Freddy back Saturday?

After a good debut in Indy, Freddy Sanchez is targeting tomorrow as his return date to Pittsburgh. That is, of course, very good news for the Pirates. It also leaves open a host of questions.

Actually, it shouldn't leave open a host of questions. It should get Don Kelly demoted to AAA, and that should probably be that. That, however, doesn't seem likely. From PG Sports Editor Jerry Micco's chat Wednesday:

PirateApologist: Who gets sent down when Sanchez gets back? Dejan mentioned a possible Cota trade earlier in the week as well.

Jerry Micco: I'm not sure who gets shipped out. Maybe Cota is made available by trade to get this done. I thought it might be Castillo, but it'd sure be tough to see him go down after how you see him playing in the field. He's still struggling at the plate, but he looks better overall than he did last year. I understand local guy Don Kelly is going to stay no matter what. So maybe they do try to make a trade for Cota. I'll leave that burning question to our experts, Dejan and Paul Meyer.

A Cota trade? For what? Shoe polish? He was one of the worst hitters in the majors last year and he hasn't actually done anything to prove otherwise this year given that it's three games into the season and he's ZERO FOR ZERO!

But who to send down? Well, Cota is a logical candidate given his overall worthlessness to the team given the presence of a backup catcher that can hit in Ryan Doumit, but the team is so worried about Doumit's hamstrings of glass that that move seems kind of unlikely, and I do at least understand that. But Castillo, save the pop-up adventures of Jose Castillo, has been great with the glove this week and Bautista has ripped the crap out of the ball and also played well with the glove at third. Between Bautista, Castillo, and Sanchez they can cover all the infield positions that Kelly can as a utility guy. They're all better hitters and at least two are probably his equals in the field. There's just no place for Kelly on the team. Sure he's a lefty, but what does that matter when you can't hit? I hope that Micco is just a little misinformed here, but I don't get the gut feeling that that's the case.