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Three weeks have come and gone. Five or six players have been injured and healed. Chris Hoiles is not one of them. He continues to languish on a rehab assignment with the Larimer Knights AAA team, trying to heal from a bruised heel that was listed as a 19% injury three weeks ago. The Knights have been reluctant to send him outright to the DL after their experience with Pokey Reese -- due to the timing of his placement on the DL, he was forced to stay out of action for an extra 11 days after he healed. The team wants Hoiles back and ready to go as soon as he is able.
"Curry Powell is doing a fine job as our everyday catcher," said manager Don Baylor, "and he will remain our number-one catching backup once Hoiles returns. We may try him at other positions as well. But the fact is, Hoiles has power. Powell doesn't. We play in the altitude. If other teams are poised to let their power hitters take advantage of that, we have to do likewise. And that means getting Hoiles back."
In other news, Jeff Branson returned from the DL today. To make room for him, Bill Mueller was demoted to AAA. Mueller threw a tantrum in the locker room upon receiving the news, throwing equipment around and at one point banging a bat against his locker. Asked later for comment, he had this to say:
"All right, I'm going to say the three magic words: THE LITTLE GUY. Why the #$%& did the little guy trade for me if he wasn't going to use me every day?"
"There. I said it. I hope he trades me now. Hey, it worked for Palmiero."
John Dybala was in a closed-door meeting with commissioner Matthew Peck for much of the day and had no comment. No reason for the meeting was given.
Written by John Dybala