LaRue Activated
By
Amanda
Posted at 8:47 pm
Marc is reporting that Jason LaRue has finally decided to come off the DL. He's scheduled to catch Aaron Harang tomorrow.
For the momentito, the Reds will carry three catchers while rumors continue to swirl about an impending trade that's great in theory and nonexistant in practice. LaRue takes the roster spot left vacant by Ken Griffey Jr.'s trip to the disabled list.
Griffey plans to be back a week from Friday. Hopefully the team will have done something with Tony Womack by then, but I'm far from confident. After several apparent showcase starts at the end of spring training and the beginning of the season, Womack hasn't seen much playing time lately which tells me interest is low. The team could just release Womack if a deal isn't forthcoming, but more likely they'll just send Quinton McCracken back to Louisville.
Someday, perhaps long in the future, we'll see the Heartthrob again.
Some 30 years ago, when it was customary for teams to carry ten pitchers instead of the 12 that they carry today, most teams carried three catchers. The thinking was that you could then use your #2 catcher as a pinch-hitter without worrying about who would don The Tools Of Ignorance if your starting catcher got hurt after the backup had been used to pinch hit. Miley/O’Brien considered doing this last year with LaRue/Valentin/Sardinha.
Expect to see The Latin Love Machine getting more ABs earlier in games as long as the Reds carry three catchers. Narron is a matchups kind of manager. He used Ross as a pinch-hitter in the fourth inning today. Of course, that was against Dontrelle Willis, a lefthander. If the Marlins had a righty out there, we’d probably have seen Javy up there hitting lefthanded.
I have a idea about what the Reds could do with Womack, but it would be cruelty to animals…the animals in question being the carp who live in the waters beneath the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge.
John (HMZ)
Carrying three catchers does seem like a good idea, since you can’t throw just anyone back there. There was a game last season when LaRue got a little banged up after Javy had already pinch hit, so if LaRue had left the game, Freel would have caught.
And that way, my friend, madness lies. Though I would have loved to have seen it.