Quote:
Originally Posted by lewdog
Clearly better than last year? The rotation is worse and you really think the bullpen can pull off another year like last year?
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The rotation is worse at ONE spot. Probably.
Vargas will give them similar innings pitched as Santana. He likely posts an ERA at least .50 higher, but probably not more than 1.00 higher. The difference you're talking about if Vargas comes in at 3.75 is 12 runs... or pretty close to an extra run every 3rd start. It's not the huge gap it might seem like initially.
The Royals have a good shot to be BETTER in the 3 slot (Ventura vs. Guthrie).
The Royals will be better in the 4 slot (Guthrie vs. Mendoza+Chen).
The Royals will be better in the 5 slot (Chen all year vs. Davis+Chen+Duffy+Ventura).
I think people forget how bad the 39 starts KC got from Davis and Mendoza were.
They combined for a 5.42 ERA, 1.66 WHIP.
They gave up 29 percent of the runs surrendered by Royals starters in just 20 percent of the innings.