“Ryan Howard was seen by Dr. Marc Harwood today.  After reviewing previous tests and evaluating him, Dr. Harwood has diagnosed him with acute sinusitis. His fever is gone and he will rest at home today.  If he feels better, Ryan will travel tomorrow to Tampa Bay to rejoin the team.  We are hopeful he will be able to play tomorrow as well.”

It is very difficult to watch this.  The offense isn’t even kicking up any dust.  The game just flew by while we did a whole lot of nothing.

I’ve had enough of this whole Rollins thing, too.  Too much is being made of it, IMO.  Forget that he’s a leadoff hitter.  He cannot do anything else that a leadoff hitter does because he is not getting on base.  Forget about where he is comfortable.  How much worse could he possibly be if he were in an uncomfortable position?  Forget about wanting to show confidence in him.  He is not a rookie with a fragile psyche.  He is a veteran who should understand what’s what.  At this point in his career he should have the mental strength to deal with this whether he starts hitting or not.  Also, as a self-proclaimed team leader, he should do what is best for the team.  Forget who it is we are talking about.  I know it does matter, but, at this point, it shouldn’t.  Actually, we probably should remember who we are talking about.  We are talking about the totally unproductive 2009 Jimmy Rollins (who happens to be coming off a subpar 2008, btw)  not the 2007 MVP Jimmy Rollins.  Forget all of it.

Charlie needs to keep it simple. 1) Our offense is struggling to score runs, which leads directly to 2) We are losing a lot of games as a result, which means that 3) We cannot afford to give away 4 or 5 unproductive at-bats every game by keeping Rollins in the leadoff spot.  By batting him lower we will eliminate at least one of them each game.

If he comes out of it (for real, not just for a quick 2-game stint) and looks like he is primed for another very good second half, then fine, by all means move Rollins back to the leadoff spot.  If not, he stays at the bottom.  We have been hampered by him for almost half a season now and I’d rather not see it continue for the entire year.  The move is completely justified.  Rollins doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

I don’t mean to lay all the blame for our offensive struggles and our losing on Rollins.  There certainly are other problems.  It’s just that Rollins’ situation is the most glaring, consistent, longest running problem we have had all year.  As such, it’s something that has to be addressed.  Keep it simple, Charlie.

Obviously, Paige received a lot of attention in all of them.  It is difficult to get your mind around how many documented innings he threw and over how many years he threw them.  Chances are that, with all of his traveling, the many leagues he played in, all the exhibition games he pitched in, the fact that he would throw anywhere, anytime, one day after another, including multiple times per day, and the likelihood that a lot of that was not documented, he threw many, many more innings that we will ever know. 

Here comes another “pea at the knee”.  Astonishing and beautiful career and accomplishments, along with many of his contemporaries.

In 2003, we played the O’s in Ballamer (sic Baltimore) at the end of June.  The series opened on a Friday.  We won it 4-2 in 17 innings after Jason Michaels hit a 3-run home run in the top of the inning.  Brandon Duckworth only lasted 1 inning and we had to use the entire bullpen, with several guys throwing multiple innings.  Hector Mercado gave up a run in the bottom of the 17th, but we held on.

In 2004, we played the O’s in Philly, this time in the beginning of July.  Again the series opened on a Friday.  This time we lost 7-6 in 16 innings.  Brett Myers only went 3 innings and we used up the entire bullpen, meaning that Brian Powell was forced to stay out there and he gave up the go ahead run in his 4th inning of work.

Are you picking up on my theme?  Here we are in 2009.  We are playing the O’s in Philly at the end of June.  The series starts on a Friday.  We have a very young starter going for us who may not give us many innings.  We have played several extra inning games lately.  I hope my intuition is wrong because our bullpen is fried as it is.  An extra inning game tonight could really hurt us for the rest of the series.

I will be at Sunday’s game.  I’d really love to see Hamels step up and give us at least 7 innings of shut down pitching.  At this point we need all of our starters to step up, but, since Hamels is clearly the best we’ve got and the most capable of getting it done,  it is imperative that he leads the way, IMO.