Guess who's back?

According to bluejays.com, Litsch is back in the Jays starting rotation, Richmond is in the pen, and Parrish was optioned to AAA.

The move to call up Richmond was a mistake from the start, and this series of moves still doesn't fix that mistake. As I pointed out earlier, there were (and are) several options that could have been used to let Richmond play in the Olympics, and at the same time made the Jays a better team. The Jays could have used any of Brian Wolfe, Davis Romero, or even Jesse Litsch, instead of calling up Richmond.

Now Litsch is back in the rotation. I don't like him that much going forwards, but a 4.46 ERA from a 5th starter is not that bad. He wasn't pitching well, but considering his replacement, as well as the other options available, he really didn't deserve a demotion.

So at least he's back with the Jays now. Course, it might be worth looking into his service time, to see if keeping him down for a few weeks may have changed his arbitration/free agency years, but I doubt that's the reason. Hell, I doubt it was even affected much, but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

As for Richmond - he's not going to be used that much, if at all. He'll probably eat some innings when the team is out of it, but beyond that it's pretty obvious he isn't pitching any meaningful innings. I don't know why the team called him up, because he wasn't very good. It'll be interesting to see who gets used in a game first - Frasor or Richmond.

Parrish gets jerked around once again - he has a 109 ERA+, so he's been average at worst. He didn't deserve to get demoted, but he has to be the fall guy since the Jays can't demote Richmond without pissing off the Canadian Olympic team.

I guess I'm sort of happy Litsch is back, if only because Richmond's out of the rotation. But I don't know what inspired them to decide they wanted to see if Richmond could make it as a major leaguer. And in all honesty, would it have killed them to give him a spot start in Sept if they really wanted to see him pitch?

Twitchy.

McGowan to the d/l

According to foxsports.com, McGowan's been put on the 15 day d/l with Brian Wolfe being recalled. This is terrible news, but the one hope I have is that McGowan's injury problems are the reasons for his struggles. He's been a big disappointment this year, and it'd be easier to accept his issues if it was related to his shoulder. Hopefully it's nothing major, but it doesn't say in the report what the results of the MRI are.

John Parrish is the 'winner' of McGowan's injury as he'll likely stay on with both Marcum & McGowan on the d/l. Edit: TSN says that Tallet will start the final game of the Yankee series.

Twitchy.

Wolfe a starter?

Well, I guess I was half right in my last post. Wolfe got demoted - but because they want to make him a starter. Wolfe's looked a lot better against lefties this year, but it's only been around 6 1/3 innings against them. Last year he was downright awful against lefty batters, so I'm worried that making him a starter might expose that weakness.

Parrish had a terrific start, but keep in mind the Braves are a team that's extremely weak against Southpaws - as a team they have a 714 OPS, good enough for 23rd overall in the majors. So while Parrish looked sharp, a good part of that is due to the Braves lack of offense against lefties. Sell high, and sell fast...

League continues to sit around in the bullpen, waiting for the call. I heard JC talking (I muted most of the game but I needed a good laugh for a few minutes) and he said Gaston wasn't going to put in League unless the game was guaranteed for the Jays or they're down by about 10 runs. So with a 6-1 lead, wouldn't it have made sense to go to League instead of Tallet? Obviously it sounds like I'm bitter Tallet gave up 4 runs, which isn't the case. But League needs to start pitching, or he'll get rusty, and it'll be a self-fulfilling prophecy in which League won't have any control cause he isn't playing - which leads to less playing time, and more rust, and more control problems...

Twitchy.

They picked the wrong Southpaw...

With Shaun Marcum on the d/l, the Jays have decided to recall John Parrish to pitch in Marcum's absence. I speak for all of us here at The Southpaw when I say that we would have rather seen Purcey get another shot, but such is life.

The article mentions a reliever will get sent down - in my opinion, it'll be one of Frasor or League. Wolfe would be a surprising choice, although he'd be the guy I recommend. I've never been a big fan of his, and I'll join the "what have you done for me lately" train and bash Wolfe all the way down to AAA.

Odds are Brandon League (who has yet to throw a pitch since being recalled) will be sent down. Why he hasn't pitched even an inning of mop up (when Frasor has even warmed up in the bullpen!) is shocking to me. What's the point of wasting his service time if you refuse to use him?

Parrish is an odd choice - he has no options left, so he can't be sent down without being picked off waivers. So here are the possibilities of what could happen with Parrish:

A) Sticks in the bullpen
B) Sticks in the rotation due to an AJ trade or another injury (Marcum doesn't recover as quickly as was thought)
C) Is traded after a good AAA year and a couple of good spot starts
D) Is sent back to AAA and either claimed or unclaimed (my bet on claimed)

Again, the issue with bringing up Parrish for a short-term injury is you can't send him back down to AAA without risking losing him. For short-term stuff, Purcey is the right guy to bring up. If there is a long-term injury, than yeah, Parrish makes more sense. But for a short-term injury? Doesn't seem like the right move to me.

Twitchy.

(Early) Morning Roundup

Your humble narrator has taken more head shots than George Chuvalo from the Cruel Bitch Goddess Life this past week, but I press on nevertheless. There are, what, two dozen loyal readers out there, right?

As though you didn't need any reminder of the relative wackiness that accompanies the month's worth of real fake games taking place down south now, Sal Fasano stole a base on Wednesday. There you are, skeptics. Proof that John Gibbons is going to start playing small ball this year. Huzzah! (No, seriously: small ball is for cowards. Fuck off over to the National League if bunting and stolen bases pull your hair back).

Today's Grapefruit League action was marred by the worst display of working class solidarity since the unwashed masses shut Winnipeg down in 1919. Generally, I am a friend of the working man and once dated an NDPer, but I'm struggling to see why I should feel sympathic for washed up old semi-pros who get to jet across the world on the company's dime to eat sushi, toss BP for an hour or so, polish shoes, and take club house naps on a rota system. So, basically those who've parlayed their grade 10 education into a six figure salary working an 8 month a year fantasy camp job need a few thousand extra bob. Pardon me if I don't stand for the playing of the Internationale. I have two university degrees and 4/5ths of a doctoral thesis under my belt and I've got nothing but fucking tumbleweeds to show for it. Really, I'd like to add another layer of sarcasm here...

Brian Tallet probably got pushed into his fair share of lockers during high school, but I take serious offense to the amount of slagging off directed his way by Jays fandom over the past two years. He's been quietly effective against both lefties and righties during his tenure here, holding opposing hitters to a miniscule .611 OPS last year. Well, finally some respect for someone who seemed to be on the bubble: today Gibby announced that Tallet has indeed locked up a roster spot. I welcome this both as a fan of Tallet and someone who hates the feel-good schtick articles that hacks pump out about the random non-roster invitee du jour (see: Parrish, John).

Bastian kindly points out that Gibby had already issued a similar vote of confidence for 2007's Forgotten Man, Jason Frasor, meaning that we now have four locks for what will inevitably be a seven-man pen: Tallet, Frasor, Accardo, and Downs. The Beej, Brandon League, John Parrish, Randy David Wells, Brian Wolfe, and Armando "I blow saves" Benitez are battling for the final three spots.

Well, not really battling. If The Beej is ready at the end of the month, he goes north. Brandon League is achieving sexy results and may well be part of our own little late inning Nasty Boys clique with Accardo and the Beej. So it's most likely one spot that's up for grabs.

Sorry to all those Parrish boosters (Bastian included), but why in fuck's name would we need a fourth lefty in the pen? He's nice minor league depth, though. Wolfe has options, Benitez would likely benefit from an extended minor league tune up, and Wells is a Rule 5 pick who has to be offered back to the Cubs if he doesn't stick on our 25 man all year. I say its Wells rather than those other two suckers who takes the final spot in the bully, but I've always been a sucker for converted position players (Dave Stieb, Shaun Marcum, etc.).

Uncle Griff says that Curtis Thigpen "must learn to shake it off" after being sent back down to Syracuse. It probably wouldn't hurt if he also learned to hit and catch well enough to stick in the bigs. I didn't actually read the linked article because it's written by Richard Griffin and would surely make me regret wasting two minutes, but is he implying that we should feel sorry for young players who aren't good enough to make the team? If you want to root for crappy, second rate athletes, I'd advise you to stick to womens' hockey. This is a man's game, thank you very much.

I'm swearing more than usual due to the Wiser's and have developed a new appreciation for these guys.

-- Johnny Was

Morning Roundup

I think my home is now buried under the Artic ice cap and the interweb is my only means of communication with the outside world. Seriously, the snow needs to STOP. We've got baseball to play in three weeks!

John Parrish gets the flashlight in the face this morning from the Sun and the Star. Parrish is a veteran lefty reliever who came to camp as a non-roster invitee. You might remember him from his tenure with the O's, or then again, you might not. I have made dismissive comments about him in the past chiefly because I'm skeptical that any major league pitching coach can "fix" a pitcher with control as awful as his (career BB/9 of 6.63, WHIP of 1.74).

To his credit, Parrish has done a fairly decent job of keeping the ball on the ground and in the park, and his K rates are very nice, if not his K:BB. His "stuff" has always been good, especially his slider. Yet I'm doubtful of the notion that he can transform himself into a useful 7th reliever (ok, that's an oxymoron) after only six weeks in Dunedin, but there's nothing wrong with stashing him at Syracuse and hoping he works it out.

As Ken Fidlin notes, this will turn some heads:

The 30-year-old journeyman left-handed pitcher, who is being groomed as a starter at the triple-A level, pitched three innings yesterday, striking out seven of the 10 batters he faced during a 4-3 Toronto win over the Detroit Tigers.

Here's what Gibby thinks of his new rhinestone cowboy:

"John's always been a tough pitcher to hit," manager John Gibbons said, "but he was sometimes a little scattered. When he came in here this year, our guys suggested some adjustments so he'd have a straighter line to the plate and it seems to have made some difference. "We're not looking at him for our rotation, but you never know how he might help us."

Alan Ryan contradicts Fidlin, saying that Parrish is being stretched out because youneverknow, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he'll be starting in AAA.

There you have it folks, one more name above Gus Chacin's under the heading "Minor League Lefties, break glass in case of emergency."

More Fidlin. I'm an unabashed fan of Matt Stairs and have been since he was an Expo, so I was rather delighted to see this long, readable un-Sun-like profile of the man I consider the club's 2007 MVP. It's not just what he does with the bat that impresses me, it's that I'm certain Uncle Matty is just the kind of guy who'd hold a stranger's legs while he (or she) was doing a keg stand. His swan song begins next season suiting up for Team Canada for another World Baseball Classic. Sweet!

The Beej continues to make progress.

ELSEWHERE:

* Ok, Ok, contain your excitement. Red Sox ace Josh Beckett, who grew morbidly obese over the off season gorging on ribs and Lone Star Ale, is now suffering from "back trouble" that may keep him out of action for awhile. Apparently he'd been bothered by back spasms for about a week. Normally, I'd agree with the sentiment that it's bad karma to wish injury on opposing players, but I also think we all know it's going to take some outside intervention for us to squeak into the playoffs this year. So, ya, I'm going to treat this as good news even if it means I might end up going to hell for it.

* In the same vein... I'm relatively superstitious, and seeing A-Rod say his goal for 2008 is playing in all 162 games rather than any specific offensive benchmarks, I have to wonder if the New York Post just put the injury jinx on him. A-Rod hasn't really been hurt in over ten plus seasons in the bigs, so you'd have to figure he's due for a big'un sometime on the horizon. That is the second karmic strike against me the morning.

-- Johnny Was