Ross Stripling to IL, Ryan Walker to paternity list; Schmitt, Hjelle up

The pre-game gaggle revealed a series of noteworthy news items from the San Francisco Giants clubhouse today:

• Ryan Walker placed on the paternity list — congratulations!
• Ross Stripling placed on 15-day IL — bummer!
• Casey Schmitt recalled — hey...
• Sean Hjelle up, too — ok sure...
• Brandon Crawford’s knee and now left forearm are now bothering him — ouch.

Stripling’s back seems to be an ongoing concern. In May he hit the 15 with a low back strain. Today’s move (retroactive to August 17th) is for a “mid-back strain.” Before his start against the Rays and in the 9 games after his May IL stint, Stripling had turned around his season and maybe a little bit of the public’s perception that his free agent deal was a total bust with 40 innings of 3.38 ERA ball (4.09 FIP). He still has chronic dingeritis, but if that 9-game run had been the majority of his season, I think most fans would have a different opinion of him.

That said, his loss still represents a hit to the team’s only strength: its pitching. Sean Hjelle is up to take his roster spot, and hopefully this is just a temporary solution. Slenderman hasn’t figured anything out in Triple-A (6.32 ERA), but he’ll be able to soak up a couple of innings at some point during this road trip when either Atlanta or Philadelphia opens up a vein on the Giants.

Meanwhile, Walker can be out for a maximum of three games so, I’m not sure how they’re going to balance this — if he’s really going to be available for the getaway game in Philadelphia or what, but a preemptive congratulations to the soon-to-be Dad; here’s hoping the delivery goes smoothly.

And Schmitt is up because of the Crawford news. As Andrew Baggarly tweeted:

The Giants optioned him on August 6th, and in 10 Triple-A games, he was 14-for-46 with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, and a triple along with a 3-9 BB-K. He and Hjelle struggled so much that it’s tough to see these as being meaningful depth guys to have on the roster, but they’re definitely warm bodies and that might just be enough.

All that said, with just about six weeks to go in the season it might be time to start drafting those goodbye posts to Brandon Crawford.

You know what? I can’t end this on a bummer note: