Jan 25, 2009

Hallelujah!

Neither the cold 18-degree air during my morning walk nor my nice hot cup of coffee jolted me awake today as much as the exaltation I felt when I read the stories about Ruben Amaro Jr.'s weekend press conference.

One of the few questions for the defending champions is who will fill the No. 5 slot in the rotation. There's been no movement toward a particular candidate, but the new GM made it clear who won't get the job. (Hint: His name rhymes with beaten).

"It's a four-man competition, and he's not involved in that," Ruben Amaro Jr. said a few minutes ago at Citizens Bank Park. "Is it possible that Eaton pitches well enough to put himself in the mix? You never know what's going to happen. Right now, we just think those other four guys [Chan Ho Park, J.A. Happ, Kyle Kendrick and Carlos Carrasco] give us a better opportunity to win."

Yes! Yes! Yes! It's nice to hear an honest negative assessment from a club about one of its biggest mistakes ever. Fortunately, like the Eric Gagne-Red Sox debacle, Adam Eaton didn't prevent the team from winning a championship.

More good news: Sports tell-alls are usually sugar-coated or slanted toward the writer's personal bias. I might give Joe Torre's the benefit of the doubt, if for nothing else than to see his account of why the Yankees underachieved during the later part of his tenure. A-Fraud, indeed.

Oops: Last week, I made a steroid reference to Julio Lugo gaining 20-pounds of muscle. This week, Nick Cafardo corrected himself:

I meant Julio Lugo had gained 10 pounds of muscle, not the 20 I incorrectly typed last week.

No comments: