Justin Verlander

Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman are lighting up the baseball blogosphere as they make their professional debuts, and with their respective arms there is no reason that they should not be.

Both Strasburg and Chapman can reach 100 and have impressive secondary pitches, especially with their sliders.

With all of the hype surrounding Strasburg and Chapman, it makes you wonder where they would rank among the most hyped pitchers since the year 2000.

In order to make this list, you had to be a hyped arm before your rookie season.

Trading in fantasy sports can be simplified to a four-word common denominator: Sell high, buy low.

The key is knowing which players will bounce back from a slow start and which ones will crash and burn after lighting the fantasy world on fire early on.

It should be noted that at the moment, not even a full week into the MLB's regular season, you won't find too many owners panicking enough about Mark Teixeira's slow start or overzealous about Vernon Wells' astronomical stats thus far.

Pitching wins championships. It is a mantra subscribed to by many baseball enthusiasts, managers, and the like.

However, acquiring the pitching depth and talent to make it to October is easier said than done.

Every team is looking for an ace, a starting pitcher who can compile innings and strikeouts while maintaining a low WHIP and ERA and come through when the club needs a win.

Despite the demand for staff aces, there simply are not enough to go around.

Elite.

Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander finally earned the adulation with a remarkable 2009 campaign.

Starting on May 10, May's American League Pitcher of the Month led the Tigers on a 147-day first place expedition. Though Detroit was dramatically unseated by Minnesota in the 163rd game, it was no fault of Verlander's.

Among AL Triple Crown pitching categories, Verlander ran away with the strikeout title (269), shared the lead in wins (19) with Felix Hernandez and CC Sabathia, and placed sixth in earned run average (3.45).

The Detroit Tigers ended their 2009 season with a devastating extra innings loss to the Minnesota Twins.  Some writers are dubbing the collapse the worst in baseball history, but let’s reflect on the past season.

In 2008, the Tigers finished in the cellar, looking up to the rest of the A.L. Central with no lock on first place entering the ’09 season.  Despite their woes last season, Detroit preserved and maintained the top position for the majority of the year.

The Detroit Tigers are far from a perfect team.

Despite holding a division lead since May 10, the Tigers have failed to pull away from the mediocre pack.

The Tigers took a seven game division lead and Tigers fans started doing the math to determine what kind of a ridiculous streak the Twins would have to get on if the Tigers just managed to play .500 ball.

Unfortunately, Detroit went 8-11 between the sweep of the Rays and the beginning of this last home stand. The Twins went 13-6, even in the midst of losing perennial MVP candidate Justin Morneau for the season.

Being a nice guy is overrated.

A team's ace pitcher doesn't have to be a Dale Carnegie protege.

The exact opposite, in fact, is often what's needed.

Bob Gibson had it.

"It" was the disposition of a hungry, caged lion.

Especially on the days that he was slated to pitch.

It was best to stay out of Gibson's way on those days. Gibson was never really known as a congenial man—still isn't, frankly—but he turned positively wretched when his turn in the rotation came up.

It’s time to look at the potential two-start options for the upcoming fantasy week.  If I have someone rated as a three, four or five-star option, they are someone I would definitely use. 

A two-star option is someone who is borderline, but I’d strongly lean against it unless I have no other options.  The one-star options are an absolutely not scenario.

So, with that said, let’s take a look at the players available to you this week:

5-Star Options: