Houlton up, Kuo down

Hong-Chih Kuo was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas a few minutes ago, and D.J. Houlton was recalled from Vegas. That clearly means Houlton will start on Wednesday night against the Braves. It will be his first major-league appearance since 2005 and his first major-league appearance since Paul DePodesta, the former Dodgers GM who selected Houlton in the 2004 Rule 5 draft from Houston. D.J. apparently, judging by his minor-league numbers, is a much better pitcher now than he was then. We'll find out soon enough. He has been on the 40-man roster since the day the Dodgers picked him up, essentially gathering dust, but that also made him the easy guy to call up when the club had exhaused all other options for the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation.