The following are some save candidates who could replace shaky closers or share chances:

Florida's Franklyn German: Matt Herges blew his first save chance by allowing three runs in the ninth to the Nationals, taking the loss. Another closing candidate Carlos Martinez may be headed to the DL with a sore right elbow. Reliever Chris Resop was demoted last Thursday. This leaves German, once a highly touted Oakland prospect, as the best candidate to share save chances or replace the shaky Joe Borowski, who sports a 6.75 ERA. German, who has extensive closer experience in the minors, saved 27 games for Triple A in 2004, striking out 60 in 49 innings. He also totaled 48 saves for Single-A, Double-A and Triple-A in 2001 and 2002. He was waived by Detroit and claimed by Florida in the season's beginning.

Tampa Bay's Chad Orvella (Also Shawn Camp): Dan Miceli is currently Tampa Bay's closer, but he has one blown save in four chances and owns a 9.53 ERA. Camp has one save already this season by pitching two innings on Saturday and is the current set-up man. He also closed two games in '04, his rookie season. He could receive additional spot saves. Chad Orvella has promise to be the featured closer, receiving 14 holds for the Devil Rays and garnering nine saves in Double-A last season. Orvella improved in his stint at Triple-A, compiling a 2.57 ERA with six hits, six strikeouts and one walk in seven innings over five games.

Cincinnati's Todd Coffey (Also Kent Mercker): Weathers blew his first save Sunday, giving him three saves in four chances. He's in his 16th season and has a robust 5.79 ERA. Second-year reliever Coffey has served well as a set-up man, compiling a 1.35 ERA with four holds, one earned run, five strikeouts, seven hits and two walks in 6.2 innings over seven games.  He has closing experience, saving 20 games at Double-A in 2004. Mercker already has one save and two holds, has allowed only one earned run and two hits, and has seven strikeouts and two walks in 3.1 innings over five games. Mercker will likely continue to receive spot saves.

Seattle's J.J. Putz: Eddie Guardado blew his first save of the season in the ninth inning of Monday's loss to Boston. He allowed two earned runs and two hits in .2 innings. That made his ERA jump to 11.57.  Until Monday's blown save (one earned run, two hits in .2 innings) in the eighth inning at Boston, Putz had an impressive 14 strikeouts, two saves and two holds, while allowing just six hits, one walk and three earned runs in 7.1 innings over six games. Putz has closing experience, saving 11 games for Triple-A in 2003 and nine saves for the M's in 2004. If Guardado continues to struggle, he'll likely keep sharing save chances with Putz.  

Any others who could receive save chances or become closers soon?

Nabbing new closers from free agency in the first week can be an easy way to add saves.

Here are the following current closers who may have gone undrafted:

Tampa Bay's Dan Miceli (named the closer), San Francisco's Tim Worrell (Armando Benetiz is currently injured and ineffective), Boston's Jonathan Papelbon (Could replace Keith Foulke permanently), Detroit's Fernando Rodney (replacing injured Todd Jones) and Kansas City's Ambiorix Burgos (replacing injured Mike MacDougal).

A few relievers could take over by May, including:

The White Sox's Neal Cotts (insurance for inexperienced Bobby Jenks) and Florida's Matt Herges (if Joe Borowski becomes injured or ineffective).   

Some longshots are:

The Dodgers' Danys Baez (if Eric Gagne becomes injured), Arthur Rhodes (if Tom Gordon fails in return to closer), White Sox's Cliff Politte (if Jenks or Cotts become ineffective), Cubs' Bob Howry or Scott Williamson (if Ryan Dempster is only a one-year success), Florida's Chris Resop (if Borowski and Herges are ineffective), St. Louis' Braden Looper (if Jason Isringhausen becomes injured) and Arizona's Luis Vizcaino or Brandon Lyon (if Jose Valverde becomes injured or ineffective).

Anyone else who might be feasible?

Fantasy auction drafts demand a significant block of time, but they are well worth it. Bidding for players in a room of other owners where market value sets the salaries is intense and exhilarating at the same time. I recently participated in an auction draft online, courtesy of fantasyauctioneer.com. Their online draft room allows the members of the league to bid on players simultaneously. You can just click the "Bid + 1" button or input the salary you'd like for the auctioned player. There's also an artificial intelligence feature that substitutes for any absent owners. So the action won't be ruined by a last-minute absence or late arrival.  Try an auction draft for another way to enjoy fantasy baseball or football.  

Many unions help give rights, benefits and adequate living wages for workers. However, having a union for highly paid professional athletes is like organizing one for CEOs. NFL players made an average of $1.3 million last season, and total compensation for the players exceeded $2.5 billion. Growth has been astronomical with a 20 percent increase in the last two years, and player salaries have more than doubled since 1994 when the average was $627,000.

Why ruin a good thing?  In many other lines of work, owners are less generous and even stingy, and few or zero opportunities are given for outside sources of income. Is it a right for players to have more money? Popular or not, at the same time, owners have a right to give less.

Who needs the NFL more? Without the NFL, many players would need to find other sources of income or line of work. The owners don't need the NFL for income. It's a hobby, not where they make a living. The NHL players lost a year's salary in the hundreds of thousands in their short shelf life of a pro athlete and didn't receive more with their holdout. The NFL is not the place to battle for worker rights.      

It's interesting to see that two strong opinions have emerged in steriod use by baseball players. One camp says there's if there's no hard evidence like a positive test to confirm a baseball player used steriods, then he should be viewed as never using a performance-enhancer. However, this view of turning a blind eye to the issue, such as by the media, helped keep the use of steriods by players from public scrutiny.   The other side believes if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then the player is presumed guilty. However, like a court of law, a player has the right to be innocent until proven guilty. This creates polarizing views of home run kings Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa for entrance into the Hall-of-Fame. Significantly, though, baseball executives ignored the steriod issue by keeping it legal in baseball by not penalizing the use. Technically, baseball players who used steriods prior to last season were not breaking any MLB rules. However, if the consensus is that steriods should be removed from the game and unfairly gives its users an advantage, then these players violated the spirit of the game.