Often if a pitcher is going to face a team early in the reg season he won't fce them late in  spring. Don't want to give the other team's hitters a good look at his stuff. Sonny pitched against the Yanks on 3/21. So it doesn't seem to be the Rays plan. And every game counts - the games aginst Baltimore aren't a laydown.

That makes sense.

I dont think facing Baltimore's #3 (whoever that is) will be a "laydown", but we should win with Sonny, Jackson, or Hammel. We could pitch JP Howell if we'd like, I dont care. I think playing against the Yanks #4, in New York, against the Yanks lineup, is a much bigger task. I guess it's not that big a deal. If we were concerned about getting embarrassed in NY to start the year, Im sure Longoria and Niemann wouldve made the team.

The hype for Sonny continues.

I'm not sure I want to be put in that group.

I have made it CLEAR that I was in favor of Jackson as a starter and Sonny in the bullpen as recently as 3 weeks ago. Why is it that because I think Sonny has a better chance in New York than Hammel and Jackson that means I am overhyping him? btw, I have always been a big fan of Hammel. Fact is, Jackson and Hammel haven't moved forward in their progression as professional pitchers in quite some time. Its always 1 step forward 2 steps back. A;ll Im saying is spare 1 of these guys and let him pitch against Baltimore, while letting the more reliable guy (Sonny) start against NY

Is it that unclear that I have to be called out for overhyping Sonny? I thought even the biggest Jackson supporters (such as myself) would realize this would be best

I admit it is the popular concensus, but how do you justify Sonny = more reliable guy based on his 2007 season.  

Most years I pick a player in whom I place a hope that he will excel. The reasons vary. It may be that I simply like to watch him play, or something I read about him that intrigued me or some statistical fact that I glommed onto. He is not always the top prospect or most heralded new addition. Occasionally I am rewarded (Huff, Crawford, Shields). More often I am disappointed (Rich Butler, Ryan Rupe, Steve Cox, Paul Wilson, Joe Kennedy, Chad Orvella).

This year it is Sonnanstine. Frankly, I do not expect him to become a star, although I do think he may. But I love watching him pitch and think he can be a solid back of the rotation starter. I expect that he will have some really terrible games because if he is slightly off he will probably get hammered. But I also think as he figures things out that he will minimize those outings keeping the Rays in most games he pitches and occasionally dazzling.

I think it is possible that Jackson will figure it out, and if he does, he will far surpass Sonnanstine in performance. I hope it happens, but given their total careers to date, I am more confident that Sonnanstine will reach his ceiling, and perhaps surprise us with how high that really is, than that Jackson will get near his. It's not even that I think Sonnanstine is smarter or a harder worker. From what I have read and observed, Jackson is very intelligent and absolutely committed to improving. It is just that I consider command and control to be premium qualities for a pitcher, and at a similar age, Andy seems far more advanced in those qualities than Jackson.

Unable to rely on pure power to overwhelm hitters, Sonnanstine has had to work not just on command and control, but on varying speeds, arm angles and deliveries and changing batters' eye levels. He has learned, it seems to me, to plan every pitch and experiment with sequences to keep batters off balance. Since he can get it into the high 80s, there is adequate separation between his hard stuff and off-speed pitches, and they all seem to have movement. And as he seems able to put them where he wants, that separation and movement compensate for the merely adequate power.

I think Jackson knows all that too, and works at it, but as he cannot control his stuff as precisely, he often has to rely on the power itself, and that will not consistently cut it in the majors. He may have a plan too, but it breaks down under stress.  

While I have seen some posters speak of Sonnanstine in what I consider hyperbole, I do not consider my own view of him to be hype. I readily admit that my confidence is influenced by preference and even bias, but I also think there are sound reasons for that preference. And I do not think that labeling him solid back of the rotation starter material is unreasonable let alone hype.

Excellent comp.  I guess I think of Sonny as Kennedy lite.  He has a chance to be OK with his tools and a bit of progression.  But given the difficulty of the competition at the MLB level, I don't think that is pessimistic to say that Sonny's future success is less than likely in general, and more so as a starting pitcher.

And high velocity pitchers are given many more chances, because "you can't teach velocity". Apparently, it's not easy to teach command either.

I think of both velocity and command in terms of  inate ability and tools.  Both are coachable and improvable.  But for all practicle purposes, players have ceilings for both that goes beyond what is coachable.  Especially established players.  

I think that view is widely accepted in terms of velocity and 'stuff' but not of command.

 

In reference to the original question, if we are afraid to throw ANY of our pitchers against certain teams then it is going to be a very long season. Jackson and Hammel need to immediately show that they can finally live up to their potential because there are a lot of good young pitchers coming up fast behind them. They are out of options so it is put up or shut up time. They've got to be able to pitch against the Yankees and Red Sox or they can't be in the rotation considering we will be facing those teams a combined 36 times over the season. In order to accurately judge their performance over the season we have to see how they perform against the better teams in the league.