Update...what appears to be a minor injury to report...Jose Vidro was struck on the side of the left knee by a Ryan Rowland-Smith pitch today. He immediately stepped out of the cage, but took his next turn. After that turn he headed in for ice and left the complex early. He was not scheduled for x-rays as it appears to just be a bruise.

Well the 3-4-5 was named this morning and it was as expected. Silva, Washburn and Batista. We had been told in recent days that a “formula” would be used and numbers would be crunched in establishing the rotation order. It appears that splitting the lefties carried more weight than the numbers, as John Hickey at the PI crunched those numbers a couple of days ago for his Saturday article and came up with a clear advantage to pitching Batista 3rd the first couple of times through.

Now all that said, nothing is set in stone. John McLaren said no one would be skipped in the first month. If Batista is skipped, he has the ability to pitch out of the bullpen. This may have played against him in deciding the order. As I have always said, it never pays to be too competent. Hope my boss isn’t reading this! If so, really Dennis, I haven’t been holding too much back!

We have had some interesting discussions about the order here in the media room the last couple of days. I think the consensus is that Batista is getting the short end of the stick. From top winner last year to 5th starter can be a tough pill to swallow. Some will look at his numbers and say that he was lucky to win 16. I disagree because the way he pitches, his philosophy of not being afraid to walk a hitter and go after one of the “little guys” lower in the order is tough to quantify. What I do know is that there were games he pitched last year where the Mariners could not afford to give up a run. The offense was struggling to the point where 1 or 2 runs might have been enough. In several of those situations he went out and put up zeros. Didn’t matter that it took a lot of pitches, at that time, they needed zeros early in the game and he got them.

Also, despite pitching from the 3 spot last season Miguel pitched against as many opponents number ones as Felix did, and did so with 4.29 in run support vs. the 6.29 Felix received. In Batista’s final month he put up a 2.52 era and did so against the likes of Kevin Millwood, Dan Haren (twice) and Justin Verlander. Jarod Washburn did not pitch against a single number one after facing Roy Oswalt June 17.

I asked Mac if there was any reason why the 4th starter couldn’t be skipped and he said not really. He acknowledged that there might be a guy who looks like he could benefit from rest and they would adjust. He stressed that nothing is written in stone here and things happen within a season.

It is what it is, but in a game where things are often done a certain way because that is how they have been done forever and on a team that always slants towards the veteran, it would have been nice for the most veteran member of the team not be put in the 5 spot after what he had done the previous year. Even ballplayers like a bit of recognition from time to time.