Happy Fourth of July weekend, all, as we scream to the All Star break.

I swear, I cannot remember a season like this when such a wide array of players was brought up, then sent down, then released, and on and on.

Over the last week of transactions, Glendon Rusch (remember him) was recalled by the Rockies. Then Jeff Francouer, he of two consecutive 100-RBI seasons was sent to AA and Brett Myers and Joe Borowski, who were worth over 60 saves last year were both sent down.

And, with that, we may as well look at some of the closer movement going on at the Show.

With Brad Lidge signed to a new-three year deal, there should not be much scrounging for saves in Philadelphia, but in Cleveland, the favorite son appears to be Masahide Kobayashi, the former Japanese closer, whom many speculated was brought over to back-fill Borowski. Still potentially in the mix are Rafaels Perez and Bettancourt, but Perez has worked only in setup this year, and though Bettancourt, like Kobayashi, has four saves, but his numbers are just not as convincing as Kobayashi's. And, Kobayashi, 34, has held the closer role in the past.

In Tampa, with Troy Percival down, all eyes were turned to Dan Wheeler to be the closer. But, 31-year old Grant Balfour, a former Twin, seems to be the guy who bagged the job with two saves this week. Balfour has a pretty good resume, with 131 strikeouts over his 110.2 mjaor league innings, including 27 whiffs over 17 innings this year. Take the chance on Balfour. Also note that the rumor mill has Tampa trying to bargain for Colorado's Brian Fuentes to fill the gap.

The Tigers have Todd Jones as their closer still, but he harkens a lot of both Percival and and Borowski, but there have been rumblings of Joel Zumaya moving into the rotation, and earlier in the week Fernando Rodney bailed the Tigers and Jones out with a save in extra innings. At this point we have no reason to suspect that Jones has lost his job, but, as witnessed by both Borowski's collapse, and Percival's injury issues, having a guy out there just in case is not a bad idea.

Perennially injured Oakland brought up Wes Bankston with the DL move of Eric Chavez. At 24 Bankston was drafted out of high school, and has decent enough minor league totals at .278-92-396 over 600 minor league games going into 2008. At AAA Sacramento this year he was .275-14-51 over 70 games, pretty much right in line with his career totals. He has started with a bang going .375-0-1 over his first four games, but unless Daric Barton totally falls out of favor, as the Athletics get healthy don't expect Bankston's field time to increase. He can help you in AL only formats.

Arizona advanced 23-year old Emilio Bonifacio, a total speed burner (280 over 716 minor league games) who already has a swipe in the bigs this season, despite going 0-for-5 so far. He is a singles hitter which means strikeouts and free swinging are the enemy, and speed your friend, but Bonifcaio is a nice flier in an NL only format.

With Todd Helton on the shelf, 26-year old Joe Koshansky is up to fill those big hitting shoes. At .281-18-78 this year at Colorado Springs, Koshansky has had pretty good overall totals (.282-102-386 over his previous four minor league seasons), and with Helton in the bigs there was a bit of a logjam at first base in Denver. Again, NL only gamble right now, but worth a shot in a deep format.

Pittsburgh called up first power hitting first sacker Steve Pearce, who was a solid .331-40-113 over three levels last season. .259-11-50 at Lynchburg this season, Pearce could be ok as witnessed by his string on-base totals as a pro. With a .375 OBP and 131 walks to 210 whiffs, pretty good for a power hitter. If he gets to play, Pearce could be a nice acquisition in any format.

Tampa advanced shortstop Reid Brignac, a top prospect at 22. Brignac had 418 minor league games under his belt going into 2008 (.288-57-271) and was faring well enough at AAA (265-7-38 with four swipes). With Jason Bartlett down, the shortstop spot is wide open in Tampa for now, and a good performance by Brignac now could even make Bartlett expendable as Brignac is the long-term solution. Still, it is a longshot that he can have much of an impact, but Brignac is a guy to track, and especially stash.

OK, we have seen in guys like Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw how tough it is to translate domniant Triple-A numbers into anything decent at the big league level, and, if you need to take a shot on a young hurler, Washington's Collin Balenster could be worth a shot. At 9-4, 4.00 at Columbus this year with 64 whiffs over 79 innings. He only walked 26, but allowed 79 hits which means Balenstar will likely not be overpowering.