Over the weekend, there was one piece of news to take away from an abysmal series against Colorado for the Florida Marlins. Chris Volstad, the Marlins' top pitching prospect, was called up from Double-A Carolina, and righthander Josh Johnson proved he was ready to return to the big leagues after Tommy John surgery.
Volstad and Johnson will take the spots of antichrist Mark Hendrickson and rookie Ryan Tucker in the rotation. While Hendrickson had a fine start to the season, his regression to the mean has hurt the team tremendously, as he has proved incapable of lasting beyond the fourth inning or allowing fewer than 5-6 runs per game.
Tucker has shown a very live fastball, but little else as a starter. The kid will make a fine reliever and could project as the team's future closer, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him head out to the bullpen with Hendrickson. I certainly would have a lot more faith putting in Tucker with the lead than some of the other arms back there in the pen.
Volstad has had an outstanding year in Carolina and was one of six Mudcats named to the Southern League All-Star game. He's certainly an upgrade over Tucker, as he has three quality pitches to Tucker's one. It will be interesting to see Volstad's progression and how difficult his adjustment will be.
Johnson was arguably the team's finest pitcher in 2006, when each of the Marlins' five starters won at least 10 games. Last year, however, he made just four starts before heading down to visit Dr. James Andrews. Johnson is coming off a dominating 8-inning shutout performance for Carolina, in which he also hit a home run. It seems like he is being rushed back a little bit quickly, as he had surgery approximately one year ago, but he has passed all the tests in his rehab and has made several 100+ pitch outings. He's proven before he can get out Major League hitters and he may even have more velocity coming off the Tommy John.
All in all, the addition of these two pitchers (and more importantly, the removal of Hendrickson from the rotation), will be a tremendous boost to a club that has struggled to build momentum, particularly due to inconsistent starting pitching. A rotation of Ricky Nolasco, Andrew Miller, Scott Olsen, Johnson, and Volstad gives this team a very good chance to get things rolling.
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