STARTING PITCHING MARKET

A glance at this year's potential free-agent starting pitchers (age in parentheses; *-pitcher with a team option for 2013):

TIER I: Ace in his prime

Zack Greinke (28)

TIER II: Close to their prime

Dan Haren* (32), Brandon McCarthy (29), Shawn Marcum (31), Jake Peavy* (32), Anibal Sanchez (29)

TIER III: Oldies but goodies

Ryan Dempster (36), Hiroki Kuroda (38), Kyle Lohse (34)

TIER IV: Boom or bust

Gavin Floyd* (30), Edwin Jackson (29), Francisco Liriano (29), Ervin Santana* (30)

TIER V: Call me, maybe

Scott Baker* (31), Kevin Correia (32), Scott Feldman (29), Jeremy Guthrie (34), Hisashi Iwakuma (32), Paul Maholm* (31), Joe Saunders (32), Carlos Villanueva (29)

TIER VI: Still hanging on

Bartolo Colon (40), Aaron Cook (34), Jason Marquis (34), Kevin Millwood (38), Kip Wells (36), Randy Wolf (36), Chris Young (34), Carlos Zambrano (32)

TIER VI: Reclamation projects

Erik Bedard (34), Rich Harden (31), Roberto Hernandez (32), Daisuke Matsuzaka (32), Roy Oswalt (35), Carl Pavano (37), Chien-Ming Wang (33)

JOE CHRISTENSEN