Optimism

Buster Olney's blog today touches up on signs of optimism on teams out of contention as teams look towards the future.  The examples:

Detroit: Rick Porcello
Chicago: Starlin Castro
Houston: Brett Myers and their rotation
Baltimore: Matt Wieters and Brian Matusz
Arizona: Daniel Hudson and their rotation

I liked the idea and thought there were some other teams with reason for optimism:

Toronto: If Houston and Arizona get nods for their rotation, I think you have to give one to Toronto.  Plus, if Olney mentioned the Orioles you can't knock them for playing in the AL East.  The Blue Jays have 5 good starters right now.  Ricky Romero is locked up.  Brandon Morrow had the highest k/9 for a starter this year and finished very strong with a 3.53 ERA from June on.  Shaun Marcum's control and whiptastic ways have picked up right where he left off before his Tommy John surgery, Brett Cecil has a FIP under 4.00 and top prospect Kyle Drabek is making his debut tonight (3IP 4 k at time of the posting)

Oakland: Another great young rotation.  Brett Anderson is a future ace (maybe scrap the future from that statement), Gio Gonzalez is finally living up to his once top prospect potential, Dallas Braden has been great all year, and Trevor Cahill has been awesome even when you factor in regression considering the fact he's still 22.

Pittsburgh: Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez are well known but if the Pirates are going to ever improve it will be because of their pitching and they may have finally found someone to hang their hat on in James McDonald.  Since joining the Pirates (for Octavio Dotel) McDonald has started to live up to his potential with a 3.49 ERA in 8 starts.  And it's not just a product of luck as his FIP on the year is 2.66.