: Originally Posted By boogerlips on 11/07/2009Ya, I had no idea that the excellence of the Cardinal rotation was even debatable. Guess it just goes to show you that you can believe anything you want to if your will power is strong enough and your siteline narrow enough. 
No one is questioning the dominance of their front 2. Pinerio was excellent this year, but he's a free agent who's near the front of a weak class and thus will likely have to be overpaid. Is there anything close to a guarantee that he'll come back? And if he doesn't, or if he regresses from a career year, I don't think you can say that what's behind Wainwright and Carpenter would form anything you could guarantee as an excellent rotation. Lohse had a career year in '08, but returned to his career norms this year, which aren't good.
Carpenter and Wainwright with not much behind them still makes you very dangerous in the playoffs, but I don't that's a top 3 rotation over the course of a regular season.