KFFL answers important fantasy baseball questions about each Major League Baseball team as spring training approaches. What must fantasy baseball players know about the Colorado Rockies?

How does Troy Tulowitzki's health record affect his stock?

Power for a price

Tulo's strained left groin muscle, sustained at the end of last May and an aggravation of a tweak he'd suffered a couple of weeks prior, turned out to be such a problem because of scar tissue buildup around a nerve in the area. He had surgery to remove the scar tissue three weeks later, after that discovery, and he was projected to miss eight weeks. Optimism about his pending return lasted for about a month, but he didn't make it back to major league action.

The good news: Tulowitzki's groin is no longer a problem. He reported after the New Year that he's completely healthy, and whether that's true, the important thing is that he'll be cleared well in advance of spring training. Of course, there's bad news: The shortstop dealt with other maladies (bruised elbow, hip flexor discomfort and bruised fibula) and was so slow to recover that it leaves a terrible taste in one's mouth. It's compounded because he played in more than 122 games only twice in his previous four seasons.

In each of the past two years, roto managers were willing to look past Tulowitzki's health hazards and select him in the first round, perhaps even in the top five. They used the lack of depth at his position and the potential reward to justify the risk. In 2013, they won't be so eager, so sensible bidders may consider the risk justified. The 28-year-old has incorporated flexibility exercises and yoga into his offseason routine in order to prevent muscle injuries. That'll help.

Will that help enough, though? His multiple leg injuries have obviously taken a toll on his desire to run frequently, and that may continue. Although shortstop isn't littered with 30-homer, 100-RBI types, most of them come at a small fraction of the cost and are either good bets to play in 145 games or put up pretty good numbers in multiple categories.

And yet, none of them will play half of their games at Coors Field, and almost none of them are MVP candidates. Tulo won't come cheaply, but at least he'll be discounted a bit, finally.