RRS to DL, French Recalled

by ~ July 28th, 2010 at 12:01 pm

Following last night’s thrashing, the Mariners have placed Ryan Rowland-Smith on the 15-day DL with a low back strain and, as expected, recalled Luke French.

The chances that RRS has a back injury that deserves a DL stint are slim to none.  Given that RRS doesn’t have any minor league options remaining and the team still likes him enough that they don’t wish to give him away on waivers, we assume that this is just one of the many phantom injuries teams dish out when they need some flexibility.  To be fair, that’s not a given.

Following the 11-0 blowout pitching coach Rick Adair and catcher Josh Bard talked a lot about RRS’ bullpen work and how he has worked hard and shown great improvement out there while failing to carry it over to the games.  If there is something to that (rather than the team reaching for something nice to say about a stand up guy), then I can see how this DL situation is ideal for the Mariners.  Adair can continue working on RRS ‘ mechanics in the ‘pen for an extended period without having the added pressure of game situations.

As for French, he has kept pitching fairly well for Tacoma around his short big league stint this year, but I still dread watching him pitch at the big league level.  Jarrod Washburn I enjoyed watching at times.  I love watching Jason Vargas throw.  But French, for whatever reason, bores me to tears.  Here’s hoping French heads to the bullpen and Chris Seddon gets a shot, just so we get a slightly different look more than anything.  We’re just trying to enjoy the games as much as possible at this point.

Of course, Michael Pineda would have been a fun callup.

I understand that there is little reason to rush Pineda up to the big leagues, but count me among the fans that would be rejuvenated by getting to see him toe the rubber every fifth day for a while.  His innings count is getting up there, so who knows how long until they shut him down or move him to the bullpen to close out the year?

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  • daddude

    I was thinking that he would be (dfa)ed since he vaule couldn’t be any lower and it wouldn’t be likely another team would pick him up. The dl makes sence if the club wants him to continue working the Adair. Thats something I hadn’t consider but it makes sence. Agree about French. I think we already have a good read on him(AAAA). Might as well give Seddon some starts and see how he does at this level. Yes no need to rush Pineda or Ackley . Bring them up in Sept. to get their first look in the majors.

  • mw3

    Rowland-Smith was a very good relief pitcher who was made into a starter in large part because he had the right ‘build for a starter’. Put him back in the bullpen and get him on the stairmaster to lose the 10-15 not good pounds he has gained and I could see him pitching in the seventh and eighth and hitting 95mph again.

  • timgoddard

    David Pinto has some thoughts on some possible similarities to Chien-Ming Wang’s situation last season: http://baseballmusings.com/?p=55565

    That said, I think mw3′s probably right about putting him in the bullpen.

  • maqman

    Hyphen should go to the pen or Tacoma until he can show something more than he has this season and do it with some consistency. They need to pace Pineda and I think they get that. I think French might end up being of long term value to the team and hope they let him start on the big club for awhile. If he can’t hack it this season they can swap him out for Pineda in September. I think most fans want to see him, Moore and Ackley at least for a month. They will be the prime attraction to fill seats at The Safe that will otherwise be empty.