Thursday, March 10, 2011

Borepen

You know, just hanging out
Far be it from me to criticize Alex Anthopoulos and his great love of compensatory draft picks. As you're read numerous times, it is a good bit of business to snag these picks before the league closes the loophole. AA and his crack staff did a great job acquiring both players in this boat and other decent stop gaps.

The pen is jammed with right-handed arms of varying levels of competency, all that remains is sorting out the roles and responsibilities. Which bums me out. The last few years the Jays have a few intriguing bullpen pieces, guys with an intoxicating mix of youth and plain stuff who I hoped would one day figure it out. This year's pen has none of that.

These guys all are what they are. An injury or trade might move them up or down the leverage ladder but expecting anything shocking from anybody currently slated for the Jays bullpen is foolish. David Purcey still owns a significant chunk of my heart though I worry for the quality and quantity of innings tossed his way.

Jon Rauch, Octavio Dotel, Jason Frasor, Frank Francisco might pitch well or they might pitch poorly but all the steps in their career are behind them. They can either hold on to levels achieved in the past or decline. If they all pitch well, it is something. If they all struggle badly, it is something not too different. I guess this is the price to pay for the wise foresight of not overpaying for a closer.

Image courtesy of flickr user roopez123

8 comments:

  1. As far as MLB locks maybe, but what about Roenicke, Reyes and Purcey?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think Purcey is in for sure as he's out of options. If Roenicke makes the club but never pitches it is a waste of time, like Jo-Jo Reyes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. To clarify - I was just pointing out that there are still some young upside flamethrowers kicking around. Roenicke should be in AAA and Janssen should get his job back (which means, sadly, goodbye Purcey or Reyes).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Isn`t Roenicke like 29 or something? Why do we care about him - he`s never done anything and he`s certainly not a prospect.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My word. I thought I was exaggerating, but he`ll be 29 August 4.

    Burn his options and when you run out, sign him to a minor league deal. He doesn`t even throw as hard as advertised.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would quibble a little about Francisco. If he stays healthy, he's got tremendous stuff and isn't really that old. He could be exciting and was still getting better before stumbling last season.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This year is another building year for the Jays. They don't need an all-star bullpen yet so AA is leveraging these signings to get more compensation picks next year. Fransisco, Rauch, Frasor, and Dotel could all potentially be Type B free agents, making them easily signable by other teams. I can see at least two compensation picks added next year. Then you fill the empty spaces with more low cost signings. The real trick is to develop a young flame throwing closer to complete the team in 2012-2013 a la Neftali Feliz.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't mind the lack of an all-star pen, I want an interesting pen. I need wildcards with untamed stuff to keep me interested.

    ReplyDelete

Send forth the witticisms from on high