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.

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.

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

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