The Roundup

At last check there's no word yet whether AJ Burnett injured himself after last night's unscheduled inning of relief, but rest assured, he will hit the DL soon enough and everyone can start complaining about how wrong it was for Gibby to bring him into the game last night. Do your best to tune those voices out.

When Ron Washington pulled an injured Hank Blalock in the 10th to insert his backup catcher, Adam Melhuse, at third, the Jays brought runners to the corners with one out. Melhuse has played a grand total of 15 games at the hot corner in his 8-year big league career, so Gibby called on Joe Inglett to lay down the squeeze to bring in the winning run, a brilliant call designed to take advantage of a glaring defensive weakness on the opposing team.

Damned if Inglett didn't foul the attempt off, then ground into an inning-ending double play on the next pitch. That folks, was a demonstration of both managerial competence and your TSN Turning Point.

(Ironically, earlier in the evening mlb.com posted an article praising Inglett's early contribution to the team. Thanks Bastian, prick! We alllllll know J-Mac would've got that bunt down, but he was already out of the game. I'm already composing an email to Griffin.)

What happens when you have 20 minutes to crank out copy and you're dead tired and possibly a little bit drunk after watching a five-hour game in an empty ballpark? Lines like this:

On Wednesday, the Rangers lost a three-run eighth-inning lead, made another critical error and left the whole populace of the Yukon Territories stranded on the bases. And yet, they won by playing Toronto to a stalemate until it was the Blue Jays who collapsed in the 14th inning of a 7-5 win at the echo chamber formerly known as SkyDome.

A hat tip to you, Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News.

I do admit that we here are more than a little bit excited at the prospect of seeing Big Dave Purcey make his major league debut on Friday should AJ's start be pushed back as Rotoworld suggests. Burnett was visibily pissed off to have to come into the game (and ultimately take the L) a day after throwing a side session and less than 48 hours from his next scheduled start, so it's probably not a bad idea to push him back a day. Purcey was scheduled to go Friday night anyway...

The right-listing Tigers (who have scored 30 runs in their last 3 games) will be a trial by fire for the young-ish southpaw, but I'd rather let him give it a go at them than see AJ totally phone it in.

Did I mention that I'm terrified of the outcome of that Tigers series?

And once Adam Lind gets recalled as an injury replacement for Shannon Stewart Phase 1 of Operation Overlord will have been completed.

Rando notes from Blair:

* Randy David Wells was indeed sent back to the Cubs.

* Scotty Rolen will be playing in simulated games in Dunedin by the weekend. He won't be reactivated until he's 100% ready to go.

And go check out the new "Behind the ish" if you haven't already.

ELSEWHERE:

* The Bosox are more than a little bit banged up. Ailing now are Kevin Youkilis and Coco "I don't play no mo'" Crisp.

-- Johnny Was

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

The Roundup

Now that the roster has been set and there are still three more real fake games left to be played, it's getting kind of anti-climactic around here. So here's just a bunch of random thoughts in no particular order:

* Blair checks in on League and Randy David Wells. Expectations for the former are high, the latter got his job by default. I hope RD likes crossword puzzles, because he's going to get bored as hell during the week-long stretch between appearances. JP hints he might be stretched out for use as a spot starter, and you know what? That's a really smart idea if he's just gathering dust otherwise. Wilner does NOT like my nickname R-Dub, which stung a bit, to be frank. I wish I could make up stuff like "Litsch slapped", but then again I'm not gainfully employed in the business (or in any business, really).

* Dave Perkins of the Star likes the Jays' pitching this year, but that's kind of like saying local children enjoy ice cream. You know what I like? Just randomly generating numbers like this:

If Burnett throws up an 18-7 season, he will use his opt-out clause to depart and take someone else's $20 million a season. If he visits the DL and ends up 9-8 in 21 starts, he'll stay here for his $12 million. The Jays could surely live with the first scenario.

Uh, ok.

* Bastian makes his preseason predictions, as do the dudes at ESPN (84-90 wins, only Olney really likes us but still doesn't think this is a playoff team). Rest assured folks, we are still a dark horse contender.

* As a pseudo-stat geek, I'm openly admit to being a fan of Billy Beane and the A's, so it was quite nice to see them come away with a split with the Bosox in Japan. Yesterday it was all Rich Harden, who will most likely be traded at some point this summer if healthy (to us?), and they put up 5 runs in an exciting season opener. Don't be surprised if the A's rebuilding period turns out to be quite short, which would please me to no end. (I hate the Angels NL-style of play). And with yesterday's Bosox loss were back in a tie for first place! Woohoo!

* It's looking grim for ex-Jay whipping boy turned stud Kelvim Escobar, who may end up losing the season. He always drove me crazy as a Jay because he seemed to lose focus and suck Josh Towers-style whenever he had a lead. He didn't transistion to the bullpen well, either, and seemed destined for bust status before resurrecting his career with the Angels. One more reason to dislike them.

* Now it seems as though the Orioles are backing away from trading Brian Roberts to the Cubs, which seems counterproductive. A team that won't see .500 again for three years at the least surely doesn't need a highly-paid and somewhat scandal-tinged 30-year-old second basemen, even if he is all-star calibre, right? Nevertheless. Another step backward for a once proud franchise.

* In an ominous sign of things to come, the hapless, antique-riddled SF Giants lost 4-3 yesterday. To their AAA affiliate. Brian Sabean is simply one of the worst GMs in the sport (trading away Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano, Jeremy Accardo and Boof Bonser away for magic beans, compiling the most ancient and crappy collection of position players imaginable, etc.) and his continued employment defies common sense. His handling of the Rios-Lincecum talks was embarassing, just embarassing, and I will take pleasure in seeing his team lose 100 games this year.

* Sexual harassment scandal in Deeeetroit, but it has nothing to do with any players, coaches or management. There are two parts to the story. There were very sombre accusations of innappriate touching/comments directed at one female employee by a male coworker (bad). And then there were claims that Tigers photographers shot "softcore videos" and displayed them on the centrefield scoreboard. What this really boils down to is someone prudishly objecting to a cameraman zeroing in on some fine young thing in tight/revealing clothing in the stands (frivilous), which is a time-honoured baseball tradition. And cameramen also zero in on people doing goofy dances. And people with babies. And couples. And the aged. Really, come on... do you want to ban hot dogs because you find them too suggestive? And for the record, Comerica Park is a wonderful place to watch a game, even if it is in one of the most godawful cities in America and it's near impossible to get tickets anymore.

-- Johnny Was

Simmer down, ya'll!

This being the laptop/internet era, word travels fast and crazy rumours (started by irresponsible fantasy writers at ESPN, for example) can be quashed almost as soon as they start. Thanks Wilner!

Chalk the story Twitchy brought to your attention earlier today up as a "humourous misunderstanding" that resulted from a pretty bold assumption from said writers. Neither Marcum nor Burnett will be missing any time due to phantom injuries. Collective sigh of relief.

And, in other sweet news the roster has been "set". Cutting and pasting directly from Wilner's blog we have...

Pitchers (12 - what can I tell you):

Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum, Jesse Litsch, Jeremy Accardo, Scott Downs, Brandon League, Jason Frasor, Brian Tallet, Brian Wolfe, Randy Wells

Catchers (2): Gregg Zaun, Rod Barajas

Infielders (6): Lyle Overbay, Aaron Hill, David Eckstein, Marco Scutaro, John McDonald, Frank Thomas (I guess this is where you put him)

Outfielders (5): Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, Matt Stairs, Shannon Stewart, Buck Coats

Disabled list (3): Casey Janssen (60-day), Scott Rolen (15-day), B.J. Ryan (15-day)

NOTE: by using italics I am signalling that yes, I have copied this material from another source, but no, this somehow isn't plagarism.

No surprises here. Coats gets bumped when Rolen comes back and probably Wolfe does so later to make way for the Beej. Things are unfolding as they should.

I'm kind of interested in Randy "R-Dub" Wells, who's a high energy guy and naturally pretty pumped about the prospect of tasting (?) his first taste of big league action. Buck Coats won't make us forget Scott Rolen (did we even get to know him?), but I guess that is a pretty cool name. I'm just saying nice things about everyone now, aren't I?

-- Johnny Was

Morning Roundup

Cue up the Dawson's Creek theme song (I don't wanna wait, for my liiiiife to be over....) because there's a slate of "how sad to say goodbye" stories about Reed Johnson this morning.

Mr. Cathal Kelly has V-Dub near tears (again), Stewart kind of expressing remorse at taking Sparky's job (buy American!), and JP professing to have a heart (? you've got me).

This is how Blair reports JP's justification for his decision to dump a former favourite "who played like his hair was on fire":

"We're going to miss Reed's defence and grittiness, but at this point, we decided to go with offence over anything else," Ricciardi said.

"The best way to describe it and from our end is that every time we play the [New York] Yankees and [Boston] Red Sox, you see those lineups and they're just prolific. And if something happens and we're not in a platoon, Shannon's a guy who can run out and hit right-handers."

Ok, fair enough. I'm getting weary of this whole thing already so I'll let that slide. To his credit Sparky took the whole thing maturely and was actually the one who informed Stewart that he'd won his job. Buck up, son. You'll land on your feet.

Not only does Scott Rolen's tragic finger injury leave the Jays with a potentially gaping hole at third, but it also grossified the club's spring training facility. Blair(sy) notes:

There were droplets of dried blood on the sidewalk leading to the Toronto Blue Jays' clubhouse at Knology Park, the route taken by Rolen after he suffered a non-displaced fracture of his finger (he broke the bone above the top knuckle) — ripping the nail off in the process — during a fielding drill on one of the back fields.

Hrm, that's kind of gross. Oh yes: when will he be back playing again? Rolen was dispatched to Baltimore yesterday to see the same hand specialist who dealt with Gregg Zaun last year; JP says he doesn't want to speculate on an injury timetable, but it's not going to be six weeks. A bit of a contradiction, no? It's going to take a few weeks.

Frankly, things could be worse. I googled the injury yesterday and discovered at the Fox fantasy site that Alfonso Soriano suffered a similar problem this spring (though he didn't lose a nail), missing only a week's worth of fake games. The fracture didn't have any effect on swinging the bat, though throwing was more difficult as is to be expected. So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Rolen will indeed be in playing shape by the home opener, perhaps only in a pinch hitting capacity, but nevertheless. Think optimistically here, people.

John Lott at the National Post notes that it would appear as though Randy David "R-Dub" Wells has played his way onto the 25-man roster. Well finagalled (sp?) his way on at least. Is that even a real word? As a Rule 5-er R-Dub would surely be lost to back to the Cubs if he didn't go north and JP would be out a cool $50 grand. And, yes, more importantly, it's starting to click for R-Dub after working with Brad "Arnie" Arnsberg this spring:

“The ball’s been sinking for me, and that’s been a big part of the puzzle for me to be successful,” said Wells, who started pitching near the end of 2003, his first pro season. “I’ve always been a four-seam, straight fastball kind of guy, and when I’m not throwing strikes, I’ve [had to] come in with that and I gave up a lot of hits. Now that I’ve got that sinker going, it gives me added confidence. When I fall behind in the count, I throw that sinker in there and hope for a ground ball.”

It also doesn't hurt that the boss likes his moxie, too. Note to JP: "Wellsie" is a lame nickname.

Richard Griffin's latest mailbag was posted online almost a week late. It's like someone stole the funny pages out of my morning paper (the Globe and Mail, by the way).

ELSEWHERE:

* Matt(y) Stairs(y) will be suiting up for Team Canada at the World Baseball Classic next year when he's a ripe old 41. “Whenever you get 25 Canadians in one locker room, it tends to be quite fun,” Stairs said. Presumably this is a reference to getting drunk and eating chicken fingers? If the WBC is your bag, here's Blair's piece on the political machinations with the Olympics, bringing games to Canada, and so on.

* The Yankees are still pretending that they're not concerned about Andy Pettitte's wonky back, which may force him to miss his first real real game of the season. Ok, whatever... Yesterday I implied that time lost to injury for Pettitte is key for the Jays leapfrogging the hated Gothamites in the standings this year.

* You can probably take Brewers lefty Chris Capuano out of the rumour mill. It looks like he's headed for a second Tommy John, which would probably be a career killer. But you're saying, "hey wait, didn't Victor Zambrano successfully come back from two TJs?" No, you're not saying that, are you? And John Patterson signs with the Rangers.

-- Johnny Was

Sunday Miscellany

R.I.P. Reed Johnson, 2003-2008

Reed Johnson was a beloved leftfielder, teammate and Shelby Cobra owner who always gave his scrappy 110%. He broke relatively late (age 26), which shrouded him in a perpetual underdog status even after he'd won a full time job. I'll never forget the game in 2006 when he got beaned three!?! times. He always put the team ahead of himself. He was good to great with the glove, and alright with the bat, which means he ways at least an average ballplayer all things considered. And there's a certain pride to be taken in that. You will be kind of missed, Reed, by some of us, I mean.

*****

So, we have an offseason where JP seemingly takes the lesson of 2007 to heart (injuries can derail the best of plans) and does everything cautiously, aiming to give the club depth enough to get through the bad times that will inevitably come over the span of a 162-game season. Eckstein replaces Clayton, Scutaro replaces Howie Clark (ya, him), Barajas replaces Phillips, and Buck Coats is a Show-ready OF to be stashed in Syracuse alongside Adam Lind. But going with Stew over Reed doesn't really fit the plan.

I'm going to jump to the conclusion that JP's stated aim of going with a LF platoon of Matt Stairs + warm body was untruthful from the beginning. You simply don't make the decision--to dump the superior defender and hitter against lefties--they did today (or the earlier one to pass on Kevin Mench) that being the case. One injury to Rios or V-Dub and we're going with the defensive nightmare of a Stairs/uninjured regular/Stewart OF? Someone will be called up, of course, but neither Lind nor Coats defends like Reed.

It's the peanuts involved that really stick out about the move. Reed has to be bought off for roughly $500 grand, so Stewart will ultimately end up costing about 2/3 of what he would've been paid. The savings to the club from this move is around $1 million.

If the club is so strapped, why did they give J-Mac (2 years, $3.8 million) and Scott Downs (3 years, $10 million) the deals they did? The latter was the more baffling of the two; Downs definitely should've had trade value--Scott Linebrink brought in three players at the deadline last year--or could've been allowed to walk at the end of the year for draft pick compensation. J-Mac could've been signed for less, and for one year for that matter. And now I get to wondering how we're supposed to raise the cash to sign Rios and Hill long term if we couldn't afford $1-ish million for the superior player in LF?

It all sits ill with me right now for so many reasons. And Marco Scutaro should get to dusting off his outfielder's glove, because I have a sinking feeling he's going to need it this year.

Rotoworld's take on the whole affair:

I'm surprised by the way the Jays have gone about things in left field this year. They brought back Matt Stairs, who can pretty much only play left since Frank Thomas and Lyle Overbay own the DH and first base spots. They've got a seemingly Major League ready (and cheap) outfielder in Adam Lind. They decided to tender a contract to Johnson, something I did not expect. And then they signed Shannon Stewart on top of it all. What are the Jays going to do with all these guys?

Indeed.

Wilner wasn't surprised and notes the Reed had been preparing himself for this moment since Stewart was brought on board. The club's aggressive attempts to trade him in recent weeks were compromised by the fact that everyone knew they'd have to drop either him or Stewart by the end of March.

Randy Wells did well in a rain-shortened start against the Yankees yesterday. Good for him. That's pretty much it for today, folks.

ELSEWHERE:

* If you care about the Joba Rules, apparently he's officially slated to transition from the bully to the rotation mid-season unless injury/intense suckage forces it earlier. Really, this Yankees rotation is held together with gum and paperclips, people.

* Jose Cruz Jr. is still employed? Ya, he is.

-- Johnny Was

Early Mid-Afternoon Roundup

Heyo! RD "R-Dub" Wells is starting against the Yankees this afternoon. I'm pretty sure I called him making the team the other day, so ya, go R-Dub!

Was flipping through channels here in the living room and I swear on my honour that Game 4 of the 1993 World Series is on a free preview of ESPN classic. Sweet! The Jays ended up winning this epic see-saw battle at the old Veterans' Stadium 15-14 after putting up 6 in the 8th inning. This was also the scene of Todd Stottlemyre's famous chin-first slide into third, leaving him with a giant, pusy scab for the victory parade in Toronto (which he used as a platform to tell the mayor of Philadelphia to kiss his ass). Ah, memories...

Zooming forward to the current millenium, Blair checks in on Mr. Lyle Overbay, who has been banging the frig out of the ball all spring. That's significant because a) he's recovering from a broken hand and b) usually starts off slow-like.

"I don't have good springs," Overbay said yesterday, knocking on rhetorical wood after a brisk workout with the rest of the regulars who lucked out of not making a trip to Lakeland to face the Detroit Tigers. "But the truth is, I don't feel a thing. I haven't since I started swinging the bat in November and December.

"The thing that's always let me know that I'm ready is being able to hit off-speed pitches, and I've done that earlier than normal this year. I'm staying back, and that's let me hit those pitches and hit them up the middle. That's probably why the average is where it is."

Stottlemyre gives up a second inning two-run shot to Lenny Dykstra. Leiter starts warming in the bullpen. "In my opinion it's too late," says Tim McCarver, who's calling this one for the Phillies. Oh you fool...

Reed Johnson considers himself a big swinging dick and doesn't mind tooting his own horn for any potential trade suitors:

"I don't see it as a case of me being showcased," Johnson shrugged. "But, can I play centre field every day? I tell people Aaron Rowand won a Gold Glove last year and when we were in college together, I was the centre fielder and he was the right fielder. I feel that's one of my qualities, to be able to move around anywhere."

Haha, right on, brother! Bastian notes that the LF steel cage deathmatch between Sparky and Shannon should finally (mercifully?) be settled over the next few days. The final roster should be set by the clubs March 28-29 exhibition series in Philly.

Molitor's up now in the third. So Cito went White/Alomar/Carter/Olerud/Molitor to start the order pretty much like clockwork through '93. (With Rickey Henderson added to lead-off in July). Any manager assembling that talent in that order in the interweb era would (rightly) be shorn a new one. I suppose this was a nod to the run-challenged 1991 Jays, a team that really only had three hitters: White, Alomar and Carter... Still...

Mike Wilner has a big soft spot for young Jesse Litsch, who "Litsch slapped" the Tigers yesterday afternoon. Best Wilner-ism ever!

Borders spanks a hanging breaking ball to LF for a single driving in Molitor. Greene gets yanked, Jays within one...

ELSEWHERE:

* Andy Pettitte is suffering from back spasms and was scratched from his last scheduled start. Not reading too much into this, but Chien-Ming Wang was also just named the Yanks Opening Day starter.

* It's official: World Baseball Classic games will be played at the Rogers Centre next year.

-- Johnny Was

Who is Randy David Wells?

Unlike fragile flower Bronson Arroyo, my hangovers only last a few hours, so it's back to work here at my usual standard of excellence if a few hours later than usual.

A few days ago I said I'd look into JP's recent pickup, Randy David Wells and do something along the lines of my profile of Buck Coats. As promised, here we go.

First question: is that "David" part a nickname?

Answer: no it is not.

The 25-year-old Cub farmhand and former blogger was selected 11th overall (like that matters) in the December Rule 5 draft, which means he has to be offered back to Chicago for a token amount if we don't keep him on the 25 man roster all year. One would think that if JP really liked this hulking right-hander's arm we could stash him as the 7th man in the bully, a job that requires only slightly more work than the Maytag repair man. Our pen is pretty deep, though, so it might be premature to assume he'll be going north with the big boys.

This is what JP had to saw about RD Wells (or R-Dub?) back in December:

He's a guy who can do both -- start or go in the 'pen," Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. "He gives us a little bit of depth. We'll give him a chance to come in and win a job. We've got some guys that do have options that we could send [to the Minors]."

Ok, sounds good. Everybody likes versatility, right? Hang on. Just under a week ago JP said Wells was "somewhat of a consideration" to be stretched out for starting duties along with Brian Wolfe and Kane Davis (who?). Not exactly a ringing endorsement. This is what Bastian said in today's mailbag:

Wells has pitched well this spring, evidenced by the five shutout innings he's turned in during Grapefruit League play. The only issue is that Wells' outings have all been late-inning appearances -- a time when the opposing teams tend to have mostly Minor Leaguers in the lineup. So take the results for what they're worth.

Gibbons has had nothing but good things to say about Wells, though, and the pitcher's chances of making the team certainly weren't hurt when Janssen was sidelined. Toronto has a lot of relief arms in the mix for only a couple of spots, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Right now, Wells might be on the outside looking in.

That really doesn't clarify anything, does it?

Looking at Wells minor league numbers, there are definitely some promising signs, like a 3:1 K:BB ratio through his pro career and a K/9 IP rate of 9.5 in AAA last year. Nice, nice. He put up a stellar age 22 season mostly as a reliever in A+ ball, posting an ERA of 2.74 and great peripherals across the board. He was fantastic again the next year in AA, but slowed at AAA in late 2006 and 2007 (in the notoriously hitter friendly Pacific Coast League it should be noted). His hits, walks, and home runs per 9 were just a bit too high there, which probably convinced Cubbies brass to expose him over the off season.

But what stands out as odd is that Wells pitching line starts at age 20 in 2003 at the Rookie level. Did he drop out of college? Nope... And then I stumbled across it: he's a converted catcher! Cool! So there you have it, he's come to the craft of pitching a little later than normal (because he was a .147 hitter in the nether regions of the minors).

Returning now to a useful resource I frequently plagiarize from when I need info on Cubs prospects, CubsHub.com, we learn the following:

Randy Wells, the Cubs drafted him in 38th round in 2002 as a catcher. He sputtered at the beginning of his career offensively but showed a strong arm. So the Cubs converted him to a pitcher, since the switch Wells has flown through the system. He was lights out during the first half of the 2006 season at AA before getting challenged in AAA. This year [2007] at Iowa, he split time as a starter and a reliever, without a doubt he’s much more effective as a reliever with his sinking fastball and plus slider.

Sinker, nice. That should play well with our infield defence. But it doesn't appear that Wells is cut out for starting any more than Buck Coats is for a return to the infield. A saviour this man does not seem to be for a club now semi-concerned by the loss of starting depth that came with Casey Janssen's season-ending injury.

-- Johnny Was