From April 9th through April 29th, Brian Stokes made 10 appearances in which he did not allow a run and only walked two batters.

His last six appearances came within an eight day period and of his ten outings, so far this year, four of them have gone past one inning of work.

In addition to posting a 0.00 ERA in 11 total innings, he has allowed just nine hits while striking out six.

Despite those terrific numbers, along with having what the staff called a rubber arm, Stokes has been buried in the pen since April 29th.

There have been several outings, in close games that went to struggling Sean Green ( ERA 8.31), that seemed to be perfect situations for Stokes.

Stokes now almost seems set up for failure, for a guy who was once a starter and became accustom to daily work, when he does finally get a chance, he's almost certain to be rusty.

Which immediately leads to my next thought, is there something wrong ?

Could Stokes have a minor injury that he's trying to work through during bullpen sessions and it's staff is hoping that it doesn't warrant a trip to the DL.......