Strasburg gets to pitch 200 innings, ZNN is back, Gio is back, Detwiler is back, and E-Jax isn't irreplaceable. Our starting five will still be one of if not the best in the entire majors. If Strasburg makes the jump ZNN does, yikes! We will have 3 All-Stars and atleast a couple guys in the running for Cy Young.
You'd be replacing EJax who's going to have a 3+ ERA over 200 innings with someone who's likely not going to come close to those numbers.
By losing your #4, you shift your #5 to #4 and then you have to use a guy that couldn't crack the rotation this year in the 5 slot. I don't think it takes a huge leap of faith to say the rotation will likely perform worse in 2013 than it has in 2012.
And that's not to say that the 2013 rotation won't be great... it likely will... but it won't be the best in the league as I believe the 2012 staff is.
