The Mets announced today that the starting rotation will be Santana, Dickey, Niese, Pelfrey and Gee.
It’s common knowledge that the only time the rotation really matters in a sense of ace on ace matchups is April. Starting in May the matchups will start to get mixed up. There is also the looming idea on the horizon of adding a sixth man into the rotation as a way to decrease the amount of innings that Santana pitches (although that will also decrease the totals for everyone).
The other way to look at this rotation:
- Left Handed Change-Up
- Right Handed Knuckleball
- Left Handed Curveball
- Right Handed Sinker
- Right Handed Pitcher
Overall, I like the theory of this lineup. It feels nice to have the left handers split with the knuckleball to keep teams off balance, and to have a normally steady Niese to back up an unpredictable Pelfrey.
I get a little nervous about “theory” with rotations mainly because Jerry Manuel used to love to try to push Dickey to the start of a series. That aside, I like how the pitchers are situated.
And, of course, the rotation order does nothing to impact the talent of the pitchers in the rotation.
