Manuel sticking with Young's glove

Michael Young cleanly fielded a ground ball hit his way during batting practice on Wednesday afternoon. But then he sailed a throw toward the right field line.

Young, a former Gold Glove shortstop, is playing third base for the first time in a full-tme basis in three years. In his first major league game there on Monday, Young failed to knock down one ball hit to his right (ruled a hit by a gracious official scorer) and he bounced a throw to Ryan Howard later in the game on a routine play.

It was one game, granted, but manager Charlie Manuel was asked if he's consider using the slick-fielding Freddy Galvis in place of Young as a defensive replacement at third base.

"I might do that if Michael proves to me that he's not a plus fielder," Manuel said. "I think he's a plus fielder."

Young did not look like a plus fielder on Monday. Manuel was reminded of it.

"You have to remember, he's going to bobble some balls," Manuel said. "I mean, everybody that we put over there is going to bobble some balls. Brooks Robinson used to bobble balls. That's part of the game. Every time somebody says that he has trouble fielding because a ball gets by him or he bobbles a ball or something, that doesn't mean he's not a good fielder.

"I mean that's one. If he's botching 3 and 4 a game, yeah, then we have a major problem. Micheal is fine there. I trust him. I trust him 100 percent. I think he's going to be very good. He backhanded a ball the other night that popped out of his glove, but he still kept is cool and calm and threw a guy out. He still knew where he had to go rather than trying to get the double play."

So that, as they say, is that.