Kris Medlen

The Kansas City Royals' struggling rotation has been hit with a new problem, as right-hander Kris Medlen has been placed on the disabled list with a shoulder problem.

Continue for updates. 

Medlen to 15-Day DL

Thursday, May 12

Per Jon Morosi of Fox Sports, Medlen's official diagnosis is rotator cuff inflammation in his right shoulder. 

The Pittsburgh Pirates currently are not a complete team.  

The team lacks starting pitching, as two of its top starters from last year (Francisco Liriano and Edinson Volquez) are both currently on the free-agent market seeking deals.

The Atlanta Braves (16-9) have all but wrapped up the first month of the 2013 season.

Highs include a 10-game winning streak and a sweep of the National League East preseason favorite, Washington Nationals. The low point came over the weekend as the Detroit Tigers swept the Braves.The tough series with the Tigers knocked a few players' grades down a letter.

Prior to blowing out his elbow in 2010, Kris Medlen was 5-0 as a starter. Since his return to the starting rotation this year, Medlen is 6-0 in seven starts. An 11-0 record over the last two seasons as a starter is pretty impressive. But, just how impressive is Kris Medlen?

Mark Bowman of MLB.com has confirmed what the Atlanta Braves faithful have been hoping for recently when he reported Kris Medlen has been optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett to prepare for starting duties.

He will likely need two or three starts in order to get stretched out for the rotation.

Rumors rumors everywhere.  Where will Cliff Lee land?  The Yankees, duh.

It seems every off season that pitching is the biggest issue for those teams looking to make a big splash in free agency.

Over the season, I've had to hear the media lament over key injuries. Surprisingly, when the unlucky injury-bugged teams are mentioned, the Atlanta Braves are normally overlooked.

For most baseball fans, they would look at you as if you were crazy if you mentioned that Braves have battled through several key injuries.  The Braves are believed to be lucky when it comes to the injury bug, with the exception of Chipper Jones.

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While the Braves have yet to decide who will be removed from the rotation to make room for Jair Jurrjens, Kris Medlen shouldn’t be on the chopping block given the way he’s produced.  All you have to do is look at his numbers over his first 22 appearances (nine starts) for proof:

5 Wins
74.1 Innings
3.15 ERA
1.13 WHIP
54 Strikeouts (6.5 K/9)
13 Walks (1.6 BB/9)
.288 BABIP

As a starting pitcher, he’s gone 4-0 with a 3.40 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, and a 6.0 K/9.  The real question is, can he maintain this success?