The Tigers will call up Virgil Vasquez to start game two of Tuesdays doubleheader against the White Sox. While Virgil wasn’t the first choice of Jim Leyland as Danny Knobler states below, I like how this turned out.

Jim Leyland said it would have been Yorman Bazardo, but he was a little sore after his game last week.

Both Virgil Vasquez and Yorman Bazardo have spent time with the big league club this year though with very limited innings. Bazardo spent some time in the bullpen and did well allowing 4 hits over 4.2 innings with 5 K’s and 0 walks. He has given up around a hit an inning in the minor leagues this year and Leyland’s preference for Bazardo might be due to his Ground Out / Air Out ratio of 1.91, especially in a homer friendly field such as U.S. Cellular Field which Yorman doesn’t give up much.

However, I am a fan of Virgil Vasquez. Despite his pretty horrible start against the Twins on May 13th, he has a lot to offer the Tigers. He has been solid with the Mud Hens earning a 9-3 record, 3.82 ERA and an impressive 99/26 K/BB ratio over 115.1 innings of work. He has had similar stats coming up from Lakeland in ‘05 and Erie in ‘05/’06 so his first MLB start is not indicative of his talents.

I look forward to watching his start tomorrow, I’m glad it is game two so I can watch it in the evening. We will likely be seeing a very different Virgil Vazquez, at least I hope so.