Slightly Random Plug

A Roylas' blog!

The reason is to help put a stop to the use of another silly baseball term that bothers me all the time: "ace." What is an "ace?" Who is the "ace of the staff?" Is it merely the best pitcher on the staff? In that case, doesn't every team have an ace? Can you have five aces?

How about when someone is a "solid number three." What's that mean? How good is a number three? How often does someone know what he's talking about when he says, "he's a good back-of-the-rotation starter, but not better?" I'll bet it's never, that's what I'll bet!

Sorry, I worked with a habanero pepper when I was making dinner tonight and just rubbed it in my eye. That smarts.

But back to aces. I don't think we have to stop saying "ace." I think we need to define what "ace" or "number three" or "back of the rotation starter" means.

And the guy from this blog did just that. Hooray!

And by this it would seem the Rangers had one solid #2, one solid #3 a couple solid #4s a whole lot of #5s and no ace. Hooray!


And this year the Rays had an ace in Shields and three #2s in their rotation. They sent out a guy barely "bad" enough to be a #3 as their fifth worst pitcher (by xFIP). That guy just won the ALCS MVP. Those guys are also all younger than 27.

Well that's fair.