Mike, I'm curious what you mean when you say that the acquisition of those 3 pitchers was "not handled optimally" by the Jays.   Can you explain?  What should the team have done differently?

    I know there's a feeling that Zambrano should have been sent to the minors at the beginning of the season.  But he's there now, and he doesn't seem to be rounding into shape.  Of course injuries are a factor for Zambrano and Thomson, but both of them have been at Syracuse for a while now, without being particularly impressive.

   It now appears unlikely that any of those 3 will be providing much help to the Jays this year -- unless Thomson or Zambrano somehow make it back to the majors, which seems a longshot.    Yet among Bauxites there was tons of optimism about all 3 of those acquisitions in the off-season.  The consensus seemed to be that at least one or two of those 3 pitchers would prove to be a good solid bargain-basement acquisition.  In retrospect, what happened?  Was it a doomed exercise in picking through the remainder bin?   It seems, in hindsight, that the Jays would have had to be incredibly lucky to get a strong comeback performance from any of those three.  Our optimism was misplaced. 

It looks like Zaun will take Ohka's spot on the roster.

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Baseball/MLB/2007/06/07/4242216-cp.html

That's 5 bench players for the Inter-league series coming up this week.  I wonder if they'll do more juggling with minor-league relievers (i.e. De Jong for Wolfe) as needed depending on how much of a workload the bullpen gets.

Not at all being critical, Mike G, but I'm curious how the Zambrano/Ohka/Thomson acquisitions could have been handled better?  Ohka being shown more of a regular spot?  Zambrano being brought along more slowly?  The fact is, with pitching being so scarce, they were released by their former MLB teams for a reason: they are AAAA guys at this stage of their careers.  I highly doubt this situation could have turned out any differently.

It is unfortunate to watch Lilly and Meche sporting under-4 ERAs for teams a fair bit worse than the Jays, but what else could JP have done?  For the Jays to have any success, the young guys need to step up, which Accardo and Janssen have, but I guess neither is rotation-eligibl/ready.  I am not totally sold on McGowen but his last two starts have been sweet.  The Jays' need a reliable #3 for next year; no more shelling out huge dollars for offence (Thomas and Wells, given his '07 stats).  Then again, the Yankees need pitching even more; so let the bidding wars begin.

I still think that the trio of veteran starters was a worthwhile gamble - at a very minimal cost (ca. $3 million or so, total?), JP took the chance at catching lightning in a bottle. Even if there is not another win supplied by Thomson or Zambrano, it was worth a shot. While it could have been handled slightly differently, I am not sure that the results would have been all that different. Having said that, it was clearly time for Ohka to go and to give those few 5th starter starts to Towers. It is telling that he is still here - I am sure JP has offered him all over both leagues by now. His stock is obviously beyond low right now, so the only way is up.

PLEASE stop with the calls to move jannsen into the rotation, he's a very, very effective high leverage reliever, those types are very expensive and he's good at it.

But the Jays already have a bunch of them. Right now, I trust Accardo, Frasor, Downs, and Tallet in a close game. Brandon League may not be far away. B.J. Ryan will be back next year. The rotation, meanwhile, has four good starters and Josh "maybe it's 2005 again" Towers. Making Janssen a starter might weaken the pen, but it also might reduce the need for the pen.

Janssen was "serviceable" last year, when he had no ML experience, barely any AAA experience, and a bad back. I don't see any reason why he can't improve upon that. Maybe, ultimately, he will be better in the 'pen, but it seems a waste to stick him there without trying him as a starter, where he's been serviceable at worst throughout his career.

I absolutely don't want a cheerleader, I don't think Jeter spends much time yapping it up in the clubhouse

I want someone to lead by example in his play - I think we all do

someone that will pick the team up and carry it by at least some measure of will??

not by batting .174 with RISP and 2 outs

not by batting .222 in late innings and close games

granted, when things are rolling well, he can get picked up with the momentum and his talent takes over

his mentoring on defense? give me a break - the guy is obviously a superb athlete and it's because of that althleticism that he gets away with his lackadasical (and smug) attitude in the outfield

vernon is a great complimentary player, but not a leader, nor someone you should vest a franchise contract on

hmm - so we're shelling out a 100+ mil for good defence in CF? I think vernon wells was signed to produce with the bat

I think wanting him to lead by example sort of implies that he should be hitting better

aside from last year and the first part of 2003, I think he should be hitting a whole lot better

So, wouldn't it be better to refer to the situation as it really is (early offensive returns on that contract are pretty crappy), as opposed to try to make it a character flaw, that Vernon is somehow a weaker person than he should be?

Hear, hear.

If Wells is only able to elevate his game to the level of Vernon the Good (OPS 780-810), and not the twice seen Vernon the Great (OPS 900), then he'd once again become a very useful player to the team. He wouldn't be worth $18M per year, but that's a whole other conversation. (And speaking of that conversation, if this were Wells' walk year, as it would have been absent the shiney contract extension, what kind of deal would he be looking at were his bat to stay in the 700-750 OPS range?)

As for Wells' moral character, until we hear a formal Operation Shutdown declaration from the man, we'll have to assume that he is trying and that he cares, even if he is not succeeding a whole lot.