After Thursday afternoon's game, the Blue Jays optioned two of the three Brians (Burres and Bullington) back to AAA Las Vegas.
Okay, Bullington spells his first name funny. Like I care.
So yeah - our long national nightmare is over.
We don't yet know who's coming up to replace them, and it may be that the team doesn't know yet either. They just knew that they'd seen enough of those two guys. It is clear that there is only enough goodness in the name "Brian" to maintain one pitcher on the staff, and hopefully this will benefit Mr Tallet. There can be only one.
Burres' work yesterday, such as it was, nudged his career ERA from 5.99 to 6.08. He's actually not a bad pitcher if you spot him a couple of strikes, but as long as major league baseball insists on starting each at bat with a fresh 0-0 count, he's probably going to have some problems.
Bullington's dream of actually winning a major league game someday will have to wait a while. This doesn't make him the greatest first round blunder of all time - it's not like Troy Tulowitzki was available instead - but it would have been a much better trip to Kansas City if the Pirates had called out the name of "Zack Greinke" instead on that fateful 2002 day. Bullington was actually more effective than Burres, which is surely something to build on, and it occurs to me that he may want to consider pitching from the stretch at all times. He allowed 13 baserunners over 6 IP in his four outings, but only two of them actually crossed home plate.
With John Gibbons in the house, the Blue Jays hit into no less than six - six! - double plays. That had to bring back some memories for the former skipper. And to complete their day in Bizarro Land, the Jays surrendered two triples to KC's backup catcher.
But I'm here to pronounce myself satisfied with April. My default position was 80-82 wins if everything went wrong - you know, if the new pitchers all posted ERAs around 6.00 or something awful like that. While that didn't come to pass, quite a few things did go wrong. Two more starters and the closer went on the DL, and one of the new pitchers is winless and with an ERA north of 7.00. That would be David Purcey, who's contributed two pretty good starts and three pretty bad ones - rather like what Josh Beckett has given the Red Sox, and a wee bit better than what Chien-Ming Wang has given the Yankees. Purcey saw B.J. Ryan quickly convert a couple of wins into no decisions, but the team managed to win the games anyway.
Despite these and other setbacks, the team managed to play .625 ball, and find themselves tied for first place anyway. Despite the carnage that has ripped through the pitching staff, and despite the fact that Roy Halladay hasn't really rounded into full Doc mode yet, they're still allowing just 4.67 runs per game - that's comfortably better than the league average and better than anyone else in the AL East. Good enough.
As practically no one realizes, the Blue Jays actually had one of the better offenses in all of baseball last season, if we only begin paying attention once Cito Gaston took over. Curiously enough, that hasn't changed. Alex Rios has shown signs lately that he may be ready to start contributing, even if he hasn't actually done so yet - he's the only hitter with an OPS+ below 100. Ideally, his bat should heat up just as those of Scutaro and Hill cool off. Which will surely happen. Although I do think Marco Scutaro is going to have what they will all call a "career year" - Gaston and Tenace have changed his stance at the plate, and hitting in the leadoff spot has changed his approach.
After one month, Travis Snider is hitting .258 with 3 HR and 11 RBI. So he's right on target for the .260 with 18-20 HRs and about 70 RBI that I think it's reasonable to expect from the young fellow. What's surprised me so far is that he isn't striking out nearly as much as we had every right to expect. But he hasn't hit a big slump yet, either. I have vivid memories of Carlos Delgado in 1994, a raw rookie who came out of the gate hitting like Babe Ruth himself and then struggled mightily once the league adjusted to him. Unlike Delgado, however, Snider will get to work out his problems - and they will come - in a low pressure spot in the lineup. And also unlike Delgado, Snider can actually play the outfield and contribute to the ball club in ways that don't involve hitting the baseball over the fence. He's got a better chance of staying in the major leagues all season.
Okay, Bullington spells his first name funny. Like I care.
So yeah - our long national nightmare is over.
We don't yet know who's coming up to replace them, and it may be that the team doesn't know yet either. They just knew that they'd seen enough of those two guys. It is clear that there is only enough goodness in the name "Brian" to maintain one pitcher on the staff, and hopefully this will benefit Mr Tallet. There can be only one.
Burres' work yesterday, such as it was, nudged his career ERA from 5.99 to 6.08. He's actually not a bad pitcher if you spot him a couple of strikes, but as long as major league baseball insists on starting each at bat with a fresh 0-0 count, he's probably going to have some problems.
Bullington's dream of actually winning a major league game someday will have to wait a while. This doesn't make him the greatest first round blunder of all time - it's not like Troy Tulowitzki was available instead - but it would have been a much better trip to Kansas City if the Pirates had called out the name of "Zack Greinke" instead on that fateful 2002 day. Bullington was actually more effective than Burres, which is surely something to build on, and it occurs to me that he may want to consider pitching from the stretch at all times. He allowed 13 baserunners over 6 IP in his four outings, but only two of them actually crossed home plate.
With John Gibbons in the house, the Blue Jays hit into no less than six - six! - double plays. That had to bring back some memories for the former skipper. And to complete their day in Bizarro Land, the Jays surrendered two triples to KC's backup catcher.
But I'm here to pronounce myself satisfied with April. My default position was 80-82 wins if everything went wrong - you know, if the new pitchers all posted ERAs around 6.00 or something awful like that. While that didn't come to pass, quite a few things did go wrong. Two more starters and the closer went on the DL, and one of the new pitchers is winless and with an ERA north of 7.00. That would be David Purcey, who's contributed two pretty good starts and three pretty bad ones - rather like what Josh Beckett has given the Red Sox, and a wee bit better than what Chien-Ming Wang has given the Yankees. Purcey saw B.J. Ryan quickly convert a couple of wins into no decisions, but the team managed to win the games anyway.
Despite these and other setbacks, the team managed to play .625 ball, and find themselves tied for first place anyway. Despite the carnage that has ripped through the pitching staff, and despite the fact that Roy Halladay hasn't really rounded into full Doc mode yet, they're still allowing just 4.67 runs per game - that's comfortably better than the league average and better than anyone else in the AL East. Good enough.
As practically no one realizes, the Blue Jays actually had one of the better offenses in all of baseball last season, if we only begin paying attention once Cito Gaston took over. Curiously enough, that hasn't changed. Alex Rios has shown signs lately that he may be ready to start contributing, even if he hasn't actually done so yet - he's the only hitter with an OPS+ below 100. Ideally, his bat should heat up just as those of Scutaro and Hill cool off. Which will surely happen. Although I do think Marco Scutaro is going to have what they will all call a "career year" - Gaston and Tenace have changed his stance at the plate, and hitting in the leadoff spot has changed his approach.
After one month, Travis Snider is hitting .258 with 3 HR and 11 RBI. So he's right on target for the .260 with 18-20 HRs and about 70 RBI that I think it's reasonable to expect from the young fellow. What's surprised me so far is that he isn't striking out nearly as much as we had every right to expect. But he hasn't hit a big slump yet, either. I have vivid memories of Carlos Delgado in 1994, a raw rookie who came out of the gate hitting like Babe Ruth himself and then struggled mightily once the league adjusted to him. Unlike Delgado, however, Snider will get to work out his problems - and they will come - in a low pressure spot in the lineup. And also unlike Delgado, Snider can actually play the outfield and contribute to the ball club in ways that don't involve hitting the baseball over the fence. He's got a better chance of staying in the major leagues all season.
