Purcey's poor 4th inning kills Blue Jays

The Blue Jays started out so well in the series opener against the Athletics. Marco Scutaro homered, then Aaron Hill smacked a 2 run shot in the 3rd, followed by a Kevin Millar 2 run double in that same inning. I was at this ball game, and I said to a friend "Purcey has to have a solid next inning. If he gives up any runs this inning following the big offensive outburst, it'll demoralizes the Jays."

Sure enough, Purcey, who battled control problems yet again, surrendered a bases loaded triple and threw a wild pitch which led to another run. Boom. Just like that, the 5-1 lead evaporated...

The young pitcher is still learning, so hopefully he keeps this in the memory bank and doesn't allow a bad outing break his confidence. Purcey can pitch at the big league level, but it's a matter of finding consistency. But throwing away a lead after your team tears it up offensively almost certainly will crush a team's morale, and it did tonight...

Fan experience at Rogers Centre far greater with Skydome open

Now that the phenomenal weather has hit Toronto, hopefully the Rogers Centre dome will be open for balance of the remaining games. The experiences differ so vastly when it's open compared to when the dome is closed...

Baseball is an outdoor sport, it should never be watched indoors. So going to Blue Jays games with a closed roof the experience is so much worse. It's stuffy, there's no view of the great city, not to mention the cool light display on the CN Tower. The ambiance is much poorer. I'm sure the players would rather have it outdoors too.

The Rogers Centre has the wonderful ability to close the roof in the event of inclement weather, but in previous years the dome stayed closed well into May regardless of the temperature. So what if it's a bit chilly at 9 o'clock? Keep the dome open and let the fans enjoy the game the way it was intended...

Oh, and one other thing. The stadium should be called the Skydome, not the Rogers Centre, or any other corporate name for that matter...

Is Ricciardi a good G.M?

Easy there! WOAH! The words "good" and "Ricciardi" have just met in the same sentence for the first time. Ricciardi meet good, good meet Ricciardi. Nice to meet you. Likewise. Let's take things slowly, ok? No need to get frisky just yet...

The Kevin Millar signing by Ricciardi in the off-season was genius. It was only confirmed tonight when he broke open the game with a grand slam in the 7th inning (Jays are 8-3!) He is a valuable power bat off the bench, can face tough left handed batters (platooning with Lyle Overbay at 1st base so far this season), and is a great locker room guy...

Easy there Tiger. Come on there bro. Ricciardi is brutal. Or is he??

He drafted Travis Snider (stud!!!!!!) And Aaron Hill. Not to mention Adam Lind, Shaun Marcum and David Purcey. The list continues with Ricky Romero, Jesse Litsch and Casey Janssen...

What to make of his trades? Yes, they were pretty bad at the start of his Blue Jays tenure. However, he fleeced the San Francisco Giants in the Jeremy Accardo trade. What did he have to give up? Locker room malcontent Shea Hillenbrand and mediocre Vinnie Chulk. Accardo went on to save 30 games for Toronto in the 2007 season. Don't forget the Marco Scutaro deal that netted the Jays the starting shortstop for two bums that call themselves pitchers...

The glaring mistake Ricciardi has on his resume is selecting crusty Rusty Adams in the 2002 draft, but every G.M. hasn't struck out in the first round before...

Ok, back to reality. We were talking about how bad Ricciardi was, right?

Roy Halladay is unbelievable

Doc Halladay is so incredible that there's almost no need for it to be repeated. He is the ultimate professional, always puts together a phenomenal effort, pitches unworldly, and never receives any accolades...

There really is no point in saying how amazing he is. It's not like he can be a strikeout machine when he wants to be, like he was when he struck out the side after putting the first two batters on base in the 5th inning against the Twins tonight...

Roy Halladay is simply one of the greatest pitchers in the game, if not THE best. Ho hum, he's a former Cy Young award winner. Pretty boring stuff, really. Yawn, he's 3-0 to start the season. But no one likes a braggart, right?

Brad Arnsberg: best pitching coach in MLB

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...

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?

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...