Friday nights in springtime are too rare a commodity to waste on the likes of Ramon Ortiz.  I think I'll spare myself the ordeal and check back in on the Jays tomorrow.  Who knows, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Tonight's lineups:

Blue Jays - LF Davis, DH Cabrera, RF Bautista, 1B Encarnacion, C Arencibia, 2B DeRosa, 3B Lawrie, CF Rasmus, SS Izturis
Red Sox - CF Ellsbury, RF Victorino, 2B Pedroia, DH Ortiz, 1B Napoli, LF Nava, C Saltalamacchia, 3B Middlebrooks, SS Drew

Guaranteed Win Night!

And you'll ask yourself, Ramon Ortiz? Ramon Ortiz?

You may ask yourself, am I right, am I wrong?
You may say to yourself, my god, what have I done?

It's true what Four Seamer said. There are better ways to spend a Friday night. 

MLB has suspended crew chief Fieldin Culbreth (and fined the other three members of his crew.) This would be for not knowing the rules with respect to last night's screw-up in the Angels-Astros game.

Very glad to hear that Magpie.  Just read the article on MLB.com about it.  Funny thing is the article reads like the rule is up to interpretation when it really isn't.  2 games isn't a big suspension but it is symbolic and hopefully will lead to a change in umps attitudes.

Y'know, the standings right now sure are frustrating.  Last winter it was generally felt Boston was going to be 500 at best, Baltimore was going to regress (big jump and great 1 run game record normally equals drop the following year), and the Yankees were smashed with injuries to such a degree that Jay cast offs were to be regulars (Wells, Nix, Overbay).  The Rays and Jays were expected to fight it out.  Guess what?  Today Baltimore/Boston/NYY are tied for first, Rays 4 1/2 out, Jays 8 1/2 out.  Sigh.

I'm glad the umpires are being held accountable. I suspect we are looking at some changes in the next CBA.

Chisholm tweets:

Tons of #34 Ortiz jerseys spotted at Fenway Park. I had no idea Ramon had such a following in Boston

Who knew?

Time to throw 5 bucks on the Jays in Vegas!

I predict that Ortiz will get the best of Ortiz in tonight's game.

I actually thought Boston had a pretty solid off-season and made some positive comments about their big-picture strategy at the time. I think 92-93 and maybe a couple of others agreed; it definitely wasn't the mainstream view.

I think 92-93 and maybe a couple of others agreed; it definitely wasn't the mainstream view.

It wasn't my view. When they added Napoli and Gomes, I rubbed my hands in glee - these are the lousy Red Sox of my youth, loading up with slow, one-dimensional RH sluggers and forgetting all about he 81 games they don't play at Fenway.

The pitching has bounced back - they're allowing about one fewer run per game, which is a lot.

The aspects of Boston's off-season (coupled with the trade last year of Gonzalez, Stewart and Beckett) I liked:

- All of the contracts handed out were short-term
- Structuring of contracts would potentially give the team trade chips if it wasn't in contention; worst case is a rich organization eats a bit of salary
- Farm system fully intact (and bolstered by the aforementioned trade)
- Financial flexibility kept in reserve for future deals
- No draft picks relinquished
- Poached Butter and Lovullo from the Jays

What the... Lind pinch hitting vs a LHP?  What?  Just, what???

First 3 pitches well outside, two down the middle and watched, then swings and misses at strike three down the middle. 

Does anyone know what Gibbons was thinking there? 

I agree with greenfrog. I wasn't a fan of some of the individual deals they handed out, but as an overall organizational philosophy it was an intelligent approach. Even if any of the deals backfire or don't pan out, none of them will be very financial damaging and the Red Sox will be players for any major free agent they like or large contract that another team is trying to get rid of.

FourSeamer, turns out that Ramon Ortiz was really good. Probably leaves with no score if the defense hadn't botched several plays, instead of leaving down 1-0 at the end of the 5th.

Your 2013 Jays: 1st in walks surrendered, last in fielding. Last in the standings, what a surprise.

Does anyone know what Gibbons was thinking there?

I dunno. I guess it had to be Lind or Bonifacio taking over for Davis at DH (assuming you wouldn't consider Blanco or Kawasaki.) Pick your poison.

Sounds like Davis may be DL bound. Any guess on who gets the call? My money is on Sierra.

Alex Cobb struck out 13 of the 15 Padres he retired today. The Rays may be underachieving, but at least they're entertaining to watch.

katman, I'm happy to have laid the reverse jinx on Ortiz. Maybe some snide remarks about the defense and the sticks would have been in order, too.

#HateThisTeam

FourSeamer,

The bad news is, I'm afraid you'll need an entire snide 1,000 word essay for the defense reverse-hex. The worse news? It will write itself.

Meanwhile, check out this evaluation of Mark Buerhle's release point, pitch types, location, etc. in 2013. It doesn't see much that's different from 2012, which is interesting:

 http://irfast.blogspot.com/2013/05/evaluating-mark-buerhle-past-and-future.html

I'm seeing the guy miss more and walk more people, but there's no question that the defense must also be a factor. We have Dickey, Buerhle, and Romero as guys who need to get a lot of ground balls. Would be interesting to see if Happ is also there. Thing is, we have the nightmare defensive team for anyone like that, with Lawrie the sole defensive plus, and many infielders in the minus column.

Mark DeRosa is not a second baseman anymore.  When all of your starters are pitching below their career norms, it is a good idea to field the best defence you can.  I think that Gibbons may have done that at most five times this season (Bonifacio anywhere, Davis in RF or CF, DeRosa at second base would be the major issues).  .

Jays at 13-24, or if you prefer dead on their division winning 1989 pace (OK, now _that_ is stretching it for a bright side).

I didn't know about Davis' injury - gameday didn't say anything and I didn't have access to radio or TV Jays coverage.  Makes a lot more sense now to use Lind as the other options were also less than ideal.  It is nuts that the bench has a lot of speed but nothing else other than 'can sorta play lots of positions'.

So, we have Kawasaki who, so far, is #3 on the team for OBP (Reyes & Lind ahead) at 352 who has also played decent defense (-6.5  UZR/150 but -0.4 lifetime in majors).  Instead we get Izturis at SS (-90.6 so far, -1.5 lifetime) and DeRosa at 2B (+31.8 in 2013, -2.5 lifetime).  Izturis at 2B is -18.3 this year and 5.1 lifetime).

Interesting to look by position at UZR this year...
1B: Lind is 13.1, Encarnacion 5.3, DeRosa -51.1 (10 innings)
2B: DeRosa the only positive, Izturis -18.3, Bonifacio -22.7
3B: all negative, Lawrie -9.4, DeRosa -49.8, Bautista -50.5, Izturis -88.9 Yikes!
SS: Bonifacio at 0 (4 innings), Kawasaki -6.5, Reyes -15.6, Izturis -90.6
LF: Davis 77.4 (!), Cabrera 4.6
CF: Davis 41.8, Rasmus 19.5, Bonifacio -10.1
RF: Bautista 13.2, Bonifacio 3.9, Davis -13.6
CA: no UZR here, DRS and rSB both are negative for both catchers though

So the best fielding lineup so far would be (outside of catcher with over 10 innings)
Lind, DeRosa, Lawrie, Kawasaki, Davis in LF, Rasmus, Bautista
Weird eh?  Davis has been amazing in LF/CF so far.  Overall in the outfield he has had 40 in zone plays and made outs on 39 of them while reaching 14 out of zone.  Rasmus has reached 95.2% of balls in zone while getting to 22 outside of it.  Davis' poor RF performance cuts his UZR/150 for outfield overall to 2.6, ahead of just Bonifacio.

Eyeballing the stats for guys with 100+ innings at a position we have good numbers for Bautista and Rasmus (both over +10), solid for Encarnacion & Cabrera (+5), livable for Kawasaki & Lawrie (better than -10) and ugly for the rest (Izturis 2B -18, then Bonifacio 2B -23).

Boy do we need to see an infield coach for these guys, or at least better positioning.  The infield is bizarre and ugly, the outfield has been solid, and catcher...well...by the few stats we have it has been sub-par (and by eyeball test).

I recall somebody mentioning lightheartedly in January that if Ramon Ortiz started for the Blue Jays at any point this season, something would have gone terribly wrong.

Who knew.

A lot of pretty small sample size for fielding stats which require a rather large sample size to be anywhere near half accurate?

CeeBee, very true but interesting none the less to see trends.  Like DeRosa being the only positive infielder for UZR, or Davis off to a great start in LF/CF but sucking in RF.  One wonders if the loss of Butterfield is a factor.  Also the Jays aren't shifting as much as they used to which would've helped a lot.

"Trends" is being far too generous towards what 40 games worth of defensive stats will reveal.

"One wonders if the loss of Butterfield is a factor."

Lately I've been wondering if the Jays missed an opportunity by not offering Butterfield the manager's gig.

I recall somebody mentioning lightheartedly in January that if Ramon Ortiz started for the Blue Jays at any point this season, something would have gone terribly wrong. Who knew.

I did have this to say in our Preview.

If Ramon Ortiz shows up, you know this season is going in the crapper.

The one time I correctly pick the winner of a one-horse race!

Assuming this team can be competitive in 2014, what moves should be made at the trade deadline and in the off-season? How do you significantly improve this roster? I imagine the Jays won't have a lot to spend, as attendance is likely to be below expectations this year.

The team will likely need another front-end starting pitcher. Dickey, Morrow, Buehrle, Romero, Happ seems light, and there is not much depth beyond those five (Hutchison, Drabek, Nolin...?). Aaron Sanchez probably won't be in the majors until 2015 or 2016.

The team could also use an everyday second baseman, a big 1B/DH bat, maybe a starting outfielder.

AA could make a couple of budget-minded moves in an attempt to shore up some deficiencies. Or he could go for broke, perhaps trading Sanchez and other prospects for a first-division regular.

Alternatively, the Jays could blow it up, trading off the team's major assets. This seems unlikely, given Rogers' marketing strategy and AA's comments about the team's being competitive for 3-5 years. But this team has looked very bad so far.

There is also the catching situation to address. I have no idea how significant a drag Arencibia's defence has been on the pitching staff's performance. His catching has looked questionable (which might be charitable), but there have been other variables at play on the pitching and defence side.