Padres News: Quack! Quack! Quack! Kevin Quackenbush is Back!

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It must be like Christmas morning for everyone in San Diego who like to quack as the Padre with the greatest name, Kevin Quackenbush is getting recalled to the Padres as Dale Thayer heads to the 15 day DL. In this writers opinion it is about time that the San Diego Padres make up their mind and let young Quackenbush stick in the Majors.

As I wrote before the season begin Quackenbush has spent most of his young career packing his suitcase as he traveled back in forth from Triple-A to the Majors five times last year and this season has brought more of the same for the reliever as he has made his second trip to San Diego from El Paso. My question to the Padres is what does a guy have to do to stick in the Majors. So far in his career Quackenbush 2.62 career ERA in 75.2 career innings. You would think that would be good enough to stick in the Majors, but apparently for Padres management they are looking for something more.

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However, the question of what Quackenbush needs to do to stay in the Majors might be play for another team as it appears the Padres might be taking the strategy of the first place Tampa Bay Rays. If you are not aware the Ray use their entire 40 man roster in order to supply their team with relievers, rather than just the 25 man major league roster. They ship people up and down as fast as they can to make sure they have the freshest arms. This season they have used 27 different pitchers, which is two more than players that are allowed in the Majors at one time. I think the Padres may be trending in this direction. Several effective relief pitchers for the Padres have spent time in the Minors, including Quackenbush and Brandon Maurer, both of which have been effective in the Major Leagues.

My question to the readers is do you think this is a good strategy. Should the Padres store arms in the Minors to keep them fresh? One thing this opens the team up to is losing players who run out of options to other teams. Are Major League ready relievers plentiful enough to make this strategy worth the risk? Let me know what you think in the comments.

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