Know Your Audience

Carlos Delgado has not been hitting well lately. Carlos Delgado has been swinging and missing underneath anything up in the zone. He's in a season-long slump, his confidence is shot, and he has about a million holes in his swing at the moment.

So, with the bases loaded and the count full yesterday, with the game on the line and Delgado pulling a 10-pitch AB out of his ass, what does the Cubs' Michael Wuertz throw? He put up what I thought was an excellent pitch -- high and outside, just off the corner of the plate, the type of pitch Delgado has been waving at all season.

Now, it didn't work out for the Cubbies. But it was a sensible idea in the right situation, and it showed that young Mr. Wuertz had at least an idea of what he was supposed to be doing. Maybe it was good instruction from Sweet Lou or pitching coach Larry "The Butcher" Rothschild, or maybe the guy knew where Delgado had been struggling, or maybe it was just dumb luck. But I didn't mind it at all.

This is in stark contrast to all sorts of shit I'm seeing these days around the league, from teams who apparently have trouble knowing their audience. I'm not talking about bloopers or straight mistakes; I'm talking about areas where teams have enough knowledge and experience to know better. Like, why don't ...

The Mets just put Moises Alou on the DL already?

For God's sake, we all knew he was going to get banged up. That was the idea. Give us 400 ABs and the playoffs, and we'll give you $8 million. (I think that was the contract language). His hot start was a great bonus, of course, but it was never going to be a full-season thing. So why would you have him try to play through pain or have him in there to risk a cascade injury? Get him out of there!

The Mets have options in the outfield, plenty of them. Old Man Moises needs his time off, so give it to him, preferably with some warm tea and a copy of El Diario. What, precisely, is the mystery here? And speaking of the teams in Shea on Monday evening, why won't ...

The Cubs sign Carlos Zambrano to that extension already?

This is seriously stupid, and a case of ignoring everything you've learned about your stud pitcher of the course of, say, his entire career. Big Z is a horse, there's no denying that. He's also an immature hothead and a head case, not a bad guy but a feisty competitor with the hint of the lunatic about him. A cross between Guillermo Mota and Kerri Strug.

So, with the big guy ready to sign a below-market extension for five years, what does the Cubs brass do? They yank the deal out from under him because of the Trib's sale, and leave the whole thing up in the air. This results in about a dozen varieties of bad vibes floating around -- Zambrano gets upset because they're jerking him around/don't respect his decision/don't appreciate him, giving him ideas of testing the market (where he'd get a whole lot more than 5/$85m), and as with the sensitive types, his play suffers.

I understand some financial constraints get put in while a team is up for sale, and I know the owners just pumped a whole lot of money into the franchise during the off-season. But this is the ace here, his contract is up after the season, and you've got to find a way to get it done. If we were talking about a more stable type of guy, a leader/ace of the Dontrelle/Maddux genus, it might be more understanable. The Sox, for example, can count on Schilling to put up a great season even without the extension he wanted, because for all his other foibles, Mr. 38 Pitches has his head screwed on straight.

But why mess with a crazy person? It makes no sense. In a similar vein, why won't ...

The Yankees cut bait on Bobby Abreu?

I don't mean release him, although the longer this hideous slump lasts, the sooner that possibility becomes real. I'm talking about pushing him down farther in the batting order, the better that your offense (which has scored the second-most runs in the league) doesn't get caught with him at the plate in key situations. Where he will kill you.

This doesn't mean pushing him into the No. 2 slot, as Torre did against Texas and during this latest joke of an M's series. Again, you don't want to give players in a brutal .236/.312/.291 skid MORE at-bats; you want to give them fewer, in lower-leverage situations, and let them try to earn their confidence back. Abreu, for all his on-base skill, has likewise always been a guy you need to massage and manage, to make sure he's hustling in the outfield and so forth.

Given that he's the turd in the punch bowl, and that your offense is humming along nicely without him, why wouldn't you just dump him in the No. 7 or 8 slot for the foreseeable future? You can a) afford to do it and b) it's the right move. Too simple for Joe, I guess.