Clint Hurdle announced today that Francisco Liriano will be the opening day starter. I think most would have predicted so the question now is how would you lay out the rest of the rotation? My thought has always been to break up similar types of pitchers but there is also something to be said about just going best to worst and hope that you get an extra start or two out of your top two or three guys. Luckily with the way this rotation works itself out I think you're probably fine going with talent.
Francisco Liriano - He will normally sit in the low 90's with his fastball and there really isn't anyone like him in the rotation so you can put just about anyone behind him or 5th in the rotation and the other team will not see a similar pitcher on back to back days.
Gerrit Cole - Cole will be a very nice contrast to Liriano. You go from one day seeing a lefty topping out in the low to mid 90's followrd by a righty that can hit 100. In the end those these two are so talented that they are your clear #1 and #2.
Charlie Morton - Morton and Cole are a bit more similar as Charlie can get into the high 90's but his style which can produce 60%+ groundball ratio should still provide another different look. Also he appears to be so far ahead of #4 and #5 in the rotation I can't see dropping him back to have Wandy split up the two.
Wandy Rodriguez - If healthy he's quite the contrast to what anyone will have seen with the first three. It's rare that a team would see these four in a row but he will surely benefit at least a little if the team saw six or seven innings pitched from Morton the night before. Rodriquez is really the one lower velocity "finesse" pitcher in the lineup and hopefully being a lefty will help him again at PNC. Did you know he had a 2.04 ERA at home and a 6.26 ERA on the road last year (small sample size)?
Edinson Volquez - Volquez sits in the lower to mid 90's and as recently as 2012 was consistently getting into the 97 MPH range. So he's a bit like Morton but plugging him in between Rodriguez and Liriano can't hurt. Still if you have a spot in the rotation that you might want to skip early this is it.
Anyway, don't take this too serious but just something to think about. I'd almost consider bumping Morton back but since he and Volquez are not all that much different it would be pretty pointless. It's a pretty nice mix of a rotation though.