Four-Man Rotation

The Nationals are committed to going with a four-man rotation for the duration of the seasons. As Barry Svrluga says, it really will be a three-man rotation (Patterson, Hernandez, and Loaiza) with a committee throwing on the fourth day.

Tom Boswell wrote a great column yesterday ridiculing the four-man rotation idea. His basic point was that the team shouldn't risk its best pitchers' arms in the name of a long-shot playoff bid merely because the organization was too stupid to build an effective starting rotation. That idea has a lot of merit, especially when you consider John Patterson's injury history.

Of course, although we'd all like to go back and undo some of the decisions the Nationals have made (how about junking that Cristian Guzman contract?), we live in this world, not in a parallel universe. The reality is that the Nationals have no chance of making the playoffs if John Halama and Darrell Rasner are in the rotation. On the other hand, they have no chance of realizing John Patterson's potential if they destroy his arm in September.

The only way out of this is to use a committee on the fourth and fifth days and to increase the number of pitchers available to join the committee. Now, if we could just get The Excitable Boy to agree.