He can't if he's carrying 12 pitchers, and that appears to be the plan. So it looks like the bench will be Gregg Zaun, John McDonald, and the two outfielders not in the starting lineup.

People complain that the DH kills strategy. It doesn't, but that's not the point. Nothing so limits a manager's freedom to make moves than the lack of options, and nothing reduces those options more than carrying 12 pitchers.

Which is why, I believe, managers like to carry 12 pitchers. They want to reduce the number of decisions they have to make. If you don't have any choice, you don't have to fret and worry, no one can criticize and no one can second-guess.

Anyway, it is surely obvious that a constitutional amendment is required forbidding any team from carrying more than 10 pitchers on their active rosters...

Unless of course you're Carlos Tosca, in which case you treat the fans to 5-pitcher innings. Long live Gibby!

McGowan too? First Hill, now McGowan!

Who's converting these guys to the sinister side? I bet it's Schoeneweis. Next thing you know Doc is going to chuck it with his south paw.

Of course, Santana got his feet wet as a reliever (with a handful of starts) and he appears to have turned out okay. I think you could call him a front line starter.

In the article linked above, GM Terry Ryan and his manager offer these views:

Ryan continues to say he would prefer Liriano develop in the minors if he's not in the Twins' rotation, but the GM is not "100 percent" opposed to Liriano coming out of the bullpen.

"He'll make the decision for us," Ryan said.

Said Gardenhire: "Terry wants to do what's right for the ballplayers just like I do. But we're also going to make wise decisions about what's right for this ballclub. If (Liriano) is the best lefty and our best choice to get people out of the bullpen and he can get plenty of work in, then I don't think (Ryan) would have a problem with it. But you'd have to convince him."

Hopefully he's not as bad out of the pen as Santana was. That guy sucked. Did he have a motivational problem with coming in as a reliever?

I understand the viewpoint that there is a risk in varying the amount of innings a guy pitches. If you care about the health of your arm, you don't risk pitching 80 innings one season, 200 the next. Unless you're John Smoltz. Then you do whatever you want. But really physical conditioning should dictate the course of action.

And certainly there are many cases of starters who resent being put in a relief role, or can't accept failing their goal to be a starter. Hell, even Smoltz didn't want to be a reliever. Doesn't mean that he couldn't do it. He understood it was a different preparation, a different approach. But he knew it was still pitching and he could do it.

All Kelvim Escobar needed was direction. He probably didn't understand if management wanted him to have a career as a reliever or if he'd be going back to starting or if he'd just have to switch every year. One of the troubles with him was that he was quite good in his rookie year as a reliever (you were 15, you ought to remember that), terribly inconsitent when he moved into the rotation, then bounced back and forth, gradually improving at both.

So what if McGowan learns how to battle hitters as a reliever? Maybe he'll have trouble learning that way, maybe he won't. "He'll make the decision for us," Ryan said.

Fact is, he'll probably need some time (innings) to learn a few lessons in the big show, and the doubters wonder whether he can transfer learning as a reliever to performing as a starter or whether the whole process begins anew. But he won't have to wait until he's 30. Some guys who broke in as relievers: Buehrle, Hentgen, Hampton, Pedro, Schilling, heck, even Jim Palmer. So it's not an unprecedented learning process. But as Jays management has intimated, there isn't likely a need on the big club for his arm in the pen at get-go, but they'll need him to learn the big league ropes at some time and will get him in at the first option. If he's ready. It may be crude to bring him in only for mop-up work and I doubt they'd do that unless he had serious troubles to work on at the top level and the team is contending.

Also in York's column:

• The Jays have a monopoly on slow white guys
• Lyle Overbay can't play defence and Eric Hinske can't run
• Ernie Whitt has a bad work ethic (completely unattributted, naturally)

Tracy's team has a player that is coveted by several organizations including the Blue Jays — Craig Wilson, who can play first base or either corner outfield — but even though the Pirates don't have a starting spot for him, Tracy doesn't think the organization will rush to move him.

Also, based on Blair's update, you can almost see Marty York's unusual thinking process when looking to write an article.

-Burnett probably missing one start
-Weather is cold in visiting April cities
-Burnett pitching in cold after injury is bad
-A month can be 28 days, right?
-So if I say month and I end up guessing right, I'll be the only one to get credit
-In conclusion, Burnett is missing one month
-Stop the presses!

I agree completely with that, though I've found the Star generally less negative this offseason. It seems to be more of a subtle "Things could go wrong..." tone, as opposed to the usual "Ricciardi is incompetent and dishonest and the team is doomed to failure" routine.

How very childish of him.