Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Marte on DL, Morel Back Up

The Bucs put out a lineup card that didn't include Starling Marte and had a locker set up for Brent Morel, making it kinda obvious that Marte was going on the DL, and that was confirmed at gametime; he's on the seven day DL.

We thought the Pirates pooh-pooh'ed his Friday night beaning rather nonchalantly.You'd think the Bucs would do a little better - OK, a lot better - job of protecting their assets. There's really no excuse for him not have been on the seven-day concussion DL from the get-go.

To have played him on Monday and then have him unavailable the next day...well, we'd have to think the medical protocols could use some fine tuning. It may very well be, and in fact likely, that Starling wasn't complaining of symptoms, but it's up to the team, not the player, to make the call.

Morel, 27, has parts of five seasons in the show with the Bucs and White Sox, getting an early call from Pittsburgh this season and going 0-for-1 in his only at bat. His lifetime BA is .229 with 13 homers in 670 PA. He was hitting .246 with three long balls at Indy. The righty has seen a little action at first and second, but the vast majority of his minor league time has been at the hot corner.

We'rte a bit surprised that Jaff Decker or Andrew Lambo didn't get the call; both are on the 40-man roster and have a stick. With Morel and Michael Martinez on the bench, there's not a whole lot of wood for Clint to call on.

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