Leach on roster, Weaver in rotation
In two not-so-surprising moves this afternoon, Joe Torre announced that left-hander Brent Leach was called up from Double-A Chattanooga to take the roster spot of Hong-Chih Kuo, who simply can't throw the ball right now. Kuo's long-balky left elbow is once again giving him trouble, so Torre said the Dodgers will shut down Kuo for at least a week and then reevaulate. Leach had allowed one earned run in 13 innings for Chattanooga and made it to the stadium this afternoon.
Also, Jeff Weaver will start Tuesday in place of James McDonald. Torre explained the move by saying that McDonald ``just didn't look comfortable'' in his last start. Torre actually sent McDonald to visit with Charlie Hough for a couple days, so McDonald isn't even at the park today. Torre said he expects Weaver's limit on Tuesday to be in the 70-to-75-pitch range, and that he will evaluate the rotation spot again after Tuesday.
Casey Blake, Rafael Furcal and Russell Martin are all expected to get days off Sunday.
Randy Wolf won the team's Kentucky Derby pool (for entertainment purposes only, of course...)
Today's lineup:
Furcal -- SS
Hudson -- 2B
Ramirez -- LF
Ethier -- RF
Loney -- 1B
Martin -- C
Kemp -- CF
Blake -- 3B
Wolf -- P
Tony,
I'm shocked and saddened to learn that you will no longer be covering the Dodgers and blogging here. I know you will land on your feet somewhere else but for selfish reasons I hope it is writing about baseball. You brought a style and personality to the Dodgers that I and others took for granted. Your writing will be greatly missed. Keep your head up my friend. I'm sure the best is yet to come.
Warren
Welcome Rich, this coud be good....
Good? Not w/o Tony.