But I love the dramatic ellipses. Although, I really intend them more as an expression of me thinking aloud, with my thoughts somewhat unfinished.

My thoughts on dramatic reconfiguration mean that if they get bad news on Westbrook and Shapiro is really faced with a 2009 starting rotation of Carmona, Lee and three other guys (with Laffey and Sowers presumably close to locked into two those spots), he’s going to recognize that, coupled with our current offensive struggles, this is a very different team than the 2005 or 2007 versions. First, Shapiro’s obsession for depth means that the chances of us trading a starting pitcher at AA and above goes to somewhere near zero unless we receive an equivalent pitcher in return. The starting pitching depth chart for 2009 with those three gone is something like Carmona, Lee, Laffey, Sowers, and then some combination of Slocum/Miller/Huff. Neither Miller or Slocum have shown the ability to stay healthy, and I don’t think Miller’s pitched enough innings over the past two seasons to get a regular rotation slot. That’d be putting a lot of pressure on Huff were he to take the spot. I could see Shapiro bringing in a veteran, post-injury Paul Byrd type. I could even see them offering an extension to Byrd if he’s still getting people out with his 84mph jello pitches come September. Maybe Elarton will be kept around and given a shot at returning to the rotation. Also, I could see Peralta being included in a trade. I still view Peralta as one of our better trading chips. He’s an above average hitting shortstop, which is a nice luxury. But on our groundball heavy staff (which it is even without Westbrook), that luxury probably has more value for other teams than ours. I don’t know though…this is all extremely premature speculation.

But I do think if Westbrook goes down with TJ and we don’t have a great week, changes are coming sooner rather than later and those changes will be bigger rather than smaller. All with the intent that we will still be a contending team in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Oh, really…

Good point.

I guess my point would be, we’ve already got a Huff.

I think there’s a ton of space between a Kershaw type guy and a Huff type guy.

Maybe Trevor Cahill of the A’s?

Yes, but Huff, on the other hand, if his numbers are for real — and there’s no real indication that they’re not — then he’s already an average major-league starter, and his second half of 2008 will be about “finishing” as with Sowers in the first half of 2006. He basically is already the 6th starter for 2009.

The problem for this season is not wanting to use up an option on him — by calling him up and then later sending him down — which really should be avoided if at all possible. We don’t even need to roster him this offseason, so if we call him up, it means not only that we almost certainly burn an option, but also that we protect one fewer guy from Rule 5.

Sipp & Donnelly will both hopefully be healthy next year. If they sign a few FA relievers in the off-season you don’t think it would be considered?

So I’ll give you a different answer … the Indians had every chance to do this last year, and they chose to clear a 40-man spot for Jason Stanford instead, knowing they’d have to DFA him a few days later. I have no reason to think they’d do differently right now — and Jason Stanford is waiting in Buffalo.

As was mine. Or ‘twas.

I don’t know. The risk of a CC signing doesn’t change. If CC bombs while getting paid 18 million/year- that will be pretty devastating regardless of what Westy and Hafner are doing. If we look at Hafner and Westbrook’s contracts as anything besides fixed cost it would be as devastating- We are paying them what we are paying them no matter what, that decision was made and there is nothing that can change that, except trying to trade them, and I don’t think that is an option right now.

Plus, while it is apparent that we are not getting the best possible output from Westbrook and Hafner, it is still relatively early in their deals. If Westbrook comes back in a month, or even in a year and pitches at a level near his career ability and if Hafner can bounce back to something like 2007 with the potential to be something between 07 and 06- we aren’t getting zero from our investment, just less than we hoped.

But what is Sipp’s real name?

I love these classic 80s movie references on this site … awesome!!!