The Angels placed Scott Kazmir on the DL today and called on Matt Palmer to make an emergency start against the Blue Jays. Palmer faired about as well as expected (4.2IP/5R/4ER) but Angels beat writer, Mark Saxon, has unearthed some interesting news regarding Kazmir’s spot in the rotation:
All signs point to the Los Angeles Angels promoting their top pitching prospect, 21-year-old right-hander Tyler Chatwood, to make his major-league debut Tuesday against the Cleveland Indians.
Chatwood was pulled from his season debut for Triple-A Salt Lake after just one inning and 18 pitches Saturday.–ESPN
I’m not in love with the young righty, but in deeper leagues you can do far worse than speculating on a kid like Chatwood. Baseball America’s 76th best prospect can bring the heat, but should work comfortably in the mid-90s. In 11IP this spring, Chatwood struck out 9 batters but sported a 7.36 ERA.
Honestly, everything about Chatwood says that he’ll have issues at the big-league level, but I’ve yet to really understand what properly prepares a youngin’ for success in the show. Sometimes, you’ve just gotta roll the dice and hope for the best and if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.
He’ll probably just get a start or two, but if he impresses it’ll be tough for the Angels to put Kazmir back into the rotation. I’ll give this a 1-in-20 shot of actually working out well.
