Let Tallet Swing and send Morrow to the Minors

A quiet off-season has lead to limited positional and roster battles heading into spring 2010. What’s a Jays fan and the media to do? Of course! Nit pick every minuet detail! And with that said here’s the April schedule. The numbers correspond with the rotational position for that game (starters one through five).

The off days are few and far between, yet offer a chance to play with the 25 man roster. The fifth man in the rotation is slated to make only three starts during the month. Returning arms will assuredly have pitch limits, yet the club is committed to carrying seven men in the bullpen, which will help offset this factor.

In a perfect world the Jays would set up a five man rotation of:

Romero
Marcum
McGowan
Rzepczynski
Tallet

This is based upon Romero and Marcum being considered the “locks”, McGowan being out of minor league options , the now semi-famous Cito quote about Zep

“I like Zep a lot, man,” Gaston said. “I hope he can come back and pitch the way he did when he was there. To me, unless he just really goes the other way, you’ve got to put him on this club.”

and the flexibility of Brian Tallet. Tallet should be used as a swingman for the first few weeks, working long-relief out of the pen from April 5th – 9th and then shifting into the rotation. He can then transfer back into the pen for a few days in late April or make way for another starter.

This plan would obviously place Brandon Morrow in the minors. His current MLB service time is 2 years and 91 days. Will the Jays decide to milk his arb clock by sending him to the minors for a full three month stint (with the cover story of building up arm strength and working on secondary offerings) or bring him up in late April/early May?

In my mind this is one of the few interesting story lines heading into opening day.