Five Up, Five Down

II. Joe Borowski: Strange finding Borowski in the condemnation area of this column, seeing as he leads the AL with 39 saves. But unlike Valverde, Borowski has been anything but dominant in the closer role. Just ask him.

"Pretty much everything that can happen has happened," Borowski admitted to the Associated Press. "I've come to the realization that statistically, I'm going to wear it."

And wear it he has. In blowing his sixth save Thursday night, Borowski raised his ERA (5.60), WHIP (1.48) and BAA (.297) to unthinkable levels for a 39-save closer. In fact, in the history of baseball, nobody has ever eclipsed 35 saves and finished the season with an ERA north of 5.00. With Borowski and Detroit's Todd Jones (4.47 ERA, five blown saves) closing out games, this AL Central race should take some interesting turns in the stretch run.

III. O's since Trembley's extension: Dave Trembley took over Baltimore's managerial job when the Orioles fired Sam Perlozzo in mid-June. The team immediately showed significant improvement -- going 29-25 in Trembley's first 54 games -- and Baltimore extended his contract through next season. Since the day Trembley inked the new deal, though, the Orioles have yet to win a game, racking up nine straight losses through Thursday.

Dude, Dave, I vouched for you at the beginning of the month ... Throw me a bone here.

IV. Yahoo! fantasy baseball: As any fantasy addict will tell you, Yahoo! has been seriously slacking on the updating process this season. In prior years, the league standings were fresh at the crack of dawn every day. But this season, the procedure has been delayed until much later in the morning -- I'm talking 11 a.m. With all the joy Yahoo! has given me over the years through its free fantasy sports, I wasn't going to say anything in this forum. But on Thursday, the standings weren't updated until around 1:30 p.m. This is unacceptable, especially in fantasy baseball crunch time.

Honestly, how is anyone supposed to get through the first hour-and-a-half of the work day with stale fantasy standings?

V. Big Z's August: After a spectacular July, Carlos Zambrano found himself in the thick of the Cy Young race, but August hasn't been so kind to Big Z:

Zambrano has played himself out of Cy Young contention, and his poor pitching has allowed Milwaukee to stay in the division race. Interestingly enough, Big Z signed a five-year, $91.5 million deal earlier in the month. Is the Zito virus a communicable disease?