Brad Arnsberg is the best pitching coach in all of baseball, yet it's largely unnoticed because in his tenure with the ball club, the Blue Jays have not put a winning product on the field. With their early success in '09, Arnsberg has played a pivotal role. No one figured their bats would be this hot, but by that same token, the rotation was supposed to be doom and gloom all year, yet it has been very stable...
Following last night's 12-2 drubbing of the Twins, Arnsberg must be commended for making Scott Richmond a half decent starter. Make no mistake, Richmond is still not a long term solution, nor should he get too big headed about going 6.1 innings (a career high), but Arnsberg has worked his magic with yet another hurler...
When you consider how well Ricky Romero has started his big league career, particularly after being labeled a "bust" by many pundits, how does Arnsberg not deserve a lot of the credit? After a poor start to the spring, General Manager J.P. Ricciardi was all set to send Romero back to AAA, but Arnsberg insisted on keeping him with the team. believing he could work with him to make him an effective big league pitcher. The early results are something to behold. 1-0, with a 2.57 ERA in 2 starts, which includes his latest outing, a stellar 8 inning performance against the Twins...
David Purcey, like Romero, a former first round pick has had enough solid starts in his brief career to know that he'll be a keeper. It's very exciting when prospects Brett Cecil and Brad Mills are awaiting their chance to become another quality major league pitcher. They'll be able to owe their success to the best in the business, Brad Arnsberg...
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Brian Tallet moving to starting rotation
Moments after I posted yesterday that Bill Murphy was called up and was going to be inserted into the rotation, I had my doubts. Instead of reading between the lines of this peculiar promotion, I figured the team would give him a couple of starts. Wrong. Murphy is going to be a lefty specialist in the bullpen...
Which means (gulp!) Brian Tallet is the newest member of the Blue Jays rotation! He's been very good in a long relief role, and then suddenly quite poor in the early season. Tallet, originally selected by the Indians in the 2nd round of the 2000 draft, has started 6 times in his career, once with the Jays back in 2006. Look for Brian to make a couple of spot starts and then move over for one of the Jays prospects...
What do you think? Are the Jays doomed in games he starts? He can be fairly decent, can't he?
Which means (gulp!) Brian Tallet is the newest member of the Blue Jays rotation! He's been very good in a long relief role, and then suddenly quite poor in the early season. Tallet, originally selected by the Indians in the 2nd round of the 2000 draft, has started 6 times in his career, once with the Jays back in 2006. Look for Brian to make a couple of spot starts and then move over for one of the Jays prospects...
What do you think? Are the Jays doomed in games he starts? He can be fairly decent, can't he?
Snider sitting against Lefties...
In the three games the Blue Jays have faced left handed start pitching this season, Travis Snider has been on the bench to start the game in all three of them. It's an interesting decision by Manager Cito Gaston, one that could benefit the young rookie, at least in the short term. However, at what point do the Jays decide to let him loose and make him an every day player, regardless of who is on the mound?
After Snider's two monster home runs Monday against Minny, it might have been good timing to throw him in against a lefty and see how he does. Gaston instead opted to err on the side of caution (though Snider is still far better than Jose Bautista, regardless of who is pitching.) Another potential reason Snider isn't playing every day is due to the fact he jammed his knee in spring training. The Jays might want to hold off on him playing every day, and not having him hit against lefties is a valid "excuse" to do so...
It should be noted that Lyle Overbay has sat in favour of Kevin Millar in each of the three contests vs. left handed pitching also. But Overbay has been pretty bad. So it's only worth a brief mention...
After Snider's two monster home runs Monday against Minny, it might have been good timing to throw him in against a lefty and see how he does. Gaston instead opted to err on the side of caution (though Snider is still far better than Jose Bautista, regardless of who is pitching.) Another potential reason Snider isn't playing every day is due to the fact he jammed his knee in spring training. The Jays might want to hold off on him playing every day, and not having him hit against lefties is a valid "excuse" to do so...
It should be noted that Lyle Overbay has sat in favour of Kevin Millar in each of the three contests vs. left handed pitching also. But Overbay has been pretty bad. So it's only worth a brief mention...
Romero shines; Jays lose in extras
In his 2nd career Major League start, Ricky Romero was outstanding for the Jays. The '05 6th overall pick has certainly silenced the critics (for now) that labelled him a bust. He went deep into the game, pitching 8 solid innings and surrendering just 2 runs...
What was most exceptional about Romero was his poise on the mound. He never seemed to get rattled, working quickly and effectively, and pitched to contact. He threw 106 pitches, 70 of which were for strikes. For a staff that has issued far too many free passes, his control is a welcomed bright spot...
The most impressive aspect of his outing against the Twins was the 6th inning. Down 2-1, it all could have come unravelled for Romero. He loaded up the bags with nobody out. Showing the mettle of a vet, he promptly struck out Michael Cuddyer and induced an inning ending double play to get out of the inning unscathed...
The Jays did not get much offense in this contest, and Jesse Carlson lost it in the 11th when Joe Crede spanked one over the head of Vernon Wells. These types of games will happen. It would have been phenomenal to jump to a 7-2 start, but the Twins were due against the Jays having lost their last 10 until this one...
What was most exceptional about Romero was his poise on the mound. He never seemed to get rattled, working quickly and effectively, and pitched to contact. He threw 106 pitches, 70 of which were for strikes. For a staff that has issued far too many free passes, his control is a welcomed bright spot...
The most impressive aspect of his outing against the Twins was the 6th inning. Down 2-1, it all could have come unravelled for Romero. He loaded up the bags with nobody out. Showing the mettle of a vet, he promptly struck out Michael Cuddyer and induced an inning ending double play to get out of the inning unscathed...
The Jays did not get much offense in this contest, and Jesse Carlson lost it in the 11th when Joe Crede spanked one over the head of Vernon Wells. These types of games will happen. It would have been phenomenal to jump to a 7-2 start, but the Twins were due against the Jays having lost their last 10 until this one...
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Litsch to DL; Murphy called up
As expected, Jesse Litsch is heading to the 15 day disabled list with forearm tightness. At least we now know why he's been poor in his first two starts (not to mention he didn't face many major league hitters in spring training.)
To replace Litsch, the HUGE news is that the Jays have called up lefty Bill Murphy. This guy is incredible, quite possibly the second coming of Doc Halladay. He has carved up batters in the minor leagues in record pace after being selected in the 3rd round of the 2002 draft by the Oakland Athletics. He is destined to be a fixture of the Blue Jays rotation for years to come...
Or for 2 of 3 starts, if he is lucky. Murphy is awful. In AAA Syracuse last season, he went 8-10 with an ERA of 5.32. In his brief appearance in the majors with the Diamondbacks in 2007, he surrendered 4 runs in 6.1 innings of work, giving him a rather pedestrian 5.68 ERA. Simply put, Murphy is nothing more than a stopgap...
It's rather curious Toronto did not call up on of its top prospects in Brad Mills (15-5 in 2 seasons in the Jays system), or 1st round pick in 2007, Brett Cecil. They'll likely get the call after some seasoning with AAA Las Vegas when their season gets underway...
To replace Litsch, the HUGE news is that the Jays have called up lefty Bill Murphy. This guy is incredible, quite possibly the second coming of Doc Halladay. He has carved up batters in the minor leagues in record pace after being selected in the 3rd round of the 2002 draft by the Oakland Athletics. He is destined to be a fixture of the Blue Jays rotation for years to come...
Or for 2 of 3 starts, if he is lucky. Murphy is awful. In AAA Syracuse last season, he went 8-10 with an ERA of 5.32. In his brief appearance in the majors with the Diamondbacks in 2007, he surrendered 4 runs in 6.1 innings of work, giving him a rather pedestrian 5.68 ERA. Simply put, Murphy is nothing more than a stopgap...
It's rather curious Toronto did not call up on of its top prospects in Brad Mills (15-5 in 2 seasons in the Jays system), or 1st round pick in 2007, Brett Cecil. They'll likely get the call after some seasoning with AAA Las Vegas when their season gets underway...
Jays winning despite lack of production from big guns
It's a good sign that the Toronto Blue Jays are winning ball games (6 in their first 8), despite the fact that arguably their two best hitters haven't even hit their stride offensively...
Consider this. Alex Rios has hit just .24o, with zero home runs and 6 RBI, four of which came in one contest. Cleanup hitter Vernon Wells has hit for a good average but has a paltry 1 dinger and 3 RBI. It's a wonder how Adam Lind is tied for first in baseball with 12 RBI without the support of the "big guns" in front of him in the batting order...
Eventually Rios and Wells will start swinging a hot stick, so the best offense in MLB (wow!) should become even more potent. 8 games into the '09 season, isn't that a shocking proposition...
Consider this. Alex Rios has hit just .24o, with zero home runs and 6 RBI, four of which came in one contest. Cleanup hitter Vernon Wells has hit for a good average but has a paltry 1 dinger and 3 RBI. It's a wonder how Adam Lind is tied for first in baseball with 12 RBI without the support of the "big guns" in front of him in the batting order...
Eventually Rios and Wells will start swinging a hot stick, so the best offense in MLB (wow!) should become even more potent. 8 games into the '09 season, isn't that a shocking proposition...
Jays need to continue rolling Ryan out in the 9th
B.J. Ryan had his best outing of the season, throwing 11 of his 12 pitches for strikes and picking up his first save against Minnesota. After his first two outings of the year, however, Ryan didn't made himself very popular in Toronto. A blown save against Detroit, and a woeful outing versus Cleveland raised questions about his status with the club. Having said that, Toronto needs to keep rolling him out in the 9th inning of tight games...
There is absolutely no reason for Manager Cito Gaston to make a change, at least not yet. The team has made a sizable investment in Ryan ($10 million each for the next 2 years) suggesting he's going to be around for a while. See if he can work through his struggles instead of delegating his role so early. What good would that do anyways? Handing his role over to someone like Scott Downs or Brandon League would only illustrate to other players they don't have much job security. That can't help production or morale within the clubhouse. Would the Yankees jettison Mariano Rivera if he had two bad outings?
If Blow Jay Ryan puts together a string of awful outings, don't be surprised to see Downs step in to shut down contests...
There is absolutely no reason for Manager Cito Gaston to make a change, at least not yet. The team has made a sizable investment in Ryan ($10 million each for the next 2 years) suggesting he's going to be around for a while. See if he can work through his struggles instead of delegating his role so early. What good would that do anyways? Handing his role over to someone like Scott Downs or Brandon League would only illustrate to other players they don't have much job security. That can't help production or morale within the clubhouse. Would the Yankees jettison Mariano Rivera if he had two bad outings?
If Blow Jay Ryan puts together a string of awful outings, don't be surprised to see Downs step in to shut down contests...
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