MVN - Most Valuable Network

Welcome to the Show--Tommy Rancel

Percival Lands on the DL again; Mitch Talbot Called Up

As many of us expected, Troy Percival was placed on the 15 day DL last night with a bum hamstring. It will be Percy’s second DL stint due to the injury.  Percival missed 12 games earlier in the season after aggravating the injury and it has lingered ever since he came off the DL. Monday’s game was the last straw for Joe Maddon, and as much as Percival doesn’t want to admit it he wasn’t getting any better.

Percival

 ”We can only tape it so tight. We’ve been taping it, taping it, taping it. And I’m not getting much better. Finally last night, I can’t back up bases. If there’s a play at first base, I’m not sure I can get over there. I’ve had to deal with that until last night. I haven’t had to do a whole lot of running. “

Maddon

“We’ve just gone through that whole thing and the guys have all risen to the occasion,” Maddon said. “I believe there are several guys on the team who can get the last out.”

In the interim, the Rays will go to closer by committee for a while. Expect Dan Wheeler and Grant Balfour to get the call on most nights with J.P. Howell and Trevor Miller in the mix depending on the the situation. Personally, I wouldn’t mind Balfour getting most of the opportunities with Wheeler and Howell serving as his setup men.

With Percy down, and Al Reyes a litte more than a week away, the Rays needed a short term addition to the bullpen. Scott Dohmann is out of options so bringing him up to DFA him in a week didn’t make sense. The Rays chose one of their young starters from Durham to get some work in a long relief role. Mitch Talbot will make his major league debut for the Rays some time soon after getting called up. Talbot was 7-6 with a 4.41 ERA in 17 starts at Triple-A.  Talbot led the International League last year in wins with a 13-9 record.

Calling up the young righty will allow the Rays to showcase Talbot in the Major Leagues, and with a good performance could increase his trade value come the July 31st deadline.  It also gives the Rays a chance themselves to see what they have in Talbot. Talbot was acquired with Ben Zobrist from the Astros in exchange for Aubrey Huff.

This move will press Jason Hammel and Gary Glover into more pressure situations. Maybe the Rays are actually trying to showcase Hammel for a trade instead of wasting him on the bench and are bringing up Talbot to slowly take over his spot.  We can only guess.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 am and is filed under MVN Rays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.