21.   One reliever drawing interest is left-hander Ricardo Rincon of the Pirates, who could be moved with Lieber in a package.

22.   Pain relievers are a good example.

23.   Relievers will be aware of what is occurring in the early innings.

24.   Quality middle relievers are a must.

25.   Short relievers are a relatively new phenomenon in baseball, a result of the evolution of the manner in which starting pitchers have been used.

26.   So is lefthanded reliever Dennis Cook, whom the Red Sox also asked about.

27.   Suffering the same fate were relievers Jason Grimsley of the Yankees, Dennis Cook of the Mets and T.J. Mathews of Oakland.

28.   The All-Star reliever was not happy.

29.   The bad news for the Angels was that the relievers were worse than Abbott.

30.   The Baltimore relievers were the last Orioles spraying Champagne and beer and sloshing water in the home clubhouse at Camden Yards on Sunday, and that was apropos.