On the September Callups

I'm a bit late to this party, but here goes. So far, Willis and Dolsi are the only official call ups, but Leyland announced the rest. Toledo's season wrapped up yesterday, so the rest should be up soon.

Chris Lambert will be back in the rotation upon his call up. He's been profiled here before, but will need to improve upon his last outing if he wants an extended look.

Freddy Dolsi is back to the party after nine solid innings with the Mudhens. He will need to improve his peripherals if he wants to be a long term fixture in the pen.

Clay Rapada should have been on the roster all year. I have no idea why Casey Fossum has had his spot.

Dontrelle Willis won't pitch. He claims he's healthy. Color me sketpical.

Dusty Ryan has earned this with a nice season. If pitchers pitch better after Tommy John Surgery (They don't: pitchers just are finally healthy and likely had been pitching hurt before the surgery), would the same apply to catchers after meniscus surgery. It's a deteriorative injury that likely could have been affecting Ryan's performance prior to last year. His emergence could just be a return to health. That said, his build suggests he could be at risk for recurrance.

Mike Hessman is just back from winning the bronze, and now gets the shot he deserves for a while. With butchers Jeff Larish and Ryan Raburn playing third in Carlos Guillen's absense, Hessman would certainly be contributing to this team if they were shooting for the playoffs.

What about guys who didn't get the call? This will be a list of all guys taking up spots on the 40-man roster who did not get added to the roster. Leyland says these guys don't “dictate that a guy should be in the big leagues at the end of the year or next year.”

Eddie Bonine, Macay McBride, Todd Jones, Joel Zumaya, and Clete Thomas are all hurt.

Rick Porcello was likely on a strict innings limit. Finishing with exactly 125 innings almost suggests that was planned.

Virgil Vasquez had an off year with a nice finish to the season yesterday (5 hit shutout, 1 bb, 10 k). His prospect status has likely taken a hit this season.

Michael Hollimon was a tremendous disappointment this year. He went .154/.284/.252 after the all star break for the Hens. That is unacceptable and certainly explains why he didn't get the call. At 26, he needed to blow away AAA and failed to do so.

Brent Clevlen also regressed toward the end of the season. I'd chalk this up to his strikeouts getting worse and his other numbers regressing due to less luck on balls in play. He's out of options before next year, and I'm beginning to become doubtful that he will ever be a solid Major League player.