To whom goes the credit for this excellent photograph of Brian in his old-timey powder blues?

It's Fabulastic.

The Fish get a ninth inning touchdown to beat the Phils

And I suppose the Lions were 16-0 last year?

The Phillies actually torched the Marlins late in that game.

Some random observations and questions:

1) The Jays now have a 64-42 record since Cito took over as manager last June.   That's the best record in the entire major leagues in that period.  With each passing game, it's becoming harder to dismiss this as mere coincidence or small sample size.

2) We all know that the Jays are pounding the ball and leading the major leagues in runs scored.  But did you know that their pitching is also stellar, holding the opposition to just 4 runs per game, the best record in the AL East?  This with a patched-together rotation, two rookie starters, a huge number of injuries, the collapse of their closer, etc.    When you see such impressive performances from rookies (Romero, Richmond) and converted relievers (Tallet), you have to wonder -- is Brad Arnsberg a miracle worker?   After producing the best pitching staff in the league last season, Arnsberg is doing it again -- this time with a batch of unheralded hurlers who were widely predicted to be, at best, average, and at worst, downright bad.

3) Casey Janssen will be the first of the huge army of injured Jay pitchers to return to action.  He's making his first rehab start on Monday in Dunedin.  Question: when he returns to the Jays, should he perhaps be put into the bullpen, so that Tallet can stay in the rotation?   Is Tallet more valuable as a starter or a reliever?  It seems to me that five shutout innings as a starter is more valuable than two shutout innings as a reliever -- if he can continue to do it.

And one more neat piece of trivia:  after Bautista went yard in the 9th inning last night, the Jays now have 12 different players who have hit home runs this season.   That's the most of any team in the majors so far.   When is the last time any major-league club managed to achieve this after just 18 games?

I think it's likely that Tallet would stay in the rotation and that Janssen would replace Burres.

The Jays need rotation help, but I think it really comes down to whether Janssen is up to being a starter. Other things being equal, I think he joins the back end of the rotation, but it depends how strong his shoulder is. Either way, the Jays might want to gradually increase his workload out of the bullpen.

How can Janssen possibly build up the endurance to be a starter when he hasn't pitched in 18 months and hasn't started in over 2 years?

I guess we'll have to see how many innings he lasts in his rehab starts.

The offense has been a pleasant surprise but I have to say the pitching depth in this organization has been amazing for the past 3 season.  It seems like every guy we bring up from AAA or move up from the bullpen is at least competent at the major league level.  And then our bullpen has been solid for a few years as well.

I don't want to drag this conversation off topic, but I'm glad we haven't fired JP yet.

Two games @ Chicago (AL), four games @ K.C., three games vs Balitimore and two games vs Cleveland, excellent territory to make major gains.  The defense is very good; the offense is very good; the bullpen is very good and the starting pitching is good enough.  Two games @ L.A. (AL), who is struggling and 3 games @ Oakland, who is struggling, room to make gains.  OFF DAY: May 11th: some time after this Romero, Litsch and Janssen are ready to return; Wade Miller, Fabio Castro can also be tried.  I like our chances. 

The 4 game series against Kansas City will be tougher than people think. Meche and Grienke are lights out this year.

The KC series definitely won't be a cakewalk, especially without Doc pitching any of them.  Of course, the Royals offence is nothing to write home about.  If anybody can score an earned run off Greinke, it's Toronto.  (I still can't get over how weird it is writing that.)

Does anyone know if we'll get tonights game in? Looks to be a storm coming...

Nice.  The club is able to finish off last night's game with the back end of the bullpen, leaving the others rested for tonight's game, with Doc going on Sunday. 

I must say, count me among those who has been very impressed with Brian Tallet, the starter. 

I must say, count me among those who has been very impressed with Brian Tallet, the starter.

Seconded.  Tallet is a big, hard-throwing guy, former second round pick who had some success in the low minors, but the knock on him is his control - 8 walks in 18 innings this year isn't atypical.  I'm not sure he's long for the rotation with the wealth of talent we have coming off the DL / up from the minors, but he does give the Jays something we haven't had in years - a legit swingman.

Cito used to use guys like John Cerutti or Frank Wills to soak up the extra inning marathons, to spot start, to hold down the fort when the pen needed a break, and the more I see of Tallet, the more I think he can handle a variety of roles in the pen - which makes him pretty useful, in my books. 

Cito used to use guys like John Cerutti or Frank Wills to soak up the extra inning marathons

Starters and relievers switching back and forth was much more of a Jimy Williams thing. Gaston actually put an end to using John Cerutti as a swing man - he put him in the rotation and left him there. Frank Wills didn't make any spot starts for Toronto; Gaston put him into the rotation for a few weeks in both 1989 and 1990 in exactly the same way and for exactly the same reason Tallet is starting right now.

Looks like a 70% chance of thunderstorms tonight for the Chicago area. Nothing like those Cleveland, Chicago and soon-to-be Minnesota outdoor April games.

I certainly wouldn't mind having this one postponed...

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=60290&hourly=1&yday=114&weekday=Saturday

Magpie, your memory is better than mine - Cerutti pitched his way into the rotation in 88.  Frank Wills was a better comp with 2 solid long-reliever seasons for the Jays - in 89 he got into 24 games and pitched 71 innings with 4 starts, in 90 it was 44 games and 90 innings, again with 4 starts, although he was out of the game after a few ineffectual innings in 91, so perhaps the heavy usage the year before wasn't pitcher friendly.  Is the swing man a usage pattern of the past?  

Is the swing man a usage pattern of the past?

Yup. No more double headers is probably the biggest reason. Possibly because Roger Craig is no longer a major league manager.

Possibly the last thing resembling a true swing man was the way the Diamondbacks used Miguel Batista in 2001. He made something like 18 starts over the course of the year, but he was never in the rotation for more than three weeks at a time. It's quite a bit like the way Williams used Cerutti, but not like the way Gaston used Wills.

And I'm thinking of how Williams used Cerutti in his rookie year (1986) - in 1987 especially and in the first half of 1988, Cerutti actually went into the rotation for an extended period of time.

Best-case scenario for tonight: play two innings, two-hour rain delay, come back with Bryan Bullington for three or four innings and win a slugfest. I believe!

Meanwhile, Athens and Sparta are beating the living crap out of each other. The Yanks knock Burnett around, but AJ can't hold a 6-0 lead - he serves up a grand slam to the Ghost of Jason Varitek. Sox go ahead 8-6, Yanks tie it up... Beckett and Burnett both give up 8 earned runs. Good times!

Bastian is reporting that Listch is off to see Dr. Andrews, not the best news, hopefully Jansenn is healthy and can be stretched out relatively soon.

AJ Burnett's current ERA of 5.47 would make him the second-worst pitcher in the current Jays rotation if he was still on the team.  He would be ahead of Purcey (and Litsch if you count him as part of the current rotation).   He would be behind Halladay, Romero, Richmond and Tallet.    Unless he has simply declined as a pitcher, the question can be asked:  how much was Burnett helped by Arnsberg and the Jays defence last season? 

I was thinking the same thing: run prevention equals pitching plus defense. The Jays' good defense helps everybody they put on the mound.

I still wonder how long all this is going to last. Eventually, the Jays will probably fall to earth, and naysayers such as the Baseball Prospectus editorial board will have the last laugh. But... 13-5. Best record in baseball. Whoa, again.

If the Jays come close to keeping this up, Cito should win not only Manager Of The Year but Manager Of The Decade. (During yesterday's broadcast, Jamie Campbell - I think it was him - said that he overheard Michael Barrett saying how much he loved playing for Cito. And this is the reserve catcher, who had just gotten hurt!) The available evidence suggests that this man knows what he is doing.

And it bears repeating: the Jays have been to the post-season five times. Cito managed four of those teams and was the hitting coach for the fifth.

The Fish get a ninth inning touchdown to beat the Phils

And I suppose the Lions were 16-0 last year?

Noted and corrected.  That cheapshot about the Lions was totally unnecessary.  They were consistently the second best team on the field last year!!   However, they are the defending NFL preseason champions.  You can't take that away from them. :)

I still wonder how long all this is going to last.

Clear through 'til Halloween, babies!

In fact, after watching Boston-New York all afternoon, it's very hard not to think that these guys can be had. By someone. This is one very badly pitched, and very badly played, ball game. In the last thirty minutes, Dustin Pedroia get decoyed into making the third out of the inning (with another runner on third. Derek Jeter struck out with two men on base on a pitch that ended up about 2 inches above the ground. Pedroia lets a ground ball go through his legs and two runs score. Johnny Damon gets picked off second base to end an inning. Terrible stuff.

And the pitching!

Well, sometimes you are the monster and sometimes the monster eats you.  10-2.  So in two games the net score is now 16-10 or an average of 8-5.

I guess eventually the shuffling starters would result in a dud.  Burres really wasn't there.  Guess if I was hunting for a bright side he didn't give up any home runs.  Camp also didn't have it tonight while League and Bullington didn't give up any runs but didn't really do that well.

Btw, think McDonald's leverage per AB has to be getting to record low territory.  If the Jays are up or down by 8 runs he gets to hit. 

Listening the the Las Vegas game and picking up some info from the local announcer:

38 year old Chris Michalak is back with the Jays organization - apparenlty he'd been hired as a pitching coach for the Gulf Coast league team but the Jays activated him for the 51's because they had ran out of bullpen lefties.

I would suggest that calling up Wolfe or Accardo and giving them Murphy back might be more reasonable than using Michalak.

Or better yet - Wade Miller had another decent start - I for one am for calling him up (assuming that the kids are not going to be called anytime soon) and kicking Burres back to AAA for good. I never want to see him in a Jays uni again.

Speaking of Las Vegas starters, Hayhurst pitched in relief tonight so he's out, Martin went on the DL after leaving last night's game (blisters) and that (along with the promotion of Burres) left the team with only three starters - enter Robert Ray and Davis Romero.

So that means their rotation is now Miller, Ray, Mills, Cecil, Romero
(much more to my liking than the one which included Burres and Hayhurst)

So in two games the net score is now 16-10 or an average of 8-5.

Must everything be reduced to its statistical mean?

Yes.

Err, I mean no.

 

.. Maybe.