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| Indians closer Chris Perez suffered a strained left oblique about halfway through his first bullpen session of the spring and was told by team physicians that he would be sidelined for 4-6 weeks with a good chance of missing Opening Day. Perez was confident from the outset that he could beat that timetable, however, and went so far as to predict in late February that he would be ready to make his Cactus League debut by March 15. It sounded a overly optimistic at the time, but now it's beginning to look spot-on. Perez made 45 throws from a distance of 60 feet on Tuesday in Indians camp, then moved to a distance of 75 feet on Wednesday. Once he's able to extend to 120 feet, he will only be a day or two away from gaining clearance to resume mound workouts. And it won't be long after that before he's throwing simulated games. As a closer, Perez won't need more than seven or eight appearances in Cactus League games to get sufficiently tuned up for the start of the regular season. So while Indians setup man Vinnie Pestano remains a nice handcuff in non-holds fantasy leagues, Perez is still the top dog in Cleveland and an attractive option at the lower end of mixed league drafts. This is just one of many spring training storylines that we're tracking in our constantly-updated Online Draft Guide. Get your fantasy baseball season started with us.  |
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