The idea that the Pirates need some sort of balance in their rotation between lefties and righties, soft-tossers and power pitchers, and so on, is picking up steam. Gene Collier popularized it, and now it's been taken up on various message boards.
The echo chamber for this idea is getting louder and louder, and I've yet to see a scrap of convincing evidence to support it. Collier's column turned out, upon examination, to be absolute nonsense.
Anyway, this idea, that the Pirates need more different types of pitchers to keep hitters from getting too comfortable, doesn't even make sense to me on a non-empirical level. I can't believe that, after seeing three or so innings of relievers of varying handednesses and styles, then going to sleep for the night, then waking up in the morning and taking B.P. from a guy who throws considerably slower than just about any major league pitcher, an opposing hitter would still have the rhythm of the previous night's starter in his head when facing that night's starter. That just doesn't make sense to me. I can see a similar argument being made about relievers, but not starters, whose performances are separated by entire days.
Finally, the Bucs are a loooong way from being a contending team. Above all, they need to accumulate talent. It's very surprising to me how many people continue to talk about this, as if this could even possibly be in a list of the Bucs' top twenty problems right now. Why limit your options by deciding you'll trade some pitchers, but you won't trade others? Or by signing some pitchers, but not others? The Bucs need to be open to a wide variety of ways of helping make the team better.