There were a lot of interesting news items in this morning's "Marlins Notebook" column:
- Valdez may replace Moehler in the rotation (as soon as Thursday). Apparently Big Moe's arm is tired (per the man himself):
"Everybody wants to speculate on [whether the innings total is having an impact]," Moehler said. "It's true. I'm not going to sit here and say it hasn't because I haven't pitched as much in the last four years. There are ups and downs throughout the year, and I'm going through a low period right now."
- Paul LoDuca: "I'm not a very smart player."
- Brad Penny took advantage of a batboy:
Dodgers pitcher Brad Penny bet a batboy $500 on Sunday that he couldn't drink a gallon of milk in under an hour without throwing up. Some of Penny's teammates kicked in on the wager, raising the ante to more than $1,000.
But the scariest line of the day came from Jack (in the game recap):
"He was going to get the complete game, I don't care if he threw 140 pitches."
They're going to make his arm fall off and they don't even care.
Like Moehler, Vargas has thrown a lot of innings this year (145 so far). Well, it's a lot of innings relative to what he's done so far in his career. I guess I'm in the minority (or at least in the opposite camp of those who count), but I'd rather have Vargas save some innings for next month and October. An August CG is nice, but it's not the goal.