In 2012, the Reds had six pitchers make starts all season and the sixth starter, Todd Redmond, pitched only once. Four of those hurlers pitched over 200 innings, and the strength of the Reds rotation led them to 97 wins.
Health is always a key component of good teams, but rebuilding teams also need to avoid injury in order to make proper evaluations on players. Coming into this season, many fans, including myself, were most excited about seeing a young, talented pitching staff develop, especially the starting rotation.
Just as we watched Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, and Mike Leake develop into effective major leaguers, we expected to see the same from Raisel Iglesias, Michael Lorenzen, and others.