Does the Nate Eovaldi era start tomorrow?

Peek-a-boo, bitches.

Tonight, the Dodgers open a three game series in Arizona, wrapping up a quick six-game road trip before preparing to take on the Phillies at home starting Monday.  Chad Billingsley is on the mound tonight opposite Josh Collmenter, and Sunday Clayton Kershaw (swoon) takes on Ian Kennedy.  But as of right now, the Dodgers site currently shows this as the matchup for Saturday:

TBA, huh?  Heard his curve is filthy.

What does this mean?  Well, the Dodgers.com writers seem to think that it means we're calling up Nate Eovaldi tonight.  So does Anthony Jackson, who originally tweeted about this on August 2nd.  Mike Petriello of Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness went so far as to put up a great piece looking at Eovaldi in-depth.  As he shows, Eovaldi wasn't highly regarded prior to this season- he profiled as a middle reliever and didn't crack the Dodgers' top 20 preseason prospects, which is probably why Ned hasn't traded him yet.  This season, however, Eovaldi has put together a great year in AA, and now looks to be a legit mid-rotation candidate on a big league squad.  

Is it a bad idea to call him up now?  Possibly.  While his season in AA has been very good, he doesn't exactly have a proven track record in the minors, and he's still only 21 years old.  Rushing him onto the big league roster before he's ready could set his development back significantly (see: Jackson, Edwin), and if we're just looking to fill a few starts, Dana Eveland and John Ely are both fully capable of giving us replacement player level starts through the end of the year.

Honestly, though, we're excited for the chance of an Eovaldi call-up.  If it turns out things do go horribly awry, we can still plug holes with that Elyveland two headed monster, and there's little doubt Eovaldi has more upside than either of those two.  And to be harshly blunt, we didn't expect anything from Nate Eovaldi.  He was an 11th round draft pick that cost a 250,000 signing bonus to get.  Nothing to sneeze at, to be sure, but he also isn't one of the highly protected big money draft picks we have still getting comfortable in the minors.  This isn't like rushing Zach Lee to LA.  If he succeeds, it's a bonus.  

Plus, we might as well find out what we have right now- his success or failure will affect how the Dodgers proceed in free agency this offseason.  A few average to above-average starts from him down the stretch may save us from the one year, 8 million dollar Justin Duscherer contract you know Ned has tucked away in his top drawer.