Imagine the utter delight I felt this morning when I learned that not one - but both - of the Marlins' dead weight rotation inhabitors were being relegated to the pen.
Yep, that's right! As reported here by Fish Stripes, both Ryan Tucker AND Mark Hendrickson are out. I never thought it would happen. I hoped, prayed, dreamed, but never believed. Finally, we're rid of Hendrickson!
How exciting will it be to see Josh Johnson pitch on Thursday, then Volstad on Friday. Suddenly, the Marlins have a good hurler going every night (and boy do they need it with the current status of the bullpen...Hendrickson included!) The next five games? Nolasco-Miller-Olsen-Johnson-Volstad. I like all five of them right now.
I would imagine Ryan Tucker gets sent down to AAA once Josh Johnson is officially called up. I like Tucker a lot, but it's obvious he needs more refinement. Hendrickson gave a great April, a mediocre May, and a horrible June-July. The time was right. I hope he regains some form in his new role, but he just couldn't be put out there any more.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Josh Johnson and Chris Volstad In! Who's Out?
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3 comments:
There is a lot of talk going on about Tucker being a good candidate for the closer role. Not much "official" talk, but it seems that fans are trying to make the case for it.
Personally, I like the idea. You have a guy who doesn't have many pitches except for a lights out fastball in the 96-98mph range WITH movement, and a pretty good changeup that has potential to be devastating.
This is the make-up of a closer to me. I say, try him out at the set-up role for a while and if he succeeds, promote him to closer.
While the potential is there for this to BECOME a good rotation, new guys need to prove they can go 6+ quality innings to get a win. The bullpen has been suffering, but the bullpen has also been heavily, heavily worked the last month or so. We'll see how it goes out west this week against teams the Marlins "should" be better than.
I'm looking forward to an improved rotation, though I'm a bit worried about JJ coming back so early; I really hope they aren't rushing him because they are desperate for pitching.
By the way, if you haven't seen them yet, you should check out the Herald's Marlins blog to see an interesting side-by-side comparison of Hendrickson's numbers from when he's a starter and when he's in the pen. Based on these numbers we have another reason to be hopeful going forward.
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