Catching Up

• Jordan Zimmermann. Damn. A lot of pitchers bounce back well, but a lot never do. Bottom line, he's back to being a 50-50 proposition at best. And with guys like Josh Smoker, Jack McGeary, andRoss Detwiler disappointing to one extent or another, this really sets our young pitching back to about where the franchise was in 2004.
  
• Jason Bergmann is being used as a high-leverage set up man.
• Anderson Hernandez for Greg Veloz seems fine. We basically got a younger version of the same guy. If nothing else it opens a 40-man roster spot, and this guarantees that we won't see Hernia in the lead-off spot anymore.
• Nick Johnson is hurt. Not badly--just saying.
  
• The Chris Marrero call-up to AA is interesting. If he rakes there, he could find himself in DC as early as next season.
• Ronnie Belliard is the late innings defensive replacement at first. All the time Nick was hurt last season we had nothing close to a compentent defensive first baseman. Really, the team needs to be able to construct a roster better than that.
• Adam Dunn's cost the team 7.9 runs compared to an average first baseman in his 28 games there. Projected over the course of the season, that would wipe out nearly all the offensive value he provides, making him a very expensive, very flashy replacement-level contributor.
• Austin Kearns was claimed on waivers? And we pulled him back? I just don't believe it. Remember, Cristian Guzman was supposedly claimed too.
• Listening to and reading all the Rizzo announcement coverage, I think people are starting to go a little overboard on the Nyjer Morgan deal. I was for it, but it makes no sense to just look at what the 29-year-old Morgan and the 24-year-old Milledge are doing right now and decide we won that deal. We traded future value for current value. A few weeks later, it's looking great. I should hope so.
• Why did Kasten need to tell that story about Scott Boras cursing on the phone? Boras was all class in this situation. He gave the team access to the player when he didn't need to. And the final deal was a real bargain for the team. It's rare to make Scott Boras seem like the classy one.
• Let's imagine Jed Hoyer or Jerry Dipoto asked, "would I have complete control over baseball operations?" What would the answer have been? I don't know, but I could guess, and I wonder if Rizzo's willingness to NOT ask that question played a role in his hiring.