Meet your 2009 Toronto Blue Jays
The Opening Day roster is set. The Blue Jays returned Brad Mills and Raul Chavez to Minors camp today and optioned Joe Inglett to Triple-A. Thus ends the battle for the fifth starting job, the backup catching role and the bench.
So, here’s the 25-man roster, barring injury over the next four games:
ROTATION: Roy Halladay, David Purcey, Jesse Litsch, Ricky Romero, Scott Richmond
BULLPEN: B.J. Ryan, Scott Downs, Jesse Carlson, Brian Tallet, Jason Frasor, Shawn Camp, Brandon League
STARTERS: 1B Lyle Overbay, 2B Aaron Hill, SS Marco Scutaro, 3B Scott Rolen, C Rod Barajas, DH Adam Lind, LF Travis Snider, CF Vernon Wells, RF Alex Rios
BENCH: Kevin Millar, Michael Barrett, Jose Bautista, John McDonald
This is my last game of the spring. I will be flying back to Toronto tomorrow, taking a couple days off and gearing up for Opening Day. So, here’s the final lineups of the spring for you.
Don’t forget, you can follow my in-game updates at www.twitter.com/mlbastian
Today’s lineup:
NATIONALS
Lastings Milledge, CF
Roger Bernadina, LF
Elijah Dukes, DH
Brad Eldred, 1B
Kory Castro, 3B
Josh Bard, C
Justin Maxwell, RF
Pete Orr, 2B
Alberto Gonzalez, SS
John Lannan, P
BLUE JAYS
Aaron Hill, 2B
Adam Lind, DH
Alex Rios, RF
Vernon Wells, CF
Kevin Millar, 1B
Scott Rolen, 3B
Rod Barajas, C
Travis Snider, LF
John McDonald, SS
Roy Halladay, P
~JB
Major League Bastian 
For anyone who is interested here is todays Jay’s game on gameday
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2009_04_01_wasmlb_tormlb_1
Great coverage this spring! Looking forward to the season!
Ill be there Monday night cheering the boys on.
Jordan – Any word on what Matt Bush did to get himself cut?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090401.WBbaseball20090401150922/WBStory/WBbaseball/
I guess the 19 year old Tim Collins experiment didn’t work that well today. My only question is when did the kid toss up, before he went in, during the time he was in or after. lol
Would any of the Jays starters, other than Halladay, make it into the rotation of the Yankees or Red Sox?
Definatly not the Yankees, they could potentially have 4 top of the rotation guys if healthy. Sabathia, Wang, Burnett, Chamberlain, Pettite. Its pretty crazy.
Maybe Litsch could fit in as a 5th guy in Boston, but with Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka, Brad Penney, and Bucholtz it would be doubtfull as well.
Last year maybe! I’d take Litsch, Purcey and maybe the other two over Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. Some pretty good replacements they found for those guys.
Why is it that nobody wants Scott Richmond on this team.
Marcum and McGowan will not be here until 2010, Mills needs a lot of time in AAA, ball. Clemment will never make it, so who else is there.
This lad has a good story and I’m sure a true Canadian Jays fan will come out to see him pitch.
No one knows how good or bad he will pitch this year so give him a break and start pulling for him.
mlbchat
Considering The Jays had the best team era in baseball last year at 3.49 while Boston was in 9th place at 4.10 and New York was in 1th place at 4.28, maybe your question is phased wrong.
How rotations look on paper matters not, what matters is the annual performance. Injuries are the issue, what happens to NY’s rotation if both Sabathia and Burnett go down? Or to Boston’s if Beckett and Dice-K go down.
Of course the way it looks now, our rotation looks weak, but I’ll tell you, I like this rotation better than the one we started 2006 with. At that time McGowan was struggling and Marcum was in the pen.
Now, it appears we’re going with 3 youngsters in Purcey, Romero and Richmond-although I do think Richmond is replaced by Cecil in mid May.
But don’t bury them yet, these kids might be a lot more ready than you think-162 games will tell the story so ask the same question in late September.
The way the rotation looks on paper does matter, because you can’t predict injuries. Sure you can twist it and make Torontos rotation look good and say guys of Boston and New York could get injured. Well so could Halladay then what happens. There is no way the Jays rotation has the skill, depth, or experience of either of those two teams no matter how you put it.
Denoit
You missed my point which is, we really don’t know yet how these kids will perform. Case in point is Shawn Marcum. Before he turned into a starter in 2007, he struggled in the pen. But as a starter he did terrific and ended up having the lowest era of all our starters the last half of 2007.
At that time, he was probably as good or better than any Yank or Boston pitcher, maybe with the exception of Beckett and Mussina-from a performance standpoint.
My point is, we don’t know yet how Romero, Purcey and Cecil will perform this season. Cecil might be called up and become ROY, Purcey might win the Cy Young-who knows how they’ll do at this standpoint.
What they look like on paper means little, what’s important is how they perform. So, let’s re-ask this same question in September, because at that time, we’ll have facts to compare not conjecture.
Catalanotto released – why not sign him for the minimum – not bad spring numbers – plays outfield and first – better than Millar?
Not a good start for Richmond today.
LOL!!!!!!!!!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090402.WBbaseball20090402144454/WBStory/WBbaseball/
I’m sure what Cito said is true about Roger; does anyone remember Roger’s web site when he was here. But, Cito will get the last laugh, I expect Roger will have multiple charges filed against him very soon. When it’s all over and done with, Roger will spend twenty to thirty million on legal costs and his reputation is gone forever.
The only thing, I’d say about Richmond’s start today Garry, is I hope Cecil gets ready soon.
Brutal.
Brutal.
Wow, just when I thought that my opinion of Clemens couldn’t get any worse, we hear this story. Well, i’m glad that in the long run, both Gaston and Clemens are getting what they deserve!
As for Richmond, the guy is a #5 starter at best, so outings like this, even though painful to watch, are to be expected throughout the season…let’s just hope there are not too many of them.
A couple years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Cito, he was the guest speaker, he let me try on his World Series ring. He is a class act all the way, looking back I wish I would have asked him what he thought of Roger Clemens, who at the time was my favorite “pitcher”. Like Cito said Roger was a hell of a pitcher but not much of a person.
I wonder how good Clemens would have been if he hadn’t been on the juice.
I think Clemens would still have been one h- of a pitcher, but he still wouldn’t have been much of a person LOL
Nobody has mentioned Jansen in this thread, and I don’t know what his status is right now, because he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. A strained Lat muscle is pretty minor, (if that’s what it really is), and if anybody has a couple of bad starts, he should be available, even with a good long rehab, by the end of April or so.
Nobody has mentioned Jansen in this thread, and I don’t know what his status is right now, because he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. A strained Lat muscle is pretty minor, (if that’s what it really is), and if anybody has a couple of bad starts, he should be available, even with a good long rehab, by the end of April or so.
BTW, I think Purcey has a no-hitter in that arm somewhere.
Romero was good today.
So far Camp has a zero ERA this spring, another bit of Arnsberg magic.
So far Camp has a zero ERA this spring, another bit of Arnsberg magic.
Romero had a nasty little slider working today. From here on in the more confidence he gets the better he’s going to be.
Looking forward to seeing some of these rookies develop this year. Here’s hoping for a surprise from these 25!
So, can a sports writer watch the Detroit Tigers play their season-opening game in Toronto AND watch Michigan State play North Carolina for the NCAA men’s basketball championship? Inquiring retired sports writers in Oldsmar who covered Blue Jays home spring training games want to know.
How about David Purcey this Spring – a 1.54 ERA in 23.1 innings of work? The only starter with an out of whack ERA is Scott Richmond (6+), and he got roughed up in the one game. Jesse’s outing the other day reminded me of David Wells when he didn’t have his best stuff, but he still got the job done. We have to expect some rough spots, but if these young kids keep doing what they have been doing, it’s going to be fun! I think there will be fur flying in Spring Training next year with a healthy M&M in the mix.
I tend to agree on Purcey, as you know gnorman, I’ve liked him for some time. I think we’re all going to be pleasantly surprised on both Purcey and Romero and I love having lefty starters for both Boston and NY, their right field fences are so close.
Purcey, Romero and Litcsh will have some bad days, but if we hang in with them, by mid year, we might all be saying AJ who?
Richmond on the other hand concerns me, I don’t think he’s had a real quality start in st. On the other hand both Cecil and Janssen should be ready to go mid May and by that time he has only 7 starts, so we could be ok.
What concern me is Wells, Overbay, Rolen and Rios and whether they hit like they’re capable of and drive in runs. I still think hitting with risp is this team’s weakness, I hope I’m wrong.
Matt Bush in trouble again
By Brent Schrotenboer
From coast to coast, trouble continues to brew for former Padres No. 1 draft pick Matt Bush.
This time, the former Mission Bay High standout was released by the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday after an incident at a party in Dunedin, Fla., where he was pitching in the team’s minor league organization.
At the party early Tuesday, someone had drawn markings on his face, according to a complaint made with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. He blamed a 23-year-old female, and she accused him of throwing a baseball past her head and banging on her car window to scare her, according to the sheriff’s office. She said he appeared intoxicated and acted belligerently.
The Florida state attorney is reviewing the case for possible charges. Bush was not arrested, and there were no injuries reported.
The Blue Jays said he was released for ?failing to comply with team guidelines that were set out for him? and gave no further details.
Toronto acquired Bush, 23, in a trade with the Padres in February. The Padres designated him for assignment one day after he allegedly was involved in an altercation with lacrosse players at Granite Hills High Feb. 4. The San Diego District Attorney’s Office filed four misdemeanor charges against him in connection with that incident. He has a pretrial conference scheduled for May 1.
Bush also had been wanted in San Diego on an arrest warrant for failing to appear at his arraignment stemming from a 2004 underage alcohol possession citation. That warrant was cleared by his attorney last week. His court date on that case is set for April 30.
***Reposted from BlueBird Banter
While the Giants say they are going to be patient with 19-year-old phenom Madison Bumgarner, don’t be surprised if he gets to the big leagues by June. He struck out Manny Ramirez on three pitches Wednesday, prompting Ramirez to say it is “unbelievable” that he’s a teenager.
Chicago Tribune From SI
I guess we’re not the only team with young pitching prospects