I love the:

 

"Of the 40 pitchers with 27 starts" stat.

 

When you look at the stat it shows just how valuable Garland is. Of all the teams in baseball, only 40 starting pitchers (less than 2 per team) started 27 games. Of all of them, Garland was in the top 30 (1 per team), meaning that on any other staff Garland was on average the top 1 or 2 pitcher, but generally no worse than a 3.

 

This reminds me of the "Vazquez should be traded" before the season started, and all the other "great" ideas that are based on rushing B-Mac into the rotation. B-Mac may be good, but he will unlikely ever be an Ace, so therefore there is no reason to press him into the starting rotation.

 

Right now the Sox have the most talented team when Garland is starting and B-Mac is in the pen. By moving Garland you would severely weaken the pen, and possibly (in my opinion likely) weaken the starting rotation. If everyone here is worried about winning championships, then you have to keep both Garland and B-Mac, unless Garland was giving you a piece to win this year.

 

The grass isnt always greener.

 

My bad for not clarifying...this is of 40 AL pitchers, roughly 3 per team...

Edited May 23, 200619 yr by Greg Hibbard

It's funny how all of a sudden that Jon Garland has been designated the 5th starter. Last year with 18 wins he was one of the most consistent. No one is happy about his seeming lack of success this year, none more so than Jon I would venture to guess, and my bet is he will get turned around. What Jon garland needs the msot is a swift kick in the rear end. He has always been his own worse enemy.

Brandon's gonna wind up with somewhere over 100 innings this year.

I have concerns that McCarthy is being used too infrequently this year. Our rotation is made up of five starters who can all eat innings, and with the team's overall talent, we're usually taking a lead into the later innings where the game dictates the use of setup men or closer. McCarthy's on pace to log less than 85 innings this year. I don't know if Contreras or any other starter will miss anymore starts due to injury, but if they don't McCarthy won't touch 100 innings. This team uses a long man out of the pen probably less than any with our staff and Ozzie's bullpen management style. McCarthy threw over 170 innings and over 180 innings in '04 and '05 respectively. At this rate, he'll get maybe half or slightly over half of those innings. I'm reserved about grooming him for a role as a starter by severely shortening his arm.