Washington is No. 1! (Last report's ranking and possible alternate closer listed in parentheses).
1. Chad Cordero (6, Luis Ayala)
2. Jason Isringhausen (2, Julian Tavarez)
3. Mariano Rivera (1, Tom Gordon)
4. Brad Lidge (3, Chad Qualls)
5. Joe Nathan (4, J.C. Romero)
6. B.J. Ryan (5, Jorge Julio)
7. Billy Wagner (7, Ugueth Urbina)
8. Eddie Guardado (8, J.J. Putz)
9. Bob Wickman (16, David Riske)
10. Trevor Hoffman (9, Scott Linebrink)
11. Francisco Cordero (11, Doug Brocail)
12. Francisco Rodriguez (12, Scot Shields)
13. Dustin Hermanson (13, Damaso Marte)
14. Todd Jones (15, Guillermo Mota)
15. Yhency Brazoban (10, Duaner Sanchez)
16. Miguel Batista (17, Justin Speier)
17. Braden Looper (18, Roberto Hernandez)
18. Derrick Turnbow (19, Ricky Bottalico)
19. Ryan Dempster (21, Todd Wellemeyer)
20. Keith Foulke (14, Mike Timlin)
21. Jose Mesa (20, Mike Gonzalez)
22. Huston Street (22, J. Duchscherer)
23. Troy Percival (23, Kyle Farnsworth)
24. Brian Fuentes (26, Jay Witasick)
25. Mike MacDougal (28, Andrew Sisco)
26. Tyler Walker (24, Scott Eyre)
27. Danys Baez (25, Lance Carter)
28. Chris Reitsma (27, Adam Bernero)
29. Brian Bruney (30, Jose Valverde)
30. David Weathers (29, Ryan Wagner)
Top alternate options for saves
1. Mike Gonzalez, Pirates
2. Ryan Wagner, Reds
3. Damaso Marte, White Sox
4. Greg Aquino, Diamondbacks
5. Duaner Sanchez, Dodgers
Top middle men not getting saves
1. Rudy Seanez, Padres (52 K, 3 wins)
2. Luis Ayala, Nationals (6-3, 1 save)
3. Ryan Madson, Phillies (41 K's, 18 holds)
4. Julian Tavarez, Cards (3 sv., 17 holds)
5. Juan Rincon, Twins (4-2, 37 K)
Nice rankings. Pretty accurate. I'll take Rivera and Gordon #1. Mo hasn't given up a run since May 6th and has only 1 ER since April 6th. He's allowed 3 hits and 3 BB in June and Gordon allowed 3 ER against Tampa on June 23rd and hadn't allowed a run from May 20th until then and hasn't allowed a run since. Ayala has allowed 7 runs in that span including several recently. Izzy has 5 ER in June including one blow up where he gave up 3H and 2BB without recording an out.
--Gonzalez is on the DL. Even if he were healthy I would expect Torres to get the nod if something happens to Mesa (saves the Bucs $$$ in arbitration). Beyond this, it looks very doubtful that Joe Table will be traded. I would say that Pittsburgh, amazingly, is one of the more certain closer situations this year.
--Isn't safe to say that Aquino is the second in line to Bruney right now, not Valverde?
So which backup do you guys see with the best chance to gain the closer role in the second half? I'd like to stash someone who has the highest probability of breaking out. Any thoughts?
just click on "closer update". this site as a whole is excellent as well. I use it regularly as you can check batting order, DL, SP rotation, etc. here as well.
riske is not the backup in CLE. It is howry. When Wickman was out for a couple games Howry got the save opp. And we all kno whow riske and betancourt have failed in the past.
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by zoozam » Tue Jun 28, 2005 3:30 pm 
![:-]](./images/smilies/smirk.gif "Scottie")
