5th starter

Among AL 5th starters, only five have made nine or more starts. List list includes John Danks, Jorge De La Rosa, Ervin Santana, Cha Seung Baek, and none other than Julian Taverez. Lets take a look at their stats

• Name/IP/WHIP/FIP/(K/9)/(BB/9)/ERA+

• Julian Taverez - 60.0/1.48/4.63/5.6/3.3/86
• John Danks - 61.7/1.58/5.32/6.2/3.7/103
• Jorge De La Rosa - 78.0/1.41/4.59/5.1/3.2/94
• Ervin Santana - 77.0/1.48/5.49/6.9/3.3/81
• Cha Seung Baek - 60.3/1.33/3.54/6.2/1.6/81

So what can we take from these numbers? Well, we can see why exactly these are #5 starters when you look at ERA+. Only 1 of these starters are above average and that is by a very small margin. Their inning totals are going to be smaller than most normal starter because these are the pitchers that will get skipped over.

There are some strong pitchers on the list. That is to be expected since if they underperformed they will be replaced. Baek has extremely impressive peripherals and Danks has been a pleasant surprise for the White Sox, in his rookie season. Santana's stats are solid, but when you look at his road/home splits you will see that he is a completely different pitcher on the road than at home. He is buillt to play in that stadium.

Now to Taverez. His FIP is very strong, 4.63, for a #5. His K/BB rates are solid. Since Taverez is such a ground ball pitcher, you shouldn't expect the K's to be very high. His WHIP is below 1.50, which is a great thing for a #5.

Getting to the gist of the matter, Taverez is going to be hard to replace. Lester defiantly has the potential but it's no done deal. Assuming Taverez can make a smooth transition to the bullpen, he is going to be an extreme asset to the pen. It will be interesting to see how the pen shakes out. For instance, Pinerio and Timlin, are they going to be here when Lester gets back. Personally, i hated Taverez prior to the season. I thought people were going to have to carry him. But after watching him, i am completely turned around, i love him and think he has value in many different ways.

Now is for the obligatory trade rumor. While i would like to see Taverez in our bullpen, he does have trade value on the open market. What makes him expendable is the strong pitching by David Pauley and Kason Gabbard. They both could make serviceable #5 starters in the short term. Of coarse, this all rest on Lester and his return. So here is the best i could come up with;

White Sox
Rowand

Phillies
Taverez and Crisp

Red Sox
Lance Broadway (from White Sox)
Adrian Cardenas (from Phillies)

The White Sox get Rowand, the center fielder they really need. The Phillies get another starter/reliever. They are in dyer need of another pitcher. The Red Sox get two nice prospects in Broadway, a solid pitcher prospect, and Cardenas a young 2nd base prospect that has a lot of room for improvement. This would trade would either make room for Ellsbury or Pena. My guess would Drew moves to CF and Pena takes over RF. I'm not sure any of the teams involved would like this trade, but it is one was to sell our surplus for some decent returns.