Kuroda to the DL

Spring Training- Day 4, originally uploaded by mrs. bennettar.

Uh oh: (h/t Blue Heaven)

Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique muscle, and Eric Stults will be recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque to start Saturday for the Dodgers against the Diamondbacks.

The Dodgers are perilously thin in the starting rotation. The '08 Dodgers got starts from 10 different pitchers, but only four pitched a 100 innings. The top five starters accounted for 54.9% of the innings pitched by the staff. This was already low. In contrast, the '08 Phillies got 60.4%, the '08 Brewers got 58.8% and the '08 Cubs got 57.7% of their innings from their top five starters respectively. Departed pitchers Derek Lowe and Brad Penny contributed 305 of 795 innings pitched by the '08 rotation. The Ole Snakeskin boots saw fit replace those 305 with Randy Wolf, who has averaged 116 innings per season over the last three years. The balance was to come from an increased workload on Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw, who are already on the '09 Verducci Rule list.

In other words, the rotation was a dicey proposition from the outset. Any extended injury to Kuroda is potential disaster.