Condolences Part 2

In my rush to point out how sad it was that Benitez would be leaving us, I forgot to add the most important part of that story. On June 5th, Brian Wolfe was taken off the D/L and optioned back to AAA. On June 7th, 2 days after being optioned to AAA, he was brought back to the majors, and Benitez was DFA.

Obviously the walk off HR played a huge part in Benitez being DFA, but what it shows is a lack of managerial competency. An option year of Brian Wolfe was essentially wasted because they couldn't make room for him for one day, and then the next day he's brought up because the incompetent reliever who had his spot went from having some to no value in one day.

The Jays may never need to use Wolfe's option years again. But next year if the Jays need to option Wolfe down, and he's out of options, then he'll have to clear waivers (note: I'm not sure how many option years he has left). And I would hate to lose Brian Wolfe simply because an option year was wasted like this. The fact that one of his option years was wasted for essentially one day just shows a lack of foresight on Riccardi's part.

What should have happened? Benitez still had a respectable 5-6 innings to his credit before his implosion and future status as the latest DFA-Jay. Some team could have sent a minor prospect for him. And even if nobody was willing to give a prospect, you might as well have just DFA Benitez then and brought up Wolfe so that an option year wasn't wasted. But optioning him down for essentially 2 days, and then DFA-ing his replacement after a bad game just boggles the mind.

Twitch.

Condolences to my fellow Jays fans

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Armando Benitez and the Jays parted ways today. I don't feel like quoting the article, but suffice to say the Jays told Benitez "it's not you, it's me". Brian Wolfe was brought up to replace him.

Oh, Armando, we hardly knew you. I remember it like it was yesterday - that game against the Orioles that you blew by giving up a 2 run HR, costing us the game (note: it was yesterday). I'll always cherish your return to the National League - you gave up a walk, and an ER in 1/3 of an inning. And that time again Minnesota - your Jays debut - when you gave up another HR and a walk in 1/3 of an inning. Oh Armando - fly free! I'm sure you'll find a team again! The Yankees need an aging MR to fill in for Joba, and you'd be the perfect fit!

In other Jays news - Vernon Wells is back, to which I can only say WTF!!11?!!111? I didn't expect him back till late August, so this is both a good sign for the Jays and a bad sign for my medical career.

Alex Rios continues to stink up the joint by hitting 269/345/346 over his past 26 AB. I don't think the pressure of his contract has gotten to him, but something is clearly wrong with Rios. Is he coasting because of the contract as John Brattain suggests?

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but would it kill the Jays to use Stewart's sprained ankle as an excuse to bring Lind up? Stew's one for his past 21 - Lind went what, 1 for 19 and was optioned to AAA. Look for Stewart to be DFA in the next couple of days as the Jays don't appreciate slumping offensive players.

Twitchy.

Ok, NOW I'm worried . . .

So, Vernon Wells is apparently out until, most likely, the All Star Break. And, by the way, Jeremy Accordo joins him on the DL today too. That's four players shipped to the DL in 3 days if you are keeping score at home.

Even the "irrational" optimist that I was on opening day, I knew this team had one of the smaller margins for error in the league. While I was convinced (and still am) that our frontline players were collectively as good as anyone's, there's only so much talent you can put on the shelf and still make that claim. Having Vernon Wells' bat replaced in the lineup by Brad Wilkerson's is a pretty massive blow.

The Jays called up "ShuttleBug" Inglett a day after sending him down, along with Armando Benitez to fill out the roster . . .

(I pause briefly to again consider the plight of Brandon League)

. . . and this forces me to conclude that the Jays saw something in Lind when he was up here that they think needs addressing with every day work in the minors - either that or Shannon Stewart has incriminating photos of JP in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.

So, what are we looking at for the next six to eight weeks? A Stewart - Rios - Wilkerson OF every single night that's what. (ugh!)

Mike Wilner suggests that perhaps Wilkerson gets the leadoff duties for a while with the need for Rios to take up some of Vernon's slack (not to mention his massive suckage since he started leading off which may or may not be a coincidence) but I'm wondering if the Jays are not going to presume that Stewart isn't going to hit well anywhere but leadoff . . . So not to dispute the oracle but so maybe you see something like this:

1. Stewart
2. Wilkerson
3. Rios
4. Rolen
5. Stairs/Mench
6. Overbay
7. Hill
8. Zaun
9. (SS)

Am I the only one who trembles in fear at having our two potentially weakest hitters in the one and two hole? Oh well, it's not like our run production can possibly get WORSE and hopefully either they will somehow manage to hit, or one of them will eventually get ditched for Lind or for a player acquired via trade.
The challenge is for the 3-8 hitters above to wake up and produce enough runs to keep us competitive until the hoped for cavalry arrives.

All that said, even I am beginning to have my doubts. It's one thing to have a Stewart or a Wilkerson or a Benitez as a role player on your team, but if they become important players, you need to be getting some breaks and right now, we just are not getting any breaks at all. The freakish hitting slump continues, and it's gotten to the point where I have to ask if there's some sort of bad karma thing going on here? Is it really SO wrong to hate the Yankees?

~WillRain

The Roundup

Yesterday's loss was a closed-fist punch right square in the gut and a mockery of all of us who've been trumpeting up our stellar pitching when coupled with the one from the night before. But lest we forget that there will be massive highs and crushing lows over the course of this 162-game season. We didn't deserve to win yesterday and we didn't. The stars were aligned.

If you're not of the level-headed philosophical nature and want to be a total douchbag about how things played out last night, you could blame JP for bringing in Scutaro, who is now dead weight because he made his first error of the season, and for the Beej's injury.

Despite the sweep of the Red Sox, this game isn't as easy as it looks when you have more than $23 million (U.S.) for two guys tied up on the disabled list.

Words to live by. Words. To. Live. By.

(For the record, I begrudgingly give it to the A's. They just look right as a team. Did you know any of their current position players aside from Ellis and Crosby 18 months ago? I didn't.)

I'm naturally curious by nature and I've got to wondering whether Jeremy Accardo is in fact a top-stepper. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it's used for those closers who repeatedly flirt with danger, forcing everyone in the park to the edge of their seats and prompting all the players on their team to move up to the top step of the dugout.

Mitch Williams was a top-stepper with great stuff. Todd Jones and Joe Borowski are top-steppers with crappy stuff.

It's been a bad week for young Mr. Accardo. Despite locking down 3 saves to date, he's yet to do it cleanly once. Here's a summary:

Apr. 2 @ NYY: 1 IP, 2H (nailed 'er down)
Apr. 4 vs. BOS: 1 IP, 1H (got it done relatively cleanly)
Apr. 6 vs. BOS: 1 IP 2H, (got the save)
Apr. 8 vs. OAK: 1 IP, 1 ER (took the loss)
Apr. 9 vs. OAK: .1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB (blown save)

I would also note that his first three outwardly successfull outings were all relatively low-pressure 3-run save situations. The last two, he came in to a tie game and another with a one run lead.

Last night on JaysTalk Wilner said he's going to ask Accardo today why he's abandoned the splitter than served him so well for much of last year and report back to us tonight. If Accardo's lost confidence in the pitch, he's certainly not going to try and regain mastery of it in the sort of high-leverage late game situation closers routinely face. I don't think Accardo is a bum; he's quite the opposite. But something's clearly needs to be done because the status quo ain't workin'.

We need the steadying hand and presence of the Beej now more than ever.

The decision to DFA Randy Wells and call up Jesse Carlson is a semi-curious one. Carlson is a 27-year-old lefty who will presumably be up until the Beej is ready to rejoin the club in a week's time or so (knock on wood). He's had great to impressive peripherals throughout his career in the minors but has yet to really translate them into better than average ERAs. He's been great at Syracuse so far this year. But seriously, though: a pen with 4 lefties? That's insane!

I really don't give a flying crap about Randy Wells (though it's too bad he left before collecting his Fazooli's gift certificate from Wilner) given the bullpen depth we seem to have, so don't expect me to eulogize him here. Keep in mind that if we do bring Armando Benitez up (he now has his VISA and has to join the Jays before May 15 if we want to keep him) and he performs, he'll likely have trade value at the deadline.

Pick 'em up for nothing, trade 'em for something: it's a can't lose strategy.

Ironically, Blair notes that Benitez has been touching 94 with his fastball and showing a good splitter, the secret weapon that eludes Jeremy Accardo. He and the Beej are moving on up to Syracuse.

ELSEWHERE:

* But down your hash pipes, you dirty B.C. hippies. Rich Harden is more seriously injured than the A's let on. Zut Alors! Quelle surprise!

* Over in the Bronx, Jeets (Daryl Strawberry's nickname for Derek Jeter between jail stints) and Posada are still ailing, but neither is expected to hit the DL.

* If you didn't pick up Zach Greinke in your fantasy pool and slot him into your bullpen, you really missed the boat, Hoss.

-- Johnny Was

Morning Update

The optimist says, "we've got Jesse Litsh as a 5th starter" and the realist says "yes, we do, but who are the crucial 6-8 guys when injuries inevitably arrive?"

The waters became somewhat clearer yesterday with news Kyle Lohse is on the verge of signing with the Cardinals. JP says we never had the money to sign him anyway (a lousy $4 million? we're that hard up?), so this was an admittedly weak fantasy that existed only in the minds of blogosphere hacks like me.

Alan Ryan squeezes out some info from our fearless leader:

"We'll probably stretch (Brian) Wolfe out," Ricciardi said. "He could possibly be a starter. Kane Davis is going to get stretched a little. David Purcey, obviously, is a consideration, but not right now. Randy Wells is somewhat of a consideration."

Non-roster left-hander John Parrish might have fit the bill – he broke in as a starter with the Orioles – but Ricciardi said he is going too well out of the bullpen right now. "We're not that smart," he said with a laugh. "All of a sudden we make him a starter. ... We could screw the whole thing up."

Ok, ok, so we're going to get this done internally. We've got the warm bodies, they just have to be used creatively. And someone(s) will have to Step Up.

I'm moving away from some of my initial alarm at our post-Casey starting depth situation. If we do indeed need an injury replacement in April, who's to say that we actually need one pitcher to fill the gap? If our 7th man continues to gather dust at the end of the bullpen, why not coordiate the efforts of a couple of arms that're capable of going 3 IP each? Something along the lines of a Tallet/Wolfe arrangement. Call it a "two-headed monster" if you to talk like JP. I think this could get us through a couple of turns in the rotation and buy a bit of time for other options (see: Dave Purcey) to present themselves. Just thinking aloud...

Wilner notes that Zaunnie's working well with new hitting coach Gary Denbo, who has had him open his stance up a bit to get a better look at the ball. The early results have been good. Shaun Marcum isn't having so much luck with his sinker, a pitch that got pounded repeatedly by the Tribe yesterday. Wilner figures he'll jettison it entirely if he doesn't get it working effectively his next time out. Bastian notes that Marcum wanted to incorporate the pitch so he would have a nice ground ball option a la Roy Halladay and was lit up yesterday simply because he went to this little work in progess again and again in counts where he'd normally use his deadly changeup. Everyone should be more like Doc, so Shaunnie is to be comended.

Adam Lind is showing some maturity. There was nothing wrong with him per se last year during his lacklustre callup, but his swing was "a mess" as he describes it. He took his first taste of failure and went back to square one in the offseason, rebuilding the sweet stroke that had us all salivating this time last year. Will likes to think he'll force his way back up around the time Shannon Stewart strains his hammy for the first time. I like to think that, too.

Lind, Curtis Thigpen, Robinson Diaz, Joe Inglett, and flavour of the month Buck Coats have all been sent down to Syracuse. I guess this means Jon from the Mockingbird doesn't have to eat a pound of raw chicken, which is good news for his lower intestine.

As if you already didn't know that Alex Rios is a million times cooler than you are, but he also has a remote controlled toy helicopter. And the affections of millions of fine young things from Mobile, Alabama to Yellowknife, NWT, but that's beside the point.

Armando Benitez is in a jolly mood at least. He makes $700g if he makes the team as a middle relief guy.

Team Canada's goin' to the Olympics in Red China! The Tao of Steib waxes ecstatic, we concur with their enthusiasm. Jeff Blair gives the lads a look in his commentary piece.

-- Johnny Was

Saved by the bell

Rosenthal managed to produce another Jays article while continuing to spread rumours of Stewa-....sorry Johnson's availability. Jays fans, I have great news for you!

Armando Benitez just signed with the Jays! Yeah! We got ourselves a proven closer! Finally, JP has come through and fixed the bullpen. Take that, JP haters!

What's that?

I'm being told by my editor that, in fact, it's not 2004.

Oh. Right. It's 2008. He hasn't had a sub 4.5 ERA since 2004. I think the thought bubble in the photo really expresses my feelings toward Benitez.

Twitchy.