Corey Brock tweeted out this little curiosity on Tuesday:
Momentum behind moving Cashner to #Padres rotation this season is real, though it's probably not imminent, says GM Josh Byrnes.
— Follow The Padres (@FollowThePadres) June 5, 2012
In addition to this, on Tuesday Cashner got a little bit of an extended outing. He came in to finish the 6th inning and then stayed on to pitch the 7th. This could be the Padres giving him an extra workload in preparation for becoming a starter later in the season or it could just be that with Huston Street back pitching the 9th, Dale Thayer is now holding down the 8th and Cashner takes the 7th but was needed for one extra out and the pitcher's spot wasn't coming up. Either way, change is afoot.
So far this season, the camo undershirt wearing, bearded flamethrower has put up the following numbers:
The ERA is okay and the strikeout rate is very good, but he's given up to many walks and too many hits. He's probably lucky that he doesn't give up more runs than he does. Or maybe all those strikeouts keep away productive outs that turn into runs. Whatever. Point is, given that a starter has to pitch more innings it'll be interesting to see how a trip to the rotation would turn out.