A FEW MO' THINGS, 5/16/12
-For just the seventh time since interleague play began, a team will play back-to-back series against teams from the same market, starting tonight with the Reds/Mets tilt in Queens, and followed up by this weekend's series at Yankee Stadium.
That calls for a road trip.
I'm leaving for New York this morning, and taking in the games tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday. In between, I will be cramming oversized slices of pizza in my face.
And I may blog.
We'll see.
Some short and sweet thoughts before I head to the Big Apple....
-Johnny Cueto didn't have it last night. Tim Hudson did. So did Chris Heisey. Three more hits last night, six in the last two games, plus major contributions to Sunday's marathon.
He'll play tonight, right?
Right?
I think there are some people who waited for the unveiling of yesterday's lineup hoping Chris wouldn't be is, just so they could hammer away at Dusty Baker. If Heisey hadn't gotten the start, the criticism would've been justified. Same thing holds true for tonight, but shouldn't we let Dusty gives us something to get mad about before we get so worked up?
-As much as Homer Bailey wears us out, should we really be all that quick to dismiss a guy who gives his team a quality start in five out of every seven outing?
-Kevin Youkilis starts a minor league rehab tonight, perhaps working his way back to the Red Sox, and perhaps working himself into more intense trade speculation. Rumors have the Reds involved. As much as I don't think that using a declining, injury-riddled player to replace a declining, injury-riddled player would work, it's hard to not acknowledge that the Reds offense needs help.
Maybe that help comes in the form of Todd Frazier, but logic dictates it won't.
And if it doesn't come from Todd, and it doesn't come from Kevin Youkilis, then where does it come from? How long can the Reds afford to wait before they answer that? And at that point, what would it cost?
I don't love the Youkilis idea, but I admit I have no other solution.
-The Indiana Pacers won last night, right?
Hadn't heard.
All anyone will talk about is who did or didn't do what for Miami. The narrative of that game last night should have been Indy's advantage under the hoop and their stingy defense.
Instead, all anyone will talk about is what LeBron did and didn't do at the end.
LeBron's missed free throws and the fact that he (again) looked unwilling to be the man at the end were a part of the story, but they weren't the story. The story was how well the Pacers played together and how disruptive their defense was. If some weren't so lazy (and if they'd actually watched the game), that's what they'd be talking about this morning.
-Bus is leaving. Follow me on Twitter from the Big Apple. And enjoy this....
