Towers to the 'pen
As expected, Toronto manager John Gibbons revealed on Friday that right-hander Josh Towers will be moving back to the bullpen. The move will allow A.J. Burnett to slot back into the rotation when he’s activated from the DL on Sunday. The only decision that hasn’t been announced is who gets bumped out of the ‘pen to clear room for Towers.
The likely candidates would appear to be Brandon League and Jason Frasor. League was on the DL for most of the year and has been inconsistent since returning to the Jays. Frasor has become the invisible man in the bullpen, and Towers will probably seldom be used — much like Frasor over the past two months.
Toronto doesn’t technically have to announce anything until Sunday. What’re your thoughts on the move with Towers? And, which reliever do you guys think should be moved to clear room for him?
I see that Shaun Marcum is carrying a no-hitter into the seventh inning (blame me for jinxing it if it comes to an end now). Nice to see him pitching well in K.C., where he’s from and where a lot of friends and family are sure to be in the stands watching. Also nice to see Marcum matching zeroes with Gil Meche.
Toronto went hard after Meche in the offseason and lost him to the Royals. Looking back, the Jays can hardly be complaining. By losing out on Meche, Toronto saved a pile of cash, and the "loss" paved the way for pitchers like Shaun Marcum, Dustin McGowan and Jesse Litsch to get an opportunity to start.
Any of you out there still bitter about Toronto failing to sign Meche? Sure, a rotation of Roy Halladay, Burnett, McGowan, Marcum and Meche would’ve been nice, but consider that one of either Marcum or McGowan might not have been put into the rotation if Meche were on the Jays. Food for thought…
Major League Bastian 
There were two great non signings in the off season-one was Melche and the other was Lilly.
If we had signed either or both of them, we would not have Marcum and McGowan-two of the best young pitchers in the Al right now.
Moving Towers to the pen is a stupid move. Why have him take up a spot which is needed now and for next year.
The guy is a looser, dump him now-don’t push Frasor or League down to make room for him. Towers is a waste of time.
There’s something seriously wrong with Gibby’s judgement.
Why would you keep this looser Towers and send down someone capable of helping the club.
Answer me that!!!!
Makes no sense to me!!!!!
i totally agree on both points. we wouldnt have been able to re-sign wells if we had signed either. i also agree that towers is a waste of time and if he is not in the plans for next year why is he being kept on the team? we already dumped rolls royce and clark, why keep towers?
gsumner you are a hard person to argue with. Yeah giambi damon and abreau are expensive and 2 aren’t worth the $$$ but when it comes down to it the standings are all that matter and the jays are looking up at the yanks. Even if the Yanks dont make the playoffs winning the east title for as many years as they have is a very good feat.
We might be looking up to the yanks but what if the yanks had stairs instead of giambi not only would they be saving a ton of money but they will also be getting a better production. Also if the yanks saved that money they might have been able to sign/trade for another good costly pitcher which might have put them ahead of the bosox.
Think about how much money the jays spend compared to the yanks and seeing as we are only 5.5 games behind them is pretty good considering that we had tons of players on the dl in the first half. I’m sure that if we only had half the people on the dl back early we might have been able to get ahead of the yanks. Trust me we can still get ahead.
i also agree with gsummer that if meche and/or lilly had been signed we might not have gotten such good production out of marcum/mcgowan.
Lastly i think league should be sent down but if it were upto me then perhaps we should have gotten rid of towers when he was hot.
I think JP made a big mistake not trading Towers to the Phillies for that lefty prospect. Now his options are releasing Towers now and getting nothing in return or keeping him in the bullpen until he leaves by free agency next year. Brutal.
But, to give JP some benefit of the doubt, he had no idea Litsch would step it up and become a legitimate option in the starting five. Litsch has pitched beyond expectations since Burnett made yet another trip to the DL. Towers was a backup option, but now there’s no place for him. If Litsch had flopped and Towers had been traded, we’d be on here complaining about how JP let Towers go….
And I think League should get sent down. He really hasn’t pitched well since returning from the DL. If he’s ever going to get back to form, he needs more time in the minors to figure things out and get his velocity back. Opposing batters have just been POUNDING him….
Towers doesn’t have enough service time to opt for free agency at the end of the year. At the time JP refused the Phillies’ deal, there was nobody left to take Towers’ rotation spot, so if we didn’t get someone we could plug in right away, we would have been in even direr straits. Our bullpen ERA is only good because most of the bullpen innings come from Downs, Janssen, and Accardo. If we’d moved Janssen to the rotation in place of Towers, we might win more games out of the fifth rotation spot, but we’d lose more out of the first four by not holding leads, and we’d still have needed to move Janssen back once Burnett or Chacin came off the DL.
What do you guys think our rotation next year should look like?
halladay
burnett
mcgowan
marcum
litsch (if he continues to pitch good for the rest of the season)OR
Chacin (although i really don’t want him to be it i don’t see anyone else in that role) is there anyone i’m forgetting about?
janessen should stay in the bullpen he has done a great job. If litsch stays then what do we do about towers, chacin and taubenheim. How will we ever get them into the rotation with such a young rotation that will probably stay with toronto for a long time.
Do you keep chacin and taubenheim in the bullpen to be used as long relievers and or 6th/7th starters. If so that might be a waste of bullpen space and if push come to shove there is always janessen.
taking all of this into account i will probably leave the 5th spot to litsch, get rid of chacin and towers. I believe that atleast chacin might be able to bring something good in a trade. And trade towers in a package deal. Use taubenheim as a 6th starter.
So i think the bullpen will be this:
Ryan
accardo
janessen
taubenheim
downs
frasor
league (if he returns to his successful state)
perhaps davis romero
What would you guys do? i deteste tallet that’s why i don’t have him in there, i don’t know if romero will be ready and what about few of the other rookies in the minors?
Maybe Gill Meche was on to something when he signed with KC. The Royals have stayed on course while the ’07 Jays have been going up and down in terms of performance. The only person that seems to be bitter about Gill not signing with Tor is JP.
I agree that Towers should be moved. So far good things have happened when we put the ball in young pitchers hands.
I also want to mention that Zaun is an absolute bum and should be Thigpen’s back up. He has a caught stealing percentage of 11%; I don’t have to say that that’s dreadful. Give thigpen a chance.
Also Zaun can’t hit. So we’re not losing anything there.
rdcolson
I’m wondering which one of the 3 underperforming overpaid Yankee bozo’s you think is worth the money the Yanks are paying them-Giambi, Abreau or Damon.
By the way, it ain’t over yet. For the first time this season, we will be back to full power tommorrow night.
Don’t look back-cause we’re gonna catch you.
With Towers in the bullpen, it looks like the Jays are playing every day like he’s starting.
I like how you think Burnett is actually gonna last an entire season… ha ha ha. I quite ******** about spending $$$$. There isn’t a poor owner in baseball, its who spends it and who likes finishing in 3rd place every year.
Gil Meche being signed by K.C. to me made very little sense. K.C. will probably lose 90 or more games with or without Meche. Meche took the $$$$ and ran, I don’t blame him. Give the big $$$$$ to frontline starters not #4 or #5 starters.
Although I realize it’s still too early to pass judgment, has anyone else noticed how Santos is falling apart at AAA? He’s got 6 errors in 8 games. Brutal.
Looks like the Jays’ “shortstop-of-the-future” might need to find himself another position in the field….
bosox:
I think the Royals just wanted a veteran in their starting five to calm all the kids down. Other than Lilly, Meche was the only veteran available in an extremely thin free agent market. Sure, he’s not really worth his contract, but if he helps some young guys out and gives some stability, the signing will be worth it in the long run.
hemgold,
I don’t think the reason the Royals signed Meche was to teach the young guys the ropes. Deyton Moore ( Royals new g.m. ) wanted to sign a player to some big $$$$ to show the fans that they are looking to win and build something in K.C. I say bad move by Moore. Royals lose 90 or more this year and in 08 with or without Meche. By the time the Royals become a factor in there division it will be no earlier than in 09 or 10, these pitchers that are around Meche now will be long gone. Moore came out of the Braves organzation and was Schuerholtz’s asst. for many years, apparently Moore was asleep during those important meetings. Schuerholtz the best g.m. in baseball and for K.C.’s standpoint let’s hope Moore learned something. Royals, Orioles and Pirates were once very proud franchises and it is sad too these great franchises struggle for as long as they have.
I just read the Jays put League on the DL when they reactivated Burnett:
http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070812.wsptjays12/GSStory/GlobeSportsBaseball/home
Whatever happened to League in the offseason has really screwed him up….
bosox:
You make some interesting points, but I still think every starting staff (even if you’re rebuilding) needs a guy who’s had some “success” to anchor that staff. I realize “success” doesn’t necessarily apply to Meche’s career, but he was one of the few options out there last winter.
Otherwise, you’ve just got a staff of journeyman and rookies who can just be painful to watch. Even a rebuilding team with lots of rookies needs one guy to come out once every five days and make them feel like they’ve always got a chance to win on that day….
Honestly, i would have loved to have Meche in the lineup and not to have signed Thomas — leaving Stairs as our DH.
I hope Towers leaves the Jays as soon as possible. Riccardi was a mad man for not trading him to the Phillies before they realized JP was trying to pick their pocket.
WHAT i Really Don’t get is why the Jays picked up Olmedo instead of Chris Gomes from the Orioles. Gomes is waaay better at hitting which is what we need now from SS.