Should The Dodgers Use A Six Man Rotation?

The Dodgers have another roster decision looming. Right hander Stephen Fife, or the fifster as he is known to some is about ready to come off of the disabled list. Fife has been on the disabled list since July 6 with shoulder bursitis. This is his second DL stint of the season for the same shoulder injury. The Fifster missed most of April, and all of May battling the very same shoulder woes.

Since Fife is ready to be activated the Dodgers have decided to use a six man rotation just this one time through the rotation. This is probably in order to buy them some time to figure out what their next move is. Chris Capuano starts this afternoon against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, and the Dodgers have announced they will most likely push everyone else back a day choosing to start Fife in Sunday afternoon’s series finale in Chicago.

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Chris Capuano (35) pitches during the first inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium.-Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Fife has not pitched since July 6, but the Dodgers feel they would be better off having Zack Greinke, and Clayton Kershaw open the St. Louis series Monday and Tuesday nights for obvious reasons. Perhaps the Dodgers should use a six man rotation for the remainder of the season?

This also figures to be a maneuver to try and give the Dodger starters a little bit more rest coming into the dog days of August. Mattingly commented on this stating….

"“We want to give guys extra days when we can. Hypothetically, this would be a good time.”"

The prudent move figured to be putting Fife back in the rotation and moving Capuano back to the bullpen. Doing that though would force the Dodgers to bump someone out of the bullpen and off the active roster. Activating Fife tomorrow will necessitate a roster move anyways. So what should the Dodgers do?

The Dodgers could option Chris Withrow back to Albuquerque since he has options. But Withrow is very good and that would just deprive the Dodgers of a solid late inning power arm and also severely piss off one awesome Dodger writer who really likes Withrow. The best scenario would be to DFA the useless Carlos Marmol. I think it’s time to end the Carlos Marmol experiment?

Capuano has been unable to put together two consecutive quality starts. Capuano has four quality starts in which he has allowed no runs, but those have not been in consecutive starts. I think a lot depends on how Capuano fares in his start this afternoon at Wrigley Field against the Cubs.

Chris Capuano is 3-6 with a 4.54 ERA in 15 games. Stephen Fife is 3-3 with a 2.76 ERA in eight starts. Fife has whiffed 35 and walked 12 to post a 6.9 whiff per nine rate. Meanwhile Capuano has whiffed 54 and walked 16 which gives him a 7.0 whiff rate.

What do you think would be the Dodger’s best choice? Should the Dodgers DFA Marmol? Move Capuano to the bullpen? Or perhaps use a six man rotation? Let us know what you think in the poll below. The club should make the announcement before tomorrow afternoon’s game.