Speculation: 4 man rotation?

[Dojji]

If there's a team that could get away with going back to a 4 man rotation, it's probably the Boston Red Sox this year. All of our best 4 arms are highly durable and either young, or in their prime years. And if we need to have a bullpen game to give the boys a blow during a long stretch of consecutive games we can probably make that happen between Ross, Hembree and Barnes.

 

Obviously my speculative odd man out would be Clay Buchholz with E-Rod taking the 4th position in the speculative rotation. Buchholz can add to the bottom of the bullpen and come in if we need a bullpen game. May be a better place for him anyway given his durability issues.

 

Add to that the fact that none of our depth options including Buchholz are anywhere near as trustworthy as our big 4 and I feel it may be time to try the experiment, or at least skip the 5th starter a lot more often. With 4 good young durable starters and a lot of depth in the bullpen, along with the ability to switch relivers in and out quickly which we've been aggressive about so far this year allowing us to soak up surplus innings and send a guy down to recover, it might be worth a look.