This is not a finger pointing question, but an "I have no clue" question:

What does DeMarlo Hale actually do? Has anyone seen an interview or story describing his responsibilities with the Jays?

Since May 7th, Casey Janssen has appeared once and thrown 10 pitches. When Oliver pitched yesterday, it was his first game in a week. This team has no business carrying 13 pitchers into the TB series; one of Ortiz/Jenkins should now be pushed back to start Friday night and should be available out of the bullpen until then, effectively being the 8th RP.

The Jays did not lose today.

That makes it a good day.

Maybe we'll see some DeMarlo Hale stories that the writers have saved up due to the postponement. It's true there's been very little written about him.

There should be a good crowd at tomorrow's game, and the Jays are 2-6 when the Dome has 35,000+. It would be nice to see them win for a change.

I have been thinking why Toronto is as bad as it is. I believe it started with the World Baseball Classic. Brett Lawrie left the team, early March, to join Team Canada. In a practice, he is hurt, missing all of the WBC and all of the rest of Spring Training. Recalled to start at 3rd Base for Toronto, he's only played a few rehab ABs before being desperately needed in Toronto. It takes another three - four weeks to get his stroke back.

Without Lawrie at 3rd, Maicer Izturis and Mark DeRosa had to fill in and did do poorly. Defensively inadequate, many runs were scored due to this problem. It's possible several games were lost because of this inadequacy. It was such a problem that Jose Bautista was pulled from RF to play 3rd Base. He doesn't last two games before being hurt. If you paid attention during Spring Training, you could tell Jose was playing hurt. It's possible he's not totally right just yet.

How much did the Pitchers change to avoid balls hit to 3rd?

Edwin Encarnacion was HBP (hand) in the last game of the WBC and missed all but the last two games in Spring Training. He certainly wasn't ready to start the Season. It took almost 3 weeks before he got his stroke back.

The defensive hole at 2nd Base is another issue. J.P. Arencibia is an issue, catching pitches, batting with 3 balls and ? strikes. A.A.'s depth is an issue, it's nonexistent. And there's more.

Richard, I think you may be overthinkin' this.

These players are not good players.

Compare the 2012 Team with the 2013 Team and you should find the 2013 Team a much better Team. If you don't, that's very,very sad.

The 2012 Team was above .500 a lot in April and May, so there should not be this much difference. In fact, as Mike Wilner said on his podcast, take away Toronto's record verses New York and this is a near.500 Team, and so would be NY.

Friday showed why NY Pitcher are over-rated, the NY Strike, a pitch off the plate called a strike and never given to the opposing pitchers. That and bone-headed plays that high schoolers don't make, created that loss.

If they did this and if they did that, and if the umps weren't conspiring against Yankee opponents, so on and so forth. The bottom line is they're a bad team, because they have bad baseball players. If they get some good baseball players, they might be a good team.

Anthony Gose has been recalled, Mickey Storey has been sent down.

I am not sure why Gose is the one to be recalled, he is hitting .175 over his last ten games.

I don't buy the notion that the Jays just have bad players.  This isn't the Houston Astros we're talking about.  There's a reason most of the baseball world expected this team to be a playoff contender.  There's a lot of talent here.  What they are is playing like a bad team that is much less than the sum of its parts.  Why THAT is is an interesting question.

I guess I'm confused about the difference between playing like a bad team and being a bad team.

As for the Gose call up, I don't really think this is a good time for him.  Perhaps Melky's going on the DL? 

Storey is down. I'm thinking it's to let Melky DH for a bit, he looks awfully creaky out in the field and he probably could use some rest.

Gose is apparently on the bench today. Using Gose as an opportunity to DH Cabrera doesn't work because he'd be facing LHP, unless you wanted to sit Lind against RHP. Sierra makes more sense.

It could be that they're looking at the bigger picture and trying to make a Gose/Rasmus decision before July 31.

I guess I'm confused about the difference between playing like a bad team and being a bad team.

You know that bad teams play like good teams sometimes and good teams play like bad teams sometimes, right? Like when the Giants got their world rocked in the evil turf-covered confines of the Esmil Rogers Centre, they were a good team playing like a bad team. They're probably a good team. They didn't play like a good team. Which is okay, good teams can't play like good teams every day.

What people are hoping is that the Jays are an actual good (or at least not terrible) team that is playing like a bad team A LOT for various reasons (injuries, a bad case of the izturis, etc). The Jays are most likely a worse team than originally expected in the offseason. They probably aren't as bad as a .400 team though.

Calling up Anthony Gose now is a very poor management decision.  The club sent him back to triple A to start the season (reasonably) to work on some things.  He's hitting .227/.343/.325 with 41 strikeouts in 40 games.  Recalling him sends a terrible development message.  Prospects are at the whim of management and how they progress has nothing to do with promotion decisions.

It was not an emergency.  At most, the club needed a corner outfielder.  Sierra or Pillar would have been far better choices.

"....Prospects are at the whim of management and how they progress has nothing to do with promotion decisions...."

That's obviously true, it's always been true for every team, and it doesn't mean that the Gose call-up is wrong. Promotion decisions are often based on more than offensive numbers. Gose is not being promoted because he deserves to be an everyday player in the majors today, and he's not stepping into the starting lineup. He's probably being called up just for a couple of weeks, unless there are further injuries or unless he seems to be doing very well in the majors. They need him for specific things: defence, pinch-running, occasional hitting, and to get further acclimatized to the majors, since he's a big part of the Jays future. It's not an "emergency" but a calculated use of resources and a further step in his development.

If Gose is going to ride the bench for the next couple months, of course it would be a bad decision. But to bring him up for a couple weeks is not going to harm his development -- in fact it might help him, since he will be exposed to the eyes and advice of a different set of coaches for a couple weeks.

It reminds me of the fury over JPA's first September promotion, when he didn't play in a lot of games. People thought it would "harm his development" but in retrospect it didn't make any difference. (He has the same strengths and weaknesses that he always had, and a couple weeks of additional games in September wouldn't have made any difference.)

Gose decision makes sense to me now. I think it's a short term bench role until Davis is back. They realize that they have a 9 man bullpen for the next week or so.

Gose is the best defensive outfielder and baserunner in the system. Therefore he is the best for the job.

It has the added benefit of getting him out of a rut by changing his surroundings for a couple of weeks. He wasn't helping Buffalo at all; Pillar might.

The everyday players are all injured, and are playing anyway, and playing badly? One player, Izturis, can sabotage a good team to such an extent that it falls below .400? -- They're not .400 right now, you gave them too much credit. The explanations I've heard over the past few weeks sound occult. This is the first time I've heard of a Yankees' pitching strike zone conspiracy though. That's a good one.

If the Jays' record this season is explained by -- "the players are bad players" -- then everything fits.

After 52 games last year, Oakland was 22-30, yet finished with 94 wins. Sometimes good teams play poorly. The Mets were 30-23 on the same date. Some times good teams play badly, and other times bad teams play well. Of course, bad teams can also play badly and good teams can also play well. A baseball season is full of peaks and valleys, and requires patience and an even temperament to watch the season unfold.

No, no, no. Jays are a .400 team!! They're all awful!!!!

My mistake.

Thanks ayj. It was getting rather heavy in here. :)

Gose callup makes no sense at all - not for him, not for the team.

For him - gose is ice cold and clearly needs more time in aaa, especialy v. lhp.

For the team - gose is not an offensive upgrade over any if our OF v. lhp or rhp. we have boni to be the 4th OF and to pinch run. There is no need for gose. we also have a number of red hot hitters that might actually be legit upgrades on current weaknesses - negrych at 2b, sierra as a rh power bench bat, and thole as a C v. rhp and lefty bench bat.

I am startiing to lose faith in alex.

Gose move makes sense to me. He is a late-inning defensive replacement and pinch runner for Melky until Davis returns or a fifth starter is needed. He replaces the 9th man in the bullpen, not the eighth.

He's also able to get some work in with Mottola who, and correct me if I'm wrong, rebuilt his swing last August in Vegas and oversaw it through September and March.

on another note, that makes Storey the SIXTEENTH active pitcher on the Buffalo roster.

The Jays, like it or not, were not looking for an upgrade bench bat with this move. They're apparently comfortable with DeRosa.

After 52 games last year, Oakland was 22-30, yet finished with 94 wins

When Oakland was 22-30 last year (.423 winning percentage), they were 6.5 games out of the wild card spot. The Jays (slightly worse at .395) are in a similar position in this year's wild card race, so the Jays can take some solace from the comparison.

On the other hand, when Oakland was 22-30 (1 June 2012), it trailed three teams in the four-team AL West: Texas (.596), LAA (.509) and Seattle (.426). In contrast, the Jays trail four strong teams in the five-team AL East: NYY (.628), Boston (.614), TB (.535), and Baltimore (.535). Oakland ultimately won its division, surpassing Texas at the very end of the season. That's much less likely to happen for the Jays in 2013, as it's much harder to pass four good teams than it is to pass one or two.

Also, three of the four teams leading the 2013 wild card race are in the AL East, making the WC race that much tougher for the Jays.

The Jays clearly have a very tough road ahead. In my view, the season is hanging by a slender thread. Two or three more weeks of .400 baseball and it will be effectively over.

After 52 games last year, Oakland was 22-30, yet finished with 94 wins.

Good for them. I don't see what that says about this season's Blue Jays results. I don't know much about that Oakland team or why it was so awful early but really good after that.

oakland needed some major individual overachieving (IMO) to recover from that awful start last year.

the jays' mission is much easier - all they need is their starting pitchers to return to their career norms, and they'll be vastly improved.

I admire the optimism of everyone. However I am agreeing with adrianveidt that the Jays do not seem very good.

I seem incapable of doing the deep thinking involved of why the Jays or any team will go 72-38 over 110 games the way Oakland did last year to win 94 games.
I sort of remember Oakland having a great run a few years ago and also Tulo & his team.

I expect some teams to get very hot & some to fall hard. This just seems to happen.

Meh, time may be ticking, but at this point the jays are still just one solid hot steak out of contention.

and at this point, their league worst babip, and their entire starting staff pitching way below career norms gives some fairly easy reasons for optimism going forward.

They may have dug themselves too deep a hole but them turning it around wouldn't be anything crazy imo.

"Meh, time may be ticking, but at this point the jays are still just one solid hot steak out of contention...They may have dug themselves too deep a hole but them turning it around wouldn't be anything crazy imo."

The Jays are 6 GB of the wild card. If they were that many games back entering September last year, I would have been ecstatic.

The team got off to a terrible start and was basically unbearable to watch for a couple of weeks but they are most definitely not out of anything, regardless of what coolstandings.com or wherever thinks their playoff odds are.