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The closer carousel never seems to stop spinning in the major leagues. After a month of the season, Baltimore is still in upheaval, and there are several pitchers making their return from injury. All that and more in this week's Closer Report.

• The carousel keeps on spinning in Baltimore. The team sent Jim Johnson to the minors over the weekend leaving Alfredo Simon to pick up his second save in a week. Simon clearly is the guy to own, but he comes with problems as his BB:K ratio sits at 4:5. The back-up option would be Cla Meredith as he’s pitched immediately before Simon in his last two outings.

• Texas’ situation is technically still unsettled even though Neftali Feliz converted 3 saves last week. He had a shaky stretch where he allowed 2 ER in 3 of 4 outings, but it looks like as long as Ron Washington manages his workload, he’ll be fine. Frank Francisco is still probably worth owning as a back-up since he got 2 saves last week. Both saves were days after Feliz threw so Francisco will probably only get opportunities to prevent Feliz from getting over-worked.

•Kerry Wood began his rehab assignment Monday for AA-Akron. He will pitch twice before rejoining the Indians so expect him back by the end of the week.

• Ramon Ramirez got a rogue save for Boston against the Angels last week. This was because Papelbon had pitched three of the previous four nights. Daniel Bard had pitched the previous two nights as well; nothing to worry about here.

• Last week I listed no one as the back-up to Carlos Marmol because of the lack of a real candidate. Now Lou Piniella has said new reliever Carlos Zambrano would be the back-up closer. This gives Big Z a very small boost in value until he reclaims a starting job, but not much. Marmol still has a strong hold on 9th inning duties.

• Brad Lidge is back from the disabled list, but not quite back to closing games. Manager Charlie Manuel said he wanted to ease Lidge back into the role, which is probably a good idea since Lidge gave up a home run in his return appearance on Friday. Manuel also said Jose Contreras would be the interim closer with Ryan Madson on the DL. This situation is fluid since it’s possible Lidge never gets “eased back in” to the closer role considering how terrible he was in 2009 and his injury problems already this season. Nelson Figueroa picked up a rogue save in the middle of last week in the 11th inning, but shouldn’t factor in to the closer situation just yet. There is no timetable for Madson’s return so Contreras will probably pick up a few saves in the coming days. He’s probably worth adding at least for this week.

• Brian Wilson missed a few days last week with a groin issue leading to a save for Jeremy Affeldt on Friday. The injury though is reportedly a non-issue now for Wilson. Affeldt though is clearly the next in line.

• Juan Gutierrez also picked up a rogue save last Wednesday with a perfect 11th inning against Chicago.

• A minor miracle occurred Sunday in San Francisco. Rockies manager Jim Tracy actually played for the win rather than for the save bringing in Franklin Morales in a higher leverage 8th inning spot rather than hold him back for a potential save. Colorado led the Giants by 4 runs in the 8th, but with runners on the corners and Pablo Sandoval on-deck, Tracy brought in Morales. Morales struck out two batters, and Manny Corpas got the final three outs in a much lower leverage situation. This was not a save situation, but illustrated how all managers should be using their “closers.”

• The situation with Trevor Hoffman still isn’t “safe” even though he did convert a save last Saturday without incident. The back-up is still LaTroy Hawkins not Carlos Villanueva. That was the intention of management and the coaching staff when they signed him this offseason.