In their push for a playoff berth, the A's have called up starting pitcher Dan Straily, and will start him tomorrow night against the Blue Jays. Straily will be replacing Travis Blackley in the Oakland rotation, sending Blackley to the pen.
The 23-year old Straily, not on any top prospect radar coming into the year, has absolutely burst onto the scene in 2012 after being a 24th round pick in 2009. Straily has shown flashes of brilliance across his minor league career, striking out 149 in 148 innings in 2010 with low-A Kane County, and striking out 154 in 160 innings last season with high-A Stockton. This season though, Straily has been a phenom. He leads all of baseball with 175 strikeouts in 138 1/3 innings for AA Midland and AAA Sacramento. Perhaps more impressive is that Straily has walked just 37 hitters this season, leading to a stellar 4.73 strikeout to walk ratio.
During trade talks near the deadline, the A's were involved in discussions for players like Chase Headley, Jimmy Rollins, Yunel Escobar, and Hanley Ramirez, but refused to include Straily in any deal. Now, we're all going to get to see what he's made of on the biggest stage of them all. Straily joins a young A's rotation with Jarrod Parker, Brandon McCarthy, and Tommy Milone, with veteran Bartolo Colon anchoring the staff. Combine that fivesome with Brett Anderson and Dallas Braden currently rehabbing, and the A's rotation is looking really good.
