BigSteve

How many bad starts? Last year I count 7/15 and this year 7/14 which I'd consider to be below an acceptable start. That includes any five inning starts where he gave up two or three runs since I don't think that five innings comes close to doing what you need to as a starter (especially with 3 ER). And to say his K/BB and BB rates were good is untrue. He had a 73/43 K/BB rate (about 1.69) with 43 BB in 81 IP (about 4.78 per 9 IP). He also had a .285 BAA in the second half.

He was 1-7, 5.44 in 15 starts. I'm not sure how you can honestly say that isn't bad or that it's close to the quality of a number 3 starter. Again, if you look at his last year of starts, he's 6-13, 5.56. Is that acceptable? 6 QS out of 15 is not a good ratio at all, and pitching five innings with three runs or fewer isn't a good start - at least as far as I'm concerned. It's easy to look at any pitcher's game log and pick out a few quality starts, a few more decent ones, and then say he wasn't all that bad. But the bottom line is that a 5.44 ERA is terrible and winning only once in 15 starts makes it impossible to say it wasn't a bad stretch.

What about the 155 IP since he came back from injury last year? I'd be more inclined to agree with you if he had a bad first half and a good second half last year, but instead he's picked up where he left off last season. He was poor in the second half last year, and he's been even worse this year. Over 29 starts, that has me very concerned. I posted the numbers earlier in the thread - 6-13, 5.56, 1.65 WHIP, 155.1 IP in 29 GS. That's nothing but scary for a guy we have high hopes for.

He's been awful for about a year now. A couple more months doesn't make much of a difference to me either way. I agree that I'd prefer to trade him rather than put him in the BP, but I don't think he's going to net much in a trade at this point. I do think he could excel in a bullpen role, but I wouldn't prefer that until we give him every opportunity in the rotation and exhaust all trade possibilities.

I'm starting to fall more and more into the "trade him" camp. I don't want to give him away for nothing, but if we can get good value for him, I think we have to do it, especially if Loewen and/or Penn show us something over the next few months. Just look at his numbers since he came back last season: GS IP IP/GS W L HR H K BB ERA29 155.1 5.36 6 13 17 183 123 74 5.56 Not impressive at all. Considering how well Cabrera has pitched in that same timespan and the fact that Bedard is 27, I'm getting more and more concerned that he's never going to put it together. Putting him in the bullpen probably isn't a solution, either. I haven't given up on him yet, but if we can fill a need with a power bat or if we can get a very good prospect, we have to be open to moving Bedard, IMO.