Thats wrong BBB. Trachsel is starting against LA this week. The Cubs are going to go to a modified 6 man rotation for some dumbass reason. I would think you would want your better pitchers pitching more often while in a playoff race, and not have them pitch less. I imagine the dumbass reason is every starter on the staff is set to approach or fly by their career high in IP. if that is in fact the reason, it's not so dumbass, IMO. the Cubs are also in a stretch where they play about 36 days in a row with one off day, with a DH upcoming mixed in, so 36 games in 36 days. while the typical is four days rest, I imagine the occasional fifth day that ordinarily comes due to an off day is quite welcome. Im sorry but its Sept and you are in a playoff race I would prefer to have Z, Lilly, and Hill pitching as much as possible to try and get to the playoffs, instead of giving starts to mediocre pitchers like the human rain delay. and then we'll have an excuse to bitch for five more years that our pitchers with long term contracts all had their arms blown out. huzzah. inserting Trachsel into one game against the Dodgers allows Z to open the series in St. Louis. the way the calendar is stacked right now, Z has a chance to get 6 starts this month and Lilly 5, and there really isn't much anyone can do about stacking it differently short of giving either of these guys only three days rest. the two off days at the end of the month allows the rotation to be stacked to get Z and Lilly the optimum amount of starts. I imagine we will see Z on the 25 against Fla and on the 30 against Cincy. Id hope Hill can get 5 also, seeing as hes been this teams best pitcher lately(the whole season). I just think the Cubs are over analyzing things. Ive never heard of a team in 1st place, on Sept 1, going to a 6 man rotation, and playing matchups against sub 500 teams. The pitching staff has been near the top of the NL all year, and now they are really(in my opinion) over analyzing things. Hill will get 5. framing the matchup as "against sub 500 teams" is very clever, but there's a damn good chance that game on 9/14 will be gigantic in terms of the standings, especially going into the 9/15 where a 4 game swing in the standings will be on the line. look at a calendar. basically the only way to get Lilly that sixth start would be if the Cubs went strictly 4 days rest with Z and Lilly from now until the end of the season. I think that is foolish, not only because of the wear on those two, but also because of how inconsistent it will make the rest of the rotations' rest. if you can come up with a better plan, I'd like to hear it, but without, you really have no basis on which to bitch. The sub .500 comment was in reference to the Cubs entire schedule in Sept minus LA(i think they are still over) and maybe Stl. I just find it odd that they are going to a 6 man rotation in the heat of a pennant race. Ive never seen another team still in the pennant race in Sept do this, and there arent any other teams doing it this year, so I dont see why my questioning of it is that far out of line.