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McGowan said he threw 25-30 pitches in the bullpen and about 20 to batters.

"Actually, to tell you the truth, I was a little nervous all last night," he said. "I didn't know what to expect. But we didn't call any inside pitches. I was just trying to get a feel for pitching again and just finding the plate.

"The important thing is that I got to do it and everything felt good. I enjoyed it, having fun again."

Manager Cito Gaston said getting McGowan back on the mound against hitters was an important step.

"Big time, Gaston said. "He was one of the guys I really wanted to go over and watch. ... So far, man, good. It would be really great if he could break (camp) with us. If he can't, say a week or two later, whatever, we want him not to rush himself, but we want him to know how bad we want him.

"He's a kid I've been pulling for, hard," Gaston added. "You'd love to see this kid have a career and not end it by having a bad arm. He's someone I think of often as far as hoping he'll get back, not so much for this team or myself as for himself and his family."

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=311932

This is good news here for the Jays. I don't expect him to be ready for the start of the year, more like Early May for a set return date. Adding him to the rotation will help alleviate the loss of Doc, with Marcum, orrow and Dusty trying to fill the void. Will they win more than last year...I think it would be a stretch, but anything is possible.

YES! Go McGowan!

Anyone know what's happening with Marcum? Is he ready to go?

Marcum from all accounts was ready last year, but the Jays just shut him down to not risk aggrevating an injury, since they were out of it by late August.

It really looks like it will be down to Marcum and Romero for opening day duties from what I hear. Brandon Morrow if he has an amazing spring might garner some attention too, but i doubt it.

I think we may have a more balanced rotation this year giving us more wins. Some games last year we really didn't have a chance unless we put up huge runs thanks to Hill and Adams.

I think we maybe able to pull out a few more wins this year over the hole rotation and no one will have 25-30wins like Doc could have or did have but we can have a bunch of guys in the 15s.

Romero has said he never got tired last year, he just started to pitch differently with men on base. I believe him. Hopefully, The Manager won't run him out for 230 IP, though.

I agree that we got less talent but more depth

kavan wrote:I think we may have a more balanced rotation this year giving us more wins. Some games last year we really didn't have a chance unless we put up huge runs thanks to Hill and Adams.

I think we maybe able to pull out a few more wins this year over the hole rotation and no one will have 25-30wins like Doc could have or did have but we can have a bunch of guys in the 15s.

You actually think we will be better than last year? It might seem easy enough to replace Doc's wins but it will be alot harder than expected. We don't have an Ace this year so we have no one we can depend on for a an almost sure-fire win, its going to be inconsistency all season. We will be lucky if we have one guy reach 15 wins, not "a bunch". Just because you have a bunch of mediocore pitchers doesn't mean that is more valuable then less good pitchers, its's much more about quality over quantity when it comes to pitching.

We will be more dependent on Hill and Lind (I assume that's who you meant be Adams) to win games, not any less. Our rotation will be alot like last year (struggling to fill the rotation, young inconsistent pitchers, new faces, etc.) but without our rock. So I don't see how we possibly come out better off in the win category by the end of the year.

Best case scenario Romero and Marcum give us a strong 1-2 punch, Morrow is a solid 3rd option, McGowan reaturns to a shell of his former self, Litch comes back early, and two other guys step it up from Tallet, Eveland, Cecil, Rzep, Richmond, and Purcey. A few too many if's for this team to be anything more than a bottom feeder, especially since they will not have much run support.