Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightfyre
Marcum, as I mentioned earlier, was born and raised in KC. I'm not going to say he would come at a discount to KC so much as he might not require as much of a premium to come play here.
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I like Marcum quite a bit, and when healthy, he's a solid No. 2 starter.
Very, very smart and crafty pitcher. It wouldn't be an awful gamble, especially since the Royals' rotational depth is pretty solid (they have lots of 4/5/fringe guys that can fill in).
Marcum
Guthrie
Santana
Mendoza
Chen
with Odorizzi, Smith, Marks, Teaford, etc. waiting in the wings.
Best case scenario from above:
Marcum stays healthy and logs 180+ innings, pitching like a true No. 2 (3.50 ERA, 180 IP, 170 K)
Guthrie keeps up his 2012-KC form, pitching like a borderline No. 2 (3.50 ERA, 200 IP, low walks)
Santana follows his career trend and bounces back after a rough season, making heavy use of the improved slider he found late in 2012. Good Santana (3.75, 200 IP, 180 K) shows up.
Mendoza is what he was in 2012: An OK back-end starter.
Asked to pitch fewer innings and given a shorter leash (thanks to the innings-eaters in front of him), Chen bounces back a bit and settles back into a solid 3-4 level starter.
Of course, worst case is that:
Marcum gets hurt, Santana doesn't bounce back and is just as bad, Guthrie posts an ERA in the 4s, Mendoza regresses and Chen is just as bad.