With the trade deadline expired, the next best way to help your team is to heal thyself. So clubs will be looking internally for solutions, whether off the DL or from the minors. The Yanks, for example, are hoping Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain upgrade the pitching.
The Diamondbacks’ first major post-July 31 maneuver was to summon arguably the best prospect in the minors, center fielder Justin Upton, who does not even turn 20 for another three weeks. “We just felt like Upton was ready,” Arizona GM Josh Byrnes said. “It’s hard to forecast short-term performance, but we think he is ready to give us solid play, right now.”
And the Yanks, in Chamberlain, are not the only AL East club thinking of promoting a touted starting prospect into their bullpen. The Red Sox are thinking that 6-foot-6 Justin Masterson, who was 12-5 with a 3.62 ERA between Single- and Double-A, might be able to help in relief before the end of the season.
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Clubs also could try to upgrade by acquiring players through waivers, though only players with bad contracts and/or bad performance are likely to get through, such as Pittsburgh’s Jack Wilson and the White Sox’s Jose Contreras.
Or, clubs could look to returning injured players for help, as the Mets hope to do with Pedro Martinez. But Martinez is not the only pitcher returning from rotator cuff surgery who might help a playoff contender late this season. St. Louis’ Mark Mulder, who actually had his rotator surgery three weeks before Martinez did, is throwing off a mound, and the Cardinals hope to have him back in September. The Cards can use all the starting pitching possible as they try to make up an NL Central deficit and defend their World Series crown.
The Angels lost Bartolo Colon to injury and demoted Ervin Santana to Triple-A. But that might not be horrible news for the first-place Angels. Colon and Santana were 11-17 with a 6.44 ERA. The replacements for that duo, Joe Saunders and Dustin Moseley, were 9-1 with a 3.83 ERA.
In the eighth inning on May 12, Willie Harris singled. Going into last night, that was the last lefty to get a hit off of Pittsburgh’s Damaso Marte. Since then lefties were 0-for-30 against Marte.
