Carson Palmer is well on his way to wasting even more of his impressive talent. He’s coming off a lost season thanks to elbow problems, and he isn’t exactly setting a positive tone now – he has already missed two days of practices since training camp started. It was only because of the flu, but it’s still a bad omen. I was sure Palmer was going to be a megastar when he came out of college, but he has been frustratingly mediocre in the last few seasons. I put about 98 percent of the blame for that on Marvin Lewis. If you have read this site for while then you have heard this before, and you are certainly going to hear it again – Lewis is the worst coach in football. The Bengals have been pathetic underachievers for much of his tenure, and they will continue to disappoint for as long as the team’s management refuses to come to their senses and get themselves a real coach. Palmer, and the city of Cincinnati, deserves better.
I was very sad to hear about Edinson Volquez. The Reds’ pitcher had Tommy John surgery and will be out of action for about a year. He was one of my favorite pitchers last year, and I had high hopes for him again this year, but his body just didn’t hold up. It’s likely that he’ll come back well, but both he and the Reds will lose a lot of momentum in his absence.
The return to glory of Pedro Martinez continues at a painfully slow pace. After a pretty dismal performance in Triple A on Friday (four runs in five innings), Martinez had an extended session off the bullpen mound today to work on some delivery issues. He has another start scheduled on Wednesday in Double A. Anything can happen, but it would seem like he is still a long way away from being an effective member of Philly’s rotation. If he could be useful then thePhillies could really use him – they have four lefties in the rotation right now, so they have all sorts of matchup problems against some teams. The defending champs still have what should be an insurmountable lead in the NL East, but they have slowed down considerably from their recent blistering pace, and they could use a boost down the stretch.
