FanHouse Rafael Betancourt

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

After an awful start to 2009, the Rockies fired Clint Hurdle, promoted Jim Tracy and proceeded to play like the best team in the National League for the rest of the regular season. They lost an exciting playoff series to the eventual NL champion Phillies, but there is no reason to think the Rockies are going away with all their young talent.

In fact, the Rockies are in position to make themselves a candidate to be a dynasty. Seriously. They can move forward with a starting lineup of Todd Helton, Clint Barmes and six proven guys who are 27 or younger. The pitching staff and minor-league talent are equally as impressive. Now it's simply a matter of cultivating their young talent while making sure they don't halt any momentum.

---

---

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

It wasn't a good day to be a top-ten closer on Wednesday. Both Mariano Rivera and Huston Street are on the shelf for a few days.

After the game Wednesday night, the Yankees told the media that Rivera was unavailable due to tightness in his groin. The 39-year-old Rivera, who has battled this injury for a while, sat out the final game of the Baltimore series but feels that he'll be back to full duty after a few days of rest.

Street seems just as optimistic after being shut down indefinitely due to biceps tendinitis in his right arm. He hopes to test the arm this weekend. If all goes well he'll be back to action in short time.

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

By now you've seen the highlights. An eighth-inning rocket by Pat Burrell that pulled an inch foul while nearly taking out the third-base umpire. An unbelievable catch, juggle and save by DeWayne Wise in the ninth inning. Alexei Ramirez fielding a Jason Bartlett grounder and firing across the diamond for the final out. Mark Buehrle with his hands on the top of his head, all smiles as he completed the 18th perfect game in major league history.

Buehrle, who already had a 2007 no-hitter to his credit, threw 76 of his 116 pitches for strikes. The biggest called strike of those 76 came on the outside corner in the eighth inning with Carlos Pena at the plate, causing Pena to turn and argue with home plate umpire Eric Cooper (incidentally, also the umpire in Buehrle's no-hitter). The biggest swinging strike came on a 3-2 punchout of Michael Hernandez with one out in the ninth.

The Rockies, in need of set-up help, are set to get right-hander Rafael Betancourt from the Indians.

FOXSports.com earlier reported discussions between the teams about Betancourt.

Betancourt is 1-2 with a 3.52 ERA in 29 appearances. He missed all of June with a groin strain.

Colorado relievers are 14th in the NL with a 4.86 ERA. Take out closer Huston Street and that figure jumps to 5.29.

Update, 4:44 p.m.: Cleveland got right-hander Connor Graham in the deal, which has been officially announced. Graham, 6-foot-7 and 23 years old, was 7-4 with a 3.14 ERA at Class A Modesto (Calif.) and was a fifth-round pick in 2007.

Now that both Francisco Rodriguez and CC Sabathia have signed deals with teams, I'm pretty sure we can expect an influx of signings being announced in the next few days, at least when it comes to pitchers. For Kerry Wood, once K-Rod signed with the Mets on Tuesday it didn't leave him with a whole lot of options to choose from.

Kerry basically had to choose which AL Central team he thought provided him the best chance of winning -- and maybe the best chance of buying him a home made of solid gold -- between the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians. He's chosen the Indians.

With two teams to pick from in the American League Central, Kerry Wood appears to have rejected overtures from Detroit to take a deal with Cleveland.

The deal is believed to be two years with a vesting option for a third. Money terms remain unclear.

While the money may not be clear, radio reports here in Chicago are saying the deal is for two years and worth $21 million with the option for the third year.

As for what this signing actually means, it's a pretty good move by the Indians. No longer will the team have to torture fans by trotting out Joe Borowski, or bore them to death with Rafael Betancourt. Signing Wood helps solidify a bullpen that was a big reason why the Indians were so disappointing in 2008. Wood converted 34 of his 40 save opportunities last season, and more importantly, he managed to stay off of the disabled list for an extended period of time.

In the Playoff Pulse series, our MLB editor takes on a hot October topic.

The ALCS is headed back to Boston deadlocked. That much at least, isn't a surprise. Neither is the fact that the Rays and Red Sox have played 20 innings so far and not one has been dull or meaningless. But the rest of this series has been a reminder of how little we really know about baseball when the postseason arrives.

Tampa Bay and Boston will enjoy a day off Sunday, so let's take advantage of that to reset the series:

- Joe Maddon managed Game 2 with desperation. He didn't have a choice because the series would have been essentially over if the Rays went back to Fenway Park down 0-2 and set for a date with Jon Lester. That desperation could come back to haunt him later on in the series, though, because of the way he was forced to stretch his bullpen.

Usually we reserve Always Be Closing for Mondays. But, much like 1995, the Braves and Indians are all the rage right now. Only this time, instead of being World Series opponents, they are the focus of closer issues. Both Peter Moylan and Joe Borowski -- the current shutdown guys -- were placed on the 15 day disabled list, leaving the closing duties open for two pretty cushy save situations.

Atlanta Braves
Bobby Cox never officially named Moylan the closer in the ATL, and maybe it's because he knew he could face "right elbow soreness" a little later down the road. Like, perhaps, today. Moylan had been absolutely dominant last season and equally as tough this year, nailing down his only save situation thus far. This works out "well" in the sense that the Braves need a roster spot for Buddy Carlyle, who was called up to take a rotation slot in the coming week. It works out "not well" in the sense that the previously deep pitching staff is getting thin quickly. Manny Acosta has a 7.20 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP on the season, but he's only pitched five times this year and the one bad outing was that freakish debacle against the Pirates. Add him immediately in all deep and NL-only leagues and think about jumping anywhere else if you need saves.

Cleveland Indians
Borowski has long been the bane of fantasy owners because of his ability to give up four earned runs en route to getting a save. In other words, no one understood why he kept the closer gig in the first place. Well, now he doesn't have it. Or at least he doesn't for the next 15 days as he'll be spending that time on the disabled list. Taking his place will likely be Rafael Betancourt. Betancourt recorded 31 holds last year, the sixth highest totals in the MLB, so it's pretty clear that Eric Wedge trusts him in a late inning role. Add in his 0.76 WHIP and a .184 BAA, and he's a very nice candidate to add in nearly any league. If he pitches well in this gig, there's no guarantee he gives it back.

It was a familiar scene for Indians fans yesterday, as they were forced to watch their closer Joe Borowski blow a save against the Red Sox by giving up a home run to Manny Ramirez. After the game Borowski expressed his frustration towards his performance, saying he had no idea what was wrong with him, but that it felt like he "was throwing through water."

Well, the Indians and Borowski now know what the problem is (well, besides the fact he kinda sucks) and Joe is going to be taking some time off and going on the disabled list.

The club said Borowski, who led the AL with 45 saves last season, has a strained triceps. He had been puzzled and frustrated by a significant loss in his velocity.

The club recalled right-hander Tom Mastny from Triple-A Buffalo.

For now the team will probably put Rafael Betancourt in the closer role, and that's probably music to the ears of many an Indians fan. Borowski may have managed to pick up 45 saves last season, but he didn't do it without giving his teammates and fans about 243 heart attacks. So far this season, Joe's picked up two saves for the Indians despite an 18.00 ERA, but he's also blown two saves and generally you'd like your closer to convert more than 50% of the time. At least, if you want to win you do anyway.

Dear Rafael,

I would ask you how you're doing, but I'm pretty sure I already know.

After all, you allowed seven runs in 1.2 innings of "work" and failed to keep your team within striking distance. Now, I'm not trying to blame you here. I mean, it's hard to blame one guy when your team was outscored 30-5 in the last three games of this series. When that happens, there's plenty of blame to go around.

Still, you got owned by Dustin Pedroia last night. The 5 foot nothing, one hundred and nothing pound second baseman of the Red Sox. He's Rudy! And he lit you up with five RBI's in the final two frames. After he sent that letter high fastball over the Green Monster in the 7th innings, you would think you'd realize that the little man can hit that pitch.

So why exactly did you throw him the same pitch with the bases loaded in the 8th inning? Did you think he just got lucky the first time around?

I'm sorry, Rafael, I'm just piling on right now. To be fair, I'm not even sure why you were in the game when you were last night anyway. I just don't know what Eric Wedge was thinking during that game.

When Jake Westbrook was struggling early, Wedge didn't have you or anybody else warming up in the bullpen to take over for him. Then after he finally settles in and starts mowing the Red Sox lineup down, Wedge takes Jake out and brings you in.

Seeing you on the mound was exactly what the Red Sox wanted to see. I don't care how well you'd been pitching against them, the way Westbrook was going, they'd have taken anybody else.

So please don't blame yourself for all of this, Rafael. I know you had a horrible night on Sunday, and you made some bad decisions, but you weren't the only person in an Indians uniform guilty of that last night.

Have a nice offseason,
Fornelli

Since the playoffs have started, Joe Borowski has been getting knocked by just about everyone with an opinion. When I picked the Indians to win the World Series, my fellow 'Housers screamed "WITH BOROWSKI?!?" Tony Gwynn was incredulous that Eric Wedge brought him in to close out game 4. Bill Simmons and Slate are piling on mercilessly today and I could probably furnish 100 more links if I really wanted to. But instead, let's look at Borowski's 2007 and see if it was really all that bad.

First off, he's a relief pitcher. He only pitched 65 and 2/3 innings this year. That means that his high ERA (5.07) could easily be inflated by a couple of bad outings, like, say the two outings in April and May when Borowski gave up six and four runs in less than an inning. Since May 13th, the four run outing that raised his ERA to 9.00, Borowski's line has looked like this: 3.91 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 40 Ks, 10 BB, all in 50 and 2/3 innings. It's not fantastic, but it's certainly passable or better. Another way to look at it is to compare the Indians' record in games Borowski has appeared in to the other closers left in the playoffs. The Tribe is 58-11 when Borowski takes the mound. The D'Backs are 54-11 when Jose Valverde takes the mound while the Red Sox are 50-9 with Jonathan Papelbon on the mound.

Yes, they're both better relievers than Borowski and I'm not arguing that. Keep in mind that Eric Wedge hasn't used Borowski for more than an inning all year while Rafael Betancourt has made 25 multiple inning appearances and Rafael Perez has 26. That suggests to me that Wedge pretty clearly knows the limits of his closer. So long as Wedge keeps using Borowski like he did during the season and in the ALDS and not like the Red Sox used Keith Foulke in 2004, I think all of the Borowski dumping could well turn out to be much ado about nothing.