Archive for Starting Pitchers

Here is the latest update to Week 12 two-start pitchers. Again this list is subject to change going forward.

Pitchers not listed on last update

ATL – Hanson
BOS – Penny
NYM – Hernandez
STL – Pineiro
CLE – Huff

Pitchers from Friday no longer scheduled for two starts

CLE – Pavano

Hanson is coming off a six scoreless inning performance. Considering how much trouble he has had with both walks (5.09 BB/9) and homers (1.53 HR/9) it is surprising how he sits with a 2-0 record. His FIP is 5.78 after three starts but Hanson has had basically one bad inning so far, back in his first start when he gave up two homers and four runs to the Brewers.

Penny figured to be the odd man out when John Smoltz returned from the disabled list but the combination of his continued solid pitching, along with Daisuke Matsuzaka’s poor performance has given Penny another life. In his last six outings, Penny is 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 34.2 innings.

Hernandez may be the Mets’ best pitcher right now. And that is equal parts reflective of how poor the team’s other pitchers have been lately along with how well Hernandez has pitched. In 13 starts this year, he has had just three bad outings and he has posted seven Quality Starts this year. Hernandez’ main problem has been the gopher ball. He has allowed 11 homers in 79.2 innings and seven of those came in the three bad starts.

Pineiro has a .321 BABIP to go along with a 62.7 percent strand rate. His success this year has come thanks to a microscopic walk rate (1.18 BB/9) and an even smaller home run rate (0.22 HR/9). Still he leads the National League with eight losses and the Cardinals have scored three runs or less for him in nine of his 13 starts. He gets an average of 3.71 runs per game but it is only that high thanks to a 12-run outburst in one game.

Huff has an 11-5 record the past two seasons in Triple-A but has found major league hitters harder to handle. He has advanced to the sixth inning just one time in seven outings. His 7.09 ERA comes along with a 1.64 WHIP and a 1.91 HR/9 ratio.

Everyone is happy when one of their pitchers is scheduled for two starts in a week. But that is not always a good thing. Here are five pitchers you may be on the fence about (or should be on the fence) putting into your lineup for Week 12.

Trevor Cahill has allowed three runs or less in six straight games and the rookie has had just two bad starts all season out of 14 games. He gets two home starts this week where he has pitched much better. In McAfee Coliseum, Cahill’s ERA is over half a run lower, his K/9 is nearly double and his WHIP is a fancy 1.184, compared to 1.753 on the road. Owned in less than three percent of ESPN leagues, Cahill is a nice pickup for this two-start week.

Aaron Cook in his last 11 games has a 6-2 record with a 3.18 ERA. Early in the year, the sinkerball pitcher had trouble getting grounders, as he was giving up more fly balls than normal. But in his last six games, Cook has induced 98 grounders compared to 42 fly balls. He is still having a little trouble with allowing HRs (16.2% HR/FB) but Cook has two road starts this week at Anaheim and at Oakland where he will face two of the three worst HR-hitting teams in the American League.

Francisco Liriano has gone seven straight games without a win. He has experienced some bad luck this year, which he has compounded with the highest walk and HR/9 rates of his career. He faces Milwaukee and St. Louis this week, two of the top four HR-hitting squads in the National League. The Brewers are also one of the most patient teams in the league, just six walks behind the league leader. Give Liriano the week off.

Scott Richmond is coming off his best outing of the season, in which he gave up just one run in eight innings while he fanned 11 batters. He has home starts this week against Cincinnati and Philadelphia. But Richmond struggles against LHB, who have an .894 OPS against him and have hit nine of the 10 HR he has allowed. Jay Bruce (15 HR vs RHP) and Laynce Nix (all 7 HR vs RHP) can go deep on any righty and Ryan Howard and Chase Utley are no fun, either. So keep Richmond on the bench this week.

Chien-Ming Wang has been the punch line to a bad joke through the entire season so far. But Wang is slowly working his way back into shape. In his last outing, he went five innings for the first time all year and his 91 pitches were a season-high. It was also his best start in getting his trademark ground balls as he induced 12 grounders compared to five fly balls. Wang gets two starts on the road this week, which might help just from a psychological standpoint. He is owned in 69 percent of CBS Sports leagues but is currently a starter in just 26 percent. I like him to finally crack the win column this week.

Other scheduled two-start pitchers in Week 12 are listed below. Please remember that these are projected pitchers and changes can and will happen between now and next week.

Zambrano, Greinke, Vazquez, Jackson, Dempster, Danks, Scherzer, Price, Kuroda, Pavano, Palmer, Uehara, Sanchez, A. Miller, Wellemeyer, Lannan, Snell, Suppan, Moyer, Harrison, Owings, Redding, Gaudin, Ortiz, Olseon.

Check back Sunday night for an update of two-start pitchers.

Now, I would like to take a step back and provide some accountability for previous picks. There needs to be a two-week time lag because last week’s pitchers have yet to complete their second start. So here are my selections for Week 10 and how they did.

Anderson – Advised to start. 11 K, 10.24 ERA, 2.07 WHIP (2 starts)
Feldman – Advised to start. 3 K, 3.27 ERA, 1.09 WHIP (2)
Happ – Advised to sit. 7 K, 7.36 ERA, 2.09 WHIP (2)
Pettitte – Advised to sit. W, 10 K, 5.73 ERA, 1.82 WHIP (2)
Vargas – Advised to sit. 8 K, 8.71 ERA, 2.13 WHIP (2)

Here is the latest update to Week 11 two-start pitchers. Again this list is subject to change going forward.

Pitchers not listed on last update

NYY – Sabathia
MIL – Gallardo
TEX – Millwood
TOR – Romero
MIN – Perkins

Pitchers from Friday no longer scheduled for two starts

MIN – Liriano
NYY – Wang
TEX – Mathis

Sabathia reeled off five straight Quality Starts but has allowed four runs in each of his past two starts. Sabathia’s FIP (3.74) is almost identical to his ERA (3.68). He has an interesting mix as his BABIP sits at a low .261 but his strand rate is just 69.2 percent. Sabathia is one of the few pitchers seemingly not affected by the homer explosion at new Yankee Stadium. He has allowed just three HR in 42 IP at home this season.

Gallardo has allowed two earned runs or less in nine of his 12 starts this year. However, he has been lucky with a .243 BABIP and an 81.2 percent strand rate. Gallardo’s velocity has rebounded and his K/9 sits at a nice 8.88. Besides walks, his other ratios are in line with, or better than, what he did in 2006. Gallardo is doing everything owners could have reasonably hoped for coming into the season.

Millwood keeps pitching well despite, well, everything. In his last outing he pitched into the eighth inning without allowing a run despite striking out only one batter. His FIP is two runs above his ERA, his strikeout rate is at a career low and he has his highest home run rate since 2001. And according to CBS Sports, he is the 51st-best fantasy player in 2009.

Romero currently has a 3.71 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP. ZiPS is not impressed. For the rest of the season, ZiPS projects Romero to finish with a 6.04 ERA and a 1.70 WHIP. It just goes to show what an 86.4 percent strand rate can do for a fellow.

Perkins has not pitched in the majors since May 18th due to a sore elbow. He has made two rehab starts in Class-A, going seven scoreless innings with four strikeouts on June 9th. He gets home starts this week against Pittsburgh and Houston, two below-average teams in terms of runs scored and the bottom two squads in the NL Central.

Everyone is happy when one of their pitchers is scheduled for two starts in a week. But that is not always a good thing. Here are five pitchers you may be on the fence about (or should be on the fence) putting into your lineup for Week 11.

Kevin Correia – Coming off back-to-back wins, Correia gets two home starts in Petco this week. And he also squares off against Seattle and Oakland, two below-average run scoring teams, with Seattle being last in the AL with a 3.77 runs per game average. Correia is owned in only seven percent of CBS Sports leagues and could be a nice pickup for his two starts this week.

Gil Meche – Slowed part of the season by a sore back, Meche has turned in three straight solid outings, in which he has 20 strikeouts in 20 IP with a 1.35 ERA in that span. However, he is just 1-0 in those three games, indicative of the poor run support he has received in 2009. The Royals have scored two runs or fewer in six of his 13 starts this year. Make Meche active for his two home starts this week.

Wandy Rodriguez – After starting the season 5-2 with a 1.83 ERA, Rodriguez has allowed 19 runs in his last 20.2 IP. His ERA now stands at 2.82 and only six unearned runs in that stretch kept it from being even worse. His road ERA is 3.74, over 1.5 runs higher than his home mark, and he has starts this week at Texas and at Minnesota. Pull him from your lineup this week.

Tim Wakefield – He has a great record this year despite some uneven pitching. But he is coming off back-to-back Quality Starts and he has two home starts in Interleague matchups scheduled this week. Since 2006, Wakefield is 6-2 in Interleague play. Make sure he is active this week.

Barry Zito – After some tough luck earlier in the season, Zito has picked up two consecutive wins despite not pitching all that well. He has two home starts this week and Zito gets the nod to start due to his big home/road split in 2009. This year he has a 2.70 ERA with a 2.44 K/BB ratio at home compared to a 5.26 ERA and a 1.25 K/BB ratio in road games.

Other scheduled two-start pitchers in Week 11 are listed below. Please remember that these are projected pitchers and changes can and will happen between now and next week.

Verlander, F. Hernandez, Hamels, Wainwright, Zambrano, Jurrjens, Harang, Lackey, Kershaw, Liriano, Danks, Volstad, Pavano, Pelfrey, Braden, Wang, D. Davis, Bush, Niemann, Guthrie, De La Rosa, Martis, Morton, Mathis.

Check back Sunday night for an update of two-start pitchers.

Now, I would like to take a step back and provide some accountability for previous picks. There needs to be a two-week time lag because last week’s pitchers have yet to complete their second start. So here are my selections for Week 9 and how they did.

Arroyo – Advised to start. 7 K, 4.38 ERA, 1.30 WHIP (2 starts)
Blanton – Advised to start. W, 10 K, 2.77 ERA, 1.00 WHIP (2)
Burnett – Advised to sit. W, 8 K, 3.86 ERA, 1.29 WHIP (1)
Duke – Advised to sit. W, 0 K, 1.29 ERA, 1.29 WHIP (1)
Washburn – Advised to start. 9 K, 1.38 ERA, 1.15 WHIP (2)

Without question, Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw is one of the most talented pitchers on the planet. A 6-3, 220 pounder who’s just barely old enough to legally kick back a beer after a game, Kershaw possesses a searing mid-90’s fastball and a hook that earned the “Public Enemy Number One” designation from Vin Scully.

While Kershaw has as much long-term potential as any starter in the game, it can be a little frustrating to watch him endure growing pains at the major league level. Take his last outing: a 2.2 inning, four-walk stinker versus the Padres. In his next start, Kershaw could punch out a baker’s dozen (as he did against the Giants on April 15th), or he could fail to make it out of the third inning.

In 107 innings last season, Kershaw posted rates of 8.36 K/9 and 4.35 BB/9 while compiling a 4.08 FIP. Authoring a 4.04 FIP in 2009, he’s whiffing a few more batters (8.72 K/9) but his control has taken another step backward. Kershaw is issuing an unacceptable 5.48 walks per nine innings. That’s the highest rate of free passes among all qualified starting pitchers. Not surprisingly, Kershaw is averaging about 5.1 innings per start, while tossing 4.3 pitches per plate appearance (4.0 in 2008). No pitcher in the N.L. has thrown more pitches per PA (well, unless you wanna count Cody Ross’ one-inning stint for the Fish).

At the moment, Kershaw’s biggest obstacle to acedom would appear to be his lack of a third pitch. Clayton’s 93.6 MPH fastball (thrown about 75 percent of the time) has been a quality offering, with a run value of +0.94 runs per 100 pitches that ranks in the top 20 among starters. That vaunted slooow curve (utilized about 18 percent) is also biting, at +1.58 (just outside the top 20). His changeup, though? Clayton has pulled the string just over 6 percent of the time. While keeping in mind that the sample is small, the change has a sordid run value of -5.42 per 100 pitches (5th worst among starters).

The changeup is typically thrown to opposite-handed batters, so Kershaw hasn’t really had a pitch that moves away from righties. In 2009, Clayton has eviscerated left-handed hitters with his heat and yellow hammer to the tune of a .149/.255/.213 line in 56 PA. He has a 3.17 K/BB ratio versus southpaw batters. While right-handers aren’t exactly lighting him up, they are getting on base at a far higher clip (.237/.355/.390, 1.3 K/BB ratio in 216 PA).

Take that June 10th start against San Diego. The Padres had six guys batting from the right side, none of them especially imposing (Eckstein, Kouzmanoff, Headley, E. Gonzalez, Blanco, J. Wilson). Here’s how Kershaw pitched to a lineup that wouldn’t stand out at Portland (graph courtesy of Brooks Baseball):

The green dots are fastballs, the pink ones are curveballs and the lonely yellow dot is a changeup.

There’s just one changeup. Mostly, Kershaw flipped curveballs up there that he couldn’t locate, or attempted to bust righties on the inner half of the plate with fastballs. He gave up doubles to Kouzmanoff and Headley, and somehow managed to walk Blanco (career .289 OBP) once and Wilson (.279) twice!

That’s an extreme case, but it does serve to highlight the next big step for Kershaw. He’s going to have to find a way to tighten the strike zone against righty batters to graduate from talented-but-inconsistent prodigy to full-fledged ace.

Here is the latest update to Week 10 two-start pitchers. Again this list is subject to change going forward.

Pitchers not listed on last update

LAD – Billingsley
NYY – Burnett
SD – C. Young
TB – Sonnanstine
DET – Bonderman
BAL – Bergesen
STL – B. Thompson

Pitchers from Friday no longer scheduled for two starts

STL – Lohse
NYY – Wang
TB – Niemann
DET – Willis
BAL – D. Hernandez

Billingsley has pitched at least six innings in each of his 12 outings this year and has 11 Quality Starts. The Dodgers have also supported him well offensively, averaging 5.11 runs per game in his starts.

Burnett went seven straight games without a win before earning a W in his last two outings. It has been tough going for Burnett in his first season in pinstripes. His K/9 are down, his BB/9 are up and his HR/9 have nearly doubled. A groundball pitcher throughout his career, Burnett has a 0.96 GB/FB ratio in 2009.

Young has two road starts this week. In Petco Park, Young is 4-1 with a 2.61 ERA and a 1.053 WHIP. On the road he is 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA and a 1.761 WHIP.

Sonnanstine’s FIP stands at 2.08 lower than his ERA. But his FIP still checks in at an ugly 4.99, over a full run higher than it was a year ago. All of his numbers are worse than they were a year ago. He has allowed five or more runs in five of his 11 starts this year.

Bonderman will make his 2009 debut after being on the disabled list since last June due to surgery to repair a blood clot in his axillary vein. He made four starts in the minors, three at Triple-A. In his last outing he pitched eight shutout innings with six hits, no walks and five strikeouts.

Bergesen is a groundball specialist. His 2.09 GB/FB rate would rank sixth, just behind Derek Lowe, if he had enough innings to qualify. Bergesen has done a good job of giving the Orioles a chance to win, only once in nine outings giving up more runs than innings pitched. His last two outings have been Quality Starts.

Thompson made his first start of the year on June 2nd after nine relief appearances. A curve ball specialist, Thompson relies on control and keeping the ball in the park in order to be successful.

Remember Kelvim Escobar? The last time the Venezuelan and his expansive arsenal of pitches took a big league mound was September 29, 2007 against the Oakland A’s. Escobar picked up the win that day (his 18th of the year), a fitting end to his finest season in the rotation. Escobar posted a tidy 3.39 FIP, befuddling batters with any of his six pitches. Unfortunately, Kelvim was damaged goods by that point. Shoulder surgery wiped out his entire 2008 campaign.

After continuing his rehab during the first two months of the 2009 season, Escobar was back on the bump last night against the Detroit Tigers. While the now-33 year-old righty came up on the short end against a rapidly improving Edwin Jackson, Escobar’s stuff was not lacking.

According to 2007 pitch data, Escobar kept hitters up at night wondering whether they would get his 94 MPH fastball (thrown 51.7% of the time). Or his 86 MPH slider (11.3%). Or 88 MPH cutter (4.1%), 81 MPH curve (9%), 85 MPH changeup (12.5%), or 87 MPH splitter (11.4%). You get the point: he had plenty of tricks in his bag.

Courtesy of the Brooks Baseball Pitch F/X Tool (an amazing resource that slices and dices Pitch F/X data for each appearance), we can take a gander at what a post-surgical Escobar offered the Tigers. According to Pitch F/X, he displayed a 93.9 MPH heater (thrown on 55 of his 92 pitches, or 59.8%), an 84 MPH changeup (32.6%) and a 78.7 MPH curveball (7.6%). In all probability, the Pitch F/X algorithm classified some splitters as changeups and some sliders as curves, but this gives us a decent idea of what he had last night.

Working 5 innings, Escobar punched out 5 batters while showing a highly consistent release point (graph from Brooks Baseball):

However, he also struggled to hit his spots, issuing 4 free passes and tossing 51 of his 92 pitches for strikes (55.4%). Escobar’s hopping fastball had 5.18 inches of horizontal movement in on the hands of righty batters, with 10.28 inches of vertical break compared to a pitch thrown without spin. For reference, the average righty fastball in 2009 has shown 6 inches of tailing action and 8.8 inches of vertical break. Maxing out at 95.5 MPH, Escobar tossed his fastball for a strike 32 out of 55 times (58.2%).

Escobar’s changeup showed similar horizontal movement to his fastball, while dropping a little more than 2 inches further in the zone. His control of the pitch came and went, as he tossed 16 of 30 for a strike (53.3%). Judging from this movement graph, Escobar threw a handful of splitters, with nearly a half-foot of difference in vertical drop compared to his fastball (similar to his numbers from 2007):

Escobar didn’t throw many breaking pitches, with 3 of his 7 breaking balls going for a strike (42.9%). The pitch didn’t show very much horizontal break (0.7 inches away from righty batters), with about three and a half inches of vertical drop.

Overall, the Angels and fantasy owners have to be pretty pleased with Escobar’s first outing. While subsequent starts will tells us whether or not he can sustain his stuff, Kelvim’s fastball showed plenty of bite. His changeup and splitter displayed similar movement and velocity to his 2007 campaign, if not the same level of control and command. That’s a big plus, given that those off-speed pitches play a prominent role in his pitch selection: while Escobar’s fastball has been worth -0.80 runs per 100 pitches since the 2002 season, his change (+2.02) and splitter (+2.40) have often left opponents looking silly. If Escobar happens to be available in your league, snatch him up. It’s anyone’s guess if he can remain healthy, but his stuff has come off the operating table none the worse for wear.

The Oakland Athletics are in a state of turmoil. The denizens of the Coliseum growing uneasy: the A’s are lackluster in the batter’s box (last in team wOBA), and in the starting rotation (25th in FIP, as a talented group of rookies take their lumps). With Oakland in need of a hero, Josh Outman has come to the rescue.

A 24 year-old southpaw known for his strange, superhuman mechanics in high school, Outman’s origins take us to Central Missouri State. Plying his trade for the Division II Mules, he was selected in the 10th round of the 2005 amateur draft by the Phillies. Outman proved to be a bargain at that spot, displaying unmatched feats of strength for Team USA in the 2007 World Cup by punching out 10 during a gold medal run.

Equipped with a sizzling low-90’s fastball, an at-times nasty slider and a changeup, Outman oscillated between the rotation and the ‘pen. He often overmatched his opponents (career 8.7 K/9 in the minors), but walks were his kryptonite (4.3 BB/9). The Phillies, desperate for a starter, parted with Outman (as well as middle infield prospect Adrian Cardenas and OF/1B Matthew Spencer) in order to acquire Joe Blanton last summer.

The 6-1, 190 pounder made 6 appearances (4 starts) for the A’s after that swap, posting a 3.33 FIP. In 2009, Outman has compiled a mighty 3.02 ERA in 11 appearances (9 starts). So, will Outman continue to save the troubled city of Oakland, or will his powers evaporate?

Showcasing a deep repertoire (a 93 MPH fastball, 82 MPH slider, 77 MPH curve and an 82 MPH changeup), Outman has punched out 7.04 batters per nine innings. His control, while not poor, is still occasionally a problem (3.69 BB/9, with 47.7% of his pitches catching the plate; the MLB average is 49.1%).

An extreme flyball pitcher (34 GB%), Outman has surrendered 1.17 homers per nine innings, and he has benefitted from a .242 BABIP. While his ERA looks outstanding, his FIP checks in at a useful-but-not-superhuman 4.50.

While he’s not likely to continue posting an ERA in the low-three’s, there’s a good deal to like about Outman. A lefty who cooks on an open flame, Outman also possesses two quality offspeed offerings: his slider has been worth a superb +4.70 runs per 100 pitches, while his changeup has been +1.42 runs per 100 tosses.

Outman could stand to hit his spots more consistently, but his current package of skills makes him an intriguing pickup in all formats. He’s not this good, but Outman would garner more attention on a club that didn’t have such an embarrassment of mound talent. Perhaps he’s not the hero, but Josh is a worthy member of Oakland’s League of Extraordinary Pitching Prospects.

Everyone is happy when one of their pitchers is scheduled for two starts in a week. But that is not always a good thing. Here are five pitchers you may be on the fence about (or should be on the fence) putting into your lineup for Week 10.

Brett Anderson – He has won three of his last four starts. The rookie is coming off his best outing of the season, when he threw seven shutout innings against the White Sox in Chicago. A poor strand rate of 60.6 percent has helped keep Anderson’s overall numbers down this year. He is owned in only 1.1 percent of ESPN leagues and is a good candidate to add for this week and his two starts.

Scott Feldman – After making three appearances out of the bullpen to start the season, Feldman moved into the starting rotation and is 5-0 since then with five consecutive Quality Starts. He has been lucky with his BABIP (.241) and strand rate (74.7) but I like his chances to keep it up at home versus a struggling Toronto team with just three wins in their last 15 games and in an Interleague game against the Dodgers.

J.A. Happ – After replacing Chan Ho Park in the rotation, Happ ripped off three straight wins, raising his record to 4-0 on the year. But Happ has been even more fortunate than Feldman, with a .210 BABIP and an 82 percent strand rate. And with tough matchups versus Johan Santana and Josh Beckett this week, so it might be a good week to sit the lefty.

Andy Pettitte – The overall numbers look okay but after beginning the season with three Quality Starts, Pettitte has posted a 5.13 ERA and a 1.817 WHIP in his last eight games. Additionally, Pettitte has allowed seven of his eight home runs this year in Yankee Stadium and has two home games this week, one of them against the Rays, who are third in the AL in homers. Give Pettitte the week off.

Jason Vargas – There’s an old saying that goes it’s better to be lucky than good. Vargas has definitely been lucky this year with a 96.8 percent strand rate. With two road starts this week – a cross country trek to Baltimore followed by a trip to Colorado – my guess is this is the week the luck runs out.

Other scheduled two-start pitchers in Week 10 are listed below. Please remember that these are projected pitchers and changes can and will happen between now and next week.

Santana, Carpenter, Beckett, Shields, J. Johnson, Je. Weaver, Lowe, Peavy, Lee, Lilly, Buehrle, Cueto, Duke, R. Johnson, Baker, Outman, Marquis, Lohse, Richard, Wang, Tallet, Zimmerman, Garland, McCarthy, Galarraga, Kawakami, Ohlendorf, Niemann, Looper, Bannister, Willis, D. Hernandez, Swarzak, West, Moehler, Buckner, Janssen, Hammel.

Check back Sunday night for an update of two-start pitchers.

Now, I would like to take a step back and provide some accountability for previous picks. There needs to be a two-week time lag because last week’s pitchers have yet to complete their second start. So here are my selections for Week 8 and how they did.

Carmona – Advised to sit. 5 K, 15.19 ERA, 3.56 WHIP (2 starts)
Kazmir – Advised to sit. Went on DL after column was published
Maine – Advised to start. 2 W, 9 K, 0.75 ERA, 1.00 WHIP (2)
Marshall – Advised to start. W, 8 K, 7.71 ERA, 1.61 WHIP (2)
Penny – Advised to sit. W, 12 K, 3.97 ERA, 1.41 WHIP (2)

Here is the latest update to Week 9 two-start pitchers. Again this list is subject to change going forward.

Pitchers not listed on last update

LAD – Kuroda
PHI – Bastardo
TEX – Padilla
CLV – Sowers

Pitchers from Friday no longer scheduled for two starts

STL – Wainwright
LAD – Kershaw
PHI – Myers
TEX – Holland

Kuroda has been on the disabled list since his Opening Day start, in which he went 5 2/3 innings and allowed just one run. He felt a pain in his side during a side session and went on the DL April 10th. Kuroda is expected to be activated for a start Monday against Arizona. If all goes well he’ll have his second home start in the week against Philadelphia.

Bastardo is being pressed into service in place of the injured Myers. He has appeared in nine games (five starts) at Double-A this year along with two starts at Triple-A. The lefty from the Dominican Republic has good numbers, with a K/9 of 10.13 at Double-A. The 23-year-old reaches the low 90s with his fastball and also throws a changeup and a slider.

Padilla is currently on the DL with a strained muscle behind his pitching shoulder. He is expected to be activated and start on Tuesday against the Yankees. It does not get easier later in the week, when Padilla faces the Red Sox.

Sowers opened the season with two poor starts and found himself in Triple-A. He came back to Cleveland as a reliever and pitched five shutout innings earning another shot in the rotation to replace Zach Jackson. With Anthony Reyes and Aaron Laffey also fighting injuries, Sowers’ stay in the majors should be longer this go round.

*****

I would like to offer a special note of condolences to Nationals rookie Craig Stammen, who has the misfortune of facing both Tim Lincecum and Johan Santana this week.