Closer down (USAT)Jim Henderson has been so dominant this year, there's been little reason to discuss him. He's allowed just two runs over 19.2 outstanding innings, with five walks against 23 strikeouts. He's 9-for-9 in save chances. The Brewers bullpen has been an open and shut case for a while.

And then on Friday night, Pandora's box swung open again.

Henderson was called upon to close out a 2-1 victory over Pittsburgh but his body didn't cooperate. He suffered a right hamstring strain in the ninth and was forced out of the game. "I don't think it's just going to be a day," manager Ron Roenicke told the team's official site.

Francisco Rodriguez inherited Friday's chippie, throwing two pitches, recording one out and shaking many hands. But the Brewers may not have one dedicated closer while Henderson gets hale. Let's go back to Brewers.com for the 411:

If Henderson does miss time, Roenicke said he likely wouldn't count on one pitcher to take over the closer's role. The Brewers have three other pitchers with closer experience on the roster: John Axford, left-hander Michael Gonzalez and Rodriguez.

"I don't know if we want to go with just one person in particular," Roenicke said. "We may look at the matchups and see what they are every night. If there are a couple lefties coming up, we may leave one of our left-handers in there."

K-Rod has only been back with the team for a couple of weeks; he was nothing special in 78 appearances last year (4.38/1.33). But it's interesting to see him summoned into Fridays' spot over a rested John Axford. If I had just one spin to take on a speculative play, I'm using it on Rodriguez. K-Rod is owned in 10 percent of Yahoo! leagues, while Axford trades at 35 percent.

• Has John Lackey pushed his way back into the circle of trust? He had little trouble shutting down the surging Cleveland offense Friday, allowing just one unearned run over seven terrific innings (2 H, 3 BB, 8 K). Lackey has a strikeout per inning and almost four punchouts for every walk in 2013, validating stats. And when batters do make contact against him, they're rapping the ball on the ground 53.6 percent of the time.

The "best shape of his life" meme gets plenty of dismissive waves every spring, but let's not be stubborn about it: when an athlete trims down and takes his craft more seriously, it's a good thing. Lackey came to camp in terrific condition

The Zach Attack (USAT)

Cleveland's surge to the top of the AL Central standings has been primarily fueled by offense. The Indians piled up 12 runs and 16 hits in Thursday's romp at Boston, and for the year they're second in runs scored, trailing only Detroit. The Tribe continues to get on base (fourth in OBP) and knock down the walls (first in homers and slugging). Keep your pitchers away from these guys.

The pitching hasn't been nearly as sharp, posting a 4.07 ERA (19th in the majors). But let's take a second to appreciate Thursday's winning pitcher, emerging 25-year old Zach McAllister.

McAllister scored his fourth win of the year at Fenway and it was, curiously enough, his worst outing of the season (5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 5 K). A captain of consistency, McAllister has allowed three runs or less in all nine of his turns, fashioning a 2.89 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. His strikeout rate is nothing special this year (6.27/9), a dip from his 2012 clip, but he's collecting 2.73 whiffs for every walk. McAllister isn't going to beat himself, you have to beat him.

Oedipus Rex (USAT)

The soul of Closing Time is the bullpen chase, so our logical first step takes us to Colorado. Settle in, Rafael Betancourt owners, and have your copay ready.

The Rockies closer has been working through a groin problem for almost a month now, and it forced him out of Tuesday's appearance in the tenth inning. He's scheduled to have an MRI on Wednesday.

Players are wired to downplay injuries, and Betancourt is no different. Here's what he told MLB.com.

"It's not painful," Betancourt said. "It was feeling weird warming up. I always push a lot from that leg. I came into the game, bounced the first two pitches. Feel like weak. It was getting tight. That's all.

"I'm the kind of guy that it's hard for me to come out of the game. But I think it was the right move to do in that situation. [Wednesday] I get an MRI, but I think everything's going to be fine, and we'll go from there."

It's novel for Betancourt to hope for the best, but we have to prepare for the worst, just in case. If Betancourt misses any significant time, someone's going to get save chances in his stead. Rex Brothers looks like the first name to consider grabbing, with Wilton Lopez and Matt Belisle two other options.

If the numbers were all that mattered, the left-handed Brothers would be a slam-dunk. He's posted a 0.44 ERA and 1.13 WHIP through 22 appearances, with 21 strikeouts against eight walks. The platoon splits haven't bothered him at all; he's actually better against righties (.180 BAA) this year. He looks ready for the ninth if manager Walter Weiss wants to play it that way.

It's raining blown saves in Baltimore (USAT)

Into the middle of May, Jim Johnson was untouchable, on a streak of 35 consecutive saves. Fast forward a week and he's a struggling closer looking for a break. That's life in the ninth inning. It's time for an audit in Baltimore.

Johnson suffered a couple of blown saves last week, mostly death by a thousand cuts (with one homer mixed in). His squandered opportunity from Monday came on one pitch, a plate-centered fastball that Travis Hafner deposited into the Oriole Park seats in left-center field. Baltimore eventually lost the game in ten innings, its sixth straight defeat.

"We will figure it out," Johnson told the team's official site. "I'll figure it out. There's no other option."

Orioles manager Buck Showalter quickly gave Johnson a vote of confidence after Monday's loss. "Come back tomorrow and watch it again, he was one pitch away," Showalter said to Orioles.com. "Jimmy's a very consistent human being. Professional and a great teammate. We didn't do enough to win tonight. ... It's frustrating for him, but he wasn't the only one who could come out of this game a little frustrated."

Alt-Jimenez (USAT)In the middle of April I spent a decent chunk of one Closing Time documenting why Ubaldo Jimenez was a waste of fantasy space. This didn't sit too well with many of the readers, who openly wondered why it was worth discussing in the first place.

Ultimately, I accepted you were right. We moved the Jimenez file to the storage area and everyone moved on.

And now, shockingly enough, we have to discuss Jimenez again. That's what you get with this enigma. Just when we thought we were out, we get pulled back in.

Jimenez has been terrific over his last four starts, collecting three wins and posting a snappy 1.90 ERA. He's walked just eight batters over 23.2 innings and he's struck out 29. There's been a little batted-ball fortune here (.259), but nothing crazy.

All my exes live in Texas (USAT)

It's the middle of May and we've got plenty to talk about. Jurickson Profar's promotion. Doug Fister's college days. Derek Holland's OPS.

As usual, we'll do it in chat fashion. I'll provide the polls, you provide the beverages, everyone bring something silly. In Michael Scott's lingo, this is a win-win-win.

Headed for a magazine mock, so you're on your own for a while. Re-convene at 10:15 pm ET.

Sweet thirtysomething swing (USAT)

It's a casual Friday. All bullets, all the time.

• The Arizona at Miami game got out of hand quickly, as the Snakes posted six runs in the first three innings and turned the game into a rout. Paul Goldschmidt clocked a couple of homers, because that's what Goldschmidts do, and I'd like to burn every nice thing I said about Kevin Slowey this spring.

But let's try to find an actionable item here. Say hello to Arizona's cleanup man, Eric Chavez.

The veteran lefty swinger filled the box score nicely, with three singles and a homer over five trips. Chavez knocked in two runs and is slashing .337/.398/.584 on the year. He's still a useful player at age 35, worthy of a fantasy audit.

A decade ago, the Chavez story was much different. He was one of the superstars on the Oakland juggernaut of the early 2000s, one of the players Moneyball more or less ignored so we could all learn to appreciate Scott Hatteberg. Chavez offered a nifty mix of power and patience, and he also bagged six Gold Gloves in a row. Durability wasn't an issue back then, as Chavez logged 151 games or more in five of six seasons.

Alas, the wave broke in Chavez's late 20s, when his body began to betray him. He missed a month of time in 2006 and things got progressively worse; from 2007-2010, he never played in more than 90 games. A career on a possible Hall of Fame trajectory quickly spiraled out of control.

Baby, you're a big star now (USAT)

Here are your Shuffle Up corners for the month of May. Dig into them, think about them, disagree with them.

Normal rules apply, of course. We're trying to project 5x5 value to come; what's happened to this point is an audition, not a mandate. Players at the same price are considered even. Don't worry about the prices in a vacuum - what matters is how the players relate to one another. Your intelligent and respectful disagreement is always welcome.

Please remember the golden rule of shuffling: a player doesn't gain (or lose) 15-20 percent of value simply because he's on your roster.

Courtesy injury ranks are at the bottom. I won't debate those (I'm generally not as shiny, happy and optimistic about injury comebacks) but everything else is in play. Make the jump, have a look around.

$34 Miguel Cabrera
$31 Prince Fielder
$30 Joey Votto
$29 Evan Longoria
$28 David Wright
$28 Paul Goldschmidt
$27 Adrian Beltre
$27 Edwin Encarnacion
$25 Albert Pujols
$22 Anthony Rizzo
$21 Chris Davis
$21 Allen Craig
$21 Billy Butler
$21 Freddie Freeman

An underrated part of Wright's