Tepera was used as a multi inning guy in Buffalo, so hopefully Gibby can continue that trend and keep his hot streak going.

You're winning a game against a divisional rival by single digits. Your 8th-inning guy must get up at the first sign of trouble. We've been over this...

I would be tempted to let the good times roll and send Sanchez out there for the 8th. Probably wouldn't do it, probably would go Hendriks, but he's been pitching under two hours and seems ultra-confident after getting out of the 4th. That time he shook off Martin three times to get to the curveball was pretty telling.

I like that Gibbons sent him back out for the 8th. Hopefully Loup can limit the damage here.

Never mind!

Great start by Sanchez. And credit to the front office for sticking with him through his early struggles. I will feel this way even if he gets bombed in his next three starts. Patience is a virtue.

I can imagine Sanchez pitching a no-hitter, but not a perfect game.

When I saw the lineup for tonight's game, I feared for Sanchez' ERA.  I missed most of the game, but he evidently had the good movement working for him to keep the ball out of the air where the defence was weak. 

Delabar seems to have better control so far this year.  That's a good sign.

If Delabar and Tepera can duplicate what they were doing in Buffalo, the bullpen issues would be pretty much over.

Sanchez is a work in progress, but he's battling and he has been one of the better Jays starters this year. I am glad the team is giving him a shot in the rotation. Tonight's game should help him to continue building confidence. Maybe Thor will send him a congratulatory text (Sanchez can send him one, too).

Sanchez is a work in progress, but he's battling and he has been one of the better Jays starters this year.

I think Greg Zaun has it right when he says that Sanchez makes it difficult for the hitter to square up on the bat. He's also an extreme example of the young pitcher with control and release point issues. But I think I enjoy watching his games more than any other starter's. The control issues wouldn't have worked in the bullpen.

Still, he's got to refine his control/command somewhat. He isn't going to have much long-term success with a 50:50 BB:K and ball:strike ratio. And I say this as someone who has remained on the Sanchez bandwagon (and sometimes wondering what the heck I was doing there).

Really, he needs better control/command and a more refined third pitch (and delivery?). I don't know if Walker is the right coach to help him reach his potential.

It'd be a disaster if they used him as the closer and he couldn't throw strikes, but I tend to think his command would be better in short relief. For one thing he can get by throwing almost exclusively fastballs out of the pen (of course that's also a pretty good reason for not using him as a reliever). It also seems like a lot of pitchers benefit from the added focus you get when you're pitching in shorter spurts, or from coming out of the bullpen fresh every time - while he's warming up, the bullpen coaches get to give feedback on his mechanics and make sure everything's just right before he gets unleashed on the mound. He doesn't get that luxury heading out of the dugout to begin an inning. Magpie's old Brandon League theory.

Anyway, all of this is why I was opposed to starting the season with Sanchez in the big-league rotation. I still wouldn't have done it. But as a matter of principle, if you're going to go that way you have to commit to it. Every rookie with command issues is going to have a few disaster starts. You shouldn't let the timing of those disasters dictate your major-league roster.

Watching Sanchez and his 1-1 ratio of walks to K's I cannot help but think of another first round pick who was highly touted as he came up and had early success then major issues then a HOF career - Roy Halladay of course.  There are worse players to be following.  OF course there are differences but in his first full year he walked 79 while K'ing 82 in 149 1/3 IP (4.8 vs 4.9 BB-SO).  Now Sanchez is a level higher on that at 7.1 vs 7.5 before tonight but I couldn't help but think of Halladay and how early on no one saw the control freak he'd become just that he was a great arm that needed to find the strike zone.  Wonder if he could visit Sanchez and impart some words of wisdom to him.

I don't know. There is a part of me that relishes the thought of Sanchez being the one the breaks pitching WAR. 8 base runners in 7 innings, 63% GB%, 5 walks, 0.00 ERA, 5.84 xFIP, maybe 2 hard hit balls?

I see another former Jay actually.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/burnea.01.shtml

Didn't the Pitchers that were going longer into games start the big run last May? Guess what? Dickey's pitched well lately 7.0 and 8.0 in last two Starts. Sanchez has been getting a little bit better every Start, and 7.0 this time. Estrada pitched well (in 4.0 IP) until Gibbons let him exceed his pitch limits and bring him out in the 5th inning. Buehrle only pitched 5.0 his last time out, but had better control. This is where he normally starts getting better. Now if Hutchison can figure it out, this Team could start going places and moving up in the Standings.

The most depressing thing about AJ Burnett isn't his on field performance, it' knowing that his career earnings exceeds $144 Million Dollar. FML.

And worth it (41 fWAR career-to-date).

His 3 years with Toronto, 82 runs better than replacement level.

What ticks me off, is more stuff like Jo-Jo Reyes. Went off to become a fine Mexican pitcher. Well, not so fine, but you get the idea.

I like that Gibbons sent him back out for the 8th.

I too was pleased to see that.

On another topic, there was a Sox batter that walked in the 4th on what looked to be 4 straight strikes on the black. At least from Pitchtracker they were in an area where the Sox pitchers were getting strikes called. Part of that would normally be explained by the fact that Sanchez had poor control and hadn't earned the benefit of the doubt, but I saw the same thing with one of the Sox first two batters. A Sanchez pitch on the black called a ball, when in one of his early pitches Miley got a strike call on the same side on a ball a few inches off the plate

I struggle against thinking that home plate umpires, as a whole, treat the Jays differently than they treat other teams and use a different strike zone. Davidi wrote an article about it a couple of years ago and the evidence looked unconvincing. But there are some nights, like the game in Boston and last night's that leave me wondering.

Sanchez didn't get many favorable calls. I thinks its partly a Jays thing and partly a rookie "wild" pitcher thing. Always nice to win in spite of the umpiring I guess.

Speculation into Umpiring issues and we are getting into conspiracy theory and "grassy knoll" stuff. For example:
1) MLB is so enraged at Toronto winning back-to-back World Series, that They give orders to the Umpires Union. "If you don't want to get crushed in all contract negotiations, you'll make sure that never happens again."
2) The 1994 MLB/MLBPA strike occurred prematurely as contract wasn't supposed to be up yet. Montreal's great 1994 season is flushed, "Never again!".

On a lighter note, will the Jays skip/push back Hutchison's start because they can easily do that with the off day?

There was an at bat during last night's game where Duane Ward pointed out that Miley got the call on the outside corner because the glove was set up there and he hit his target, and that he thinks Sanchez doesn't get those calls because his fastball has so much natural movement that it's hard for him to "hit his spots". Looks like Sanchez is just going to have to continue to pitch well, and with that will come some respect from the umpires and hopefully some more calls.

What was strange about those is, to lefties, those were inside strikes. That's the corner the ump parks on, so he should have a better view of (especially since Martin sets up with his body over the outside and turned, giving no obstruction over the inside part of the plate).

Overall, it really seemed like Sanchez had pretty good command, or certainly command that was good enough to let his stuff work. That he had 5 BBs vs 3 Ks is a credit to the Sox hitters as well as a tight zone for him. Well, I didn't see the fourth, so I can't say what he was like in that inning.

Even more promising, Brooks Baseball has him not missing arms-side and up to any degree outside of the fourth.

even as a sanchez skeptic i have to say that there seems to have been some bad luck in terms of 11 BBs the last 2 starts. the eye test really did seem to say he had solid commsnd in both outings.

Well, that's the optimistic take on it.  Compared with his outings in relief last year, his command is way way off.  As Alex says, he may get better with time.  He definitely has the talent to do so.  Heck, even Bobby Witt had one good season. 

It generally isn't a winning strategy to bet on a series of Sandy Koufax/Randy Johnson wannabes.  There's nothing wrong with having one in the rotation and if the club has chosen Sanchez rather than Norris to be that one, it's fine.  I think that it is the wrong choice, but, (also as Alex says) once the club makes the choice, it's better to stick with it. 

For what it is worth, here is last night's pitch map. It probably didn't help the Jays cause that Holbrook was awful early and was captured on the broadcast yelling at the Jays dugout before the 2nd inning was out. Well, that and the fact that Sam Holbrook is not very good at calling balls and strikes.

Well, they didn't choose both as their Plan A. When Stroman went down, they decided to roll the dice to see if they could use their upside to make up the difference and keep Estrada as their backup plan.

Things would have been different if Hutchison didn't also begin the year in a slump.

I doubt that anything is set in stone. In a month or two, Sanchez might be back in the bullpen (you can't walk 6-7 hitters a game in the majors and succeed as a starting pitcher). On the other hand, his command might improve to the point where he is effective as an SP.

Likewise, Norris's fate is in his own hands. There will likely be room for both Norris and Sanchez in the rotation next year - if they can pitch effectively as starters.

Some pitchers succeed with excellent control (eg, Maddux, Wainwright, Lee). Others succeed with high walk rates (Ryan, Johnson, Burnett, Juan Guzman, Gio Gonzalez). But even the latter group has kept their career walk rates in the 3.3 - 4.7 BB/9IP range.

Interestingly, Johnson's career walk rate was 3.3/9IP - not really all that high, especially given his career 3.26 K/BB ratio.

LOL @ the Buck Martinez live shot when "ugh, I'm not happy with that," happened. Made my morning.

I should say that it's *almost* impossible to succeed as a SP walking 6-7 batters per game. Johnson did it in 1991 and 1992. He wasn't great those years, but he was decent enough: 200+ IP each year with an ERA+ of 103 and 105, FIP of 4 and 3.61, fWAR of 2.8 and 3.6.

Ryan had a few good years where he walked 6+ per 9IP. In 1977 he walked 6.1 and was third in the Cy Young voting. 7.1 fWAR that year!

Hanley Ramirez back in the lineup with a banged up shoulder. Let's see if he keeps the 10 HR in 25 games pace.

5 walks through 2 innings and the Jays have 2 runs. Now I know how fans of the opposing team feel when Sanchez has been on the mound in 2015.

Players and managers generally have a legit beef with umpires re strike zone calls. Not today, though. Hutchison threw perfect strikes to Pedroia. From the vantage of the Red Sox dugout, the bias of watching your own player, and a string of losses, those pitches can't help but look like balls to Farrell.

I have to say that in general, I have found strike zone calls better this year then in years past. This may simply be a function of the games I am happening to see, but a thumbs up to the umps in question.

As for pitching with a high BB-rate goes, it better be paired with a crazy high K-rate for there to be any chance of long term success. I can't see the baseball gods too often happily meting out pitching lines like 7 2 0 0 5 3.

I agree, the plate ump has been real good so far today (IMO).

Buck's "oh we're live" moment also made my day, maybe weekend.

Nice to see the Jays having great AB's today. Kelly hasn't been on, obviously, but they have been taking some close/pretty good pitches.

Hutchison could throw 5 shutout innings but need 100 pitches to do it.

As for pitching with a high BB-rate goes, it better be paired with a crazy high K-rate for there to be any chance of long term success. I can't see the baseball gods too often happily meting out pitching lines like 7 2 0 0 5 3.

Ball and stikeouts are not all equals though. You don't want to walk the guys at the bottom of the lineup and 9 Ks against the bottom of the lineup have probably little impact on a game. What's for sure is that lots of walks will keep a pitcher from throwing deep into ballgames.

Was that Osuna needing some work or a closer audition?

a little from column A, a little from column B?

nothing feels better than beating on the red sox in any year, but its even sweeter in a year where they’ve been as overrated as they were coming in. hope we lower the boom tommorrow for the coup de grace.

promising baby steps from Hutch.

and to think we still gave yet to enjoy the coming Joey/EE hotstreak bashfest, or healthy reyes/saunders. this lineup is kind of insanely good.

That was a neat and tidy 3 innings from Hendriks.  He's been awfully effective.

Syndergaard gets the call to the Show from the Mets and starts on Tuesday. 

and to think we still gave yet to enjoy the coming Joey/EE hotstreak bashfest

True, but don't get greedy. Without having done the math, I am guessing that improvements by Encarnacion and Bautista will be offset by regressions from Martin and Travis, so the net should be zero.

The team is leading the majors in scoring. By a lot. How much better do they realistically figure to get?

Actually, a bashfest isn't what they need.  They already lead the league in doubles and are second in the league in home runs.  They are 20-2 stealing bases as a club.  They just need to keep doing what they are doing, with more contributions from Saunders, Reyes, Bautista and Encarnacion off-setting fewer from other players.  It's a really good offence.  They get in trouble when they try to do too much.  Donaldson and Martin have been very good at taking what is given.  Travis is ood at it for a young player. 

I still marvel at the Donaldson trade, which so far looks like a coup for Anthopoulos. Graveman, Barreto, and Lawrie have all really struggled this year, while Nolin has been rehabbing a groin injury. Meanwhile, Donaldson is hitting 308/374/547 (154 wRC+) and has been worth 1.4 fWAR so far for the Jays. He has been a major upgrade over Lawrie, who is having a tough time offensively this year (through 30 games, wRC+ of 84, 2.4% walk rate, 29.8% K rate, 0.2 fWAR).

If the Jays' lineup can stay healthy, it could be very, very good this year.

What's happened to Napoli? Some guys start swinging a Sliderbat™ as they age. He's one-upped them with the Curveballbat.

The answer is Joel Pineiro. What on earth could the question ever be?

yep chuck - just noting that large parts of the offense have yet to contribute the way they likely will by the end, so we don't have to worry too much about them slacking off the current pace so much. in other words, it's pretty crazy we've done this well offensively without much from joey ee reyes and saunders.

napoli pretty much had his skull reconstructed in the offseason, permanently altering the dimensions of his head.. i don't know if that's ever a great idea for sport which requires such precision eye-hand coordination.

Forgot about that. It would be kind of tragic if that actually hurt him. At least he's sleeping btter...

From 2002 to 2006, who led all Mariners RHP in games started and Pitcher Wins? Bring me that guy.

Via BR before tonight we had 3 guys with a 150+ OPS+ - Donaldson, Martin & Travis.  Colabello is in the 300's but in just 12 PA, Carrera in the 150's but just 16 PA.  Valencia and Bautista in the 130s, Smoak over 100.
IN the bad news category you get negatives from Thole, Diaz (neither a surprise), sub 80's from Reyes, Pompey, Navarro, Goins, Saunders, Tolleson.  Only Goins has defense at a level good enough to justify that bad a bat, maybe Pompey as well.  Encarnacion at just 84.
That explains the offense. Lots of wow and a few role players who are doing well in limited time. just one key bat that is sucking.

Rotation Dickey is about where we expected with a 94 ERA+, Sanchez much better at 114, Norris in AAA with his 108.  Hutchison & Buehrle having troubles in the sub 70 ERA+ range.

What's happened to Napoli?

I'm shocked his jersey was actually buttoned up to the top for a change. When did that happen? He always looked like a slob up there.

As for the game, I'm not missing Jose Reyes at short AT ALL. That catch by Ryan Goins on that broken-bat bloop by Allen Craig in the fourth was huge.

I don't think that was a "live" blooper of Buck Martinez at 1pm today.  I suspect they record that intro clip a little earlier.  If they mess it up, they do a retake.  I suspect someone at Sportsnet played the wrong clip, making Buck look bad.

More camera shots of John Farrell looking downcast in the dugout, please.

Wasn't that long ago people were championing the Rays organization for their injury free pitching staff. Oh Well.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/05/drew-smyly-likely-to-have-season-ending-surgery.html

Wasn't that long ago people were championing the Rays organization for their injury free pitching staff.

Yeah, fooled by randomness. It's in some ways a confusion of correlation with causation, but it's more than that -- it's a failure to appreciate how unknowable things are. The whole Pete Walker discussion falls into the same category, I'd say. Speculation is fine but no one can pretend to have the foggiest clue about these things.

Saunders to the DL. More stellar work by your Toronto Blue Jays' training staff.

Tolleson coming back up? I see he's back on the 40 man roster this morning.

Yeah, fooled by randomness. It's in some ways a confusion of correlation with causation, but it's more than that -- it's a failure to appreciate how unknowable things are. The whole Pete Walker discussion falls into the same category, I'd say. Speculation is fine but no one can pretend to have the foggiest clue about these things.

Nope.  Tampa has had pitching injuries, but nonetheless they've had a successful pitching staff for about 8 years despite losing ace pitchers in their prime for financial reasons.  Jim Hickey has been the pitching coach since 2006 and (I think) deserves a healthy portion of the credit.  The Blue Jays have not had decent pitching for Pete Walker's 2 years + despite bringing in expensive starting pitchers with pretty good track records.  You could say that Walker needs more time or that he's just had bad luck, but for myself, I'd take Hickey in a heartbeat.

Saunders' rehab stint in Dunedin was weird.  He came back for four games, missed a week and then played 5 games (during which he hit poorly- striking out 7 times in 19 at-bats in the FSL) and was deemed ready to go.  The pattern seemed rushed at the time, and that appears to have been the case. 

I don't know why the club wouldn't call up an outfielder to replace him.  I guess they intend to ride out Colabello's defence in the outfield given his hot start with the bat.  It's a low percentage move.

I guess the other possibility is that Bautista is ready to go back to the outfield.  In that case, an outfield of Bautista, Pillar and Carrera/Colabello would be fine. 

i think its true that their magical run of pitcher health was plenty lucky. they had a good 5-6yr run of near perfect sp health after kazmir was injured.

Mike, I'm not sure who you're thinking of when you mention Pete Walker getting poor results from "expensive starting pitchers with pretty good track records".

There's Dickey, who's pitched like a fairly decent #3 guy since coming here. Did we really expect him to put up more Cy Young numbers here, at age 38-40 in the Rogers Centre? And how much can Walker even help a guy like Dickey?

There's Buehrle, who's pitched exactly as one would expect.

There's Josh Johnson, who sucked, got injured (or was injured the whole time) and hasn't pitched an inning since. Hard to pin that one on anybody.

There' s JA Happ, who pitched like you'd probably expect.

Unless I'm totally missing somebody, I'm not really sure you could expect anything more than what we've gotten from our rotation. I guess there's Romero too, but his downfall occurred during Farrell's tenure. Morrow is hard to blame on him also, as he was nearly always at least slightly injured (but pitched really well that one season he wasn't, at least for 120 innings or so).

I'm not sure exactly how good a job he's done, or how good a job he could have done. It's impossible to say. It does seem like we've gotten decent results from various warm bodies that have come from nowhere to produce, even if for just one season, including guys like: Juan Perez, Todd Redmond, Neil Wagner, Luis Perez, and Dustin McGowan (for a short time). Does he deserve credit the success of guys like Osuna, Cecil (became a good reliever under his tenure), Delabar, Loup, Stroman (and his quick adjustment), Jenkins (has performed well - better than expected in the majors considering his minor league numbers), and Hendrick (looking good so far this year)? And it's not like we're spending any money on the bullpen; the only guy making a notable amount over the minimum this year is Cecil at 2.4 million. Perhaps he has actually done a good job, consider the bunch of nobodies and has-beens we've rolled out there the past few years.

I tend to assume that Walker's at least a decent pitching coach, due to my general fondness for Gibbons and AA . But there's really no way to know for sure. However, I don't think the performance of the rotation is any evidence against him.

When Reyes is back healthy, any possibility he gets time at DH and Goins stays at SS?

Also Detriot's Avila is on the DL. Navarro trade a possibility there!

Reyes at DH? No way, Jose! There's a glut at DH right now. Imagine if Lind was still here.

There's still no timetable for Bats to go back to the field. I expect we'll know at least a week in advance as he will need to do some throwing drills first. I suppose he could start in left field. Let's just not totally screw this one up.

Possibly a dumb question, and I apologize in advance if it's been asked before, but - does anyone have any numbers on Dickey pitching at home with the roof open vs. closed? Just wondering if the change in air currents has a pronounced effect on his knuckler, and if so, which gives him better results. Again, sorry if it's dumb or already been covered.

Tampa has had pitching injuries, but nonetheless...

Well, you glide right over the "pitching injuries" point, which not long ago was one of your things. Well, OK, so that argument's been tossed in the fooled-by-randomness bin, but from there you go on to assume you have enough knowledge to determine some other issue (the merits of Pete Walker) when again, you don't have anywhere near the information required to make that judgement. Repeat after Eudaimon: "It's impossible to say." Therein lies true wisdom.

Generally, I think knuckleballers like it with the roof open. I remember the Jays closing the roof on sunny days to upset Wakefield.

game of inches.

if pillar squeezes that ball and travis turns that dp in the 1st, we probably win this game.

though that doesn't excuse yet another terrible outing from dickey.

we won't go anywhere with irredeemably terrible starting pitching like this.

"....More stellar work by your Toronto Blue Jays' training staff...."

What a cheap shot.  If you've got actual evidence that the training staff have screwed up Saunders' health, please provide it.  Otherwise we'll assume it's the usual crude speculation from your seat in the stands.

The latest injury to Saunders is clearly related to the serious knee injury that he suffered in February.  Remember that injury?  The one that was supposed to sideline him until the all-star break or later?  The one that had many fans panicking and calling for a trade to acquire another outfielder?  Yet here it is in May -- more than two months ahead of the original schedule -- and you're blaming the trainers for him not being in perfect health.

I suppose, in the worldview of some fans, a player's early recovery after a serious injury is purely a credit to the hard work of the player himself, or perhaps it's some freak of good fortune -- the training staff get no credit at all for it.  But if he should suffer some lingering effects from a serious knee injury, let's ridicule the training staff and blame them.  Let's expect a player's health to be some linear progression in which complications never happen, setbacks never occur, and if anything bad should happen, we need to find a villain on the training staff.

Bullpen seems to be settling in nicely as we start separating the wheat from the chaff. nice outing from tepera after dominating AAA. he might stick around for a bit.

Bullpen AL ranks as of this second:

105.2ip (5th)
3.58era (8th)
3.78fip (5th)
3.78xfip (5th)
3.46siera (5th)
0.5war (8th)

Siera of the guys currently in the bullpen:

hendriks 1.92
loup 2.72
cecil 2.97
osuna 3.11
francis 3.13
delabar 3.16
tepera 3.75
(estrada 3.47)

and of the guys we cut:

hynes 3.33
castro 3.96
jenkins 4.02
redmond 6.35
albers 6.37
copeland 7.16

so on the whole it seems like they're honing in on the right guys. and its real nice to have the flexibility to send down the guys who are not getting it done without losing them forever.

if delabar and tepera can pitch like that - big question mark of course - the pen starts to look pretty dang good imo.

Instead of blaming the training staff, we could perhaps listen to Saunders himself, who has a perfectly reasonable explanation for what's happened to him. From the latest John Lott report:

The problem is inflammation in his left knee. In February, Saunders underwent surgery to remove about 60 per cent of the meniscus (cartilage) in that knee. As a left-handed batter, he places severe torque on that knee when he swings.

“I’ve been trying to grind through this thing for a little bit,” Saunders said. “But it’s time.

“Everything in this game is about your base and your lower half. When I swing, I’m losing my back knee. I can’t sit on it. The power comes from the ground up and everything has to do with your legs. I don’t think it will be a long time. I’m expecting that rest will be the answer.”

Although the early prognosis – at least the announced prognosis – was that he should return to normal relatively quickly, the shortage of normal cushioning in his knee has caused inflammation and pain.

“Coming off surgery, [there is] a possibility of anything happening at any time, and this is my body’s way of reacting to a traumatic incident, from going in my knee and scoping it and taking out my meniscus,” he said. “My body’s not used to not having anything there.”

He hopes rest will solve the problem. But at the moment, continuing to play is “not fair to anybody, myself or the team,” he said.

China, Saunders's early return had nothing to do with the training staff. Rather, the seriousness of his sprinkler-caused injury necessitated the removal of 60% of his meniscus. So instead of a protracted wait for his meniscus to heal, he was able to come back sooner - but with only 40% of his meniscus intact. The reason some people are upset is because they are inferring that he was brought back too soon in his recovery from that surgery.

Of course, there will never be any direct evidence available either way to fans in these situations. You can choose to give the organization the benefit of the doubt, or (noting previous incidents involving Lind, Reyes, Lawrie, Arencibia and others) perhaps question whethe the organization is doing a good job of preventing and helping players efficiently heal from injuries. It's all guesswork, and different fans will draw different inferences from the circumstantial evidence.

It doesn't sound like Saunders has a medical degree.
It's hard to imagine he was at 100% coming out of rehab.

He took a day off to drain water from his knee. Didn't he?

Andre Dawson was able to play quite a bit of baseball on bad knees. Enough to get into the Hall.
However The Hawk moved to a ballpark with natural grass.

Maybe Saunders needs to do it gradually and become the 4th outfielder.
Maybe they need to limit his time on turf.
Maybe he need to play on a light schedule to regain his timing and get used to the knee.

The Blue Jays have a long History on bringing back players much too early from the D.L. Usually it's because the Team have no other option. That's usually a GM's fault. But this problem goes back many years, many years and with most Teams. It's also not changing any time soon. If Saunders is back before June 1st, it will be too soon. He needs to be comfortably playing in the field, full time for at least ten games. He needs to be hitting very well before he returns. That would indicate he's got his timing down.

Dickey has not struck anyone out in 3 of his last 4 starts. That is utterly bizarre and not a terribly good sign.

As far as I'm concerned, Saunders wasn't supposed to be back til the ASB.  Considering the type of surgery, expecting him to be 100% before then at any point is a bonus.

Dickey can be effective striking out 5-6 per 9 IP provided he keeps his ground ball rate up (see his 2010-2011 seasons).  I'd guess that he could also be effective striking out only 4.5/9IP (unlike most pitchers) if he kept his walk rate down and the ground ball rate up.  He's a good athlete and he needs to take advantage of that.

Jeff Blair has interesting comments from Jim McKean on the Jacoby-Eddings incident.

Jose Bautista sits tonight in Baltimore against Ubaldo Jimenez.  Justin Smoak is at first base and Encarnacion DHes.  Chris Colabello remains in the outfield against the tough right-hander, but then the club doesn't have any other options. Hot-hand/batter-pitcher matchup theories in play tonight.

Speaking of Ricky Ro - the guy up there on the banner - he just signed a minor league deal with the SF Giants..