Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

Yeah, the Gathright call was surreal. But at least Joey is playing, and we've been clamoring for that for some time. Last night was like a Gathright exhibition; he really showed what he brings to the team. And, in today's game, he just bunted for a single, promptly stole second, and scored on Teahen's single. I really like this guy. I especially like the way he dealt with his demotion to AAA. A lot of guys would've acted like prima donnas, but Gathright worked on his approach at the plate and genuinely improved his game. His OBP is impressive, and he's so much more disciplined at the plate than he used to be. If he continues to get on base at his current clip, he is going to be a very dangerous player.

I agree with your comments on last night's lineup. Conversely, Monday night's lineup infuriated me. I was sort of hoping that Elarton's departure from the rotation would mean more playing time for John Buck (I should've known better), but of course Buddy had LaRue catching the new guy, John Thomson. Buck then caught Meche last night (and hit a bomb, by the way) and LaRue is catching De La Rosa today. Buck typically catches JDLR, but since catchers never play in day games after night games, we're stuck with a 33 year old catcher who is hitting under .200 with an OBP of .247. Have I mentioned how much I hate this catching platoon? It is criminally insane to sit a catcher with 14 HR in 170 AB for two of the three games in a series.

In case you didn't get my e-mail, it was reported on espn.com that Joe Girardi would be interested in the Royals job because he really likes Dayton Moore. Dayton, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???