Luis Castillo

One tangible you are missing is that 4 of the last 5 games we lost we also were missing Schneider in all 4 losses.  Why hasn't anyone mentioned this?  Schneider definitely calls a better game and we give up less runs with him in, plus his bat has been good. 

Castillo in the 2 and Church in the 5 helps us more.  Delgado is a rally killer and Church can help bring home our runners.  If we had a better 5 hole guy I would not argue, but Castillo makes pitchers work harder and gets on base.

We all need to chill a bit and stop whining.  Shoot, we are doing okay without key guys.  We are not in any huge hole yet and we lost 2 Pitchers already, a catcher and an outfielder not to mention we are still stuck with Delgado and his dropping off the face of the planet.  Lets not beat ourselves to death.  I know there has been 2 main culprits of our, "the sky is falling" bit.  We have had some recent things to be happy about though.

Not a huge fan of Cassanova but seeing as how the rest of our catcher's are injured I guess we'll just have to live with it.

I like the idea of Castillo in the 2 spot and Church in the 5.  I'm glad to see Willie mixing the lineup a little more to instigate some action.

Maybe we can bump Delgado down to the 9 spot so the pitcher can protect him in the 8 hole.

I like the idea of batting Delgado 6th or 7th, unless orcourse, Santana is pitching in which case he would bat ahead of Delgado.  Does anyone know if Santana can play first?  He'd be a perfect fit.  He's a lefty and he has more hits than Delgado does.  Whenever his spot in the rotation comes up, put Delgado back in.  I think Delgado needs 5 days' rest more than Santana. 

Castillo has been coming around.  His knees probably just needed to get warmed up, it's tough enough coming back from one knee surgery, he has to come back from surgery on both.  If Church keeps swinging well I say leave him at 5 and put Alou at 6 when he gets back.  It'd be pretty tough to game plan against that line-up.

1. Reyes (S)

2. Castillo (S)

3. Wright (R)

4. Beltran (S)

5. Church (L)

6. Alou (R)

7. Delgado (L)...or Santana (L - just a thought, ha)

8. Schneider (L)

I don't know if it's because Cassanova calls the game and he doesn't know what he's doing but if this is the case then Willie should have Schneider give the signs from the bench...just an idea.

Can't wait to get Schneider back though, guy definitely adds some offense to the lineup as well as defense to the game.