The Pirates have promoted Brandon Cumpton to Indianapolis. The Indians have been short in terms of pitchers. They’ve seen almost all of their relievers throw multiple innings over the last two days. Phil Irwin was supposed to start today, but was promoted to the majors. Kyle McPherson went on the disabled list yesterday.
They called up Tim Alderson yesterday, and it originally looked like he could get a shot at starting. Now it looks like he’s more likely to be help out of the depleted bullpen, with Cumpton starting today. Originally Cumpton was scheduled to start tomorrow for Altoona.
Last year Cumpton had a 3.84 ERA in 152.1 innings with Altoona, along with a 5.2 K/9 and a 2.7 BB/9 ratio. So far this year he’s been off to a rough start, with eight earned runs in 9.2 innings, along with a 7:5 K/BB ratio. He’s a heavy ground ball pitcher who normally doesn’t walk a lot of batters, but has five walks so far in his first two starts. So not the best results this year, and he’s not deserving of the promotion based off those numbers, but Indianapolis is short on options at the moment.
No word yet on the corresponding move for Altoona. Their roster is currently at 24, which is one shy of the maximum.
UPDATE 10:58 AM: David Bromberg will start tomorrow for Altoona, taking Cumpton’s spot.
UPDATE 11:38 AM: Andy Oliver has been moved up and will start today. Brandon Cumpton will start tomorrow for Indianapolis.
