Fantasy Baseball Mlb Always Be Closing

In last week's version of Always Be Closing, we had a reader request: to look ahead at the closing jobs for 2010. "Artsaba" actually only asked for those who aren't currently closing that could land the gig for next season, but we figured we might as well just list every team.

So, after the jump, we've done so. If there is someone (like the gentleman pictured here) who doesn't need an introduction due to already definitely being his team's 2010 closer, we'll simply list his name. If an explanation is needed, for teams with undecided roles, we'll give one.

It was one of the more hotly debated topics of the off-season, which spilled into Spring Training and even the regular season. We wanted to know if Kevin Gregg or Carlos Marmol would close out games for the Chicago Cubs. We won't have any of the intrigue or mystery headed into 2010 as Lou Pinella has already announced that Marmol would be the closer next season.

''He's done enough and shown enough, and we have confidence in him enough that going into spring training next year it's his job,'' manager Lou Piniella said. ''And we'll leave it just at that.''

While this is good news for Marmol, it's more a result of Gregg stinking in the closer's role, more so then Marmol beating him out for the job.

Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel replaced Brad Lidge with Ryan Madson once before as the team's closer, but that was due to a Lidge injury. Now Lidge may be losing his job due to poor pitching.

On Tuesday night Lidge gave up a hit, walked one, let loose a wild pitch and hit a batter in the ninth inning while only recording one out. Manuel hopped out of the dugout and took the ball from Lidge, giving it to Madson with the bases loaded. Madson recorded his fifth save as he retired the next two batters, striking out one and ending the game with a ground ball to shortstop.

Manuel said later that he had no idea who would be the Phillies closer moving forward. He was only trying to win games.

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.

On Sunday, Ichiro Suzuki became the second fastest player to ever reach the 2,000 hit milestone as he doubled in the first inning and later scored.

It took Suzuki 1,402 games to reach 2,000 hits. The fastest was Al Simmons who did it in 1,390 games. Suzuki needs five more hits to reach 200 for the season, which would break the record he shares with Willie Keeler at nine consecutive seasons with 200.

As milestone talk goes, Ichiro is playing second fiddle to what's about to happen in New York.

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.

A potential season-ending injury is no way for a closer to end a game. But, Chad Qualls did just that on Sunday as he earned his 24th save but took a line drive off of his kneecap on the final play of the game.

Instead of celebrating a three-game sweep, the Diamondbacks tended to closer Chad Qualls, who suffered a dislocated left kneecap on a game-ending play.

Qualls crumpled to the dirt after deflecting a liner by Jason Michaels to shortstop Stephen Drew, who fired to first base for the final out. Qualls immediately motioned to the dugout for help, and trainers and teammates rushed to the mound. After several moments, trainers helped the 6-foot-5-inch, 220-pound Qualls to his feet and off the field.

Arizona manager A.J. Hinch said Qualls had dislocated the kneecap but had no other details about the extent of the injury. Qualls underwent X-rays after the game and did not speak to reporters.

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.

John Lackey threw eight innings on Sunday, striking out six and not surrendering an earned run. It was his 100th career victory. He should have been the man of the hour, right?

That would have been the case had Kendry Morales not jacked his 30th home run of the season and stolen the show. At least among fantasy circles, anyway.

Morales had twelve career home runs entering the 2009 season and big shoes to fill as the Angels handed him the keys to the kingdom at first base as Mark Teixeira left for the Yankees. He's handled the task admirably batting .311 and is fast approaching the 100-RBI mark. He's also leading the league in RBI since the all-star break with 45.

An interesting statistic just flew by me. Over the last two weeks three pitchers have blown two saves. While that's not earth shattering stuff, it is odd that two of these three pitchers play for the Seattle Mariners.

In addition to David Aardsma and Mark Lowe's inability to close out games over the last two weeks, they've also seen spikes in ERA. Aardsma hasn't had a month yet where his ERA was above 2.25. But, in August he's exploded for a 7.36 ERA. And, his 2.16 WHIP is approaching those low ERA's he enjoyed earlier. Lowe's high ERA of 4.34 from April to June has now risen to touchdown status as his post-June ERA is 6.84. These aren't the trends you want in your late inning pitchers.

It's been a season of ups and downs for Chicago Cubs closer relief pitcher Kevin Gregg. He started the year off in rough fashion with a 5.59 ERA in 10 appearances in April with only one save to show for his efforts. But, in each subsequent month, his ERA got better and better.

Sure, he was subject to a blow-up every now and again, but his May ERA was 3.86 to go with seven saves. His June ERA was even lower, at 2.77 with five saves, and July saw eight saves with a 1.93 ERA. Everything pointed to a pitcher moving in the right direction.

Then August happened.

Randy Wolf was good on Sunday. Really good.

Let's start with his 7.2 innings of work on the mound. Wolf gave up three earned runs and five hits. But he struck out an amazing ten batters while walking none. And this isn't the first good outing for Wolf in a while. In fact, quite the opposite.

If you take out the four earned run game on August 6th against Atlanta, you have to go all the way back to June 24th to find another day where Wolf didn't provide the Dodgers with a quality start. Nine of his last ten outings have been quality starts and he's sporting a 3.13 ERA over that time. He only has four wins to show for it, but that sounds like a run support issue and not a dig on Wolf.