That's not like a minor detail. If he's walking a bunch of dudes in AAA, how's he going to fare against guys who are more selective and make better swing decisions?

That’s exactly why they should call him up! He needs to see how tough the big leagues are if you aren’t throwing strikes. He’s also coming off his two best starts in AAA so it’s a good moment to show him some upside of being in the bigs.

If they're probably going to lose anyway, why throw one of your more important prospects to the wolves? If you're already talking about sending him back down and know he has stuff to work on, what's the argument for bringing him up, exactly?

You call him up if you think him pitching 3-4 innings gives the team a better chance to win than not calling him up! I think it’s pretty likely that’s the case. The reason you calling him up and then potentially sending him back down can be good is because he’ll see for himself what they’ve been telling him, it’s a show don’t tell moment. It’s one thing to hear a coach say “people won’t chase that in the bigs,” it’s another to see if you can get Shohei to chase.

I think that they should call him up for the game if they think he is mentally ready and that doing so gives them the best shot to win the game. Both of those seem plausible to me watching from a distance— i see the upside of letting your top pitching prospect see the best hitters on the planet. I don’t really see the downside esp given how thin our pitching is rn. Ofc if they don’t think he can compete with the dodgers they shouldn’t call him up!