Rodney closes, Tigers bulpen follows suit

This much we know about the Detroit Tigers bullpen: Fernando Rodney is the de facto closer thanks to Brandon Lyon's inability to wrest the job away. After that, there's a lot to be sorted out between Ryan Perry, Juan Rincon and an eventually healthy Joel Zumaya

Those decisions aren't the ones concerning manager Jim Leyland right now. With the relief corps lacking definition at the back end, Leyland wants to get rid of some of the uncertainty.

"We have to get the tail end of our bullpen going," Leyland said, "and we've got to mess with it a little bit until things fall into place."

Asked when he'd like to have his bullpen sorted out, Leyland said, "Now. Now's the time."

Part of the challenge in doing that is the hope that the Tigers have a healthy Joel Zumaya coming back soon. With Zumaya throwing 43 pitches in his most recent extended spring camp outing Tuesday, he's stretching his arm out to the point where a rehab stint at Triple-A Toledo or Double-A Erie likely isn't far off. He's eligible to come off the disabled list Saturday, but barring something spectacular, Zumaya won't be ready to join Detroit then. At this rate, though, he shouldn't be far off.

Both Perry and Rodney pitched Wednesday night for the first time in 2009. In non-save situations Perry struck out one batter in a perfect eighth, while Rodney retired the Blue Jays side in the ninth, preserving a 5-1 Tigers win.

Fantasy Impact: Kudos to owners who guessed right on Rodney winning the war as Tigers closer. He's owned by 75% of Yahoo! players and started by 67%. Rodney's only as safe as his success, however, so be advised that 33 career saves in six seasons to go along with a 1.412 lifetime WHIP spells eventual disaster.