No numbers here; this is more of a "feel" piece [Riggleman points at gut].  Meatface wrote an earlier fanpost (now closed) that he thought the 2012 rotation would consist of Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, John Lannan, Chien-Ming Wang, and Tom Gorzelanny.  Since that time, Gorzelanny and his varying cheez has moved to the bullpen.  Except for the fact he takes a lo-o-ng time to warm up, and a predeliction for the occasional homer, he's held up as a long man.  He's also stated he (surprise!) prefers starting, which means he may well choose to sign elsewhere in the off-season.

After today's game, Davey Johnson stated he felt Wang had won a spot for next year.  Wang told Bill Ladson that he wanted to come back and pitch for Washington next year.  If you accept both of these as true and that they will come to pass, what does that mean for 2012?  

Detwiler, Peacock, Milone, and anyone else you care to bring up/in are thus fighting for the fifth starter position (and the right to caddy Strasburg's spot).  Assuming no starters are traded, the rotation would consist of two power right-handers (one in Year 2 of TJS recovery, one supposedly off the leash), left-hand sinker/eye-bleeder, right-hand sinker/cross your fingers, and a fill-in-the-blank.  Has Detwiler shown enough to win a spot?  Will Peacock or Milone pass him by, as Detwiler has Balestar, or is Keith Law correct that neither has the stuff to be more than middle relief in the majors?  Will Uncle Mike want Yu to join the Nats, or does he sign one of the middling pool of starters?  What about the rest of the staff?

The bullpen (again, assuming no trades) starts with Storen and Clippard, and presumably includes Mattheus and Burnett as the middle relievers.  That leaves 3-4 spots open for two long relievers (Davey's preference), a LOOGY, and perhaps one other jack-of-all-trades/mop-up man, from the losers for the fifth spot, Rodriguez (out of options, thanks to Oakland), Livo, Balestar, Severino, and what-have-you.  That's also assuming that Coffey takes his David-Hasselhoff sprint from the pen elsewhere.

As one of my college professors used to say, discuss.