POINT:  Jason Vargas has had 2.5 consecutive blehhh starts.  

We fans conclude that Vargas isn't good any more.  

We therefore conclude that he won't be worth much if traded, since bad pitchers aren't traded for much.

COUNTERPOINT:  Before the 2.5 blehhh starts, Vargas had 18 great ones.  As a group, that is, his previous 18 starts were smmmooooookin'.

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POINT:  Vargas seemed to tire in 2010, and may be tiring again now.

COUNTERPOINT:  While possible, I (and baseball scouts) are also aware that in his previous 7 starts, Vargas pitched into the 8th, 9th, and clubhouse innings every time.

Vargas just got done throwing a whopping 51+ innings in his previous seven starts -- including 3 complete game shutouts in less than 30 days.

After that, he gave up 5, 5, and 4 runs.  He left early the last two times and will probably be refreshed after this "poor-performance breather."  That's usually what happens in these cases.

Sure, take into consideration that his last few games, he's been lukewarm.  But also take into consideration three (3) jaw-dropping shutouts just before that.  Felix is up and down.  Pineda is.  Whitey Ford was.

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POINT:  Vargas is a soft-tosser.

COUNTERPOINT:  A soft-tosser whose K rate is 5.8, well over the Shandler Line for Finesse Pitcher Stardom.

Three starts ago, hordes of SSI readers were advising moi that Vargas is this generation's Jimmy Key.  We advise vous that Jimmy Key also had three-start stretches in which he gave up 5, 5, and 4 runs.

... Vargas has a snake-tongue, mirror image fadeaway FB and cutter/slider, and his change is one of the highest run-value pitches in baseball.  His game is verrrrrrry reliable.

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POINT:  Vargas isn't worth as much as Doug Fister.

COUNTERPOINT:  Nobody is, including perhaps Michael Pineda...

Last week, Chris Chambliss of all people said that the 2011 Mariners' rotation threw like no rotation he'd ever seen, "I mean, ever."  You're talking about a guy who played for the 1977-78 Yankees with Catfish, Ron Guidry, Torrez, etc.  

Chambliss won back-to-back World Series with Catfish, Guidry and Co., has been there for six rings, and here he is anointing these five aces the hottest he's ever seen...

Don't be impressionable.  Jason Vargas is a good starting pitcher, making peanuts.  There have been seasons, such as 1995 and 1997, the M's woulda given their firstborn for 'im.

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BABVA,

Dr D