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I believe the problem with Saito last night was that he had not pitched in awhile since we have not been winning. It happens...sometimes when things are going bad, everything goes bad. Just like when things are going good. Yes our hitting with RISP is painful right now....but remember AZ youth movement last year as well. At first the young guys couldn't hit worth a damn and were totally inconsistent. Now they are hitting much better. I have long advocated we bring Laroche up to man 3B and move Dewitt to 2B. I never have believed Hu is truly a major league prospect and we should have used the hype surrounding him as such to trade him off for another piece of the puzzle. He reminds me of Izturius....a light hitting, defensive wizard. The biggest thing I think needs to happen is a change in our hitting coach. The fact is this is becoming more glaringly visible with each game I watch. Adjustments are not being made and young hitters need that guidance before it clicks for them. One thing I noticed about Loney is when he hits a home run he starts a mini slump. I believe it is because he goes away from what makes him special....that is being a line drive hitter. The quicker he realizes that he is a 20 HR guy and not a 35 HR guy...the better he will become. I think the lack of depth is hurting us as well and our guys are just getting tired. I firmly believe this was the reason for Kent's slump and I think it is even affecting DeWitt right now. Having Furcal out hurts our depth and we need him back badly.
On the plus side it looks like the pitching on our team had returned to form....outside of Saito's blip yesterday. It is good to see Lowe, Bills, and Kuroda put in a couple back to back solid outings. Throw in the fact that Kershaw did very well in his debut.
So for the last time I say we drop Sweeney and Hu off the current roster. Get Laroche up and either Repko or someone else like Giles. That will give us a bench of DY, Laroche, Giles, Maza, Ardoin, and Tiffee. This is far better than our current bench...where we only have one guy who can actually do anything as a pinch hitter in Delwyn.
I rather our young guys take thier lumps now and hit stride come mid-season....hopefully we are within striking range by that time.
Go Blue.
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