FanHouse Bobby Jenks

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?

You may have noticed in the box scores Wednesday morning that Scott Linebrink earned a save Tuesday night as the White Sox beat the Angels. It wasn't a flawless performance as Linebrink gave up a solo home run to Torii Hunter in addition to another hit in his inning of work. The White Sox won 4-2 and Linebrink notched his first save, but why wasn't Bobby Jenks closing the game out?

Jenks wasn't being punished for blowing his first save of the year this past weekend, he simply had flu-like symptoms and couldn't go Tuesday night. As soon as Jenks is healthy, he be back pitching the 9th for the Sox.

In other closer-related news:

On Saturday night with the White Sox up 3-2 on the Texas Rangers in the top of the ninth, Ian Kinsler came up to the plate with two outs. White Sox closer Bobby Jenks then reared back to throw his first pitch to Kinsler, and it was a 96 mph fastball delivered behind Kinsler. It was a purpose pitch.

Anybody in the stadium or at home on television knew this. The White Sox had been talking the last few days about how they were tired of being used as target practice and were going to respond sooner or later. After Rangers pitching beaned two more Sox players on Saturday, you knew a response was coming. So Jenks threw that pitch, got a warning, and got Kinsler to pop out to end the game. It was a perfect response to everything, and then the postgame interviews came and Jenks messed up.

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.

Back in early March I wrote about drafting middle relievers late in the draft instead of starters who might be in the back of a team's rotation.

What if I told you that taking two middle relievers would be a better option for your fantasy team? Let's first look at Blanton's 5x5 stats from last season. He had nine wins, 111 strikeouts, a 4.69 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP.

Now, let's look at a few middle relievers who should also be available in those late rounds. J.P. Howell and Matt Thornton both have average draft positions well above 300. If you were to use your final two selections on them and combine their stats here's what you'd get. You have a pitcher with 11 wins, 169 strikeouts, a 2.41 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in 156.2 innings of work.

This is sound advice that I have always followed. It gets even better if your league uses holds as a stat category, but I digress. You see the strategy at work there. Now let me share with you two relievers, who I am targeting now, who are lighting it up early in middle relief roles.

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 loves to mash the ball. The 2008 White Sox led Major League Baseball in home runs with 235. Even though the team lost Nick Swisher, there are still six hitters in this lineup with 25-plus home run potential; three that could easily amass 30-plus. The infield is all shook up headed into the new season. Only Paul Konerko is back in his position from 2008 at first base. Josh Fields will be given the reigns at third base to see if he can finally live up to his potential. Alexei Ramirez will be shifting from second base to shortstop to fill the spot vacated by Orlando Cabrera. The pitching staff lost Javier Vazquez to Atlanta but still has three credible front-line starters. Gavin Floyd and John Danks exploded onto the scene in '08 and Mark Buehrle is as consistent as they come. The White Sox won their division in 2008 and still have the talent to compete again in 2009.

I got my start in this industry at a now-defunct site called The Talented Mr. Roto. The namesake for the site, Matthew Berry, now does his thing over at ESPN. One hard and fast rule he always lived by -- and I'm sure he still does -- was this mantra: Never pay for saves.

It's just as simple as it sounds. If you play in an auction league, let everyone else bid on Francisco Rodriguez. Your money can be better spent elsewhere. If you draft, just find your relievers in the last few rounds. I'm not as hardcore into the theory, but it certainly has merit.

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.

It seems that not even Bobby Jenks can escape having to talk about a mention of himself in a book. It seems to be the "in thing" to do these days. It's not quite the magnitude of Joe Torre's new book, but former minor leaguer Matt McCarthy has written one describing his experiences as a player in the Angels system, where he had some interesting things to say about players like Jenks and Derrick Turnbow.

Jenks isn't taking the claims or the quotes too seriously.

The Red Sox have locked up two of their homegrown stars -- Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia -- to long-term deals this winter. Teammate Jonathan Papelbon will not follow suit.

Just this morning, Sean McAdam of the Boston Herald reported that it was likely Papelbon would become the first player in Theo Epstein's tenure as Red Sox general manager to have his arbitration case heard. As it turns out, Boston was able to come to an agreement with its All-Star closer before it got to that point, reportedly signing him to a one-year, $6.25 million deal.

This has to be considered a small victory for the Sox, especially considering Papelbon's expressed desire to set a new benchmark for closers and the acrimony that comes with any arbitration hearing.