Dan Straily Recalled to Fill in for McCarthy

The rosters have expanded, so Dan Straily likely was going to be recalled regardless at some point this September but he has been recalled specifically to take the spot in the roster of Brandon McCarthy out after taking a line drive to the head against the Angels Wednesday. In Straily’s first stint with the A’s he tossed 17 innings of 6.4 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and 2.1 HR/9 baseball adding up to a 3.18 ERA and 5.45 FIP. He has had a crazy home run rate, and xFIP shows him as being a bit better with a 4.82 mark. Straily’s problem really is that he isn’t getting many groundballs (28.3%) so even with the normalizing of the HR/FB (14.3%) the xFIP still suffers from the long ball frequency though I can’t imagine that number stays the same pitching in the Coliseum, maybe something to think about in road starts though we are dealing with the smallest of samples here.

Straily began the year with Midland where he went 85 2/3 innings of 11.4 K/9 baseball with a 3.38 ERA and 2.57 FIP. In his time in Sacramento he has put together 66 2/3 innings of 11.1 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and 0.4 HR/9 baseball with a 2.03 ERA and 2.23 FIP. Across all three levels he has pitched this season he has a combined 202 strikeouts. While not the ace McCarthy, he is a solid addition and I anticipate he will not cost the A’s dearly filling in for him. Straily really should just be interesting to watch as he has inserted himself firmly in the future of this franchise. The loss of Bartolo Colon was easy to swallow but both he and McCarthy make for a more bitter pill as the A’s head to Seattle for a three game set.