Arthur Rhodes

This is part two of a three part series where I am ranking the top 30 major league players on the Texas Rangers roster. In part one I covered players 30-21, which was mainly players on the fringe of the 25 man roster and younger players who will contribute at some point during the season. The players ranked 11-20 are not quite core players, but they are more so components of the Rangers. Every team has a few stars at the top of the roster and average players that fill out the bottom of the roster, but its the middle section of a team that puts a team over the top.

After Carl Crawford's surprise signing by the Boston Red Sox, MLB's free agent pool is slowly starting to dwindle down.

Cliff Lee is still out there for the New York Yankees' or Texas Rangers' taking, but there aren't a whole lot of other marquee names left.

As for free agent relievers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim—not to be confused with all of the other Los Angeles residing in MLB—scooped up Scott Downs, the Philadelphia Phillies re-signed Jose Contreras, Joaquin Benoit went to the Detriot Tigers, and the Bronx Bombers kept Mariano Rivera.

Francisco Cordero is tied with Heath Bell for second in the major leagues in saves.

He is 24 for 30 (80%) for the season. His career save percentage is 81.5%. His save percentage with the Reds 85.8%.

Here are some more stats to chew on.

Of the 15 pitchers with 20 or more saves, Cordero is worst in the league in WHIP (1.55), ERA (4.20), and third worst in batting average against (.263).

The Reds pay Cordero a lot of money, so continuing to run him out there for every save will likely be the choice.

I don't know if you've heard...but Joey Votto is apparently the hottest thing to hit Cincinnati since the Big Red Machine. He's 26, coming into his prime, a recently-named All-Star, and he is the leader of the Red's playoff-bound (hopefully) 2010 squad.

So, now the question becomes...what does Cincinnati do with Yonder Alonso?

In the collective trash heap that thus far is the 2010 Cincinnati Reds bullpen, one man stands tall and proud.

Seeing big number 53 jog in from the bullpen, the rare bird in Major League Baseball who was born in the 1960s and is still playing, is a comforting sign for Reds fans.  

Some men bust out of that bullpen gate and get to the pitchers mound like their pants are on fire. Rhodes has a slow, methodical gait, and with his age, one might think he is blazing the trail of a tired man, perhaps too worn out to do the job.

The Cincinnati Reds have a very good baseball team. That isn't opinion, it is fact.

Coming into Atlanta on Wednesday they had won nine of their last 10 games, were seven games above .500 and in first place of the National League's Central Division.

The starting pitching had been superb, the hitting was outstanding and their defense was second to none.