A little follow-up on Nate...

At the end of our last Cardinals post, I mentioned in passing that Nate Robertson:

...got bounced around the yard this evening. Actually, the problem was more that the balls he was throwing were bouncing... in the seats. Nate went exactly 0 innings before he was 'yanked.' He allowed 6 runs, all earned, on 4 hits and 2 walks. Sammy Sosa hit a bases-loaded single, followed by a Victor Diaz grand slam, followed by a Marlon Byrd (of course,) triple. Game over, Nathan. He saw his ERA rise from a decent 4.25 to a frightening 5.07. There's that Texas offense for you.

Well, sadly, the bad news didn't stop there. Against his wishes, the Tigers placed him on the DL with a "tired arm". There are not many times when you have to force a guy to go on the disabled list. He's basically DL'ed with a case of sucking, so lets call it what it is. And Robertson acknowledges as much. "There are no red flags. I'm not hurt." But Robertson hasn't had a quality start in his last 6 outings. His velocity is down. He threw 30 pitches in that last start of his, and not a single pitch was a swinging strike. So something is wrong. But I'll bet it's more a confidence issue. He's not broken. He's just down.

That's a tough break. Rogers is already gone, as is Zumaya. Luckily, Dombrowski has been hoarding starting pitching for about five years now. So whenever a starter goes down, just call up First Round Draft Pick X. The lucky winner this time is Andrew Miller. I shouldn't say lucky, because the guy is really lights out. In his major league debut he held the Cardinals scoreless, (as we've seen, not a tremendous accomplishment, but not a shabby first start either.) He'll be better off for the team right now than Robertson has been, and there's some talk he may be here to stay. Which, quite frankly, is a little bit less plausible than it sounds. Only because the guy was drafted about a year ago. But we'll see.

On the note of drafts; a guy I know from back in the High School days was drafted by the Tigers in the 25th round. His name is Colin Kaline, and he's Al's grandson. He's already playing ball at Florida Southern, but it's still pretty good. Good job.

The Cardinals are trying something new this year - June 5th, 2007
Some pitching meltdowns - June 10th, 2007
Draft ties generations together (MLB.com) - June 8th, 2007