Fredi is juggling the pitching rotation.
For certain, Dontrelle Willis will start on Tuesday in the series opener with the Cubs. On Wednesday, the team is leaning toward Daniel Barone, with Scott Olsen getting the call on Thursday.
However, if Barone is asked to pitch in long relief in the next two games, Gonzalez said Olsen may slide up to starting on Wednesday.
Olsen last pitched on Friday, and Monday's off-day gives some flexibility. So if the lefty did throw Wednesday, he would be on his normal five-day schedule. As it stands now, he would get an extra day.
Either way, Olsen's season will conclude during the series with the Cubs.
As for the final three games, against the Mets at Shea Stadium on Sept. 28-30, the rotation will feature Byung-Hyun Kim on Friday, a spot starter on Saturday and Willis on Sunday.
Chris Seddon would be a likely candidate to start on Saturday in New York.
The above article was written yesterday before the game and even though Barone made an appearance, I think it is safe to say that 0.2 inning he pitched yesterday wasn't enough to take him out of the running for a start on Wednesday. Nevertheless, what concerns me is that he has already pitched 174.1 innings this season between the minors and majors and he is already at the injury nexus of 170 innings. But let's face it, the injury nexus is a somewhat arbitrary number.
However, the most innings he has ever thrown in his professional career up till now is 142.1 in 2006. And increasing a pitcher's innings much above 30 per year is really bad policy. But Barone should be able to make another five inning start with little problem, and after that, he should be done for the season.
On a different note: I would like to see Seddon start again, he did pretty well yesterday and his innings up to this point are about equivalent to what he threw last season. And anyway, the Marlins may be looking for a fifth starter for next season -- so let the auditions begin.