Coming out of spring training, the Giants made the unorthodox decision to essentially carry only one catcher: Bengie Molina. I say "essentially," because as any halfway decent fantasy owner knows, starting third baseman Pablo Sandoval qualifies -- to continue with the fantasy theme -- at catcher. Bruce Bochy's thinking was that when Molina needed a breather, Sandoval would shift to catcher and Juan Uribe (or someone) would play third. As a highly-experienced computer baseball manager I tend to think of players as indefatigable robots, so I liked the idea. I've played 1972 Johnny Bench 162 games in a season before and I started 1969 Bob Gibson 57 times before and they never complained. Sure, these games were played on a Commodore 64 and not a real baseball diamond, but I'm certain such experiments would translate if someone would simply give them a chance.

Unfortunately, real Bengie Molina isn't nearly as tough as pretend Johnny Bench, and the fact that Molina had played every inning of every game up until yesterday's start behind the plate by Sandoval had presented some practical problems. According to the game story, Molina didn't even take batting practice yesterday he was so tired. The lack of BP didn't hurt Molina, however, as he came on as a pinch hitter in the tenth inning and roped the game-winning double.

When I saw that, I was prepared to praise Bruce Bochy for having the cajones to use his only available catcher as a pinch hitter in the extra innings, thereby risking the possibility of someone playing out of position if Sandoval took a foul tip off the noggin or something. Sadly, however, I read this morning that Bochy wasn't risking a thing. He was merely reverting to convention as a result of the Giants calling up a backup catcher from Fresno the night before.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed with Bochy. I mean, sure, I had 1951 Roy Campanella on my Commodore 64's team bench, but I was never such a wimp that I actually went and used him.