The guy I want to see up here is Brian Tallet. Not because he's so great, but because he's left-handed. Gibbons clearly seems to believe that a man must have a LOOGY and a man must use him as such. Fine, but this means that the second most experienced man in his bullpen, one of - count 'em - two guys with an actual record of successful relief pitching in the major leagues, is basically doing... nothin'

I couldn't agree more. Vermilyea is just taking up space at the moment. Let Gibbons loogify Tallet and move Downs to gen pop. The bullpen may not have all the bullets required to excel, but Gibbons should at least be deploying those bullets more optimally than he has.

Free Scott Downs. Free Scott Downs. Attica. Attica.

I find the Accardo situation interesting as well. When considering the Jays basically kept Accardo at the expense of losing Rosario for a bucket of balls, why in the name of all that is Blue Jay is he not being used? I don't pretend to know if the results of the last two games would have been any different if they had tried to levarge Accardo at least once in that time, but going back to Marcum again in a high leverage situation one day after he spit the bit seems to me to be setting him up for failure.

<sigh>Again, I am not claiming Accardo is the silver bullet, but if you are going to make sacrifices to keep a guy, make the sacrifice worthwhile!</sigh>

I think its time to closely examine JP’s successes as a General Manager even if there is a more carefully researched and sober analysis which says I am wrong. 

 First, I look at the current roster and I think 1-9 it is decent and that JP has put together a useful rotation   When these elements are more-or-less in place I have to look at management problems when the team plays poorly - I think the third base coaching has been terrible, Gibbons swaps pitchers too often - yet somehow they always seem to face one batter too many,  Adam Lind has a reputation as a questionable fielder, but the fielding mistakes I see him making are mental (playing too deep) which should be something either another outfielder, someone from the bench or a coach can help with - which suggests a lack of leadership.  There is other evidence of this - Alex Rios has a future superstar label on him but has a lower OBP than Frank Thomas who has a batting average lower than his weight - which is odd considering that JP originally seemed to be a moneyball GM; I am taking Alex's low OBP to mean the team either isn't buying into JP's leadership or JP's plan isn't working.   Brandon League's off season conditioning should have had some supervision, the team had a big investment in League and I think letting him overtrain is unacceptable - if a trainer phones two players a day he can check on the entire forty man roster in a month; with video conferencing etc he could monitor techniques. On this front, I am going to say that  JP hires the management team, he is a stakeholder on these issues and shares some blame.

Second, I look at the problems with the roster.  We have McDonald and Smith who play essentially much the same role, and Royce Clayton who I think offers a lot of good veteran presence and poise but isn't really much better than the two previously mentioned infielders.  Jason Phillips is at best a quadruple-A backup at both first base and catcher.  I am about 100% certain that Zaun's legs will fall off  in or before August; he simply can't handle this workload.   Matt Stairs is a decent player, but I am not sure an American League team really needs a pinch hitter.  Looking short term at at some of the smaller moves JP has made lately, you have to look at the Eric Hinske trade as one where we lost a player who we could use, and we let Speier go when he would look very good in our bullpen right now.  Based on the rumours we have heard about the team's budget Hinkse and Speier would not have impacted the bottom line all that much.  All these failures are on JP.

Third, I look at the minor leagues and I think we have seen a lot of disappointment.   We have confirmation now that the Jason Arnold trade was a complete bust, we received nothing in return and the player we gave up developed quite well.  John Ford-Griffin(?) isn't looking like a prospect and decision time on many of our other minor leaguers strikes me as close at hand.  To me, the Jays have to make their run this year or possibly next (Halladay is declining, Thomas and Glaus are near the end of their careers) and for that to happen we need an everyday big-leaguer not named Lind to come out of the minors quite shortly. If our team can't do this, I have to evaluate JP's success at stocking the minors as a failure.  Since JP hasn't had much luck with trades and roster moves that were meant to pay off in the far term, there is not much hope he would be able to rebuild a team that has made its run.

I can't rule out that  team policies in scouting, training, and conditioning have some accountability for injuries    In addition to what I said about Brandon League, JP's staff owns some fractional amount of the responsiblity for the injuries to BJ Ryan, Glaus,  and Johnson

So if I were in charge, JP would have until July to make the on field product better, fix the problems with the big league roster, and show he has some big league caliber talent in the minors.  Failure to do so would cause me to "repurpose" JP and hire a "Director of Baseball Operations" by August 1st to run the on-the-diamond, and scouting organization until the season ends when JP's position as GM would be made redundant.

Well, at least the bullpen didn't blow the lead this time.  It's nice to have some variety in what we can complain about.  Rance talked about the offense being at the root of the problem, and I tend to agree with him.  The rally killing double plays and the doubles with two-outs were crushing.  And the bullpen (and Towers) were pitching scared, worried that any mistake is going to blow the game because the offense can't bail them out.  It's a vicious circle and everyone is pressing.  There is a bit of a funk in Jays town.

And the umpiring of this series has been absolutely awful.  Cuzzi seemed to be guessing last night and he gave Towers nothing on the corners, so Towers was always pitching behind.  And him calling Clayton out "swinging", Phillips out (after he fouled a ball off his foot) and Wells out (after he had fouled a ball into the ground) and then changing his mind indicated to me that he had lost complete control of his faculties.

Wow, if it wasn't for the Indians, the Jays would be in last place!

They say you can't win a playoff spot in April... but you can definitely lose one... and the Jays are doing a good job at it...

Is it just me or does Jason Smith look like a AA hitter at the plate?

They just need to hold the fort and go .500 for a month or two while they heal, and they need to get a hit with McGowan or maybe even Purcey or Romero .  Having sparky return as a 4th outfielder, Glaus back at 3B hitting 5th, Ryan healthy and closing again, maybe even League back and a successful McGowan replacing Ohka, and this team would be vastly improved.  A lot of "ifs", but that's baseball.  I predicted before the season that this team would not be going to the playoffs with the #3, #4 and #5 starters they had, and the Jays need for one of their young guns to put it together, and they need to get healthy.  Houston, Oakland and Minnesota are recent examples of teams who started off slow only to come storming back to get into the playoffs.  It's way too early to count the Jays out, but I'll admit it's discouraging and every game counts, another great thing about baseball where the regular season really does matter. 

Pain makes you numb.

It looks like we're just not good enough to win when: 1) Sparky, possibly the best leadoff man in the game is not playing. 2) Glaus, our number 5 batter is out with injuries. 3) Thomas, our number 4 hitter has a no-show clause in his contract until mid-May. 4) Ryan, our closer and one of the best closers in the game is out injured. 5) League, our "new Speier" has morphed into...who knows?

Five key losses few teams could cope with.

If in Boston; Lugo out,  Lowell out, Drew not all here until mid-May, Papelbon out, Timlin out.

If in NY; Damon out, Giambi out, Rodriguez under performing untill mid-May, Rivera out, Proctor out.

Pain makes you numb BUT lets not jump into Lake Ontario until we're losing with a near full house.

From what I saw this weekend, the Jays will be finishing 4th in the AL East. If you get 7 walks in a game and you still only score 2 runs, something is wrong.

Winning these 2 games in Boston is mandatory.

I have nothing to add about today's game or roster moves, but I'd just like to take a moment to document the fact that the current catcher for the New York Yankees is *Josh Phelps*.  Andy Pettitte pitched an inning of relief, so I guess they're going all-out in this one.

ChicagoJaysFan,

I just wanted to comment on a couple of your points.  First of all, I agree that it is very hard for the Jays to put together a winning streak with the rotation that they have.  Ohka and Chacin 40% of the time will keep any winning streak in check.  The Jays need for some of their top pitching prospects to come through, and soon.  The offence will come around, I have no doubt about that, and the injuries will heel, but Ohka and Chacin are what they are.

To touch on another comment you made, I don't think you have to worry about J.P. signing any expensive free agents, unless Ted Rogers goes George Steinbrenner on us.  Assuming no trades or signings and reasonable arbitration estimates, the 25-man roster on the 2008 team is already closing in on $100 million.  What you see is what you get with this Jays team and it's system, in my opinion.  That's why the development of players like McGowan, Purcey, Romero, Lind, Thigpen and Adams is so important.

Robert,

Adam Lind stands precisely where the coaches tell him too. He's not there to lead, simply to hit and catch the ball.

I believe what the original poster meant was that the coaches were demonstrating a "lack of leadersip" by not telling him to stand in the right place. I don't think leadership is quite the right word to use there, but that's how I read it.

The moneyball label as it applies to JP is and always was pure smokescreen. JP's only plan is to acquire good players and fit them in the budget he's given

Which is, basically, the essence of "Moneyball" - find players whose best attributes are undervalued, hence building the best team under a given budget. The continued caricature of "Moneyball" as "OBP-ball" is absolutely baffling.

Yes on the Smith/McDonald/Clayton trio - only two of them are necessary.

Actually, I would argue that only one of those three, plus a SS who is actually good at baseball, is necessary.

Every team needs pinch hitters

Not really. Certainly not as much as they need realistic options for a fourth OF or backup 1B/3B on the bench, which are things that we DON'T have because of carrying the redundant Smith/McDonald combo and the mostly useless Stairs.

Hinske would look good right now, no argument there. But when JP decides you're not his kind of player, you get shown the door.

Any GM who who would get rid of a player that is useful and helpful to the team because he is "not his kind of player" strikes me as arrogant and grossly incompetent.

Ash's problem was making dumb trades, and, so far, Ricciardi hasn't done that.

This can be easily demonstrated to be false. Just because it was mentioned above, I'll point out that giving Hinske away to the Red Sox for a bag of balls was not terribly bright.

Halladay/Burnett/Chacin/Ohka just can't match Schilling/Beckett/Dice-K/Wakefield

I don't really see why not. Assuming Halladay is healthy, he is certainly a better pitcher than Schill at this point in their careers. Beckett didn't exactly dominate in his first year in the AL, an I've never bought into the hype over him; again, assuming Burnett is fully right, I'd take him over Beckett. Chacin and Ohka are nothing special, but neither is Wakefield, and Matsuzaka is unproven against ML-calibre (and especially AL) lineups.

I think we're at a point right now where a move is necessary. 

I'm not sure if this is something we're likely to see. Lind is an adequate and possibly better replacement for Reed Johnson. The bench remains unchanged, and if JP wasn't willing to improve it before the injuries, I don't see how he would now. Glaus will be coming back and it is not unreasonable to expect above average production out of this lineup. The only real loss is the bullpen. But with the cost of bullpen help relatively high (see what the O's paid for their pen) and the performance of bullpen help relatively volatile, I think it may be in the best interest of the Jays to stand pat in that particular regard.

Hinske will not be a saviour of this team, but he's probably as ideal as it gets right now without selling a good piece of the farm for a unimpressive, quick fix. That said, if you could pull off a deal for Lidge where we essentially pay peanuts, please give it a shot.

Pick your rotation. I left out peripheral stats such as K:BB, which are tilted heavily in favour of Boston.

These stats are over such a small number of IP as to be completely worthless. Look at Beckett and Burnett over their careers; their numbers are very similar. Look at last season, the first for both pitchers in the AL; admittedly, Burnett pitched fewer innings due to injury, but still had the much better year by almost any measure. I can see absolutely no reasonable argument that Beckett is a better pitcher than Burnett, which means that the Jays' top two are better than Boston's. Sure, I'd probably rather have Matsuzaka/Wakefield than Chacin/Ohka, but I don't think it's nearly as big of a difference as most people are assuming it will be. Certainly, the two rotations are AT LEAST very comparable.