End of an era

Bad news, which I'm sure you've heard by now. ESPN and several other news outlets are reporting that Reed Johnson has been cut. Hit the showers Johnson, you're done...

As I've said several times - unless Reed is too injured to play, this is a terrible move by the Jays. A cheap move, I should add, as one of the reasons they cut him was $$. The worst part is, the writing was on the wall that he was going to be cut, and because all the other teams knew that, they weren't going to give up any talent to acquire him when they could just get him for 500K or a MLC when JP and crew inevitably cut him.

I really hope this move doesn't backfire down the line. I know it's just a fourth OF, but I don't feel confident giving the job to Stewart at this point in his career.

Twitchy.

Beggars can't be choosers

It seems the Mets are being a little bit picky about who they want as their fourth OF. Not that they're in a real position to be doing this, but Rosenthal states that:

The Rays ideally want to replace Rocco Baldelli with a switch-hitter who could provide strong late-inning defense in right field and back up B.J. Upton in center. The Angels' Reggie Willits fits that description, but is said to be unavailable. Free agent Kenny Lofton and the Brewers' Gabe Gross are among the left-handed hitting possibilities. The Blue Jays' Reed Johnson, a right-handed hitter, also might fit, but many clubs view him as an injury risk. The Mets like Johnson, but would prefer an outfielder with more power.

So now the Rays are getting in the Johnson rumours? This one came out of Left Field. Still, it's hard to see why clubs would think of him as an injury risk. I mean he only had major back surgery. It's not like he had TJ surgery or anything...

Still, it's funny that the Mets want an OF with more power. If they got an OF with more power, he'd probably be starting...seriously, New York, you're not exactly dealing from a position of strength here. Take what you can get.

Rosenthal had some more news on Janssen & League

One Blue Jays official described the season-ending loss of right-hander Casey Janssen as "a gut shot," but right-hander Brandon League looks like he might fill a significant bullpen role. League, who pitched in only 14 games due to shoulder and oblique problems last season, is throwing 92 to 94 mph — not as hard as he did in 2006, but hard enough for the Jays to envision a possible League-Jeremy Accardo-B.J. Ryan combination in the late innings.

I'd heard League was throwing 96, but all this good news on League seems to indicate that he's going to be playing a key role in 08. I can't wait to see how dominant he could be in a full season.

Twitchy.

Morning Roundup

Casey Janssen is out "indefinitely", which means that no one knows yet if/how seriously injured he really is or how long it'll be before he starts throwing again. The results of his MRI are in, but the Sun says that the club isn't ready to share them with the unwashed masses just yet. Start lighting the little white candles.

Early reaction from the chattering masses of Jays fandom quickly morphed from "oh, this is terrible" to "this must somehow be JP/Gibby's fault" in a matter of seconds. If you jumped to that conclusion, consider yourself rebuffed with extreme prejudice via MacLeod:

Gibbons said Janssen had a sore shoulder a couple of times last year, but it was not serious.

"It was no big deal," Gibbons said before yesterday's Grapefruit League game at Legend's Field, a 6-1 victory by the New York Yankees. "We gave him two or three days off and he was fine."

Another mistaken assumption from many yesterday was that the Armando Benitez signing was a reaction to the Janssen injury. As it turns out, that deal was done earlier on in the day (for some reason). MacLeod's reporting that he's badly out of shape but is throwing the ball well. His best hope of making the club is as a mop-up man. Get him a ticket to Syracuse already, will you?

Alan Ryan speculates that lefty invitee John Parrish could be stretched out to give Litsch some competition for the final spot in the rotation, but it sounds more like he was thinking aloud than reflecting on club policy. I said yesterday that we should throw some dough at Kyle Lohse, a 1-year deal for $3 million?, and I haven't changed my mind overnight.

The Mets are indeed still expressing interest in Reed Johnson, who is "looking good" in spring traing so far according to Jays officials. Hahahaha! Sparky's been a loyal foot soldier and I guess there's some consulation for him going to a playoff contender if this goes through. He'll have to learn Spanish, though, but still. He'd get to steal bases, too!

We already knew this, but Gibby is making clear to all that Gus Chacin is not competing for a starting job and is almost surely ticketed for Syracuse.

ELSEWHERE:

* I never got the whole "Juan Rivera is the odd man out" line from the Angels beat. Back in 2006 the former-Expo had a breakout age 27 season--his first as an everyday player--and put up a very Alex Rios-y line. It all went pear-shaped in winter ball, where he broke his leg. He lost pretty much all of last season as a result. He plays all three OF positions and has no major difference between his lefty-righty splits.

With Torii Hunter in centre and Vlady in right, allegedly ahead of Rivera on the LF depth chart are Garret Anderson (a sentimental fave screaming for full time DH duties), Gary "Sarge" Matthews Jr. (he of the outrageous contract), and Reggie Willits (a scrappy little guy who swipes bags and has been threatened by Mike Scioscia with a savage beating if he should ever hit a homerun). I'd take Rivera over all three of them, but that's just because I like players who can hit and/or aren't old and broken down.

Lo and behold, new Angels GM Tony Reagins says that while the OF situation is crowded now he isn't going to just going to dump a solid player as other GMs come calling for a bargain. (Omar Minaya, I'm looking at you!) While Rivera might be a depth guy this year, he's still under control through 2009. This is pretty great news because it takes off a superior righty OF bat off the market that desperate club's would've preferred to Reed's. Haha, Mets!

* Josh Beckett is highly unlikely to make the club's trip to Japan. It's a two game set with the A's on neutral ground, but the crowd should be heavily (if not entirely) pro-Boston. Instead of Beckett-Blanton, Matsuzaka-Harden, the Bosox will have to throw out whom exactly? Tim Wakefield and Jon Lester?

* It's really too bad that Bill James works for the Red Sox front office, but he doesn't let that stop him from sharing all sorts of fun information useful to rival clubs.

* It really doesn't matter who was right or wrong: is there anyone in this world beyond Yankeedom who'd sympathize with the Yankees over the Rays should things get nasty?

* Are you feeling CRAZY? Then why not give your life savings to Lenny Dykstra's Luxury Car Wash/Investment Firm!

-- Johnny Was

Morning Roundup

A few weeks ago I made a note to self to start reading Jeremy Sandler, the baseball writer at the National Post, and then proceeded to ignore it almost immediately. Well, shame on me because he's a very solid writer, superior to most of the others I cite on a daily basis.

While the familiar faces at the Sun, Star and Globe were churning out near cookie cutter stories about a) Eckstein's scrappiness; b) Rolen's happiness; and c) Doc's spectacularness, Sandler dug a little deeper and decided to check in on an overlooked player we should be keeping tabs on, David Purcey.

Purcey is a physically imposing left-handed starter who was JP's first pick (16th overall) in the 2004 draft. Bastian has this scouting capsule:

The Good: Few left-handers around can match Purcey's combination of size and velocity. He's a big-bodied power pitcher whose fastball sits in the low 90s, and he can dial it up to 95 on occasion. He flashes a plus slider and also mixes in a change. Prior to 2007's unique injury situation, he had been a durable arm who carried his stuff late into games.

The Bad: Purcey's secondary stuff remains inconsistent, as does his command, as he's struggled with mechanical troubles throughout his career. Because of his limited arsenal, many ultimately project him as a reliever.

The peanut gallery has already labelled him a bust since he's entering his age 26 season and has yet to master AA. Expect the chorus to grow louder if Yankees "phenom" Phil Hughes, who was taken seven picks later, starts off well this year.

You might wonder why someone who's yet to put up an ERA under 5 in a full season at AA by his mid-20s would still merit the 'prospect' label. Last year Purcey started off gangbusters at New Hampshire, prompting many of the learned elders of Jays fandom to hop on board the bandwagon. He was then predictably felled by injury--he had surgery in June to remove cysts on his forearm, a bit of that going around--and was limited to 11 AA starts for the year. But, teasing us once again, he tore up the AFL, striking out 25, allowing only 11 hits and posting a 1.23 ERA in 25 IP against some of baseball's top prospects.

The chattering classes are now saying that if anyone in the Jays system is capable of pulling off a Dustin McGowan in 2007, it's David Purcey.

Back to Sandler. While JP cautions patience because not all prospects break on the same timetable, pitching coach Brad Arnsberg is a bit more frustrated:

"With that body and his stuff," Arnsberg says, "I was hoping he'd have year in the big leagues by now."

Arnie is pushing Purcey to push himself:

"I just said, 'You know, you're treading water, kid, and you got guys that are going to be passing you up there that shouldn't be passing you,'" Arnsberg says. "It's time for you to become a big-leaguer. We [were] having to send you back to Double-A to get your stuff straight and it's time for you to turn that corner."

Arnsberg says Purcey must be the self-declared ace in Syracuse this year. "He shouldn't go there thinking, 'I'm going to be one of the five starters.' He wants to be that guy that, 30 innings into a big-league season, if we have to make a phone call to get a starter up here, he should be that guy.

Having recently been diagnosed with ADD, Purcey is now taking medication that should enable him to focus better at this make or break point in his career. He's also a bit older, wiser, and hopefully capable of making the leap to the bigs. If AJ Burnett does depart after this season, there's a potential rotation spot waiting for him in 2009.

One shouldn't make outrageous, premature comparions, but it's worth nothing that this power lefty didn't really break until he was 25/26 and he went on to have a pretty decent career.

Looking at the other papers, Adam Lind is going to AAA with the right attitude. Should anyone get hurt this summer, he's immediately back in the mix. And we all knew he's in the fold for 2009 regardless. He took on a pretty serious offseason training regime and has let Matty Stairs take him under his wing, both smart moves so long as he doesn't suffer a keg stand injury. Lind doesn't blame Mickey Brantley for his hitting woes last year, which is noble because the man's no longer around to defend himself, but I'm going to go ahead and fault him anyway.

Why does The Star let pretty much anyone write baseball columns?

Brian Wolfe has been pitching like his job depended on perfection. It kind of does, so cool.

The Beej might throw in a real fake game this weekend.

ELSEWHERE:

DJF has been doing its damnedest to start Reed Johnson internet trade rumours, and looky here, the Mets will be without Moises Alou until mid-May at the earliest. Git'er done, JP! You'd figure Reed's game is more appealing to a NL team and he could keep David Wright company as the other token white guy on the Mets.

-- Johnny Was