that as soon as Paulino is healthy, he's in the rotation?  

And that Nieve will be given a good, hard look?

McLemore looked pretty good in the bullpen last year.  I guess I never really considered him for the rotation, so the news isn't that big of a surprise.  His being out of options, and Wright as a Rule 5 guy, means that if one (or both) doesn't make the team out of ST, they're gone.

I wasn't big on Moehler last year... but I like how he can pitch mop-up duty and long relief out of the bullpen.  Last year, I assumed he would get any emergency start (at least whenever Sampson wasn't in the pen) the team needed.

that signing Lohse for around $4 million is just a no-brainer.  We are in serious trouble with the starting pitching, and we're paying Woody $6 million even if he doesn't earn a starting spot.  Just nuts: thanks again, T-Purp.

3-4 months, according to his quotes at MLB.com. Paulino thinks that is a more realistic view, based on what he was told by the doctor. Ed Wade said it will be at least 2 months before Paulino can even start a rehab assignment.  Wade said he is glad Paulino is taking a conservative view of the injury.  Paulino thinks that the medical staff will prescribe two months of complete rest; so if you add the extra month to Wade's statement, you can see how Paulino comes up with 3 months.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080313&content_id=2425159&vkey=spt2008news&fex t=.jsp&c_id=hou&partnered=rss_hou

of posting the question, "is Moehler possibly a candidate for the rotation?" after the last outing, cause i thought i'd get laughed at.  can't say i'm thrilled about the idea, but i've said before that i truly hope that they give the jobs to the guys they think are most qualified out of Spring Training, and not just hand people jobs because of what they're getting paid (Chacon, Williams).

for pitchers should be taken with a grain of salt.  I thought Zachary Levine's column in the Chronicle made an interesting point about the link, or lack thereof, between spring training ERA and regular season ERA.
http://blogs.chron.com/unofficialscorer/2008/03/what_to_make_of_woody_williams.html

For pitchers with spring ERAs of 9 or more last year, half pitched better than league average during the regular season.  A 50/50 chance that a high spring ERA leads to a good or bad regular season means...well, it means practically nothing.  Flipping a coin is as good as relying on a high spring ERA to predict a season.

So if we have, say, 6 candidates for the 4 and 5 rotation slots and all of them have bad spring ERAs, it also might be that 50% of the six (3) will be capabble of having good regular seasons, which should allow you fill the 4,5, and backup rotation slots well...if the coaching staff makes the right choices.  I don't mean that the 50% probability can be used in a rigorous sense, but I think it makes a point.

has an interesting passage:

 "The Astros have come to the conclusion that this pitching staff is going to punch a ticket to last place. That's why they're hurriedly working the phones to see if anyone on the roster could get them a major league starter.

I'm guessing that anyone other than Carlos Lee, Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt would be available. At the moment, the rotation appears to be Oswalt, Brandon Backe, Wandy Rodriguez, Chris Sampson and Shawn Chacon."

Of course, this wasn't totally unforeseeable.  And it makes the decision on Lohse even more perplexing (unless it is simply the Boras issue with him).  It is hard to imagine what the Astros have left to trade which can bring back a quality starting pitcher...not when most of the teams are also seeking the same thing.  The other possibility is looking for a gamble in the form of a starting pitcher who is out of options and won't make his team's rotation.  It would be a gamble, because his team would try to keep him if he is a highly reliable starter. Of course, if you acquire that kind of player you have to put him on your roster, which means that someone else has to be let go or sent down to AAA.