John Manuel's Top 20 Prospects.

John Manuel of Baseball America has just released his top 20 prospects list. One Blue Jay made the list: Kyle Drabek. Here's what he had to say,

16. Kyle Drabek, rhp, Blue Jays
WHY HE’S HERE: The son of 1990 Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek was the key piece in the Roy Halladay trade and instantly became Toronto’s top prospect. His stuff wasn’t always consistent in 2009, but at his best he has an excellent curveball, a plus fastball and a decent changeup.
WHAT HE’LL BE: If his changeup gets better, Drabek can be a No. 2 starter on a championship team. If not, he could become a Tom Gordon clone as a closer, bringing mid-90s heat and finishing off hitters with his curve.
WHEN HE ARRIVES: Drabek was vulnerable to lefthanded hitters last year, and the Blue Jays have pitching depth, so Drabek should be able to move up to Triple-A and hone his changeup in 2010 without having to immediately deal with the burden of being the Player Traded for Roy Halladay.

Pretty much what we all expected. It seems like people bounce back and forth between both Stewart and Drabek as the number one arm in the system. I suppose that Drabek is a little more iffy: He's younger and less polished; a lot of his potential as a dominant starter is dependent on how well he's able to develop a changeup; and he does have long term injury concerns. Manuel makes an excellent point about the pitching depth. I'm leaning more toward having Drabek spend the entire year and Las Vegas. Let's let the kid cook there for a bit; there's no need to push him throw the system on a team that really has no chance to contend over the next few years.

Sickels releases his top Blue Jay prospects

Minor League guru John Sickels has just released his ranking of Blue Jay prospects. Here are the top 10:

1) Brett Wallace, 1B-3B, Grade B+
2) Zach Stewart, RHP, Grade B+
3) Kyle Drabek, RHP, Grade B+
4) Travis d'Arnaud, C, Grade B
5) Chad Jenkins, RHP, Grade B-
6) David Cooper, 1B, Grade B-
7) Josh Roenicke, RHP, Grade C+
8) Henderson Alvarez, RHP, Grade C+
9) Carlos Perez, C, Grade C+
10) Brad Mills, LHP, Grade C+

Take a look at his post for the complete top 20 list. He also adds brief comments on each player (full comments on every team availible in his yearly).

A few interesting notes: Sickels states that he likes Stewart's stuff a little better than Drabek's. The more I hear about Stewart, the more I'm really starting to get excited about the kid. Sickels also states, "A rotation of Drabek/Stewart/Jenkins could spin a lot of quality innings if everyone pans out." Now, just think of all the possible 4-5 guys.

On the League trade.

Sometimes brilliant, sometimes very frustrating reliever for a young sometimes brilliant, sometimes very frustrating starter; both are fireballers. Obviously, this deal is too heavily weighted in the Jays' favour to not have another player involved: a prospect. Consensus now seems to be that the prospect is Johermyn Chavez. Cringe. This doesn't sit well with me—although it does sit a lot better than the delusion of some Mariner fans believing that we'd actually deal Wallace, Snider, Stewart, or Lind. The nerve!—I was looking forward to Chavez: The kid is young, and he plays a position that seems to be a deep dark void in the organization.

Yeah yeah, he repeated Low-A last year. The kid was 20 years old and he put up decent numbers at the plate during his mulligan year: He posted a wOBA of .371, a ISO of .191, and a .346 OBP; the kid hits for decent power and gets on base. He could certainly improve on his 7.3% BB rate and 27% K rate. He's young and needs polishing—of course. But I'd certainly take a 20% K rate if his ISO was .200+. All in all, he's a RF/LF prospect. Enough said.

A quick look at Brandon Morrow. He's projected to be a number 3 guy. He's hard throwing: his fast ball sits at around 95mph. He's got control issues and sometimes has trouble with his curve. He spend time in both AAA and the MLB last year playing in 10 (starting all 10) and 26 (starting 10) games respectively. His numbers weren't spectacular with Seattle: His tRA was 5.54 (a tRA of 3.00 would be considered very good), and his xFIP was 4.89 (again an xFIP of 3.00 would be considered elite for a starter). He averaged a nice 8.14 K/9 in the MLB last year, but also recorded a 5.68 BB/9.

So, why Morrow. Simple: (i) He's major league ready and can eat innings; (ii) He does have potential; and (iii) We might one day see him as a setup/closer type in the bullpen. Personally, I still think hanging on to Chavez would have been better; there must have been another Hi-A prospect? Is the pantry that bare?

Mat at Blue Jays Daze postulates what the rotation could be like in 2010:

1 - Ricky Romero (25): stats for 2009, 29 GS, 178 IP, 141 Ks, 4.30 ERA, 1.522 Whip (14 IP in minors)

2 - Shaun Marcum (28): stats for 2009, did not pitch due to injury (15 IP in minors as rehab)

3 - Brett Cecil (22): stats for 2009, 17 GS, 93.1 IP, 69 Ks, 5.30 ERA, 1.650 Whip (49 IP in minors)

4 - Brandon Morrow (25): stats for 2009, 10 GS, 69.2 IP, 63 Ks, 4.39 ERA, 1.579 Whip (55 IP in minors)

5 - Marc Rzepczynski (24): stats for 2009, 11 GS, 61.1 IP, 60 Ks, 3.67 ERA, 1.321 Whip (88 IP in minors)

Zack Stewart could be ready to see some action next year, and look forward to Kyle Drabek in 2011. The above rotation also leaves Scott Richmond out, and he could find a good home in the pen—frankly, he's probably better there. Best case for Jesse Litch is July-August, which might be perfect timing when innings begin to be a problem for the young arms. And, of course, there's also the Dustin McGowan mystery. A little further down the line we also have Reidier Gonzalez and Luis Perez.

Hopefully the pitchers who are going to be established parts of moving forward will make a strong case by the 2012 season. In the meantime, won't it be fun to watch it all unfold?

Just a reminder...

When John Lackey signed with the Red Sox, that sweet sweet first round draft pick we got from them turned into a second round pick; number 70 overall. You kind of had to see this coming. The Sox were bound to pickup a top corner outfielder—I was hoping Bay would resign and this wouldn't be a problem—or they would beef up the starting rotation. They did the latter and got Mike Cameron as well.

The draft situation still looks good:

First Round:

#11 (their own)

Supplemental:

#33 (For Scutaro)

#38 (for failing to sign James Paxton, a 2009 sandwich rounder)

Second Round:

#52 (Their own)

#69 (for failing to sign Jake Eliopolous, a 2009 second-round pick)

#70 (For Scutaro)


Third Round:

#84 (the Jays' third-round pick)

#104 (for their failure to sign Jake Barrett, a Jays' 3rd-round pick in 2009).

Assume that Barajas is gone, and you can add another supplemental pick. That included, the Jays have 9 picks in the first 3 rounds, and 5 in the top 50ish.

And apparently we'll have the money to sign these picks...

Yay.

Red's restructure Rolen; opening for the Jays.

The Cincinnati Reds and Scott Rolen—former GBOAT—have agreed to a restructured contract. The contract is now worth $23.625MM through 2012. I haven't heard much of Rolen since his concision, but by the sounds of this, it seems like he should be healthy and good to go for the start of the season. Gotta love Rolen.

Question: Does that put Juan Francisco on the trade radar?

Juan Francisco - 21 y/o 3B prospect ranked number 5 in the Reds' system by BA. Switch hitter.



What could the Jays ship? Overbay is unfortunately out of the question; he'd be a downgrade from Joey Votto. Would the Reds be interested in some bullpen help? Think Accardo and Tallet. Tallet is at a high right now and we all know that Accardo wants out. However, how much is Tallet worth to the Jays young starting rotation. He may be worth a lot—Tallet might have to eat a lot of innings in the pen this season.

Could add Cooper, Dopirak, Arencibia, or even d'Arnaud to the package. The way I see it, both Cooper and Dopirak are blocked at first base if Wallace works out; and one of Arencibia or d'Arnaud will hopefully turn into the infamous "catcher of the future."

Since I'm talking about 3rd base, which is a definite long term hole, I should also note that all might not be lost on the farm. Kevin Ahrens had a forgettable season in Hi-A last year. Expect him to start the season in Dunedin again. Brad Emaus had a so-so season in AA last year. He has played third base and could be permanently transitioned is need me.

Anyway. This is all a results of my lingering prospect hard-on from the Halladay swap.

On Drabek and a few other tidbits...

At the beginning of last year, people were saying number two or three starter in Drabek, but 2009 was a big year for him; it was his first year back from Tommy John's. Drabek had a very good 2009: his ERA was a little up, but his K:BB ratio was a very commanding 3.5:1. I heard something today that said he strikes out something like 30% of batters that he faces. He's got great command of his fastball, but his K pitch is a hard bitting 12-6 curve. He's currently working on a change up, which would be the final piece to make him a 4-pitch starter: fastball +, curve +, slider, change up (still young so could be a 4-plus pitcher). After his season last year, people are saying that his ceiling is very high. This will be his second season back from TJ surgery, so theoretically he should have his power back. He'll be starting in AA. Baseball America (one of the top prospect people) call him the number one prospect in the system.

Also, don't forget about Zach Stewart—remember him, we got him in the Rolan deal. He's supposed to be a pretty good young arm too. He has a chance to make the team out of spring training, but he's still young, so another year in AAA wouldn't hurt. According to BA, Stewart is the number 2 pitcher in the system, and sits about 4th overall.

Another really interesting thing that I heard today concerned scouting. One of the first thing that AA did when he came to power was to almost immediately increase the number of scouts in the organization—in fact, they about doubled the number of both professional and amateur scouts in the system. Did not know that. Actually, it was also said that under JP, the Jays ceased to scout high-schoolers... go figure.

BA is set to release their annual Prospect Handbook (I'm probably going to pick up a copy). They have Drabek ranked number one and Wallace ranked number two (I think they have d'Arnaud somewhere 6-7ish, but don't quote me yet). So, for Halladay we got two prospects better than anything we had before. Guess who they have third: our boy Arencibia. He's ranked higher than d'Arnaud because he's more advanced in development than d'Arnaud.

One more thing, I also heard that Wallace has a good chance of making the team out of spring training if there's no one blocking him at first base—ahem Overbay.

Game Scores Update: August 17, 2009

It's been a busy week and I haven't had much time to post. Again today I won't have time for a long post, but I have managed to put together this weeks GSc. update:

For Blue Jay pitching,

	AGSc	Chg	GS	Starts	Week Avg
Roy Halladay	61.22	+0.22	23	1	66.00
Ricky Romero	53.42	+0.03	19	1	54.00
Scott Richmond	52.60	-0.19	15	1	50.00
Marc Rzepczynski	51.63	-3.38	8	2	41.50
Robert Ray	48.50	+0.00	4	0
Brett Cecil	48.42	+0.00	12	0
Brian Tallet	46.63	-0.92	19	1	30.00
David Purcey	41.00	+0.00	5	0
Jesse Litch	37.00	+0.00	2	0
Brad Mills	25.00	+0.00	2	0

For all notables,

Pos	Chg		AGSc	Chg	GS	Starts	Week Avg
1	+0	Tim Lincecum	65.88	+0.35	24	1	74.00
2	+0	Dan Haren	64.29	+0.34	24	1	72.00
3	+0	Chris Carpenter	62.00	+0.06	19	1	63.00
4	+1	Zack Greinke	61.67	+0.54	24	1	74.00
5	-1	Javier Vazquez	61.26	+0.00	23	0
6	+0	Roy Halladay	61.22	+0.22	23	1	66.00
7	+0	Matt Cain	60.21	-0.18	24	1	56.00
8	+1	Josh Johnson	59.83	+0.88	24	1	80.00
9	-1	Felix Hernandez	59.54	+0.50	24	1	71.00
10	+2	Justin Verlander	59.16	+0.91	25	1	81.00
11	-1	Josh Becket	58.96	+0.41	23	1	68.00
12	+1	Adam Wainwright	58.48	+0.23	25	1	64.00
13	+3	Cliff Lee	57.48	+0.56	25	1	71.00
14	+1	Yovani Gallardo	57.42	+0.20	24	1	62.00
15	-1	Johan Santana	57.04	-0.52	24	1	45.00
16	+1	Jake Peavy	56.69	+0.00	13	0
17	+6	CC Sabathia	56.08	+1.00	25	1	80.00
18	+1	Jon Lester	56.00	+0.00	24	1	56.00
19	-8	Wandy Rodriguez	55.88	-2.39	24	1	1.00
20	+2	Chad Billingsley	55.17	+0.00	24	0
21	-3	Matt Garza	54.92	-1.40	24	2	39.50
22	+2	Jair Jurrjens	54.88	+0.38	25	1	64.00
23	+3	Carlos Zambrano	54.15	+0.00	20	0
24	-4	Jered Weaver	54.00	-1.96	24	1	9.00
25	+2	Kevin Millwood	53.96	+0.18	23	1	58.00
26	-1	A.J. Burnett	53.83	-0.40	23	1	45.00
27	+1	Joel Pineiro	53.52	-0.07	23	1	52.00
28	-7	Roy Oswalt	53.46	-1.91	24	2	32.50
29	+0	Jason Marquis	53.09	+0.77	23	1	70.00
30	+0	Mark Buehrle	53.04	+0.82	24	1	72.00
31	+0	Doug Davis	52.00	+0.17	25	2	54.00
32	+0	Ryan Dempster	50.57	-0.38	21	1	43.00
33	+1	Dallas Braden	50.41	+0.00	22	0
34	-1	Barry Zito	50.38	-0.10	24	1	48.00
35	+3	Bronson Arroyo	49.96	+1.59	23	1	85.00
36	-1	Tim Wakefield	49.53	+0.00	17	0
37	+0	Derek Lowe	49.12	+0.29	25	1	56.00
38	+1	Kevin Slowey	47.63	+0.00	16	0
39	-3	Nick Blackburn	46.88	-2.26	24	2	22.00

A couple of terrible weeks stand right out: Wandy Rodriguez and Jered Weaver. Rodriguez gave up 10 ER in only 4 innings pitched in his start versus the Brewers and Weaver went 3.1 and gave up 8 ER in a start against the Orioles.

Player Watch: August 12, 2009

I won't say too much about today's player watch, as I don't have much time today to put up the post. I also want to put up a post about the Rios debacle at some point very soon, but haven't had the chance over the past few days for a few reasons: depression, anxiety, and just being busy overall—also wanted to let the dust settle a bit. But look for that either later today or tomorrow morning.

Okay, player watch (I'll post players, pitcher and rehabs then comment at the very end):

Players

Travis Snider	LF
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	9	15	3	0	4	7	0.405	0.463	0.811
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	44	51	12	1	13	37	0.319	0.414	0.650
Blue Jays	32	24	6	0	3	12	0.242	0.292	0.394
Totals	76	75	18	1	16	49	0.290	0.370	0.552
J.P. Arencibia	C
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	7	6	2	0	1	1	0.214	0.267	0.393
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	90	81	28	1	12	49	0.226	0.277	0.409
Totals	90	81	28	1	12	49	0.226	0.277	0.409
Brian Dopirak	1B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	9	11	2	0	1	4	0.297	0.366	0.432
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	87	101	29	1	19	68	0.308	0.374	0.576
Blue Jays (AAA)	26	38	5	0	6	20	0.349	0.379	0.560
Totals	113	139	34	1	25	88	0.318	0.376	0.572
Brian Jeroloman	C
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	6	3	1	0	0	1	0.150	0.346	0.200
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	90	69	13	1	6	23	0.229	0.346	0.339
Totals	90	69	13	1	6	23	0.229	0.346	0.339
Kyle Phillips	C
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	3	2	0	0	0	0	0.182	0.308	0.182
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	12	7	0	0	1	1	0.175	0.233	0.250
Blue Jays (AAA)	56	67	12	0	5	16	0.325	0.395	0.456
Totals	68	74	12	0	6	17	0.301	0.370	0.423
Justin Jackson	SS
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	78	53	12	1	0	17	0.213	0.321	0.269
Totals	78	53	12	1	0	17	0.213	0.321	0.269
David Cooper	1B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	7	8	2	0	1	3	0.348	0.484	0.565
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	101	96	25	0	6	49	0.257	0.334	0.373
Totals	101	96	25	0	6	49	0.257	0.334	0.373
Kevin Ahrens	3B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	6	4	0	0	0	5	0.211	0.261	0.211
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	90	69	14	1	2	31	0.212	0.281	0.279
Totals	90	69	14	1	2	31	0.212	0.281	0.279
Brad Emaus	2B/3B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	7	7	1	0	2	7	0.250	0.323	0.500
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	114	108	26	2	9	56	0.255	0.340	0.390
Totals	114	108	26	2	9	56	0.255	0.340	0.390
Eric Thames	OF
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	42	48	11	2	2	30	0.308	0.391	0.442
Totals	42	48	11	2	2	30	0.308	0.391	0.442
Scott Campbell	2B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	6	8	1	0	1	2	0.333	0.407	0.500
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	5	10	1	0	0	3	0.500	0.522	0.550
Blue Jays (AA)	33	30	6	1	3	15	0.254	0.353	0.398
Blue Jays (AAA)	27	22	3	1	0	6	0.229	0.327	0.281
Totals	65	62	10	2	3	24	0.265	0.357	0.363

Pitchers

Ricky Romero	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays	0	1	6.00	1	6.0	0	2	3	1.17
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (A+)	0	1	13.50	1	4.0	2	1	5	1.75
Blue Jays (AA)	0	0	1.69	1	5.1	0	5	4	1.57
Blue Jays (AAA)	0	0	7.20	1	5.0	0	2	3	2.00
Blue Jays	10	5	3.66	18	115.2	13	44	90	1.37
Brett Cecil	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays	0	0	4.39	1	4.1	0	3	2	1.95
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA)	1	5	5.69	9	49.0	2	19	32	1.47
Blue Jays	5	1	4.35	12	70.1	9	28	54	1.55
Marc Rzepczynski	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays	0	1	7.35	2	9.8	4	2	7	1.43
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (AA)	7	5	2.93	14	76.2	1	36	88	1.52
Blue Jays (AAA)	2	0	0.79	2	11.1	0	4	16	0.99
Blue Jays	1	3	4.38	7	37.0	5	19	37	1.35
Zach Stewart	RHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA)	0	0	0.00	0	2.2	0	0	2	0.91
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA)	0	0	0.00	0	2.2	0	0	2	0.91
Robert Ray	RHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (A+)	0	1	4.91	1	3.2	0	0	1	2.19
Blue Jays (AAA)	0	0	0.00	1	4.1	0	3	3	1.22
Blue Jays	1	2	4.44	4	24.1	4	6	13	1.20
Brad Mills	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA)	2	8	4.06	14	84.1	6	35	72	1.40
Blue Jays	0	1	14.09	2	7.2	4	6	9	2.78

Rehabs

Shaun Marcum	RHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (A+)	0	1	3.00	2	6.0	0	0	5	1.17
Blue Jays (AA)	0	1	1.17	2	7.2	1	2	8	1.39
Blue Jays (AAA)	0	0	4.50	1	2.0	0	1	0	1.50
Casey Jansen	RHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA)	0	0	0.00	0	2.0	0	0	3	0.00
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (R)	0	0	9.00	0	1.0	0	0	0	2.00
Blue Jays (A+)	0	0	0.69	3	13.0	0	2	10	0.62
Blue Jays (AA)	1	0	2.40	1	15.0	0	5	12	1.13
Blue Jays (AAA)	0	0	6.35	0	5.2	0	1	6	0.96
Blue Jays	2	3	6.23	5	26.0	4	7	11	1.81

Snider has become a monster in Class AAA and will be called up soon and now given the lack of a day-to-day right fielder the need for both his bat and glove in the Blue Jay lineup are further exemplified. But don't expect it to be before the 20th of August. Snider is teetering toward Super Two status, and keeping him in Las Vegas until at least the 20th will ensure the he doesn't receive the extra year of arbitration. Given that the Jays are no where near competing for a post-season spot, I can understand the move in financial terms. It must be a horrible feeling to know that you deserve a spot in Toronto, but future financial precautionary measures are keeping you on the bus touring cities in the PCL.

Arencibia continues with a down season in Las Vegas and although having a good week, Dopirak cooled off slightly from his previous week's performance. I'm still hoping that Dopirak gets the call in September so we can see his bat and defense in Toronto.

With Ruiz being called up the play DH, the Snider callup is given, and I expect Dopirak will see some playing time in the Major Leagues as well. Where does that leave Kevin Millar? Nowhere. Millar met with Gaston and JP this week; I anticipate this was concerning an ensuing drop—to nothing—of his playing time. It is unlikely that Millar would accept a demotion to the minors—or that the Jays would even ponder such a move—but I have a feeling that even when the roster expands to 40 men, there still isn't room for Kevin Millar.

Zach Stewart saw relief action in three games and put up some very nice numbers. It's looking like Marcum won't see any action in the majors this year says JP:

"We're leaning more toward that, probably [stay in the minors], at this point. He's healthy. There's nothing wrong with him, but there's no reason to rush him. He's going to pitch next year for us. He'll be like 17 months post-op at that time. He feels good. We'll probably just keep throwing him, but there's really probably no need to get him to the big leagues at this point. We'll just back off that way and give him all of Spring Training to simulate the intensity of what it is to pitch in a big league game."

As for Jansen, it looks like he might stay in the minors for the rest of the season as well. It has also been indicated that he'll go to the pen when he does make it back to Toronto:

"Eventually, he'll be back up here, but he just needed to pitch. Maybe this year is just going to be a year where all the kids get healthy and, at the end of the day, we check off September and we say, 'They're healthy. They feel good and, coming into Spring Training, we're not worried about Casey's arm and we're not worried about Marcum's arm.' "