Bullpen

[Richmond Hill Phoenix]

The Jays biggest problem is not their defence, but their starters' lack of longevity. The average length in their last 5 starts is around 5 or 6. This puts too much pressure on the bullpen night in and night out. This showed last night when Justin Speier, who is usually effective, left pitches up and walked in the winning run. The Jays pitchers need to go longer, or Gibbons needs to leave them in longer.

[Chris from NY]

Very true. The Jays had the same problem last year, and we saw Schoenweis just burn out tomwards the end of the season. Fortunatley Halladay is usually as tank on the mound. Heading home and sweeping the Tigers could do wonders for this team right now.

[starkeeper]

I thought Gibbons pulled Jannsen to soon and Halladay.

[Richmond Hill Phoenix]

Thats what i thought too. However, Gibson is making alot of good calls too, so you can't really complain.

[Roy31]

Tell me what are these "good calls" coming from Gibbons.

The problem here is that he is not playing the starting pitchers not long enough and the relievers too long.

Example last night. Halladay although struggling a little bit but with only 90 pitches was pulled out after pitching six innings. Doc is the ace and could have easily pitched another 1 to 2 effective innings, thats just his nature, He might have one bad inning the inning before but then he comes back the following inning and makes the batters look silly. Then he left Rosario in too long he pitched a good 7th inning 3 up 3 down and then left him in for the 8th and he gave up a couple singles right of the bat. You just dont leave unproven rookies in those type of situations and again he made the wrong decision.

Speier, Frasor, Downs Ill save for another time. But they Bullpen has been pretty pathetic. These older relievers havent been able to get it down why not start using some players in the farm system and Rosario, BUT the clown Gibbons needs to use them right.

[Richmond Hill Phoenix]

I like speier and Frasor. Only when they get over worled they are not as effective. Gibson has obviously been managing these guys well. Soon he will realize he can't work his bullpen so hard every night, and start leaving the starters in longer. Problems with Chacin going back down on the DL though...

[Big_Mac]

i really think gibbons manages the pitchers well, he really does a good job of knowing when to rest the bullpen and who to throw out there.

[starkeeper]

If the bullpen is so tired, why does Gibbons keep going to them. I didn't think he needed to pull Ty when he did. Give him the opportunity to learn to get out of a jam. Would the result have been any worse?? With Lilly going 8 2/3 on Saturday that would have given most of the bullpen 2 full days of rest.

[Big_Mac]

If the bullpen is so tired, why does Gibbons keep going to them. I didn't think he needed to pull Ty when he did. Give him the opportunity to learn to get out of a jam. Would the result have been any worse?? With Lilly going 8 2/3 on Saturday that would have given most of the bullpen 2 full days of rest.

he could have stuck with ty but i think with 1 out and bases sacked and at that point, a double play would have kept the score close, you go to the pen. ty was looking a tad fatigue out there so i dont disagree with the call. unhappy with the result though.

[Richmond Hill Phoenix]

With the CG by the Doc, and Lilly going 6 today, things are looking up.

[Chris from NY]

Yeah, good for Lilly to have a quality start. He's a very up and down Pitcher and hopefully this will be the start of a good streak for him. Lilly seems one of the biggest keys to this teams success. He's the number three guy behind Halladay and Burnett, and having him win consistently would help the Jays win and sweep more series, and hopefully hit a nice winning streak.

[Jays4life]

Lilly has been on fire lately. I love his facial expression......or lack of.

[Richmond Hill Phoenix]

You would say Lilly is # 3? I think i would go with Chacin as #3. Neither is all that much better than the other...