September 21st, 2013 at 10:04 am 
by Ron Cervenka Barring the unforeseen, it is pretty much a given that Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-jin Ryu will be the three primary starters for the post-season. What isn’t quite as clear is who the fourth starter will be (or who the long reliever out of the bullpen as the case may be).
It’s pretty safe to say that Chris Capuano and Stephen Fife are out of the mix and quite frankly, they were never really in the running. This of course leaves right-handers Ricky Nolasco and Edinson Volquez.
Up until three starts ago there would have been no question – Nolasco would have owned the spot hands down, but in his last two starts, Nolasco has allowed (are you ready for this) eleven earned runs in 6.1 innings pitched. That’s an ERA of 15.63 – not exactly a real confidence builder heading in the post-season.
In contrast, Volquez has given up only four earned runs in 12 innings pitched for an ERA of 3.00 which is not only acceptable but actually quite good.
Volquez appears to have the hotter hand right now but Nolasco has done better in the long run.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
Although two starts is a very small sample size to draw from, especially when you consider that since joining the Dodgers Nolasco is 8-2 with an ERA of 3.14 and Volquez 0-2 with a 4.30 ERA. It does, however, show who has the proverbial ‘hot hand’ right now, which is something that needs to be considered when submitting your playoff roster.
Keep in mind that both Nolasco and Volquez were opening day starters for the Marlins and Padres respectively, which clearly shows that they are potential number one starters for most teams – at least for the Marlins and Padres, that is, but because the Dodgers have soon-to-be 2013 Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw, former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke and potential Rookie of the Year candidate Hyun-jin Ryu as their number one, two and three starters, the best that Nolasco and Volquez could hope for is to be a number four or number five starter with the Dodgers depending on which slot you choose to put them in.
So, if you are Don Mattingly, who makes the playoff roster as your fourth starter – Ricky Nolasco or Edinson Volquez?
Posted in 
RT @Think_BlueLA: New post: Nolasco and Volquez headed in opposite directions: http://t.co/nsDSDy7CFV #Dodgers #Dodgerfam
I agree that Nolasco has had some tragically bad starts recently but I still have more confidence in him over Volquez. As we all know through experience with Volquez he can literally explode in any moment. This is screaming “too small sample size.” I have never had much confidence in him as a guy who can consistently provide good starts. I am not really that sure that he even works well out of the bullpen.
Nolasco has another start coming and hopefully that goes well and he gets back on track but I think this is Nolasco’s to lose. I haven’t seen his recent starts but I did see him against Boston. It is hard to go from Nolasco’s dominance to his recent numbers without something going really wrong – hidden injury, something. Sometimes a pitcher will try and work through a minor injury instead of announcing it. Hope that is not the case.
In the pen, I would vote for Marmol, along with obviously Whiff-row and Wilson to round things out. I am not really sure where Volquez fits in barring another disastrous start by Nolasco.
I too have to stick with Nolasco. I just don’t have that confidence in Volquez.
I’m glad I don’t have the responsiblity to chose between Nolasco and Volquez. Nolasco was doing so surprisingly well for quite some time that he looked like a no-brainer to be the 4th starter but he suddenly started throwing batting prectice in his last two starts and Volquez has been doing a lot better than, I think, most of us expected. I hope things will become better to judge after their next starts.