5 + 2 = 7 - 2 = 5

(click on chart for larger image)

Who you gonna tell to go away?

Here’s a puzzle for fans of the Durham Bulls. I mean puzzle in the sense of something curious going on, not puzzle in the sense that we will have anything to do with solving it. Nor, for that matter, will the Bulls. This one’s for the Rays.

At this moment we’ve got five starting pitchers: DeSalvo, Davis, Hernandez, Houser, and Cromer. Sometime soon we’ll have seven starting pitchers: Talbot off the DL (no idea when) and Sonnanstine arriving from Tampa Bay. So, who goes?

Talbot, Sonnanstine, Davis and Houser are on the Rays 40-man roster. Doesn’t mean they can’t move elsewhere (Jake McGee, a pitcher who had Tommy John surgery and recently pitched his first game down in the Gulf Coast League is on the 40-man and, believe it or not, on the Bulls roster as a sort of permanent 7-day DL). As an aside, the Gulf Coast League is where Elliot Johnson is playing according to Stacy Long.

The chart shows the numbers that interest me. Not necessarily the numbers that interest the Rays.

From my view Talbot, Sonnanstine, and Davis are a lock. So who’s the other two?

Looks like a no-brainer to me. First off the bus is Houser, second is DeSalvo.