Kyle Lobstein and the Detroit Tigers have noticed a shoulder problem in the left-hander during his recent starts. To address the problem, the Tigers placed him on the 15-day disabled list and recalled shortstop Dixon Machado from the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. 

"It's something that's bothered him on and off," general manager Dave Dombrowski said to Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press. "You've seen that he hasn't felt quite up to par; (he's) been able to pitch through it. But I can't tell you exactly when it's been hurting him or not."

Dombrowski said that right-hander Buck Farmer will start on Thursday, but the move to bring him up to the Majors will take place on Wednesday. Farmer is 5-1 with a 2.98 ERA in Triple-A Toledo. 

"Well, Buck's throwing the ball real well at Triple-A for us," Dombrowski said. "I think he's 5-1 at this time. His stuff has been good, his fastball. Really, he continues to develop.

"Probably from an ideal perspective, you continue to let him develop. But his fastball's a mid-90s fastball with an above average change-up and a developing slider. He's been here before, he's got some experience. We look for him to come out here and pitch well for us."

According to manager Brad Ausmus, the shoulder injury has been an issue for Lobstein since the winter. 

"I kind of, in the back of my mind, I thought something might be wrong," Ausmus said. "His velocity's been down almost all year. (Pitching coach Jeff Jones) and I talked to him this morning. He said that his shoulder bothered him a little during the winter when he started throwing, that it went away in spring training for a few week and that it came back. I don't know if it was toward the end of spring training or the beginning of the season. But he admitted that it hasn't been right.

"When you watch him, I feel like something's wrong. But he keeps going out there and doing OK, giving us a chance to win. But finally we just decided we need to (make a move)."

The reason for Machado's call-up was because the Tigers decided to sit Jose Iglesias, who has swelling in his left knee. Iglesias should only miss a day or two, but an X-ray and MRI will be needed to be safe going forward with the young shortstop. 

"With Iglesias being down a day or two, we figured what would probably benefit us the most is just having an extra infielder available those days," Dombrowski said. "He's done very well for us. He's deserved of a promotion at this time. He's played well at Triple-A. And even if you talk about an outfielder, we don't really need an outfielder. So it really came down to what fits best for us at this time."

Machado has a .275 batting average with 16 RBI, five stolen bases and one home run during 40 games with the Mud Hens. 

"He's a good player," Ausmus said. "He's a very good shortstop. He's been hitting the heck out of the ball.

"He's a guy who was really thought of highly as a defensive player and questions marks in the bat. But over the last season and this season, he's shown that he can really hit. In spring training he really hit. He's a great kid. He works hard. It'll be good to have him up here for whatever amount of time he's here."

Lobstein is 3-5 with a 4.34 ERA during eight starts with the Tigers this season. The starter has had great outings, then poor outings, so it is very tough to see how the injury is impacting him in the game. 

"There had been complaints over previous weeks that there was a little bit of shoulder soreness, but no pain," Ausmus said. "Even yesterday he said he didn't have any pain during the course of the game. But he was sore after and he said really during his bullpen this week he felt fine as well. It's just a kind of lingering issue that doesn't want to go away, so we feel like rest might be the best thing."

Lobstein will get an MRI to make sure there is no more inflammation than expected.