With Shawn Marcum coming off the DL the Jays have six starting pitchers. Who would you drop from the rotation?
Brett Cecil | 4 (2.52%) |
Jesse Litsch | 96 (60.38%) |
Shaun Marcum | 2 (1.26%) |
Brandon Morrow | 0 (0.00%) |
Ricky Romero | 1 (0.63%) |
Marc Rzepczynski | 56 (35.22%) |
Romero appears to be running out of gas in 2010, as he did in 2009, and Morrow and Cecil could both stand to miss a start or three. I don't think it matters much who is officially in the rotation coming out of the All-Star break, provided LItsch, Zep (and probably Mills) make quite a few starts during the second half.
This poll should be restarted with a 7th and perhaps 8th answer -
7. Nobody, I'd use a 6 man rotation with a 6 man bullpen.
8. Nobody, I'd use a 6 man rotation and cut Nick Green.
I'm with 92-93. Personally, I would vote option 8 were it available. I think the Jays need to preserve the young arms of Marcum, Morrow and Romero as there really is more risk than reward in playing them extensively in the second half - Ricky and Shaun especially.
Jesse should not be relegated to the bullpen as he is coming off of injury and could use the time to build up his arm again and he needs to do that as a starter in the majors. Cecil and Zep can both use the starting time as well as they would both project there, but could easily be relegated to the bullpen if needed as well.
I favour option 8 over option 7 as Cito doesn't dip into the bench much anyway and if there are a couple of ugly starts in a row, a 6 man bullpen could get tired in a hurry, which would be disastrous.
Even Doc would occasionally have a bad start or a string of 2 or3 that were not up to his usual standards (which of course provoked the "What's wrong with Doc?!!?" reactions) - no one here is tired yet, though I wouldn't be surprised if Morrow is gassed by late August.
I sympathize with Jesse but I think it's more important we be very sure what Zep can do in the majors this year than Litsch. Everyone, including the pitchers themselves, realize that Vegas "ugliness" has to be taken in context, so I see no problem letting Jesse fine tune his recovery in AAA until an injury or some other circumstance opens the door to come back.
As for Mills, short of trading him I have no answer. Unless there's more than one injury, he's #7 and we won't be going to a 7-man rotation.
I can see going to the six man from around August 20 or so though