Nothing annoys me more than when a reader asks a good question and I don’t get around to answering it. One of my favorite things as a fantasy baseball writer is answering readers’ questions directly. So while this question isn’t a particularly relevant one midseason, hopefully it will still provide some value for my readers, and is something that they will remember and take with them into 2014 and beyond.

Have you ever tried charting auctions to watch where the money gets spent?

Welcome to another installment of The Bullpen Report. As a reminder, closers are rated in five tiers from best to worst. The tiers are a combination of my opinion of a pitcher’s ability, the likelihood that he will pick up saves, and his security in the job. For example, a pitcher in the third tier might have better skills than a pitcher in the second tier, but if the third-tier pitcher is new to the job or has blown a couple of saves in the last week, this factors into the ranking as well.

In addition to my weekly rankings, this week I will be taking a look at teams that might be sellers and the relievers who might be trade targets at the major-league trade deadline. For every other position on the diamond, player trades matter almost solely in -only leagues, where you run the risk of losing someone to the “other” league. If a first baseman gets moved from a National League to an American League squad, the mixed-league impact is typically negligible. Closers are the rare commodities where fantasy owners in every format are at risk if there is a trade. More often than not, a closer who gets shipped out of town at or near the deadline moves from the front of a bullpen into a set-up role.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Welcome to the revamped version of the Free Agent Watch. The staff at Baseball Prospectus read a number of comments on how to enhance this piece and made the following changes:

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Every year, in both real baseball and the fantasy version, we tell ourselves that certain players are prone to either fast starts or slow starts, as in: “Don’t worry, that player always gets off to a slow start. He’ll come around.” Or, “that guy is always en fuego in April. If you’re counting on a 40 HR, 100 RBI season from him, you’re surely going to be disappointed.”

In deeper leagues, it’s irrelevant whether a player is a hot starter or a cold starter. If you spend $20 on a slow-starting corner infielder and your alternatives in the free agent pool are Eduardo Escobar and Pedro Ciriaco, you’re not going to jettison the slow starter for these bottom-of-the-barrel options.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Welcome to another installment of The Bullpen Report. As a reminder, closers are rated in five tiers from best to worst. The tiers are a combination of my opinion of a pitcher’s ability, the likelihood that he will pick up saves, and his security in the job. For example, A pitcher in the third tier might have better skills than a pitcher in the second tier, but if the third tier pitcher is new to the job or has blown a couple of saves in the last week this factors into the ranking as well.

Since the big news right now is Biogenesis, it’s worth noting that there are no active major-league relievers listed in the reports released so far. This isn’t a definitive or final iteration of the list by any means: There are other names in the documents that haven’t been released or that are listed under code names, according to the sources in the story as reported by ESPN. However, in terms of known risk, there isn’t anything to see here.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

If you are in a keeper league and your team is mired in the second division, you are at least considering packing it in and playing for 2014. However, depending on your league’s rules and the aggressiveness of your competitors, some of the teams in your league may have already thrown in the towel and begun to play for next year.

If this is the case, does this put your squad at a competitive disadvantage? Or is it possible to be patient, wait to cash in your chips, and wait as long as possible to play for next year?

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

The Situation: Tampa Bay originally called up Colome to help solidify its bullpen, but ended up needing him in the starting rotation when Alex Cobb came down with an injured finger.

Background: Signed in 2007, Colome did not make his stateside debut  until 2008, when he was torched for a 6.80 ERA in 46 1/3 rookie-league innings. He improved dramatically the following year in the New York-Penn League, posting a 1.66 ERA across 15 starts while striking out more than 11 batters per nine innings. As the Rays typically do, they have moved Colome slowly through the system; he spent the entire 2010 season in Low-A and then the majority of the 2011 season in High-A. Late in the 2011 season, he was promoted to Double-A Montgomery for nine starts and he finished with a 4.15 ERA and less than a hit per inning, though he did walk 28 batters and only strike out 31. During a return trip to Double-A in 2012, Colome battled injuries but still showed improvement across the board, as he continued to refine his arsenal. Entering the 2013 season, Colome ranked 10^th on BP’s Rays Top 10 Prospects list. With Triple-A Durham this season, Colome has notched a 2.60 ERA in 10 starts, allowing just 46 hits and 22 walks in 55 1/3 innings while fanning 61 hitters.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Welcome to another installment of The Bullpen Report. As a reminder, closers are rated in five tiers from best to worst. The tiers are a combination of my opinion of a pitcher’s ability, the likelihood that he will pick up saves, and his security in the job. For example, a pitcher in the third tier might have better skills than a pitcher in the second tier, but if the third-tier pitcher is new to the job or has blown a couple of saves in the last week, this factors into the ranking as well.

Tier 1: Money in the Bank

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

For this installment of the Bullpen Report, I am adding rankings, by popular demand. Closers are rated in five tiers, from best to worst. The tiers are a combination of my opinion of a pitcher’s ability, the likelihood that he will pick up saves, and his security in the job. For example, a pitcher in the third tier might have better skills than a pitcher in the second tier, but if the third-tier pitcher is new to the job or has blown a couple of saves in the last week, this factors into the ranking as well.

Tier 1 – Money in the Bank

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Every week, Baseball Prospectus’ own Bret Sayre puts together The Stash List. This list is an invaluable resource. I often use it not only to ascertain who might be close to making an impact in my deep leagues but also to get a feel for what the market value might be for a player. In leagues where I can bid on minor leaguers, this gives me a feel for when I might need to bid; in leagues where I can’t bid on minor leaguers, this tells me what I might need to bid.

However, in some of the deeper leagues I play in, Bret’s list isn’t of much use. Two of the expert leagues I’m in allow owners to stash minor leaguers, and the reserve lists are deep enough that even in non-keeper formats the top prospects that might make it up in 2013 are long gone. Speculation also runs rampant in these types of cutthroat leagues. If you think you’re going to be the lucky soul that snags Christian Yelich a week before his call-up, forget about it. Yelich is already owned in Tout Wars and in most deep leagues with any appreciable reserve depth.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Baseball Prospectus’ Reliever Report: Fantasy Edition. This is a fairly standard article in the fantasy community, so a long, drawn-out introduction is unnecessary.  The focus every week will be on:

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.

Most fantasy web sites and other resources do little if any analysis on playing for next year, or what is known less elegantly as “dumping.” Some analysts refuse to even acknowledge that it is part of the game and advise that it is always best to trade with this year in mind and worry about future consequences next year.

In reality, if you’re in a keeper league, you will probably have to give up and play for next year sooner or later. If other teams are building rosters for 2014 around cheap players such as Bryce Harper, Matt Harvey, and Shelby Miller, and you are sitting back while your team languishes in seventh place with little hope of winning, you are not doing yourself any favors.

The remainder of this post cannot be viewed at this subscription level. Please click here to subscribe.