There Are Others Awaiting Their Turn...
UPDATE: Skaggs on the DL, CJ blows up in Tampa, and Thatcher leaves game with injury Saturday night. See below the original article for an addendum on the Angels' remaining options in AAA and AA.
Halo starter Tyler Skaggs has a sore elbow and is getting all sorts of second opinions while he sits on the fifteen day disabled list. Lefty Michael Roth was called up from AA Arkansas for the second time this season and looks to be the long man out of the pen as Hector Santiago graduates to full-time starting pitcher.
All of this happens almost musically with the downbeat of Skaggs leaving followed by a drumroll of C.J. Wilson returning from the DL this Saturday.
So the rotation for the next two weeks appears to be C.J. Wilson, Jered Weaver, Hector Santiago, Garrett Richards and Matt Shoemaker. Roth is stretched out as a starter and can take the mound if needed. He is having his best season at AA and although his strikeout rate has been halved, his walks are down even more drastically. In a season of sixth men, he stands to be the sixth man of Anaheim at least for the moment.
In AAA Salt Lake is dramatically improved Wade LeBlanc. Jettisoned from the 40-Man Roster (and then picked up by the Yankees, made one start and was released and re-signed by the Halos), his call up would require a waiver move of someone else but he looks to be the first to join the team in a month when the big league rosters expand. the only question now is whether the Angels can wait that long.
Roth meanwhile could be in a good position to audition for a more solid role - if he performs well might the Angels cut short the Joe Thatcher experiment and slot Roth in as the bullpen LOOGY? Crazier things have happened.
Addendum from Turk's Teeth:
Half a day later, and this article is more than a bit prescient. As Tyler Skaggs hit the DL, CJ Wilson may as well be headed back to it, as he took a glorious dump in St Petersburg tonight, giving up 6 earned runs on six hits, two walks and a home run...before the fifth out of the game was recorded. It's the third start in a row that Wilson has surrendered six runs, and the seventh time in the past nine starts that he has surrendered four runs or more. It's also the fifth game in a row that he's lasted five innings or fewer in a game, further taxing the bullpen during a long stretch of difficult contests. His ERA is now 4.74.
Let's be clear: C.J. Wilson is no longer a viable starting pitcher this year on a competitive club who hopes to keep pace with the best team in baseball, the Oakland Athletics. He may come back next year as a solid contributor, but this year he's a liability and currently the worst pitcher on the club. His appearances are no better than replacement level and are approaching Blantonesque levels of damage.
So the Angels are down to four rotation pieces between Richards, Weaver, Shoemaker and Santiago. We've lost the last three games Richards has pitched, Weaver badly bombed in his last outing, and Shoe and Hector have struggled to pitch beyond five innings in recent appearances. The Angels are going to need more than a couple spot starters down the stretch, and it's time to inventory the possibilities.
As I see it, there are six. Three at AAA, and three at AA. Two righties, four lefties. Not a one of them are sure things, and you would probably not want to use them for more than a couple starts, lest scouting reports catch up to them and leave them exposed to superior hitting. But maybe the Angels catch lightning in a bottle for a brief window until Skaggs can rehabilitate and return to the fold.
- Caleb Clay, RHP, 26, 3.77 ERA in PCL (7 games)
- Wade LeBlanc, LHP, 29, 4.04 ERA in PCL (18 games)
- Randy Wolf, LHP, 37, 4.91 ERA in PCL (1 game)
- Michael Roth, LHP, 24, 2.59 ERA in AA (18 games)
- Drew Rucinski, RHP, 25, 2.73 ERA in AA (21 games)
- Nate Smith, LHP, 22, 2.89 ERA in AA (11 games)
As we've seen, of the six above, Michael Roth is the pitcher of first resort. And as we've also seen, the junkballing lefty, who operates chiefly in the 75-86mph range, can walk a fine line the first time through an MLB batting order, but can be hit pretty mercilessly after a few looks. He held the Tampa Bay Rays to two hits over his first three innings in the game, but then surrendered four runs on five hits when the order turned over. He pitches to contact, and can induce double plays with frequency (three in this weekend's game), but he becomes exposed rather quickly for what he is: a junkman with deception and some cleverness, but not a lot else.
Caleb Clay is an interesting name on the list. A former first-round pick by the Boston Red Sox in 2006, he's a recent Dipoto pick-up who has shown up quite well in the hellish Pacific Coast League parks, and even delivered a complete game three-hit shutout against the Dodgers' AAA affiliate on July 20th. Like Roth, he pitches to contact, as his 88-90mph fastball doesn't miss many bats. He has four pitches, including a decent changeup, but his game is a command-and-control game, and could suffer with overexposure.
Wade LeBlanc has the most recent Major League experience, pitching to a 4.56 ERA over 98 MLB appearances (68 starts), about half of those in the fortunate pitcher's environment of San Diego in the NL West. He's had an up-and-down season in the PCL, and has boomeranged back and forth from the Angels org to the Yanks and back, but he's been reasonably successful of late. Over his past six outings at AAA, he's gone at least 6 innings in each, with as many as 11 and no fewer than 6 strikeouts in each effort, and has delivered a 2.52 ERA in that span.
Drew Rucinski got hit around in his first relief appearance on the road for the Angels, giving up two earned runs and looking quite shaky in the process. But it was also probably a case of serious nerves for a minor league free agent who never expected to be in that position, and who has very little experience pitching out of a bullpen. He has otherwise been the Arkansas Travelers' best and most consistent starter this season. He backs up a low 90s fastball with as many as four (average) secondary offerings, and a crazy shoulder tilt that can make him look like an auto-lot breezy geezer tube man in a Santa Ana gust. When he's on, it looks menacing. When he's off, it just looks a mess. He could possible deliver a string of solid outings like Matt Shoemaker, or get lit up against the wrong offense.
Randy Wolf– well, you know who Randy Wolf is. He hasn't had an effective season since 2011, but is trying to give it one last go. He put up a 5.26 ERA over 6 outings with the Marlins this season before being cut loose. In his first appearance with the Salt Lake Bees, he pitched 3.2 innings, and gave up five hits, two earned runs, a walk and a home run. Not exactly dominance, but it wouldn't be surprising to see the front office throw him out on the mound just due to resume and 'veteran grit'. Because. They. Do. That.
Then there's Nate Smith. Apparently he went on the 7-day DL today, with a broken pinky finger. Of the group, he might have the highest upside, but he's also the youngest and least baked of the group. He has what is probably the best changeup of any pitcher on the farm now that Mike Morin is no longer a prospect. His fastball is mediocre, but his change is simply so good and devastating on righties in particular than he misses bats with satisfying frequency. He's Ryan Ghan's and my consensus #3 prospect in the organization right now (after Newcomb and Bedrosian), so he's both the kind of guy you'd like to see pitch, but also the last guy whose confidence you'd want to destroy in a premature rush to the Bigs. In any case, it looks like he's not eligible for an immediate call-up, and will probably need 2-4 weeks to rehab that finger.
What say you, Angel fans? Who would you put your faith in for a couple games as our rotation slowly falls apart when the stakes are highest? Thoughts?