Although he’s been been able to throw, Tsuyoshi Wada will not make his scheduled start tomorrow in St. Louis after shoulder cramps forced him from his last start earlier in the week.
Instead, the Cubs will call up 25-year-old righty Donn Roach for a spot start (Mooney, Rogers).
Acquired via waiver claim in the offseason, Roach has had exceedingly good results this year for AAA Iowa – 2.29 ERA over 82.2 innings – and will be added to the 40-man roster in advance of his start tomorrow. The Cubs have some players they could transfer to the 60-man disabled list if they wanted to open up a spot without causing too much friction.
We’ll see how well Roach’s heavy groundball approach plays, because despite those good results, he hasn’t overwhelmed minor league hitters. He’s struck out just 10.0% (!) of batters he’s faced this year. He doesn’t walk anyone (4.6%) and he’s kept the ball in the ballpark. His BABIP against this year is just .260, though, which you’d expect to be much higher with so many groundballs.
Keep the ball down, and hope the infielders behind you can handle it. Good luck tomorrow, Mr. Roach.