Roberto Hernandez, A Depth Move To Be Scared About

This is Hernandez, presumably being bad. Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

So Fausto Carmona is a Dodger. Roberto Hernandez is going to start today in place of the injured Josh Beckett, who would have been relieved if Paul Maholm‘s knee could still support itself, who could have been relieved if Chad Billingsley…

/sobs

CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAD

Who could have been relieved if Ross Stripling‘s elbow decided to comply with the 2014 baseball season, who could have been relieved if Zach Lee wasn’t completely shelled by AAA bats, who could have been relieved by Matt Magill who has one of the saddest stories in the minors who could have been…..

Listen. The problem wasn’t trading for Roberto Hernandez, the starter formerly known as “Fausto Carmona”. The problem here wasn’t even the signing of Paul Maholm/Dan Haren. The problem with all of this, the problem with expecting Roberto Hernandez to contribute to a contending team down the stretch (possibly your playoff number 4 starter!) is the depth currently available. Looking back on it, maybe keeping along Paul Maholm for all these months wasn’t so dumb in a vacuum, maybe the maximum depth was completely necessary, and the way this team was constructed, waiting until mid-August to completely retool the depth is a win.

The problem was expecting a trio of Josh Beckett (health wizard coming off of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome), Paul Maholm who is what he is, Dan Haren (look at velocity chart and home run chart) to last a season. I realize that the organization has had #$@%@^!@#@ luck with Zach Lee, Ross Stripling, Matt Magill, but you’d think an organization led by Ned Colletti who has such a propensity to go after veteran depth as opposed to promoting young, cheap talent would do better than Josh Beckett/Paul Maholm #5 starter!

Nobody could have anticipated Dan Haren being as bad as he has been, I mean he simply doesn’t look like a major league pitcher anymore. However I would have loved to see something other than Josh Beckett/Paul Maholm go out there every 5th day, and one of them be shoved to the bullpen to block one of the cheaper talents in Dominguez/Baez/any AAA reliever could be inserted here.

But here we are, hoping that Roberto Hernandez can figure out his command, and continue to get ground balls. The sad thing is, if Hernandez is any good going down the stretch, i’ll wager that he gets a postseason start which will make me laugh/cry/hyperventilate profusely. At the very least, he’s surely going to join Brandon League as members of the 2014 postseason bullpen, who are also known as “ground ball aficionados who can’t throw strikes”.

The costs of too little depth.