I am absolutely baffled by the Blue Jays’ inexplicable accumulation of pitchers. I was confused long before they signed Gregg. Every time they get a new pitcher I think “How many pitching staffs does one major league team need?” Honestly, why did this team need Dana Eveland? What does Eveland do that would merit serious consideration of having him break camp with the team? The team already had at least a dozen pitchers or more who’re as good, and probably better than, Dana Eveland.
As you point out, they only have one catcher. You need three on a 40-man roster, don’t you? Half the infielders can’t be taken seriously as major league hitters, and they only have four outfielders, who as you point out only have one glove between them.
What the hell are they doing? I mean, they literally do not have enough position players to run a major league baseball team. When’s the other shoe gonna drop? Spring training’s two weeks away.
This team puts the lie to the old baseball adage “You can never have enough pitching.” For God’s sake, they’ve got Marcum, Romero, McGowan (maybe), Brandon Morrow, Marc Rzepczynski, Eveland, Scott Richmond, Brett Cecil, David Purcey, Brad Mills, and Bobby Ray as candidates just for the starting rotation. This isn’t even counting Jesse Litsch, who could come back in the middle of the season, or Kyle Drabek, the prize of the Halladay trade.
Honestly, that’s a full Toronto rotation and a full Vegas (AAA) rotation plus one.
Now sure, some of 'em will probably get hurt, and some of 'em will probably suck. Some of 'em might project better as relievers. Which brings me to the bullpen depth. They’ve got Frasor, Downs, Gregg, Tallet, Accardo, Roenicke, Carlson, Camp, Hayhurst, etc. ad nauseum.
How many guys do they expect to get hurt?
They obviously expect to trade for something else they want. When they expect to trade is the interesting question. 
There’s also the fact that they already traded away the superstar pitcher, so it’s not like that have the trade bait to bring in really top notch hitters.
I don’t say this as a cynical fan, but as an honest observer; this is like that Onion story “Pirates GM Starts Making Haphazard Moves Just Before Spring Training.” It’s February 12, and the Toronto Blue Jays have enough pitchers to staff two teams and don’t have enough position players to field a major league ballclub. There aren’t any free agents left, are there? What’s going to give here? This isn’t Baseball Mogul, they’re actually obliged to staff a 25-man team by Opening Day.
I’ve been saying since the end of last year the Blue Jays had too many pitchers and not enough hitters, and it’s gotten worse.
The Brewers are commissioning a 7-foot-tall bronze statue of Bud Selig to put outside Miller Park, next to the statues of Hank Aaron and Robin Yount.
Next time I’m in Milwaukee, I will probably feel an overwhelming need to urinate.
This has to be a joke.
Pitching shuts down hitting, but you have to have enough bats to overcome games that just require a lot of runs to win. A pitcher can not have a great game every turn. But if he can hang around while the team scores enough runs to win ,it is OK. If a team can not score, the pitcher will have a worse record . He gets resentful if the team can never pull one out for him.
Pitching is always a hot commodity. They can trade pitchers for prospects and bats in a hurry if they choose to.
Not sure what to think about the Indians this year.
When Wedge was fired, I kept saying that I wanted an experienced manager. Valentine, Jim Tracy, even Grady Little. So we hired Acta whose career isn’t exactly blowing up anyone skirts.
Then I figured we would go out an get a bench coach with a long resume. Nope, Manny hired one of his pals from the Nationals. I don’t think the entire Indians coaching staff has more than 15 years experience on a major league bench.
And you have so many new faces. All the pitchers need to start getting used to two new catchers which isn’t easy.
Lots of talent out there, but I am not optimistic about this season.
Holy shit. It’s true.
It’s still a joke, though, in the bad way. A statue of Bud Selig implying he is on the same level as Henry Aaron. That’s a joke. The kind of joke that makes me want to cry.
I honestly hope some Milwaukeeans destroy this abomination.
I was assuming the Jays were going to go with Raul Chavez to back up John Buck if they break camp and JP Arencibia isn’t ready.
The Damon saga gets weirder. The Tigers are beginning to think Boros is trying to use them to boost offers from other teams. He was offered 4 mill for 1 year. The Tigers offered 7 a year for 2 . That should be case closed. But he is on vacation and wont make his decision for a few days. Boros has a lousy rep anyway. Now the Tigers are getting pissed.
Ok, I know how this will go over… but I’m concerned about the Yankees. They have outfield issues. Yes, they have Granderson now, but they lost Damon, Matsui and Melky Cabrera; and will try to replace them with Brett Gardner, Randy Winn, Marcus Thames and Nick Swisher. Swisher was good last year. Gardner has speed and moxie… but not much stick. Sure, they are still stacked in the infield, but very, very old. Their core players, A-Rod, Jeter, Posada and yes, the great Mariano Rivera are all quite old in baseball years, even if they performed great last season. It has to end sometime. I like their rotation, but I think there will be a drop-off this year.
Thames has real power but the Tigers never thought enough of him to give him a crack at full time. He can pound the ball though. Granderson hit 180 against lefties last year. Thames is not a good fielder. Your manager will have to find ways to use them. Granderson is too expensive to platoon.
Thames’ bat could absolutely explode in that loaded line up. I think the Yanks will be very happy with him, they’ve got quite a bit of experience with crummy defensive outfielders and I suspect that will be a liability that’s tolerated. Granderson’s range and glove will help provide a net improvement over the group they had last season.
Cardinals appear to be in pretty good shape this year, surprisingly. The Holliday-Rasmus-Ludwick outfield is the strongest the Redbirds have run out there since Sanders, Jimmy Ballgame and Instant Breakfast, El Hombre has some protection in the lineup and the middle infield seems set for a few years with Ryan and Skip.
The rotation worries me a bit because once you get past Wainwright and Carp, you’re hoping Kyle Lohse keeps it together and Brad Penny gets it together. The fifth starter spot is a competition between about seven guys, none of whom just really dazzles. Rich Hill is a retread and then there’s four young guys in Boggs, Hawksworth, Garcia and McClellan.
The real problem I see is that none of these guys is a real innings-eater like a Jeff Suppan or a Joel Piniero. Wainwright had the most IP of all the starters last year, and he’s the #1. We need a guy in the middle of the rotation who can save the bullpen for us on the days when the aces aren’t throwing.
The other spot where I see some concern is third. It’s an open competition, but Freese is the likely starter unless Mather or Greene can win the job, but I don’t like any of them as the everyday guy. Our weak farm system, however, means it’s going to be hard to bring anyone in to fill the position.
Thames hits bombs, and a lot of folks wanted Leyland to start playing him everyday. When he finally did, because of injuries, and because Thames was crushing the ball, he got overexposed.
I don’t get it. If he can hit, he should put up numbers with enough at-bats. He doesn’t (hasn’t). Now, with filthy Yankee-mojo around him, he’ll probably turn into Cecil Fielder. What’s more likely is that he shows up when asked to pinch hit or in a platoon gig, crushes a lot of home runs in a very short amount of time, gets playing time, ends up fading fast, and gets relegated back soon afterwards.
It isn’t that complicated. Thames does one thing and only one thing well. He crushes lefties. Using him for that purpose and he will shine. Use him for for anything else, like facing righties, and he is going put up terrible numbers.
He’ll put up good numbers against both in limited spurts. In any case, I wonder if he’s going to be used as a platoon bat/pinch hitter or if his bat will get him in and out of the everyday lineup.