Monday, June 18

An unexpected major league debut

SO I'm taking in the Tigers/Nats game still. The game went from a 9-1 laugher to a much closer 9-5 score due to the Tigers' predictably mediocre bullpen. I swear Jason Grilli (who, to be fair worked 1 1/3 scoreless tonight) haunts my dreams.

Anyway, it turns out that the Tigers called up one of their many hotshot pitching prospects today, Eulogio de la Cruz. I had heard that the Tigers shifted him back to starting this season, but then shifted him again recently, back to the bullpen. This is a move directly caused by the suckitude of the likes of Jose Mesa.

Eulogio made it safely through a scoreless inning of work in his major league debut. He did display some nerves, bouncing a 55 footer to the plate at one point. In an inning of work, he pretty much pitched like BP2007 predicted. BP2007 says that he has 3 good pitches, but sometime lacks command. Well, as I said, he certainly was a little scattershot with the aim, but he did have a good arsenal. He features a high 90's fastball, a change, and a curve. In one at bat he dropped a nasty curve on the batter after throwing him a 98 mph heater the previous pitch.

It's only one inning, and it is the Nats, but Eulogio is a guy to watch. His fantasy impact is likely minimal, but maybe he can help relieve the Tigers of the Chinese Water Torture that has been a consistently awful bullpen.

No comments: