1. Morrow had had a poor start to his year, and we just can't know what kind of a pitcher he will be when he rejoins us.  If he does turn it around, how quickly?
2. What is Romero's new upside?  How likely is it that he will reach it?
3. What kind of pitcher will Happ be on his return?
4. What kind of pitcher will Santos be on his return?
   
5. It could be argued that all four of these guys will lower the overall performance of the current pitching staff on their return.  That is a problem for the Jays, but also for any team we might want to trade them to
6. Many of the likely players to be traded away are well below their peak value
   
7. So far, there are and likely, there will be a lot of teams close enough to contention that they will either not be wanting to trade away key players until the end of the trade deadline, or that they will be competing with the Jays for the available talent
8. Even worse, there are many teams that the Jays will not want to trade with, as they are potential competitors for American League post-season slots
9. Finally, the Jays will be much less interested in trading from their much smaller roster of top prospects, having depleted that portfolio greatly last fall
   

So, if the Jays are going to overcome a tough, tight market, it might be necessary to take action early as they did last fall and try to make moves sooner than the rest of the teams.

Whom should the Jays be willing to trade at this stage (assuming that any holes thus created get a reasonable replacement)?  They should happily consider reasonable offers for:

• Arencibia (if his current streaky surge continues for a few weeks)
  
• Morrow (if he starts to show promise in his comeback.  I am unimpressed about how much he regressed before his injury.)
  
• Romero (if he shows signs of becoming the old Ricky again.  I am also unimpressed with his mental/emotional game and the chance of future regression)
  
• Izturis (yesterday notwithstanding)
• Bonifacio (for the team that needs his type of back-up skills)
  
• Oliver (Cecil and Loup are sufficient on the port side, especially if Luis Perez returns)
  
• Juan Perez (ditto)
  
• Cabrera (once he gets a short stretch on the DL, and then returns with happier hamstrings)

The following players should be hung onto for now, as they have more potential value than they show today.  However, they, too, could become surplus before long:

• Santos (high potential, and locked up for several years, but oo injury prone)
  
• Happ (not good enough for this team)
  
• Luis Perez (ditto)
  
• Drabek (like Ricky, struggles to turn physical talent into results, due to emotional factors)

Complex, eh?  That is why they pay AA the big bucks.  I look forward to watching what he does.

When did it become important to find a place for Hutchinson? I remember him as a surprising call up to fill in the rotation in a pinch, not a hotshot prospect who had dominated the minors and needed to face MLB hitters. Drabek stunk and then got injured - he needs more minor league time too. Put them in AAA and deal with the roster crunch there. The currently injured (Drabek, Hutchinson, Santos, Perez) aren't exactly ready for the weekend either, there's no hurry with any of those guys.

Have Janssen's issues really been explained? Is his apparent day-to-day status expected to get better at some point?

Also, sorting out who to keep, demote, or release, in the case of too many pitchers, is a fresh new challenge for Anthropoulos. I don't think it's come up before, although creating this situation has seemingly been his career long goal (his constatn reliever acquisitions). I figure he has a plan...who's the dumbest GM right now that has something the Jays need?

That's probably because he isn't right and is still trying to recover fully from his off-season shoulder surgery. He has begun the weighted ball program in-season to help in this recovery, but at a reduced intensity until the off-season.

1. Morrow - he can only go to the rotation, so he either replaces Rogers, who goes to the pen, thus displacing Wagner OR he replaces Wang, who goes to Buffalo.  Let's say that Morrow replaces Rogers, who goes to the pen, sending Wagner to Buffalo
   
2. Santos - he surely joins the pen once he is ready to.  Now, we have Janssen, Oliver, Loup, Cecil, Delabar, JPerez, Rogers, McGowan, and Santos.  That is at least one and possibly two, too many.  The least vulnerable to being lost is Loup, so down he goes (a big disappointment, IMHO)
   
3. Luis Perez - let's say that the Jays are tough on him - he stays down in Buffalo (the Jays are trying hard to support the Bisons, so they are ok with that)
4. Happ - let's say that the Jays are also tough on him and keep him in AAA - at this point, he will be really upset, because he believes he has proven himself to be a major league starter and he is being penalized for his injury
5. Lawrie - back to having five players for the three positions on the left side of the infield - to me, that suggests that either Bonifacio or DeRosa get replaced, and Bonifacio can play outfield, too.  So, goodbye DeRosa OR dropping another member of the pen.  Sure, they could send Delabar down or risk the likely loss of JPerez, but that gets painful, so I bet on DeRosa
6. Romero - here the Jays have to decide whether they have any belief in his future as a Jay.  I believe that they will try to trade him, but may first need to showcase him in the majors, to prove that he has achieved a full rebound.  I say that they do, but on that basis, Wang would have to be sent down to Buffalo.  He came to the Jays of course on the basis that he could escape AAA, but let's say we are tough on him, too.
   
7. Drabek - he stays in Buffalo until he shows that he has grown into his true potential
   
8. Hutchison - he stays in Buffalo until the September call-up

So, it is just feasible to pull this off in this way, while sending several pitchers to Buffalo who could be contenders for slots in most other major league teams.  This is a hard message to send to several players who may have done nothing to deserve it.

On top of this, if the rotation stays strong, retaining 8 members of the pen would be a waste of one roster position, even two, and some of the relievers might lose their edge if not used sufficiently.

So, let's trade! 

I think Kawasaki goes down.  It is just a numbers game.  Bonafacio provides value in many ways.  Izturis and Kawasaki both play infield only, light hitters with alright speed.  I can't see how you keep both.  I would like to see Kawasaki stay, but I can't see it happening. I also think he won't be as upset from the demotion.

DeRosa provides value on the bench (they didn't get him only for his bat).  I don't see him going anywhere. 

A team doesn't need 6 innings from every starter in order to still have a healthy bullpen workload with 7 relievers. Even if there are a couple of relievers that the team would prefer not to use on consecutive days.

Furthermore, the Jays have been getting at least 6 innings most of the time from their big two/three starters (depending on Johnson's health). Since the beginning of May, the Jays have got at least 6 innings from the starter in 18 of 21 games started by Dickey, Buerhle or Johnson. In the three games where they did not they got 5, 5 and 5.2 innings from the starter. While Dickey may not be fully healthy (and if he is not but the team does not want to DL him that could change the calculus) and Rogers and Wang are wild cards (although pitching like anything but right now), it doesn't seem to me like this is a team that needs to carry 8 relievers when Reyes returns, particularly given Cabrera's clearly not at full health.

The starters will go through a rough stretch again at some point this season, but I'd rather the team address that with fresh arms at the time than keep an 8th reliever around.