Would it be such a bad thing to use a 6 man rotation? I noticed that Verlander was pretty much worn out from about mid August on last season. 6 Starters might avoid that this year. Also, Verlander, Scherzer, and Fister all go 7 innings regularly. With them, the only bull pen we need for the most part is a set up man and a closer.

That leaves us with Sanchez, Porcello, and Smiley. Assuming that we will get 5-6 innings out of each of them every start, I believe we could go with 6 starters and 1 less reliever.

Of course there will be the occasional rough week that the master plan doesn't go as planned.

To save Verlander's arm, I think it would be better to keep his pitch count closer to 100 per outing, not ask him to pitch as many complete games, and have a true setup man and good closer. IMO that will win us more games and keep us fresher than having a 6 man rotation.

Heck, not having Valverde will win us more games.

Everything I've read and seen points to Verlander wanting to pitch 120 pitches each game. That what he trains for during the off season, Leyland tends to treat his stars with kid gloves so the fact that Verlander is pitching 120 and above points to me that he can handle it.