paperwork with closer Jose Valverde's age. Apparently, some sources had Valverde's birthday listed as March 24, 1979 while others listed it as March 24, 1978. Unsurprisingly, the earlier date is the right one, so Valverde is actually a year older than most people think.

This news comes at a very bad time for Valverde because he's going to be a free agent in November. A 31-year-old closer will always be more valuable than a 32-year old closer and suddenly, Valverde's been moved from one class to the other. I can't imagine he's terribly happy about the timing of this, even if he's presumably known how old he is the whole time.

In what is most likely music to many fantasy owners' ears, Jose Valverde is back from the disabled list and ready to close out games for the Astros. He's thrown in two games since his return and has struck out three batters and hasn't allowed a hit in 1.1 innings of work. It's likely that he'll re-assume the role of closer for the Astros upon their next save opportunity.

Manny Ramirez still gets all of the press in Los Angeles, even when he's not on the field. That's a shame because Jonathan Broxton has become a dominant force on the mound, and one of the games top closers. He's closed out his last eight save opportunities and leads all closers in strikeouts with 53. He also frustrates hitters more than other closers as hitters only have been able to muster a .103 batting average against Broxton.

The first thing that Randy Wells might want to do today is seek Carlos Zambrano out for guidance. Whether this advice be about punching teammates in the face or taking out aggression on innocent Gatorade machines in the dugout, Wells needs to ask how to properly express the way he feels about Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg.

Wells took a no-hitter into the seventh where Chipper Jones crashed the party. Upon leaving the game, Wells, while disappointed, had to take solace in the fact that he would at least get the victory. Enter Marmol, then Gregg to completely screw the pooch on that one.

Marmol gave up an earned run in the 8th and Gregg allowed a bottom of the ninth two-run blast from Jeff Francoeur to tie the ballgame. The Cubs eventually lost the game in the 12th when Chipper produced a walk-off single.

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

Matt Garza is one of those talented pitchers that novice owners probably lost patience with quickly. And if they did, they were watching Thursday's spectacular performance kicking themselves. Garza, who had struggled with his command through his first four starts, took a perfect game bid into the seventh inning against the Red Sox and finished with a line worthy of adulation: 7 2/3 innings, 10 strikeouts, 1 hit, 1 walk, no runs. Has he turned the corner that quickly?

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

The Washington Nationals will be looking for a new closer as Joel Hanrahan has been fired. He was given the opportunity to close out five games and blew saves in three of those. His ERA is an unhealthy 8.64. The team will look to use a closer by committee approach for a while, waiting to see if injured Joe Beimel can return and flourish.

Tuesday, one day after Hanrahan surrendered a game-losing grand slam, Manager Manny Acta said that his team would now finish games -- or at least try to finish them -- with a committee of relief pitchers that includes Julián Tavárez and Kip Wells, both signed in March to non-guaranteed minor league deals. Once Joe Beimel (left hip flexor) returns from the disabled list in the first week of May, he could either join the mix or claim the job for himself.

We just concluded our fantasy draft here at Fanhouse. I have to say that I like what I did here.

It's a 12-team, rotisserie mixed-league using standard 5X5 scoring categories and rosters that include two catchers, a first baseman, a second baseman, a shortstop, a third baseman, a corner infielder, a middle infielder, five outfielders, a utility hitter, nine pitchers and three bench players.

Here's the Extra Base Knox team:

Round 1(3) - Albert Pujols, Cardinals - Wright and Hanley Ramirez went with the first two picks. Pujols is the best remaining player so I went with him. I'll take his massive offense in four of the five categories and smile all the way.

Round 2(22) - Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners - I made a tough decision here between him and Justin Morneau. I love Ichiro's speed and great batting average. With such high batting averages from my first two picks, I should be able to grab a big home run hitter with a low average later in the draft if I choose.

Round 3(27) - Carl Crawford, Rays - I didn't go power, I went speed again. Crawford plus Ichiro will pretty much guarantee my team is near the top in stolen bases.

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.

FanHouse positional rankings were compiled by averaging the individual rankings of each member of the Fantasy FanHouse staff.

If starting pitching is considered fickle, relief pitching is some disastrous, climactic result of the chaos effect. Okay, maybe that's a touch too much. On the other hand, there are nearly zero true options when it comes to picking closers and relief pitchers; there's just too much turnover.

That's why guys like Joe Nathan and Jonathan Papelbon, as noted by Snyder elsewhere, are so valuable: they're stone-cold locks for certain numbers every single year. After the jump, find out what record-setting, former free agent we don't think will end up as the No. 1 closer this year.

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 refuses to rebuild. Seriously, Drayton McLane, just keep holding out hope you can win the World Series and making your general managers deal every prospect you ever stumble across for the likes of Miguel Tejada and an overrated closer. It just keeps setting the franchise back years at a time. For now, they are solving a broken leg with a band-aid by winning 86 games and treading water.