Tigers to call up Fu-te Ni, Nate Robertson to the DL

According to East Windup Chronicle and thanks to Mack Avenue Tigers for finding this link. Kurt has a great blog and should be a daily stop for all Tigers fans.

Back to the news. This does not surprise me, at all. Ni has been great at Toledo with a 3-0 record, 2.65 E.R.A., 32 K’s to 9 walks and a 1.15 WHIP in 34 innings pitched. In fact, I have been speculating for weeks now when he would make his Tiger debut. As I mentioned last night, the Tigers need to find out if he can be their second reliable left handed pitcher. If nothing else, Ni could be the LOOGY that Leyland obviously wants Robertson to be. He has a 0.63 ERA versus lefties, 14 K's, 0 BB and only allowed a .175 BA against.

Freddy Dolsi or Alfredo Figaro could be optioned down. As I speculated last night, they could elect to just skip Figaro's next start and this would allow us to have 8 guys in the bullpen for the next week or so. If nothing else, if Ni performs well in the LOOGY role, Leyland will have little use for Robertson on the roster and that too would accelerate Robertson's departure.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Per Jason Beck's blog, Nate Robertson has been placed on the DL with a "mass in the medial portion of his left elbow." Ni is with the team today and is available to pitch today if need be. I imagine Robertson might be on the DL for awhile if Ni performs like he is expected too in that LOOGY role.