Cal Poly’s 2017 Friday night starter joined a teammate on the list of players who have been drafted in the early rounds of the Major League Baseball draft.

Erich Uelmen has been Cal Poly’s most consistent starting pitcher over the past two seasons. By Owen Main

In the fourth round (pick 135 overall), the Cubs drafted a Mustang for the second time in the past three years. In 2015, Chicago drafted Casey Bloomquist in the 17th round. 

After spending the summer of 2016 in the Cape Cod League, Uelmen was penciled-in as Cal Poly’s ace Friday starter in 2017. Cal Poly had the dominant pitching at the top of their staff to do damage this past season, but the Mustangs played poorly during the beginning of the season. After winning the season opener at Cal, Uelmen didn’t win another game for nearly two months. 

About the time conference play rolled around, the team started to come around and Uelmen and the pitching staff finally got some help. Cal Poly finished in second place during the Big West regular season (16-8), but still finished the season at 28-28 overall — not enough to make a NCAA regional. 

Uelmen finished the season at 4-8 with 100 strikeouts in 15 starts over 98 1/3 innings. If he signs, he’ll join Bloomquist in the Cubs organization. About a decade ago, former Cal Poly closer Rocky Roquet spent time in the Chicago minor league system as well. 

Uelmen’s selection marks the fourth time in Cal Poly history that the Mustangs have had two players selected in the top four rounds. All four times it’s been under head coach Larry Lee. 

The Dodgers added Darwin Barney in a trade this week. By By Johnmaxmena2 (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

In the midst of an enigmatic season and swirling trade rumors, the Dodgers finally made a trade yesterday, acquiring Darwin Barney from the Cubs for a player to be named later.

It’s a move that seems a little awkward at first glance. The Dodgers had second-base issues at the beginning of the season when Alex Guerrero wasn’t ready to play in the majors and Dee Gordon wasn’t an All-Star. Over halfway into the season, Gordon has been a 10 triple, 46 stolen base, All-Star revelation.

Aside from first base, the Dodgers have had some uncertainty at all the infield positions at some point this season. The starting infield of Adrian Gonzalez, Dee Gordon, Hanley Ramirez, and Juan Uribe haven’t been as intact as you’d like them to be. Carlos Triunfel and Miguel Rojas have played 51 games between the two of them. Justin Turner, the opening-day second baseman, has played better than I thought he would in 66 games, but he’s not exactly a key part of a world series contender.

So what is the takeaway from this deal? Perhaps it was a move that somehow primes the Dodgers to start making moves that really count — like trading away an outfielder to make room for Joc Pederson in center or trading for another starting pitcher. Jon Lester has been in the rumor mill if they aren’t willing to part ways with the young talent it would take to get David Price.

I say that there is no takeaway though. Barney is a player who’s barely above replacement level. He gives the team enough depth that perhaps they don’t have to dip into the Turner/Triunfel/Rojas well again at second base. Beyond that, I don’t really have any expectations for this move. After this post, I will promptly go back to occupying my mind with other things.

Fellow Fansmanship founder, Luke Johnson, and I play a game sometimes: come up with the most random name of a player from the past. We text each other at times just as random as the player with just that player’s name — doesn’t matter the sport. Usually guys with unusual names are ones that come up first. Guys like Olden Polynice, Pat Listach, and Jeff Blauser are a few of the names that sometimes can be used. Kal Daniels, Gary Disarcina, Jay Buhner, Mickey Tettleton, Sid Fernandez… well, you get the idea.

I only mention it becuase, in about 10 years, Darwin Barney will be a name I’ll throw out there. For the win.

Much has been made of pitching in baseball over the past few seasons. The game has seen a shift from more dominant power-hitters to more shutdown pitchers since the “steroid era” “ended.”

While there are still many bona fide power hitters in the majors (Miguel Cabrera, Jose Bautista, Matt Kemp, Ryan Braun, Robinson Cano, etc.), building a strong pitching rotation has become more of a prominent priority for successful teams. Just last season (2011), baseball had a pitcher, Justin Verlander, win both the MVP award and the CY Young award in the American League. Pitching has always been important to America’s pastime but now it’s more crucial than ever.

Here is my fifth installment and this time I’m taking my talents to the National League, breaking down each team’s potential starting rotation for the 2013 season with the average Earned Run Average (we know averaging an average isn’t scientifically sound, but we’re doing it anyway…): This time, the spotlight is on the NL Central…

Cincinnati Reds:

1. Johnny Cueto (19-9, 2.78 ERA, 170 Strikeouts)
2. Mat Latos (14-4, 3.48 ERA, 185 Strikeouts)
3. Bronson Arroyo (12-10, 3.74 ERA, 129 Strikeouts)
4. Homer Bailey (13-10, 3.68 ERA, 168 Strikeouts)
5. Mike Leake (8-9, 4.58 ERA, 116 Strikeouts)

Average Combined 2012 ERA: 3.65

St. Louis Cardinals:

1. Adam Wainwright (14-13, 3.94 ERA, 184 Strikeouts)
2. Chris Carpenter (0-2, 3.71 ERA, 12 Strikeouts)
3. Jake Westbrook (13-11 3.97 ERA, 106 Strikeouts)
4. Lance Lynn (18-7, 3.78 ERA, 180 Strikeouts)
5. Jamie Garcia (7-7, 3.92 ERA, 98 Strikeouts)

Average Combined 2012 ERA: 3.86

Milwaukee Brewers:

1. Yovani Gallardo (16-9, 3.66 ERA, 204 Strikeouts)
2. Marco Estrada (5-7, 3.64 ERA, 143 Strikeouts)
3. Mike Fiers (9-10, 3.74 ERA, 135 Strikeouts)
4. Mark Rodgers (3-1, 3.92 ERA, 41 Strikeouts)
5. Wily Peralta (2-1, 2.48 ERA, 23 Strikeouts)

Average Combined ERA: 3.49

Pittsburgh Pirates:

1. A.J. Burnett (16-10, 3.51 ERA, 180 Strikeouts)
2. Wandy Rodriguez (12-13, 3.76 ERA, 139 Strikeouts)
3. James McDonald (12-8, 4.21 ERA, 151 Strikeouts)
4. Francisco Liriano (6-12, 5.34 ERA, 167 Strikeouts)
5. Kyle McPherson (0-2, 2.73 ERA, 21 Strikeouts)

Average Combined ERA: 3.91

Chicago Cubs:

1.  Matt Garza (5-7, 3.91 ERA, 96 Strikeouts)
2.  Jeff Samardzija (9-13, 3.81 ERA, 180 Strikeouts)
3.  Edwin Jackson (10-11, 4.03 ERA, 168 Strikeouts)
4.  Travis Wood (6-13, 4.27 ERA, 119 Strikeouts)
5.  Scott Baker, 2011 season (8-6, 3.14 ERA, 123 Strikeouts)

Average Combined ERA: 3.83

Aroldis Chapman is a freak. He’s just one reason the Reds will take the division in 2013. By SD Dirk on Flickr (Originally posted to Flickr as “Aroldis Chapman”) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Last season the Pirates showed the baseball world glimpses of what they are capable of before faltering late in the season, but this year they will be back again and ready to contend. They really have nowhere else to go but up, especially in this division. I expect Francisco Liriano to be better than he has been and help the Bucs already-decent rotation out. There is no doubt that this is a good division, with two of the four National League playoff teams coming from here, and I expect it to be more competitive than ever this coming season. The Pirates rotation will be better, but I don’t think they will win this division in 2013 (though I’d love to be proven wrong).

2013 will be a three-team race between the Reds, Cardinals and Pirates. I think that the Brewers’ sub-par pitching staff will hurt them throughout the season so they fall out of my contending teams in this division. But ultimately I think that the Reds will win this division and also the NL’s best record next year. Last year, Cincinnati overcame major injuries throughout the season and still managed to win 97 games. Without a playoff collapse against the eventual champions, the Reds were one game from winning a playoff series. I believe next year will be different and the Reds get their first playoff series win since 1995.