Purcey's Short Leash

David Purcey has not been effective since his second-game of the season quality start. In his past 4 starts his BF/O have been 1.714, 1.818, 1.500 and 1.667. His WHIP is 1.792, which is not major league. He needs to learn to trust his stuff and throw strikes and let the defense do their thing. The question is, how much longer will the Jays allow him to try to learn this at the major league level?

The good news is that Jesse Litsch was cleared to pitch by Dr. Andrews and will start throwing off level ground in Florida. I'm guessing he'll be back in about a month. During the broadcast of tonight's game, it was reported that Casey Jansen had pitched well. His line was 4 IP, 2H, 2BB, 3SO and 0 runs. I expect the Jays to give him one more rehab start before calling him up to fill one of the two gaping holes in the rotation (Purcey & Burres).

My speculation on what this means is that Purcey has at most one more start before there is a decision on him, as Jansen will be available for the start after that. After that, Purcey needs to work out his troubles in LV. Also, Purcey's next start is against the Orioles, a team that is third in OBP. They must be licking their chops at the prospect of facing Purcey. The one consolation is that Markakis - a perennial pain in the Jays' collective sides - has an OPS of nearly 1.200 against righties and about 0.700 against lefties

Hopefully, we'll see the following roster moves:

• May 3, Jansen called up and Purcey sent down
• Second week of May, Burres sent down and Romero reactivated. (With an off-day May 11, maybe Burres' turn in the rotation can be skipped.)
• Last week of May, Litsch reactivated. Who knows how they will make room?

The bats were also disturbingly quiet tonight. This was only Bannister's second start, but in those starts he's only allowed 5 hits in 13 IP and has a WHIP of 1.00. This is a guy that went 9-16 with a 5.76 ERA, 1.49 WHIP and allowed a .279 BA last year! I like the Jays' chances tomorrow with Richmond against Meche; with Meche being a rightie, we'll likely see the opening day batting lineup. Wednesday, Tallet might have a hard-luck start against the hottest pitcher in baseball in Zack Greinke. However, he was hot last April as well, (3-0 1.25 ERA) and did not fare well against the Jays last year, (0-1, 2 starts with a 5.25 ERA and a 1.417 WHIP.)

By the way, in Purcey's 5 starts, the Jays have 5, 5, 6, 17 and 2 hits in support of Purcey. The start in Cleveland and tonight were cold nights and Purcey complained about the cold in Cleveland and tonight didn't seem much better. It certainly seemed to cool down the Jays' bats as well. The Royals didn't seem to be bothered by the cold and damp.