Ollie still hasn't made the sale

He's back with us, and pitched two innings today. The results again were tentative--two runs, one hit, two walks, a strikeout, and nothing above 89 or 90 on the radar gun.

Before spring training, everyone was saying that the keys to the season for us were Wells and Perez. Wells is out for at least two months, and Perez is questionable at best.

Fortunately, Duke, Maholm, Snell, Gorzellany, and Burnett have all been looking good. However, there's a guy on our staff named Vogelsong, recently returned to exile in long relief, who looked great as a starter a few springs ago too. I'm not among those who believe our offense is improved this year by the additions of the Three Musketeers, so to me, any improvement will have to come from the pitching staff and the development of younger players such as Castillo, Duffy or McLouth, Gerut, Sanchez, and Doumit. Improvement also requires that Bay continue to produce at close to the level he has for the past two years and also avoid serious injury.

As with most marginal and bad teams, a lot of things have to happen right for us to have a good season. Wells' injury and Ollie's continuing struggles make the other improvements even more critical.