Casey Designated For Assignment

It's not every day a former Cy Young winner gets exposed to the Waiver Wire, but that is the news off the presses from Colorado Springs. RP Christian Casey, who was voted the National League's best pitcher from Season 2, has been designated for minor league assignment and is ripe for the taking.

Casey spent 3 years pitching for the Montreal Expos. During the first 2, he was as dominant as any starter in the National League. He posted an ERA under 3 and ate up more than 230 innings each year. But at the age of 34, his fastball lost some life, and his arm wore out earlier each outing. In Season 3, we went just 13-9 with a 4.40 ERA and pitched only 182 innings despite making 37 starts.

The Expos past on resigning their aging ace, but Casey found a home with the Anaheim Angels. He took the ball every 5 days, but posted a career-worst 7 wins against 10 losses. His prime obviously behind him, the new management in town (which also moved the team to Colorado Springs and renamed it the Millennium) hoped he could find a way to get his outs out of the bullpen this season. But in 3 outings, he has an unheard of WHIP of 3.55, and an ERA of 19.64. Thus the designation to the minors, to give him a chance to find his stuff either in AAA or for another team.

The Millennium will have to eat the majority of the $5.2M Casey is owed this season, but it is his last under contract. Casey himself offered the following perspective, "I'll find another home this season and I'm going to throw some effective innings. I still have an arm, and I think a lot of teams know that. All I want to do is prove to myself I can still do this."

Is the move premature on the part of Colorado Springs? 3.2 innings of work is a small sample size, and Casey could come back to hurt them if he lands in the wrong hands. But the NL West race is off to a competitive start, and management didn't have time to idle by while an aging pitcher worked out his mechanical issues.