4-MAN ROTATION? HOSS RADBURN WOULD LAUGH AT SUCH A THING
I first read on baseballmusings.com today about a story in the Denver Post that the Colorado Rockies are going to try going with a four-man rotation comprised of JOE KENNEDY, SHAWN ESTES, JASON JENNINGS, AND SCOTT ELARTON. They still plan on carrying 12 pitchers and are setting the pitch-counts for their starters between 85 and 90 pitches. Atlanta Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone said that he likes the idea of the four-man rotation, but feels that the pitch-counts are maybe too low. "I think you can go 100, 110 pitches," said Mazzone.

This reminded me of Hall of Famer CHARLEY "OLD HOSS" RADBURN. In 1884 he went 59-12 with a 1.38 ERA. He logged 678 2/3 Innings that season and pitched his teams final 27 games (winning 26 of them) to launch the Providence Grays into the World Series. That season Radburn threw 73 CGs. He went CG in every one of his 73 starts and also made two relief appearances. Providence utilized the two-man rotation, which saw Radburn start 73 games, CHARLIE SWEENEY start 24 and the rest of the staff combine for 17 starts. What would Old Hoss say about the FIVE MAN ROTATION? WWOHD? (What would Old Hoss do?)