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The Toronto Blue Jays announced Thursday that closer B.J. Ryan underwent Tommy John surgery in his left elbow and will be out for the remainder of the season.

Ryan, 31, first experienced soreness in March during spring training. As per the advice of medical officials and team doctors, it was recommended he rest and rehab for two weeks and Ryan was eventually pain free and throwing.

After his appearance on April 14 against Detroit, he complained of pain in the elbow and was shut down immediately.

The left-hander had two blown saves in five chances this year, after he blew only four saves in 42 opportunities last season. He is 0-2 with a 12.46 ERA this season.

Ryan was one of the top closers in the American League last season, tallying 38 saves and 86 strikeouts with a 1.37 earned-run average in 72 innings.

His performance earned him his second straight appearance at the All-Star Game.

Ryan signed a five-year $47 million contract with the Blue Jays in November of 2005. It was the largest deal given to a reliever, topping the $39.99 million, four-year contract Mariano Rivera had with the New York Yankees from 2001-04.

Well that sucks..

All this proves is that JP lied again

I think the majority of us knew this was coming from the moment they said "elbow" and "60 day DL" in the same sentence.

The positive thing is the Devil Rays have a real chance to end their streak of finishing in the AL East basement

This isn't fair.

Hey...

Remember when we were all thinking about this upcoming season and how great it was going to be, potentially? And if not great, at least enjoyable to watch on occasion?

Well, I'm not normally a pessimist... buuuut I'm throwing in the towel for this season. We're done. We have two starters, no closer, no catcher or shortstop, no bench and a mediocre bullpen, at best.

See ya next year, Jays.

It is not that it isn't fair that Ryan got injured. But more of it isn't fair that we fans are stuck with irresponsible management that spends close to 100 million on a roster that has absolutely no depth to adequately cover the seasonal injuries that a baseball team will come to suffer from. Nor a competent minor league system that we can look to in order to fill holes.

It's not fair that Ryan is injured? It's not fair that we have to turn to Jason Frasor for the end of games. It's not fair that Matt Stairs is our 4th outfielder. It's not fair that we have to see Zambrano, Towers and Ohka on the mound because we were too busy inking a DH.

BJ Ryan might be done THIS year AND next year

Wow, thats like $20 million down the drain
Wheres NON GUARANTEED Contract like the NFL ones when you need em?

Holmes wrote:It is not that it isn't fair that Ryan got injured. But more of it isn't fair that we fans are stuck with irresponsible management that spends close to 100 million on a roster that has absolutely no depth to adequately cover the seasonal injuries that a baseball team will come to suffer from. Nor a competent minor league system that we can look to in order to fill holes.

It's not fair that Ryan is injured? It's not fair that we have to turn to Jason Frasor for the end of games. It's not fair that Matt Stairs is our 4th outfielder. It's not fair that we have to see Zambrano, Towers and Ohka on the mound because we were too busy inking a DH.

I whole heartedly agree with this (something I never expected to say after a post by Holmes )

Holmes wrote:It is not that it isn't fair that Ryan got injured. But more of it isn't fair that we fans are stuck with irresponsible management that spends close to 100 million on a roster that has absolutely no depth to adequately cover the seasonal injuries that a baseball team will come to suffer from. Nor a competent minor league system that we can look to in order to fill holes.

It's not fair that Ryan is injured? It's not fair that we have to turn to Jason Frasor for the end of games. It's not fair that Matt Stairs is our 4th outfielder. It's not fair that we have to see Zambrano, Towers and Ohka on the mound because we were too busy inking a DH.

Perhaps I'm just fairweather, but I starting to agree with your sentiments.

I used to bristle at your negativity, but I just can't help but be dejected about this team. Not only are we not showing any fight, but it can hardly be helped. We don't have any young, live arms in the rotation or upcoming. It seems we're always patching and coming up short.

We've got Halladay and Wells. Great. And Rios, Hill, Burnett and maybe Glaus, too. Tremendous. Beyond that? A decent platoon in LF, a mid-level catcher who's hurt, a mid-level first 1B, no SS to speak of, one of the worst back 3 starting rotations in baseball and a bullpen with no closer and no hope, it appears.

What about the minors? Snider. Maybe one of the young arms turns into a mid-rotation pitcher. Anything else? Nope.

So... who's to blame? Gibbons? Partially... his hands-off approach seems to have resulted in a tenative that shows little heart trying to get back into games. But he's got no bench and no rotation and a shaky bullpen.

Ricciardi? Definitely. I'm tired of his excuses and his snide commentary. He simply hasn't gotten it done.

whosthebosh? wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



I whole heartedly agree with this (something I never expected to say after a post by Holmes )

I took the long way around saying basically the same thing.

We could have held on if we kept Speier and Scho

And yes, I know Speier is injured but I doubt he would have got hurt if he was in Toronto.

Count me in on agreeing with Holmes. Depth was my main concern heading into the year, and it's coming back to haunt the Jays right now. A team can't count on EVERYONE staying healthy. There has to be depth to at least short-term sustain a loss. Obviously, no one internally was ever going to able replace Ryan's production, and League's injury makes matters worse, but that doesn't justify having relievers with ballooned up ERA's and high HR allowed rates currently coming out of the pen (other than Janssen who really should be starting at this point). The bench was put together by a 3rd grader, and the bullpen was very young and unpredictable coming into the year even with everyone healthy. Everyone had to stay healthy for good things to happen, and that's just not something a team can count on in baseball.

2007 is a wasted year already. Right now, we have to hope for positive development from McGowan, Janssen, Hill, Lind, Thigpen (when he's up), etc. Any hope of stealing a playoff spot is dead and gone at this rate, barring a miracle.

This is just sad. As far as I know, BJ Ryan has never had any elbow problems in his career. How come all of a sudden he has to have tommy john surgery?

I really think the Jays problem this year is rooted in their starting pitching. Outside of Halladay and occasionally Burnett, none of the other starters are consistent or stay healthy, like that bum Chacin, who isn't even that good when he is healthy.

I really believed that this off-season, no matter how inflated the market for starting pitchers was, they had to re-sign Ted Lilly or another significant decent free agent pitcher like Gil Meche (although I have no idea why he chose to sign with the perennial basement dwelling Royals). Even if the Jays had to overpay, they should've secured more depth in their pitching rotation.

The positive thing is the Devil Rays have a real chance to end their streak of finishing in the AL East basement

Didn't that already happen when the Jays finished in last place a couple ago.

The curse of the closer continues. First Randy Myers now B.J. Ryan. We haven't had a healthy closer since what? The World Series days?

You cant blame many people on this injury, BJ never spent a day on the DL in his career until this season so you could never see it coming.

Great another excuse for the Riccardi/Gibbons regime.

I can picture it now after our 90 loss season. " Oh, we lost BJ for the season that's a huge hit blah blah blah blah.. watch out for us next year".

TJ11 wrote:Great another excuse for the Riccardi/Gibbons regime.

I can picture it now after our 90 loss season. " Oh, we lost BJ for the season that's a huge hit blah blah blah blah.. watch out for us next year".

Well a closer isn't worth anything if you can't get a lead...

whosthebosh? wrote:You cant blame many people on this injury, BJ never spent a day on the DL in his career until this season so you could never see it coming.

Ryan hasn't been seriously injured to my knowledge, but he's always had a wonky delivery that was bound to catch up with him eventually. A five year deal was a risk.

The problem with Ricciardi's moves are he generally acquires injury risk players (Koskie, Glaus, Burnett, Ryan, Thomas, Catalanotto, etc). You can't sign players with dubious injury histories and then say "well, they got hurt, it's not my fault!" If he's going to make those types of high risk signings, then he should prepare to have back-ups in case of injury. It's playing with fire.

**** I hate this team. JP needs to get fired.