9-News: 42.096– Viramontas Out, Ramirez In

[RonCo]

Off Topic

Pitcher’s Return In Time for Louisville?


August 24, 2042: Yellow Springs – The Nine received the difficult news today that second baseman Roberto Viramontas’ hamstring injury is about as bad as feared, and that he’ll be shelved for the rest of the season. This predicated a quick trade to fill his slot in the roster.

The good news, however, is that Tomas Ramirez, the team’s fourth starter, appears to be recovering from back problems that have kept him sidelined for nearly a month. The 23-year-old right hander is 9-6 on the season with a solid 4.27 ERA in 122 innings. His injury history in the minors makes any issue feel perhaps bigger than it is, but officials say he’ll be ready to play in a couple days—word that has some officials contemplating getting him activated so he’d be ready to throw when the team travels to Louisville later this week.

“Tomas has a vital part in the way our team works,” said manager Sam Brewington. “We’ll be careful about how we bring him along no matter what.”

The Nine and the Sluggers are currently embroiled in a 4-game series in Yellow Springs that could make that subsequent series in Louisville be must-see TV.

There was no word on who might be optioned out to Indianapolis to make room for Ramirez, but most expect it to be either lefty Jean Katternberg or right-hander Roberto Fernandez.

[ae37jr]

Your second base situation is very interesting with Viramontas out. Hindsight 20-20, I bet you wish Dong-Po was trained at 2B. His 9/9/12/7 rating is probably best suited at the keystone with the Tyler(6/8/9/6) and Maguire(6/10/9/8) platoon shifted to 3rd. And then if you are going to go with 6 range at 2B, why not just let McNeill(5/11/4/11) play there so you can free 1B up for Chenoweth and compensate some of the offense lost from Rex Foster.

The decisions have my brain spinning. I'm not quite sure which way I would play it if it were my team.

[RonCo]

It's an interesting idea. I'd expect Thum would learn second base pretty quickly at this point, and I may put him over there a bit anyway. I've occasionally used players like that out of position at times and not paid too heavy of a price.

Foster's injury does have me thinking a bit more about Chenoweth. To be honest, I was hoping Chenoweth's numbers were just a bit better at AAA than they've been. I've used McNeill at 2B a few times over the past two seasons and he hasn't been devastatingly bad. So I admit I'm debating a bit. If Chenoweth had put up 7 WAR in AAA like he did in AA, he'd already be up. As it is, he may find his way there later tonight anyway.

[RonCo]

The decisions have my brain spinning. I'm not quite sure which way I would play it if it were my team.

I understand completely. If you do decide to step away at the end of this year, you really must come back after you've recharged.

[RonCo]

Your second base situation is very interesting with Viramontas out. Hindsight 20-20, I bet you wish Dong-Po was trained at 2B. ...

And since I'm still thinking about it, the real thing I'm hindsighting is the trade of Juan Lopez, who was really my backup. I took a calculated gamble there, and created a problem.