Yesterday Dave Trembley announced that David Pauley is no longer in the running for the rotation, and today he gave Danys Baez the bad news (bad for Baez, not for us).
That leaves 5 men fighting for the three remaining spots behind Guthrie and Uehara: Hayden Penn, Adam Eaton, Mark Hendrickson, Brian Bass, and Alfredo Simon.
Should Dave and Kranny call me up today and ask for my advice, I'd suggest Penn, Bass, and Simon to round out the rotation. Penn hasn't been lighting up ST but he's young, he's been looked on highly in the past, and he's out of options. Brian Bass will, in all liklihood, never amount to anything. But let's at least give him a chance to not amount to anything. Mark Hendrickson and Adam Eaton have been proving for years that they're useless. Alfredo Simon came into camp as an unknown but he's performed well and I think has earned a shot.
Sadly, Dave and Kranny will not be asking for my advice, and I think their final rotation will be different from what I'd choose. My gut tells me it'll be Hedrickson, Eaton, and Penn, with one of them going to the bullpen/released when Rich Hill returns from the DL.
I know this rotation isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. Sounds ridiculous to say that, but it just has to hold it together for a little bit longer until our saviors can arrive. But there still is no excuse to have a rotation with both Adam Eaton and Mark Hendrickson. Just for fun I looked them up on baseball-reference.com today. Eaton's ERA+ for the last five years: 84, 90, 90, 73, 75. Hendrickson? 94, 74, 108, 88, 78. Can we please give the younger guys a chance to prove they suck as badly as these two?
BTW, I am SO tired of Spring Training. Bring on the games! I at least had the WBC to keep me occupied for awhile but now I'm just staring at the wall, waiting.