In injury news, A.J. Burnett threw 50 pitches of flat ground on Friday after making half that many pitches on Thursday. Burnett is looking at early August as a return time.
As Torgen notes in his diary, after yesterday's loss the Jays optioned Jordan DeJong to Syracuse and called up Brandon League to the big club. Chengy has been following League's performances in the minors and his recent performances have been very good, so it is good to see League getting the callup he has earned. League was spectacular last season, and will probably be eased back into a late-inning role. We'll see soon enough if he's recovered all the velocity and movement that make his pitches what they are. Welcome back Brandon!
Meanwhile, the Troy Glaus to LA rumors continue.
However, if J.P.'s latest comments are to be believed, Glaus won't be moved. In fact, according to J.P., he will neither be trading away nor acquiring players and the team will basically remain the same next season. This seems to evidence an opinion on J.P.'s part that this team this season was good enough to compete but that injuries derailed the season before the Jays could get started.
Without taking a position on that belief, I would only submit that the Red Sox and Yankees, no matter what, are not going to be content staying pat and will always be looking to improve their teams, both by improving the competitiveness of the current team and by acquiring pieces for the future. In J.P.'s (somewhat) defense, he does say that he would be open to making a deal "if someone really bowls us over," but that suggests that he won't be actively soliciting possible moves, which I think he ought to be. J.P. likes to cultivate a reputation for not making foolish trades or panic buys, so this isn't shocking, but I don't find it encouraging. I wonder if part of it is aimed at not lowering Glaus' value by making it appear as though the Jays are over-eager to trade him (which I'm sure they probably aren't). Finally, the Jays have no immediate help at the SS position, so unless they can prove to themselves that Aaron Hill can handle it (and the only way I can think of to do that would be to, you know, play him at short, if they don't do something else to address the SS problem in the offseason, J.P. should be fired in my opinion. Olmedo was an intriguing option because of his speed, switch-hitting, and (most of all) fine defense, but he just doesn't look like he can hit enough to play every day.
Jesse Litsch faces Josh Beckett this afternoon as the Jays attempt to earn a split with the Red Sox. Needless to say, it won't be easy.