Originally Posted by SteelSD
Or, replaced Cory Lidle (4.90 full season ERA) with Eric Milton (4.75 full season ERA)
Or, replaced Jose Acevedo (6.64 ERA as a Starter) with Ramon Ortiz (5.47 ERA as as Starter)
BTW, Reidling won't put up his 5.00+ ERA again. And Weathers stands little chance of putting up a 4.15 ERA again. That's a push, but Dan O' doesn't know it. Lidle/Milton is pretty much a push as well (the Phillies think so too). If Weber's healthy, he'll top Van Poppel to be sure and Mercker will also deal better than Norton, tis true.
But when you swap SP's in the range of 5.50 and 6.50 that's just the difference between losing ugly and losing uglier-er. And when you give up the number of Runs the Reds' starters project to give up...well, let's just say that they make the pen less of a factor than they should be even if that pen is improved. Tough to make a difference when constantly pitching from behind no matter how good you are.
There's no obvious "great" improvement there other than a LHP who'll top out at 65 IP.