Understand the trade-off argument but also you can't fear change when change can be warranted. I haven't been talking wholesale changes just a tweak. Perhaps by moving say Cookie to the bullpen you may find your closer for next year. Not probable but possible. Roles can change. See Chase Burns at Tennessee. He was getting lit up in March. Look at what he's done since they took him out of the starting rotation (last 14 innings 2 ERs). This is a guy who started a super regional game last year. The thought of having him come out of the bullpen in February would have been seen as ludicrous. Agree with your points on MQuigs. I will say this: if the performance of the SP does not change we are all going to be having a big sweat selection Monday for an at-large bid.
One other thing, in the post season unless a team wins every game in a post season weekend, a team is going to need a fourth starter. I suspect for UConn it would be Jack Sullivan, but that would also depend on how the bullpen gets used prior to the fourth game.
It seems Coach Penders and company have pretty much indicated what path they are going to take concerning the pitching staff. I'm inclined to think they are a bit more knowledge on their pitching staff then most of us fans do, at least definitely me.
I suspect that if the pitching staff had a bit more depth to it in terms of pitchers the coaching staff was willing to trust, then changes would have already been made to the starting rotation. In previous seasons there were a number of instances where a pitcher was taken out of the starting rotation during the course of the season, usually by someone who had good showings during midweek starts. At this point I suspect everyone agrees that the starting rotation is broken, my suspicion is that the coaching staff does not want to have a broken bullpen crew as well.
If UConn takes the Creighton series and gets to the Big East finals, I would expect UConn would probably still be in good shape for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. UConn is playing the Creighton games on the road, and in the case of the Big East Tourney, neutral sites (maybe playing Xavier would count as a road game). Also, UConn will not be playing teams having a 200+ RPI, so that should help as well. Of course, a selection of one team for an at large bid is not done in isolation, it also depends on the performance of other teams.
Certainly would help UConn to stay in the winners bracket in the Big East Tourney for the first 2 games, and then have Friday off to give everyone a rest for the final game(s) on Saturday. That is always the case, but even more so with the problems UConn pitching has had this season.
Have to say in years past in following UConn baseball, I became quite a fan of UConn starting pitchers going 6+ innings a game. Certainly hasn't happened as much this season.