Cecil should sit down again with Tallet and have a physio therapist present to review throwing a cutter which is probably the pitch that created the problem with Tallet's forearm .

John Lott has an in-depth story about Brett Cecil today.

Gustavo Chacin has been recalled by the Astros and will pitch out of the bullpen for them.  Gus had a 3.65 ERA in AAA.

More fun with statistics:  Jays are leading the majors in HRs; they are 2nd in the AL in slugging percentage (just .003 points behind Boston); and the Jays pitchers are 4th in the AL in WHIP.

Jays pitchers are also leading the league in SO/9 and are 2nd in the league in SO/BB. 

I think the Jays bullpen is not nearly as statistically bad as it was a week ago, but I can't find the stats.  Can anyone tell me how to find team ERAs broken down by starters and relievers?  BR has a wealth of stats for starters and relievers, but not a simple ERA or WHIP or ERA+ for starters and relievers by team.

Brandon Morrow, who starts today, has been a much better pitcher over his last three starts than he was in his first two.  The reason most cited for this is that he lowered his arm angle, working with Bruce Walton, to get more movement on his pitches.  I decided to use some pitch fx data to see if the data backed up the claim.  I am a novice at this so my explanations will be simple.

First, I used data at texas leaguers dot com.

Morrow's fastball does indeed show greater movement over his last three starts.  In his first two starts the vertical movement was 10 inches and the horizontal movement was -2.4 inches.  That is a fairly straight fastball.  Over his last three starts Morrow's fastball still has a 10 inch vertical move but the horizontal movement is up to -6.8.  That is 4.4 inches of extra movement which can be difference between the sweet spot of the bat and the end or higher up on the barrel.  So how that this helped Morrow?  His whiff percentage on the pitch has increased from 4% to 12% and his foul percentage has increased from 19% to 21%.  So in total Morrow is getting 10% more "misses" with the fastball.

But there are a couple of other reasons for Morrow's improved performance that show up in the data.

Pitch selection.  Morrow's fastball percentage has dropped from 63.5% to 52%.  Morrow is throwing 10% fewer fastballs.  Most of that is going to the slider where the % has increased from 9% to 17%.

Curve efficiency: In his first two starts Morrow threw his curve for a strike 48% of the time.  In his last three starts Morrow has thrown his curve for a strike 75% of the time.  As a result hitters are swinging at the curve more often with better results.

So, in summary, Morrow does have better movement on his fastball but he is also succeeding by mixing his pitches more and by improving his ability to throw the curve for a strike.

Can anyone tell me how to find team ERAs broken down by starters and relievers?

Most of the major sports websites like ESPN and MLB.com have them.

Here's the AL Ranks for the Jays' Starters:

• 171.0ip (1st)
• 18qs (1st)
• 3.97era (5th)
• .668oops (4th)
• 1.21whip (3rd)
• 7.8k/9 (1st)
• 2.4k/bb (4th)
• 3.8p/pa (3rd)

Of course, if you remove Tallet's numbers from there, the Jays vault into the 1st or 2nd spot in every one of those categories.

The Bullpen's not as pretty.....but much improved over a week ago....

• 75.1ip (9th)
• 10svs (1st)
• 77.0sv% (3rd)
• 4.66era (12th)
• .725oops (8th)
• 1.42whip (9th)
• 7.8k/9 (4th)
• 2.6k/bb (1st)
• 3.9p/pa (6th)

Jerry Crasnick has a great read today.  He talks with Jim Palmer, Bert Blyleven and Goose Gossage about the unwritten rules of baseball.

I think Gossage has the best stories:

"So he's all up in arms about this ball going foul, and he's causing this big scene while I'm out there waiting to throw the next pitch to [catcher] Jody Davis. When he finally steps back in the box, I plug him with the first pitch.  "Gant looks out at me and says, 'What did you hit me for, man?' And I said, 'If you ever do that again, I'll hit you in the head.' He never understood, but a year later Jody Davis went over and played for Atlanta. He told Gant, 'You must be the dumbest SOB in the league. Everybody in the stadium knew you were going to get drilled, except you.'''

And:

They wanted to get the bullpen going, and [manager] Larry Bowa yelled to John Kruk to come out and talk to me to buy some time.  "There's dust flying, I'm kicking the ground and I'm mad as hell, and I sense somebody standing by me. It's Kruk, standing on the grass. I looked at Kruk and I said, 'This better be good, [expletive].' Kruk was just a rookie then, and he was petrified. He turned around and ran back to first base. He never said a word.''

Morrow appeared to head back to his old form today.  It looked like his arm was strong and he went with the fastball.

Morrow threw 100 pitches, 72 fastballs, 27 sliders and one curveball.  Today he was a fastball, slider pitcher.  I am not sure why.

"Morrow threw 100 pitches, 72 fastballs, 27 sliders and one curveball.  Today he was a fastball, slider pitcher.  I am not sure why."

Molina?

I also blame the ball that Snider hit to the track for not going out. I actually had more of a problem with Overbay's approach in his at-bat in the 6th after consecutive 5 pitch walks (and his consecutive GIDPs) than I did with anything that happened later. I just thought leaving in Molina at that point was curious. Of course, it only made it worse that McCoy entered the game 1 inning later to stand around and Buck entering another inning after that.....

Oh, and the small slump aside my man crush on Mr. Adam Lind continues.

"Jason Frasor pitching......Peralta grounds out softly, third baseman Mike McCoy to first baseman Jose Bautista. Three out."

Just like they drew it up before the game.

That was a huge confidence-boost for Jason Frasor.   High leverage, high pressure -- and he came through with flying colors (despite the little blip of that two-out double by Choo).

If I was going to quibble with Gaston, the failure to pinch-run McCoy for Molina would be one quibble, but I also would have left Shawn Camp in the game for longer than two pitches.   Rommie Lewis looks like a decent pitcher, but I still like Camp a lot better.

Somehow I suspect it's Gaston, rather than Hill, who will be made the scapegoat if the Jays lose.

Somehow I suspect that's because Hill failed WHILE doing his job, one which the best players fail at 60% of the time, while Cito failed AT doing his job, which is to put the team in the best position to win. Allowing Molina to run for himself when you fully intend on lifting him for a PH in the 9th is sheer lunacy.

With less than two outs, I suspect that the best hitters can find ways to cash in a runner from 3B a lot more than 40 per cent of the time.  There are multiple ways to do it, without even needing a hit.  In fact, in those situations, it's kind of the hitter's job to get the runner home.   Nobody's perfect, of course, and I'm not expecting perfection from any hitter, but I'm just pointing out that Hill didn't do his job in that situation.