Micah Owings Would Solve This Problem

There has been talk by Dave Trembley that he may go with a 13 man pitching staff to protect some of the bullpen arms from over-use. If he has enough confidence in Scott Moore to allow him to be the back-up at shortstop, then that's great - Brandon Fahey isn't exactly being productive. A three man bench though, makes it harder on the position players - especially when one of them is a catcher. That means that Moore and Jay Payton have to back-up the other 7 positions. What happens if Melvin Mora has a sore leg, but doesn't need to go on the DL? Moore has to play third, but then there's no one left to cover the infield. You can't pinch hit with match-ups (if a lefty is in late in the game, you can't send in Payton to hit for Luis Hernandez, because then you have to burn Scott Moore too, and the bench becomes empty). It's not a good situation. Really, a 12 man pitching staff is probably too much. Maybe not with this starting rotation but, in general, a team would get better results being able to match-up off the bench as opposed to having that extra guy in the pen who is rarely used. I'm all for switching out Fahey with Alex Cintron though (the Pelican gets to keep his job for now - he's playing really well, and probably well above his head).