Purple Row: Thursday Rockpile: Kershaw vs. Webb, which pitcher do our rivals need more?

Renck also blogs on Yorvit Torrealba and picks up on an interesting question I noticed yesterday, that two of our primary rivals have some honest-to-goodness wild cards in their rotations that they are relying heavily on. Brandon Webb and Clayton Kershaw are both capable of ace level production, but because of Kershaw’s youth and inexperience and Webb’s shoulder, both could swing far south of that in 2010. If either falters, it’s pretty much lights out for their respective teams this season because neither really has a plan B for either of those starters.

Okay, this is where I’m going to segue into a tangent. Who is the bigger risk for their team? A few weeks ago I looked into what the Rockies needed from Jeff Francis (or his replacement if he proves incapable). I knew it wasn’t quite what the team lost with Jason Marquis, so maybe a quick version of the same exercise would be useful for the Webb/Kershaw debate.

Analysis in the link.