Alright, so this first one is found in the dailies: Ramon Ramirez is to replace the injured Mike Dejean on the team. It should be interesting to see him get some work against major league hitters, watch for control issues.
As far as the game last night, I'll start off with Miguel Ojeda, who got on base three out of four times in the eighth spot, which even though he himself didn't score, it meant more plate appearances for the top and heart of our lineup which is alwasy a good thing. If he gives almost as much defense as Ardoin, and can contribute like this at the plate, I think we should use him more regularly until Torrealba returns.
Another solid hold for the pen, which with all the talk of quality starts I've seen, I think is getting overlooked a little. If you remember last year our problem in April wasn't getting leads or scoring runs, it was holding onto them. Well that and we had Jamey Wright and Joe Kennedy pitching. But anyway, Ray King and Jose Mesa have been huge additions thus far, and while Tom Verducci sees our pen as old and fragile (seemingly overlooking Fuentes, Dohmann, and David Cortes as well as our spot starters) I'm liking the balance and different looks they bring to the mound, keeping opponents' on their toes.
Ray King has been a big addition so far.