It has been confirmed Trevor Rosenthal will start the year in the bullpen. At the starting of training camp he had an outside shot for the fifth spot in the rotation. Now there are two pitchers vying for that spot in the rotation: Joe Kelly and Shelby Miller. From a fantasy perspective I’m hoping Miller gets that spot because he can miss a ton of bats and be extremely dominant. I bet Kelly starts the year in the rotation and Miller begins the year in Triple-A in attempt to delay his big league service time from starting. Rosenthal becomes a sneaky player for saves if something were to happen to Jason Motte.

Rafael Furcal will have surgery on his right elbow and is likely out for the year.

Derek Lowe was signed by the Rangers to add depth to the pitching staff. Other than AL-only or extremely deep leagues he should not be owned because he’ll likely be the long man in the rotation and may be spot started here and there. What worries me the most is his strikeout rate went from 16.5% in 2011 to only 8.6% in 2012.

It looks as though Johan Santana will make Spring Training debut next Thursday (3.14.13) against the Detroit Tigers. I love Santana as a late round flier because last year he showed glimpses of dominance. For the first three months of the 2012 season he was vintage Santana striking out 23.5% of batters with a 2.76 ERA.