As much fun as it is for all us armchair GM's to wheel and deal in our mind to address our team's apparent woes, and certainly that's even sweeter as when Stoeten successfully anticipated/manipulated the Mets' interest in Reed Johnson (which is fine with me but I hope it's not only the Mets who end up shopping...there's a possible fit with Seattle and Tampa Bay too, but I digress), sometimes it's the mundane boring thing that makes the most sense.
Such is the case, IMO, with the speculation concerning the blow our pitching depth took with the loss of Casey Janssen. To be clear, I have no quibble with adding minor league depth (a la Armando Benitez) in the form of any guy who will take such a deal. For instance I think the Jays should be all over Akinori Otsuka with a deal like the Cards gave Chris Carpenter after he left the Jays . . . if Janssen's injury really is career-threatening it could be a very wise move. But that said, I don't think we have a need in the bullpen now, and didn't have one before Benitez signed. Ryan, Accardo, League, Downs, Tallet, Frasor, and Wolfe. Seven guys who are known quantities, plus several more including Parrish who can be called upon as the situation dictate.
On the other hand, certainly we would be safer with more rotation depth. Beyond the presumed starting five right now, if you had to press a guy into service, it might be - according to JP - Rule 5 pick Randy Wells, or it might be David Purcey (whom the team would like to get his feet wet and his confidence under him with a couple of months at AAA at least). After that it's *gulp* Josh Banks or Gus Chacin. I probably have more hopes and expectations for Purcey than anyone save his wife and his mother, but even I have to be a little nervous about that. The average Jays fan who does not share my enthusiasm for the big lefty clearly has even more concern. And so the speculation about signing Kyle Loshe (too late) or trading for some prize, be it big (Harden or Blanton) or small (Cliff Lee) . . . one post I saw even speculated on signing Horacio Ramirez (I swear to Jebus - i should have given him the YBD Award, but if I did that for off the wall fan posts I'd run out of T-shirts before May).
The one thing I have not seen anyone else suggest is that which seems obvious to me - a lot of teams have too many SP in camp and the excess is gonna hit the unemployment line over the next couple of weeks. As far as I can figure, unless we cut a sweet deal on a trade (like Reed Johnson for Rich Harden sweet) it's foolish to bring in anyone until we see what hits the wire. Sure, it's possible that the best new guy out there is Kip Wells (yuck!) but all it costs us to wait and see is maybe two starts from Litsch. Why rush the process?
WillRain
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