Revised and amended!

So,  the Blue Jays - clearly creeping my blog for an edge! - took my suggestion on Friday to heart and flipped  Marco Estrada to today's game and Mark Beuhrle to tomorrow's contest with Boston. In so doing, as has been widely reported now, they align Buehrle and Stroman's schedule and pretty much everyone assumes that if Stroman looks good tomorrow for Buffalo that he'll take that start and Buehrle will get extra rest again. They may skip papa altogether or may just push him back - but the former option makes the rotation for the rest of the year much more straight-forward and it only seems sensible to me that I do a "Part 2" follow up to Friday's post in light of the adjustment. Trust me though, I won't keep this bit running through the rest of the season every time they make an announcement. This one - like the last - is simply about how you make the best use of Stroman as a part of a modified 6 man rotation - not an effort to keep up with every move they make.

To review, I'll again post the first chart which reflects how the current five fall if Stroman were not coming back and they stayed on turn.

7	at Boston	Buehrle	7
8	at Boston	Dickey	4
9	at Boston	Hutchinson	4
10	at New York	Price	4
11	at New York	Estrada	4
12	at New York	Buehrle	4
13	at New York	Dickey	4
14
15	at Atlanta	Hutchinson	5
16	at Atlanta	Price	5
17	at Atlanta	Estrada	5
18	Boston	Buehrle	5
19	Boston	Dickey	5
20	Boston	Hutchinson	4
21	New York	Price	4
22	New York	Estrada	4
23	New York	Buehrle	4
24
25	Tampa Bay	Dickey	5
26	Tampa Bay	Hutchinson	5
27	Tampa Bay	Price	5
28	at Baltimore	Estrada	5
29	at Baltimore	Buehrle	5
30	at Baltimore	Dickey	4
10 ' 1	at Baltimore	Hutchinson	4
2	at Tampa Bay	Price	4
3	at Tampa Bay	Estrada	4
4	at Tampa Bay	Buehrle	4

That is, of course, almost identical to the one which appeared in my post 2 days ago. The one simple switch the team made, then, makes it much easier to sort out how you integrate Stroman into the schedule:

7	at Boston	Buehrle	7
8	at Boston	Dickey	4
9	at Boston	Hutchinson	4
10	at New York	Price	4
11	at New York	Estrada	4
12	at New York	Stroman	4
13	at New York	Dickey	4
14
15	at Atlanta	Price	5
16	at Atlanta	Estrada	5
17	at Atlanta	Stroman	5
18	Boston	Buehrle	10
19	Boston	Dickey	5
20	Boston	Hutchinson	10
21	New York	Price	5
22	New York	Estrada	5
23	New York	Stroman	5
24
25	Tampa Bay	Buehrle	6
26	Tampa Bay	Dickey	6
27	Tampa Bay	Price	5
28	at Baltimore	Estrada	5
29	at Baltimore	Stroman	5
30	at Baltimore	Buehrle	4
10 ' 1	at Baltimore	Dickey	4
2	at Tampa Bay	Price	4
3	at Tampa Bay	Estrada	4
4	at Tampa Bay	Stroman	4

There are alternate versions, primarily flowing off whether or not you try to push Buehrle back from the NY start or skip him altogether, but I think the latter produces a much more consistent result. Notice that after tomorrows game, which is going to be 7 days either way, you have two pitchers who skip a start, and otherwise everyone is on either 4 or 5 days' rest except for 2 games with 6 days, which go to the two older guys. Of course, to do this I dropped Hutchinson for the last two weeks. The alternative to this would be to take a start away from some other starter and in this, he draws the short straw not by luck but by his own doing.

I'll be watching to see how the Jays line them up after the next off day to see if we're thinking alike.


All the Minor league seasons are done after tomorrow, save Lansing's playoff games, and I'll be getting together my version of the season review and look back and the pre-season top 40 at my earliest convenience.