Comments on: Jays Journal Spring Training Notes: 8-March-11

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:39:38 +0000

Just how does the bullpen look this yea?, What if anything have they done to improve it? Any AAA prospects that could possibly contribute duringthe year?

By: gabriel

gabriel — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:31:39 +0000

I’m in agreement with both points. I don’t think it’s necessary to carry more than one lefty. Our roster construction when it comes to pitchers doesn’t make much sense at the moment. Both Litsch and Rzepczynsk have shown enough that they merit starting in MLB. But with Drabek, Cecil, Romero & Morrow there’s only room for one of them; and Stewart looks like he could be ready by midseason, if not earlier. If we hang on to Reyes, he’s an option to start in the event of injury (let’s not forget that he has Romero/Cecil-like stuff). Add in Mills and Richmond who are already decent options in case of injury, and we have a logjam- too many assets to efficiently use. Trading Litsch or Rzep if either gets off to a good start in the rotation would help the Jays to maximize their resources.

The bullpen logjam simply compounds the problem. Pitchers like Reyes and Richmond would probably be better off proving themselves in the majors, even in the bullpen than labouring in Vegas, but our overstock of bullpen options makes it difficult to arrange. I hope AA can find good homes for some of our surplus pitching while getting interesting players back.

By: Mat Germain

Mat Germain — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:08:05 +0000

I think they’d be very comfortable with Litsch as the #5, moreso than with Reyes who has had a very bumpy ride in comparison.

You’re right in that the Jays are very RHP heavy, but they do have some RHPs that are very effective vs both LHP and RHP (such as Francisco), which helps mitigate the need to add LHP RP. And, I do believe there’s a chance that they’d be happy with Rzepczynski as the LHP in relief instead of Reyes, so he’s an option for that role as well.

By: Mat Germain

Mat Germain — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:04:00 +0000

Thanks for the info allcanadian34!

By: allcanadian34

allcanadian34 — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:35:42 +0000

I’m fairly certain that Casey Janssen has one option left. I remember reading an article where Casey talked about how he was aware that he was one of the few veteran relievers that had an option left, but that he wanted to earn his spot and he hoped that management would give the job to the best players, regardless of option status. Or something along those lines… Either way, I’m 99% sure Casey has one option left.

By: gabriel

gabriel — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:52:59 +0000

While I suppose Reyes makes sense as a trade option, I think the preferred situation for the Jays would be to trade some of our right-handed relief corps to whoever suffers some injuries or otherwise needs relief help toward the end of ST: Jason Frasor and Shawn Camp probably have the most value of our tradeable relief arms, although Janssen could also be trade bait. I’d imagine AA would prefer to establish/reestablish the value of Litsch, Reyes or Rzepczynski before swinging a trade of someone in our starting depth. Trading Frasor and Camp would make it easy to stash Reyes in the bullpen if the organization still thinks he could establish himself as a worthwhile MLB pitcher where he could serve as the 2nd lefty, long man and emergency starter. The pen could look like this: Francisco/Rauch/Dotel/Villanueva/Janssen/Purcey/Reyes.