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The Blue Jays, under interim CEO Paul Beeston, intend to become even more aggressive in that regard by employing a new willingness to pay signing bonuses above Major League Baseball recommendations. That was a big no-no under old president Paul Godfrey and the shift in philosophy may help Ricciardi secure more high-end talent.

"That's definitely going to be an area we look at differently," said Ricciardi. "The gloves are off."

chargerxthirty wrote:Damnit, I wanted to get Manny

John McDonald can do the math. The Blue Jays have four players in the running for three spots on the club's bench this spring. The shortstop knows that someone won't be heading north with the team come Opening Day.

McDonald said on Friday. "But, I'm playing like that's my spot and I want to earn more playing time. So I'm trying to impress them and maybe earn more time as a starter. That's my mindset."

Blue Jays closer B.J. Ryan is trying not to focus on results for the time being. That's a good approach to have, considering his spring pitching lines have not been pretty up to this point

On Friday, Ryan logged one inning in a "B" game against the Phillies at Bright House Field and suffered another poor outing. After the appearance, the closer was pulling out the positives, noting that he is starting to get into a better rhythm on the mound.

Vernon Wells is inching closer to his first game action of the spring. The Blue Jays center fielder tested out his strained left hamstring with some running drills on Saturday and reported no soreness afterward.

There is a way for the Blue Jays to overcome some of the uncertainty that currently surrounds their pitching staff. The only problem is that the solution sounds easier than it probably will be for the ballclub. Toronto simply needs more production from its offense.

"I know there are question marks with the pitchers," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "But first things first. If we can get these guys to put up some more runs, it's certainly going to be a little easier on the pitching staff."

Brian Wolfe's chances of grabbing one of the Blue Jays' vacant bullpen jobs were dealt an unfortunate blow Tuesday. After surrendering five runs in the fifth inning against the Rays, the right-hander pulled himself from the game due to pain in his throwing shoulder.

Peteros wrote:I'm afraid the BJ will never return to the form he was after the surgery. : (

spykelee wrote:

Peteros wrote:I'm afraid the BJ will never return to the form he was after the surgery. : (

I thought BJ did return to form from the surgery. In my mind what started this slow fall from grace for BJ was last year against... ?? i'm not sure who it was against but when he had that 1 game with the balk called, and then he almost had another one called and then he made a slight adjustment in his mechanics to ensure he was "coming to a stop" and ever since then his control has been off and he's had to throw alot of 3-1 challenge fastball type of pitches and he just doesn't have the AJ burnett velocity to get away with that. Once teams got into his psyche and made him conscious of the fact he needed to pause he's never been the same pitcher he once was.