Friday, August 24, 2007

Thinking Is Strictly Optional

The consensus is that Fabio Castro was fortunate to escape from his first major league start, allowing the Dodgers one run in five innings on two hits, four strikeouts and six bases on balls. After the game the Phillies' alleged brain trust confirmed the popular view by sending Castro back to AAA Ottawa.

Well, the popular view is wrong. Dead wrong. The kid was wild, as is his wont, but he gave the Phils five innings and limited the Dodgers to a lone run. That's a damn sight better than most of the so-called veteran starters have achieved for this club. The worst part of it all is that the inept front office who run this team decided the best way to boost Castro's confidence was to give him a return ticket to Canada before the visa stamp on his passport was even dry. The Phillies are infallibly wrong when it comes to dealing with players' egos and confidence. Look what they did to Chris Coste this year. Coste, by the way, is largely here because of injuries and only playing as often as he does because Rod Barajas is on the DL. Had things been otherwise the brass would have buried Coste deep in Ottawa for the entire year.

So Castro goes down and Brian Sanches, who has never shown he belongs in the big leagues, is called up in his stead. Castro must be wondering what he did wrong. Nothing, Fabio; you walked a lot of guys. So did Flash Gordon in his one inning of completely inept so-called relief. But you have options, Fabio, and Flash doesn't.

1 comment:

SirAlden said...

Agreed.

And Sanchez destroyed us the next day.

The Phillies were on black ice going off the cliff, they should have handed the ball to the Castro, Happ, and even Garcia.

Using washed-up arms never ever works. Ever.