Friday, March 12, 2010

Cecil faces uphill battle to make rotation

After displaying flashes of brilliance in his first tour of duty with the Blue Jays last season, Brett Cecil should have made the Blue Jays rotation coming out of spring training. However, the 23 year old faces longer than expected odds to start the year north of the border because of a freak accident that occurred in his kitchen.

Cecil suffered a cut to his left thumb while preparing food, and as a result, the club decided to take a precautionary stance and delay his start date nearly a week. In his first action of the spring on Wednesday, the '07 draft pick, limited to just throwing fastballs and changeups, struggled with his consistency in his two innings of work. Cecil, who started 17 contests for the Jays last season, struck out four but surrendered three runs on four hits, with the damage coming off the bat of a Cody Ransom three run home run.

With plenty of arms in the running for a starting job, including Shaun Marcum, Ricky Romero, Dustin McGowan, Brandon Morrow, Brian Tallet and Marc Rzepczynski, Cecil will likely find himself ticketed to AAA Las Vegas to begin the campaign. Where he hopes to avoid any more mishaps in the kitchen.