KFDM COOP Posted July 21, 2006 Report Posted July 21, 2006 And Matt Albers brought up from AA. CHICAGO -- All week, lefthander Wandy Rodriguez speculated that he'd be demoted by Saturday to make room for Brandon Backe to come off the disabled list. The demotion came two days earlier. He was optioned to Class AAA Round Rock this afternoon, and top pitching prospect Matt Albers will come up from Class AA Corpus Corpus Christi to take a spot in the bullpen. Even though he led the Astros in victories, Rodriguez's recent struggles and his demotion to the bullpen last week gave him an indication of his fate. Nonetheless, the news hit Rodriguez hard. "To me that's one of the hardest decisions we've made this year just because this kid has done a great job for us," general manager Tim Purpura said of Rodriguez. "That's one of the problems with young pitching, a guy coming off the DL and things like that. The players that have versatility are the ones that unfortunately have to bear the brunt of going back and forth at times. We told him that we still believe in him." Fighting back tears, Rodriguez vows to put in the hard work to return as soon as possible. "Truly, I don't know what to say right now," he said. Rodriguez will start Saturday against Class AAA Omaha. "I will try my best," he said. "Always when I take the mound I'm trying to do my best. And on Saturday when I pitch I'll just have to start proving that I belong back here. What can you do? You can't do anything." Rodriguez is 9-6 with a 5.22 ERA over 19 starts and two relief appearances. Out of the bullpen, he allowed two runs over one inning in two outings. On Sunday, he failed to retire the three batters he faced while giving up a run. The Astros are tremendously high on Albers, a hard-throwing righthander who was 10-2 with a 2.17 ERA at Corpus Christi while leading the Texas League in victories. "The thought process on the Albers is (that) as I talked to our scouts and our development people the last couple of weeks he's the one name that kept coming up as a guy who could come in and go in our bullpen," Purpura said. "He's a high-velocity guy. He's got two good breaking balls, and he can go work out of the 'pen. "I think his pitching makeup we think will allow him to go into the bullpen and help us out. His arm bounces back really, really good. He can go 110 pitches and feel hardly anything the next day. You look at those type of things."
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