Time to make Frasor the set-up man

The Blue Jays bullpen is a mess right now, with few pitchers worthy of being relied upon right now. A big issue, now that Scott Downs is the closer, is having a trusted set-up man work the 8th inning to gives Downs the opportunity to close a contest out. Jesse Carlson has been horrific, as has Blow Jay Ryan. Brandon League could possibly do the job well, but Cito Gaston doesn't have extreme faith in him either.

Enter Jason Frasor. Apart from one awful outing on the road trip, Frasor has enjoyed a renaissance season. Frasor is 4-0 with an ERA of 2.41, which is skewed because of the aforementioned bad game in Atlanta, where he gave up 4 runs. Having been the closer in the 2004 season, Frasor is used to working late in ball games, and he consistently is getting the job done this year. Why not see if he can get the job done? There's nothing to lose (apart from more games with the current set-up guys at the helm.)

Now is not the time to be experimenting in trying to let Carlson, Ryan etc. work through their problems in tight games. The Jays are still in contention in the A.L. East, and if they blow games against Boston in this upcoming series, it could crush our chances immensely of making it back to the playoffs for the first time in 16 years.

Penciling Frasor in as the set-up hurler gives us the best chance to end that nasty drought.

Where was Brandon League?

The most curious element of the Jays demoralizing loss Wednesday in Baltimore was the fact that Brandon League was not in the ball game trying to close things down for the Blue Jays.

In the 11th inning, with the Jays up two, Manager Cito Gaston brought in B.J. Ryan, who gave up a lead-off single and then induced a fly out. Instead of sticking with the club's former closer (that was a bit suspect, but shouldn't be questioned considering how bad Ryan has been) the Jays skipper yanked him out in favour of the relatively inexperienced Brian Wolfe. Really? Wolfe over League?

Is League really that far down on the depth chart now? I can't imagine so. He had a rough start to the year, but has pitched fairly well as of late, and he certainly is miles better than Wolfe. Why didn't Gaston put him in the game? I wonder if he is nursing an injury or illness. At least that's the only plausible explanation.

Wolfe ended up giving up an RBI single followed by a walk off 3 run homer to rookie Nolan Reimold. Game over. Jays swept again. Losing streak hits 9.

Where the heck was League when all this was going down?

Aaron Hill's heroics not lost upon us

Though he didn't ultimately end up being the hero to halt the Jays 8 game losing skid, props must be given to Aaron Hill for coming through in a clutch situation in extra innings Wednesday in Baltimore. The Jays 2nd basemen has had a season's worth worth of big hits that the likes of Vernon Wells and Alex Rios will have already this year.

After the brutal Jays bullpen squandered a 5 run lead, forcing the game into extra innings, Hill lifted a Danys Baez offering over the left field wall for, at the time, a huge 2 run blast to give the Blue Birds the lead in the 11th inning. Unfortunately, his efforts went unrewarded, because the Jays gas can 'pen lost in the bottom of the inning. The timely hitting by Hill should not be lost upon us.

Hill is currently in 3rd place in All-Star balloting amongst American League 2nd basemen (behind Ian Kinsler of Texas and Dustin Pedroia of Boston.) He is currently riding an 11 game hitting streak, and has put up gaudy numbers so far this season; .344 average, 12 home runs, 37 RBI and 32 runs scored. If he keeps up his tear, along with his propensity to get the big hit, he should be making his first All-Star appearance July in St. Louis.

Carlson securing Halladay's ticket out of town

Jesse Carlson is single handily becoming the man that will will be booking Roy Halladay's ticket out of Toronto. Could you blame Doc for wanting to leave after the headaches this rubber armed Carlson has caused?

Carlson will be the most despised Blue Jay of all time, knowing he shoulders the burden for Halladay's exit after royally screwing him over all the time. Not only he did allow 5 runs in the 8th to piss away Halladay's attempt at his league leading 9th win against Baltimore Wednesday, but he also was the big loser in Halladay's previous start in Atlanta, where he gave up the winning run.

Don't forget he surrendered the eventual game, and series winning home run to Hideki Matsui and the Yankees, and a game tying 2 run shot he served up on a platter to Jim Thome in the most recent home stand.

After taking 6 seasons to finally break into the Major League's, and then performing well last season, the league has caught up to him because he's a meat ball fanatic, serving up healthy doses of crap sandwiches.

Put simply, Carlson is junk. And he needs to leave. NOW!

Jays bullpen screws over Halladay

Roy Halladay was well on his way to his Major League Baseball leading 9th win against the Orioles until the Jays bullpen gagged all over themselves, which is quickly throwing away a solid season.

Doc handed a 5 run lead over to his bullpen after 7 innings. Easy stuff, game over right? WRONG. The porous bullpen threw up all over themselves once again, surrendering all five runs the Orioles needed to tie up the contest. How this is even possible is beyond me.

Manager Cito Gaston decided against sending Halladay back out for the 8th inning with his pitch count over 100. It was a smart decision, because the club can't afford to overwork Doc. It's just too bad everyone in the bullpen has been garbage as of late.

Halladay's contract is over after next season, and he has said he wants to see what direction the club is headed before he commits to anything long term. Understandably, the guy wants to win a championship, or at least have a good shot at even making the playoffs. With colossal choke jobs like this one, it sure will make him think twice about re-upping with the Blue Jays.

What a disgusting loss, and an even more pathetic 9 game losing streak.

Bring back Gregg Zaun!!

With the Blue Jays losing their past seven contests, it has become incredibly obvious why the club has been awful! We don't have Gregg Zaun on the team. If we did, he'd lift us to a level never seen before, providing that classic veteran leadership and locker room presence. Therefore, I'm officially starting the BRING BACK GREGG ZAUN campaign.

Of course, he would be able to make sure all of our pitchers were at their best. After all, he should be in hall of fame for his ability to "call a good game" as he always did in his 5 year tenure in Toronto. Don't get me started on how amazing he is at throwing runners out. Wow!

As evidence by his game winning RBI single today in Baltimore, we could really use Zaun and his ability to be a "professional hitter" at the plate. You know, his stout .215 batting average is evidence enough that he's the new age Sultan of Swat. If we had Zaunbie back in a Blue Jay uniform, he'd be out there bashing balls into another stratosphere, propelling us to the greatest heights in baseball history!!!

BRING BACK GREGG ZAUN. He'd be our saviour. Our rock. Our everything.

Blue Jays bats need to WAKE UP

The Blue Jays hitting this past week has been so horrendous it is beyond comprehension. We could have won every game during this demoralizing 7 game losing skid had we had even a glimmer of clutch hitting.

How many times must we rely on the likes of Aaron Hill and Adam Lind to come through with huge hits? Lind has run into his first rough patch, going 3 for his last 30, with no RBI in his last 8 games. It's impossible to put blame on him, because he's scorched the ball all season. Hey Vernon Wells, Alex Rios, Lyle Overbay, how about picking the team up? This is ridiculous.

In the last 7 contests, Toronto's problem hasn't been putting runners on base, but it's the ice cold hitting when there are runners in scoring position. In that span, the club has combined to hit .138 (8-for-58) with ducks on the pond, including a 1 for 9 mark Tuesday in the opener against Baltimore.

If the Jays are to get back to their winning ways and compete in the A.L. East, they need to wake the hell up, now!