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Quotes from Happ taken from Jays beat writer on twitter:

Happ: "It's very frustrating. I told myself a couple of things before I came into camp that I would try to stay as positive as I could."

More Happ "I know there are other people in the stands as well so I'm trying to just keep my routine and we'll see what happens."

Happ: "I've had conversations with (the #BlueJays). We haven't been ignoring eachother but I don't know how much more needs to be said."

When Happ was asked if he would prefer bullpen role with #BlueJays or starting pitching role in Buffalo he said the following... (1 of 2)

"I'm a Major League starting pitcher. I guess I'll leave it at that for right now. We'll have to let it play out." #BlueJays (2of2)

Not surprising. He is a good 4-5 starter on an MLB team.

He'll most likely get his shot if Romero craps the bed during the season.

Adrian_05 wrote:

He'll most likely get his shot if Romero craps the bed during the season.

Exactly what I was thinking. Just be patient, a spot in the rotation will open up.

Is this old or is he still chirping? He needs to be patient. It's a long season and he will definitely get his chance.

Also, JA, you're not at all good enough to declare yourself a major-league starting pitcher as if you have a god-given right to be in a rotation. In your last three big-league seasons, you have an ERA+ of 84 and bad peripherals...quit yer bitchin' and wait for an injury in Buffalo.

I don't really understand what he expected.

There's 4 starting pitchers on the team that he has zero chance of starting over.

The only guy he might be better than, was the ace of this team the last few years, and put together a couple very good years in the AL east. Yeah he sucked last year, butthey are clearly going to atleast give Romero a chance.

Well you can sympathize with him, Romero put up a 4.98 SIERA(wworst among MLB starters)last year compared to Happ's 3.79(good for 31st)which matches Romero's career high. I I don't know why people are slamming the guy for thinking he deserves a job over someone who was the worst starting pitcher in baseball last year

Schadenfreude wrote:Also, JA, you're not at all good enough to declare yourself a major-league starting pitcher as if you have a god-given right to be in a rotation. In your last three big-league seasons, you have an ERA+ of 84 and bad peripherals...quit yer bitchin' and wait for an injury in Buffalo.

Truth.

well that's some kind of perverted logic, Romero's 2010 and 2011 seasons are identical to Happ's 2012(according to SIERA), in terms of projecting for this upcoming season why do those two seasons matter more than last year especially when neither of these pitchers has a long history of consistently good performances. Romero wasn't good enough before 2012 to say that 2012 was a fluke and Happ hasn't been around long enough to say his huge spike in K rate isn't here to stay

well if they are being truthful about breaking camp with the best out there it will be Happ instead of Romero

Can't say I care about his whining. He's getting pretty well compensated for being a #6 guy.

Avenger wrote:well that's some kind of perverted logic, Romero's 2010 and 2011 seasons are identical to Happ's 2012(according to SIERA), in terms of projecting for this upcoming season why do those two seasons matter more than last year especially when neither of these pitchers has a long history of consistently good performances. Romero wasn't good enough before 2012 to say that 2012 was a fluke and Happ hasn't been around long enough to say his huge spike in K rate isn't here to stay

Happ has options. We're trying to win over 162.

I think he saw Cecil follow him into the game, pitch like crap again and wondered why he gets demoted so the team can keep this turkey on the ML roster just because he's out of options.

SharoneWright wrote:

Avenger wrote:well that's some kind of perverted logic, Romero's 2010 and 2011 seasons are identical to Happ's 2012(according to SIERA), in terms of projecting for this upcoming season why do those two seasons matter more than last year especially when neither of these pitchers has a long history of consistently good performances. Romero wasn't good enough before 2012 to say that 2012 was a fluke and Happ hasn't been around long enough to say his huge spike in K rate isn't here to stay

Happ has options. We're trying to win over 162.

Well, if the question boils down to keeping him over Cecil, I bet Happ helps us win more over 162, even if he's doing long relief and spot starts.

Difference between Happ and Cecil in the bullpen is negligible. I'd rather have a 6th starter ready to go in Buffalo.

Also, you shouldn't use SIERA for such large sample sizes. It's meant for small sample sizes that aren't captured well by ERA. Romero had great success in 2010 and 2011, in the AL East, and even though he's not as good as his ERA showed, he was better than Happ. He had a terrible season but he was injured the whole time and felt obligated to stay out there since the rest of the team was in the infirmary. Probably a bad decision, but if he's healthy I'd prefer giving him a shot than Happ. The fact that Happ has options just makes it all the more obvious what needs to be done. It's not like there won't be an opening due to injuries. I mean, we've got Morrow and Johnson who are bound to be on DL at some point, and Romero is coming off of elbow surgery and has bad knees. He may not like being the odd man out, but you can't always get what you want.

The only reason Cecil is staying up and Happ is going down is because Cecil doesn't have any more options, and the Jays dont want to lose a decent asset (Cecil) for nothing. Simple as that. If Cecil had an option left, im sure he would be down in Buffalo instead of Happ.

dagger wrote:I think he saw Cecil follow him into the game, pitch like crap again and wondered why he gets demoted so the team can keep this turkey on the ML roster just because he's out of options.

He doesn't want to be a reliever, either. I agree, Happ is better than Cecil, but as it stands he has absolutely no claim to the rotation.

I'm glad he's not happy, nothing worse than a complacent professional athlete that only wants to collect a pay cheque.

He'll get his chances, it's quite rare to see a 5 man rotation go wire to wire without injuries or ineffectiveness.

I'd be ticked if I were Happ too. He's been a major league starter (albeit not a very good one) for multiple straight years, and he's coming off one of his best seasons to date (which still wasn't very good, but passable for a 5th starter type).

So far this spring, Romero looks just as crappy as last year. If he can't figure it out, I'd expect Happ up in May or June at the latest. The Jays' won't tolerate another 5+ ERA out of Romero for long, regardless of his paycheque. So... Happ could get his chance sooner rather than later.

P.S. I'd really like to see Romero lose that hitch in his delivery. I have to think he's got some sort of persistent injury (maybe his knee problems) that's causing it.

Adrian_05 wrote:The only reason Cecil is staying up and Happ is going down is because Cecil doesn't have any more options, and the Jays dont want to lose a decent asset (Cecil) for nothing. Simple as that. If Cecil had an option left, im sure he would be down in Buffalo instead of Happ.

Cecil is only a decent asset against lefties until he proves otherwise. I'm a bit concerned that Gibbons is talking about using him as the long man. That's a bad decision IMO. Hopefully with this staff we won't need the long man too often...