I am up to my neck in annoying and niggly but important stuff, but I wanted to pop in for a few words on the Opening Day roster.  These are they.

In the position-player squad, Ross's injury is a sort of minor blessing in disguise: it allows the team to keep Rowand on the roster till after the ceremonies (say what you will, it would have been shabby to not have him there for them), then make the cut when Ross returns.  We can't know if that's what they'll do, but it certainly is the overwhelmingly obvious choice.  (Whether they will have to just cut him, or can get something--even an organizational player, to save face--remains to be seen.)

Mind, having the right 13 guys does not mean that they will be used right: putting Tejada out there at all, much less on Opening Day, is a major error in judgement.  His role should be (as should Whiteside's and, sad to say, Schierholtz's) to sit around in case someone gets hurt, and maybe pinch-hit for pitchers a little in late innings.  The end.

In the pitching roster, 10 of the 12 slots are filled as expected, and I daresay as well as can be.  But it was simply criminal to leave Kroon and Edlefsen off the staff when the alternatives are Casilla (strike zone?  What's that?), Ramirez, and Mota.  Those last two are by no means bad pitchers, and I don't so much object to them they way I do to Casilla, but I really do think Kroon is clearly superior to both, and Edlefsen is probably so--and is, in any event, the future.  I could stand seeing Mota or Ramirez while Edlefsen gets in some more work, but, again, leaving Kroon behind (with a fair chance that they'll then lose him to retirement) was sheer folly.

Opening Day itself was an unpleasant one, and we can only hope it's not a harbinger.  Burrell's error was physical, and the sort that better fielders than he have made in their day, a simple juggle; but Tejada's was at least as much mental as physical (settle for one and don't rush), and what happened between Posey and Sandoval only they know.  But boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, we need better than that.  Fontenot and even De Rosa play better shortstop than Tejada, and very certainly have better bats; so what is that all about?  Another refusal to admit a hurried signing to no purpose?

OK, here we go again.  Hang onto your hats--your World Series hats.