Question of the Day: Are Josh Towers days as a member of the Blue Jays organization over?

I would like to think so. He seems like a good teammate, but his arm doesn't make up for it.

Wow.. you're fast! You replied to the question that was only posted for a minute (I didn't like the wording of it, so I changed it).

I hope the Jays can keep Towers in the org. He's useful injury insurance to have at AAA, and I could see him filling the Pete Walker swingman role if the Jays wanted to use him that way.

He'll be claimed? That 8-1 record last year is likely to fool somebody into giving him a shot. Otherwise, he belongs in Syracuse pitching next to Chen.

If Towers gets claimed, I would be very, very surprised. Look for him to be a SkyChief soon. Despite having too many guys for the rotation in AAA as is, the Jays must have plans for him or they would have released him outright.

As for Lopez, the zip isn't there this year. His velocity seems to be down and I remember him having much more movement on his pitches. Is it possible that he's pulling a Politte?

I'm looking forward to seeing Nakamura pitch again. I remember him looking quite good in a couple of outings last year with Minnesota. His usual performance consists of few HR allowed, good control and lots of Ks. He's a classic DIPS case and I always like to see the little guys (5'10, 178 lbs) do well.

While it's only been 3 games, Miller's low walk total is encouraging. He's clearly talented, but was far too raw the last time he was up with the Jays. He's also better conditioned, or at least was when I briefly saw him in the spring. I like both of these moves.

The more relevent question is what does the future hold for Justin Miller? Towers will be just fine. He is a marginal pitcher who should be going to Spring Training for years to come and bounce between the majors and minors for a few years.

Miller one the other hand is a once fairly promising power pitcher who may have lost a little on his bread and butter fast ball. He also threw a decent slider but does he have another out pitch. Can he throw a change-up? And will he get enough playing time to stay sharp? Josh Towers didn't. Anyone know where to view his numbers from last season?

You can get all the pitchers pre-2004 numbers by clicking on their names at the top of the page. Unfortunately, the links take a long time to load.

I agree with Spicol: I like both of these moves. Particularly if the Jays can keep Towers.

Speaking of fifth starters from hell ESPN has John Wasdin as todays starter for Texas.

Towers designated for assignment??? What has he had, like two starts? Sounds a bit like panic time here

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/gamelog?statsId=7098
COMN for Aquilino's game log. It tells a clear story.

Politte had a similar meltdown at the start of last season, but picked it up in the second half, and is doing very well in Chicago this year.

IMO, this is one of the costs of the repeated short-stint reliever use pattern. Fortunately, the pattern has been changed. I am glad that Lopez will have the chance to work it out in Syracuse, and Nakamura will get his shot.

As for Towers, it seems to me that he was not given much of a chance this year. After promising work in 2003, he was given a first start on April 17 with no relief work prior. After one palatable start and one poor one, he is demoted.

While not great, Towers is not at this point in his career clearly a worse pitcher than Lilly, Hentgen or Justin Miller.

Is Hermansen gone? Syracuse bats are struggling, so it wouldn't seem bad to have him back there...

I agree on Towers not being given an adequate shot, but I can't get too worked up about it- always seemed like his ceiling was mediocrity. I'd rather see if Miller can turn into something good.

Would these moves have been made if everyone else was playing well? IOW, could you absorb Lopez having a bad stretch and a rocky performance from your 5th starter if the other horses were running strong? With Lopez, I think you might ride it out, but the Towers/Miller swap seems like it would've happened no matter how well the team is playing.

It's much too early I suppose, but I'd rather see Bush or Arnold up here...
As for Towers, I don't think it would be much of a loss if he were claimed...

Would these moves have been made if everyone else was playing well?

I think so. Why wouldn't you want your best 25 in Toronto? Towers and Lopez have both been pretty bad so far.

Maybe winter ball was a factor in Lopez's start?

IMO, this is one of the costs of the repeated short-stint reliever use pattern. Fortunately, the pattern has been changed.

I'm not so sure of a change. If a starter doesn't go more than 6 innings you have no choice but to leave relievers in for at least an inning.

I like these moves but if Bush is having a great year in AAA, I would love to see him join the rotation in mid-summer.

I've been saying for some time now that we ought to see what we've got in the marginal guys before the studs start arriving. I'm not sold on Miller as a prospect (though his start in AAA this year is very encouraging) and ditto Arnold...but we need to see if they have any value (and what's more, let potential trade partners see they have value) before the oncoming train of Bush-McG-Rosario-etc starts arriving.
In that sense, I think most agree that Tower's ceiling is alot lower than those of Miller and Arnold. So getting on with finding out what Miller can do in the bigs is the smart thing to do.

Also, since I brought up Arnold, I'll clarify by saying that given he hasn't started well in AAA, he's in danger of getting run over by said train and finding himslef in relief or in another orginization.

All that said, I'd be fine with Towers clearing waivers and sticking around just in case we need him. He's not a disaster like Wasdin or someone.

Pistol, since the troubles in Boston, I have noticed a concerted effort not to seek the platoon advantage batter-by-batter in the 7th and 8th innings. The lefties are pitching in alternate games, and this results in fewer pitching changes.

Mike Green, just to confirm, what is the clear pattern you see in Aquilino's game log? To me it looks like he's been bad all season.

Maybe they brought up Millar so every 5th day he can blind the batters with his tattoos on his arm

Gid, Aquilino was throwing well at the start of the season. Carlos Tosca sent him out there for 0.2, 0.1 and then 2.0 innings in Boston on April 9, 10 and 11. On the 11th, he was fine for the first inning, but was gassed by the second; the game thread here for the 11th tells the story. It doesn't look to me like he has recovered since that overuse.

I should add that Lopez had probably been overworked in the winter, and this was IMO the (rather heavy) straw that broke the camel's back.

My speculation:

If Lopez hadn't played Winter Ball and was still playing as he is now, he wouldn't have been sent down, but would have been allowed to work through his troubles.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Bluejays were against his playing WB, but Aq did anyway.

The demotion may be a way of driving home to Lopez that the organization is not to be ignored.

Gid, Aquilino was throwing well at the start of the season

That's not what I would conclude from the game log. On April 6 he allowed 2 hits to 4 batters, getting one strikeout and one ground ball which I guess must have been a double play since it says 1.0 IP. That can be chalked up to luck as much as to anything else; 2 baserunners in 1 inning is less than you want to see, I imagine. Subsequently, on April 9, after many days' rest, he got one batter to ground out, and that was the only batter he faced that day. On April 10 he gave up a 2 hits (including a HR) and a walk in only .2 IP. All of this preceeded any possible over-use. Also, if I recall, reports were that during spring training he did not look good either. So, I think whatever his trouble is, it preceeded the 3 straight days of work in the first Boston series.