Let's say you keep Jered up and send Jeff to the pen. Who do you send down?

Good question. Romero is clearly the team's worst pitcher. Carrasco and Donnelly are the next most expendable. These three might have some limited trade value to a handful of teams in the hopes of solving interim problems on the cheap. Romero could be sought as a LOOGY, Carrasco as a spot starter, and Donnelly as a setup man. Gregg could be used as trade bait as well.

The Angels could delay the inevitable and go with 12 pitchers for a brief period. This might allow them to buy time to work out a deal for one of the above pitchers or perhaps Jeff Weaver.

Remember, the Angels cut Esteban Yan loose when they brought up Jered. Making another similar decision to clear room for him to stay on the roster and in the rotation might be in order once again.

If you were going to trade one of the starters for a hitter where would you start? It is going to be difficult to get rid of Jeff Weaver and you probably want to keep Santana due to the low cost, so would you be rather trade Lackey or Escobar?

I was thinking they may trade Santana and get a monster bat in return.

I know a good pitcher scheduled to be low paid for 4 years is very valuable, and I think every team knows it too.

I wouldn't be looking to trade Lackey, Escobar or, for that matter, Santana. However, I'd always keep an open mind in the event another team was willing to blow me away with a proposal that made sense from both a talent and financial perspective.

Having a foursome of Lackey, Escobar, Santana, and Weaver through 2009 would allow me to sleep pretty comfortably at night. I'd like to keep such a rotation in tact.

With Vlad tied down through 2008 and a club option for 2009 plus several good-hitting prospects at the AA, AAA, and MLB level, I wouldn't be in too much of a rush to trade one of those starters for another hitter. Absent an increase in payroll, I would rather fill my needs this winter with the $15.5M from the expiration of Alfonzo's and Erstad's contracts.

I don't see an obvious candidate to send down.

The Angels are going to give Colon every chance to earn his high-priced keep. His Cy Young last year ensures that.

Jeff Weaver is on his way back to being a mediocre LAIM (League-Average Innings Muncher). He is NOT a bad pitcher. Based on previous experience, sending him to the bullpen is not a good idea, either.

Santana needs to fix his road/day problems. Given his heroics in last year's ALDS Game 5, the team can hardly justify sending him down, though he has option years and is thus vulnerable.

John Lackey will not be moved, not after the Angels bought out all his arbitration years.

Here's what I think will happen. The Angels will indeed send down Jered Weaver to Salt Lake. (This will likely cause Jeff Heaverlo to be shipped to Arkansas, at least on a temporary basis.) Colon will make a month's worth of starts, get shelled in most or all of them, and his "injury" will recur or a new one will "develop" -- call it an inflamed ERA -- and Little Weaver will get the callup, to the premature delight of Angels fans. (He will continue to post absurd numbers at AAA during this span.)

Weaver will continue to do well for a while, but some time in the latter part of the season, teams will start figuring him out. I use the Yankees at Yankee Stadium as probably the worst case because they like lefties so much there, but you can insert any park with a short rightfield fence and a lineup full of lefty mashers. Having made a turn or so in front of the big league advance scouts, with a good dose of video to help, those flyball outs he generated at Tampa in his last start will go over the fence, and up-up-up goes his previously remarkable ERA. That is, unless he gets a sinking pitch of some sort.