Backwards from the Start

It is not a good idea when you lose a pitcher like Kris Benson before Spring Training even starts. Particularly so when he is the veteran leader of a young pitching staff, and good for about 190 innings per year when he is healthy.

Orioles brass panicked after hearing the news. Within hours, the club had signed Steve Trachsel to a deal paying him at least $3 million this season. Whether that was a good knee-jerk decision is up in the air. True Trachsel's numbers show a pitcher who has averaged around 200 innings per year in a stretch from 1996-2004. But he's also a pitcher who has only thrown 201 2/3 innings the last two seasons, as well as a pitcher who last year had a 4.97 ERA and the highest WHIP ratio of his career, all pitching for a Mets playoff team (in the National League). He's also 36, joining Jaret Wright as the "graybeards" of the starting rotation.

This is not a good start for the 2007 season. Particularly since management decided to focus on the bullpen (as we previously noted) rather than address the starting pitching. A fivesome of Erik Bedard, Wright, Daniel Cabrera, Adam Loewen, and some combination of Trachsel, Hayden Penn, Garrett Olson, and Jeremy Guthrie. But I bet they wish the Rodrigo Lopez trade had not of happened right about now...