Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Other Changes
What of the Diamondbacks' moves from the past week?
The first, recalling Doug DeVore from Tucson in the wake of the Richie Sexson injury, surprised me. I happened to be looking at the Sidewinders' roster a couple days before the move and, seeing DeVore's stats (offensively, not terribly impressive) and age (27), thinking, "there's a guy on his way out of baseball." And two days later, he's in the big leagues. The good news is that he's an outfielder, and I'm glad we have backup for the outfield, but I don't know why he would have been called up when Terrero has been hitting lights out. Perhaps DeVore is trade bait, though if that were the case, he'd have been in a couple games by now.
The second, making Valverde the closer, surprised no one (even though a sports columnist, Bob McNamman from the Republic, used, yes, the phrase "guts" to describe Brenly's decision. See below for my thoughts on that decision.) Clearly something is wrong with Mantei at the moment, and unfortunately for him, the closer's role is not one that permits people to work out their problems on the job. Let's hope it's a while before a game gets Mantei-d up again by the opposing team in the ninth inning.
The third, designating Bobby Estallela for assignment while bringing up Scott Hairston is not so puzzling. We don't need 3 catchers, and with Donnie Sadler slightly injured, another backup infielder isn't so silly. But that still leaves Luis Terrero stranded in Tucson. There's also another infielder, Andy Green, whose BB/9 ratio is nearly 1:1 -- that's pretty good for a minor leaguer. I know nothing about him, but would like to know more...
The first, recalling Doug DeVore from Tucson in the wake of the Richie Sexson injury, surprised me. I happened to be looking at the Sidewinders' roster a couple days before the move and, seeing DeVore's stats (offensively, not terribly impressive) and age (27), thinking, "there's a guy on his way out of baseball." And two days later, he's in the big leagues. The good news is that he's an outfielder, and I'm glad we have backup for the outfield, but I don't know why he would have been called up when Terrero has been hitting lights out. Perhaps DeVore is trade bait, though if that were the case, he'd have been in a couple games by now.
The second, making Valverde the closer, surprised no one (even though a sports columnist, Bob McNamman from the Republic, used, yes, the phrase "guts" to describe Brenly's decision. See below for my thoughts on that decision.) Clearly something is wrong with Mantei at the moment, and unfortunately for him, the closer's role is not one that permits people to work out their problems on the job. Let's hope it's a while before a game gets Mantei-d up again by the opposing team in the ninth inning.
The third, designating Bobby Estallela for assignment while bringing up Scott Hairston is not so puzzling. We don't need 3 catchers, and with Donnie Sadler slightly injured, another backup infielder isn't so silly. But that still leaves Luis Terrero stranded in Tucson. There's also another infielder, Andy Green, whose BB/9 ratio is nearly 1:1 -- that's pretty good for a minor leaguer. I know nothing about him, but would like to know more...
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