Yesterday the Rockies designated lefthander Eric Stults for assignment. I say pick him up on the cheap. Rubby De La Rosa is approaching a career highs in innings pitched this season and was stretched to 113 pitches by Mattingly in last night’s win. I question why the Dodgers are risking injury to him in this meaningless string of games as they close out the last two months of this season. Put Stults out there every 5th day. Who knows, maybe he’ll toss another shutout.
I always liked Stults and thought he wasn’t given a fair shake. He could be very serviceable as a number 5 starter, especially in pitcher friendly Dodger Stadium. Stults is never going to overpower anyone, but he has shown that he can pitch effectively to contact, evidenced by his two shutouts in ‘08 and ‘09. He also pitched well down the stretch in key September games during some pennant races.
Call me nostaligic, sentimental, living in the past. Whatever you will. This move is a no-brainer. What have they got to lose other than a roster spot? Sign the man and put him in Albuquerque for a few starts and then bring him up to give De La Rosa some rest.
*************************************************
Jon Heyman tweets today that Ron Burkle would want total control of the Dodgers if purchases the team. So it appears that he isn’t a part of the Garvey/Hershiser group as rumored. Heyman is not specific as to his sources for this information, but since I have addressed this in a few posts in the past. I thought it was worthy of mention.
Speaking of Heyman tweets, he also reports that the Tigers are very interested in Hiroki Kuroda but that the Dodger starter is rumored to not have the same interest to play in Detroit.
**************************************************
Whereever Octavio Dotel is, please don’t let Ned Colletti know. Don’t look now, but James McDonald is pitching some quality baseball in Pittsburgh.
With a stat line of 7-4, 3.95, ERA , 94 K’s, 108 IP, in 20 starts this year, the first place Pirates have won seven of his last eight starts, including last night’s 3-1 win at St. Louis. It is interesting to note that McDonald has mixed an effective slider into his repertoire of pitches and is striking out hitters at an alarming rate. He’s still having issues keeping pitch counts down and going deep into games, but this is a guy that is starting to reach his potential. I wonder what pitching coach Ray Searage was able to accomplish that Honeycutt couldn’t figure out.
No comments:
Post a Comment