The amazing story of Chin-hui Tsao

He's the mysterious and faceless out-maker. He really is.

The guy gets the nod from Grady Little more and more often lately, got a cover page story on the Dodgers MLB page with nothing but praise and what's most important to LA fans world-wide, he produces outs every single time he's out there.

And by mentioning producing outs I definitely do not mean Juan Pierre type of outs at the basepaths (OK, that was mean... ;)).

He's Chin-hui Tsao, a 26-year old, Taiwanese right-handed Dodger reliever who has so far found second life after his career-threatening arm problems which cut his stay short with the Colorado Rockies the last three years. 2007 has been like a dream for Tsao. The dream he's willing to maintain for as long as possible.

Since the day he was called up (as he did not make the opening day roster), he's been arguably the best Dodger reliever so far. Not a small task given the fact that LAD might as well lead the majors in most reliever categories. Wow.

For a close-up look at his stats, here's his game-by-game log so far:

DATE		GAME		W		L		ERA		G		GS		CG		SHO		SV		SVO		IP		H		R		ER		HR		BB		SO		NP-S		GO-AO
APR 18		@COL		0		0		0.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		1.1		0		0		0		0		1		2		26-16		2-0
APR 19		@COL		0		0		0.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		0.1		0		0		0		0		1		1		11-6		0-0
APR 21		PIT		0		0		0.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		1.0		1		0		0		0		0		0		12-7		3-0
APR 24		SF		0		0		0.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		1.1		0		0		0		0		0		0		14-11		2-2
APR 26		SF		0		0		0.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		1.0		0		0		0		0		0		1		10-7		1-1
APR 28		@SD		0		0		0.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		1.2		0		0		0		0		0		1		6-6		2-2
APR 29		@SD		0		0		0.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		2.0		0		0		0		0		0		1		15-11		1-4

Untouchable, right? And he looks that way on the mound, too. Sometimes the stats do not tell the full story. It's one of these times.

Here's what his every-day catcher has to say about the quality that Tsao brings with him to the mound:

"He's making nasty pitches," said [catcher] Russell Martin. "He's throwing strikes and going after guys and not shying away. When he needs a ground ball, he keeps his pitches down. When he needs a strikeout, he can reach back. He's got a good slider, a splitter or change-up, plus he can throw really hard."

Pretty amazing when you come to think of it. Let the dream continue into May. All we can ask for with an arm as fragile as his.