He's been a professional for 120 innings. He was great last year at Daytona. Then he got promoted and was great in July at AA, then wore down at the end of the season. This isn't some Samardzija-like situation of hoping his stuff matures so he stops getting hammered, he was quite good at an appropriate level, and then wore down when he reached a new IP threshold. Cashner has great stuff, gets ground balls, never gives up HR, and gets strikeouts without walking the world. It's not about development, it's about stretching him out. I don't know nearly enough about him... does he also have (or does he project to) good enough secondary/tertiary pitches to get through the lineup multiple times at the ML level? If he's had success doing so in the minors at age appropriate levels, I would think so. If it really is just a matter of stretching him out, I don't think he should be anywhere but starting at AA to start this season.