I understand what you are saying with Arroyo having a drop off last year, but I thought it was worth pointing out that only 2 teams had more than 2 pitchers that qualified for the ERA title and matched Arroyo's ERA+ of 110 (bonus points for the first to name both teams).  Only 14 others (including the Reds) had at least 2 qualifying pitchers with an ERA+ of 110.  That means 14 teams failed to have more than 1 such pitcher, including the Red Sox, who only had Beckett.  What I'm saying is that Arroyo was a solid #2 last year.  It'd be awesome if he could get back to his damn near ace level from 2006, but I'll take 2007 out of Bronson every year.

As for his love of Boston, I think social Bronson misses Boston.  He clearly has a love for the city and has some great memories there.  But I've never seen him give anything but maximum effort for the Reds when he's pitching.  He can pine for Boston all he wants, but he chose to extend his contract with the Reds, so I think he's committed to pitching well for them.  Besides, once the Reds start winning again, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to be with the team.

I have done some research on this as have others.

What I did for the 2007 season was take every NL pitcher with 100 innings pitched. There were 77 guys. Those players were then listed by lowest ERA to highest ERA and broken down into groups of 16-16-16-16-13 to represent the 1-5 spots in each teams rotation. The numbers played out to look like this:

Now let me note that none of those numbers have been park adjusted and being that the Reds play in a very favorable park for hitters, the Reds numbers will greatly differ. So what I did was attempt to adjust for pitching in GABP. To do so, I just took the IP, split them right down the middle and adjusted one half of the ERA to the park factor for runs in GABP of 1.095 and then added the numbers back together and the ERA's are now roughly park adjusted for pitchers in GABP. Here is what just the ERA looks like for being park adjusted in GABP:
#1 - 3.47
#2 - 4.15
#3 - 4.74
#4 - 5.21
#5 - 5.89

Now, lets remember again that ERA is a very rough stat in what a pitcher actually controls. Another stat that we could use is FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching ERA. It is assuming that all pitchers have the same defense behind them and they all turn outs at the same rate on balls in play). Jay over at recondite baseball did the legwork on this one and you can see the entire article by going here:

http://reconditebaseball.blogspot.com/2007/10/nl-rotations-by-fip-for-2007.html

Now what he came to was that the NL average rotation by FIP would look like this:

 #1     #2     #3     #4     #5
3.69    4.25    4.69    4.98    5.83

Between Harang, Arroyo and Belisle the Reds had the 1-2-3 covered with a little room to spare.

Just some food for thought on that topic.

As for Bronson, this certainly doesn't put me in a situation where I like him a whole lot outside of a pitcher and this isn't the first time we have been down this road with him before.

Like to see the averages per rotation spot for the teams that made the playoffs or were at least in the top half of each league. I feel that would tell us a little more about where we have to get to.
I like Bronson as a 2/3 guy on an NL playoff team however we need at least one guy that is equal his value to make some postseason play.

Not sure if you read RR or not, but in case you do, I have a couple of things to share with you. First of all, stop fucking singing. You suck harder than a ten dollar crack whore . You are so bad that I heard Michael Jackson caught a listen to one of your miserable cover songs and promptly swore off little boys. A MLB pitcher can get laid without mangling an already dreadful song in front of a room full of idiots. Just got to a bar and approach some nasty cooze and say, "Hi, I'm Bronson. I work ever fifth day for half a year and make millions..." And guess what- panty puddles! Oh, you would save so many of us such dread.  And, If you love Boston so much, retire, move back there and open up a chowder house. But, in the meantime, please keep the ball down in the strike zone, and wear a helmet with one ear flap like every other non-switch hitter. And for the love of God, stop singing!
                                     Love, Pops

P.S. I can offer you a free tutorial of good listening habits for no charge.

*went to boston for the first time this summer.  uh, no comparison.  zero.  cincy isnt even on the radar.  

*im all for starting pitchers doing benefit concerts for good causes, especially if most of the music is cover grunge.  

*who is the coolest athlete in Cincinnati currently?  my pick is BA.  its good for the local kids to grow up knowing that baseball players can be cool.  

*ZERO steroid allegations.

*BA is probably the best pre and post game interview on the team to boot.  

*I dont know how Dunn doesnt lose 40 lbs, move to mt adams and live off arroyo's scraps all summer.

Trent is keeping up the Reds coverage at his new blog.  He talked to Brandon on the phone:

"I was just having fun, playing with the crowd," Arroyo said. "Last year I made some song where I said Adam Dunn hated all the coaches and Ken Griffey Jr. and the year before I had something about Jason LaRue and Matt Belisle. It's obviously not true, it's just having fun."

For the record, Dunn and Griffey are best of friends and Dunn has never had a problem with the Reds coaches.

Bronson pointed out that he wouldn't have signed his extension last season if he wasn't happy in Cincinnati. Bronson laughed about anyone taking his changing of the lyrics seriously. He's happy in Cincinnati and ready for spring training.