Youman Dropped From Rotation

Shane Youman has been dropped from the rotation in order to make way for Matt Morris, the Post-Gazette reports. This means Tony Armas is still in the rotation.

Disregard Armas' one good start ever a few days ago, and Youman has actually had the best ERA of any Pirate starter over the past month except Paul Maholm. Still, I can't bring myself to care much that Youman's being bumped to the bullpen, even though it's a typically short-sighted decision by the Pirates. For his career, Youman has 20 strikeouts and 23 walks in 55 innings. That won't get the job done in the long term, and there's nothing in his minor-league record that suggests those rates are going to improve. He's a marginal player and he probably always will be.

If there's any reason to be upset by this move, it isn't that the Pirates control Youman's rights for the next several years and Armas' for only the next two months. It's that Youman's a better option than Armas right now, and I'm not positive he's worse than Morris, either. If the Pirates got a good pitcher to bump Youman, that'd be fine with me, even if the pitcher were about to leave via free agency. The problem is that Tony Armas isn't a good pitcher. He didn't look much different in July, when he had a 0.75 ERA, than he did before that, and he still has a 6.31 ERA for the season.