It's bad enough that we're uncertain about the immediate future of Tom Glavine and that our closer, Rafael Soriano, is on the disabled list, but now the team has put reliever/interim closer Peter Moylan on the 15-day DL with a right elbow strain. Is Mike Hampton contagious or something?

That's a shit-load of injuries for this early in the season. Already we've had three starting pitchers on the DL -- Hampton (does he count anymore), Smoltz, and James -- and now two relievers -- Soriano and Moylan (not to mention Mike Gonzalez). I remember some years back in the mid-90s when hardly any key player would get injured for an entire year! I guess all that good luck is finally turning on us.

Coming up to replace the Ausi is starter and longman Buddy Carlyle. I guess with Buddy they wanted experience, because they sure didn't pick the hot arm. Buddy had made two starts, had not gone longer than four innings in either of them, and had given up 11 hits in 7.2 innings (and three walks) -- that's a 7.04 ERA. I know it's still early and yada yada yada, but why not give Charlie Morton a shot -- he's only given up five hits in 10.1 innings for a 0.87 ERA. Or even, dare I say it, Jo-Jo Reyes, who hasn't given up a run yet and has 14 strikeouts in nine innings (Jo-Jo must have rediscovered his strikeout pitch).

Oh well, Buddy has spurts of decentness, perhaps we can catch one of those. I don't even think the team knows how they'll fill in the rotation for the near term. For the Florida series we'll trot out Jurrjens, Hudson, and Smoltz, then the team site shows us throwing Bennett in the opener against LA at home on Friday followed by a TBA pitcher. Glavine's turn is Saturday and everyone will have to play the "wait and see" game before we know if he'll be able to pitch in that game.

Between the one-run losses and all the damn injuries I may be a broken man before the All-Star break!