Tsao placed on 15-day DL, Rocks Closer Job Wide Open

The title says it all - nominal COL closer Chin-Hui Tsao has been placed on the 15-day DL, retroactive to 3/25, due to his inflamed throwing shoulder. He's eligible to return on April 9.

In addition, manager Clint Hurdle has reportedly told everyone in the Rockies' bullpen that they'd all be getting ninth-inning chances. "It's going to be a great opportunity for everybody," said rookie Ryan "I'm not Justin" Speier, who will join the Rocks' bullpen after going 37/40 in save ops and winning the Rolaids' Minor League Relief Man award at AA Tulsa in 2004. "Everybody is going to get the ball, and we'll just see where everybody falls."

For those of you trying to keep tabs on the Colorado closing situation, it breaks down something like this. Tsao remains the frontrunner and nominal closer, but he's out at least another week, and probably longer. Brian Fuentes has a tiny bit of experience in the closer role, but he's the Rocks' best bullpen lefty and may have more value as their LOOGY.

Ryan Speier is the darkhorse candidate, and had an excellent spring. "BK" Kim will make his first couple of Coors appearances in middle relief, but has the most closer experience and the highest salary by a wide margin, and will also be given a shot at saves at some point.

Despite what Hurdle may have said, Allan Simpson, Javier "not Javy" Lopez, and Scott Dohrmann won't be getting too much 9th inning work, and Rule 5 pickup Marcos Carvajal almost certainly won't.

If your fantasy team is looking for saves from the Colorado bullpen, then you're probably in pretty bad shape anyway, and your guess is as good as ours at this point as to who will wind up in the COL closer role. My prediction at this point is that Fuentes will get the early save ops, and Kim and Tsao will each get some 9th inning work in late April. If the aforementioned three pitchers should all fail (...and my Magic 8-ball says "ALL SIGNS POINT TO YES"), then Speier will get a long look, and could lock down the job for good.

We'll keep you posted.