The Man With The Golden Arm has asked his troops to put a post together building their 25 Man Roster.
So here’s mine.
I’ll begin with the starting nine as that’s the easiest to put together.
First Base:
Lyle Overbay, as much as I’ve harped on about trading Overbay, let’s be realistic, camp starts in less than a week and he’s still here. So unless the Boy Wonder pulls something out of a hat, he’s going to be our starting first basemen.
Second:
Aaron Hill, well duh. That’s the easiest to name on this team.
Shortstop:
Alex Gonzalez, ugh…this guy is supposed to be better than crowd favourite Johnny Mac? He’s a few years younger, but is he really that much better?
Third Base:
Edwin Encarnacion, our only real day to day option until he gets traded and you aren’t riding my bench for almost 5.2 million a year.
Catcher:
John Buck, haven’t heard too much about this guy. I know I know, in this baseball crazy city how can that be? It would appear that you’re looking at our number 8 hitter.
Left Field:
Travis Snider, this kid deserves a full time shot at the big time. I’m guessing the Boy Wonder and The Cito are going to go back and forth on discussions about “The Future” Travis’ time is now.
Centre Field:
Vernon “I can buy the Skydome for how much money I make” Wells, The second easiest man to pencil in. Because really, what else can we do with him? God knows we’ve tried to move him along.
Right Field:
Jose Bautista, everything I’ve read seems to point to this wonder child and his .349 on base percentage leading off for us. Overbay was .372, why isn’t he leading off? But that’s another discussion (line up discussion posts coming?) for another day.
DH:
Adam Lind, his name has been moved in and out of spots all off-season, but we’re looking at our starting DH this season.
Bench Spots:
Backup Catcher:
Raul Chavez, he signed early December, let’s go with he wants to be here?
Backup Infielder:
Johnny Mac, this guy puts up with a lot of crap when it comes to playing time but does anything and everything asked of him.
Backup First Base/DH:
Randy Ruiz, God I hope we can find a way to get this guy some serious at bats. I really want to see what he can do.
Backup Outfielder:
Joey Gathright, I like this guy to give Vernon the odd day off and I like to see this guy as the late innings replacement a steal a much needed base since speed is something that this team is lacking.
That’s the hitters and that’s supposed to be the easy part, now on to the pitchers:
Let’s start with our starting five. Ugh. Here we go, can you tell I’m stalling?
Shawn Marcum, Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow are my given starting three and I’d think that’ll be the order in which we see them. All though the Jays depth chart would flip Marcum and Romero around, this is my team today and I’m throwing Marcum out to the opening day wolves.
Tallet: Again, whatever we ask this guy to do, he does and he looks like Tim Robbins from Bull Durham.
Eveland: Throwing a serious wild card into the mix. The Boy Wonder must have seen something he likes about this guy to go out and get him.
So there is my starting 5, Cecil, Mills, Purcey, Ray, Richmond, Rzepczynski go on back to the minors and work on your stuff. We’ll see you in a couple months to build up operation Rotation 2.0.
Now on to the bullpen, God this is getting tough…I’m having to take notes on a piece of paper at this point.
Frasor as our closer is a given at this point isn’t it?
Remember in the 80’s / 90’s when we had Duane Ward in the 8th inning spot and Tom Henke in the 9th spot? We basically had two closers working for us, all we had to do is get through 7 innings and the game was over. I’m thinking that for this year. Fuck trading Downs.
8th inning role, if you need a lefty call in
Downs, if you need a righty bring in
Gregg. Solid.
Let’s bring
Carlson in for some long lefty relief and let’s hope Cito doesn’t throw the bullpen on Jesse’s back again this year.
Now I’ve picked three lefties in the starting 5, so I’d like to see a few righties in the pen to mix things up after a starting lefty starter. So here I’ve got
Valdez and Camp as they’re both out of options. The kids can “season” in the minors.
So that last spot can go to
Janssen and his funky delivery. Something about Janssen I like, I can’t figure out what that is, but I’d like to see him up here for a bit to see what he’s got.
So that means going back to the minor for that seasoning is: Yikes, Accardo (we really need to trade this guy so to give him a fair chance somewhere) and Roenicke, Richmond can go to the DL or the minors, I really don’t care as I don’t like him for some reason.
Of course McGowan and Hayhurst will start the season on the DL.
Hey kids, its the Rain Delay, and after a couple of hours of "me time" away from any baseball news at all, I bring you the 1BlueJaysWay recap of game one. I watched this game, in my living room and was thinking about how this team may just surprise everyone and make the Playoffs!!! But we just couldn't close the deal. It's gonna be a quick one, because I missed the first episode of 24, i had no idea it was a 2 episode night, and I'm catching the time shifted episode. 
The Good: Shawn Marcum. How good was North of Steeles today?? He carried a no hitter into the seventh inning and pitched his 88mph fastball wheeling ass off today. He walked 1 (one) struck out 6 and allowed 3 runs on 2 hits, he kept the Rangers off balance all day long. The change was working and was getting ahead of guys in the count which is clutch for a control guy. Adam Lind. The DH, had 3 hits, two that were rockets including the big fly in the 3rd inning, and a big two out single in the first to keep the inning alive, and he was also intentionally walked in the 8th. Vernon Wells. Yes, that Vernon Wells, I can't believe I'm typing this either!!?! But, V-Dub was solid in this one picking up 3 hits in 4 at-bats and knocking in 3 runs, including a big 2 run bomb in the first inning to get 2010 off right. 
The Bad: Travis Snider. I own an alternate Blue Jays Snider #45 jersey, I pulled it over my head as if I was gonna jersey myself when he looked absolutely over-matched in every at bat. I pray to God/Jesus/Allah/Jewish God/Superman/Tom Cruise that he finds what ever it is he needs to be productive. Strike outs I get, big swingers do that. But he just looked bad. Jason Fraser. Not because he blew the save, because when all is said and done, that Texas Lineup will get a lot of pitchers into a lot of situations. It was just that he left a couple of pitches up in the strike zone to proven hitters like Young and Cruz, and intentionally walked the walking strikeout Chris Davis. Cito Fucking Gaston. Now, I dislike Cito, I don't have the downright hate that is displayed by Golden Arm, but I do believe this fossil has done his job and should fade away like a fart in the wind. Now every one will get on me about this, because I know its the "stats" thing to do, but how to you walk Chris Davis intentionally in the 9th??? This dude strikes out at an eye-popping clip. He swung and missed 150 times last year. In a spot where you need a strike out, and you have you're closer in, why not pitch to this K machine??? Instead you walk Davis, and pitch to Salthamatchcksoeiueia or whatever the fuck his name is, load the bases bringing the infield in, and a hard ground ball ends the game. If you pitch to Davis and he strikes out, you have two down and the infield is at standard depth. I know its the "stats" thing to do, but don't good managers sometimes play with their gut? I don't get it. 
Let the speculation begin. The closer situation is now, maybe, foggy. As today Jason Frasor did his best Kevin Gregg impression. When the smoke clears and all is said and done I must say is this was an entertaining ball game. It was actually fun to watch, until the 9th. This team looks like that scrappy boxer who's reach is about 2 feet shorter than his opponent yet still goes up looking for the knock out punch. Remember, the Yanks lost to the fucking Red Sucks in the late innings as well. Now imagine what we can do if we had a manager who could manage these guys?
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