Per Wikipedia, Mardi gras is French for Fat Tuesday, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.  From the picture above taken yesterday, it looks like Jesse Litsch (Middle) has been indulging in richer, fatty foods all winter.  Brett Cecil (Left), on the other hand, was the antithesis of Fat on Tuesday, as he has dropped a cool 32 lbs and looks to be more in shape than ever. Cecil is looking to solidify a spot in the rotation in 2012, following a season where he struggled with his velocity, and was sent to AAA Las Vegas for a period.  While he finished the season 4-11 with a 4.73 ERA and 1.326 WHIP, the ERA and WHIP numbers were not terribly worse than his 2010 season when he finished 15-10 with a 4.22 ERA and an identical 1.326 WHIP, and was anointed a rotation mainstay.  Looking a K and BB rates, there’s not a huge discrepancy there either, 6.3K/9 in 2011 vs. 6.1K/9 in 2010, and 3.1BB/9 in 2011 vs 2.8BB/9 in 2010.  What does this say about Brett Cecil in 2012? It’s definitely hard to predict using statistical analysis given the fact that he’s apparently a new man, in the best shape of his life.  Furthermore, there always seems to be something unpredictable about Brett Cecil around this time of year.  In 2010, he sliced his finger doing God knows what in the kitchen, which landed him on the DL, but when he returned, he was forced to throw more fastballs and changeups, while relying less on his curve.  This led to his 15 win season and a mastery of the AL East.  In 2011, it was the mystery of his velocity, or lack thereof. He was never consistently able to get his fastball up to the 92-94 range, in which it had previously been, but stayed in the mid-upper 80′s for much of the season, leading to his 11-loss season and a demotion to AAA. Now 2012 brings us a new, thin, and in shape Brett Cecil.  Will the velocity come back? Will he regain his 2010 form? That remains to be seen.  And about Jesse Litsch on Fat Tuesday…He’s still fat.