THEIR TIME WILL COME: PITCHERS

But not yet! There is an eternally-frustrating class of players, which is the young pitcher on the verge of stardom who can provide an immediate boost to a club's rotation.

BARB has rules for such pitcher's eligibility! Here's the rule:

Let a PITCHER be considered ELIGIBLE for BARB play when they have amassed either 10 appearances or 25 innings pitched in the current season or 20 appearances or 50 innings pitched in the prior season plus at least 5 appearances or 10 innings pitched in the current season.

So, it happens every year that people have phenoms they want to use right away, but they have to wait for them to reestablish their eligibility, even if they qualified for BARB play in the last two weeks of the 2007 season. Pitchers get cups of coffee and often do very well in a brief first go-round through the league, and the eligibility rule levels the playing field for those players.

So, here are the affected pitchers, by team:

BLACK MESA: RHP Homer Bailey, LHP Glen Perkins

BROOKLYN: LHP Manny Parra, RHP Jonathan Meloan, LHP Ross Detwiler

CASSELTON: RHP Felipe Paulino

DARWIN: LHP Franklin Morales

FROSTBITE FALLS: None.

LAS VEGAS: None.

LEXINGTON: RHP Nick Blackburn, RHP Joba Chamberlain

OAKEYLAND: LHP Dana Eveland

POTTSYLVANIA: RHP Yorman Bazardo, RHP Bret Prinz

S-MART: LHP Garret Olson

WORCESTER: RHP Ian Kennedy, LHP Adam Loewen, RHP Fabio Castro, RHP Mark Lowe

YUMA: RHP Clay Buchholz, RHP Edison Volquez, LHP Troy Patton

Also in this category, but released to free agency: RHP Tyler Clippard, LHP Andrew Sisco, LHP Jason Vargas

So let's be clear! The above pitchers pitched last year in the majors, but are not yet eligible for BARB play. They will need to accumulate 10 appearances or 25 innings pitched in the present season before they will be eligible.