Random Thoughts

• Congratulations to Jim Leyland for acknowledging that you can use relievers for more than an inning. Could you imagine if Fernando Rodney had been pulled for Todd Jones in the 10th after just one inning? Yes, we probably will not have the services of Fernando Rodney tommorow, but who says we will need them? Once again, this team continues to beat up on the weak. It was just a couple of weeks ago that Chicago lost two of three to Tampa Bay. This is how you stay ahead of teams when you have a mental block against beating them head-to-head
• Jair Jurrjens recieved a much-deserved promotion to Erie today. The 20 year-old Curacao has posted remarkable numbers in Lakeland. Erie will be a test for him, as we will see if those strikes he will continue to throw will turn into ropes or remain groundouts and strikeouts as he faces advanced hitters. At the very least, there will be a 40-man roster spot for this young man at season's end. He's earned it.
• To Chris Shelton: snap out of it. I don't know why you are trying to pull everything, but you never used to.
  
• And a big sarcastic and classless thank you to Ben Roethlisberger for my next checkup costing $500. While you may not have been above the law when riding a motorcycle without a helmet today, you were above common sense. For every preventable surgery that comes from somebody not wearing a helmet, driving drunk, or giving themselves lung cancer, there is time and money in the medical field better spent, making for a more efficient and more healthy America. It's not tort reform, it's not "free" health care. Manageable health care costs will not come from the Government, instead coming from individual Americans making better choices. Unfortunately, that is unlikely ever to happen with all of the stubborn idiots like Mr. Roethlisberger that inhabit this country.