More roster changes and life must be hard for a man named Estel

Bob posting here: The Dodgers will still not have Hanley Ramirez in the starting lineup (found through the link below). But he’s not disabled!  But there’s Skip Schumaker. And Luis Cruz. And Juan Uribe.

And there are more personnel changes! Opening Day shortstop Justin Sellers was optioned back down to Albuquerque for the second time this year and Alex Castellanos was called up. Chris Withrow got his call to the big leagues. Scott Van Slyke went on the disabled list. The outfielder is replacing the infielder and the relief pitcher is replacing the outfielder. Not that it really matters. As long as it adds up to 25 players.

After 32 at bats in his major league career, Yasiel Puig is batting .500. If he stopped playing today (and didn’t play tonight or the rest of the season), that would be the highest batting average for any rookie in his first season in the majors with at least 32 ABs.

The second best is Craig Wilson, who batted .468 in 53 ABs for the White Sox in 1998. Wilson was a 28-year old rookie who lasted just parts of three seasons in the majors.

The third best is Arizona’s second baseman tonight, Willie Bloomquist, who batted .455 in a callup for the Mariners in 2002. Bloomquist has played in 12 big league seasons. He’s also played seven different positions (all but the battery) and he’s hit a whopping 17 home runs.

The seventh best hitter on the list is Stan Musial, who hit .426 in 47 ABs for the Cardinals in 1941. The 1941 Cardinals finished 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL that year. Some Cardinal players were disappointed that GM Branch Rickey didn’t call up Musial earlier. Musial batted .545 in his first three games and then didn’t start the fourth, which the Cardinals lost.  He started the final seven games of the season. Musial sometimes played the outfield with the unfortunately named Estel Crabtree, a real baseball player and not a character on Bewitched.

Diamondbacks at Dodgers, 7:10 p.m.