Game #162: Rays at Jays pregame
Fitting that the Toronto marathon is taking place on the day the Blue Jays’ 2007 marathon comes to an end…
Tampa Bay (65-96) at Toronto (83-78)
at 1:07 p.m. ET at the Rogers Centre
Today’s lineups:
DEVIL RAYS
Akinori Iwamura, 2B
Jorge Velandia, SS
Carlos Pena, 1B
Greg Norton, RF
Raul Casanova, DH
Dioner Navarro, C
Jonny Gomes, LF
Joel Guzman, 3B
Justin Ruggiano, CF
PITCHING: RHP Jason Hammel (2-5, 6.08 ERA)
BLUE JAYS
Reed Johnson, DH
Russ Adams, 2B
Alex Rios, CF
Adam Lind, LF
John-Ford Griffin, RF
Curtis Thigpen, C
Hector Luna, 1B
Joe Inglett, 3B
Ray Olmedo, SS
PITCHING: RHP A.J. Burnett (10-7, 3.49 ERA)
NOTES: CoachGate finally is over and there are no surprises. Hitting coach Mickey Brantley is not coming back (and rumor has it that you should tune in to Off the Record on Wednesday), Ernie Whitt is moving to first base, Marty Pevey is switching to third base and Brian Butterfield will be the new bench coach. … Toronto manager John Gibbons said that he believes Toronto’s rotation should be the same heading into next season: Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum and Jesse Litsch. He hinted that RHPs Casey Janssen and Brian Wolfe would likely remain in the bullpen next year.
UP NEXT:
AMERICAN LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES
New York at Cleveland
Los Angeles at Boston
COMING LATER: My postseason award picks and playoff predictions
Major League Bastian 
Well, it sure doesn’t look good for the Mets. Glavine gives up 7 in 0.1 inning. I guess Folorida are making a statement about the fight yesterday.
Conflicting statements from Abner and JP.
Abner states the rotation should be the same next year.
JP states (on 590) that Janssen will be stretched out over the winter. Personally, I think this is the right move, it certainly can’t hurt to have Janssen reaady to go if one of the starters show up lame, or get hurt at the start of the season.
Interesting though, there has been no statement from either of them regarding Chacin. It’s like he doesn’t exist.
Is he odd man out next year?
So if the starters are the same, who stays and who goes in the pen.
The locked positions are likely:
Ryan
League
Accardo
Janssen
Downs
Wolfe
Does that mean Romero, Kennedy, Tallet, Frasor and Chacin will all be fighting for the 7th and last spot?
I would guess it be 1 of Romero/Kennedy/Tallet, and Frasor for the first month (because it’s unlikely BJ will be ready to come north April 1).
Chacin will have to not just put up HUGE numbers in the minors but also show that he is capible of controlling his pitch count – something he hasn’t yet been able to do.
I agree with your assesment of streching out Janssen, but I think since his stuff translates better to the pen than Litsch’s does (Casey can set-up while Jesse could really only do long-relief) that he’ll wind up in the pen atleast untill BJ is back.
With Delmon Young getting taken out of the game yesterday, I think he hurt his chances for R.O.Y. Pedroia will end up getting it.
Young as we all know has so much talent and it is scary what he could end up being.
His attitude STINKS!!!
The dude with the tude!!!
Those Young boys have alot of hate/anger in there bodies.
Classy thing for Abner to do-putting Towers out there for the last two innings.
Certainly was a classy thing to do, considering Josh’s major league career is now over.
lol
Although they didn’t officially commit any errors, this loss had a lot to do with some pretty lousy defense by the Jays’ AAA guys and journeymen — botched double play balls, missing the cut off man, poor throws around the infield, etc.
Oh well. A disappointing end to a disappointing season. At least the pitching’s looking good….
And I really think Towers will pop up again somewhere, probably in the N.L. He’ll at least get another shot (or two or three) from someone considering how terrible a lot of the pitching is these days. I mean, come on, if the wonky arms of Victor Zambrano, John Thomson, and Ohka can get multiple chances, a rubber arm like Towers will definitely get his share of opportunities in his post-Jay career….