If Billy is really serious, I think he should clean house now, get what he can for those who are not hitting and let the AAA guys learn to be MLB players for the rest of the year. They might just surprise us. I think the following should go: Jack Cust and his strike outs and now non-existent homers, Emil Brown (he’s not the RBI machine he was at the beginning of the year, probably because the pitchers are now up to top form) and Donnie Murphy who was designated for assignment today. Maybe we should bring up Landon Powell from Sacramento and move Rob Bowen. Or maybe not. A fire sale of sub-250 MLB hitters would send a really strong message to the rest of the team that no one is safe unless they start hitting: fouling off pitches to hasten the departure of lights-out starters, bunting for base hits, or just plain getting hits or walks to get runners on base and then bringing them home. These guys are better than what they’ve shown at the plate the last couple of weeks. They need to wake up. I agree it is not Ty Van Burkleo’s doing. He’s a great hitting coach.

On the pitching side, my response to Calvino’s colorful comparison of Huston to Monica Lewinsky is that the only difference is that no one gets any pleasure out of Huston doing it. I think he needs to be moved and I hope the Milwaulkie deal goes through. Huston has been wonderful in years past but this year he has … well … sucked. He’s either injured or his head isn’t on straight. Let’s get something for him while we can.