Coffey Optioned and other thoughts

It's about time. Todd Coffey was optioned to Louisville today. He has been awful this year. Bill Bray gets the call up. Apparently Bray has been on fire for Louisville so far this season. Hopefully he can continue that with the big club.

Carrying three catchers is about the dumbest thing a franchise can do. We have Paul Bako, David Ross and Javier Valentin right now. One of them needs to go. Bako has been surprisingly complete this year. I don't think anyone doubted his ability to call a game and play well defensively. His offense has been a welcome surprise. He shouldn't go anywhere except out behind the plate four out of every five days. Ross is coming off of injury. He's not a liability behind the plate or next to it. But he's not a great asset either. He's acceptable defensively. He hits for a low average, but with occasional power. I'll take it. The best you can say about Valentin is that he's a great pinch-hitter. Every time he is behind the plate, the pitchers look lost, confused and unconfident, especially when it comes to the bullpen. This is particularly bad considering he typically comes in as a pinch-hitter late in the game and mostly deals with pitchers out of the pen. Hopefully management will do the right thing and trade or demote him soon. There is no good reason to carry three catchers.

Good Morning Brandon Phillips. I would like to extend a personal thank you to the San Francisco Giants for waking up Mr. Phillips. He went 6-12 with 3 HR against SF.

Edwin Encarnacion is still on pace for about 50 errors. Sure, he leads the team in HR. Sure, one of those even was hit to me (7th inning, solo shot, last Monday against the Dodgers; first home run ball I have ever gotten). I don't care. There is nothing you can do with your bat that will make up for 50 errors. Please, do something. He makes some phenomenal plays. He makes gold glove caliber plays. And then he boots things that an A-Ball player would make with ease. It is painful to watch.

Base running is important. Maybe Corey Patterson and Jerry Hairston, Jr. didn't get the memo. Last week they got picked off of first in consecutive innings. It was embarrassing. If you're going to run, then run. If you're not going to run, don't dance around like you're going to. Good catchers will take advantage of that and so will good pitchers. It was nice to see Patterson get 2 steals against the Giants. maybe he will start running more? But how much can you really run when you have an OBP that is sub-.300?

Drop Adam Dunn already. I don't understand. Joey Votto is hitting well. Flipping them in the batting order would be great. Votto could provide more protection for Ken Griffey, Jr. or Phillips. Dunn shouldn't be hitting above 7th with his .200 AVG. An even better idea is to bat Dunn in front of the pitcher. Despite his paltry average, he is still getting on base at a great rate. He just isn't hitting. He especially isn't hitting with runners in scoring position, but, then again, who expected him to suddenly learn how to do that? Putting him in the 8 hole would mean that about 35-40% of the time there would be a runner on first for the pitcher to bunt over. It also means that fewer opening innings would end with him striking out with runners on.

Aaron Harang, Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto have been lights out. Any other starter just makes you wish the lights were out so that you wouldn't have to see the slop they're lobbing up there. It's time to do something about Bronson Arroyo. He isn't getting the job done. He's the poor man's Barry Zito at this point. It's time to move him to the pen or move him to someone else's rotation or move him to Louisville. Homer Bailey deserves his chance.

Speaking of deserving his chance, can we please see Jay Bruce in centerfield some time soon? I cannot stand to watch Patterson any more. Let's find out what Bruce can do. He cannot do any worse than Patterson. If he is anywhere near as good as everyone seems to think, he's bound to have an OBP over .300. Patterson is an average at best defensive player, it shouldn't be too much to ask for Bruce to be able to match that.

It's time for change. We're 11-15, things aren't working. Something has to change.