• Status updates: Derrick Rose (foot) is back to day-to-day status .. Kobe Bryant (shin) is not expected to play on Tuesday .. Ray Allen (ankle) will play on Tuesday .. Marc Gasol (knee) was upgraded from doubtful to questionable on Tuesday morning .. Knicks on Tuesday: Tyson Chandler (knee) will play, Amar'e Stoudemire (back) is likely out until Friday .. Nets on Wednesday: Deron Williams (calf) is out, Gerald Wallace (hamstring) is likely out .. Kyrie Irving (shoulder) will be evaluated after Tuesday and Wednesday workouts and may return on Wednesday night .. Kevin Martin (shoulder) was active on Monday but didn't play. He could see minutes on Wednesday, depending on how he does in a Tuesday practice. He'll be brought back gradually in any case .. Darren Collison (groin) has been shut down until he's 100 percent, meaning more starts for George Hill .. Rick Adelman said Tuesday that he's not sure Kevin Love (concussion) will play again this season, but he does expect Luke Ridnour

Heath Bell (US Presswire)

If asked to describe the easiest save situation imaginable, you might come up with something like this: Your team has a three-run lead at home in the ninth, no runners are on base, and your closer is facing the 7-8-9 hitters from a terrible team.

That's precisely the situation that Heath Bell inherited on Saturday as Miami held a 4-1 lead against Houston in the ninth, with the bottom of the visiting team's order due up. But somehow Bell gave up four runs to the Astros, blowing an almost un-blowable save. (The Marlins' win expectancy peaked at 98.8 percent in the ninth). Miami fielders didn't do Bell any favors in the loss, committing three errors in the final frame. Still, he was unable to get outs on his own, striking out no one, allowing four hits. It was all kinds of ugly.

These were a few of Bell's post-game comments, via the Associated Press:

''I thought I had good stuff,'' Bell said. ''Apparently I didn't. I didn't get the job done.''

[...]

''It's just really hard to look at my teammates and them have confidence in me,'' he said. ''I haven't showed that I can do it.''

The Fish have handed Bell two save situations so far, and he's blown them both. In his four appearances for Miami, he's given up eight hits, six runs (two were unearned), one homer, three walks, and he's struck out two batters. His velocity readings aren't terribly far off prior seasons, but Bell's strikeout-rate took an alarming dip last year (7.3 K/9 in 2011, 9.2 career). He's now in his age-34 season and pitching without the safety net of Petco Park, where his lifetime ERA is 2.39. If you're a Bell owner looking for something to worry about, there are issues we can identify.

Last week, handshakes; this week, homers (US Presswire)

There might be a hundred different ways to blow a save in today's MLB. Sometimes it's cheap hits that beat you, sometimes it's a tight strike zone that leads to your undoing, sometimes you give away a game with wildness. All of them hurt, of course, taking away a game your team had started to mentally count as a win.

But when the last man standing in the bullpen starts throwing batting practice on the mound — when the blown save comes courtesy of the long ball — the scar cuts a little deeper. With that in mind, it's time to catch up with Hector Santiago, the rookie closer for the White Sox.

Santiago lost his innocence in Monday's 10-4 loss to Baltimore, blowing a ninth-inning lead and suffering his first blown save of the year. The two runs Santiago allowed weren't cheap at all — they were poorly-spotted fastballs that turned into souvenirs. Surging sleeper Nolan Reimold led off the inning with a blast into the left-field seats, and Adam Jones duplicated the act two outs later. The power-hitting Orioles might surprise some teams this year; they've already collected 18 homers, tops in baseball. (Matt Wieters, who looks absolutely terrific, broke the game open in the tenth, crushing a grand slam off Chicago reliever Zach Stewart. It was the second homer of the night for Wieters; if I were entering a fresh draft today, he'd be at the top of my catcher board.)

In Santiago's defense, he might have gotten unlucky on the Reimold at-bat. Replays indicated that Santiago probably threw what should have been strike three in the sequence, only to be denied by home plate umpire Lance Barrett (neither team was happy with Barrett's strike zone over the course of the night). But the two pitches that wound up in the seats were definite mistakes from Santiago, pitches that had too much of the plate and were shouting out "hit me" (go look at the Jones tater again). The Orioles were happy to oblige.

If you are still reading this, then you are finishing up your roto season or, for some reason, your league opted to use the final 11 days of the season to decide your h2h championship. Either way, you've likely lost a number of the players that got you here and are counting on production from names that weren't on anyone's radar a few weeks ago. I'll continue to post these Court Reports through the end of the season, with relevant status updates and matchup info. Good luck to everyone and thanks for checking in over the course of the season.

• Status updates: Kobe Bryant (shin) did some light shooting Monday but is not expected to play on Tuesday .. Kevin Love and Luke Ridnour both did not travel with the T-Wolves for the Monday game .. A Monday MRI of Marc Gasol's knee revealed a bone bruise. He's officially day-to-day but considered doubtful for Tuesday .. Nets on Monday: Deron Williams (calf) is a game-time decision, Gerald Wallace (hamstring) is out .. David Lee is another big name to be done for the season. He's been shut down thanks to a stress reaction in his left hip .. Steve Nash (back) says that he will play Monday .. Ray Allen (ankle) may miss Tuesday's game, as well .. Kyrie Irving (shoulder) will go through shootaround on Tuesday and may return to the active roster on Wednesday, or not at all. Byron Scott is more concerned with the off-season (and beyond) than a few meaningless end-of-season games .. Amar'e Stoudemire (back) isn't likely to return before the weekend .. Nicolas Batum (quad) is out Monday .. Marcus Camby (back) is a game-time decision Monday .. Tom Thibodeau will be the last person to admit it, but Luol Deng (Wrist, ribs) is in near-desperate need of rest down the stretch .. Jose Calderon (eye) is a game-time decision Monday .. Glen Davis (knee) is officially a game-time decision but looks unlikely to play on Monday .. Be prepared for Gregg Popovich to get players some rest during the team's back-to-back-to-back (Mon @GSW, Tue @LAL, Wed @SAC). If the Big Three plays Monday, their sitting Wednesday seems a near-lock .. It sounds like the Blazers aren't planning on giving much playing time to either Raymond Felton or Jamal Crawford the rest of the way. Felton may leave the team for personal reasons, Crawford is banged up, and the team wants to get a look at Nolan Smith and Jonny Flynn .. Zaza Pachulia (foot) is out again Monday and will then be re-evaluated.

• Rest-of-season schedule grid, with ease rankings courtesy of Basketball Monster:

Despite a painful dislocated beak, Bird still came out to support his Yankees (US Presswire)

If you have questions of a fantasy nature, then please join me on Sunday evening at 7 pm CT/8 pm ET for an all-ages live fantasy chat. We're scheduled to go 60 minutes, plus penalty time. We can talk bullpens, trade offers, slow starts, prospects ... whatever you like. No reasonable question will be refused. And I'm confident that plenty of unreasonable questions will be addressed as well.

The Angels and Yankees are scheduled to play the Sunday night game, so we'll get a chance to see $361,173,900 worth of baseball talent in action. Don't miss this very special once-in-a-lifetime-week Internet event. It's Jerome Williams vs. Ivan Nova, kids. Just doesn't get much better than that.

The portal shall appear after the jump...

Hey Skip, who are you waiting for? (US Presswire)Another closer is dead. Long live the new San Francisco closer.

Whoever it turns out to be.

The Twitter world of save chasing blew up a couple of hours ago as the news turned dark on Brian Wilson. The hairy and scary closer has structural damage in his pitching elbow, which means he's out for a while, perhaps the entire season. Surgery appears likely at this time. I don't mean to be ghoulish about it, but you can kick him to the curb now.

The save hierarchy behind Wilson is tricky, because the Giants have one of the deepest relief groups in the majors. San Francisco has recorded the second-lowest ERA in the majors for each of the last three seasons. Sure, some of that is the roomy park they play in, but you don't get elite results without a lot of talent. When Bruce Bochy dials up the bullpen, he might be temporarily paralyzed by his options.

Bochy doesn't return my calls, but he did talk to Steve Kroner of the San Francisco Chroncle on Saturday night, before the Pirates and Giants went out to the sandlot. Here's the key (albeit indirect) quote to ponder:

Bochy said he'll go with a closer-by-committee, at least for the short term, with Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo and Javier Lopez as the main options.

Romo and Casilla were the two names we expected to hear. Lopez, a lefty with so-so control, is unlikely to get a chance to command this position.

Erik Bedard can't lose EVERY start this season (or at least I hope not) - US Presswire

So far this season, Erik Bedard has pitched a total of 12 innings in his two starts, striking out seven, issuing only two walks, allowing just three runs ... and of course he's 0-2. Welcome to Pittsburgh.

But at this point in his career, Bedard probably wouldn't know what to do with run support. The winningest team for which he's ever played was the 2011 Boston Red Sox, a club that failed spectacularly, against all odds. Prior to last year, Bedard had only pitched for one team that finished its season above .500, the 85-win Mariners of 2009. And you might recall that '09 was the year Bedard suffered a torn labrum. I realize it's tough to keep track of all his injuries — hip, shoulder, knee, oblique, etc. — but the labrum was really a big one. He didn't pitch in the majors at all in 2010.

And now here I am, asking you to consider him an option in a two-start week. Hey, I could have taken a much easier path and recommended, say, Justin Masterson (at SEA, at OAK), but that dude is owned more than three-quarters of Yahoo! leagues. In this piece, we try to focus on pitchers who are actually available to a few of you.

Bedard was a hard-luck loser to Roy Halladay on opening day, as he allowed just one run over seven innings (while Doc allowed nothin' over eight frames). His second start wasn't quite as crisp, but he nonetheless yielded only two runs to the Dodgers in a loss to Chad Billingsley. He was reaching 90-92 on the radar gun in his final innings against LA, which isn't such a bad range by his standards. I'm trusting him in two leagues in Week 3. The opposing starters aren't particularly intimidating (Saunders, Lohse), so I'm hoping for at least a one-win week, with acceptable ratios.

Typically, when Bedard happens to not be on the DL, he's helpful. (Check the numbers, hater). If you've been playing match-ups this season, consider him in Week 3.

For the rest of your two-start options, ranked and tiered, please continue beyond the jump...

When Jacoby Ellsbury hurts, we all hurt (US Presswire)

They've already lived through and killed off The Curse of the Bambino, the 2004 storybook that you know by heart. But for 2012 and beyond, the Red Sox have to deal with The Curse of the Andino. It might be a long season on Yawkey Way. Forget playoff contention; this could easily be a team that stumbles around in third or fourth place.

Sorry, Jacoby Ellsbury owners. You're caught in the collateral damage here. We'll try to help you get through it.

You remember how Boston's season ended in 2011, a September choke job for the ages punctuated by a bunch of losses to Buck Showalter's plucky Orioles. Robert Andino was the signature player for Baltimore's late-season run, a nondescript, high-energy infielder who was yapping constantly during the final series of the year. He had the game-wining hit in Game 162, a soft liner to that eluded the grasp of Carl Crawford (you try covering left field while a sack of $142 million holds you down).

Okay, so a flawed team missed the playoffs, big deal. But consider what's happened to the Red Sox since then: