I'm not sure if he took a pitch out of arsenal, but he had a fastball/change/slider as a starter. His improving slider was the biggest reason the Indians placed on the 40-man roster.

I don't have a scouting report on Brian Slocum, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. :-) Seriously, I saw him pitch a few years ago when he was with Kinston. There was no gun in the ballpark, but based on the hitters' reactions it looked as if he was throwing around 90 with a good hard slider. He pretty much dominated for awhile, then had one bad inning when it seemed he lost his command and suddenly started getting his pitches up in the strike zone, and also throwing quite a few in the dirt--maybe over-compensating. Bottom line is he reminded me of Mike Mussina. Kind of the same size, slim, same motion, same demeanor on the mound. I'd be willing to bet Mussina was his hero as a kid.

Brown has walked 9 in 8.1 IP. That's the biggest reason Slocum got the call over him.

as good as some claim he is.

Hello gogiggs,

You bring up another point about why I think Wedge is overrated - he goes too much by the book, so to say.  His philosophy seems to be, the 8th inning pitcher has to come into the 8th 95% of the time, guys like Graves and Sauerbeck have to come in in the 5th-7th innings, etc.

To me, that seems ridiculous.  Do you think Ozzie Guillen is going to stick to a guy who is struggling just because "it's his inning to be in"?  Not if they continue to struggle, which Graves and Sauerbeck both are doing.

Short of injuring anybody, including overworking anybody, I think you should do what it takes to win that game.  Obviously, everyone in the bullpen will be counted on, but if part of your relief corps is struggling, you don't go ahead and go back to them night after night if you've given them 3-4 chances to prove themselves and they fail each time.  Give them a few nights off; combine Mota and Wickman with the starters we do have (a good outing by Byrd, several good outings by Johnson and Lee lately,) and you should be able to avoid using that part of the relief corps for a few days, at least.  Hopefully by then, with some side work under the tutelage of Luis Isaac and Carl Willis, they will look much better the next time they are called upon.

If you have to call on Mota earlier than the 8th inning on occasion, you do it, especially if the rest of the bullpen is untrustworthy, and to me, Sauerbeck and Graves both are unreliable.

Besides, Mota supposedly can go more than one inning, so don't just limit him to one inning.  Granted, you don't have him throw 2 IP 3 times a week, but once or twice a month should not hurt.

I don't know - Wedge seems clueless sometimes.  Granted, not every move a manager makes is going to work out (take Guillen's choice of calling in Logan to face us rather than Cotts when the Indians came back to win that third game of the series,) but some of his moves this past week, such as Westbrook staying in so long to try to get him a W, and essentially, sacrificing the team's change of getting the W, and Carmona not being told to intentionally walk Lopez to set up a double play in a close ballgame, makes me scratch my head and wonder about him.

I sure hope he improves his managing; you can have a very talented team, but if the manager is not astute and not willing to adjust to game situations, that can short-circuit a team's success.  I hope that doesn't happen with Wedge and the Indians as he's already cost us a few games this year to this point.  And we all know, a game or two can be what separates a team from playing in October and from going home.

Just my 2 cents; no offense to anyone. :-)

Take care and have a great day!

Hero, that is....