It started with a random tweet this morning from an account not affiliated with minor-league baseball - 2011 10th Round pick Kyle Hallock had been called up to Triple-A Oklahoma City from Low-A Quad Cities. No one really knew what it meant. Was it roster filler, and nothing was happening, or was something actually going on?
Nope. Something is up. NewStro Travis Blackley strained his stupid shoulder in his very first bullpen session at Minute Maid Park and was put on the 15-Day DL, so fellow lefty Dallas Keuchel is on his way to Houston to take his lefty long-relief role (since Xavier Cedeno was about as effective as a pin-pricked condom last night), and lefty Hallock will take Keuchel's spot at OKC.
Hallock threw to three batters in Quad Cities, struck out two of them, and got the other one out, too. And so the season-long battle royal among pitchers continues.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
