Tony Armas will make his next scheduled start Thursday but, as Tracy told him in a meeting yesterday afternoon without mincing words, he will be out of the rotation if there is no significant improvement.
"I don't think that anything I told him was going to surprise him," Tracy said. "He should know -- he has to know -- that he's not going to stay in the rotation with an ERA close to 9.00. ... Let's see what happens Thursday."
I liked the Armas signing and I'm a relatively patient guy, but I do think it's time to give someone else a chance. I don't really think John Van Benschoten or Bryan Bullington are likely to be that much better, but they could hardly be worse, and given how Armas is doing, it behooves the Pirates to give one of them - preferably Van Benschoten, who has a much better strikeout-to-walk ratio and has performed better recently - a shot.