It's impossible for Litsch to be out of options already, and the Jays just trying to save a few dollars is exactly what worries me. It's absurd to be playing games with a 22 man roster and no backup SS because you've let 2 of them disappear without placing either on the bereavement list. And it shouldn't matter that they have a manager in Clarence who refuses to use his bench - if 2 two players had to leave the game for whatever reason, be it injury or getting tossed, the team would have had to use a pitcher out in the field.

Litsch would have at least one option left.  Litsch was optioned in 2007, his first in the majors.  He was not optioned in 2009 because of his surgery.  Litsch did pitch briefly in the minors in 2008 but I am not sure if that was an option or a rehab start.

Players have three options.

 I'm not usually a Negative Nellie, but this series is starting to feel like a turning point in the season -- that quiet moment when a lot of players subconsciously give up on the idea of having an actual chance at the Wild Card. 

That whole debate about buyers/sellers at the trading deadline is on the verge of not being a debate any more, if it ever was.

I'm pretty sure Gerry's right about the rehab cap being 30 days, which means this isn't about saving a few dollars for a 4 day interim. Since his rehab stint had lapsed, he had to be brought back or optioned. The minimum option time is 10 days. It seems horrifically shortsighted to use a valuable option year for a 4 day shortfall, as well as make your new #5 starter unavailable for an extra 6 days because of it.

First of all, why are we even discussing Jesse Litsch's options? The team has used ONE of the 3, and if he needs to be sent to the minor leagues in 2012 I can't imagine the Blue Jays being too concerned about losing a back-end starter on waivers. The minimum optional assignment is 10 days, but the minimum days needed to actually burn an option year is 20 days. That is why an option wasn't used when they gave him 3 AAA starts in 2008, and why it wouldn't have been a big deal at all if the Blue Jays took him off the MLB DL on June 3rd and called him up for Sunday's start on June 13th.

Even if it made sense to bring Litsch to the MLB club early for whatever reason, it doesn't make any sense to not have one or both of JMac and Gonzalez on the bereavement list, and I don't know how one can explain playing with a 2 man bench as anything but being cheap.

so yeah, now's the time of the season when we really, really need Lind and Hill to start hitting like themselves again, instead of doing perfect impressions of John McDonald at the plate.

we'll fade fast if those two don't step it up at some point.

Depending on the timing of that, or how days are defined in the CBA, he could easily have hit his 20 day threshold, meaning he's at 2 options, not 1.

I have a very hard time believing they would let this happen. The 24th-11th (Rotoworld is wrong) is 19 days, including both days the transactions occurred. I would guess that's why the Jays waited 3 days after hs July 21st start before sending him down and why they called him up 3 days before his August 14th start.

The decision whether to add someone to the roster is most likely about control and retention, and not about dollars and cents.

It sounds like pretty bad roster construction if you don't have anybody who can play SS on your 40 who isn't on your 25 - Luis Perez & Rey Gonzalez can't be holding this team back from putting a bare-minimum 23 man team on the field.

I am overwhelmed by how awesome this team is.....

that's the same team that is putting out Shoppach and Rodrigues as their 4-5 hitters this series, right?

The 24th-11th (Rotoworld is wrong) is 19 days

What's your source on this? I still can't find anything definitive. I see mention of it late on the 23rd here which means if it was at a similar time (after the Aug 11th game), then it would still be 20 days. (My googling didn't have as much luck for the recall, but here's the first Box mention of Litsch's recall, similarly late on the 11th.)

If anybody feels like doing some trivia, I've got a couple of Jays-related quizzes up on Sporcle:

http://www.sporcle.com/games/MatthewE/jaysclosers
http://www.sporcle.com/games/MatthewE/alomarhudson

The first one asks you to name the Jays' yearly saves leaders, and the second one wants the names of everyone to play second base for the Jays in between Roberto Alomar and Orlando Hudson (1996-2002).

What's your source on this? I still can't find anything definitive.

TSN's transactions on Litsch's player card seem to erase any doubt. They could certainly be wrong though.

92-93: He's taken Chase Utley's place for you, then?

Going into the year I would still have taken Utley for one season, but you can't ignore what Chase has been up to over the last month or so, he's made Hill look like a stud. The assumption is that Utley is playing with a bum hip, and it shows.

The Jays are 3-6 vs. the Rays this year.

0-6 vs. Niemann and Price (their two best starters this year)

3-0 vs. everyone else (2 v. Garza, 1 v. Davis)

meanwhile, the Rays have faced Tallet, Morrow, Marcum, Cecil twice, and Romero once.

per Bastian tweets, there is a rain delay and the security guard guaranteed we'd be playing ball tonight.

Perfect....gives me the time I need to get these kids to bed! 

TSN's transactions on Litsch's player card seem to erase any doubt. They could certainly be wrong though.

I would guess they're doing the same thing Rotoworld is, reporting on it when they hear of it, though maybe they're privy to when the paperwork is filed. Given the uncertainty I have, however, I would either defer to the front office, or personally err on the side of caution with my judgements and assume an option had been used in 2008.

Except RW has to wait for media outlets such as TSN to report on something before they can announce it, because they themselves aren't reporters. I prefer to err on the side of caution that refuses to believe Ricciardi's FO could be that silly and burn an option year on Litsch by making a procedural error and keeping him down one day longer than they should have. Jordan Bastian's game recaps clearly indicate he was shipped out after the game on July 23rd and recalled after the game on August 11th, and I have to assume the 1-2 hours left on July 23rd after being on the MLB roster for the game that night doesn't count as a day of minor league service. It would be nice if Magpie or whoever else works at the Dome could have a member of the media clear this up.

Ignoring your ill-advised cheap shot at JP...

If both events occurred at these times, then while the 23rd may not count, the 11th presumably wouldn't either.

The 23rd wouldn't count as a day of service in the minor leagues because he was on the MLB roster for that game. The 11th would count because he was on the Syracuse roster for that game and recalled after. The only way he spent 20 days in the minors is if you count both days as minor league days, which would be counter-intuitive.