Just a scratch

Moises Alou hits like a brick shithouse when he's in the lineup. He will never again be in a lineup.

Carlos Delgado, while not a sure thing to bounce back from the worst season of his career, is at the very least a talented and experience hitter, and still supremely dangerous against right-handed (i.e., most) pitchers. Carlos Delgado minutes a hip joint = a ticket to the movie "First Base" starring Marlon Anderson, which you don't have to see to appreciate how awful it is. Like "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins," that sort of thing.

Luis Castillo with two knees is a high OBP, low SLG, shitty defensive second baseman. Luis Castillo with one knee is Fidel Castro.

The captain has turned on the "Obvious Statements" light, so I'm going to go head and remind everyone that when you've got an old, creaky, aging roster, you're going to wind up with more injuries than you'd like. That's the way it goes. All the griping this week about Delgado coming back for an MRI, and Moises going on the shelf, and Beltran and Castillo taking their time getting back from the injuries, and the whole "David Wright and Jose Reyes are the only starters left" meme that went out this week ... what were you expecting, a Charles Atlas infomercial?

Surprise, surprise, an old and injury-prone team winds up having a couple of injuries in the same week. I know there's a lot of airtime to fill, but even so, this was ridiculous. "Alou out 4 to 6 weeks" will be a repeat headline this year, and everyone knew that coming in. The shock is less than genuine.

It's like my momma told me -- you play in the cholera ward, you get burned. Or maybe that was Saul Bellow's mom. Anyway, the point stands.

There are far worse things than being an old and decaying team. Being a young and decaying team, for one. I have no earthly idea how Athletics fans can sit there and watch their potential Cy Young winner Rich Harden pitch somewhere around 40 innings each year, or shortstop Bobby Crosby -- who was supposed to make Derek Jeter look like Rey Sanchez once upon a time -- creak and groan around the locker room like the Wabash Cannonball. Or, since "Moneyball" has been in the news recently with Jeremy Brown's retirement, I can't imagine having to pull for Eric Chavez -- the next Barry Bonds, dontcha know -- crippled by injuries and transformed into a thinner, Latino Adrian Beltre.

Quick digression -- as much as I love the talent of a guy like Cole Hamels, the "Brittle Young Ace" character is just something I'm too nervous to easily deal with. I mean, it's New York -- fans here may not be any more dedicated or loyal here, but they're certainly more neurotic. By which I mean Jewish. No, seriously, I'll mock the Scott Kazmir trade until the day I die, but all the same, having a guy like that on your team raises blood pressure to a truly extraordinary degree. Liriano, King Felix ... as much as I'd kill to have one of them in orange and blue, I know my heart rate would spike every time I saw them reach for a sunflower seed. It's not a healthy way to live.

So, in short, let's all wait to panic about injuries until such time as the following:

1) When we're playing games that matter

This seems obvious enough.

2) Until one of the following players gets hurt: Wright, Reyes, Johan, Pedro, Brian Schneider

Again, these are clearly our most important pieces.

Sorry for the short post here -- I just can't think of anything else to say about the team until more happens.