-A lackluster start to the season by Detroit’s closer-by-committee situation lead the Tigers down a familiar path on Thursday. The American League Central favorites re-signed their former closer, Jose Valverde, to a minor league contract with the option to opt out by May 5th if he’s not called up to the Majors. The 35 year-old veteran is clearly not the long-term solution in Motown, but could serve as a band-aid until Phil Coke, Al Alburquerque or Joaquin Benoit decide to grab ahold of the ninth inning — or until Bruce Rondon is deemed ready for the role.

With the signing — and if he gets the call — Valverde would have the third most career saves among active, non-injured relievers. Entering today, Valverde’s 277 saves would place him behind only future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera (608) and Joe Nathan (298) among those expected to pitch in ‘13.

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Today, I am going to focus on some pitch speed data. While starters have pitched only once, pitch speeds stabilize quickly and the small amount of data is useful. It takes only a couple of pitches to get an idea of a pitcher’s speed.

While a loss in velocity can be a sign of injury, it can also mean a pitcher is in a transition period. All pitcher’s will lose speed over time at the rate of 0.25 mph per year. Pitchers are going to to have to adjust to throwing slower and slower if they want to stay in the league. It is a fact of life.

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Now that drafts are complete and the season has begun, it’s time to just take a quick scan of some of the catchers who are likely sitting out on your waiver wire right now. It’s not like you’re going to make a move and pick someone up, but given the health risks that come with the position, it’s just a good idea to stay prepared and keep a few names in mind as a “just in case.” It’s probably slim pickings out there right now anyway, but there are still a few names who may have some modest value attached, capable of growing further under the right circumstances. Read the rest of this entry »

Streaming is a bit of a funny proposition this early in the year. Less than a week in, you’re probably not ready to cut bait on any players on your roster to take a flyer on a single match-up. After all, you drafted these guys for a reason.

But perhaps a player has hit the disabled list, or a prospect you were sure would make the team has been sent down. If you find yourself with a roster spot in hand and a desire to Stream, Aim, Fire, then by all means, read on.

The following streaming options are owned in less than 50 percent of Yahoo leagues, with an extra deep streamer tucked away at the bottom.

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Fantasy Players spend a tremendous amount of time every season chasing Saves. Relief pitchers are for the most part inherently unreliable and unpredictable and there tends to be a tremendous amount of turnover at the position. So with so much unreliability among relievers, why bother investing in relief prospects? Well, there are some arms out there who are just so filthy they demand your attention. Sure, you can make do finding the next Casey Janssen and get a solid solution for a year or two… but there’s also something to be said for finding the next K-Rod before he explodes on to the scene. Here are three of my favorite prospects who could be racking up Saves in the near future.

Bruce Rondon, RHP, Detroit Tigers

You all know the score here. Rondon shouldn’t be a new name to any of you, but all the same you can’t do a relief pitcher prospect article and not mention him, can you? The young Venezuelan fireballer had a shot to run away with the 9th inning job in Detroit this Spring but command lapses and inconsistency have him back at Toledo to start the year. Rondon began 2012 in the Florida State League but dominated minor league hitters with an overpowering fastball that hits triple digits. Read the rest of this entry »

A week and a half ago, I unveiled the preseason American League starting pitcher tiered rankings. Obviously, I couldn’t rank every single pitcher currently with a rotation spot. So today I’ll take a look at some of the unranked guys and what kind of potential they have in breaking in to the rankings.

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Today’s Roto Riteup discusses a colon, but I promise I won’t show you pictures of mine.

On today’s agenda:
1. A reminder on early season weather
2. Bartolo Colon’s debut planned for Saturday
3. Mike Zunino in Triple-A
4. Injury Notes

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Fantasy owners should never make drastic decisions based on just a few games. With opening week in full swing, it can be tough to adhere to that sentiment. As late-round fliers get off to poor starts, it can be tempting to cut bait for a player who has clubbed a couple home runs just a few days into the season. The point is, generally, you don’t want to give up on your guys this soon. If you have to make a move, or you’re already looking for a DL fill-in, it’s wise to try and target potential high-reward guys. You shouldn’t necessarily be picking up players based on their performances, you should consider whether you considered them to have decent upside before the season started. Tyler Flowers and Patrick Corbin are two players that fit that bill less than a week into the season.

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• Phil Coke got a second crack at closing a game for the Tigers but ended up being far less successful than he was in his first. After Joaquin Benoit walked Trevor Plouffe to start the ninth (never a good thing), Coke induced a fly out, but then gave up single, double to turn a 2-1 lead into a 3-2 loss. In his defense, the double really should have been caught had it not been for some outfield miscommunication, but it still wasn’t an effective outing by any metric. I have been bearish the past week on Coke’s potential given his .275/.346 versus LHH/RHH wOBA splits and this outing only underscores his platoon concerns (all of the baserunners who reached today were right-handed hitters). The walk was really Benoit’s lone blemish today, so he’s likely still an option in the ninth, although Jim Leyland could just as easily roll with Al Alburquerque or Octavio Dotel, too. Your best bet with this pen may be to just pick up one of the four, hold them on your bench for a little bit, and gamble on them picking up the hot hand. It feels like picking names out of a hat right now.

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For the first time this year, I am participating in a league that counts on base percentage instead of batting average. And it’s a big league — Tout Wars. Eno and I are both competing, so we will have first hand knowledge/experience with this format and how hitter values change. As a result, we will be able to include OBP analysis in our articles if enough of you readers play in such leagues.

So, please tell us whether you play in a league that includes OBP as a category instead of AVG.