It is a lot easier to make the case that Drabek needs some more development time

This is true.  Of course, Snider isn't in Vegas for development, he's there to fix a mechanical error in his swing.

Sounds like the same thing to me.

Sounds different to me.  Oh well.

That`s as good as I`ve seen FF this year.  Not sure I can fault him on the homerun.  He hit the spot with a 95mph fastball.

And JPA looks nothing like the 4-5% walk rate guy he was coming through the minors.  He really seems to have a keen eye and a nice approach at the plate.

I'm glad that Anthopolous is more patient than the "get rid of David Cooper after 20 plate appearances" crowd.

As I said on Monday about Cooper - The results certainly haven't been there for David Cooper, but I've liked the way he's looked at the plate. He seems comfortable in the box and takes pitches, he just hasn't started driving the ball with authority yet. I prefer carrying his LH bat on the bench than an 8th RP or Mike McCoy. Even if David Cooper's ultimate future is as a platoon/bench player who only gets 300-450 PA a year, this team currently needs that player. Congrats on the game last night Coop.

the distortion to the game is (to my mind) not acceptable. 

Agreed. And I'm sure AA wouldn't defend the rule. However, while it is there, might as well take advantage of it.

It should be amended in the next CBA.

....Does anyone favour the long-term use of an 8-man pen?

Not in the long term, no, but in the short term I think we should admit that it has helped the bullpen and helped the starters too.   It's pretty hard to measure the advantages and disadvantages of various bench/bullpen configurations, but Farrell doesn't seem to use the bench often enough in late-inning situations to make it critical to have a bigger bench and smaller bullpen.  And with the starters unable to pitch 7 or 8 innings consistently, the 8-man bullpen has been a big advantage, in my view.

the Jays were leading the league in bullpen innings pitched

Could part of the rationale for this be (a) Farrell has 8 arms to use and (b) they are all good (Dotel's struggles notwithstanding)?

.....given that most of Cooper's hits have been weak fly balls....

Most of EVERYONE's hits are outs.  Unless you know of a hitter with an average above .500.

As for his AA numbers:  lumping together the first AA year with the second AA year is about as relevant as lumping together Arencibia's two years in AAA.  A lot of hitters need a year to adjust to a league.   You're not saying that we should assess JPA on the basis of his first year in AAA, right?  Or even on the basis of a combination of those two years?   Cooper was a helluva lot better in the second half of last year (at the age of 23) than he was in the previous year.  It means something.

Just filling out ME's ideal roster for giggles.....

C - JPA
C - Jose Molina
1B - Adam Lind
2B - Aaron Hill
SS - Junel Escobar
3B - Brett Lawrie
1B-3B - Edwin Encarnacion
2B-SS - Mike McCoy
IF-C - John McDonald
LF - Travis Snider
CF - Rajai Davis
RF - Jose Bautista
OF - Corey Patterson
OF - Scott Podsednick
1B-DH - David Cooper

That seems like overkill on the bench.  I imagine that if we didn't have an eight man pen right now we'd all be complaining about how overworked the bullpen is.

Here's another "out-there" usage which I think is legal but I'm not positive: The opposing team has 3-4-5 coming up and they bat L-R-L. Bring in the LOOGY to face #3, then bring in a ROOGY. Rather than going out of the game the LOOGY goes to right field and one of your corner outfielders leaves the game. ROOGY gets #4, the LOOGY comes back to the mound to face #5.

Didn't TLR try this a couple of years ago?

Most of EVERYONE's hits are outs.  Unless you know of a hitter with an average above .500.

Your attempts to distort everyone else's efforts to make well reasoned points with very transparent and fallacious reasoning is becoming increasingly tiresome. Cooper has hit 4 ground balls, 2 line drives, 19 fly balls, and 5 infield flies. I have seen about half of Cooper's at bats so far. Objectively, he is hitting the ball in the air, and not on a line, a lot. Subjectively, a lot of those balls in the air are not going very far. From Fangraphs: "A line drive produces 1.26 runs/out, while fly balls produce .13 R/O and groundballs produce .05 R/O. In other words, batters want to hit lots of line drives and fly balls, while pitchers want to make batters hit groundballs." Sample size issues abound, but my original comment was about how he is hitting lots of weak fly balls so far.

....Your attempts to distort everyone else's efforts....

Don't be ridiculous.  You made a vague and cryptic comment about Cooper's "lazy fly balls."  You made no attempt to substantiate it.  I responded with a comment which was about as flippant as yours.  Now you've finally responded with a detailed comment which attempts to substantiate your point.   Good for you.  You're contributing evidence to the discussion now.  But don't call me "tiresome" for responding to your dismissive and flippant one-liner with a comment in the same vein. 

....That's not a major league first baseman....

I never said he was.  If you check this thread, I was responding primarily to the suggestion (not yours) that Cooper is a "non-prospect."   If you're implying that I suggested that Cooper is currently worthy of a full-time major-league job, you are distorting what I said.   Please try not to distort what I say -- especially if you want to attack me for "distorting" what you said.

he really doesn't have a clue out there

Patterson has almost certainly left in his wake no shortage of frustrated scouts, coaches and managers. He has raw skills aplenty. He can run like the wind and he can turn on a pitch and hit with power. But he takes very strange routes to catch flyballs, he runs the bases like he's a mouse in a maze and he swings at pitches from his ankles to his shoulders. So all this raw ability far too often goes for nought. When he succeeds, he looks like a natural and you wonder why he isn't a star. When he doesn't succeed, you see that he is clearly not in possession of a baseball brain. He seems to have no instincts for the game at all.

Going back to last season, the Jays have now gone undefeated in their last 9 Friday games. Looks good goign into Minnesota! No way a stat lack that could be random chance! Right?

Right?

""I think you're still looking at a two-man position, but I think what has clearly happened is J.P.'s advancement and his progression has pointed us in the direction where there's going to be more at-bats and more games caught," manager John Farrell said before Wednesday night's game against Boston. "

This wouldn't be a knee-jerk reaction to Molina trying to "block" that 3rd strike in the dirt from Morrow the other day?  The "wild pitch" that started that disastrous inning. That sort of reaction would be out of character wouldn't it?