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Technically accurate, but save situation is not terribly meaningful. Rasmussen was going to face exactly one batter, with the bases empty, in the 7th inning. Nothing he was being asked to do had anything to do with a save.

Conversely, even though it's only been 14 AB and thus too early for a fair evaluation, Pillar looks to have about the same strike zone judgement skills as Sierra, maybe even worse. Thus far, he has looked entirely overmatched at the plate.

Subjectively -- yes, one of the worst ways to assess a player -- he brings me back to Eric Crozier. Remember this guy? He got his taste of the big leagues in late 2004 (aside: I am rattled not just a little about what I thought was a few years ago really being a full decade ago).

Crozier's minor league record suggested he might be useful, despite being an old rookie at 25. But he looked just brutal in the majors. His K rate (19 in 33 AB) was objective evidence to defend the subjective evaluation.

While Pillar hasn't looked anywhere near Crozier terrible, I am filled with the same concern that this is someone who doesn't have the fundamental tools to hit in the majors. Again, it's just 14 AB thus far this season, much much too early to draw any meaningful conclusions. And I am not doing that, just expressing concern.

I am so happy the jays managed to get the win for Happ.   The Jays always panic with the Bosox.  IF they can have a strong series against them, maybe it could be a good shot in the arm.  I like their chances with Beuhrle and Hutchinson. 

I think we are overblowing the size of the pen vs the bench.  I would be a lot happier to see our regulars than anybody off that bench and Gibbons can use the pen for matchups at will.  Keep the 8 man pen.

With his centerfield defense, a .330+ OBP version of Gose is a 5 WAR player.

He is now no better than 4th on the team's depth chart, behind the injured Soto and scrubs Chirinos and Gimenez. And he's likely even behind AAA catcher Nicholas at this point as well.

Someone somewhere may give him another shot, looking to tap the power potential. But absent the defensive rep, he's likely not looking at a Barajas-like prolonged career as a backup. He may be done by the time he's 30.

Tabler said this same thing during the broadcast and Gibbons told him that he wanted to be able to pinch-hit for Pillar.

Total team effort in the 2nd inning. Bautista and Encarnacion each singled to right. Lawrie's hustle on a potential, but not quite, DP ball accounted for a run. Cabrera walked on a pitch that was a ball but one he'd more typically swing at. Pillar's single was a chopper off the plate that bounced a mile high (if he can do this every time, I'll lay off him).

• The last time the Blue Jays were four games over .500 was June 6, 2012, when they were 30-26. (Brandon Morrow had just thrown a 2-hit shutout at the White Sox. Wistful sigh.) In 2013, the best they managed was 2 games over.
• The last time the Blue Jays were in sole possession of first place in the AL East (unless you count opening day 2012) was April 15, 2010. The last time the Jays were in first place in a month other than April was May 23, 2009. That was a whole other decade. We have suffered greatly in these parts.

If you're going to cite the bad (wasted AB and IP), which is fair, you're going to have to also cite the good, which figures to show an inevitable regression. Buehrle has never pitched this well in his life. Francisco and Lind have OPSs well over .900. Bautista (as Mike pointed out) has both played every day and is hitting like his peak self. Cabrera is hitting closer to his SF self than the KC version we all would have been happy with. Yes, Lawrie and Reyes have underperformed, but this is partly mitigated by Thole, Tolleson and Gose overperforming.

I had not factored cosmic justice into my assessment. That would change the calculus.

What frustrated me about management's lack of action was not that the team was hopeless and needed help, but that they were a team in a division where 90 wins could very well be enough and they were reasonably close. I was too harsh on Anthopoulos though. The low-level acquisitions of Francisco and Hendriks were good, and he may have been completely hamstrung (unexpectedly) by ownership.

I also wonder whether the Jays just have difficulty attracting top-tier free agents because of (a) the artificial turf, (b) Canada being a foreign country and all, and (c) the AL East being a historically tough division (before this year). I seem to recall Paul Beeston saying once that free agents just don't want to go here. As I understand it, Erwin Santana was about to sign here, but fled to the more pitcher-friendly environment of Atlanta when given the opportunity.

When I thought about it, the free agent signings throughout the Jays' history can be divided into the following groups:

• 1992-1993 bandwagon jumpers: Players who wanted a ring, and thought (correctly) that they could get one in Toronto. This group includes Jack Morris, Paul Molitor, and Dave Stewart.
• Players signing here because they weren't in demand elsewhere. This group includes Winfield (who arrived cheap because he was 41), what was left of Frank Thomas, Melky Cabrera, and a bunch of others who left little mark (Lance Parrish, Dave Parker, Vlad as a minor leaguer, etc.).
• Overpaid relief pitchers: Randy Myers, B. J. Ryan. (And Bill Caudill, though he was a trade acquisition before being signed.)
• Players who received out clauses: Roger Clemens, A. J. Burnett.
• Wishful thinking from the Gord Ash era: Otis Nixon, Erik Hanson.

I've probably missed a free agent or two, but that's most of the big names I can think of. Who did I miss?

Also: for the Jays to be more active signing big contracts, they (and we) will have to accept more spoilage. At present, the Jays aren't paying huge sums of money to players who are not playing for them. (The Angels are still paying for Vernon Wells this year.) If ownership wants flags to fly in Toronto, they might have to accept more losses. It's not my money, so I can't make that choice for them; as a fan, I would be happy if they spent more money, obviously.

The Blue Jays acquired Navarro and Kratz for not very much to upgrade from replacement level catching to average catching. It didn't cost a huge amount. I was hoping that they would do the same at the either (or both) of the second base/middle or back-end starting pitching slots.

Actually, they upgraded from J.P. Arencibia to average catching - sadly, JPA was below replacement level. Some of the Jays' 2014 improvement, both offensive and defensive, is from replacing him with other catchers.

I agree with you that AA could have done a better job of finding a replacement second baseman - but perhaps he was still hoping that Maicer Izturis would step up. I'm not sure that back end starters are easy to find without shelling out big cash, though. AA's approach seems to be to grab as many D-level starters as he can and hope to upgrade one of them to 4th or 5th starter level - Hendriks is the latest one.