Brad Wilkerson and Greg Norton have both been shown the door, according to Geoff Baker.
While I was in favour of the move prior to the season, Wilkerson had a terrible start to the year and just wasn't coming out of his slump, looking terrible the whole time - it's hardly a surprise that he's been given the boot. I suspect Norton was DFA'd over Cairo because the team envisions Jose Vidro taking the switchie pinch hitter role, because i can't imagine any other reason they'd do this.
Clement and Balentien called up from AAA Tacoma. Service time complaints are for another day. Kick some ass, boys.
One thing's for sure though - this isn't last year.
PS: I'm so glad Mike Morse is on the DL.
PPS: I'll be annoyed if Clement isn't wearing #9.
Matthew's Take: Even with Bavasi does something smart, he mucks it up.
- He releases our two primary 1B backups which means Vidro is now our backup 1B.
- Cairo is still on the team
- 12 pitchers are still on the team
- You're potentially screwing yourself out of a an arb year in order to get 7 days of Clement on the roster when he's probably only going to play 3 or 4 games.
Listen, I love that they're willing to shake things up when the offense so clearly needs it (though they ignored the obvious solution, Bonds). But again, this just reeks of their total lack of planning. The Ms don't need 7 relievers, so one of them was expendable for this move; you could have just had Lowe and Morrow ride the T-Town train back and forth all year to balance their usage out.
Keeping Wilkerson around gives you at worst a 4th OF with a LH bat, which you'd want if Wlad is your new starting RF. There's zero reason to call Clement up now as opposed to 7 days from now. If you think the extra arb year doesn't matter, then you're missing the whole point. Here's what should have happened: Wlad called up, Morrow/Lowe sent down. A week hence, Clement called up, Norton DFA'd. Then you have Wilkerson as your 4th OF/ 1B backup (instead of WFB and Vidro), Vidro as your #10 hitter, Clement at DH, Wlad at RF.