Top 3 are solid, but those last 2 are extremely worrisome. It is cool to have one of those 2 in the rotation, but both of them? Yikes...

Sale
Peavy
Floyd
Quintana
Axelrod

Danks needs to get better fast.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Do middle-of-the-road teams usually have five quality, reliable starters?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

No.

But you also do not want 2 #5 starters in there. Quintana or Axelrod in the #5 spot is perfectly fine, but both of them in the rotation is bad.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

So you're saying the Sox could improve their rotation? I agree. They could improve their lineup a bit too. As you would say to good dolphin, c'mon man, you can do better than this.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I feel comfortable that Dylan Axelrod can put up at least as good a record (12-14) as "Losing Pitcher" John Danks would.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Also, we all know the Yankees are the best team money can buy. Who are their fourth and fifth starters?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Seriously? I know you are an Anti Danks guy, but you really think Axelrod can do that? I have seen nothing even close to that from him.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

He's pitched okay. Of course, I'd rather have a healthy Danks, but sometimes guys like Axelrod surprise you. Anyway, it's not like Danks is some world beater. Yeah, I'm still mad he got Buehrle's money. And Quintana had a good spring. I don't believe in him yet, but maybe he's just a good pitcher. He throws strikes.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

True. Tho that is not a good example to follow as they always believe they can mash their way to the playoffs and then of course get beat when they cannot mash as well against good pitching in the playoffs.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I'm just saying, most teams have some cipher coming out of the four and five spots.

And this coronation of Detroit is a little premature. I mean, I know they have the best offense since the '27 Yankees, but the Sox outscored them last year. And I really doubt they have a Triple Crown winner this season.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I went to the trouble of looking at the projected 4 and 5 starters over on Fangraphs for each AL team.
They averaged the projections of both ZIPS and Steamer, with a panel of experts projecting IP estimates.
Now we can argue about advanced statistics, the validity of projection systems, etc. but these are culled from a multitude of people who understand baseball a lot better than we do so let's lend it some credibility based on that.

4, 5 starters, projected IP, projected ERA

*(WS I put 5a and 5b for shits and giggles, just to compare either possibility as there seems to be some uncertainty)

Tiger
4 Anibal Sanchez 180.0 4.10
5 Rick Porcello 132.0 4.39

Ranger
4 Alexi Ogando 105.0 3.75
5 Nick Tepesch 81.0 4.78

Yankee
4 Ivan Nova 151.0 4.47
5 Phil Hughes 107.0 4.42

White Sock
4 Jose Quintana 131.0 4.51
5a* Dylan Axelrod 97.0 4.56
5b* John Danks 92.0 4.47

Athletic
4 Brett Anderson 143.0 3.83
5 Bartolo Colon 149.0 4.02

Red Sock
4 Clay Buchholz 150.0 4.20
5 Felix Doubront 122.0 4.22

Blue Jay
4 Brandon Morrow 141.0 3.92
5 Ricky Romero 137.0 4.46

Ray
4 Alex Cobb 171.0 3.94
5 Jeff Niemann 88.0 4.13

Angel
4 Joe Blanton 167.0 4.08
5 Tommy Hanson 151.0 3.94

Mariner
4 Erasmo Ramirez 107.0 4.21
5 Blake Beavan 106.0 4.69

Royal
4 Wade Davis 162.0 4.37
5 Bruce Chen 81.0 4.71

Oriole
4 Miguel Gonzalez 146.0 4.49
5 Jake Arrieta 122.0 4.71

Twin
4 Mike Pelfrey 143.0 4.76
5 Liam Hendriks 91.0 4.76

Indian
4 Zach McAllister 136.0 4.70
5 Scott Kazmir 91.0 5.36

Astro
4 Philip Humber 129.0 4.80
5 Erik Bedard 85.0 4.64

Just looking at those totals, it seems to me the WS are at least middle of the road, and certainly nothing too far off the median, definitely better than some teams. So in conclusion I don't really see what point you are making here.

_________________
1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

I'm not a big Anibal Sanchez fan, but he and Porcello are a solid back end. But it's a funny game. I doubt Scherzer will be as good as he was last year.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Thanks for the #s apologist.

Very few of those would trade 4-5's with the Sox.

Guess we will see how it goes.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Its been "losing pitcher" Gavin Floyd more often then not the last 4 years.

_________________

I'm happy with the rotation.

I'd be happier if it was Floyd hurt rather than Danks.

_________________

Looking at those numbers again I can see what you are saying. I think it's more a matter of looking at the rotations as a whole, for example if Sale, Peavy or Floyd are your 1-3 and goes down, then we are looking at your 6th, 7th, 8th starters being really 4 or 5.

I don't think I typed that in the best manner, it's reading Elmhurstian a bit

_________________
1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Ivan Nova and David Phelps.

_________________
Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Brett Anderson is their horse. He is taking the bump tomorrow.

_________________
Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

I couldn't figure that out when i was databasing those numbers. The Elephant 1-5 is basically interchangeable.

Moneyball

_________________
1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Scott Kazmir and Eric Bedard are on the list so it had to be around 2008.

Bedard is in the Astros' rotation, and Kazmir is the Indians 5th starter.

_________________
Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way