R.A. Dickey is a spoiled brat

So it took 20,000 bobble head of himself to get R.A. to actually have him pitch into the seventh and did not even have a Temper tantrum (at least until Jonny boy came to get him) and only gave up a single run on 5-hits and k'd 6. He has given up 5 runs in 3 of 6 starts this season and had two major temper tantrums as he against Minnesota in a very cold twin cities he throw 4 scoreless innings and then did not want to come out for the fifth as he gave up a 5 spot in the inning and only got one out. Then this past Tuesday @ the Rogers Centre he had shutout the O's on two hits throwing 70-plus % and the first batter Steve Lombardozzi hit a lollypop into shallow outfield grass and the meeting (Brett Lawrie, Jose Reyes, Melky Cabrera, and Coby Rasmus) did not work as it dropped in-between all of them for a double and after that to finish the inning he gave up a hit (three-run homer to Nelson Cruz) along with three walks and a hit batter. Then he was asked to come out for the seventh and with his best I don't want to do this face and gave up two hits and left without getting an out. Through 5 games he has two wins (beating the Yanks on 5 hits and the Soxs on 5 hits) and three losses (Tampa walking 6 and the two others) with an ERA of 5.09 and has walked 18 so far this season. When gets in trouble his personal catcher (Josh Thole) and the pitching coach can not help him u will see neither of them go to the mound because they can not talk to him so they don't try to. I have no problem with Gibby going and getting him with one out in the seventh as he has done nothing to be rewarded with the right to call his own shots to if he stays or hits the showers. Going back to national league will see if he pitches better against the Pirates Tom Mehegan

Toronto Blue Jays bullpen takes a step back

The Blue Jays who are 10-9 and just completed a 5-4 road trip are having a few problems with an overworked bullpen that is not as strong as last season and it has cost them a couple of games this season so far. If you look at the models of great bullpens in the majors of Tampa Bay and Oakland usually have changes from season to season bring in fresh arms and letting the worn down arms find their pay raises elsewhere. The Jays really did not go out and find those fresh arms to replace the couple old arms and the Jays bullpen having given up 81 walks which is the second highest in the majors just behind the Chicago White Soxs (91 walks). It is not the bullpen fault because if R.A. Dickey and Brandon Morrow going to implode within the first 5 innings and leaving at least 4 innings of bullpen twice through the rotation. So I would not blame the bullpen when pitcher comes out at least to start the sixth and think we need to actually same this guys bacon once again for four innings. Dustin McGowan is not a guy that u would expect to go deep into the ballgame as he not able to get anywhere near 100 pitches as he has not pitched this much since the end of the '08 season. Mark Buehrle is the close down pitcher who the Jays have been lacking since Roy Halladay left the city of Toronto after the '09 season and his 4-0 record given up 2 earned runs over 28 innings and only 21 hits and 5 walks in the 28 innings for a whip .93 which is simply incredible. Drew Hutchison is somewhere in between what R.A. is downing and Buehrle is doing as he has pitched into the sixth inning 3 of 4 starts with his shortest outing (3.2 inning) was against the pitch eating Yankees. He has also finished the sixth once and it does not help him always having a guy on base with 21 hits and 8 walks in only 20 innings. The guys not able to throw strikes are Arron Loup (7 bbs in 8.2 innings), Brett Cecil (4 bb in 8 innings), and Steve Delabar (5 bb in 6.2 innings) and these are the dudes that were the shutdown guys and that along with closer Casey Janssen not close to rejoining the team does not help. So the Jays may want to find fresher arms to boost the bullpen Tom Mehegan

Blue Jays heating up in Baltimore

The Blue Jays finished 4-2 this past week and went into Sunday's game 6-6 and only having scored only 41 runs in their first 12 games of the season with a batting average with runners in scoring position an AL worst .157. It has been about the pitching especially the starting pitching with two good starts from Drew Hutchison while getting a quality start from Dustin MacGowen given up a run over 6 innings in a no decision 12 inning loss to the O's 2-1 Saturday. While R.A. Dickey after the season opener in Tampa Bay where he set a record with 6 walks and followed that up with a quality start against the Yankees in a 4-0 victory and then a couple of bad pitches leading to a 2 run homer and 3 run homer in a blow out loss to the Houston Astros. After that the pitching staff has been lead by Mark Buehrle who won his third victory of the season in his third start and has only given up 2 runs over 20.2 innings including a very good 7 inning outing against the O's given up one run in a 11-3 victory to win a series in Baltimore that was common thing between 2006-12. In the 11-3 victory the bats that needed wake up did in Edwin Encarnacion who drove in his first two RBIs of the season and had three hits to drive up his batting to a very low .220 while Colby Rasmus also had three hits and now hitting .217. While Brett Lawrie hit his second homer of the week as he had two hits and now hitting .122 after hitting less than a loonie going into the Baltimore. The guys that have been hot all season are Adam Lind now hitting .313 after a three hit day as he swapped spots with Encarnacion as he was the clean up hitter while Melky Cabrera has gotten a hit in every game so far as the lead-off hitter just like Jose Reyes did most of last season. Jose Bautista who hit his 5 homer and now himself Encarnacion are heading to Target Field in Minnesota where they have combined for 16 homers Tom Mehegan

Jays early season looks very bright

The Jays went into St. Petes and split a four game series with the Tampa Bay Rays to open the season and are now 0-19-2 in the last 21 series in St. Petes since 2007. The Jays had extremely good D which is opposite from what it looked like last season especially Adam Lind who swallowed up throws on the fly and on the bounce in his first baseman's glove and won a game with his bat to help Drew Hutchison won his first start in 21 and a half month. Then Mark Buehrle throw a 8 and two thirds innings gem and stuck out 11 and only gave up 4 hits and is a great leader on the field. Then they came home and battled the New York Yankees and even through it was a series loss (2-1) they had a lot more fight than last season when the Yankees steam rolled the Jays all season long. The home opener with Dustin McGowan held strong and had a lead 3-2 when Mark Teixeira pulled himself out of the game in the second inning and it helped Masahiro Tanaka to settled down and found his stuff and McGowan was eaten up by the ball eaten Yankees and last 2 and two-third and it ended with a 9-2 loss. Then R.A. Dickey shutout the Yankees 4-0 with help from homers from Melky Cabrera and Jose Bautista and Drew Hutchison in his second start got beaten up by the Yankees and gave up 6 runs over 5 and a third but battled back to have Melky Cabrera at the plate as the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. So the Jays have a good defense and has had timely hitting to keep the game close and got three solid starts from their starters and finish a week with the Rays and Yankees and were 3-4 which is a strong start in an extremely tough division. Melky Cabrera started the season with a .323 batting average and three homers and Batista also had 3 homers and both look like they could have bounce back seasons. I hope Colby Rasmus and Adam Lind are in the lineup more Tom Mehegan