Pitching carousel starting to turn

The heart is a lonely Tommy Hunter

Well, it took 'til late May, but the Texas Rangers starting pitcher carousel is in full swing.

First Vicente Padilla, now Matty Harrison, who will miss his start Saturday due to a bum shoulder.

Thus, Brandon McCarthy (and his arm that tossed 349 pitches last Sunday) will be moved to Saturday, Scooter Feldman will take the butt end of the Friday double header and ... drumroll ... Tommy Hunter will make the trip from Oklahoma City to pitch the first game tomorrow.

Hunter is a personal favorite of mine. He's a big, beefy inning-eater mother effer. I like that.

It's his first taste of the bigs in 2009 after getting dropped in Spring Training due to a shakey groin and sent to Frisco to rehab. He promptly was bumped to Oklahoma City.

Last season, he had a less-than-memorable taste of the bigs (a mere year after facing SEC hitters as the Alabama closer) in three starts.