Starting Rotation to All Star Break.

[rickh150]

I’m not talking about a total reconfiguration of the rotation, but rather a small tweaking (which could have been done a week or two ago) to avoid having Houser and Lauer, the 4th and 6th starters , start the first two games of an important four game series against the Reds. The tweaking could have been achieved by having a pitcher go on just 4 days rest while another gets an extra day, or using someone from the Nashville shuttle to start a game against a team that is not a division contender.

 

The All Star break, and the 3 off days in the 11 days after it, provide a perfect opportunity to reset the rotation while still giving everyone some additional rest. I’m not going to be pleased if Burnes and Woodruff don’t both get a start in the series in Cincinnati right after the break. After that series, there are 3 weeks before the next series against one of the other division contenders. It would seem to be a no brainer to use Woodruff, Burnes, and Peralta against the Reds in some order, and then throw Houser and either Anderson or Lauer in the two games against KC. Then the top 3 could come back the next weekend against the White Sox. Whichever of Anderson or Lauer doesn’t start could be available for long relief until he is needed to start again, which might not be until early August when they play 19 games in 20 days.

 

In addition to getting the top starters in as often as possible against those contenders, I hope they avoid having Anderson and Lauer pitch on consecutive days.

 

So flipping Wed/Thurs starters would be a tweak then, right?

Having Burnes get an extra day’s rest (6 days) after asking out of a game to start the Reds series and having Houser pitch on 4 days rest against Mets.

[BruisedCrew]

The starting pitchers aren’t going to matter if the offense doesn’t produce any runs. They have been shut down the last two days by two pretty mediocre starting pitchers; the Reds starters are tougher than what the Brewers saw from the DBacks, Rockies, Cubs, and Pirates.