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The Solution
Allyssa Milano says have a happy Labor day holiday.
Just a little rant from me after a game where Soriano left his pants on the left field chalk line. After he did the pretzel dance, I thought that chalk outline was from a CSI scene. Someone should press criminal charges for that effort.Tired ol' Lou Piniella just grunts and shrugs his shoulders. "Ah, ah, ah...Whaddya expect me to do about it?" Clearly he's been beaten into submission by overexposure to Cubbery.
After torturing myself by listening to local sports talk outlets, with the only brief reprieve coming from occasional banter about a meaningless preseason Bears game, I think I've had enough pain to land on my own personal DL. Steve Stone with glee in his voice said, "that's what you get for playing a DH in left field." I get the message. Listening how the Cubs are held hostage to their long term contracts with no end in sight (well it's 3-5 years before we see the end to this tunnel), forcing them to play overpaid, under performing players (Soriano in the role of 40/40 guy and Bradley in the role of rbi machine) or under performing players with a brief track record of performance (Geo Soto, Kevin Gregg, The not-Hanks...Aaron Miles and Heilman) or under performing players without a track record of performance (better when in small doses, Fonte-NOT), it dawned on me that there is a simple solution.
The Disabled List
Use it liberally. Any ache and pain just might get you there unless you're performing. If the medical staff can hide inexpensive David Patton away for months, why not Soriano? After all, we've been reading and hearing whispers about a bum knee for months? They are doing it all wrong. Use the DL (not the bench) as a tool to eradicate the under performers. Really stinky under performance just might earn a slot on the 60 day DL.
If the Mets can put $88M on the DL...using an old "dusty" cliche, "Why not us"?
Sure the Mets had a rotten season. They had as much as $88 million reasons for a dog of a year.
Union grievance be damned. It makes for a play for performance baseball team and I'd love to live with that. In an era where players have no incentive except for the cliche "he's a real pro, a gamer or he's playing with pride" coming at us, I'm tired of reading he'll play hurt even when it hurts the team. Turn that concept around. You hurt the team and we'll find something that's making you hurt...enough to give someone else who's just a bit hungrier a chance to replace you.
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