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Closing Time: Shawn Tolleson earns save, Tim Lincecum tosses seven scoreless

Closing Time: Shawn Tolleson earns save, Tim Lincecum tosses seven scoreless

On Sunday, Texas manager Jeff Banister decreed that no player in his team's bullpen had a defined role going forward. Which of course was another way of saying that no player who'd previously had a defined role was any good at pitching. Neftali Feliz had blown a save chance on Saturday, allowing three runs in a horrid inning of work that featured a double, homer, walk and wild pitch.

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On Wednesday, when another save opportunity presented itself, Shawn Tolleson got the nod for the Rangers. He wasn't flawless, but he managed to successfully protect a one-run lead while facing the top of the Red Sox batting order — not exactly a low-stress save situation. Mookie Betts doubled off Tolleson, Dustin Pedroia ripped a loud out (nice play by Delino DeShields), and David Ortiz drew an intentional pass, but no runs were scored.

It would appear, at least for now, that the ninth belongs to Tolleson, if it belongs to anyone. Add as needed. He's only owned in 8 percent of Yahoo leagues. Feliz was arguably droppable while he was closing, so he's certainly droppable now.

Tolleson has struck out 24 batters in 18.1 innings this year, issuing only four walks and allowing seven earned runs. His fantasy ratios are tolerable if not great (3.44, 1.20), and he's coaxing a swinging-strike rate of 13.0. If you're chasing saves, he's clearly in play.

Tim Lincecum's throwback season continued on Wednesday, as he threw seven shutout innings against the Dodgers, yielding just three hits and striking out four. Highlights here, if you're scouting at home. (I own him in two leagues, but I left him on the bench in both, afraid to deploy him against a competent lineup. My bad. *Points to self*) Lincecum has actually held opponents scoreless in four of his eight starts this season — and if this were 2009, you wouldn't be at all surprised. But he's putting up all these zeros with the lowest K-percentage of his career (18.7, 6.8 K/9) and velocity in the Stults-Marquis-Hudson range (87.3). The deeper-diving stats don't suggest that he's been quite so dominant (4.19 xFIP).

Still, as much as I'd like to issue a sell-order, I'm interested in holding Lincecum through next week's two friendly starts: at Milwaukee, vs. Atlanta. It's hard to believe he won't pick up at least one win there.

In other pitching news, Masahiro Tanaka (forearm) will take the mound for a Triple-A rehab start on Thursday. So that's good news for those who invested. Let's just keep in mind that Tanaka is living with a partially torn elbow ligaments, so he's not the safest name in the player pool.

In case you missed it, here's the clip of Ryan Howard's 454-foot blast at Coors Field on Wednesday. That thing was destroyed. Howard went 3-for-5 against Colorado, adding a double. He's now on pace for 30-plus homers on the season, so he's obviously approved for use in mixers.

Coco Crisp is headed to see a specialist for a neck issue of as-yet-unknown severity. Hopefully it's not a serious thing, but, with this player, DL visits are expected. Crisp's absence should mean we won't need to play the daily guessing game with Billy Burns.