No doubt. Paulino cannot pitch coming out of the bullpen at all. Back to rotation he goes as I'm sure we'll release Ortiz soon. I'd be OK (for now) with a rotation of Roy, Wandy, Hampton, Moehler, and Paulino. If anyone in this group slips we've got Backe about to come back and Bud Norris has been pitching lights out in RR. Yeah, I'd prefer not to have to throw Norris in the fire so quickly, but with all the injuries and ineffectiveness, we may not have a choice. In the pen, it starts with the only three who have pitched as well or better than expected this year: Sampson, Byrdak and Hawkins. After that Geary stays but only because we're hoping he can bounce back and find some semblance of last year. If he keeps it up, we may just have to cut our losses and release him. And to round the pen should be few new guys from RR: Araias (already with the team and looking OK), Chad Paronto (dominating RR with 7 Saves and 1 ERA and had a phenomenal spring) and either Jeremy Johnson or Brendan Donnelly. Johnson has been pretty effective (3.05 ERA while pitching middle relief and only 4 BB(!) in 20 IP) while Donnelly is trying to come back from Tommy John surgery 2 years ago. Fulchino and Wright should be sent down because their utter ineffectiveness shows that they need to work on some mechanical issues. When Valverde and Brocail come back, we can see whose performing and who's not and make the necessary changes at that time.
We need to bench Berkman asap look at Chicago they benched lee. I'd rather have keppinger or michaels taking lances place right now.
Despite his horrid start, Berkman is our 4th OBP guy among regular starters. Same for slugging percentage. And he leads the team in homers and walks. This probably means the rest of the team really sucks, but we really can't bench him.
I'm not sure i'd bench him...but he's struck out more times than he's walked this season. I know he's gone in the toilet for extended periods before...but I don't think he's ever been THIS bad.
To be fair, he's done that the last three seasons as well. He was also this bad (or worse) in April and May of 2007. He did pick it up the rest of the way, but he looked bad back then. 6 HRs in two months, OPS in the low 0.700's, etc - though his batting average was much higher.
Yeah, I'm not sure it's ever been THIS bad, though. I know from a stat perspective, strikeouts aren't viewed as any worse than groundouts...but I think they're an indicator of the quality of swings and how he's seeing the ball. That's what concerns me most. 27 strikeouts is a whole lot.
