Who's our 5th starter if we don't add anyone else

"MASN's Steve Melewski lists Mike Wright, Chris Jones, Tyler Wilson and Vance Worley as candidates to fill out the rotation if the Orioles don't add another starter.

Yovani Gallardo is the top starter available in free agency but he's tied to draft pick compensation and the Orioles are hesitant to give up the No. 14 overall pick. Doug Fister is also on the market but he's coming off an injury-plagued year in 2015. Wright would be the favorite for the No. 5 spot in the starting rotation if the Orioles decide to stand pat. He won two of his first three starts last season but faded down the stretch by losing five of his last six decisions."

Source: MASN

I think Mike Wright is ready to be in the rotation. Tyler Wilson we will definitely see this year, kid has some nasty stuff. Worley is the sneaky vet that could be a sleeper for the O's.

My vote would be Mike Wright

"MASN's Steve Melewski lists Mike Wright, Chris Jones, Tyler Wilson and Vance Worley as candidates to fill out the rotation if the Orioles don't add another starter.

Yovani Gallardo is the top starter available in free agency but he's tied to draft pick compensation and the Orioles are hesitant to give up the No. 14 overall pick. Doug Fister is also on the market but he's coming off an injury-plagued year in 2015. Wright would be the favorite for the No. 5 spot in the starting rotation if the Orioles decide to stand pat. He won two of his first three starts last season but faded down the stretch by losing five of his last six decisions."

Source: MASN

I think Mike Wright is ready to be in the rotation. Tyler Wilson we will definitely see this year, kid has some nasty stuff. Worley is the sneaky vet that could be a sleeper for the O's.

My vote would be Mike Wright

It is hard for me to get excited with any of those options as replacements for Chen. I think the starter that will round out our rotation is not yet in the Orioles organization.

It is hard for me to get excited with any of those options as replacements for Chen. I think the starter that will round out our rotation is not yet in the Orioles organization.

I sure hope so. There is a major problem if we enter the season trying to piece together a rotation spot. One, Worley, Wright, Wilson, Bundy all have their downsides. Two, and this one is huge, what if one of Gausman, Tillman, Gonzo, and Ubaldo get hurt? Then you're piecing together 2 spots. And that folks is how a team with an expanded payroll can just collapse.

I said in the other thread that it's time to just sign Gallardo. I thought it was a horrible idea even a few weeks ago. But it's almost February and we're still searching for a SP. A trade hasn't been made, if one was going to, it probably would have happened in the previous 3 months of the offseason. I don't see us getting a vet on a 1 year "build up value" deal because of the division we play in. We're going to have to bite the bullet and just give up the darn pick. We'll still have picks. In fact we'll still be like 13th in most draft pool money available to spend. Here's the picks we'll have with a Gallardo signing;

27 comp pick Chen

53 2nd rd pick

69 (not signing 2nd round pick last yr.)

75 comp pick B

91 3rd rd pick

link to draft order and pool money

http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/2016-mlb-draft-order/

We'd still have 2 extra 2nd rd picks plus we'd still be in the top half of the league in terms of total pool money.

It is hard for me to get excited with any of those options as replacements for Chen. I think the starter that will round out our rotation is not yet in the Orioles organization.

Same. I would go with Wilson. Mike Wright might be one of those bipolar pitchers, which I can't stand.

Mike Wright started off on fire with a great start vs the Angels. He was good in the second game too. From that point on, he faded and was never good the rest of the year. I dont know what happened but the hitters adjusted and he didn't.Im not confident this guy is ready for the rotation.

His first start he was pitching on 10+ days rest and was hitting high 90's. Once he got back into pitching every 5 days his velocity dropped and the advanced scouting reports got him. I still really like Wright. He'd be great to come up for 1-2 starts if someone got hurt. With this team and the players we brought back, we shouldn't be relying on guys like Wright for full time spots.

Same. I would go with Wilson. Mike Wright might be one of those bipolar pitchers, which I can't stand.

I thought Wilson was pretty good last year, but I just looked up his statistics and he was better than I thought. Small sample size, but success is better than the alternative.

I don't think we are paying Worley nearly 3 million to just be a long reliever. I think he gets first chance to start if we don't sign anyone else.

I wouldn't mind platooning them and having them swap off

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Can we afford the roster spot for 2 starters in 1 spot? If a guy is optioned, they have to stay down for ten days, right? A rotating set of optioned starters would really take three guys, right? That could get interesting, BTW, in that it would open up additional bench space if you immediately optioned a starter after his start and didn't call up guys 2 and 3 until their starts.

It might be McFarland. Career GB% of 60.8 goes well with our infield defense.

Can we afford the roster spot for 2 starters in 1 spot? If a guy is optioned, they have to stay down for ten days, right? A rotating set of optioned starters would really take three guys, right? That could get interesting, BTW, in that it would open up additional bench space if you immediately optioned a starter after his start and didn't call up guys 2 and 3 until their starts.

Yes, optioned guys have to stay down for 10 days. I am also intrigued by something

like this. My idea is to have Bundy as the 5th starter, but limit him to 2 or 3 innings per start. Then have a rotating set of pitchers (e.g., Wilson, Wright, and McFarland) that would be optioned after the game pitch the next 3 to 5 innings.

The advantage of this is Bundy could get his innings on a fixed schedule, and our 5th starter would be a combo of players so none of them should have to go through the lineup a 3rd time. Another advantage of this is we would give pitchers like Wilson and Wright major league innings to further develop. I think this plan would be effective because most starters do well their first 2 times through the lineup.

I don't think we are paying Worley nearly 3 million to just be a long reliever. I think he gets first chance to start if we don't sign anyone else.

I agree. I would prefer Wilson or Wright, but Buck seems to prefer to see vets prove they can't perform before giving young guys a shot. Odds are good that our 5th starters name will start with W. My choice right now would be Wilson.

I think TJ Mac gets quite a few spot starts this year in the 5 spot. Unless we sign someone anyway. Nobody's been talking about him at all as an option, he's a lefty and would be serviceable as a 5 for sure if the tor was stronger.

How about (if he's healthy), we throw Bundy every 10th day? Sometimes we don't need a fifth starter, so that would be fine with him. On the times when we regularly need a fifth, we use some combo of Worley, Wright, etc... It would allow us to option them for 10 days, Bundy does that start and then they could be back for the next time.

Mike Wright started off on fire with a great start vs the Angels. He was good in the second game too. From that point on, he faded and was never good the rest of the year. I dont know what happened but the hitters adjusted and he didn't.Im not confident this guy is ready for the rotation.

I'm not either. But I am confident that he has some of the tools. At worst, he's Brad Brach.