Saturday, March 29, 2008

Paul Maholm's back STILL hurts

You know what's mildly concerning to me? When a pitcher misses a spring training start with the same injury that caused him to pitch poorly at the end of the previous season. I'm talking, of course, about Paul Maholm being scratched from his start today with a stiff lower back.

Maholm says it's not serious and Neal Huntington says he would make his start if it was the regular season, but Maholm's back bothered him last September and it's still bothering him. I consider that to be a pretty ominous sign for a team that has no reasonable replacement for him in the entire organization. If someone goes on the DL, the likely replacements are John Van Benschoten, Bryan Bullington, Phil Dumatrait, or Ty Taubenheim. That's terrifying.