Remember that time when Tanner Scheppers was an Opening Day starter in Major League Baseball? Yeah, we'd all like to forget about that.
Scheppers was rocked in his first professional start after being an elite set-up man for the Rangers in 2013, and the trend continued each time he took the hill until he revealed he had elbow soreness and was put on the disabled list.
Well, now Scheppers is ready to return and will begin a rehab assignment on Saturday, but it's not what you expect. It was widely assumed Scheppers would be back in the Rangers' bullpen whenever he got healthy as the bullpen was struggling and the Rangers had gotten back the services of veteran starters Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison.
Now, Harrison is out for the year, and maybe for his career, and the Rangers' bullpen has stabilized some, so the club will rehab Scheppers as a starter, to everyone's chagrin.
In his four starts, Scheppers was 0-1 with a 9.82 ERA, allowing 27 hits and 20 runs in 18 1/3 innings, in which he struck out just 13 batters.
Maybe Scheppers will be better now that he's had some rest and rehab, or maybe it's going to be more of the awful same. Hopefully it's the former.
