What to do with Chuck James?

So jumping right in to baseball...

What do we do with Chuck James? On the one hand, at this point it doesn't seem like he is one of our 5 best starters. Obviously Jair hasn't done it in the regular season like Chuck has, but with Jair, it seems like we at least have hopes of a guy who gives us 6+ on a regular basis, unlike Chucky. On the other hand, Chucky has had a lot of success and its seems unfair for him to have to hope for an injury to crack the ML roster.

Chuck is what he is, he's going to keep you in the game for 5 or 6 innings and then you have to hope the bullpen holds the lead. He doesn't have a dominating fastball and doesn't have a 3rd pitch. What he does have is a great changeup that can keep hitters from pounding him for 5 innings, until they have seen it that day for the third time, which is when a very good chunk of those 32 homers allowed in just 161 IP came from last year. (by way of comparison, Tim Hudson allowed 10 HRs in 224 innings)

Jurrjens on the other hand, has significantly better stuff and could one day be a #2 starter. Chucky won't be more than a #3 starter unless he somehow drastically improves his control and develops a third pitch.

An option that likely won't be taken is to use Chuck as something like a 6th starter and give Glavine, Smoltz and Hampton periodic rests. This would allow Chucky to make between 12 and 20 starts, depending on how much those three are hurt or just need a few extra days off. It would also help stave off some of the fatigue that he showed at the end of last year (while it was due to "injury" the injury was likely caused by fatigue, so not making 30 starts could very well keep that injury from coming back). It has the downside of effectively taking a reliever out of the mix, as James isn't really built to be a long reliever, he'd definitely just be a spot starter.

Another option that has been discussed is trading Chuck, but I think its the wrong time to do that. His value is likely at an all-time low as he is either injured or couldn't hold down the 5th spot, depending on how skeptic the person you are talking to is. And the Braves are likely losing two lefthanders next year in Glavine and Hampton (both have contracts that expire after this year) in a division full of power lefty hitters.

Right now, the route I see the Braves taking is to just wait for one of the starters to go on the DL or for Jair to fall flat on his face. So if you're a Braves fan, you're hoping to not see Chucky at all.

All that being said, its a much better problem than the braves faced last year, when Chucky was locked in as our #3 starter and we were counting on lance cormier, mark redman and kyle davies to fill the last 2 spots.