Mike Bolsinger's appearance on the 2014 Diamondbacks' roster probably counts are more of a surprise to anyone, considering he was generally considered as being fairly far down the rotational depth-chart. But, when the need arose in mid-April for a starter, it was Bolsinger's name that was announced as a replacement, and overall, he made nine starts for the Diamondbacks (plus one relief appearance). However, they weren't very good starts: not so much for the 1-6 record (that's still one more win than Vidal Nuño!), but the 5.50 ERA that accompanied them.
Four of the nine outings were quality starts, with the best perhaps being Bolsinger's solitary win, when he worked 6.2 innings against the Chicago Cubs on April 24, allowing only an unearned run on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. His other standout appearance was pitching into the eighth inning on June 22 at Chase versus the San Francisco Giants, but the one run in 7.2 frames was still enough for the loss. But these were exceptions rather than the standard, and for every one of these, there was another unsatisfactory outing, culminating in the 3.2 inning start in Atlanta, where he was tagged for seven runs on ten hits and two walks.
Curiously, Bolsinger seemed to pitch much better at Chase than anywhere else. His home ERA was 4.09, while away from Arizona, it ballooned to 6.53. But, overall, he wasn't very good, and the fact that we couldn't even pry a C-grade prospect out of Los Angeles, having to settle for the dreaded "cash considerations," gives you some idea of in how little regard the rest of the league holds Bolsinger. With the arrival of Hellickson, and the rise of upcoming prospects, if Bolsinger had been needed to start this season, something would have had to have gone very, very wrong with the Diamondbacks. I hope they enjoy the pizza party funded as a result of his departure.
But if he's sent to AAA for Los Angeles this year, it might be interesting, because it was his actions that kicked off this donnybrook in July this year, when we faced the Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate...
Brewer will have a place in Diamondbacks history, being the first local-born player to be drafted by the team and make it to the major leagues for us. [He was the seventh D-back overall to be born in Arizona, with the first ever being Ed Vosberg in 1999] He went to Chaparral High School, around the same time as the SnakePitette, then attended UCLA before coming back to Arizona when the Diamondbacks took him in the 12th round of the 2009 draft. He made his major-league debut in June of 2013, working 1.2 scoreless innings against the Dodgers, and made three further appearances out of the bullpen that season.
However, he was unable to break through again in 2014, spending the entire year in the minors. Indeed, he was sent down from Reno to Double-A Mobile in mid-May, after posting a 7.28 ERA over his first nine starts with the Aces. That did seem to square him up, as after his return to Triple-A at the beginning of July, he halved his ERA to 3.63 during his remaining 13 appearances. However, as we noted last weekend, there are no shortage of rotational candidates for the Diamondbacks in 2015 - and that list of 15 potential starters didn't even include Brewer. There may not even have been a rotation spot in Reno available for him.
H/T to GuruB for the Brewer news. Oh, and did anyone else notice we seem to have got Nick Evans back? [H/T shoewizard]