Buried behind the flurry of Dice Clay-related news springing up like springtime flowers of baseball in Fort Myers was the announcement by the Red Sox that the Oakland A's claimed Lenny "The Loneliest Lefty" DiNardo off of waivers yesterday. With a staff that went from embarrassingly devoid of southpaws last year to one that has an embarrassment of riches this year, DiNardo's presence on the waiver wire isn't particularly surprising. In his three years in the majors he's been wildly inconsistent in his abilities, had peripherals that fluctuated wildly and, in general, suffered from Derek Lowe's fatal flaw: he just can't keep his hands off the ladies. Wait, that was just Derek. Lenny has the other fatal Derek Lowe flaw: he can't keep his pitches down consistently.Sometimes DiNardo had games like this one, where he seemed to have the command necessary to make him a vital part of the rotation. Most of the time the hopes started high but ended like this gem, with Francona bringing out the long relief to suffer through another round of artillery practice. Now he's off to Oakland, land of second chances, where he'll either harness the hidden potential of his ground ball pitches (or get a lot of lucky fly outs in that cavernous stadium), or he'll languish in the minors for the rest of his career. Either way, I wish him good luck.
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