Can We Get By Without a 5th Starter?

He can always waive that clause if he really wants more playing time.

Juan Cruz was once a starter, he is available and has been damn effective for a while now. What about converting him to a 5 inning starter?

Or, signing Cruz and putting Scot Shields back in the rotation where he was pretty effective in 2003?

Just a couple of non-traditional thoughts.

But, even without those happening, I’d take my chances with Moseley before signing any of those guys listed. That is a motley crew, for sure. Kip Wells is awful and he’d be the first one I offer a contract to…

….Kris Benson’s wife for a $1000 please Alex

every win helps

But we just invested a lot of dough in Santana’s elbow, and hopefully we’re doing the same soon with Lackey’s arm. I want to protect that investment.

There’s a long list of available guys above. There’s also very little demand at the moment, so there will likely be quality guys available through June and July. Escobar may be back by then too. There is no downside to seeing what our younger guys can do, and only then patching any holes that open.

Plus, picking up another arm now would cost us a roster spot. I don’t think Tony’s too enthusiastic about having to cut any of our talent stockpile.

Some stat heads believe in the four-man rotation. The argument is that injury rates are more strongly correlated with pitches per start than total pitches thrown over the course of a season. Pitching doesn’t get you hurt per se, it’s pitching when you’re tired that is risky. This is the basis of BP’s pitcher abuse point system. If you look at that list, you see that Ervin doesn’t come off so badly: he worked a lot, but he limited his total pitches by getting lots of outs. He was 9th in MLB in total innings pitched last year, but was only 18% as abused as the most abused pitcher (Lincecum)—24th overall.

By the way, you have to wonder what the hell the Giants were doing with Lincecum last year. They were never in contention, and it already looks like his limbs could come flying apart at any given moment with that funky delivery of his—why make the 24 year-old future-of-your-franchise throw 110+ pitches in 18 of his 33 starts? He even threw 135 in one game!

Anyways, a four-man rotation obviously has the advantage of cutting the weakest pitcher and giving more innings to the better pitchers. Imagine five or six more games with your ace on the mound. But I think the five-man rotation is too ingrained into “conventional baseball wisdom” for anyone to give it a shot except out of desperation. Sure, there are guys out there who couldn’t constantly pitch on three days’ rest, but there are also guys who can’t constantly pitch on four days’ rest either (I’m looking at you, Rich Harden).

In that, as much as we’d love to have him, we’ve already got our ace. Not saying I want to play hard ball with the guy, but we would at least have the option of not looking/being desperate.

I see no reason why we wouldn’t try to make a deal here. WIth our plethora of shortstops, outfielders, and young pitching this should definitely be workable.

I say give them the option between Aybar/Wood/Izzy and Willits/Mathis, and throw in two of Moseley/Adenhart/Ortega/Jepsen.

For all those B-Wood fans, this could potentially get him an everyday spot in the lineup if the Pads were to get Aybar. If they take Wood, we still have the Aybar/Izzy combo.

This just makes too much sense to me.

The difference isn’t between the Angels #5 guy and other teams’ #5 guy, it’s that the Angels are going to need decent outings from the backend of the rotation because the offense scores fewer runs than other teams.

I think this team is going to lose quite a few 3-2, 2-1 games that are started by Lackey, Santana, et. al., so it’s important the #5 guy can win his share of games.

I want to have the best pitching staff in the game.

The A-Team’s fifth member was always a question mark—sometimes it was Frankie, sometimes it was Tanya, one time it was even the Fridge—but they kicked ass every week nonetheless.

The difference between Moseley and Garland is that Garland can give you 200 innings. Even if he gives up runs Garland can get you 6 or even seven innings a game, which gives the BP tons of rest. If Moseley et al can give you 6 innings a game then go with him, if not its going to be a bumpy ride, especially if another pitcher gets injured along the way.

I’m not saying we should pick up another arm, because it doesn’t seem like too much of a need. But at the same time don’t unvalue what Garland brought to the team.

is actually decent, i wouldnt mind having them instead of mosley. Penny was good as recently as two years ago and last year the doyers forced him to pitch while injured

Their payroll is actually quite reasonable for being in a division with the Yankees and its shrinking.

But, you are right it could be a lot worse. Personally, I’m excited to watch the battle for the role in ST.

That’s not good.

Maybe those numbers are acceptable for a spot starter who you know is only going to start 2 or 3 games, but they’re lousy for a regular starter, even a #5 guy. There has to be at least the chance that he’ll throw a quality game.

At this time a year ago, we were looking at a starting rotation of Lackey, Escobar, Garland, Weaver, and a battle between Saunders and Santana for the 5th spot.
Then, Lackey had elbow problems, Escobar had shoulder problems, and we ended up needing “emergency” starts by Adenhart and Moseley.
This year, we again seem very strong 1-4, but with less possible depth/experience from a 5th or 6th potential starter (Moseley/Jepsen/Adenhart/Loux/Ortega versus Saunders/Santana).
If there are no injuries to 1-4, and if they pitched like last year, we should be fine.
However, if similar “unanticipated events” crop up like last year, we may have serious SP problems.

I hope that damn crystal ball I bought from E-Bay arrives soon…

And therein lies the problem with Moseley. This is the best argument for putting him in a middle relief role. We all saw how he would pitch decently for 4 or 5 innings and then just completely implode. It felt like that everytime he started and well, it looks like that was exactly the case.

Let’s just roll with one of the kids. Find the best innings-eater of the bunch and make him the #5 guy.