Last year, many fans speculated that Snider was having trouble catching up to 94 mph fastballs, and this was supposedly the explanation for his troubles.  This year, that theory has been discarded, and the new prevailing theory -- a much more plausible one -- is that Snider is having trouble with curveballs, apparently because he is leading his swing with his hips.  This explanation is being offered by Gregg Zaun and by the good folks at the Mop-Up Duty blog, who provide a detailed diagram of what Snider is doing wrong.  It's definitely worth a read.

But Casey Janssen, Shawn Camp and Frank Francisco pitched one inning each, with 11, 6 and 15 pitches respectively. You'd think with a 10-3 lead and no off days in sight, and Jo-Jo Reyes pitching tomorrow night in a difficult ballpark, it might make more sense to rest as many pitchers as possible instead of getting everybody involved.

I'd bet they're all available tomorrow.  But Camp needed the work too.  Even if they aren't available, that leaves, Frasor, Rzep, Dotel, Rauch (and ? - don't we have 8 in the pen right now?).  Everybody's useful out there and needs to keep sharp.

His first three times up last night, he saw the grand total of four pitches, all fastballs.

Facing a lefty, he has to be aggressive on any pitch in.  He may only get one to hit and quite clearly they were trying to get ahead of him with early fastballs.  Against RHP he has been more patient.  Didn't he walk twice last night?

Villanueva is the 8th man in the bullpen.  But there are rumors that Janssen might be sent down to make room for Rajai Davis if he is called up today.  Which might explain why Janssen was pitching last night.  As for Francisco and Camp -- they probably needed an inning to keep them sharp.

As I mentioned in the other thread -- Davis is not what the Jays lineup currently needs.  They need someone to replace McCoy in the starting lineup.  McCoy is a bench guy, not someone who put in the starting lineup three days in a row.  Let's hope Encarnacion is ready to play today.  If he goes on the DL, who do you call up? 

I like the idea of calling up Thames, but the reality is that the Jays won't move Bautista to accommodate Thames.  They've promised Bautista some stability in the field, and -- because he is so crucial to the team -- they'll have to keep their promise. So if Thames gets called up, he is likely to be at DH, in my view.  Which means that it won't happen until Rivera is dumped or slumping again.  That's not my preference, but that's the reality.

As for Davis -- of course the Jays need him to fulfill the leadoff role and start hitting.  Nobody disputes that.  But this year he has been playing like a poorer clone of Patterson.  My point was that the bigger need is at 3B and 2B right now.  Unless Davis suddenly improves dramatically and provides a huge upgrade over Patterson, the bigger sinkhole in the lineup is McCoy.

I don't know who I'd pick as the best baseball writer working in the mainstream media these days, but I often think it's Tom Verducci.

I think the strategy to compile such a list is to start with Posnanski at the top and then identify everyone at the bottom (Chass, Simers, Heyman, Pearlman, Klapisch, etc.). The handful that are left can then be slotted in the middle.

I dislike Farrell's quick cycling through relievers but have had no issues with his pulling of the SP.

Farrell's bullpen usage seems like a chicken and egg question. Does he cycle through so many relievers because he has so many at his disposal? Or does he have so many relievers at his disposal because he's wont to cycle through so many?

I believe the Jays staff in particular is likely to perform well with frequent short stints. That's what most of them have succeeded at in the past.

Which brings us to Rzepczynski, who hasn't succeeded at that in the past, and whose future development could very well be hindered by the Blue Jays stashing him in the bullpen and asking him to get warm and pitch in 3 out of 4 nights, albeit for 8 pitches or less. If this is truly a developmental season and we don't care about wins or losses what is Rzepczynski doing in the MLB bullpen and not working on being a starter in NH or LV?

Yah, bringing in Dotel there is a bad move.  The funny thing is that in spring training Farrell mentioned that Dotel was weak against lefthanders and that is why he didn't think of him as the best guy to be the closer, and that he would be used in situations where lefties wouldn't hurt him.  Very strange decision - sure, there's a string of righties after Moreland, but he could bring in somebody else to face Moreland and then go to Dotel if he really wanted to use Dotel.

Yes, I agree about the baserunning blunders.  They are losing a lot of baserunners.  If you get say 36 AB's per game on average, and you burn 2 baserunners a game (like McCoy and Patterson tonight), that's like taking 2 hits and turning them into outs, or reducing your team batting average by 2/36, or 56 points.  That's an awfully big hit to be taking.  Very frustrating to be seeing this happen so often.

I saw an analysis once of a scenario where a team was made up of Babe Ruth in his 60 HR season, and 7 other position players who were each the weakest hitting regular in baseball at their position that year, and what would happen if you just intentionally walked Ruth every time he came up, vs pitching to him.  The team scored more runs when Ruth was walked each time rather than when he was pitched to.  It's hard to beat a 1.000 on base percentage, so no, interesting idea, but Dotel shouldn't be walking every lefty he faces.

The more I'm seeing of Farrell, the less impressed I am with his in-game managerial abilities.

And he probably wanted to avoid burning Zep, his only lefty, to get one out in the seventh.

So he could save him to get one out in the eighth already down a run with two outs in the inning?

For McCoy, the fault should lie with the 3rd base coach. No?

It was the right send. McCoy slowed down as he came into 3rd and still was able to slide in under the tag.

Over the past couple of weeks I think it's become pretty clear why Corey Patterson never capitalized on all those tools. He seems to be afraid of the outfield wall and isn't a very smart baserunner, which with his speed probably has ticked his managers off over time. He's a nice 4th OF but is clearly exposed playing CF everyday.

I hope the error doesn't get into E5's head. It was a tough play down the line and his throw actually wasn't that bad, one that most of the time is picked by the 1B. That inning, and the loss, falls squarely on JoJo Reyes' shoulders, who did himself no favours by walking a batter, hitting another, and getting pounded all over the field. Hard to blame it on Farrell.

 

That might be right or wrong, but that's what the brain-trust appears to believe.

I don`t disagree.  I think we are running out of options for the fifth starter, though.  Is Richmond next?  Stewart? 

While I believe Rzep has more value as a starter, it would be nice to have him AND Reyes in the pen (two lefties), especially if Rzep is going to be treated as a loogy.

Right or wrong it's a bad decision. There's nothing to lose by seeing if Rzepczynski will actually fail as a MLB starter. A non-contender doesn't need a LOOGY.