In the wake of last night's bullpen meltdown, the St. Louis Cardinals shook up the relief corps today, giving aged veteran Miguel Batista his unconditional release today. Correspondingly, the club called up Memphis starter Lance Lynn. Batista pitched horribly out of the bullpen for the Cardinals this season, despite an astonishingly low BABIP of just .260 after an appearance last night in which he walked two batters on nine pitches without recording an out.
Behold the horror of Batista's stats:
29.1 IP
4.91 K/9
5.83 BB/9
.260 BABIP
4.60 ERA
5.11 FIP
5.70 xFIP
23.2 LD%
36.8 GB%
40% FB%
Lynn made two starts for the Cardinals this season while Kyle McClellan was on the disabled list with hip issues. He has also made twelve starts for the Memphis Redbirds. Here are his stats for Memphis:
12 GS, 75 IP, 7.68 K/9, 3.00 BB/9, .344 BABIP, 3.84 ERA, 2.92 FIP
Intriguingly, Derrick Goold tweeted this after the announcement of the moves:
Release of Batista alleviates hidden problem facing #cardinals: a full 40 man roster that made acquiring help tricky.