Dodgers Welcome Rubby De La Rosa to the Majors

What is going on around the Dodgers these days? Has someone finally come their senses? A career journeyman with and ERA near 10 is sent packing so the prized prospect of the future can join the club. This is the kind of stuff that is going on in Kansas City and Atlanta not Los Angeles. Well I stand corrected as the Dodgers today purchased the contract of stud pitching prospect and Lasorda’s Lair favorite Rubby De La Rosa, and to make it even better it happened on a Tuesday. Get it Rubby Tuesday.

Rubby will pitch out of the bullpen initially and the Dodgers hope he can make a similar transition from bullpen to starter as past Dodgers Pedro Martinez and Chad Billingsley. Rubby had been making a mockery of AA hitters so far this year with 52 strikeouts in 40 innings pitched. Cormier on the other hand has unfortunately been atrocious all season allowing 22 base-runners in just over 13 innings pitched. With the club suffering from so many injuries in the bullpen, the Dodgers just couldn’t afford to have to rely on Cormier in crucial situations like they did last week when he gave up a 3-run homer against the Giants to lose a game.

With the promotion of Jerry Sands and now Rubby the Dodgers may finally be ready to undergo their next youth movement. Outfilder Trayvon Robinson is off to a solid start in AAA hitting near .300 and slugging over .500. Meanwhile Dee Gordon is also hitting over .300 and more impressively has cut down on his strikeouts, currently sporting only 23 strikeouts with 10 walks, which has led to a solid on base percentage over .350, and with his speed already has 16 stolen bases.

So while the current version of the Dodgers still consists of too many has beens the future looks bright, with the exception of third base which is sorely lacking in a prized prospect, as Pedro Baez, considered the organizations top third base prospect is hitting .210 at AA Chattanooga.

Today let’s focus on the positive Rubby is finally here and now I can delete his spring training start against the Mariners off of my DVR, as sadly on bad nights like last night I would watch Rubby make Ichiro look foolish with and 0-2 change-up and dream what could be if only the Dodgers would call him up, which today they did.

Finally here is what Don Mattingly had to say on the plan to use Rubby:

"“Obviously, we’re going to treat him like everybody else, You’re not going to abuse a guy like this, but really, we try not to abuse anyone. We’ll try to protect him. We try to protect all of our guys, but especially a young guy coming up. We’ll try to get him clean innings, where he comes in to start an inning and doesn’t have to come in [when the team is] in trouble.”"

Somehow I think after Rubby proves just how good he is the Dodgers won’t have a choice but to use him in any situation. Good luck Rubby it’s certainly nice to see you where you belong, on the big league roster.