Most of the folks here remember that Pelfrey was, for several months of 2013, the best starting pitcher we had on the staff. For a period, Sam Deduno took over. So I'm a little reluctant to "anoint" anyone. Anyone here want to look at 2013 posts about who we thought would be the core rotation come 2015? I'm also very reluctant (points well made by Leviathan and brvama) to put a lot of stock in stats compiled in March. I've been to spring training. I don't want it to be a full-blown competition. I would rather pitchers went to the mound saying that they were going to work on their mechanics/slider/cutter/location without feeling like raw numbers were going to dictate their futures. That same mentality applies to batters - we know that Hicks can rake when he knows what's coming. I'll make one more point here. I try to trust the staff to decide what's best. At the same time, I do understand that this decision is, always, more than which pitcher gives the team the best chance to win today. It's an imperfect analogy, but I watched a Duke team in the early 80s when Krzyzewski marched out freshmen Dawkins, Bilas, Henderson, and Alarie over holdovers Emma, Engelland and Meagher, because he knew that those freshmen were the core of the future. This team needs a blueprint. It needs leadership; it needs to sell tickets. But more than anything, they need to figure out a path to be "good" and that's been sorely lacking for a few years. If that means we choose the guys that are eventually going to be on the good team, then do that. I'll be giddy it if we strike lightning in a bottle. I watched it happen a dozen years ago. But if we keep losing and dancing around the rebuild with a roster of guys who are, today, better than the alternatives, I'm not just going to avoid going to games. I'm gonna join that riot.
Most of the folks here remember that Pelfrey was, for several months of 2013, the best starting pitcher we had on the staff. For a period, Sam Deduno took over. So I'm a little reluctant to "anoint" anyone. Anyone here want to look at 2013 posts about who we thought would be the core rotation come 2015? I'm also very reluctant (points well made by Leviathan and brvama) to put a lot of stock in stats compiled in March. I've been to spring training. I don't want it to be a full-blown competition. I would rather pitchers went to the mound saying that they were going to work on their mechanics/slider/cutter/location without feeling like raw numbers were going to dictate their futures. That same mentality applies to batters - we know that Hicks can rake when he knows what's coming. I'll make one more point here. I try to trust the staff to decide what's best. At the same time, I do understand that this decision is, always, more than which pitcher gives the team the best chance to win today. It's an imperfect analogy, but I watched a Duke team in the early 80s when Krzyzewski marched out freshmen Dawkins, Bilas, Henderson, and Alarie over holdovers Emma, Engelland and Meagher, because he knew that those freshmen were the core of the future. This team needs a blueprint. It needs leadership; it needs to sell tickets. But more than anything, they need to figure out a path to be "good" and that's been sorely lacking for a few years. If that means we choose the guys that are eventually going to be on the good team, then do that. I'll be giddy it if we strike lightning in a bottle. I watched it happen a dozen years ago. But if we keep losing and dancing around the rebuild with a roster of guys who are, today, better than the alternatives, I'm not just going to avoid going to games. I'm gonna join that riot.