Daniel Bard

Once among the best young relief pitchers in baseball, Boston Red Sox right-hander Daniel Bard looked lost last year during an attempted conversion to the starting rotation.

Although he has made great strides to reclaim his career this spring, it appears he still has work to do and will likely start the 2013 season in the minors. 

Shortly after creating MLBDepthCharts.com, I quickly realized just how important it was for fantasy baseball players to find the guy who was “next in line” for saves. Even if it’s just to give the regular closer a break after a few consecutive days of work, saves are valuable for fantasy geeks. 

It may have been small, but Boston Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard recently took a positive step forward in his quest to reclaim his career.

After three seasons as one of the most dominant setup men in baseball, Bard converted to starting last season, which turned out to be an unqualified disaster.

At last, the Boston Red Sox finally made a decision on struggling starting pitcher Daniel Bard.

They sent him to Triple-A Pawtucket to try and figure things out without hurting the major league club.

To the delight of many Red Sox fans across Red Sox Nation, we heard an announcement in the eighth inning of last night’s meeting against the Minnesota Twins: Daniel Bard was warming up in the bullpen.

Innings limits may not always be the most popular thing for managers and owners to impose, but they are definitely important in keeping young arms fresh and healthy.

If you haven't looked at it yet, just know that the starting pitching pool is pretty deep this season. Fantasy junkies everywhere should be looking forward to their draft, if they haven't drafted already, of course.

There are some pretty good sleepers in the pool. I'm a big fan of Brandon Morrow and Brandon Beachy, and I'm of the mind that Madison Bumgarner could contend for the National League Cy Young this year. 

A new year of fantasy baseball rolls around. Will your strategy from last year work as well this year? No, probably not, because the field of players changes so dramatically each year; you want to develop a new approach that fits this years' players. Here are five things that you should remember when drafting, and even after your draft, when you're proposing trades and adding free agents:

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This is sort of like last minute Christmas shopping. Here is one final tip for you before you have your fantasy baseball league draft. Sorry but I can't stop you from picking a bunch of stiffs. What I can do is give you a few ideas as to which "sleepers" might be able to help your team in spite of your other draft picks.

By George Campbell

Red Sox setup man Daniel Bard had his best outing of the spring Tuesday as the Sox beat the Astros 3-2.

Bard was in the unusual position of coming in the inning after closer Jonathan Papelbon. He pitched the sixth inning, getting out all three batters he faced, including two by strikeout.