Help Me Get My Feet Back On the Ground: Jesse Litsch, Ricky Romero, and Casey Janssen on the Road to Recovery

by hugo on Apr 28, 2009 8:57 AM EDT in News Comment 7 comments

With a rough outing by starter David Purcey yesterday, let's check in on our three recovering pitchers nearest to contributing to the Jays. I say nearest to contirbuting because it would take quite a while to update all the injured Jays pitchers. The Jays could pretty much spell "Halladay" out in semaphore with all their injured pitchers. If anyone gets that reference (it connects to the title), I love you.

Casey Janssen (shoulder) had his first rehab start yesterday in High-A Dunedin and everything went well. He got through 4 innings, a good sign he was both pitching and feeling well, giving up 2 hits, 2 walks (no runs), and striking out 3. Janssen also got 7 outs on the ground to 2 in the air, which is one of the reasons we like him so much as a starter for the Jays. Mid-May seems the likely return time for Janssen, since he'll need about 2-3 more starts. I'd prefer not to rush him, but 4 innings in his first start back is pretty encouraging.

As we mentioned in the notes to yesterday's game thread, Dr. James Andrews (we can say his name now) cleared Jesse Litsch (forearm/elbow) to begin throwing again. From the timetable given by Cito (some time throwing off flat ground, then a mound, then a rehab assignment), it sounds like Litsch may be back around the end of May or so.

Ricky Romero (sneeze/oblique) was supposed to begin playing catch yesterday. If all goes well (obliques sometimes are tricky in terms of setbacks), he should also be back around mid-May.

So, yeah, Help! is on the way soon.

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one other

thing I forgot to mention is that while Brad Mills’ final line yesterday doesn’t look great (5 2/3 innings, 1 K, 3 ER, 4 walks, 3 hits) , he actually pitched very well for 5 innings, holding Sacramendy to a walk, 2 hits, and 1 earned run. In the 6th inning, he walked three batters and gave up a 2-run home run. So it was actually quite a good effort from Mills, and he’s slowly building his case .

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Apr 28, 2009 11:21 AM EDT reply actions

I am taking it that the semaphore referance

is in connection to the Beatles trying to spell out HELP in Semaphore for the cover of the album Help! and the playing around they did for the camera for the movie Help during the little skiing scene.

by Tom Dakers on Apr 28, 2009 12:12 PM EDT reply actions

Question

I was in and out of the game thread yesterday. Torgen mentioned something to the affect of…it doesn’t matter when Mills/Cecil get called up, as it will still count as a year played on their arbitration clock.

If that is the case, why are Wieters and Price in the minors this year?

by Rhinos on Apr 28, 2009 12:51 PM EDT reply actions

I think

Torgen’s point, and he is more than capable of explaining himself, haha, was that it doesn’t matter when during the season the player spends his time in the majors, just the overall majors service time.

But with Wieters and Price, if they come up and are playing well, it wouldn’t make sense to send them back down so they will likely be accruing major league service time for the entire year. For Cecil or Mills, we could conceivably call them up and send them back down when the Litsch/Janssen/Romero come back, and that wouldn’t be any different then calling them up later in the season. The other risk is that if the player gets injured while on the major league roster, they accrue major-league service time. The Jays went through this with Gustavo Chacin a few years back.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Apr 28, 2009 1:42 PM EDT up reply actions

I think Torgen said that

anytime a player is called up that uses up an option year. A player can only go up and down from the minors in three different seasons. But that different from the arbitration clock, a player is eligible for arbitration after 3 seasons of Major League roster time. OR if he has 2 seasons and at least 86 days of service time and is in the top 17% of players in that more than 2 years and 86 days but less than 3 years. So it isn’t an exact science.

by Tom Dakers on Apr 28, 2009 1:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Wolfe?

Any news on Brian Wolfe, please? He was injured, too. I hope he is recuperating well.

I thought he was sent down to AAA last year to get stretched out and re-train to become a starter again. Not sure what has happened with that plan now.

by PFHLai on Apr 28, 2009 4:43 PM EDT reply actions

he's pitching pretty well

in relief, at AAA. In 13 innings, he has a 3.46 ERA. He has walked 4, which is good, but only struck out 3, which is less good. Overall, though, he’s been fine.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Apr 28, 2009 4:50 PM EDT up reply actions