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Is there some fundamental baseball reasoning that I don't understand to explain why, given the circumstances, Buchholz has been categorically ruled out as a starter for the remainder of the season? I know I've read that his mind grasps longman status better, but this seems silly to me.
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And to me, too. In fact, I can't understand why Buchholz wasn't the first option Clint looked to when both Lopez and Hirsh went down for the count. Yes, in a perfect world I'd agree that Buchholz is better suited to a relief role. But the Rockies' world right now ain't exactly perfect.
I understand passing over Buchholz on Sunday, since he'd pitched a long relief session just 3 days prior. But from now on are you telling me that you'd rather throw Tim Harikkala or some such guy out there every 5th day just because Buchholz in the longterm fits in better as a reliever? That's just nuts.
My theory: for whatever reason, Clint and Dan never really liked Buchholz. They're holding him back now as trade bait for the Steve Trachsel type Danno wants to acquire. And that would be a great deal for the O's -- you'd get a much younger/still cheap guy who isn't a downgrade vs. Trachsel in any sense of the word, and we'd get about 8 starts out of a guy Clint and Dan obviously have more confidence in. Kind of like Josh Fogg and Josh Fogg Jr. making up 2/5 of your rotation. Whatever. It's obvious Buchholz isn't in our future plans even if he should be, so you might as well get a marginal upgrade for him now.
EDIT: By "marginal upgrade," I don't mean that Trachsel is an upgrade over Buchholz. In fact, I'm quite sure Buchholz is better. I mean, "better than handing the ball to Franklin Morales right now," or "better than going to Mike Esposito." My preferred course of action would be to let Buchholz start, lean heavily on the bullpen (particularly when rosters expand), and skip over Jimenez whenever the schedule allows. But it's obvious that's not going to happen.
And Roxpert, this time I really think they'll skip over the "5th starter" whenever possible. I am not completely confident they'll do it, since the general lack of urgency managment is showing is kind of annoying. Hey, you're in a pennant race once a decade, maybe you could actually try to make the club better, even if it's only by a tiny bit? I've railed about Joe Kennedy going to our competitors. Here's another one: Mark Sweeney could be useful as a bat off the bench, acquired for what will almost certainly be "cash considerations." The question isn't, "Is Mark Sweeney really that great?" It's, "Who would you rather have come up in the bottom of the 9th, one out, runner at 3rd, we need a run to tie it -- Sweeney or Cory Sullivan?"