Lefty Matters

One of our side projects here--dating all the way back to spring training, before he started chucking beebees in AAA--was to sing the praises of, boost, encourage, etc. lefty starter David Purcey. Might we have a new beau? (More later).

Purcey got hung with the loss last night (despite posting his second quality start in his last 3 outings), but has been making visible progress at the big league level. Shutting down a raking lineup like the Rangers through 3 a week ago and the Tribe again last night is an accomplishment of sorts. Purcey's got the stuff to win at this level, and now some of the official responsibility for teaching him how to deal with big leaguers the second time through the lineup falls to BA Barajas and Brad Arnsberg (and unofficially, elder statesman Roy Halladay).

I make no bones about the fact that I've always prefered Purcey to Jesse Litsch, though I take no joy in the relative success of the former and minor setbacks of the latter. However it breaks next year, it is reassuring to know that there will be a real competition between relatively young, controllable and hopefully ERA+ neutral starters for the back 2 spots in the rotation in spring training.

[Other names to watch: Brian Wolfe, Davis Romero (quietly putting up a fantastic season for the Chiefs after missing all of 2007 to a torn labrum) and potentially Casey Janssen (see: Romero, Davis).]

Enter Ricky Romero, a bust at 23, the guy the Jays took over Troy Tulowitzki (he of the 76 OPS+ away from Coors Field), and the second blackest mark on JP's draft record after Russ Adams.

Expectations were naturally high for Romero, the 6th overall pick in the 2005 draft out of Cal State Fullerton who netted a record $2.4 million signing bonus (compared to $1.7 million for Snider in 2006, $1.44 million for Kevin Ahrens in 2007, both top Jays picks in successive years). He was very much part of JP's draft strategy of targeting college pitchers who could be expected to hit the bigs faster than their high school counterparts with higher ceilings. That strategy has more than a few detractors around these parts despite the success of Casey Janssen and Shaun Marcum.

Romero did not fare particularly well at New Hampshire this year, posting a 4.96 ERA, a 1.59 WHIP with 55 BB and 78 Ks in 121.2 IP in his third crack at AA. He had ratcheted it up of late, but probably got a promotion to AAA mostly because someone had to fill the spots vacated by Dave Purcey and Scott Richmond and 21-year-old wunderkind Brett Cecil had already been bumped up. We need a guy, you're a guy who's supposed to have potential, let's dance.

Romero has risen to the challenge (in defiance of everyone who called him a bust?), putting up 3 good starts so far for the Chiefs, including an excellent one last night. Quick recap: 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 hits, 3 BB and 10 Ks in a winning effort.

Given all of the shuffling around him, it seems a given that Romero will start out next year in AAA at age 24, just like college righties Marcum and Janssen before him. He needs to lower his walk rate, but something might have clicked with the young lefty. Is it conceivable that he makes his big league debut next year? Certainly. Will he excel? I wouldn't take that bet. Are we pulling for him? Hells yeah.

And some people are still calling Wilner to ask how Gustavo Chacin is doing...

-- Johnny Was

On the Road again...

Be thankful that's not a pic of Willie Nelson.

A couple of player movement issues of which to make note. The Ginger Flash takes his slumping abilities to Syracuse to see if he can work out the bugs that have led him to give up 15 runs in his last 12 2/3 IP and a 6.12 ERA since the first of June.

Promoted into his slot is the much anticipated David Purcey, who JP says they are going to take an "extended look at." It's a move that system watchers have been longing for and excitement 'round these parts is high.

Some may ask "Why not Parrish?"

Several reasons - First: to send down Parrish now is to put him through waivers, which is unwise until we know the status of McGowan and Burnett; Second, Litsch gets a pressure free environment to work out the kinks (maybe with the help of Mel Queen?) and third, we need to know if Parrish can pitch at this level too. Looking at the schedule, I hope that the Jays bump Parrish from Friday to Saturday, in so doing they can assure that he, not Purcey, falls on the off-day July 31.

In another bit of happy news, the Manchester correspondent over at Batters' Box reports that after tonight's game Brian Jeroloman got the word to pack his gear for a promotion to the "Trips". No word yet on the corresponding demotion, but my guess is that it's Eric Kratz. This is exceedingly good news because it lets JPA catch every day (which a guy with a middling defensive game needs) and it lets Jeroloman test his hot bat and marvelous batting eye against AAA pitching.

This effectively signals the end of the Thigpen era as a Jays catching prospect, he'll be traded, moved to another position, or become an organizational soldier until he's a six year minor league FA. It also is a clue that Robinson Diaz is probably not ready to go back behind the plate regularly and won't be for a while. Alternately, maybe JP knows he's got a deal cooking for a major league catcher and Diaz is going to come straight to the bigs when that happens.

In either case, Robby better recognize he's on the clock. His window of opportunity to establish himself before Jeroloman and Arencibia are ready for the majors grows increasingly more narrow.

Finally, not a player movement note but still of interest - Ricky Romero put his seventh consecutive good start and now has a sub 4 ERA in that span. Could it be he's turned the corner? We can certainly hope.

~WillRain

Injuries to Starting Pitchers are Strictly Prohibited by Law!

Casey Janssen? Why, God? Why?

Hrm, well, hopefully somebody cleaned up on his 2008 Jays injury pool because it was unexpected to the extreme that he'd be the first victim of the "I" word.

Before we jump to any conclusions, it must be noted that we really don't know if this is anything serious or not just yet. Janssen smartly took the extreme precaution of raising the alarm at the the earliest possible instance, which is commendable since he did get himself temporarily in JP's dog house for concealing back woes in 2006. He's gone in for an MRI, which may well show that there's really nothing the matter with his throwing shoulder and this was all just normal aches and pains.

What we do know, however, is that this pretty much kills any hope of Janssen heading North as our fifth starter.

Since Janssen is a valued contributor to the club (unlike Victor Zambrano), this injury will have to be handled with kid gloves (unlike it was last year with Victor Zambrano). Even if he is pitching again before the end of spring training, there just won't be enough time for him to stretch out for starting duties by the end of the month. If he's healthy, he'll be back in the bully with the rest of BJ's Men, which means somebody like Wolfe or Tallet undeservedly gets bumped. That being the case, newly acquired shit-disturber Armando Benitez doesn't have a taco's chance of making the roster.

The upshot is that the starting job Janssen was highly likely to win has now pretty much been thrown into Jesse Litsch's lap. Gustavo Chacin threw two hot, stinky innings against the Yankees today and I think it's time for the final member of the Chacin Man Booster Club to turn off the lights on his way out. This is a one man race from here on out, provided there are no further injuries to the staff.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike Litsch or anything, I just liked Janssen better. Waaaaay better. From the club's perspective it would've been preferable to hold Jesse back at Syracuse so he could gain experience; he has a mere two AAA starts under his belt and his major league peripherals show that he danced with the devil in 2007. It would also have been nice to have him ready as the first in line to come up as an injury replacement and, selfishly, to keep his service clock from ticking.

I think we all accept that everything has to go perfectly this year for the Jays to get a deep whiff of a playoff berth. If Janssen's not starting this year we're pretty much pooched when one of Doc/AJ/McG/Marcum gets hurt with Litsch already in the rotation unless everything comes together beautifully for big lefty Dave Purcey. Or less probably, Ricky Romero. I'm really pulling for Purcey. You can probably abandon all hope if Gus Chacin gets more than a handful of starts this year and you know we're dusted if you see any of Josh Banks before September.

Please don't throw tomatoes at me, but I think it might be a good idea to get something done with Kyle Lohse. He could be stashed in the pen if he's not needed as a starter. His ERA+ has been on the right side of 100 (just barely) two years out of rhe last three and a fair chunk of those innings came in hitters' parks in Cincy and Philly. And if everything turns out rosy by mid-season, it's pretty likely you could find someone to take his contract off the books and chuck in a low-value prospect. Apparently the Orioles expressed some interest last week, but that's been about it.

On a brighter note, we were quite pleased to receive shout outs from a couple of the big swingin' dicks of the Jays blogosphere, DJF and The Tao of Steib. We just take it one game at a time, always give 110% and try to get our uniforms dirty...

-- Johnny Was