Oakland's rotation...

[Warpigs]

After a number of spring training games, what are your predictions for Oakland's five starters, in order?

[lbcnjk]

Zito
Harden
Haren
Blanton
Meyer

[agchris02]

Harden
Zito

other than that, the same

[baseballnewb]

I think Meyer will start in the minors, he's been just dreadful this spring and hasn't had enough AAA experience to begin with. I think at some point he'll be the #5 though.

[ensanimal]

zito
harden
haren
blanton

are pretty much set. everything i've read recently has meyer starting in AAA, he hasn't shown he's ready yet. i'd say etherton gets the 5th spot for now.

[donny23]

Well, in terms of their spot in the rotation it is Zito then Harden. In terms of final stats, I'd say Zito, Harden, Haren, Blanton, Meyers (once he gets called up).

Harden
Zito

other than that, the same

[mikegp]

Does anyone think that there is a chance Juan Cruz will get a shot in the rotation? From what I've heard he won't, but not sure if anyone in Oakland has heard differently.

[ensanimal]

Does anyone think that there is a chance Juan Cruz will get a shot in the rotation? From what I've heard he won't, but not sure if anyone in Oakland has heard differently.

everything i've heard is he's in the bullpen, even though he may be the best suited for the 5th spot.

[so0perspam]

Does anyone think that there is a chance Juan Cruz will get a shot in the rotation? From what I've heard he won't, but not sure if anyone in Oakland has heard differently.

everything i've heard is he's in the bullpen, even though he may be the best suited for the 5th spot.

Agreed.

Juan Cruz fanned five while allowing one run in three innings today in his longest outing of the spring.
We still think Cruz would be the best candidate to be the A's fifth starter, but it's not going to happen. It's expected that he'll help set up Octavio Dotel.

[LBJackal]

The rotation includes Zito, Harden, Blanton, Meyer, and Haren. Yabu had a spot for a short time but since he's sucked big time in ST it's been given back to Meyer. As for the order, I'm not sure. Sometimes teams tweak it so that it's not neccesarily best-to-worst, such as the Jays putting Gustavo Chacin at #2 and having Bush and Lilly, clearly our 2nd and 3rd best pitchers, at #4 and #5. Lilly is at the end because of injury but Bush is probably our #2 in terms of skill although he's being saved to face Boston as opposed to TB.