Andy LaRoche has been optioned to AAA , meaning that we're now choosing to start Blake Dewitt or Russell Martin at 3rd, instead of just waiting for LaRoche to rehab. Apparently we just couldn't lose DeWitt's almost average performance at the hot corner.

Update>>Joe Torre confirms that, yes, that pretty much is the reason.

"The guys we have now are playing well," manager Joe Torre said. "DeWitt has done a nice job. It's best for LaRoche to play more baseball and get it going a little and play every day."

You know, LaRoche could play every day if we stopped doing things like starting Russ at third.

Update>>Just realized something else I hate about this. LaRoche still had time left on his rehab assignment (you get at most 20 days), yet they still optioned him to the minors for whatever reason. There's absolutely zero reason to do this. Even if we planned on using Dewitt all along at third, why not just wait the 20 days in case he gets hurt? Optioning LaRoche at this point uses up one of his option years for no reason.

Man I just wrote the word "option" a lot.