Hard Eight
In the end, one measure of whether a player cut by your team is worth anything is in how quickly he's picked up by another club. So that the Cardinals would rather stick with the likes of Kip Wells or choose to go to Todd Wellemeyer (claimed earlier from the Royals) from their pen as a starter when they send down Anthony Reyes, should tell the Braves once and for all that signing Mark Redman to replace Mike Hampton probably wasn't such a great idea. Similarly, the Rockies should know that their decision to use John Mabry over Ryan Spilborghs out of Spring Training isn't an opinion shared around the rest of the league.
This could be a trap game for the team if we're not wary. I'm not liking the thought of Clint Hurdle giving the start at second base to Jamey Carroll based on three at bats. There's no reason we shouldn't beat Wellemeyer. He's been a pretty terrible pitcher for all but one of his five major league seasons. The 74 pitch outing that the linked preview just mentioned was this May 10 gem against Oakland in which the A's pounded out seventeen runs on the Royals, including five off of Wellemeyer. He's been absolutely brutalized by left handed batters this season, and the Rockies have enough hot left handed bats to make this a problem. Of course, pull one out of the lineup by playing Carroll over Kaz.., and you start to get where my worries are coming from.
This is a game which we should win, I'm not ready to let go of the streak, yet.
Go Rockies!