Jmodene wrote:What surprises me is that they've decided to have Looper pitching regularly, and skip one of the other guys instead (since we still don't need a fifth starter until April 10).
The only thing I can think of is that they're concerned about keeping Looper fresh between March 29 (I think that's his final spring start) and April 10 (the opportunities for long relief may not be there, given how well the guys have been pitching this spring), whereas Reyes has already demonstrated an ability to handle an 8-to-10 day layoff with little ill effect.
Look at it this way: With any luck, Looper is only a starter til July, so we can wear him out through the first half of the season and keep the young arms fresh for a run down the stretch. I'd be more concerned about wearing out Reyes and Wainwright in the first half than Looper, because Reyes and Wainwright will be more important both in the back half of this season and in future years.
Looper is just more expendable as a starter as far as innings/rest are concerned. If he falls apart completely in mid June, we're not hurting as bad as if one of the youngsters does. We're only counting on him for half a year, in my opinion.
jagtrader wrote:I know far less about pitching than Duncan, who believes Looper can start. I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt on this one.
My thoughts exactly. There's a reason Dave Duncan is the pitching coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and we are anonymous posters on the internet.
I remember hearing/reading the same things about Walt Jocketty at the time of the Mulder trade.
So do you disagree that Jocketty has/had earned the benefit of the doubt over anonymous internet posters?
Sure, Jocketty and Duncan have earned the benefit of the doubt. Heck, I'm one of those folks who said the best defense of the Mulder trade is that Jocketty made it. But really what we think isn't changing anything. If the point is that we lowly Internet posters should be comfortable with this decision because of who's making it, well, I'm not sure I believe anybody claiming they're not queasy at the thought of Looper making 20 starts in 2007.