M's have a plan??

Okay first the bad: M's lose to Boston 6-3. Putz will get the goat horns for the grand slam he gave up to Trot Nixon, but Ron Villone loaded the bases to set it all up. As I have complained before, Ron Villone should not be being used to protect one run leads. Obviously his use in the blowout on Friday was just getting him work, not a move to the mop-up role.

More bad news: Wiki Gonzalez, who had single handedly rejuvenated the M's catching position, strained a muscle and will likely go on the DL. I know Wiki wasn't the answer at catcher, but it was fun to get a couple of hits here and there wasn't it? Would the M's bring up Ryan Christianson at this point? Probably not. I'm guessing Rene Rivera.

Good news/bad news: Joel Piniero gets sent down to Tacoma to work on his mechanics. Apparently there is some sort of flaw in his delivery that BP can't fix, so they are sending him down to work with the Rainiers' piching coach. Sherrill comes back up, Mateo gets a start.

Part of me is frustrated that they are picking on Joel instead of Aaron Sele. I'm also bewildered that the big league pitching coach KNOWS whats wrong with Joel but can't fix it. Remember when BP was a rising star? Seems so long ago doesn't it???

The encouraging thing is that the M's seem to have a plan for all of this instead of just reacting. They clearly have been lengthening out Mateo for the last week or so, having him pitch a couple of multi-inning outings to get ready to make a start. Instead of just letting Piniero continue to get knocked around, they have some specific things for him to work on. All encouraging. We'll see if it works out.