Just a quick one today as we are working diligently this evening with the hopes of launching the all-new Fantasy Alarm Podcast. During football season, I started recording Quick Hits, a series of 15-minute podcasts designed to provide you with solid information in quick sound-bytes, rather than have you trudge through a full hour. Not everyone has time for the full-hour listen, so we thought it was rather convenient.

But the platform we were using had some massive technical difficulties and the time just started to get away from me on a regular basis, so we had to throw it on the back-burner. Well, that burner is lit and we will be rolling out a whole bunch of quick, downloadable audio soon enough. We’re also going to be launching more video as well, so stand by. I don’t want to get ahead of myself just yet, so I’ll leave it all at that.

In any event, I didn’t want to leave you all high and dry without a Daily Bender, so I will share with you another valuable piece of seasonal fantasy baseball information which was brought up on today’s show.

If you didn’t have a chance to listen to theshow on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio, you missed a doozy with the legend, Lenny Melnick sitting in as my guest co-host. Listening to the two of us should have invoked visions of Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon in Grumpy Old Men or Statler and Waldorf, the two old guys from the Muppet Show balcony. In any event, the two of us got onto the topic of middle relievers and he pointed me towards an article in The Fantasy Baseball Guide, written by Andrea LaMont, entitled “The Effector,” which discusses the change in usage of some middle relievers and closers.

I don’t have a link to it as you have to download the Guide (askrotoman.com), but to summarize, she points to how Indians manager Terry Francona utilized Andrew Miller in the sixth and seventh innings as a better way to bridge the gap between starter and closer. He subscribes to the belief that your closer is not necessarily your best bullpen arm and if you need to stifle a sixth-inning rally by the opposition, you bring that reliever in rather than hold them for the ninth. To put it another way, it’s why Joaquin Benoit is now the Phillies closer and not Hector Neris.

With regard to fantasy, it opens up an interesting possibility. Most owners don’t like to pick up a middle reliever unless their league scores holds and there is a direct path to accruing saves. But owning an effector opens up the possibility of so much more. Not only are they usually a help in the ratios and strikeouts, but now you have a guy who is very likely to start vulturing wins while also picking up holds and, at times, saves as well. Miller and Dellin Betances have been the two most-popular effectors, but we’re starting to see some new names pop up this season.

In addition to Neris, you’ve got Arizona’s Archie Bradley and Houston’s Chris Devenski. Neris doesn’t often go more than an inning, but both Bradley and Devenski are used to it now as former starters and both are probably capable of handling 80-90 innings in a given season. Just imagine a guy who offers you 80 innings with 100 strikeouts and eight wins all the while posting a 2.00 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP. If your league scores holds, you’re set and if he ends up helping out in the ninth, which Bradley is likely to do eventually, and pick up some saves as well. I’d say that player has more value than some shlub No. 5 starter who can’t pitch his way out of a paper bag.

Plenty more coming at you tomorrow, for sure. I’ve got a lot of writing and recording coming up in the next few days, so buckle in! It’s going to be one hell of a ride!