May/June/August Rotations

depends on just how healthy the "walking wounded" are when they do pitch... from the little I've heard from the broadcast crews and DG's "Bird Land," it's entirely possible that Mulder (!) will be ready to pitch before Clement.

Piñiero might be the first guy back; I'm of the opinion that TLR will replace whoever is least effective from the rotation when and if the other arms come back. If Thompson or Wellemeyer are pitching better than Looper, Loop might get sent back to the 'pen!

First of all, besides Wainwright, none of these guys are really any good. Loshe is a league average pitcher, and there's a lot of value in that, but at the same time if he's your second best guy you're pretty much screwed.

We don't know what we're going to get from Clement but my guess is that it'll be league average at best, and quite realistically, he could repeat Kip Wells' production from last year. (eek, I know).

Looper is terrible and he won't give you a ton of innings.
Pineiro sucks, he may not he as terrible as Looper, but then again that's like saying you'd rather be kicked in the nuts instead of being lit on fire.

Base on what I've seen and read over the past year and a half, Mulder's probably done. If he comes back and he doesn't get completely lit up we can consider ourselves lucky.

Carp could come back and be good. TJ surgury has a high recovery rate. But who knows if he'll be a 100% this year, or how many starts he can make. I'm optimistic that he can be a solid contributer in 2009, but who knows.

The thing is none of these guys give us a bunch of innings, and the back end guys are going to be prone to giving a multitude of 4-5 inning efforts. Our bullpen will probably be run ragged, and realistically, there's no way they can be as effective as they were last year: Percy's gone, Springer and Franklin had career years (far and beyond their previous best). And frankly, on paper, the best case rotation is adequate at best (I don't know why Loshe was dropped he's much better than Clement/Pineiro/Mulder).

I say, kick back, expect to lose but enjoy watching Pujols, Ankiel, and Rasmus play, and maybe-- just maybe-- TRL will come to his senses and give Reyes a chance. It might not work out, but at least it'll be entertaining-- and as an added bonus-- it's what's best for the club,

is stupid good if this were 2004/2005. However, 4/5 of those starters have seen a good amount of time on the DL and we have yet to see if Wainwright falls ill to the nasty Verducci rule. If, however, we can get about a 70% return to form from those players (combined), it figures to be a pretty nice rotation by NL standards.

Look quite a bit like yours only I wouldn't trade Lohse unless he's having a Cy Young type or close year. I'd rather have the insurance for next year. I'd rather try to deal Reyes to the highest bidder.