MVN - Most Valuable Network

De La Rosa to bullpen; Rusch to start?

After the debacle that was the Rockies’ three-game series in Philadelphia, something had to be done.  What has happened, so far anyway, is that the revolving door that is the back end of the Rockies’ starting rotation continued to churn. Jorge De La Rosa will be relegated to the bullpen, temporarily anyway, and by my count, we’re now on the third #5 starter of the season after Mark Redman failed in that role as well (assuming, of course, that Redman himself is not recalled to take his spot back.)  And that’s not even counting Franklin Morales, who lost all semblance of command in April, or Greg Reynolds and his Eight Freaking Walks on Tuesday night.  By the way, Greg reportedly is a control pitcher to the point that when he hit a batter at Tulsa last season, everybody immediately knew it was intentional because his control was so good that there was no other explanation for how he could have hit a batter.  Really.

In any case, the team’s plans apparently are to call up Glendon Rusch from Colorado Springs to take De La Rosa’s spot in the rotation.  Is there any better way to admit that you’ve given up hope for the season than to make Glendon Rusch a starting pitcher?  I have no idea what the Rockies hope to accomplish by doing this.  Rusch, after all, didn’t pitch in the majors at all in 2007 and was cut by San Diego earlier in the season (because, you know, they’re doing so well) after posting a 6.41 ERA in 12 appearances.  That was actually better than he did in 2006 with the Cubs, when, in 25 appearances (9 starts) Glendon had a frightening 7.46 ERA and 1.79 WHIP.  Sure, he’s pitched well in two starts for the Sky Sox, but why the Rockies are convinced that he’s not the same pitcher he was in San Diego earlier this year, or in Chicago in 2006, is beyond me.  Didn’t we already go through this with Mark Redman?

In any case, there’s no point in subjecting Rockies fans to this form of torture.  Why not call up a youngster and see if he can cut it in the bigs while we’re tanking the 2008 season?  Franklin Morales still doesn’t have his command back, and the Rockies have pretty much given up on Juan Morillo as a starter, but why not see if Taylor Buchholz can cut it as a starter?  Sure, he’s been the team’s most reliable reliever, but how much use are the Rockies going to get out of one reliable bullpen guy at this point?

Of course, there aren’t too many starters in AAA and AA that aren’t struggling right now, which complicates this for the team.  Still, though, Glendon Rusch?  At least with a younger pitcher, he could learn from his struggles and make the team better down the road.  Hell, continuing to send Jorge De La Rosa out there every fifth day is a more palatable option than using Glendon Rusch.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. 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.