You've heard enough about Manny Ramirez(notes) for one day; it's a Manny-free zone as we sail through a collection of enhancement-free Thursday night bullets.

• Ryan Franklin(notes) is almost too good to be true at this point, isn't he? The journeyman right-hander recorded his ninth save of the year Thursday afternoon with a perfect inning against Pittsburgh, and have a gander at his glittering line from the season: 13.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 11 K. Is this run explained merely by Franklin junking his slider for a cut fastball, or perhaps this is just one of those flukes that we'll laugh about later in the year. I know this, Franklin is throwing strikes like he never has before and he's certainly passing the eye test for every appearance I've scouted, and he's going to be one of the Top 15 closers on my sheet next week.

Jason Motte(notes) is another good story from the St. Louis bullpen, stringing together 10 consecutive scoreless appearances and taking hold of the eighth inning. He'll

If you're in a league where every save matters, it's time to audit the Pittsburgh bullpen. If you're in a shallow mixed league where guys like Huston Street(notes) and Joe Beimel(notes) aren't owned, you have my permission to skip down to the bulleted content.

Matt Capps(notes) has fluid and a bone bruise in his pitching elbow, and it's going to keep him out of the next two games against St. Louis. Tests done on Capps Tuesday revealed no structural damage and the team doesn't sound too worried about him, but with a pitcher and an elbow, you never know. John Russell says he'll mix-and-match the late-innings while Capps is out, which puts Tyler Yates(notes) and John Grabow(notes) in a possible position for saves.

If you've got one spin to take on this situation, go with Grabow. He's got the bias against left-handed closers working against him, I suppose, but he picked up four saves last year when Capps was on the shelf, and despite a recent rough patch, he's proven to be far more

For the first four weeks of the year the Angels bullpen has been the worst in baseball (7.66 ERA). But Monday night's tidy showing in Oakland gives us reason for optimism – and maybe a buying opportunity or two.

Brian Fuentes entered the night with stats that would make Mitch Williams blush (he didn't even record an out in his messy blown save at New York on Saturday) but he was letter perfect Monday against the A's, closing the game with just his third perfect frame of the year. Not that the assignment was all that daunting, mind you – he entered the game with a three-run lead and faced three pedestrian batters (Bobby Crosby, Travis Buck, Gregorio Petit) – but you take what you can get with the struggling Fuentes. His command has been spotty just about all season and he generally struggles to get to even 90 mph on the gun, though the velocity has been improved of late. Maybe this outing will be a push-off for the slumping closer.

Set-up man Jose Arredondo is the sneaky story from this

Frankly, I thought we had seen the last of Andruw Jones, fantasy participant. His 2007 flameout in Atlanta was ugly, his 2008 crash-and-burn in LA was downright grotesque (.158/.256/.249), and he didn't really look like someone who wanted to be playing baseball anymore. He put on weight. He flailed away at bad pitches. He looked like a zombie, all too often, on the diamond.

Maybe I'm too quick to pass judgment at times, but in this case I had several general managers backing me up; only a few teams were willing to offer even a bare-bones contract after the Dodgers dumped Jones in January. The proud veteran waited until February before he had to accept reality – a make-good deal with the Rangers was the best chance he was going to get. The market was dead for him.

Ah, but in America we love a good re-invention story, and that's what Jones has cooking so far in Arlington. He came to camp humble, not to mention 25 pounds lighter. He made the club and accepted a fourth-outfielder role. And

I know you're probably tired of reading about the closer situation in Washington, and I sure know a writer who's sick of talking about it, but every save is important in competitive mixed leagues. With that in mind, let's visit the worst team in the majors and have another bullpen audit.

Washington manager Manny Acta shook up his bullpen yet again on Tuesday, yanking closer Joel Hanrahan and set-up man Garrett Mock from their roles. That duo helped blow Monday night's game, giving up six runs in the eighth inning at Philadelphia; Hanrahan got the worst of it, walking a couple of batters on 10 pitches, then serving up a grand slam to Raul Ibanez. "I hope I don't wear out this word, but again, it was deflating," Acta said.

Julian Tavarez and Kip Wells, journeyman without a doubt, will get some time to show what they can do as Acta mixes and matches in the late innings. Don't dismiss Tavarez out of hand; he's been one of the few reliable options in this bullpen so far in 2009 (3.12 ERA,

The lineup card always seems to be in a state of flux in Colorado, where Clint Hurdle plays the tinkerer's role on a daily basis. Dexter Fowler is doing all he can to force Hurdle's hand these days, but it could be a while before we see Troy Tulowitzki's name again.

The Rockies had a solid game plan Monday against San Diego's Chris Young – run whenever you can. Young's one of the worst pitchers in the majors when it comes to holding runners and delivering to the plate, and Colorado exploited that to an almost-comical extreme on this night. The electrifying Fowler swiped five bases (he's up to nine on the season) and three of his teammates added a bag each – with all eight coming against Young and Nick Hundley. "Run until they stop you," Ryan Spilborghs offered to his rookie teammate.

Of course you can't swipe bases if you don't reach in the first place, but that hasn't been a problem for Fowler. A 2-for-4 outing pushed his average to .302, and he also walked twice. With a .393 on-base

If you thought Matt Lindstrom pitched like a dog Friday, you're not alone. There were 1,540 Southern Florida canines who came to the same conclusion. But that doesn't mean fantasy owners need to start running in circles looking for a new Marlins closer.

The Fish had their annual "Bark at the Park" promotion in play Friday and for eight innings, it looked like a happy ending. The hosts were cruising with a 3-0 lead, Josh Johnson looked fantastic again (seven scoreless innings, eight strikeouts), and Lindstrom, the closer, was in to get the final three outs.

Alas, on this night, Lindstrom didn't have anything working. First he couldn't find the plate, then his strikes were rocketed all over the park. Shane Victorino's crushed a grand slam. Chase Utley stroked a solo homer. The Phillies eventually got seven runs off Lindstrom, who wasn't even able to complete the inning.

Make sure you don't drift into revisionist history as you attempt to break down the Lindstrom file. Keep in mind he

Let's play a little West Coast Bias and focus on the clubs that played the only late game Thursday, the Tigers and Angels. If you'd prefer some bullets that don't originate from Orange County, catch up with us after the jump.

• Magglio Ordonez is off to a respectable .298 start with 10 walks against 11 strikeouts. That's good. But we're almost through three weeks of the season and he's yet to stroke an extra-base hit. That's bad. Keep in mind his slugging percentage dropped 101 points last year and that's not the type of trend that flips at age 35 (unless you've got a lab working on your case). If you're holding onto Ordonez, I'd wait for the inevitable homer or two to come, then shift into a sneaky little sell mode. Don't be surprised if his career path mirrors that of Todd Helton from here on out (and that's a problem).

The lack of power has also been a problem with LA's Bobby Abreu, but the plan of attack is much different; because Mike Scioscia is letting Abreu run at will (eight