Chad Billingsley : Forgotten Man
The Dodgers have a spot opening up in their rotation. It will be filled by Hong-Chih Kuo. Huh? What about Chad Billingsley?
I’ve tried to justify this decision in a number of ways. Why is Chad sticking in the bullpen? Maybe it’s in order to build up confidence. It could be an arm strength situation. Control issues. It has to be something, right?
After delving into each of these questions, I can’t verify any of these answers. Any lost confidence has had to return with the multitude of the solid performances. The arm strength issues were a reach in the first place. Control problems are the most reasonable issue of the group, yet he has struck out 21 vs 2 walks in his last 10 appearances. The official word changes by the day in the Dodgers camp. We’ve heard he’s more effective in a bullpen role than the other starters would be, flexability, etc etc etc. None of these really check out.
At the end of the day, with a rotation spot opening up, Billingsley is bypassed yet again and the spot is filled by Hong-Chih Kuo and a 7.71 ERA.
Billingsley is young, currently at 22 years of age. Upon arrival last season, he was as heralded a pitching prospect as Matt Cain & Cole Hamels. Now with a rotation spot opening up, he’s remaining in a middle relief role. I don’t have the reasoning behind this decision but Chad needs to be thrown into a starting role. Sure, he’s been extremely effective in his role (in 9 of his last 10 appearances he has held the opposition scoreless), yet the positives in a starting role outweigh the negatives of the loss to the bullpens depth. Day after day it appears that the NL West Title will go down to the last game, and the Dodgers need to make the most of their IP along the way.
