NEWSLETTER
Given his successful gearing up efforts so far, including a dominating performance at high A on Thursday, many folks were speculating that Doug Davis would be the guy to step into the Chicago Cubs’ fifth starter spot when it is next needed (Saturday, May 14). While he made sense as the guy to take the spot, I was concerned that the days just wouldn’t line up. And unfortunately, I was right.
Left-hander Doug Davis will move to Class AAA Iowa for a start Wednesday after working 62/3 scoreless innings for Class A Daytona on Thursday. That will rule him out of the Cubs’ game against the San Francisco Giants next Saturday, when the Cubs next will need a fifth starter.
Quade and general manager Jim Hendry haven’t discussed options for that game yet. Chicago Sun-Times.
Two thoughts:
(1) The other most-likely non-James Russell candidate for the spot, AAA starter Ramon Ortiz, last started on May 4, which would line him up perfectly to take a spot start on the 14th. Of course, the Cubs could have had him up for at least the last two Russell disasters if they wanted.
(2) I know that you can’t always control a guy’s rehab. He’s ready to do X only when he’s successfully done Y. I get that. But, still… if you knew Davis was going to be the preferred fifth starter fill-in (and everyone knew this as early as three weeks ago), I’d like to believe it would have been possible to structure his rehab so that he doesn’t miss the chance to take over the spot by just one or two days. It’s not as if it was impossible in mid-April to look at the schedule and project when, in mid-May, the fifth starter spot would come up.
