I guess that plan of having Manzella start two games every series has been shelved for a while.
"The main reason he's here is to see what was going on and get used to the atmosphere and that type of thing. I talked to Tejada a couple days ago in Cincinnati about trying to get (Manzella) in one game a series if it works out that way. Maybe not here, maybe not the St. Louis deal. But after that, for sure trying to get him in. And Tejada has some things that he's trying to accomplish too, so you've got to be mindful of that.”
So I guess that's "one or two starts" per series, starting in 2010. But what could Tejada possibly be trying to accomplish? Well, 10 more hits and he gets to 2100. 42 more plate appearances to get to 8000. One more GIDP for 30 on the season. Is that it? To his credit, Zach Levine points out that Tejada hasn't made any mention of individual goals beyond playing hard.
Manzella:
“This is really the first time I've had to deal with not really playing. So I'm trying to keep my legs fresh and experimenting with different things and trying different ways to stay loose and be ready. You never know when the opportunity is going to present itself and when you're going to have to be ready to play...
...I didn't really have any expectations. I didn't know what they had in mind for me, so I didn't want to set any goals for myself and then feel any kind of letdown because I didn't get there."
Hey! He's already talking like an Astro - set no expectations and receive no disappointment (just kidding, it's alright to not set any expectations as a September Call-Up with a manager who throws darts at a roster.)
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
