Cardenas moves into rotation as Hawks rotation announced.(39.15)

[niles08]

In a bit of a surprising move Augusto Cardenas has officially cracked the Omaha rotation and will move from being a dominant relief pitcher to a starting pitcher who hopes to bring the same great stuff for 90 pitches a game.

Cardenas was acquired from California during the off-season and has been one of the best relief pitchers over the past 3 seasons in the BBA winning the Egan award in 2037 and making the all-star team all 3 seasons.

He was acquired to shore up an Omaha bullpen that simply was awful last year but apparently the club feels he will make a bigger impact in the rotation.

He is currently slotted in the #3 spot of the rotation behind opening day starter Edris Mtume & the often-injured Carson Stoller. To follow Cardenas will be rotation regulars Stephen Clulow & Adam Barnard.

Mtume enters his 7th season all with Omaha, but has been just a shade above average with an ERA of 4.12 in 132 games started for the club.

Stoller enters season #6, all with Omaha and when healthy has been great at times. Health is a big factor for Stoller though as his injury history should allow the team to hire him a personal doctor.

Clulow is heading into season 6 in Omaha as well. He has been unspectacular in Omaha with a 4.95 ERA over 118 games. His 2036 season was all but lost due to injury however he has recovered to throw over 400 innings the past 2 seasons.

Last but not least Adam Barnard. Barnard has typically been the opening day starter but this season will shift back to back end of the rotation role. He is entering season 7 in Omaha and his 3.98 ERA over those 7 years has been a bright spot for the club. He also has started at least 32 games each year over the past 5 years accumulating 1,149 innings over 189 starts in Omaha for an average of just over 6 innings per start and over 225 innings per season.

The rotation while not particularly strong, does have some back up heading into the season that it did not have last year as if the team became in a bind, Bengt De Meza, Thomas Rodriguez, Patrick Patchell or even newly acquired Jose Lima could start if needed.

Let’s also not forget that Manuel Orosco is recovering from a torn rotator cuff and should be back by August to help make a playoff push.