Lost in the euphoria over acquiring 1/2 of Proctor & Gamble is the fact our rotation is looking a bit shaky.
Penny - abdominal strain, should be okay, Cy Young Candidate so far
Lowe - hip problems, hopefully he can pitch through it without messing up his mechanics
Billingsley - he alternates between good Penny and bad Tomko, not exactly what you want from your 3rd starter.
Wolf - shut down, comeback looking precarious
Hendrickson - if you don't have something nice to say then .........
Tomko - only one member left in his fan club
DJ Houlton - I guess when he goes against Edgar Gonzalez or Stauffer it will be an even match
Eric Stults - unfortunately for him we don't play the Mets again.
This is what were going to go to battle with against the Padres and Diamondbacks. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence now does it. Luckily our competitions rotations aren't much better. San Diego is exactly in the same spot we are. They have two top pitchers but they are both banged up at the moment. Then they have two oldies but goodies who should be draining the bullpen everytime they pitch for the next two months. The Diamondbacks just lost Randy Johnson for the year, depleting an already weak rotation. More then anyone they had chips like Jackson, Quentin, Reynolds, Tracy, or even Byrnes to get some quality pitching and they did nothing. So either no one is willing to deal good pitching or the price has just become ludicrous. The Padres added some depth by getting Ensberg and Mackowiak but they released Branyan so really how much better is Ensberg then Branyan? I like getting Ledesma but only if they let him start. I'm really surprised that none of these 3 teams did anything substantial to help themselves for the big push as many felt it would come down to which GM outsmarted the others but basically this turned into a non event as they all sat it out. Now would be a good time for every team in this division to use a four man rotation because every 5th starter in the Division is fodder.