Ranking #2 Starting Pitchers

Honestly, these are a bunch of weak number 2's in the central. I don't see any 15 game winners Snell might be one if the Pirates werent terrible. Not one out of this bunch has the potential to in 18-20 games. But if I had to rank them here is what they be.

1) Ian Snell

2) Braden Looper

3) Ted Lilly

4) Suppan

5) Wandy Rodriguez

6) Arroyo

Wow Zep. You hosed Arroyo in that list.

1) Snell

2) Arroyo

3) Looper

4) Suppan

5) Lilly

6) Rodriguez

I don't know how you can supplant Arroyo on the bottom after he pitched so well the last two seasons with a few problems last year with nagging injuries. I'm still not convinced of Looper as a starter. He was a stud reliever in NY. Snell is solid and if they could get a decent bullpen in Pitt, the would actually be fun to watch. Lilly is still garbage regardless of the season he had last year. Soup is straight up mediocre, but he still gets the job done consistently. Soup and Arroyo both have reasonable opportunities to get 15 Ws this year.

I have never like arroyo. Medicore stuff on a medicore team. Was given way too much credit cause he pitched for the red sox way back when, a junk baller who still thinks he can blow guys away with his 86 mph fastball. I am glad he is in our division he is what we call "meat."

Arroyo does have mediocre stuff, but he's also one of the few pitchers in the league with four pitches that go for strikes. He's only 31 years old, and he has a career ERA of 4.22, which is pretty reasonable considering the Pirates started him 2 years earlier than they should have. He has flourished in the NL, and had an excellent year in 2006, which was his first year in Cincy. He's not great, but he's not worse than Wandy Rodriguez for crying out loud. Lilly is only 32, but he's had about one impressive season in his career and that was last year, which is also the only year he pitched for 200 innings.

I'm going with:

1. Snell

2. Suppan

3. Arroyo

4. Lilly

5. Looper

6. Rodriguez

I think Snell has the best stuff, and Suppan starts 30+ times per season. That's valuable, even if he's not spectacular more than a couple of times. It's not like he's giving up the farm every time out.

By the way...did you see Cappy again today? Look for a post from me tonight regarding the starting pitching. I would wait and cover it in my Brewers team preview, but I think it might be settled by then, and I want to weigh in now and let you all do the same.