This talk started in another thread and I think it deserves its own to discuss.

 

Now before you yell at me at 'jinxing the Marlins' and all that, in no way do I think we're automatically going to the playoffs, this is simply just a hypothetical and a chance to discuss the strategy we could employ, whether we get there or not. I think it's one of the most important strategies for any team going into the postseason, how to arrange your starters and who goes into the bullpen, and it's interesting to see what the best fit is.

 

So, hypothetically, imagine we get there and you had the option of organizing your entire rotation and bullpen, who would you go with?

 

Starter 1: Dontrelle Willis. He hasn't had his best year, but he's still a big game pitcher, see: Sunday.

Starter 2: Anibal Sanchez. Bit of a risk throwing him #2, but I think he can handle it.

Starter 3: Josh Johnson. Has been our stopper for most of the year. So if we get in trouble, I'd trust him with the third spot.

Starter 4: Scott Olsen. We would probably match up very well with any other team with Olsen going as our fourth starter.

 

Bullpen: JoBo, Tank, Resop, Herges, Moe, Pinto, Mitre, Nolasco.

 

I wouldn't employ anything less than a four man rotation, I'm sure guys like D-Train could go on short rest, but you wouldn't want them to. And of course the order would be based on the end of season set-up, but let's just imagine you can do it anyway you want.

 

As Nolasco showed the other day, I think he could really thrive in a relief role, he has some nasty stuff, but for whatever reason he just seems to explode half of the time whilst starting. The bullpen, apart from Mitre, have all been pretty reliable, but he's probably just there out of neccessity. Speaking of which, why hasn't he pitched lately?

 

Anyway... IN NO WAY am I trying to jinx the team or thinking we'll make it, it's just that if we don't make it... then we won't have time to speculate on it, so I'm just doing this for a bit of interesting discussion. So feel free to play around with the team and speculate yourself.

I would swap Sanchez and Johnson in that order.

 

Nolasco would be very useful in long relief for us. However, we have too many long relievers as it is (Mitre, Pinto, Moehler) even before we add Ricky.

The thing is there's really no other option, half of our bullpen guys are starters anyway, and I'd rather have Nolasco over Randy "Batting Practice" Messenger. It'd be interesting to see if Nolasco were to start pitching an inning here or there and if he'd take to the role, just for the end of this year anyway.

Ricky was just fine in long relief over the weekend, filling in for Brian Moehler.

Josh hasnt been pitching all that well since the All Star break (Not terrible either, just not as well as he was) While Anibal has been nearly unhitable in his first 14 starts

 

If everyone keeps pitching the way they are

 

Dontrelle

Anibal

Johnson/Olsen

Olsen/Johnson

 

Whoever has the hot had gets the #3 spot, Scotty has dominated lately

Send Ricky and Moehler to the pen...start D-Train for the first game...and break up the lefties. Nobody will want to play us in the post-season.

I'm not sure it wouldn't be Johnson who goes to the pen in a three man rotation with Willis, Nolasco and Sanchez starting. But a) let's get there first and b) if "a" I'm more than happy to be proven wrong.