Papa Positivity's POV: Kazmir Injury

This might be a recurring article throughout the season depending on how this turns out. Basically, what I want this article to do, is to take negative things that happen to the team, and look and them as to how it will effect the team positively. For those that don't know, Papa Positivity is the name I came up with for Joe Maddon, who I am a fan of. Anyways, here it goes.

While Kid K going down is obviously not a good thing for the team, it will open the door for others. We already know that there is a crowd building outside the door for the 4th and 5th spots in the rotation. This injury will effect this in a couple of different ways.

Firstly, less innings in Spring Traning from Kaz equals more innings for other players. These innings will likely go to the starters competing for those last two spots in the rotation. This will give the management group even more information to come up with a decision. Obviously, Kaz would not have thrown a lot of Spring Training innings, but any extra angle to help make this decision will be more than welcome my upper-management.

It has been reported that Kaz will most likely not be available on opening day. This most likely means he would miss one or maybe two starts this season. One option the team will have is to put Kaz on the 15-day DL. If they have narrowed down the last 2 spots to three people by the end of Spring Training, they could let the extra person take Kazmir's spot, and use those 2 starts as a extended Spring Training to make the decision, with the loser getting sent down or shipped out. If he isn't on the DL, we may still have it narrowed down to 3 people, but we could guarantee a loser the spot as the long reliever. Still can use the spot starts as a test of who should remain in the rotation.

Now for the extreme optimist view. Kaz having two less starts will be beneficial to the team, since he will have pitched less innings and will have more life to his arm when we are playing in October.

UPDATE: 2:00pm (Bishoff): It looks like my whole post above may have been for nothing. According to Lancaster, Kaz expects to be back for Opening Day.