I'm more squeamish at the idea of bouncing a starter in and out of long relief than what seems to be the prevailing opinion 'round these parts. The Brandon Morrow debacle kinda cemented the queasiness at such a situation for me.
However, I believe the thought process is, and please correct me if I'm wrong youse guys, is that the role of long relief ain't that much different from starting. You still need to be stretched out more than an average RP because the expectation is that you throw multiple innings each time you break the plane of the bullpen door. In case of injury, it wouldn't take much to stretch a long reliever into a starter. That, plus, as a bullpen arm in the majors you're throwing against MLB'rs rather than AAA'rs and the more experience one has against Major League talent, the more likely one is to figure out how to get Major League talent out.
Outs are important and if your #6 starter is better at getting outs than your #7 relief pitcher, if you want a better shot to win games you put the better pitcher out there.
I might argue that the impact of a #7 relief pitcher vs. a #6 starter is negligible enough to warrant keeping #6 starter's rhythm and habits consistent but, if'n you have a roster crunch and #6 starter is out of options...you can see the arguments, right?
- My opinion is that I'd rather have a 6-man rotation but that's just silly 'ol me. -