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This week in the Closer Report: Milwaukee and Baltimore continue to suffer through bullpen issues, Matt Capps finally blows a save, and the underrated brilliance of Rafael Soriano.

• The Brewers are a mess in the bullpen. Some might say this is due to injury, I would say it’s due to the lack of good players. This is on the management who still believed Trevor Hoffman could succeed at 42 years of age. Hoffman pitched the 8th inning on Sunday, a game that was saved by John Axford. Charlie Villanueva pitched 3 total innings in the 3 days prior so he was likely unavailable for that game.

What makes this situation more muddled was the fact that Villanueva pitched the 8th inning Tuesday albeit with a 6-0 lead. Todd Coffey pitched the 9th and allowed 2 hits and a run. I still think Villanueva will more often than not get the call to close games, but this could be a purely game-by-game situation. I’d avoid this situation if you can. If not, I would go with Villanueva then Axford.

• Matt Capps finally blew his first save on Sunday, and the wheels are finally coming apart a bit. His ERA for the month of May is 5.40 in 10 innings. Oddly he hasn’t walked a batter this month and has essentially flipped his groundball-flyball ratio from April. Basically this tells me his luck is starting to even out. Capps’ career FIP is 3.79; expect him to be that pitcher the rest of the season.

• George Sherrill is going on the DL with “mid-back tightness.” My guess would be Ronald Belisario or Hong-Chi Kuo would be the back-up closer to Broxton based on match-ups.

• Huston Street had a 20-pitch bullpen session on Tuesday, a good sign in his rehabilitation. He had previously been limited to long toss. He probably needs at least a couple more weeks to be ready to return. Corpas has been solid as a replacement with 4 saves and a win since blowing a game on May 4.

• The only team that has appeared here every week has been Baltimore.  That is not a good thing. Alfredo Simon had been pretty good filling in saving 6 of 7 games despite a 1.54 WHIP.  Simon however was put on the DL with a hamstring strain Tuesday, and Koji Uehara is out as well with an elbow strain.

That leaves Will Ohman as the likely fill-in for the 9th. Ohman has yet to allow a run in 14.2 IP but has always been more of a lefty specialist. Right-handed hitters have hit 52 points higher against him over the past 3 seasons so it could be bumpy, but he will likely be effective enough to be fairly effective in the short-term. Cla Meredith could also be in the mix. Mike Gonzalez won’t be eligible to be activated until at least 6/9 so there is time for another person to pick up some more saves.

• In case you hadn’t noticed, pitching for a winning team suits Rafael Soriano. The 30-year old reliever has a 1.40 ERA, 0.88 WHIP with 13 saves. He is rated as the fourth-best reliever by AccuScore behind only Broxton, Rivera, and Neftali Feliz.

• Kerry Wood has had just two save chances since returning May 8th going 1 for 2 in those opportunities. He also has two losses. With Cleveland expected to go full-on rebuilding very soon, hold onto Chris Perez. He should have the closer role to end the season.