Kathleen O'Brien has a piece in the S-T today on the state of the Rangers pitching, particularly the bullpen...
While there are a couple of factual errors in there -- for example, O'Brien says that R.A. Dickey hasn't pitched this season, when he actually appeared in 5 games and didn't go on the d.l. until a couple of weeks into the season -- the main thing of interest has to do with the Pedro Astacio situation.
As I've made clear, I want the Rangers to cut bait with Astacio and bring up Ricardo Rodriguez, who is simply marking time down in AAA right now. O'Brien's piece suggests that Astacio's performance today could dictate whether he stays in the rotation, or whether Ricardo Rodriguez is going to take his place.
The final line of O'Brien's article is also kind of interesting...
Hershiser, who often says he wants to save everyone, believes Astacio will come around -- and the bullpen, too. Perhaps the power of positive thinking will work wonders.
I'm a Hershiser fan, but this sort of thought process is a bit troubling to me. While it may be nice that Hershiser wants to save everyone, the reality is, someone in his position has to apply a certain amount of critical thinking. The belief that everyone is salvageable is what leads to silly decisions like plugging Pedro Astacio into the rotation and letting Ricardo Rodriguez waste away in AAA...after all, if Astacio can be "saved", the the Rangers should keep him around, and let RicRod be insurance. I fear that this sort of wishful thinking is what leads to misguided decisions like the ones made with Astacio, Matthews and Barajas this spring, hoping that players are going to overperform expectations rather than having realistic ideas of what is likely to occur.