Yeah, need to login.

1. Red Sox: Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Buchholz, No. 6 Tim Wakefield. On paper, a strong group — if Beckett has a season worthy of a contract drive, if Lackey succeeds in making the transition to the American League East, if Matsuzaka can finally get on the same page as the Red Sox staff and if Buchholz continues to improve.

   2. Yankees: CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, Javier Vazquez, Phil Hughes. As usual, Burnett is the key for this group; it could be the best if he pitches at an elite level.

   3. White Sox: Jake Peavy, Mark Buehrle, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, Freddy Garcia. Peavy looked great in his three starts down the stretch this past season. More on that in Wednesday’s blog.

   4. Angels: Jered Weaver, Scott Kazmir, Joe Saunders, Ervin Santana, Joel Pineiro. Lackey is gone, but if Santana is healthy, this could be an excellent group.

   5. Cardinals: Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Kyle Lohse, Brad Penny, somebody else. Penny, by the way, appears to be in great shape and is motivated to have a big season.

And I think this right here is why us and the White Sox will make up half of the AL contingent in the 2010 playoffs. I’m betting on the Rangers’ offense and improved performances by their younger pitchers to carry them over either Boston or New York for the Wild Card.

As far as established rotations go, I agree this is the top 5, although perhaps not in this order.

and due to its stability, we could be higher. All of that and some of our own fans are still complaining about the offseason………

I.ve read nothing about him hurting in the offseason, and he isn’t exactly proved to be injury prone over the last few years. His issues are more in his head than his body.

than a rotation with an ace followed with “ifs”

How does one get away with ranking a staff with “somebody else” as their fifth starter 5th? Are we just penciling in Nuke LaLoosh and calling it a day, Olney?

  Maybe Seatle can go to a 2 man rotation…….

baseball tonight the other day had no one mentioning us as either the top 5 in baseball or having a top 5 rotation. we don’t have the archetype ace-figure, but we really haven’t had that since langston/finley, if you ask me.

i figure our rotation, at worst, is still solid top-to-bottom. i’m not counting on santana being great, but i think it’s hard to go against our rotation when you look at it as a whole. i just hope we can get something that scares people in the playoffs. weaver, kaz, i’m looking at you.

Scary shit during interleague.

I’m drunk and have a theory, Olney, Rosenthal, and everyone else at ESPN and Fox Sports knows that any baseball fan could do their job (and arguably better). The only way they can stay relevant is to pepper in some nonsensical bullshit into their articles to get people riled up, reading and talking. I apologize if this isn’t as profound to anyone else as it is in my head.