Are the Dodgers getting a more rested Paco Rodriguez for the stretch?

[mlbvideo id=”31198271″ width=”550″ height=”308″ /]

By Jon Weisman

One big concern with Paco Rodriguez in 2013 was whether he was burned out by the time September arrived. That was the conclusion almost everyone seemed to draw when his otherwise sterling season fell apart with a 5.68 ERA and 2.211 WHIP in the regular season’s final month, followed by a rough and abbreviated postseason.

Cause or correlation, it made me curious how much more rested Rodriguez will be after this year’s All-Star Break compared to last year. (Note: MLB and minor-league work is combined here.)

2013 through July 17: 45 games, 33 innings, 507 pitches
2014 through July 17: 38 games, 32 2/3 innings, 595 pitches

So, yeah.

While Rodriguez was pitching to an easier group of batters with Albuquerque, the Pacific Coast League hitting environment arguably made it a more challenging set of innings — certainly if you look at the outcomes (27 baserunners in the 2013 period, 51 baserunners in the 2014 period).

In a sense, you wonder what whether the Dodgers, or any team, might be better off giving certain pitchers a chunk of early time off, if only to increase the odds of their being fresh later on. Not that baseball really works that way, or that Rodriguez didn’t learn anything from his return to Triple-A.

In any case, Rodriguez wasn’t as bad as his 6.43 April 2014 ERA with the Dodgers indicated. His fielding-independent ERA in those 10 games was 2.14, and his opponents’ batting average on balls in play was like someone who walked under a ladder while a black cat broke a mirror in front of him: .526. It’s easy to imagine that a return to the bigs will be a shot in the arm for Rodriguez, the same way it might be a shot in the arm for the Dodger bullpen.

Whether his stay is long or short might depend on a number of factors, including the rehab of Scott Elbert, currently at Albuquerque himself. Elbert had a rough outing Thursday, allowing two hits (including a home run) and two walks against Sacramento.