After not allowing a run in his first two starts, King Felix gave up two walks and two hits to the first five batters before coming out of the game with "tightness in his elbow." Nobody knows anything.

Weren't we recently discussing the hows and whens for Hargrove breaking Felix? It appears that things are ahead of schedule here.

You see, after drawing Zero walks in the Braves' first seven games, Frenchy has walked six times in their last six games. Last year, Francoeur drew his sixth walk of the season on June 21 (he had no walks at all last April). If he's beginning to get the hang of this whole Strike Zone concept...

I was at a spring training game this year with Atlanta hosting Toronto (well, Toronto's B squad, anyway -- six of the starting nine were not even in the city). When Francoeur stepped up for his first AB against Josh Towers, I, assuming the role of baseball maven, proceeded to pontificate to both my son and a random Georgian sitting next to me how Francoeur would almost certainly not take a single pitch in the entire AB, that he had led the league in percentage of pitches swung at in 2006. Francoeur then immediately proved that something had changed (and that I, indeed, had zero credibility). He took the first 4 pitches, swung at pitch #5, and then struck out looking at pitch #6.

Some players, but not many, take serious strides in improving their strike zone judgement. Most who improve make modest gains, ultimately proving incapable of changing their true colours. Francoeur does not have to make a full fledged Sosian metamorphisis to become a highly valuable talent. 50-60 walks would be a nice start.

Alex Rodriguez has hit as many home runs as the New York Mets

It's likely the cold weather has a great deal to do with this, but there seems to be a league-wide power shortage, save for a few exceptions like ARod and his noted fellow Ruthian infielders, Rollins and Kinsler. Oh, and Josh Hamilton, who had, what, about a 3% chance of doing anything useful this year? 

BOS: Ramirez 0
TEX: Teixeira 0
DET: Sheffield 1
OAK: Piazza 1
TOR: Thomas 1
NYM: Delgado 0, Wright 0
PHI: Howard 1, Burrell 1
STL: Edmonds 0, Rolen 1
CHC: Soriano 0, Lee 0, Ramirez 1

And, on the heels of acknowledging this list of very expensive under- achievers, a shout out goes to the O-Dog, who is temporarily (presumably) holding fort in the D-Back 3-hole with his 387/440/565 line.

(Mick permits himself a quiet smile of contentment. It's early days yet, but...)

The old magic trio of Rivera/Nelson/Stanton gots NUFFIN' on dese guyz!

The Jays did manage to give Papelbon one of his two losses last year, and actually hit .306 against him. (Though they didn't walk and slugged only .361)

Mind you, he did manage to save the other five games he pitched against Toronto, so that "don't trail" thing is probably a good strategy anyway.

The use of Downs has been the one major criticism I have about Gibbons.  Seriously: Strike out Ortiz. Intentionally wak Manny. Strike out Drew.

Everything I've seen from Scott Downs over the past couple years says he can do this.  Aarrgh.

... and even though you'll let him face Manny Ramirez, Marcum isn't allowed to pitch to Alex Cora?

 What was that someone said about the more pitchers you use, the better the chance of finding someone who's having a bad day...?

It's so frustrating.  Not that they did so deliberately, but Boston has exploited each and every Toronto injury in this series, repeatedly. 

It's a good thing that April games don't count as much in the standings at the end of the year, so management has no need to address the glaring holes in the outfield, third base and the bullpen.

Oh, wait.

It's a good thing that April games don't count as much in the standings at the end of the year, so management has no need to address the glaring holes in the outfield, third base and the bullpen.

It's too bad we can't put the general manager and the manager on the DL.  Maybe a little rest would cure these brain cramps.

So that Downs could pitch to Ortiz with a runner on first (Downs then proceeded to balk the runner to second). Downs struck out Ortiz, and was then replaced by Marcum, who served up a fat 2-0 pitch to Manny, which he clobbered. Frasor looked pretty awful today. A triple to deep center from Alex Cora???? Ick.

Third base is obviously weak, but Glaus is out for two weeks - what do you want to do? Jason Smith has been playing very well, and Ryan Roberts should be able to contribute. Adam Lind is a perfectly good replacement - possibly improvement? - for Reed Johnson, though I will concede that "fourth outfielder" is now a glaring hole.

And while losing B.J. obviously weakens the pen, the Jays didn't lose today because they don't have their closer - they lost because the manager isn't very good at getting the most out of his relievers.

Taking Halladay out is perfectly understandable - he was getting up to 100 pitches and facing the heart of the order. Bringing in Downs to face Ortiz is fine, too, because if you're going to treat him like a LOOGY, you bring him in to face David Ortiz in a close game.

  It's everything after that that went horribly, horribly wrong.

Presumably Glaus is only out for two weeks, although one never knows, and even if he does come back next week, his injury history combined with the fact that he can't  occasionally be partially rested with a spell at DH make it a strong possibility that he will miss more time later this year.   Shortstop is a problem that isn't going to fix itself any time soon.  The bullpen has enough talent to be reasonably effective, but the man pulling the strings is prettly clearly in over his head when it comes to bullpen management, especially when he has to mix and match.  That Matt Stairs is being described as an outfielder, let alone the fourth outfielder, is about as egregious a display of wishful thinking as can be imagined.

The common denominator here is management's inability or refusal to properly stock the bench this offseason.  The only injury the Jays were built to withstand was the Johnson injury - every other knock they've picked up this year - as well as those yet to come - has been and will be magnified by the negligent manner in which management constructed the roster beyond the starting nine.  It's especially frustrating because the Jays are no longer operating on a shoestring budget, and can afford to commit themselves to a complete 25 man roster.   

All of this has been forcefully and more eloquently asserted by others, in particular robertdudek.  But I put forward my version of the argument since I think it inappropriate to leave my earlier snide remark to speak for itself.   

Jason Smith has been playing very well, and Ryan Roberts should be able to contribute.

I don't know that Roberts will be asked to contribute. Jason Smith has faced a LH reliever in two of the last three games.

Why anyone is pitching to him at this point with runners on is beyond me.

I can't go on disagreeing with the likes of Gitz and Mike Green, that's for sure.  The bullpen does indeed have good arms, even though they have squandered three sure-thing no-doubt victories in the first 15 games of the season.  Instead of 8-7, the Jays should be 11-4, or 10-5 at worst (if you think BJ's save opportunity against the heart of the Tigers' order was a tough one, which is arguable).

That's really what frustrates me -- this is a good team.  They're 8-7 despite blowing three in-the-bag wins and despite not really playing all that well except for Hill, Halladay and Chacin.  This good team might not seriously contend this year, however, if JP et al. throw their hands up and play Nearest Available Scrub for weeks on end when somebody gets injured.  I really hated the 2004 season not because I blamed anybody for the rash of injuries, but because we got a steady diet of Dave Berg and Chris Gomez and a stream of JP quotes like "What do you want from us?  We're injured!"  Those quotes are back, and I as a fan am not satisfied with them.

So yes, there are excuses for this team to lose over the next several weeks.  Perfectly acceptable ones.  And, as Gitz points out, we're in the AL East -- another excellent excuse.  If we could convert excuses into wins, we'd be '98 Yankees.

If, on the other hand, competing this season is something the club is taking seriously, then I really believe a young pitcher or two have to be moved, and moved very soon, for a major-league-quality hitter (basically anywhere on the diamond except 1B, because Overbay is locked in there and Thomas can only DH).  Waiting on good players to hopefully get healthy soon and playing bad players in the interim is not a winning blueprint.  Even if those bad players have overachieved at the plate so far. 

What other way is there to avoid having 2-3 bad hitters in the lineup?  There is no help in the high minors or the discard pile better than what's on hand. 

Again, my point is not to say the sky is falling in the sense that I think the team will lose 100 games.  They can absorb a few more injuries and still be more or less average, because they still have some high-end players on hand.  But if they want to give this good team a chance to compete this year -- which I thought was the plan -- then they need position-player help, and pronto.  Excuses won't help, even if they're really, really good ones.

Why anyone is pitching to him at this point with runners on is beyond me.

The situation was Cleveland winning 8-5, 9th inning, two out, two on, Rodriguez up. Intentionally walking ARod would have loaded the bases for Giambi, who could have tied the score with a simple walk.

The real question is why was Borowski allowed to stay in? I didn't see the game, but just looking at the boxscore, he had allowed 5 of the 7 men he faced to reach base, including having yielded a homerun to Phelps.

Yes, I know. Plus it puts the winning run on 2nd, so a base hit wins it. Lousy situation all around.

Still, given the way A-rod is hitting, I might be inclined to take my chances with Giambi.

"Taking Halladay out is perfectly understandable - he was getting up to 100 pitches and facing the heart of the order."

I am going to preface the following comments with the fact that I believe the bullpen has done a commendable job to this point.

Howerver, is pulling Halladay really understandable? In my estimation, 95 pitches is a lot in the 5th inning, not the 8th. The fact that the heart of the order was due up would provide a perfectly valid reason at that point if the pitcher was named Ohka - obviously in that situation you would want your best available pitcher to face that part of the order. If said best pitcher was a groundball inducing machine, all the better with one out and a man on first. Oh wait, unfortunately for us, he was already on the mound and Gibbons pulled him!

As I see it, Gibbons had two options:

1. Put the inning in Doc's hands and let him decide the outcome (prefered)

2. If he was too fatigued, then allow Scott "Don't call me LOOGY" Downs the same opportunity

In this case, it was two strikes and yer out!

Personally, I was shocked to see Gibbons come out to get Halladay.  If that guy is under 100 pitches and going great it is very surprising to see him pulled.  That said, at least I can see what he was thinking.  Downs did get Ortiz and more times than not, Marcum will get Manny.

What really drove me crazy was to see Marcum come out for the next inning.  He came into the game, gave up a homer, a walk, and a sharp line drive for an out.  Clearly he was fooling nobody and sending him out again resulted in a leadoff walk.  For me that is the point where Gibbons sealed the loss today.

My whole evening will have a different feel because of this game.  Sad, but true.

On another note, lets hope the Raps crush Vince and the Nets.

Being damn near prehistoric...I remember when the Jay's were gods back in the late 80's early 90's. We had 11 winning seasons in a row and were a threat every series, every year. EVEN then...we used to lose games we shouldn't have. EVERY tream loses games they shouldn't.

So far, to me, we're missing Sparky leading off. Rios, before today hadn't been on base since Monday. Sparky, had that every at bat counts, I gotta get on base mentality. I'm actually quite glad we're missing him, because Lind is such a good hitter, I didn't think we were going to miss him. Sparky was good enough that he DESERVES to be missed.

We've missed Glaus' bat, but Smith and JohnnyMac's defense has been a joy to watch.

I blame all of this on Jamie Campbell.  He talked a lot about Manny's "slump" and his "slow start" and I had a really ominous feeling.  I kept thinking Manny slumps have very real expiration dates, especially in the Rogers Centre. And he had a quizzical look in his eye. Nothing like a thigh high ball over the plate to bust a slump. 

I would have been okay with leaving Halladay in, but taking him out wasn't the problem - Scott Downs did exactly what he was supposed to. And he could have done it again to J.D. Drew, and the Jays would have been out of the inning with the lead.

So far this season, Downs is averaging less than half an inning per game - of his 8 appearances, 6 of them have been for one batter only. He is actually working less than Dan Plesac, Jesse Orosco, or Scott Schoenweiss. This is a guy who's pitched 77, 94, and 63 innings over the past three years, and who last year held right-handed hitters to a perfectly respectable 258/333/429.

Modern bullpen usage is a killer sometimes. To further the point: Once you've made the (ill-advised) decision to pull Downs, why not go straight to Frasor to face Manny, who, even if he's hitting .200 in mid-April, is stil one of the most lethal right-handed bats in baseball? Rhetorical question, obviously - that's not how you use a closer, even if the eighth inning is the critical point in the game.