Friday, February 22, 2008

Will Christ-Cross make fans jump?


It's barely a third of the way through the season, and it seems San Diego is already running up the proverbial white flag. Off-season vetran aquisition Sammy Lee has already worn out his welcome in the starting rotation, and is being shipped off to Seattle along with dependable bullpen arm Leo Wakeland. Serious talks are also in the works with Cincinnati to move longtime 'Charger starter Teddy Tomberlin, but he has yet to waive his no-trade clause, so that deal is still somewhat up in the air.

In both cases, while San Diego is having to take contracts back to make the deals work under the salary cap, the main parts of the deal from management's perspective are the young arms they are getting back. More specifically, reports out of the SuperCharger offices are that scouts are raving about the stuff of Ryan Christman, the 20-year-old righthander from De Plaines, IL. While Christman has struggled in AAA this season, his two top pitches, a hard-breaking forkball and a "plus" changeup, go with an above average 4-seamer which should keep hitters guessing.

However, what really gets the 'Charger scouts all worked up is the idea of pairing Christman with their own minor league pitching gem, the big 6'-5" lefty Julian Carincross. Both have shown the potential to have dominating stuff, though both have also shown a tendancy to get a bit wild now and then. The hope is that while they should both profit greatly from another season in the minors, sometime over the next season or two they'll be integrated into the big league rotation, slotted behind big-money vet Turk Melhuse, and 24-year-old rookie lefthander Bronson Wang, who is taking the league by storm. The club is hoping Melhuse's vetran presence will be able to keep the precocious youngesters in line, but Wang should be able to bridge the gap to the younger guys and help them grow.

So while the outlook for the rest of this season may not match the bright sunshine surrounding Petco Park, the future should be more than up to the challenge.

2 comments:

hatt said...

Missed the bus was the best!!

Iain said...

...and it is something I will never ever do again!