The rotation

Dejan Kovacevic reports Fogg will get another turn.

If the Bucs increase their payroll by ten million for 2006, I suggest they spend all of the money on pitching coaches. I doubt the Pirates will be eager to pay Fogg what he'd win in arbitration, even if he turns his season around. And Fogg will be just fine. Some team like the Reds will sign him at a generous rate in February.

If we lose Fogg and add Snell, we are left with Oliver Perez, Kip Wells, Ian Snell, and probably Ryan Vogelsong as the pool competing for spots after Zach Duke, Dave Williams, and probably Mark Redman. That's four pitchers with great stuff and lousy guile. And we'll need at least two of those guys to pitch well and separate the crafty lefties. I can't say I expect any of those four to come through for us in 2006. Since Ollie only had one great year (2004) and Kip had two great years (2002 and 2003), I wonder if it isn't fair to start with the premise that Ollie is half the pitcher that Kip is. I didn't think Ollie would be such a disappointment in 2005, and I didn't think Kip would post back-to-back poor years. Right now, I don't see much reason for optimism about the 2006 rotation.