Rotation announced

[interloper]

Nice to see LeBlanc in the bullpen, where I think he will be much more useful/successful. 

[jamalshw]

It's basically what we expected following the Zimmermann announcement (order notwithstanding). I don't mind this rotation to start the year, but am skeptical Lopez will play as a legitimate starter for long. I'd like to see him in the pen and Akin to get squared away and take his spot over the next 6 weeks or so.

[MurphDogg]

Lopez is probably the true 5th starter - ie, the one with the shakiest hold on his spot. 

[interloper]

Just now, MurphDogg said:

Lopez is probably the true 5th starter - ie, the one with the shakiest hold on his spot. 

Agree, I think he's going to be much more successful in the bullpen. Seems like he's holding a spot until Akin gets rolling. 

[Sports Guy]

Lopez in the rotation is a joke.  Hopefully he quickly shows that he doesn’t belong there.

[HowAboutThat]

Well, there’s our five, and our sixth. The burning question is who’s seventh-10th, And are any of them named Lowther or Baumann?

[interloper]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

Lopez in the rotation is a joke.  Hopefully he quickly shows that he doesn’t belong there.

Shouldn't you be hoping that he DOES show he belongs and then the team has another rotation candidate for the future?

Do you enjoy following the Orioles? I don't understand your whole thing. 

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, interloper said:

Shouldn't you be hoping that he DOES show he belongs and then the team has another rotation candidate for the future?

Do you enjoy following the Orioles? I don't understand your whole thing. 

No..because he’s not good and I want to see players get a chance that actually could be part of the future in the rotation.  At some point, I want this team to not be a doormat and a laughing stock.
 

I don’t need to see him continue to go out there to know he isn’t good.

He would have to have one of those super rare career turn arounds and banking on that is almost always dumb.

He has a chance to be an asset in the pen.  Use him that way.  Stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

[interloper]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

No..because he’s not good and I want to see players get a chance that actually could be part of the future in the rotation. 
 

I don’t need to see him continue to go out there to know he isn’t good.

He would have to have one of those super rare career turn arounds and banking on that is almost always dumb.

He has a chance to be an asset in the pen.  Use him that way.  Stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Haha ok. You're a weird dude! 

[Sports Guy]

Just now, interloper said:

Haha ok. You're a weird dude! 

Yea it’s very weird to not want to see sh** players on my team.  
 

[HowAboutThat]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

No..because he’s not good and I want to see players get a chance that actually could be part of the future in the rotation. 
 

I don’t need to see him continue to go out there to know he isn’t good.

He would have to have one of those super rare career turn arounds and banking on that is almost always dumb.

He has a chance to be an asset in the pen.  Use him that way.  Stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I agree with you in essence, if not in degree. I don’t think Lopez is a good choice, but he does seem to have shown some improvement, and there’s no reason to give him a shot. He certainly has more future than Leblanc, and he may have more future than Plutko. 
However it would seem to me that if you’re going to be angry at the choices, there’s more rewarding being angry at the curious trade for Plutko.

[HowAboutThat]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

Yea it’s very weird to not want to see sh** players on my team.  
 

There’s 26 guys on this team, I would suggest that The number of guys who don’t fit your description is single digits.

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, Philip said:

I agree with you in essence, if not in degree. I don’t think Lopez is a good choice, but he does seem to have shown some improvement, and there’s no reason to give him a shot. He certainly has more future than Leblanc, and he may have more future than Plutko. 
However it would seem to me that if you’re going to be angry at the choices, there’s more rewarding being angry at the curious trade for Plutko.

1) what curious take on Plutko?  I said I don’t really get the point.  I said he’s not that good although I like that he throws strikes.   Where you are wrong about him is that we have 15 guys better than him.  No we don’t.

2) Where did he show improvement?  Spring training?  

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Philip said:

There’s 26 guys on this team, I would suggest that The number of guys who don’t fit your description is single digits.

Yep and that’s part of my problem with the roster construction this year.  We should not be looking at several starting spots with AAAA type players on it.

The Franco signing helped that somewhat.

[interloper]

10 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea it’s very weird to not want to see sh** players on my team.  
 

Would you rather have seen LeBlanc in the rotation? Because that was definitely a possibility. The line between Lopez and Akin in terms of caliber of pitcher is pretty damn small. We're not talking about aces here - they're two young guys who both profile as back-of-the-rotation arms at best. They're both going to pitch a ton of innings for the O's this year - Lopez is just going to pitch his first. There's literally no difference between Akin starting the season with the team vs him joining later. He'll pitch the same amount of innings either way. In fact, part of the reason for Lopez starting now might be to limit Akin's innings a bit so he can pitch later in the season. 

There's so much more at play other "this guy better than this guy!!11!!" You are not a GM, none of us are.