Blue Jays starting rotation announced!

GIBBY!

I am so glad that you and I are starting off the year like this:

And not like this:

The coach of the Jays, John Gibbons, has announced his starting rotation, and it goes as such:

RA Dickey
Brandon Morrow
Mark Buehrle
Josh Johnson
Ricky Romero


Now, all of you avid followers will recall that I called this rotation, with one minor difference; Morrow and Johnson flip flopped.

I'm definitely still calling it a win, even though I technically only had 60% correct (which is actually the best you can do aside from 100%). My theory was that you need to follow the knuckleballer with a guy who throws hard and then also split up the lefties. I am very happy to see that Gibby has the same philosophy, although I am shocked to see a guy of Josh Johnson's caliber sitting in the 4 hole. I figured that he and Morrow were interchangeable, but expected to see the nod go to the former long time ace for the 2 spot.

It may have come down to not wanting to start off the rotation with three newcomers, relegating the incumbents to the bottom of the rotation. It may have been a bit much to have the newbies as the top 3 in the rotation and the top 2 hitters in the lineup(which will definitely be the case with Reyes and Melky). The other option would have been to sticky Ricky 3rd, after Johnson, and move Buehrle to 5th, but I much prefer having Dickey going out after the harder throwing of the two southpaws as the rotation turns over. Or it may have come down to Gibbons really liking what he has seen from Morrow (when healthy) over the past few years, and not being as excited by JJ's diminished numbers from last season (neither of which I can particularly blame him for).

The bottom line is this. 4 of our starters have been aces on staffs, and Morrow certainly has ace type stuff. This is an INCREDIBLE staff. If Josh Johnson doesn't get uppity about suddenly being the 4th guy, and Morrow can give us a full season, this is the best way to set the rotation, and I'm happy to see it being properly managed.


Gibby is 1 for 1 on my scoresheet.


How about your's?