First off, rightly so that your ace pitches game 1? I am not sure it matters as long as he pitches, no? Is it a reward in your mind, or you just think that your best pitcher should always pitch game 1? I tend to look at it as maximizing your players for the entire series.

Of course you want your ace to pitch game 1, for two reasons. First is that it gives you the best chance to win game 1, and second is that it’s the only way it’s possible (short of pitching on TWO days’ rest) you can pitch your ace three times in a series.

Has Cole ever pitched on 4 days rest, let alone back to back times? We have seen Myers come back on 4 days rest and pitch brilliantly. The subsequent games being bad seems to be a causation/correlation issue.

So, what we know is that Myers HAS pitched on 3 days rest before. And he pitched a beauty of a game doing so.

We have seen Myers pitch on three days’ rest once. Yes, he pitched very well, but that’s hardly a statistical universe. I think the trend of his last four starts (all of them on normal rest) is more meaningful than one start a month ago.

Also, I think you’re making a mistake by dismissing what happened in the two starts after his short rest outing. It’s true we cannot prove they were caused by pitching on short rest, but it’s just as true we can’t prove they weren’t.

In addition, we know that Hamels has never pitched on 3 days rest and has mentioned before that he wasn’t comfortable with it. Also, Myers has 5 years on Hamels as well. Factor in that Hamels is pitching tonight and Myers hasn’t pitched since last Friday, which gives him another 5 days of rest to get ready for this.

Under the circumstances, I frankly don’t give a damn whether Hamels is comfortable with starting on short rest. I would certainly take that into consideration if an emergency starter were needed in June, but again, this is THE WORLD SERIES. I doubt very much that Hamels would object to taking the hill for game 4 if asked to do so, and I’d rather take my chances that he can handle it than start a lesser pitcher.

As to the extra rest, I doubt it makes much of a difference. Whoever starts game 1 is going to have had at least an entire week off.

You are saying to try an unknown, such as pitch Hamels on 3 days rest when he never has and doesn’t appear to want to and could damage his arm, or don’t do it at all?

That’s not what I’m saying. They had the opportunity to set up the rotation the way you suggest for the LCS, but did not do so. I’m saying that given that fact, plus the fact that Myers’s didn’t pitch particularly well in his LCS start, there’s essentially no chance they’re not going to give Hamels the ball for game 1.