I can understand the Cardinals decision to option Michael Wacha back to the minors. I made the case for doing the same thing a couple weeks ago. Wacha is only one year removed from college and still has things to work on before he truly reaches his potential.
Tyler Lyons had two excellent starts to start his major league career, but has gotten progressively worse since then. In his third start, he only allowed two runs while he was in the game (the bullpen allowed two of his runners to score). In his 4th start he allowed 4 runs in 5.1 innings and in his start tonight, he allowed 6 runs in 5.1 innings.
This makes one think how many more chances Lyons will get to turn things around before the Cardinals decide to try someone else?
Lyons currently has a 4.65 ERA and the Carindals are 2-3 in his starts. Despite his recent clunkers, the Cardinals are not going to recall Wacha anytime soon to take Lyons' place. They made their decision and they are going to stay with it for a time.
Another thing that may come in to play is how Chris Carpenter and/or John Gast progress from their injuries. If either one of them show that they could be ready to return in 3-4 weeks, the Cards may decide to stick with Lyons until that time.
The Cardinals have that luxury with a 2.5 game lead in the NL Central standings and the best record in the majors. It should help that the Cardinals face one of the easiest stretches on their schedule facing sub .500 teams in 18 of the next 24 games. However, if the Cards should slip a little and Lyons continues to struggle, they will not hesitate to make a change.
Its obvious that the league has adjusted to Lyons. Now its up to him to make adjustments if he wants to stay in the rotation.
Martinez will prob come in, they moved him to the minors so he could get his pitch count back up. It has been a couple weeks, not sure if he is ready, but safe to say he'll be ready before gast/carp.
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