FanHouse JoseValverde

The Astros announced that they had taken steps to correct a "discrepancy" in the paperwork with closer Jose Valverde's age. Apparently, some sources had Valverde's birthday listed as March 24, 1979 while others listed it as March 24, 1978. Unsurprisingly, the earlier date is the right one, so Valverde is actually a year older than most people think.

This news comes at a very bad time for Valverde because he's going to be a free agent in November. A 31-year-old closer will always be more valuable than a 32-year old closer and suddenly, Valverde's been moved from one class to the other. I can't imagine he's terribly happy about the timing of this, even if he's presumably known how old he is the whole time.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

Matt Garza is one of those talented pitchers that novice owners probably lost patience with quickly. And if they did, they were watching Thursday's spectacular performance kicking themselves. Garza, who had struggled with his command through his first four starts, took a perfect game bid into the seventh inning against the Red Sox and finished with a line worthy of adulation: 7 2/3 innings, 10 strikeouts, 1 hit, 1 walk, no runs. Has he turned the corner that quickly?

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

The Washington Nationals will be looking for a new closer as Joel Hanrahan has been fired. He was given the opportunity to close out five games and blew saves in three of those. His ERA is an unhealthy 8.64. The team will look to use a closer by committee approach for a while, waiting to see if injured Joe Beimel can return and flourish.

Tuesday, one day after Hanrahan surrendered a game-losing grand slam, Manager Manny Acta said that his team would now finish games -- or at least try to finish them -- with a committee of relief pitchers that includes Julián Tavárez and Kip Wells, both signed in March to non-guaranteed minor league deals. Once Joe Beimel (left hip flexor) returns from the disabled list in the first week of May, he could either join the mix or claim the job for himself.

We just concluded our fantasy draft here at Fanhouse. I have to say that I like what I did here.

It's a 12-team, rotisserie mixed-league using standard 5X5 scoring categories and rosters that include two catchers, a first baseman, a second baseman, a shortstop, a third baseman, a corner infielder, a middle infielder, five outfielders, a utility hitter, nine pitchers and three bench players.

Here's the Extra Base Knox team:

Round 1(3) - Albert Pujols, Cardinals - Wright and Hanley Ramirez went with the first two picks. Pujols is the best remaining player so I went with him. I'll take his massive offense in four of the five categories and smile all the way.

Round 2(22) - Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners - I made a tough decision here between him and Justin Morneau. I love Ichiro's speed and great batting average. With such high batting averages from my first two picks, I should be able to grab a big home run hitter with a low average later in the draft if I choose.

Round 3(27) - Carl Crawford, Rays - I didn't go power, I went speed again. Crawford plus Ichiro will pretty much guarantee my team is near the top in stolen bases.

When drafting in fantasy baseball, I often find rankings are a lot less useful than using the tier system. Simply group guys together with others who will perform similarly, and you won't focus on single players. Being frazzled when that single player is taken immediately before your pick is a good way to ruin your draft.

We're definitely not proponents of drafting closers high, but getting the last member of a tier at good value could work in the right situations.

FanHouse positional rankings were compiled by averaging the individual rankings of each member of the Fantasy FanHouse staff.

If starting pitching is considered fickle, relief pitching is some disastrous, climactic result of the chaos effect. Okay, maybe that's a touch too much. On the other hand, there are nearly zero true options when it comes to picking closers and relief pitchers; there's just too much turnover.

That's why guys like Joe Nathan and Jonathan Papelbon, as noted by Snyder elsewhere, are so valuable: they're stone-cold locks for certain numbers every single year. After the jump, find out what record-setting, former free agent we don't think will end up as the No. 1 closer this year.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Team who refuses to rebuild. Seriously, Drayton McLane, just keep holding out hope you can win the World Series and making your general managers deal every prospect you ever stumble across for the likes of Miguel Tejada and an overrated closer. It just keeps setting the franchise back years at a time. For now, they are solving a broken leg with a band-aid by winning 86 games and treading water.

You probably don't need me to point Ed Wade's failings as a general manager out to you continuously, but given that some people still attribute their near-playoff run last year to some kind of genius on his part, I feel like it's important to point out why that's just not true. Today, the Astros inked an $8 million deal with closer Jose Valverde, avoiding arbitration.

That seems like a decent deal for a decent closer, but consider that it basically comes at the expense of Ty Wigginton. Wigginton was non-tendered rather than being given a similar contract by Houston after a career year last year when he hit . So the Astros will now play Geoff Blum at third base, who's probably a considerable downgrade from Wigginton, and instead have a guy that will pitch 70 innings this year, if the Astros are lucky.

Really, Houston could've kept Wigginton at third and dealt Valverde, who's led the NL in saves the past two seasons. He's not a bad closer, but a position player is always going to be more valuable, especially for a team that doesn't have much pop to back Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee. If the Astros are trying to keep pace with the Cardinals, Cubs, and Brewers, this isn't the way to do it.

The Indians were originally expected to address their middle infield before attempting to sign one of the many second-tier closers on the market, but after determining that neither Orlando Hudson (wrist) nor Rafael Furcal (back) were worth the risk, they've now set their sights on plugging the back of their bullpen.

According to Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Indians have spoken to Francisco Rodriguez but aren't confident they'll be able to outbid the Mets. And as my colleague Andrew Johnson noted last week, this really isn't the winter that teams should feel compelled to overpay for saves.

Instead, the Indians would be wise to let someone else give K-Rod a record-breaking contract while getting nearly the same production at half the price from Brian Fuentes, Kerry Wood, Trevor Hoffman, Brandon Lyon, or another free agent, or trade for one of the handful of accomplished closers rumored to be on the block, such as J.J. Putz, Jose Valverde or Bobby Jenks.

My guess is that the Indians make a move for Trevor Hoffman. GM Mark Shapiro has already admitted that Hoffman is one of the guys he wants to look at, and at 41 years old, Hoffman likely won't be looking for as many years as most of the other free agents. Plus, while most of the other guys will likely wait for K-Rod or the Mets make a move to set the bar, Hoffman would probably settle for just a modest raise from last year's $7.5 million.

Hat-tip: MLB Trade Rumors

From the Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

A strange thing is happening in the National League wild-card race this year. The Brewers, who had a stranglehold on the race as recently as about a week ago, have fallen apart and opened the door up for a number of teams who seemed to be as good as done. One team who's had the door opened for them is the Houston Astros. They've spent most of the season well out of contention, but a well-timed hot streak has them contending, much like the Rockies did last year.

What makes this hot streak even more interesting is that the man behind it, general manager Ed Wade, has made a string of nearly inexplicable, almost indefensible, moves to try and improve the team. They are making a run at things, but it's been mostly lead by Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt, and Ty Wigginton. All of them were Astros before Wade's hiring. What, exactly, is going on in Houston?