Hello again!! Let's do the Lind-y Hop!!

Yes, I am back!

As an explanation of my absence, allow me just to post his photo.

Okay, so you can't be too mad at me for f***ing off for a while, I made a human being.

Yeah yeah, he's rad, pees a lot, poops a lot, eats a lot, best thing that ever happened to me, blah blah blah...

LET'S TALK SOME BASEBALL!!!

I'm not going to get into Spring Training and what I think of the whole team just yet, I just wanted to write something that had been on my mind for a while, and obviously it has to do with the title.... the Lind-y Hop! Here's what that means.

The Blue Jays need to hop on the back of Adam Lind.

What? What about Bautista? Lawrie? Romero? Santos?

Those guys are great players. Lawrie gives me a half-lob. But the Blue Jays are only going to go as far as Lind carries them (or whoever is hitting fourth, but Lind will have to hit his way out of that spot, which I sure as hell hope he doesn't).

The Jays have an interesting strategy at the top of their line up. It's not altogether unique, but in my mind it is short sighted. They want guys with great OBP (Escobar and Johnson) to hit, walk and will their way on to first base in front of Jose Bautista and then sit there so that he actually gets pitches to hit, he can smash some bombs, rope some doubles and cash guys in. This is why Rajai Davis was hitting 9th not leadoff last year. First, his BA is usually fine but he rarely walks, leading to a poor OBP, and secondly they didn't want him getting on, swiping second and then Bautista getting nothing but low breaking balls to look at or spin himself into the ground at. The same can be said for the approach this year as it looks. No real wheels from either Yunel or Kelly (Yunelly?), so it's station to station for the top 3 guys.

Here's why this is flawed:

1-You need to have faith in your clean up hitter. I know most teams are sticking their best hitter at the 3 spot nowadays but you have to believe that, over the long haul, your 4th guy is going to make your opponents pay for not pitching to your 3 guy enough so that they can't automatically walk him unless its pushing across a run.

2- You have to put the pressure on the other teams D. Get guys moving to cover bags, let your 2 guy hit and run, rock some double steals. Maybe the pitcher has the baserunner dancing off first in his head just enough that he rushes his fastball to the plate and it flattens out and becomes BP. And if that means we have guys on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, or a guy at 2 with one out, and they don't want to  pitch to Bautista, then Lind has to make them pay for putting on an extra baserunner.

The only way that Bautista is going to see the fastballs he REMs about is if Lind puts in the mind of managers that he's a bad bad man. Pujols needed Matt Holliday. Bautista needs Adam Lind. The Blue Jays need to not put their whole offensive game plan around one man, even if he does have a sexy latin stubble beard.

Hence, The Lind-y Hop!!



Oh, and AJ Burnett broke his orbital bone bunting in spring training for Pittsburgh. What a dummy.They say it could heal as fast as 7-10 days.... let's see how long he milks this one. Oh boy.

J's make A's feel like F'in L'ers

I just so happened to be at the park tonight.

A buddy of mine was in town from VanCity for one more night, and we had spoken about taking in a game, but weren't able to get to anything opening weekend, so it was Tuesday vs. Oakland or bust.

I went to the game with a hint of begrudgedness. Seeing Jo-Jo (pronounced Ho-Ho?) Reyes pitch is not something on my bucket list. His opponent, Brandon McCarthy, doesn't exactly stir my loins either. The A's in general; only worth watching because of their utter beatability. Let's suffice it to say I was not expecting a great game.

Boy was I wrong... what a roller coaster ride.

Here's some quick thoughts on the game and the team:

Yunel Escobar became my dick lips temporary moist maker tonight with his walk-off come from behind game winning home run. What a stud.

Jo-Jo managed to prove that he is completely undeserving of the injury induced opportunity afforded him, without costing the team a winnable game. That's a cheap lesson Farrell, you know a BP arm when you see one, send him packing. His fastball showed a little bit of life, but he doesn't have a single decent complimentary pitch, let alone 2 or 3 to make him a viable starter. He's Purcey-light (who finally won me over today, he was lights out. That 94/95 MPH heater is impressive in person. Plus he mixed in his slider effectively.)

John Rauch is very tall, but not very nasty. Everything about him screams intimidation, but a flat 87 MPH fastball and a run of the mill cutter aren't intimidating anyone. His stat-line today looks allright, but everyone was squaring him up, just like 2 days ago when Span knocked the eventual game winner over the fence, and his defense absolutely bailed him out.

The Jay's have a hell of a defensive team. You probably won't see many of the plays on the highlight reels from tonight, because they didn't necessarily end up as outs, but Yunel made a diving stop to save a run, Snyder made a great throw from left to gun down a guy at 2B (Hill bobbled it), and Rajai tracked down everything in center. Lind actually looked pretty adept over a 1-sack too.

Nix is a nice little acquisition. The guy played hard, had good ABs and played a good 3-bag. I'm happy to have him with the team. Once we are healthy, maybe he can stick around instead of McCoy.

The running game is exciting. The only thing that pops up obviously on the score sheet is Hill's swiped bag, but you can just see how it affects the other team. Hill advanced on an error on a pick off his next time on. Rajai tagged and scored on a foul out just a little behind 3rd base in a great read by Brian Butterfield. This caught the A's by surprise and forced an embarrassing throwing error by Kouzmanoff (his 2nd of the day). And then on the very last pitch of the day that ended up in the Oakland bullpen, I have to believe that Balfour had Davis running 4.4 fourties in his head when he served that fastball up to Yunel. It manifests in so many aspects of the game, and even aside from that, it's just so much more exciting to watch as a fan than station to station baseball. I love it.

Bad teams find a way to lose, and good teams find a way to win.

The Jay's haven't been out of a game so far this year, and today they even did it without Jose Bautista and JP Arencibia.

3-1.

Great start to what looks to be a very exciting season.

Bautista signs 4th richest contract in Blue Jay's history

5 years $65 million guaranteed.

After much speculation as to exactly what kind of payday Jose Bautista's monumental 2010 season would garner, we have a concrete answer.

The contract breaks down thusly; $8m for 2011, $14m per for 2012-15 and a $14 million club option for 2016 with a $1m buy out. I thought it might be clever to cover some of this contract in the here and now, load it top heavily and have his contract be less obstructive as time goes on, perhaps freeing up more money when the Jay's are into their targeted competitive point (2013 and beyond, most likely), but apparently the opposite was more beneficial to the Roger's corporation. I'm not an accountant.

So, this contract has the Jay's and Bautista linked until he is 35, potentially 36, which I suppose is a good age to have a contract end (for the Jay's). Usually players look to sign long term contracts around the 32-34 year range when they are at the twilight of their peak, sign for 4-6 years taking them into their late 30's and then, most likely, retire. We won't be overpaying Jose for his knitting years. He'll have to earn another contract at that age.

This seems like a lot of money to me based on the fact that Bautista has only 1 productive MLB campaign under his belt. But then, if he had a longer track record of doing remotely what he had accomplished in 2010, we wouldn't get a sniff at the guy for this amount of money.

So, it's a mutual risk. If he regresses to the 10 bomb hitting Pittsburgh Pirate, we got bamboozled. If he hits 50 dingers for 5 straight years, he's the steal of the century. But neither one of those things is going to happen, quite frankly, with both seeming as unlikely as the other. What the Jays are betting on is that Jose will have a floor of .250, 30 HR, 100 RBI with an OBP of .350, which seems pretty legit. If this is his line for the next 5 years, maybe we overpay slightly with this current contract, but not terribly. Anything above that line and we draw a little smiley face on his pay cheque.

Alex Anthopolous said it well when he explained that you have to bet on someone, and he and his team of scouts were happy to bet on Jose Bautista. They bet on him because of his attitude, his work ethic, his ability to be a bridge between the young spanish speaking players, coming up soon or already there, and the english speaking players, and they bet on him as a leader of the clubhouse.

If you are a Blue Jays fan, now you've been asked to bet on Jose Bautista too.

Jays sign Podsednik; close to deal with Bautista

At a table full of hungry diners, we may well now have cutlery.

The Blue Jays have signed another player of the table-setting variety in speedy Scott Podsednik.

He has signed a $1M minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. This after declining his $2M option with the Dodgers in hopes of finding a better offer. But hey, what american ball player wouldn't pay an extra mil to live in Toronto instead of LA?

At first glimpse, I thought this was a sign that Rivera is on his way out, as has been oft rumored, but there are many other reasons that could be behind this move. Scott's main weapon is his legs, and to have a guy who can come off the bench to pinch run and swipe a bag for you late in a game; thats a luxury. 

He can play left or center, he's even played some right should something dire transpire, so he certainly adds a little flexibility. He's also not a bad little hitter, although a quick glimpse at his career stats tells you that his .297 avg last year could easily dip.

Right now, the idea is for him to compete with Corey Patterson and Mike McCoy for a bench spot, which I think he easily takes. Although older than Patterson, he seems to have maintained his bag larceny longevity  at a higher clip.

I'm sure he has every expectation of making the club, and if he does not, some other club will be happy to pick him up at $1M for the season. To me it seems like a great, competitive signing with almost zero downside. There is no youngster Pod stands in the way of, and if the right offer rolls around for old man Rivera, we've got another grey-beard perhaps even better suited for the team waiting in the wings.

It sounds like the Jays and Bautista are closing in on a supposed 5-year $65M contract. To me, this seems like too much, although paling in comparison to the monstrously horrid contract of V-dub. Of all of the soon to be free agents, I find Senior Jose's to be the most perplexing. What do you pay a guy who scrapes along in the big leagues until he's 29 and then explodes for the most HRs in team history?? Apparently $13 per.

Now, it's no secret that the Jays have strapped on bit of an eye-patch when divvying out there treasures this year (abstract Pittsburgh Pirates reference? no? allright.). They have something rappers all love, booty to spare. Their competitive target is realistically 2013 and beyond. If they are smart, maybe they make this contract top heavy and pay him $20M a year for the next 2 years and then drop down to the $8.35 range for the next 3. Just a thought.

In any case, I would expect we hear an announcement of a long term deal sometime tomorrow, Friday at the latest.

What do you think he's worth?

Young Guns: The Starting Rotation

With the hangover from the Superbowl slowly clearing (both fan-wise and whiskey-not-so-wise), my attention now shifts solely to the baseball season. I will certainly tune in to watch the Canucks win the Stanley Cup (sorry leafs fans, maybe your kids will witness a winning team), but my excitement lies in the provocatively close beginning of the 2011 Show.

Let's talk starters.

The 2011 Blue Jays will be a young team, and nowhere will this be more emphasized than in the starting rotation. At a combined 124 years of age, for an average of 24.8 years old, the Blue Jays will boast the youngest staff of starters in all of baseball (assuming my predictions will come true. They will.). Here's how I believe the rotation will wind up once the competitions in spring training have concluded.

1- Ricky Romero
2- Brandon Morrow
3- Brett Cecil
4- Kyle Drabek
5- Marc Rzepczynski - Don't misspell his name.... it's Marc with a C.

The first 4 spots are all but set in stone, while the 5th spot has a huge array of competitors. Let's break it down.

Ricky Romero will be the leader of the bunch at all of 26 years old and with just 2 years of MLB service. He has the fighter type mentally you want from your ace out there on the hill. Some guys will get tagged for a few runs early, figure they don't have it that day and start wondering what's for dinner. You need your ace to be a bulldog whether it is 1-0 or you are down 0-4, and I believe Ricky has that ability. He needs to show a little more command of his hard sinker this year if he wants to be the truly dominant pitcher he has shown flashes of. Last year, his curveball became his out pitch because batters stopped offering at his devastating change-up. While this did wonders for the consistency of his breaking ball, he needs to address what was happening with his best pitch, the change-up. In my opinion, he must have been tipping the pitch to batters somehow. If he can get that weapon back to it's full potency, he will have no trouble transitioning into a genuine ace.

Morrow, at 26 and with 4 years experience becomes the wily vet. His 2010 began with enough up and downs to make my mom motion sick, but the last stretch of his season, before being shut down on an innings limit, showed what everyone in Seattle and now Toronto had been waiting for. Capped off by his 17 K, 1 h performance against a tough Tampa lineup, Morrow proved that he could be an upper echelon starter in this league for a long time to come. He is the one guy in the rotation able to miss his spots and get away with it due to overpowering stuff. He just needs to stay healthy. Great trade for the Jays.

Brett Cecil lead the team in wins last year with 15. A slightly less flashy, slightly more economical version of Ricky Romero, I see no reason for him not to continue his success. He fits very well in the 3rd spot. Plus the goggles are dead sexy.

While it will be said (by people who are required to say such things) that Kyle Drabek will be competing for a position on the team  just like everybody else (blah blah blaaah), that simply isn't the case. Fans are still anxious to find out exactly what we got for our beloved Doctor Halladay, and the face of that trade is now Kyle Drabek. This is the year we will get a full glimpse of the young chucker with the famous dad. No pressure. Unless he literally takes his pants down in spring training and poops on the mound, he is going to have a spot in the starting 5, whether it be as the 4th, or, I believe more strategically, as the 5th starter (more on that strategy later). Drabek features a plus fastball and a very good curveball which will be his bread and butter.

Which leaves one spot up for grabs.

There will be no shortage of competition for this remaining starting gig. The contestants include:

Jesse Litsch. I am sorry, but I just don't ever want to see you on that mound; something opposing batters would never say. Every time he gets out of an inning, I stop holding my breath. Just grab the bats.

Zach Stewart. A very interesting candidate who arguably out-pitched Drabek last year in AAA. This is one of our arms of the future, and we could see him before the year is done, but I see him starting the year in AAA to work on a 3rd pitch to compliment an excellent fastball and slider. That is, if the Jays continue to develop him as a starter. A dark horse.

Scott Richmond. This guy has a great back-story and is impossible not to root for. Aside from that, he also has some pretty nasty stuff including a great 12-6 curve and a hard biting slider which, unfortunately, lacks consistency. And that is the key to why he will miss out on the 5th spot; consistency. He has the ability to go out there and shut a team down for 7 innings and rack up some K's, but he also has the ability to get hit all over the park. The runner up.

And , the victor, Marc Rzepczyinski. I didn't even log on to the Jays website to check the spelling this time. The worst and best thing that Marc has going for him is that he is starkly similar to Romero and Cecil. He throws a few more breaking balls, featuring a slider as well as a curveball. This is a man who lives on the groundball, with all of his pitches having sharp downward movement. He also gave up very few homeruns in minor ball, something that hasn't translated to the bigs for him yet, but should. He will be the steady 5th starter the team is looking for and should round out a strong young rotation that can grow together.

(Note: I have only discussed the few players I believe have an actual chance of winning the job. Several other barfy options such as Jo-Jo Reyes ad Carlos Villanueva will be considered to be in the running as well. In the running like the jamaican bob-sled team...... Cool Runnings. Those guys never had a chance, mon.)

The strategy that I said I would come back to pertains to something the Jays sorely lacked in 2010; VARIETY. Marcum, sinker pitcher, out pitch: change. Romero, sinker pitcher, out pitch: change. Tallet, Cecil, Dana Eveland, pretty much everyone we threw out there last year except Morrow was the same, and even mostly lefties. A team could face us in a 4 game series and literally see 4 pitchers with the exact same approach.

Baseball is a game of timing, and you can imagine how a day after facing Tim Wakefield knuckleballs for 4 at bats, its going to be hard to catch up to a Josh Beckett fastball. Well, conversely, if you faced a lefty throwing 90 and trying to get you out with a changeup yesterday, it can only get easier seeing the same thing today.

The Blue Jays had very little variety to their rotation last year- something that I feel negatively affected Ricky Romero as he ended up slotting into the 3rd spot in the rotation due to timing of starts at the beginning of the year. He consistently had a copy cat chuck going the day before (Tallet, Cecil) and a mirror image (Marcum) the game prior to that. I would love to see how he fairs with teams facing the hard throwing young righty Drabek the day before. They should offer more different looks this year with Morrow and Drabek splitting up the lefties and Rzep being more about the breaking ball than the change. They just have to decide if they want to have Cecil and Rzep back to back (Drabek as the 5th starter) or Rzep and Romero (Drabek as the 4th starter).

As I said, this group projects to be the youngest in baseball, and no doubt, there will be growing pains. If Rzep, and to a lesser degree Drabek, doesn't fair well out of the gates, he has a myriad of replacements waiting in the wings, including all the guys listed above and Dustin MacGowan (remember him?), should he ever find himself healthy.

All in all, I find this an exciting time for Blue Jays pitchers. We have no over paid stop gap options preventing our young'uns from developing. To compete in this wildly unfair division, we have to adopt an approach akin to what the Rays have done, and that means sticking with our young talent and hoping allllllllll those scouts were right. With any luck, our pitching staff and young position players should reach their peaks at around the same time and give us a ball club that can compete for years to come.

Agree? Disagree? Care to quote odds on Kyle Drabek placing his stool on the Dunedin rubber? Join the blog and post your comment below.

Opening Day Starting Lineup

Finally, a calm in the Antho-storm off-season for me to do what I have been craving to do; SPECULATE!!

There may be a few more minor moves, (Kouzmanoff rumors, bluchhy) but for all intents and purposes, the team is basically set, so now all that's left to be decided is how best to deploy the troops. And I think it might a go... a little something... a like this...

SP-Ricky Romero
C- JP Arencebia
1B- Adam Lind
2B- Aaron Hill
3B- Jose Bautista
SS- Yunel Escobar
LF- Juan Rivera
CF- Rajai Davis
RF- Travis Snider
DH- Edwin Encarnacion

This is easy. There are no great mysteries here. This is how I would march them out there, this is how you would march them out there. This is how John Farrell will march them out there.

If we acquire a 3B before the season starts, he will start at 3B, Bautista can make the move to right field where he actually prefers playing, and have Snider slide over to left. This gives us a much better defensive outfield, and assuming this mystery man is one of the rumored players (Kouz or Figgins), we actually get better D at the hot corner too.

The strength of this defence lies in the middle of the infield with two of the flashier, long ranging middle infielders in all of baseball in Escobar and Hill. I expect to see amazing plays from those two on a regular basis, and  couldn't ask for two smoother sets of hands for turning double plays. Oh yeah, and if one of them misses a game, we have Johnny McDonald. He ain't bad either.

The weakness (potentially... well, probably) will lie with Lind's attempted transition into playing first base. This is an experiment, and while in peewee, this is where you stuck the kid that couldn't throw, the position holds massive implications for team defence and overall success. One dug-out short hopper vs. a ball skipping into foul territory can easily decide a game, and a game can decide a series and series' decide the season. I honestly can't see him being spectacular, but hopefully he picks it up quickly. Another positive is a focus on defence could take his mind of his AB's and let his natural stroke take over again. We need that.

I don't think there will be any debate over who will be the opening day starter, barring injury. Some narrow minded folks will make a case for the upside of Morrow as our supposed ace, and he may well end up with a better statistical season if he can carry some momentum from last year and maintain it, but Romero is the guy. He's the leader of this young staff, hands down, and we will largely live and die with his performance over the next several seasons. I think live. More on the starting rotation and bullpen to come later. Just wanted to set up the opening day battery.

Arencebia will have some growing pains behind the dish, but certainly has the raw physical ability necessary. Learning behind a defensive magician in Molina can't hurt either. He's got a cannon, but blocking might be an issue. Game calling will come with experience and familiarity. Fortunately, he has had the opportunity to catch all the expected starters, except for Morrow, mostly at the AAA level over the past few years. Dig it.

To round out the outfield, and the D entirely, Rajai Davis is a total speedster in CF. He may not take the precise routes that Vernon had a knack for, but will absolutely make up for any slow jumps with blazing speed. I don't think we lose too much there.  Rivera is serviceable, with an above average arm, especially in a left fielder, but below average range.

All in all, I believe the Jays will be a middle of the pack team defensively. Brian Butterfield is as good as they come in an infield instructor, and if his work with Lind pays off in spades they may even be an upper-tier defence.


NOW, what we are ALL anxiously awaiting, the opening day batting order;


1. Rajai Davis  R
2. Yunel Escobar  R
3. Aaron Hill  R
4. Jose Bautista  R
5. Adam Lind  L
6. Juan Rivera  R
7. JP Arencebia  R
8. Edwin Encarnacion  R
9. Travis Snider  L


I do not think this is their best line-up. That is not what I am speculating here. I do, however, believe this is the card Farrell will hand to the umpire before the opening pitch is thrown.

Davis is something the Jays haven't had since Rickey Henderson; a genuine speed threat on the basepaths. Not 1st to 3rd speed like Shannon Stewart and Vernon Wells had; take off flying for 2nd speed. The speed of Davis and the bat control of Yunel Escobar will give John Farrell a plethora of options should our leadoff man gets on. Rajai needs to see more pitches though. A high average is great, but a high OBP is much more important from that top spot.

I know Bautista had a monster, monster season in the 3 hole last year, and he's probably comfortable there, but, c'mon, you hit 54 dingers and you're the cleanup guy. Thats just how that works. Plus we don't really have another option there given Lind's irrational paranoia over the number 4. I suppose Hill could take some hacks there, but he doesn't quite offer the intimidation one would hope for in the heart of a lineup. Hill and Lind could swap 3 and 5 spots, but I like Aaron and his legs at the top of the lineup. I'd rather have him trying to score from first on a Bautista double than Lind.

The rest of the lineup is very interchangeable and I'm sure will be juggled a great deal, depending on who's hot. Rivera could easily slot lower but I figure John Farrell will want a veteran bat sandwiched in between two young sluggers. Someone who won't have the streakiness of an up and coming hitter.

Snider is a power guy, and realistically should be in the middle third of the order. I do see him hitting there later in the season, but for now he fits in at the bottom of the lineup. Encarnacion and he could flip flop periodically. Neither one is your typical 9-guy, but that might not be a terrible thing. I might be inclined to stick Encarnacion at the bottom. He basically strikes out or hits a dinger anyway, so you will get a lot of fresh starts at the top of the order. Get that man a pitching machine that throws nothing but sliders. He stinks.

One thing that you notice looking up and down the lineup is an imbalance of right handed hitters. While it would be nice to have more of a balance throughout the lineup to give opposing starters more to think about, it is a better problem to have than too many lefties. There is no such thing as a "righty specialist" that can come in and batters will have an especially hard time with. Hopefully teams will be more hesitant to have a lefty warming up just to face Lind or Snider should they come up in a critical situation.

So, how does the lineup look? Powerful. I don't think there is any doubt about that. Aside from the top 2 in Davis and Escobar, there is not a guy in there that doesn't have 25-30 HR power. The plan this year is to have more people on base when those HRs go flying out of the yard. Whether that happens remains to be seen.

We can definitely expect a little more small ball at the top of the order. I don't know about you, but the thrill of someone taking off for 2nd is something that has been sorely lacking from the overall entertainment value of a Blue Jays game for years.



SO.... how does the lineup look to you? Have a differing opinion of who the opening day starter will be? Have an even lower opinion of Edwin Encarnacion than I do?

Post your opening day lineup in your comments and tell me why I'm wrong, wrong, wrong.

Napoli flipped for RP Francisco

Mr. Anthopolous keeps interrupting me while I am pondering what area of the Jays to cover next. Yesterday I was mulling it over, about to go get all-you can-eat ribs with the wife (not a metaphor), when news dropped that Napoli's stay in the Jay's organization was only a long weekend.

Napoli, you're out, Frankie Francisco, you're in.

This makes a lot of sense to me. I attempted to explain the move to bring in Napoli, and did it damn well, i thought, but ultimately it didn't fully fit with their youth movement, and I expect the keys to home plate to be fully handed over to J.P. Arencebia next season. He's not going to catch 130 games, but he'll be given ample opportunity to make the job his for a long time to come. Napoli goes to an organization that has no obvious need for him, having signed Torrealba for 2 years, but he's the type of guy it's very nice to have on a team. The Blue Jays are not at that place yet.

In Francisco, we get a power arm. Not Jason Frasor power, real power. Frankie's not going to diddle on the corners. He comes mid 90's, and he comes with a good split. Aside from Accardo, which I don't reeaaaally count, we haven't had a relief chuck on the team with a decent split since Henke. Frankie Francisco will not walk home the tying run. He comes at you.

Okay, so we have brought on 3 guys with former experience closing. Some of my fellow Blue Jays enthusiasts have said to me "Great, why the hell are we bringing in so many closers?". Let's be clear. This is not a spring competition for one spot and the other two guys go home. This is gathering powerful arms to replace some of the production we lost in Downs and Gregggg (good god I'm glad he's gone). Hopefully one of the guys does indeed emerge as our closer for the season and we don't have the rotating door we had unsuccessfully for many years here, but what a luxury; to have 3 guys comfortable in pressure late inning situations, especially during the course of a long season when someone invariably gets hurt. And not just on our team. Contending teams (I'm not saying we won't be this year, but... c'mon) are willing to dispense with solid prospects for late inning help should they lose an integral member of their bullpen, be it the closer or setup man. No one wants to step into the playoffs with a glaring gap late in games.

I have a feeling it will be Francisco coming in for the ninth. Dotel strikes me as more of a setup guy in this juncture of his career, but there is something to be said for experience, and he could certainly step in if need be. And don't count out Rauch: He's 6'11. 290 lbs. That's large. I'm not feeling particularly comfortable in the batter's box staring up at a mountain.

Also, it's not at all as if these guys are purebred closers who will be unfamiliar with the 7th and 8th innings. Francisco only had one real season in Texas with the closer's stamp while Rauch has spread his saves around and Dotel has yo-yoed in and out of that role his whole career.

Francisco also has been very tough on Lefties throughout his career (.214 BAA), something that cannot be boasted of Rauch and even less of Dotel, who last year had a BAA of .301 vs. lefties (ewww). This is even more important given the fact that the Jays do not have any real shut down lefties on the team since the departure of Downs.

Plus they free up another $2 or $3 million dollars, depending on where Napoli lands with his arbitration. And Francisco is another one year contract guy, so they could be looking at compensation picks if he performs well and then takes his show elsewhere. Mind you that was true of Napoli too, but he was probably not going to be getting everyday playing time to build up the numbers required to be a class A or B free agent.


OKAY, so...... how do you feel if you're down 2 runs vs. the Jays going into the 7th or 8th inning? I'm not really looking forward to seeing ANY of these guys, let alone the impossible to lift Shawn Camp and the streaky Jason Frasor, who I'm never confident in, but seems to get it done. Add Casey Jannsen and Villanueva for some long relief and Purcey spraying his 93 mile per hour fastball ALL over the place like a batting cage with a glitch, and I think the Blue Jays will find their bullpen to once again be a strength this year.

And with a starting rotation this young, we might very well need it to be.

No missteps yet Alex A, keep the good work going.