What's All This Then?

There's an opinion that seems to have a lot of currency in the Jays blogosphere to the effect that the Jays don't need a fifth starter that much in April. to that I say: "Huh?"

Notably of late, Mop Up Duty elaborates on the point here, but in truth, they have to send guys out on short rest four times to get that (including the recovering McGowan TWICE!) effect. Now, I'll refrain from involving myself in the "Morrow to the minors" theme which the post is actually about (I disagree but no matter) and just concentrate on the scheduling.

Jordan Bastian has discerned, rightly so in my opinion, that the Jays seem to be targeting an opening day rotation of Marcum/Romero/Morrow/Zep/Tallet, with all of us more or less assuming Tallet is a placeholder for better pitchers to come.

Now I am perfectly fine with the idea that you start McGowan out on the DL to get his stamina built up and then slot him in for Tallet, but one hopes Clarance doesn't fall in love with him. In any case, I project the pitching schedule like this:
(x=off day)

4/5 - Marcum
4/6 - x
4/7 - Romero
4/8 - Morrow
4/9 - Zep
4/10- Marcum
4/11- Romero
4/12- Tallet
4/13- Morrow
4/14- Zep
4/15- Marcum
4/16- Romero
4/17- Tallet
4/18- Morrow
4/19- Zep
4/20- Marcum
4/21- Romero
4/22- x
4/23- Morrow
4/24- Zep
4/25- Marcum
4/26- Romero
4/27- McGowan
4/28- Morrow
4/29- Zep


See what I did there? IF I send Romero on three days rest on 4/11, then I can get it down (if they are slotted properly) to three appearances for the "fifth" pitcher in April. but if no one goes on short rest then Tallet would get three starts by 4/21. and if we assume McGowan joins the rotation on 4/26 that's 4 starts in the month for the "fifth" starter. But that's not really that remarkable since a couple of starters will only get five starts in any given month.

Maybe it's just me but I'm not overly impressed with the number of off days in April or the convenience of them.

But to reiterate, that's not to say I'm against the idea of using Tallet to get two (or three) early starts as long as we understand it's not anything more than that.