Quick Hits

There's too much news around Jays land for it to go unremarked upon here, at least in brief. What follows is more an attempt to give you an omnibus of the developments, rumors, and speculations out there than to expound on them (albeit you know I can't entirely refrain from comment).

Item - Shaun Marcum has been placed in the 15-day DL, will miss at least two starts and visit Dr. Andrews. Anyone NOT in a state of terror about this is not a Jays fan. In the short term, the impact is minimal. There are so many off days between now and the break that we will only need a fifth starter once before the Yankees series that closes out the first half. That's probably going to be John Parrish this time. Long term, say all the prayers you know that this is mild and not the harbinger of Tommy John surgery.

Item - AJ Burnett's name keeps coming up in connection with the Phillies. The decision here, from their perspective, likely turns on whether it is best to act swiftly and get more starts, or wait and get in on the presumed Sabathia sweepstakes. The Phillies don't have stellar prospects but Greg Golson and Kyle Drabek have some appeal.

Item - JP apologized to the Reds and Adam Dunn for his brainless moment Wednesday night. Dunn was not forgiving but Jocketty noted that JP had mentioned to him that he had just found out he had to fire the manager and half the coaching staff. While the flub is indefensible, I for one am inclined to sympathize with a man who - while under astounding stress - said something stupid. Perhaps it is easy to dismiss JP as a cold calculating bastard but maybe, just MAYBE, the guy really did feel crushed by the idea that he had to put four men he had hired, at least one of whom was a long time close friend, on the unemployment line. Maybe he's human.

Item - Adam Lind was called up when Marcum hit the DL. This is great news provided he gets to play. Cito was, back in the day, notorious for favoring veterans but I do not think for a minute that Lind, given how he has been handled before, was called up to sit. In fact, I would say he'll play every single day and this will be because either (a) we all know that the odds of contending are getting so long there's no point in the pretense; or (b) he's going to be featured in hopes he rips up major league pitching and makes himself a valuable chip for - presumably - Jason Bay. In any case, we can all agree that the greatest crime of all would be to sit him in the majors while Wilkerson got to play.

Item - Uncle Dick speculates that JP is on very very thin ice and cites the fact that Cito is exactly the sort of move JP would not have made (which may well be true but not for the reasons Griff cites) and smells of Godfrey (which is hardly news) - but also because, so he claims, Godfrey was incensed by the Dunn Incident.

Item - Doc was said to be "day to day" after the liner off his head, but the initial report is that he is good to go for his next start. If he had had an Aaron Hill-like reaction then there could be no doubt that the team is in free-fall for the foreseeable future. It is, IMO, beyond bizzare that this runaway train of losses is compounded by so much other bad news.

Item - last report says Hill, btw, is still out indefinitely. Safe to say until at least the break. Blair reports the concussion specialist told the team he should do nothing baseball related for at least two weeks.

Item - Mench is out and Brandon League is recalled. Obvious moves, not worth in depth comments.

~WillRain

Spring Training Notes

It's always nice to see players rebound after an injury. Spring training can be an indication of whether or not a player has successfully recovered from said injury. Unless they're doing poorly, in which case spring training is meaningless....

Lyle Overbay is off to a wicked start. In 35 AB he's hitting 371/436/514, and he's been one of the most dangerous bats to date for the Jays (that's not saying much though...). The biggest thing for me, is that out of his 13 hits, 5 are doubles. He hasn't hit a HR yet, but if he's hitting a ton of doubles, it's a great sign.

Scott Rolen's another player coming off an injury plauged season. While I refused to believe him when he claimed his shoulder was better, the numbers speak for themselves. In 26 AB, he's hitting 346/469/615. The significant thing for me is out of his 9 hits, he's hit 2 doubles, a triple and a home run. So it's not like he's getting cheap little hits, he's crushing the ball. And he's showing some nice plate discipline with 5 BB to 5 K's.

Following the Stewart-Johnson debate, nobody has pulled away or proven they deserve a spot. Johnson is hitting 265/316/324, while Stew is hitting 222/323/407. Stew has performed better to date, but I wish I could find some RHP/LHP splits. Stew does have 4 BB to 0 K, whereas Johnson has 0 BB and 4K. He's not doing much to disprove his critics, and unless he makes significant strides the Jays are likely to non-tender him. A shame, cause I'm thinking this one could bite us in the ass.

Everyone seems to be talking about how scrappy Eckstein is, but nobody is talking about how crappy Eckstein has been. He's hitting 161/278/323 so far. He hasn't struck out, and he's got a good OBP differential from his BA, but it's not a good start. Yes, I know it's spring training, but nobody seems to be talking about Eckstein's stats, so I thought it was worth bringing up...

Aaron Hill has been one of the best players to date. He's hitting 429/500/536. The slugging isn't the number that should get your attention - it's the OBP. Opposing pitchers would try to intentionally walk Hill and he'd swing at the pitch. But he's walked a couple times, and that's a good sign going forward. If he walks more in the regular season, he'll have a shot at being in the top tier of 2B in the league.

Wells hasn't been hitting so well, but he's a slow starter. Again, it's only spring training, but you have to be a little worried that Wells is only hitting 257/278/400. He's hitting for very little power, and he's not hitting for average. Knowing he's a slow starter, coming off major surgery, the Jays should bat him at the bottom of the order until he shows he's recovered and productive. They should ease him back in, rather than push him to be the best offensive player on the team. Coming off major surgery, the only thing I want him tearing is the cover off the ball when he launches it into the stands.

As for the pitching, I'm not going to focus on the ERA. The main thing is that guys like Accardo, McGowan, Doc, Litsch & Marcum have solid K:BB rates. I am somewhat concerned about AJ's 5:6 K:BB ratio, but it is spring training and he's without his curveball. Speaking of which, the season starts in a week and a half an AJ still hasn't thrown the curve. I'm extremely paranoid, so I think this is something worth monitoring.

Twitchy.