agree on Maine, based solely on his inability to get beyond the 5th inning …. however, his stats are far superior to Perez, whose stats are far superior to Pelfrey ….

Pelfrey is my odd man out of the rotation via trade. He just is not winning the mental part of pitching – because physically, he has all the tools.

Santana
Sheets
Pineiro
Perez
……

you want go all out …. sign Lackey or trade Pelfrey and Maine in a package for a young, top quality starter not named Jackson ….

keeping Neise, Nieve et al in the wings …

Unfortunately the human body is complex and unique. Sometime you end up with a Marisa Miller, and sometimes you end up with a Ben Sheets. I don’t know what good comparing two people’s shoulders would provide. But being able to track a pitchers shoulder and elbow deterioration every few months would be useful.

Someone like Sheets would be a nice additional starter to have because he’ll be a top end guy while he’s healthy, but they should have five more starters they are prepared to send out there 30+ times. And no, Maine and Niese do not count in that group.

My point being, can’t they scan body/bone/muscle structure of players and keep them on file and compare them to potential free agents. ie. A pitcher who is more durable, than fragile might have muscles and tendons positioned, strengthened and structured a particular way, vs. pitchers who seem to continue to breakdown. I understand its not that simple, and a lot of this has to deal w/ mechanics, as well… Clearly, I’m no scientist or medical expert, but outside of recent statistics and seeing a guy throw off the mound, you would think there could a more accurate way to compare the physical characteristics of top notch, durable starters vs. those who breakdown.

wouldn’t it be interesting to have an in depth comparison of the shoulder and elbows of Tim Lincecum vs John Maine, side by side ?

Pelfrey, Sheets, Perez, Maine

Yes, I put Perez ahead of Maine. However, this is Maine as a starter. To me, he just doesn’t have the makeup to be a starter anymore. He rarely makes it past five innings because he doesn’t have that put away pitch (other than his fastball when he throws it hard). Maine does not have nasty stuff unless he pitches all-out, which makes him a perfect candidate for the setup role.