Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat - NL

April 15, 2010 @ 13:45:00

By Tim Heaney
Edited by Nicholas Minnix

Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat: AL | NL

Fantasy baseball closer depth charts: AL | NL

In fantasy baseball, the closer position remains volatile. Rarely does every closer hang on to the job for an entire season - injuries, poor performance and managerial decisions can cloud a team's bullpen picture.

Should you be concerned about a struggling stopper? Which relievers are climbing the depth chart? Are any injuries popping up? KFFL.com's Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat keeps you informed when you're looking for saves.

Key

Job security (JS) score	1 (unstable) to 5 (untouchable)
Health (H) score	1 (injury-prone) to 5 (durable)

 

Mound meetings

• Marmolade tastes sweet so far

  Brad Lidge continued his rehab improvement Wednesday, tossing a scoreless, hitless inning with two strikeouts for Single-A Clearwater. The Philadelphia Phillies' righty is slated to have his next outing Saturday, with a Double-A appearance potentially coming after that. Reports say Lidge might be gradually eased back into the stopper role upon his return.
• The rehab train also carries the Colorado Rockies' Huston Street, who played a light round of catch Tuesday for 25 pitches. He'll start a throwing program Thursday.
• Street's fill-in, Franklin Morales, blew the save Wednesday but had help in doing so from catcher Chris Iannetta and his D. Morales allowed a leadoff single - on a tough but doable play for shortstop Troy Tulowitzki - to the New York Mets' Gary Matthews Jr. Matthews stole second and advanced to third on an Iannetta throwing error. After a K, Matthews scored on a sac fly before Morales registered an inning-ending flyout.
• Carlos Marmol fanned the side Wednesday to record his third closure. He now has nine K's in 4 1/3 frames, with "only" two walks. For Marmol, that's a sign of an improvement. Early on in 2010, he's continuing his increased slider use.
• Burke Badenhop registered the save for the Florida Marlins in a two-inning effort: no hits or walks and three strikeouts. Closer Leo Nunez had pitched on each of the last three days. Badenhop has started the year off well (seven K's, 1.13 ERA in eight frames). The righty has enough groundball ability and rising dominance to earn a ratio-reliever trial in deep NL-only leagues, especially if he keeps up his control improvement.

Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat: AL | NL

Fantasy baseball closer depth charts: AL | NL

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Tim Heaney

Since the Boston University alum joined KFFL in 2006, his work has been featured by USA Today/Sports Weekly and Yahoo! Sports, among numerous publications.

Tim competes in Tout Wars and LABR and appears every Wednesday on 1570 AM WNST in Baltimore, as well as frequently on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio.

Follow him on Twitter.

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