Today is the 16th anniversary of the debut of the show “Catdog” on Nickelodeon. I remember watching this as a kid and while it was never a favorite, it did often make me wonder how Catdog was able to go the bathroom.

On today’s agenda:
1. Alejandro De Aza’s power
2. An announcement of an announcement for the New York Mets
3. Michael Bourn begins rehab assignment
4. The Daily Five

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With the exception of all the Jim Johnson concerns, a lot of positive discussion took place in the comments last evening after the Bullpen Report hit the interwebs. Thank you, I/we appreciate the feedback.

-Just when the murky waters in Chicago appeared to clear, Matt Lindstrom surrendered two earned runs on two hits and a walk in a save situation this evening against the Twins. The blown save is the first on the season for Lindstrom, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Nate Jones is ready to take on ninth-inning duties. Jones appeared in the seventh-inning tonight, surrendered free passes to the first two batters he faced, then was immediately relieved of his duties. Maikel Cleto took over for Jones with two on and no out, but couldn’t keep Jones’ two runners from scoring. After the game, both Robin Ventura and Nate Jones himself acknowledged that the reliever experienced some discomfort during the game. Don’t drop Lindstrom just yet.
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Welcome to RotoNotGraphs. Despite the whimsical title, we have an actual topic to discuss today – who is throwing very hard?

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• It is just too early for any PAIN, HURT or SLOW reports, but I do have some decent early season information on fastball velocities. Every morning I will try to Tweet out pitchers who are seeing a major increase or decrease in velocity. You can follow me at @jeffwzimmerman or to see the most recent information, go to https://twitter.com/jeffwzimmerman.

• One pitcher who I am keeping a close eye on is Ubaldo Jimenez. His velocity was down 2 mph.

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It’s time to panic! No, it’s not time to panic, but no matter how many times we tell you that the season is a marathon, not a sprint, some just can’t help from over analyzing and heading to the waiver wire for the short-term solution in their middle reliever slots. Just see all the action over at the Bullpen Report. I can understand the chase to find the next guy for saves, but with all the early-season injuries and movement in the bullpens, is it worth risking a high-upside holds guy? Depends on you team’s needs I suppose.. At any rate, try not to panic too much.

This week we’ll take a look at a few middle relievers that may or may not be owned in your leagues, depending on depth, that could be relevant in holds, solds and standard leagues..

All ownership percentages reflect Yahoo! leagues.

Adam Ottavino | Rockies | 0%
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What’s up today

1.  Blasted early games
2.  DFS late picks
3.  Traditional fantasy pitchers (tomorrow)
4.  Das Chart

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They’re baaaaaaaaaack!

Remember the jumpers? That’s right, just three games into the regular season and they have returned. You know who I’m talking about. They’re the ones in your league who just can’t seem to control themselves. They’re the ones with the itchy trigger fingers when it comes to the waiver wire. They’re the ones who have to make a trade right now. They’re the ones who blow through the majority of their FAAB budget before the end of April. And you know what…? They’re the ones who trash their fantasy season before it even really starts. Read the rest of this entry »

Baseball is back! It is, it’s true. Yasiel Puig is hitting ridiculous bombs and Jose Fernandez is throwing ridiculous breaking balls and everything. Guess what else has happened three days in? This daily fantasy player has had a night where everything went well and one where everything went wrong. Such is life in the world of daily fantasy, which is why playing daily is nearly a must – stuff is gonna happen in a single day, like Aaron Harang busting your four-player Milwaukee Brewers stack with an inexplicable 6.2 innings of two-hit ball. Anyway, keep with it. Now let’s look at some stolen base stuff.

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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages…I’m going to have a hard time concentrating today. As you can see in the byline below this article, I am a shameless pro wrestling fan — with WrestleMania XXX coming up this Sunday, I’ll do my best to prevent my subconscious from letting this turn into an endless stream of irrelevant wrasslin’ references. Let’s take a swig of beer for the workin’ man and get this show on the road, shall we?

Roenis Elias is making his first major-league start tonight, and he’s a pretty interesting guy to talk about. The 25-year-old Cuban has lively raw stuff and a decent track record in the minors over the last couple seasons, but no one went into Spring Training expecting him to crack the major-league rotation. However, with Hisashi Iwakuma and Taijuan Walker on the shelf to open the season, and veteran reclamation project Scott Baker pitching so poorly in March that the Mariners released him, the left-handed Elias finds himself making the jump from Double-A to the big leagues.

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A new season beginning means a new set of tiered rankings. As usual, I’ll be sharing with you lovely readers my American League starting pitcher ranks. All my rankings lists are based on projected value moving forward with no accounting for what the pitcher has already done (which of course is nothing for the majority of pitchers at this point). I am extremely patient before moving a pitcher up or down, mostly ignore ERA and focus primarily on a pitcher’s underlying skills. Though tier rankings are supposed to consider all pitchers within a tier as essentially interchangeable, this list is a straight copy and paste from my projected dollar values, so it will begin in order. For your debating pleasure, my tiers have been named after Parks and Recreation characters.

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