To anyone who thought that we would slump into our 71st win, guess not. Without Carl, Bartlett, or Longo, we put a beatdown on the stink trench that is the Mariners pen. Willy Aybar hit 2 HRs and showed why he can be an effective 23th man as a CI. Edwin Jackson only let up 1 ER despite having a 1:1 K:BB ratio, helped by forcing a good amount of groundballs.
If Rocco Baldelli can put together a .270/.350/.450 line while playing 80% of vintage Rocco defense a few games a week, he's going to be a very good piece for us down the stretch. Only playing 5 Innings today, we'll see how many innings on the field he'll play the rest of the week. But the loss of Crawford is much less of a gutpunch with the additional of The Former Castaway(Patented Nickname).
Some more random musings:
- Shawn Riggans has to be a top 7 Backup Catcher.
- Jason Hammel is on the clock.
- Hinske in LF was much less painful than I'd thought it would be.
- Gross = Designated Rocco Replacement?
- Jeff Clement = Terrible Defensive Catcher or Terrible Defensive Catcher?
- Instant Replay in the playoffs please.