Ryan Perry sent down and Dolsi called up

As I had speculated after Perry's last appearance, our first round pick last year is being sent down to Toledo to work on his slider and his command. In his place, Freddy Dolsi will be called upon. Last year, Dolsi pitched in 42 games for the Tigers and posted a 1-5 W/L record and a 3.97 ERA. He also had 29 K's and 28 BB's. Not exactly a good ratio. This year, in Toledo, the 26 year old right hander is 2-2 with a 4.35 ERA, 19 K's and 11 BB's. Still, not a very good ratio. In 2008, Dolsi sported a 94.8 MPH fastball, 87.9 MPH Changeup, and a 84.9 MPH slider. Of those pitches, though, only his fastball was considered a plus pitch by Fangraphs.com.

Last year, in the first month he was with the team, he pitched in 7 games, 11 innings, and posted a 1.64 ERA. So, his start to his tenure here was pretty good, before it started to unravel with an ERA of 5.11 in June, and 6.30 in July.

For now, I imagine he would be the last right-handed relief pitcher on our depth chart and I think Leyland will try to protect him and the situations he uses him in. We'll see, though.

-As has also been mentioned in the print media and elsewhere in the blogosphere, Leyland is splitting up Verlander and Jackson in the rotation and is putting Figaro in between them. On paper, this certainly seems like a good move. In theory, Verlander will pitch 7-8 innings before Figaro's start and ensure that the kid has a rested bullpen in case he struggles. Then, once the bullpen has been used a little more than usual with Figaro on the mound, we come back with Jackson. In theory, then, Jackson will pitch 7-8 innings and make sure that the bullpen is well rested to come in for Porcello (who has yet to throw 100 pitches this season because of the strict pitch count he is under). Then, the 3 or 4 relief pitchers that were not used during Porcello's start, would come in relief of Gallaraga in case he has a bad outing. Specifically, I would imagine that Zack Miner would not pitch in relief of Porcello to insure that he would be available in long relief just in case Gallaraga puts together another poor performance.

-Cubs tomorrow. Zambrano vs. Jackson. It should be a dandy. I'll be here after the game to provide some post game thoughts.