The pain must be pretty bad, because Jeff Bagwell has gone on the 15 day DL for the first time in quite a while. Todd Self was called up from Round Rock to replace Bagwell's spot on the roster. Note that the DL stint is retroactive to May 4, the first day Bagwell was out of the lineup. Baseball Prospectus likes Self but argues that it might have made more sense to call up a righty who can platoon with Lamb at 1st. Unfortunately, we don't have any good right-handed bats in the high minors at the moment. Plus I seem to recall Lamb doing a surprisingly adequate job against lefties both last year and this year.

Lineup for tonight's game against the Marlins, with OBP / SLG after:

Taveras (.320 / .336)
Biggio (.360 / .500)
Lamb (.309 / .486)
Berkman (.167 / .182)
Ensberg (.381 / .433)
Lane (.296 / .474)
Everett (.286 / .350)
Ausmus (.320 / .269)
Backe (.385 / .455)

Maybe Backe should be hitting 7th.

Lane needs to pick it up fast - a sub-.300 OBP from a corner OF isn't going to cut it.

Brad Ausmus will not slug .300 this year. I'm calling it now. 2 extra base hits in 67 AB so far this year.