Gaston Confident in Ryan

[zilby]

Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston has expressed confidence in closer B.J. Ryan, despite another nail-biting ninth inning.

Ryan allowed three runs in the ninth inning of a 5-4 win over the Indians, but Gaston won't hesitate to use his closer again.

"I'll run him out there again, I'll run him out there as many times as you can," Gaston said. "If it starts to hurt the team, you do something differently."

Ryan is 1-0 with a 21.60 ERA, three walks and just one strikeout this season.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[youngLion]

Wow some of the Raptor board overreaction has spilled over onto the Jays board. This is a guy who had 30 saves and an ERA under three last year. Sure he looked shaky, but he got the job done. This guy hasn't even pitched TWO INNINGS yet this season and already his career is over. Well I'm not there yet. All this story says is that Cito will make a change if BJ continues to struggle, but it's just way to early yet.

EDIT: SP

[zilby]

Wow some of the Raptor board overreaction has spilled over onto the Jays board. This is a guy who had 30 saves and an ERA under three last year. Sure he looked shaky, but he got the job done. This guy hasn't even pitched TWO INNINGS yet this season and already his career is over. Well I'm not there yet. All this story says is that Cito will make a change if BJ continues to struggle, but it's just way to early yet.

look over at the ERA again

[youngLion]

Wow some of the Raptor board overreaction has spilled over onto the Jays board. This is a guy who had 30 saves and an ERA under three last year. Sure he looked shaky, but he got the job done. This guy hasn't even pitched TWO INNINGS yet this season and already his career is over. Well I'm not there yet. All this story says is that Cito will make a change if BJ continues to struggle, but it's just way to early yet.

look over at the ERA again

21.60? That's **** meaningless. He has pitched 1.2 innings. I can't believe people are freaking out so much. No reasonable baseball fan would ever make such drastic judgments on such a infinitesimal sample size. Has he even faced ten batters yet? I categorically refuse to write him off after less than two innings.

[zilby]

^^^^ whatever. you think what you think, i just don't like the idea of taking that risk.

[youngLion]

^^^^ whatever. you think what you think, i just don't like the idea of taking that risk.

What's the risk? The team is on top of the division six games in. It's not like there's anything on the line at this time of the year.

Look, he hasn't been good, and he often brought his gas can to the mound last season but he still did his job. That being said, I would submit to you that the franchise is better off keeping him as a closer for the sake of boosting his trade value than they are demoting him. If he stays on as the closer and has a season comparable to what he did last year than the team has a hope of dumping his contract. As soon as he loses the job he becomes a 20 million dollar middle reliever who you can't get rid of.

[evilRyu]

as much as i hate to say it, I'm not going to give up on Ryan just yet. He's being paid the big bucks, he knows he's gotta perform. I want to give him more chances to redeem himself. He "stuff" has looked like utter crap, but then again, he was never the fireballer, so hopefully it won't be a tough adjustment for him.

Cito is a veterans coach, so I'm not really that surprised.

[zilby]

true, he is taking up payroll space, and i don't like the idea of using him, but JP will demand it because he's being paid that money.

[squeekysneakers]

I say you need to give him a couple more opportunities. Cito said himself that, so far, niether of his terrible outings hurt the team...we won both of those games. This used to be one of the most intimidating closers in baseball. He deserves more than two games to show his value. I do say if this keeps happening then maybe we look to Downs/Carlson/League as our closers or bring up Accardo...but I think it will be a little while before you see a decision made on BJ.

Also, This is a pitcher who obviously has the ability to say "soemthing isn't right, take me out" he did for the World Baseball classic and he did it last year. He knows himself and I think the decision may end up being his. Cito has also said that he won't pitch in back-to-back games...so we don't need to start over reacting.

I wouldn't read too much into inflated ERA's at this point in the season either. I do not think BJ is a 27 run per inning guy as I also do not think the Lind will hit .400 this year (although I would love to see it). This will even out over the next month or so.

Lets lay off him a bit and see how the next couple games go. We're the best team in the league for goodness sakes.

[zilby]

neither of his terrible outings hurt the team...we won both of those games.

thats because he has pitched terribly and he had someone else bail him out. vs. detroit, he tied the game after inge crushed that ball, and barajas bailed him out on a sac fly and won the game. yesterday, he loaded the bases on NO HITS, and gave up a 3 run double to DeRosa to cut the lead. They subbed him for frasor and he saved the game with a big strikeout. my point is i don't want to keep going through that and have him blow games for us.

[s e n s i]

It's not just 2 innings.

Look at his spring training numbers. 2 blown saves in as many opportunities. 8 hits, 8 walks in only 9 innings pitched. That's a WHIP of 1.8 and 7 earned runs given up.

That's atrocious. And yeah, the argument that it's only spring training and he's working on his mechanics can be used, but this piss-poor performance seems to have translated onto games that actually count. He can no longer 'work on his mechanics' now. How many more games are we going to have to hold our breath just to see us win by a pube hair?

[Raps in 4]

Wow some of the Raptor board overreaction has spilled over onto the Jays board. This is a guy who had 30 saves and an ERA under three last year. Sure he looked shaky, but he got the job done. This guy hasn't even pitched TWO INNINGS yet this season and already his career is over. Well I'm not there yet. All this story says is that Cito will make a change if BJ continues to struggle, but it's just way to early yet.

EDIT: SP

I had a heart attack every time he took to the mound last season. His mechanics have been awful ever since returning from TJ surgery. I was a strong advocate of trading him last season, and I hope people see why now (if it wasn't clear enough back then).

[youngLion]

Wow some of the Raptor board overreaction has spilled over onto the Jays board. This is a guy who had 30 saves and an ERA under three last year. Sure he looked shaky, but he got the job done. This guy hasn't even pitched TWO INNINGS yet this season and already his career is over. Well I'm not there yet. All this story says is that Cito will make a change if BJ continues to struggle, but it's just way to early yet.

EDIT: SP

I had a heart attack every time he took to the mound last season. His mechanics have been awful ever since returning from TJ surgery. I was a strong advocate of trading him last season, and I hope people see why now (if it wasn't clear enough back then).

Dude I totally understand. Sometimes he saved games despite his best efforts. You have to keep him as the closer for now though, because there's no way you're going to be able to trade a 10million dollar middle reliever. I still think he can have similar production as last year.

[Mustard_Tiger]

Wow some of the Raptor board overreaction has spilled over onto the Jays board. This is a guy who had 30 saves and an ERA under three last year. Sure he looked shaky, but he got the job done. This guy hasn't even pitched TWO INNINGS yet this season and already his career is over. Well I'm not there yet. All this story says is that Cito will make a change if BJ continues to struggle, but it's just way to early yet.

EDIT: SP

Wow...somebody else here that's actually reasonable and understands baseball. nice.

[Mustard_Tiger]

Wow some of the Raptor board overreaction has spilled over onto the Jays board. This is a guy who had 30 saves and an ERA under three last year. Sure he looked shaky, but he got the job done. This guy hasn't even pitched TWO INNINGS yet this season and already his career is over. Well I'm not there yet. All this story says is that Cito will make a change if BJ continues to struggle, but it's just way to early yet.

EDIT: SP

I had a heart attack every time he took to the mound last season. His mechanics have been awful ever since returning from TJ surgery. I was a strong advocate of trading him last season, and I hope people see why now (if it wasn't clear enough back then).

I've wanted to trade him for years now, too. But that has nothing to do with this.

[TorontoSF]

What do you guys mean hasn't hurt the team yet? I don't want to wait until he hurts the team, take him. The only reason he has pitched only 1.2 innings is because he can't get through the inning. I understand however Cito mentality when it comes to this, it would be a panic move to move him out after only 2 appearances and I have confidence that Cito will take him out if he continues to struggle.

[SharoneWright]

George Bush was confident in the Iraq war.

[Duncanfan]

Overreaction much?

BJ is awesome, he has a rough start to the season, but lets not overreact guys. He will turn it around. You just don't start doubting someone just cuz he is shaky to start the season. If the problems persisit consistently, then you make a judgement. So far its nothing more.