Ricky Nolasco has been sent to the Minors. Now what?
If you’re like me, you spent a pretty high pick on a staff ace with a budding team around him. He had 15 wins last year, had a decent ERA and struck out his fair share of batters. Ricky Nolasco had it all. Besides his dominate pitching last year, the offense for the fish looked pretty good too. Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Jorge Cantu, and all the high upside talent, Hermida, Maybin, Bonafacio. It all looked good for Nolasco to atleast match last years numbers, and possibly do much better.
Now here we are nearing the end of May and Nolasco is on a bus to Triple-A ball because he’s pitched horribly. In case you haven’t looked because you didn’t want to admit he was pitching that badly, (like me), here is his line so far this year. 43.2 IP 2 W 37 K 9.07 ERA 1.57 WHIP.
The ERA is the killer stat there. Everything else really isn’t that bad. The WHIP is higher than you want it, but it’s not like it is near 2.0, so it’s defendable. He’s still striking guys out, 37 in just under 44 innings isn’t horrible.
But that’s not what we’re here for. I’m here to try and give you some guys too look for on the wire if you need to fill his spot. I haven’t actually dropped him from any of my teams, but that decision rests on you. I expect he’ll make a useful return at some point during the year, but what can you do until then.
The first best choice would probably see if David Price is available in your league. There is a pretty darn good chance he is not. But it’s the best tree to bark up anyway. Price is currently in Triple-A, but with Scott Kazmir hitting the DL, Price has a pretty good chance to get the call for the Rays. The next time he gets the call to come up to the bigs will probably be the last time he gets that call, so if you can get him, keep him.
The next guy may be a little more available. Ricky Romero. he started off the season on fire until he pulled an oblique muscle. Well, he just got back from the DL and is ready to roll again. 21 innings so far this year with an ERA under 2 and a WHIP of 1.10. He’s a young guy so his numbers aren’t going to stay that low. But he’s pitching for a good team, so wins will be there and he’s still on his first time around the league, so the numbers shouldn’t be horrible just yet.
Matt Palmer has not lost a start yet this year. The ERA is not great at 4.26, but you can rack up a 4.26 ERA while throwing a bunch of quality starts. The Angels are starting to turn things around, Vlad is just about back and that can’t hurt the potential of anyone in that rotation.
Rick Porcello has been everything advertised so far this year. And looking at Yahoo!’s ownership numbers, he’s only at 11%, so there is a pretty good chance he’ll be available in your league, even if you don’t play on Yahoo!. 45 innings a 3.55 ERA and a WHIP of 1.20 on a team that leads the Central Division right now and really doesn’t have that much competition right now(unless the Twins keep scoring 11+ a game). Porcello’s strikeouts aren’t there yet, but he’s got a mid 90s fastball with a deadly hook, so the strikeouts will come.
The last name I’ll dive into is a great name for a Pitcher, Josh Outman. He’s pitching for Oakland so he doesn’t have the best offensive support, but he’s putting up pretty good numbers despite that. 32.2 innings 31 K 3.31 ERA and a WHIP of 1.26. He’s been getting outs and getting enough Ks to keep him looking good. If Matt Holliday ever remembers how to hit and Jason Giambi finds some power to start that offense Outman just might become a steal.
Other quick hit names, Kelvim Escobar is coming off the DL soon, Anthony Swarzak just got called up by the Twins, Joel Pinero is having a solid start to the year, and Jeff Weaver hasn’t look horrible for LA.
