Pitching Woes

We're not altogether upset that Ryan Drese probably won't be pitching for a while. It's not like Drese was was an anchor of the staff or even a productive pitcher. It is too bad that the staff doesn't have the kind of depth that would have permitted Frank Robinson to demote Drese (or Tony Armas, for that matter) long ago, but there's not a lot we can do about that now.

John Halama will hopefully be an upgrade over Drese or at least a serviceable replacement, and Travis Hughes will likely be an acceptable middle reliever for a time. Hughes' stats in AAA (2-4, 12 saves, 2.65 ERA in 49 appearances) suggest as much.

The bigger issue is that the pitching staff that had been the driver of this team doesn't look so hot now. Hernandez, Drese, and Loaiza have August ERAs of 7.89, 7.04, and 4.16, respectively, and the consistency that characterized the starting pitching is now gone. With this team's dismal hitting, there is no way that we'll make the playoffs without top notch pitching down the stretch. The injuries will likely put more strain on the pitchers, and that's not going to help the cause, even if Drese and Armas weren't lighting the world on fire.