League and Carlson

[squeekysneakers]

I have to say that I really like what cito has done with these two guys. Coming into Next year these two are going to have so much more confidence in themselves to get the big out or have a shutdown inning. I think by Cito continuing to show confidence in both of them he is helping to make them a huge part of our bullpen next year.

BJ
Carlson
League
Accardo
Downs
Janssen
Frasor/parrish

Looks like one of the better bullpens will continue to thrive in 09

[evilRyu]

yeah, our bullpen is pretty good.. let's not forget we're getting janssen back too, who was pretty awsome in 2007.

but not to be a downer, our starting rotation is gonna take a huge hit next season..

[Relentless88]

Yeah, agree with evilRyu. The bullpen is great but with McGowan out, and now Marcum with Tommy John, and Burnett leaving the starting rotation is looking pretty bad....

[victor page]

So who can they convert back into a starter?

Janssen has already been floated as a candidate.

Downs would be an interesting choice. As my main man Mike Woolner continually says, isn't better to have Downs throw 175 innings as a starter than 75 innings out of the pen?

You've got Carlson as your lefthanded specialist, Accardo and League as decent set up men, and Ryan for the 9th.

My worry is that Downs appeared to fatigue as the season wore on so maybe the Jays were pushing it with the amount of innings he threw already.

Why do they waste guys like Downs when they're up 7 runs late in a game. We need one of those trashy long relievers to soak up those innings. Back in the day, we used guys like Pete Munro, or even Jim Acker going way back. The 1992 Jays staff was so stacked that they had Al Leiter in that role.

[Nolan]

The pen is going to be our biggest strength heading into next year and its the only part of this team that doesn't need any improvements. My only concern is that with our starting pitching looking pretty bad I have a feeling that we're going to wear out the pen pretty early next season.