Hillenbrand is a fine player, but a little overpriced when the Jays got him, and creates a problem for the Jays with too many OF/3B/1B/DH and not enough spots for them all.

I'm not going to get into "overpriced", because I think that a lot of player dollar valuations I saw over the winter were just bunk (when everyone is "paying too much", you have to know that your measurements are wrong), but the Jays signed a 3B, Koskie, who has a history of injuries. They knew coming into the season that they'd need to give him days off to keep him at his peak performance. They also needed a contingency plan if Koskie were to be badly injured and miss a large chunk of the year.

Shea Hillenbrand fits into this role perfectly. When people speak of Hillenbrand blocking Gabe Gross, I don't see this at all, unless Gross can play third base. No, the person blocking Gabe Gross, the person whose signing you should be railing against if you want Gabe here on the team today, is Corey Koskie -- Koskie's signing necessitated the signing of someone like Shea Hillenbrand. If the Jays had signed just Hillenbrand and not Koskie, then there wouldn't be the same kind of worry about a strong backup at third. Of course, I don't think that anyone really wants to advocate that course of action.

I get the impression that some people just don't like Hillenbrand and are really reaching when they give their reasons why. "Blocking Gabe Gross" is, in my opinion, a completely ridiculous objection to Hillenbrand without a full-scale alternate backup 3B plan that doesn't involve a roster spot. Do we want 40 games of Menechino at third while Koskie DHs?

If Gibbons intends to bring in Schoeneweis every time there's a tough lefty, then Schoeneweis is going to make about 125 appearances this year. Every lineup in the American League has at least one tough lefty, and the SS Loogy can't face them all. It's not that the Jays need another southpaw, necessarily; it's that they need another pitcher who's effective against left-handers, even if he throws right-handed. Here are the three-year splits of the current righties in the pen (excluding Brandon League):

Pitcher   vs RH  vs LH
Speier     653    759
Walker     754    847
Batista    688    758
Chulk      633    833
Frasor     700    697

Beyond that, as I've said before and as Mike's chart underlines, there seems little need for two right-handed long relievers at the moment. I'd consider sending one of these righties down to Syracuse and bringing up Eric Crozier for a while.

Walker's share of the workload will increase, because he'll get some 3-4 inning stints. I know I'd send him out there in extra innings like a second starter, and Gibby rarely does anything that doesn't make perfect sense to me, except perhaps liking the movie The Alamo, so I'm sure he recognizes Pete's value.

Schoeneweis seems to be getting that microscope treatment I complained about yesterday. People, the main reason he's been used in 70% of the games is because they have all been close! He can rest in the blowouts and make 80 appearances that matter. Many of them will be less than a full inning. I do agree, Mike, that it seems (based on one outing in early April) he's less effective on the third straight day.

The eventual lefty-killer among the righties might be Brandon League. Right now, he's a 22-year-old kid with quite a bit of Nuke LaLoosh in him, and he's still getting used to the bright lights. September didn't count; he was a playoff MVP who felt invincible and had nothing to lose. This is his first real test as a big-leaguer, and he's understandably pressing a little. Conquering the tendency to try too hard is one of the most important steps in a player's development.

I'm not as opposed to the 12-man staff as I once was. For one thing, the bench has never been so versatile, and I can't imagine many AB for Crozier. The other concern is amplified when you play the Yankees and Red Sox but can happen against any AL club; one shootout or a 14-inning affair can devastate a 6-man 'pen for a whole series.

Erik Thompson and Ian Kinsler, but fortunately for the Rangers, who weren't going to win the division even with Walker at DH, the Canadian slugger vetoed the deal. (I'd say he "Nixed" it, but Layne Nix wasn't part of the trade.)

I have a world of confidence in Gibbons. I am sure that he will make adjustments to Schoeneweis' usage, maybe not the ones that I might have recommended, but ones that will work.

One of the items that I was considering adding to the chart was run differential, i.e. Jays up 4 runs would be +4. If there is interest, I can add it in for next time.

Schoeneweis did come in with 4 run and 3 run leads in the Tampa Bay series, and a couple of times with 2 run leads. It is true that among the 10 games, there was one blow-out, one semi-blowout, one complete game and seven reasonably close ones. This will tend to put pressure on a manager to address short-term tactical concerns.

I wouldn't call the difference between .332 and .217 insignificant given the sample sizes. The difficulty is jumping from correlation to causality. There could be all kinds of things that could be causing it, one fo them being "it's just a fluke".

Suppose you were a major league player and your manager told you: "you are going to mostly be a DH, you'll play some outfield too"

Had the team done this last year, I doubt Cat would be a Jay right now (you can decide for yourself whether or not this owuld be a good thing). When he re-signed last year it was under the understanding that he'd be a position player, so I don't think J.P. would be too happy with Butter if he pulled something like that.

I have no idea. But I do know that those splits are real. So I can either dismiss them as coincidence or I can wonder if there's a reason or reasons for them.

If they're coincidental, then there's no rational relationship here at all there -- it's as if a whole bunch of Wednesdays turned out to be mostly sunny. This isn't a very satisfying possibility to the analytical mind, but it should be recognized: sometimes what you think is a signal is simply noise with rhythm. As noted, the sample sizes are small, which increases the likelihood of coincidence.

But it's also possible that they're not coincidental, that the splits exist for a reason or reasons. There are possible explanations -- I like Ducey's suggestion that a guy who normally plays a field position is often sent to DH when he's tired or banged up a little. I don't know if that's the case here or not, but Cat has had trouble staying healthy lately, so it might be worth investigating further.

Another possibility comes from Moffatt, who recalls that Cat has stated a dislike for DHing. That wouldn't directly cause a bad performance -- I cannot envision a professional ballplayer intentionally giving less than his all, no matter what his position -- but there may be an influence nonetheless. Possibly, Cat dislikes DHing because he finds it more difficult to stay focused on the game. That wouldn't be unusual; as my earlier piece on DHing demonstrated, few players have taken to the DH spot with such enthusiasm that they built a successful career out of it. Most ballplayers like to use their gloves.

As I say, I don't know if there's a reason for the splits, and if there is a reason, whether it's predictive of the future. But you know the old rule of journalism: one instance is an occasion, two is a coincidence, and three is a trend. Whether there's a causal effect here or not, the splits are real, and they merit at least curiosity, and at most, further study and maybe even some conclusions about optimum player usage going forward.

When he re-signed last year it was under the understanding that he'd be a position player, so I don't think J.P. would be too happy with Butter if he pulled something like that.

To which, Butter would reply, "I don't make out the lineup cards, sir."

One of the age-old debates in the game is what role the GM has in lineup decisions, and for that matter, what role the manager has in player acquisitions. My own view is that the Manager should have responsibility for lineup decisions and the GM should have responsibility for player acquisitions, but that there is a consultative process on both ends. The GM may very well say to the Manager: "I told Player X that he'd likely be given a shot at the everyday shortstop job when I offered him 10 kajillion dollars this year", but it is still the Manager's decision who plays and when. The Manager may very well say to the GM: "I really need a second lefty in the pen", but that is clearly the GM's decision.

Battles between Managers and GMs about these kinds of issues are the stuff of baseball legend.

If you mean Shea "The Cat" Hillenbrand, then I'm in full agreement. But if you mean Frank Catalanotto, he's played just 35 of his 714 career games at third base, the last time in 2001 with Texas. The Jays would play Russ Adams there in an emergency before they played Catalanotto. He is flat-out not an option at third.

My god, we've created a monster...

I think the "carrots" were due to Halladay and Santana having longer stretches of superior performance under their belts when they signed their contracts. Sheets has being showing potential for a while but has only had one superior season (albeit one that was better even than Halladay's Cy Young season).