I think signing Pedro as a fifth starter/long reliever is just fine and you wouldn't have to go through the adjustment period of bringing in a new guy. I'd rather see him as a 5th starter and you don't really need a fifth starter until you get toward Memorial Day. If you can get 5-6 IP out of him with 3-4 earned runs, you've got a much better shot with this year's bullpen than last year's. I guess he'd be a long reliever/spot starter until a fifth is really needed (or an injury occurs), but I would be leery of expecting him to warm up a lot, cool down, bounce back between starts and even just warmups that don't result in his entering a game.

I think Pedro is too proud to want to be a long releiver, and even though he's not his old self i trust him a lot more with the 5th starter spot than i trust jon niese, who has all of 2 MLB starts with mixed results. pedro is a hall of fame pitcher no doubt, and when he's been healthy/not shaken from his dad's death, he has been effective. i don't expect, at his age, for a rebound to his dominant Cy Young days (though boy would that be nice, huh?) but he doesn't need to be that good as a number 5; hardly ANYBODY has an effective number 5 pitcher anyway, and pedro would be better than kyle kendrick at least, the phillies' number 5 guy. pedro is not very expensive, is nto much of a liability because we wouldn't be depending on him in the first place like we were last year, and as a fifth starter we could give pedro some rest now and then by using a four man rotation when we have like 2 off days in a row or something. plus, last year we were decimated when he went down with injury in game # 2 because we were counting on him to be our #2 starter. this year, worst case scenario if we sign him is he's injured again and then we just turn to redding or niese. so at his bargain price (no other teams are in teh market for him), it really can't hurt to sign him.