Platooning Pitchers?

Marietta is experimenting with a pitching platoon today. Brett Tomko will start home games for Marietta and Mark Hendrickson starts the road games in the fifth spot in the rotation. Will it work? Has it been done before? Well there hasn't been any home/road platoon, but Vancouver tried a lefty/righty platoon a few years ago with mixed results. It's only spring training and there are teams that are using 6-man rotations and changing up their starters at will, so this is the time to experiment. It's hard to pull off a pitching platoon though because most teams lack the depth in pitching to successfully execute this plan. Whether Tomko/Hendrickson qualify as "depth" time will tell.

D.C. is actively shopping outfielder Alfonso Soriano. Soriano, now on his third team, is a great example of a hyped player that has not lived up to his name. Soriano burst onto the scene in 2002 with Stanhope as a second baseman. Last year, despite a .219 average, may have been his best year - 33 HRs and 82 RBIs. Soriano suffers from a low OBP (.272 career) and needs to learn some plate discipline before living up to his name. He's been working closely with hitting coach Howard Johnson and HoJo seems to think that this is Soriano's year. "I've been able to share some of the secrets that made me an OBP success in the Majors!" said HoJo.