Ryan Tucker to stay in the rotation

The Marlins have decided to keep Ryan Tucker in the rotation for now .

Tucker will replace Burke Badenhop in the rotation.

Okay, no problem there at the moment.  I do agree with Mbaamin's comment in yesterday's Open Thread that he is still a work in progress.  And if he can't get command of all three of his pitches he will eventually be lit up like a pinball machine.  (The pinball machine thing is a reference to Bull Durham.  And oh, by the way, do they still make pinball machines?)

Back to the issue at hand, Tucker was full of nerves as would be expected for a player making their Major League debut, especially one who is expected to do great things in the future .

"When I got the call I was pretty surprised. My stomach was in my throat. I didn't really know what to do," said Tucker, a first-round compensation pick (34th overall) from the loss of free agent Armando Benitez to the Giants.

"I had the whole day off (Saturday)," Tucker said. "I was trying to get my nerves under control and trying to think how it could possibly go and this was the best way it could have gone."

Woo Hoo!  Benitez sucked last year but paid off, sort of, this year. (I couldn't resist.)

It will be interesting to see how Tucker performs in his next start.  But after watching his first one, I'm not sure he is starter material in the long run.  His stuff seems like it is better suited for late inning bullpen action.  However, it's probably not fair to make that assessment on just one outing.

The Fish will go with 13 pitchers through upcoming the road trip, at least.

Oh, one interesting tidbit about Ryan .

There were a few Ryan Tucker fans in the ballpark Sunday. They included Ryan's sister Megan, his girlfriend, Meghan