Meucheln » with themselves and their bosses

KANSAS CITY – Marcus Stromans major league debut may come sooner rather than later. But it will not be on the current road trip. Encouraged by Dustin McGowans start on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium, manager John Gibbons will hand him the ball again on Sunday in Pittsburgh and go with left-hander J.A. Happ on Monday in Philadelphia. "Well see where that takes us," said Gibbons. McGowan pitched into the seventh inning on Tuesday for just the second time this season. His spot in the rotation is vulnerable, with Gibbons on repeated occasions saying how much he values McGowan out of the bullpen. Happ, entering Thursdays series finale with the Royals, hadnt pitched in more than a week, a 2 2/3 inning performance against the Baltimore Orioles on April 23. He entered spring training with a spot in the rotation but posted a 20.57 ERA in four Grapefruit League appearances and missed time with inflammation in his back. His performance forced the Blue Jays to seek alternatives. Stroman, who turned 23 on Thursday, is coming off a 10-strikeout, one-walk, no-hit performance over six innings for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons on Tuesday night. Along with Aaron Sanchez, he is considered a top pitching prospect and some in the organization believe he is major league-ready. GOSE RETURNS When the Blue Jays acquired Anthony Gose from the Astros on July 29, 2010, he was a hot prospect less than two weeks shy of his 20th birthday. Now, almost four years later, Gose is up for a second time this season and has been on the option train for a couple of seasons. Hes up when the Blue Jays need him and back in Buffalo when they dont. "Hes got to play and be productive," said Gibbons. "Its like anybody else. When it comes down to the big leagues its about production. Theres no secrets; you can hope guys are going to do something but eventually its all about production. Thats why its so hard to make it in the big leagues and stay for any length of time. Thats why guys come and go, bounce up and down. Big part of it is opportunity but when you get it youve got to take advantage of it." In 19 games with the Bisons, Gose is hitting .235/.350/.309. Hes walking at a higher clip than usual with 12 free passes in 81 plate appearances (14.8 per cent). "I think it was too cold for me to swing," Gose joked. "I wasnt trying to do anything different. I wasnt working on anything. I just walked a little bit more earlier on." He admits its difficult to get into a groove early in the International League season because of the weather. Games are often rained out; sometimes games are snowed out. "I think this year was much colder and a lot longer than last year, especially in other cities also," said Gose. "I dont know if its going to warm up. Its been freezing. I got here and its freezing too. Everywhere Im playing baseball its cold." ROSTER MOVES To accommodate the recall of Gose, the Blue Jays optioned infielder Jonathan Diaz to Triple-A Buffalo. Toronto also purchased the contract of infielder/outfielder Steve Tolleson. To make room for Tolleson on the 40-man roster, outfielder Moises Sierra was designated for assignment. The moves give the Blue Jays additional depth in the absence of Melky Cabrera, who was hit by a pitch on his left shin in Wednesday nights game and is listed as day-to-day. HIGH PRAISE FOR BAUTISTA Pointing out that Jose Bautista is good at baseball is a waste of everyones time. Nobodys splitting the atom with such an observation. Through the first month of the season, Bautista is baseballs leader in on-base percentage (.465) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.065). His eight home runs prorate to a total of 48 over a 162-game schedule. Defensively, Bautista has one outfield assist and has come close on a couple of other occasions. His arm is feared by opposition baserunners. What arent so obvious to the viewing public are Bautistas contributions to game preparation. "Hes helped me out more than you can imagine, more than I ever imagined (he would)," said first-year outfield coach Tim Leiper. "When Im out there its like having another coach out there because number one, hes been in the league, hes seen everybody, he has great recall and he knows the game situations." When Bautista shifts to centerfield, which has happened in four games so far this season, Leiper jokes that his work day ends. Bautista takes charge and knows where he wants himself and his corner outfielders to be on each pitch. "From day one in spring training every fungo, every drill, 100-percent fundamentally correct every single time," said Leiper. "You watch him in the game, hes into every pitch, he doesnt take pitches off. Theres a reason why hes good at everything he does. Hes intelligent and hes into it. Hes as professional a guy as Ive ever been around." Air Max 1 Wholesale . Watch the announcement live on TSN.ca at 12:30pm et/9:30am pt. This years honourees will be recognized at the 2014 Hockey Canada Foundation Celebrity Classic, scheduled for June 23-24 in Vancouver. Air Max 1 Sale Canada . Barnard, 28, was 1-0 with a 0.53 ERA in three appearances, including two starts, with San Angel o this season. He struck out 19 batters and walked just one in 17 innings pitched. He has previous American Association experience with the Lincoln Saltdogs, El Paso Diablos and Amarillo Sox. http://www.airmax1canada.com/.Y. - OK, it is done. Nike Air Max 1 Clearance Canada .com) - The Winnipeg Jets got over one hurdle by snapping their longest losing streak of the season. Cheap Nike Air Max 1 . He also had some help Monday night.Hibbert scored a season-high 29 points to help Indiana beat the Utah Jazz 97-86 Monday night, ending the Pacers six-game losing streak.TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips answers three questions each week. This week, topics cover the Blue Jays rotation, the futures John Gibbons and Alex Anthopoulos, protecting pitchers and a bonus question on his predictions for the MLB playoffs. 1) With J.A. Happ heading to the DL, the Toronto Blue Jays have announced a starting rotation of R.A. Dickey, Drew Hutchison, Mark Buehrle, Brandon Morrow and Dustin McGowan. Should the Blue Jays feel confident with that group or even this early in the season, should they be looking outside the organization for an upgrade? Or should they have kept a prospect like Aaron Sanchez or Marcus Stroman with the big club? The Blue Jays are starting the season with exact rotation they should be using. Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman both need more development but at some point they may be called upon to help. Certainly there are big questions for three-fifths of the starters but there is definitely upside. RA Dickey is just a year removed from his NL Cy Young Award and is predictable and dependable. I cant believe I am saying that about a knuckleballer but it is true. Mark Buerhle is a more than serviceable innings-eater who gives his team a chance to win start after start. After these two though the questions are significant. Brandon Morrow has suffered injuries in each of the past two seasons after looking like a number one starter at times in 2012. Dustin McGowan is throwing in the mid-nineties and is working on a curve ball to go with his devastating slider, but he has thrown just 46 2/3 innings since 2008 because of recurrent shoulder injuries. Drew Hutchison hasnt pitched in the Major Leagues for the past year and a half due to Tommy John surgery but prior to that he looked like he could be a long-term answer for the rotation. Before the season begins players, front office personnel and fans close their eyes and dream about what could be. I can close my eyes and see RA Dickey commanding his dancing knuckler that will baffle hitter. I can envision Buerhle getting a ton of grounders and working quickly getting the powerhouse offense back in the dugout and scoring a ton of runs. I can picture Brandon Morrow rifling his fastball by the games biggest sluggers and logging a ton of strikeouts. I can imagine McGowan and Hutchison fulfilling the potential that they once had as well. It could happen just that way. But it probably wont. My experience is that the more questions you enter with the more things that will likely go wrong. There is a bunch of unpredictability in this rotation. Depth will be important. It is safe to assume that health will be an issue at some point because it has been an issue in the past. Esmil Rogers and Todd Redmond may make starts if necessary. But Alex Anthopolous is going to have to keep working the phones to look for upgrades. Early in the season other clubs arent typically trading good pitchers but he will need to be ready for when they do become available. So when you close your eyes and dream just hope it is not a nightmare. 2) Is manager John Gibbons on the hot seat with the Blue Jays? If the team is slow out of the gate again this year, will he be replaced? Are his and Alex Anthopouloss future tied together (if one goes, the other follows him out the door)? I dont think John Gibbons is on the hot seat during the season this year. I know there were big expectations last year but the collapse wasnt Gibbons fault. The starting rotation just fell apart on him as Morrow and Josh Johnson got hurt and Ricky Romero imploded. Jose Reyes injury crushed the offense early in the season and more injuries followed. The expectations are less this year than a year ago. It certainly behooves the Jays to get off to a good start so they can start to believe in themselves but Gibbons cant pitch for his team and the staff will be the key. I have never been a believer that managers and general managers are tied at the hip. The manager needs to look at the GM as his boss. Clearly Gibbons was brought back to the Jays because of his relationship with Anthopolous but if Anthopolous thinks a change needs to be made he will have to make it. If ownership gets to a point where they believe the roster is flawed and they decide to make a decision on the general manager it is unlikely Gibbons would survive a change in regime. Anthoplous can possibly survive the firing of Gibbons but I dont believe Gibbons would survive the firing of Anthopolous. As it stands today both the manager and general manager are on firm ground as they should be. They just need to be honest with themselves and their bosses about what the expectations are with the roster they have. The owners can hope to be competitive in the tough AL East but if they expect to win it then both Anthopolous and Gibbons are in trouble. This is a roster for which you can hope but not expect great things. 3) With Reds starter Aroldis Chapman and Rays starter Matt Moore both being hit in the head by comebackers to the mound in spring training, is it time for Major League Baseball and/or the players union to implement mandatory pitcher protection? It seems that pitchers have become more annd more vulnerable over the past few seasons.ddddddddddddnbsp; Fortunately, we have avoided major catastrophe but we shouldnt be shocked if a pitcher were to be killed by a hit ball. We have just been lucky so far. I am a firm believer that we should never wait for someone to be killed to make a change. Baseball already did that once. Base coaches wear helmets now because a minor league first base coach was hit in the head by a line drive and killed. If protecting pitchers is being considered then protect them. Lets not wait for a tragedy. It is currently optional for pitchers to wear the new protective headgear that was developed by MLB for this year. The feedback so far is that the hats look funny and are not overly comfortable. MLB needs to keep refining the protective hats to make them functional. This needs to be a priority for the Players Association as well. Protective hats for pitchers need to be made mandatory at the minor league level initially. Let the kids get comfortable with them so by the time they are big leaguers it is commonplace. Once the hat is advanced enough make it mandatory for major league pitchers to wear. There is no clock in baseball but we need to put a clock on this. Every pitch thrown puts a pitcher at risk. Please hurry. 4) With the second and third opening days approaching for Major League Baseball it is time to make predictions. Here is how I see the American League:AL East AL Central AL West 1) Boston Detroit Oakland2) Tampa Bay* Kansas City** LA Angels3) Baltimore Cleveland Texas4) Blue Jays Minnesota Seattle5) New York Yankees Chicago Houston * first Wild Card ** second Wild Card AL CHAMPION: Oakland As defeat Detroit AL AWARDS AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, DetroitAL MVP: Justin Verlander, DetroitAL Rookie of Year: Yordano Ventura, Kansas CityAL Manager of Year: Ned Yost, Kansas City Here are my predictions for the NL:NL East NL Central NL West1) Washington St Louis LA Dodgers 2) Atlanta** Milwaukee SF Giants*3) NY Mets Cincinnati Arizona4) Philadelphia Pittsburgh Colorado5) Miami Chicago San Diego* first Wild Card ** second Wild Card NL CHAMPION: Washington Nationals defeat Dodgers NL AWARDS NL MVP: Freddie Freeman, Atlanta BravesNL CY Young: Stephen Strasburg, Washington NationalsNL Rookie of Year: Gregory Polanco, Pittsburgh Pirates Manager of the Year: Mike Matheny, St Louis Cardinals WORLD SERIES CHAMPION: Washington Nationals defeat Oakland As LET THE GAMES BEGIN…..PLAY BALL!!! 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