Bird Watch: Looks Like One Of Them Has An Injured Wing

Ok, so seems like I was right about what I said about Romero on my post about his last start. He seems to be starting to get it back but he's still a work in progress, how can I tell? He did a pretty nasty job pitching today, only lasted 1/3 an inning and gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks, not to mention the first 2 batters were walked. Now I applaud John Gibbons on pulling Romero so quickly and despite the pretty bad loss I believe understand the reason for the moves or at least can see a motive for them.

Ok so first off people must wonder why Romero got the hook so quickly. Well he's only had one start at AAA level and as we could see from the second half of his first start, he does still need time to work his stuff out and you could see a visible change in his delivery. He was throwing well during the first 3 innings striking out 1 per inning until the 4th, and then we could see that he was landing on his leg differently and it seemed like his landing leg was a lot more stiff when he threw, additionally he looked like he was overthrowing some pitches and I imagine that would be because it was his first game of the season. So seeing him go downhill in his second start isn't that much of a surprise, he reverted to his old delivery in the 4th inning of his first outing and has only had 1 start in the minors to test his new one.

Second off people are without a doubt thinking that the relievers used were atrocious, now while this can't be any more true, since they gave up a fair amount of hits and runs. However this is good because our more solid relievers have been rested and are prepared to take on the game tomorrow, now why is that important? Well that is because tomorrow R.A Dickey is taking on the reigning AL Cy Young winner David Price, so if he is in form runs are going to be a luxury and if Dickey falters we will need our solid relievers to hold the game as is.

These things are good not only because we'll be prepped for tomorrows game but it shows that Gibby is putting more thought into things, which I'm sure people were beginning to question. Now the other upside is that our bullpen will get a big upgrade come around the All-Star break. Why is that you ask? Well thats because around that time Kyle Drabek, Drew Hutchison and our premier long relief man Luis Perez will be coming back from Tommy John. Then of course theres the good news that Santos seems to be making good strides in his rehab and Drew Hutchison is on the 'heavy ball program' that has been given the thumbs up by many of our successful relievers this year as well as our ex manage John Farrell.

So theres even more reason to have a positive outlook on the future for the Jays, yes we still have a ways to go before we can really believe that they are still capable of making the playoffs but I think they can easily finish above .500, which is a good place to start.

-Eric