Talk about your classic head scratchers.
I would have loved to be a fly in the room when Omar and his brain-trust made the decision to DFA Darren O’Day, promote Nelson Figueroa, DFA Figueroa 18 hours later and promote Casey Fossum.
I bet the conversation went just like this…
Omar: Have a seat fellas, we need to figure out what we’re gonna do about this Mike Pelfrey situation.
Adviser 1: What’s there to think about? DL Pelfrey, he’ll miss two starts and call up Figueroa to replace him.
Adviser 2: That makes sense to me, based on their numbers at Buffalo, Figgy’s the logical choice. Shall I call the league office and tell them we’re placing Pelf on the DL retroactive to April 13.
Omar: That won’t be necessary, we’ll cut Darren O’Day instead. I’m not big on sidearmers anyway.
Adviser 1: But boss he had a solid spring, and he hasn’t given up a run yet this season…
Adviser 2: Huh, you want us to just release him?
Omar: Don’t worry about it, we have plenty of depth in the bullpen or haven’t you heard, our bullpen ERA is the best in baseball.
Adviser 1: Whatever…
18 hours later…
Adviser 1: Hello Omar, it’s me Adviser 1… Tough loss, but what a gutsy performance by Figgy, huh?
Omar: I’m glad you called. Get a hold of Manuel and tell him to designate Figueroa for assignment.
Adviser 1: Hey boss I think I have a bad signal, it sounded like you said we should DFA Figueroa.
Omar: That’s exactly what I said, I want to bring up Casey Fossum and make him our long man.
Adviser 1: But boss, Fossum is getting torched in AAA, I think his career ERA is well over 5 and he’s not fooling anyone with that mediocre stuff of his.
Omar: Nevermind all that, sometimes you have to go with your gut instincts, and I got a good feeling about this Casey guy.
Adviser 1: Well, you’re the boss, but I don’t think the fans will be pleased when they learn we just let two serviceable guys go without getting anything in return. I mean, what if they resurface with the Phils, or worse yet the Fish?
Omar: Huh, stop being such a pessimist… I think Casey Fossum is a great baseball name… It’s to bad he wasn’t a hitter or we could have had our marketing guys come up with a Casey at the Bat Calendar Day some time in July.
Adviser 1: I gotta go Omar, I have Manuel on the other line. I’ll tell him the news…