[njpsufan]

The Phils look to break camp this year with 6 quality starting pitchers. Myers, Hamels, Garcia, Moyer, Lieber , and Eaton. My thought is why not pitch all 6?? 162 games with 6 starters means 27 starts for each given no injuries. Last year only Myers, Moyer and Garcia made over 27 starts. Lieber made exactly 27 and he was hurt for awhile. And only Moyer and Garcia pitched over 200 innings. Hamels made 23 starts and had 132 innings.... thats not even 6 innings a start. If a pitcher is given more rest between starts shouldn't they be able to go deeper into a game??? Yes, I know this is the NL where they have to bat so in a tight game they get pinch-hit for in a scoring opportunity. But still, shouldn't they make it until at least the 7th inning???

[Lefty Noob]

Interesting theory, but ultimately I think Eaton goes to the pen, especially after yesterday's outing. According to the AP, "Eaton allowed three runs and eight hits against the Pirates, raising his ERA to 4.63 this spring." So I figure he winds up being the odd man out in the equation.

[EmpireWF]

It's a nice thing to imagine but I don't think it would work in the NL. With 6 starters, that's one bullpen spot taken away. So if you have let's say 12 spots for the pitchers. That's six spots dedicated to the pen. Minus the closer and set-up man, that's only four spots. Imagine a specialist, a middle man and a long relief guy, that leaves just one guy who can do one of the other things.

Then the decisions by a manager to remove a pitcher would be even more disastorous since they have one less pitcher available to them from the pen.

[njpsufan]

Gd point. Well they sent Lieber to the pen yesterday. Makes sense as he is in the last year of his contract. They just signed Eaton to a 3 year deal so you knew he wasn't going. Still think we will see a trade before camp breaks though. Lieber was not very happy.