I wrote a little something about the Blue Jays over on Fungoes while filling in on Alex’s AL East beat while he was off getting nuptualized. The crux of what I had to say was that the simultaneous injuries to B. J. Ryan and Troy Glaus are going to make it awfully hard for the Jays to compete because of the resulting thinness of their bullpen and lack of offense. Since that post went live on Monday, the Jays swept a quick two-game series in Boston by a combined score of 17-6 while the Yankees got swept by the same Devil Rays that I claimed Toronto and Baltimore had “fattened up” upon.

Heh.

The injuries just keep on coming for the Jays, however. The lastest to hit the DL is catcher and on-base machine Gregg Zaun, who was hit on the throwing hand last night by a foul off the bat of ex-teammate Eric Hinske. In a fantastic bit of irony, Zaun is being replaced on the Jays’ 25-man roster by ex-Yank Sal Fasano, who arrives accompanied by this gem from one-time Billy Beane disciple and current Jays GM J. P. Riccardi: “The nice thing is we’ve got Fasano to come up. Between him and [Jason] Phillips, we’ve got a veteran presence.”

Things are the same all over.

Tonight the Yankees send April pitching MVP Andy Pettitte (three quality starts plus two scoreless relief innings) to the hill against Josh Towers. The 30-year-old Towers had a solid season in 2005, but pitched his way off the Jays last year only to win the fifth starters spot out of camp this spring when free agent John Thomson hit the DL. Towers dominated the Tigers two starts ago, but has been roughed up by the Royals and Orioles in his other two outings.

Toronto Blue Jays

2006 Record: 87-75 (.537)
2006 Pythagorean Record: 86-76 (.531)

Manager: John Gibbons
General Manager: J. P. Riccardi

Home Ballpark (2006 Park Factors): Rogers Centre (103/103)

Who’s Replacing Whom?

Frank Thomas replaces Frank Catalanotto
Adam Lind is replacing Reed Johnson (DL)
Royce Clayton replaces Russ Adams (minors)
Jason Smith is filling in for Troy Glaus (DL)
Matt Stairs replaces Shea Hillenbrand
Ryan Roberts replaces Eric Hinske
Gregg Zaun and Jason Phillips divvy up Bengie Molina’s playing time (with Sal Fasano replacing Zaun while he’s on the DL)
Tomo Ohka replaces Ted Lilly
Josh Towers takes over Casey Janssen’s starts
Gustavo Chacin takes back Shaun Marcum’s starts
A. J. Burnett takes back Ty Taubenheim’s starts (minors)
Jeremy Accardo takes over Justin Speier’s innings
Victor Zambrano replaces Pete Walker and Francisco Rosario
Casey Janssen and Shaun Marcum, having been bumped from the rotation, replace Brandon League (DL), Dustin McGowan (minors), Vinnie Chulk and Davis Romero (DL) in the bullpen

25-man Roster:

1B – Lyle Overbay (L)
2B – Aaron Hill (R)
SS – Royce Clayton (R)
3B – Jason Smith (L)
C – Jason Phillips (R)
RF – Alexis Rios (R)
CF – Vernon Wells (R)
LF – Adam Lind (L)
DH – Frank Thomas (R)

Bench:

R – Ryan Roberts (IF)
R – John McDonald (IF)
L – Matt Stairs (OF/1B)
R – Sal Fasano (C)

Rotation:

R – Roy Halladay
R – A. J. Burnett
R – Josh Towers
L – Gustavo Chacin
R – Tomokazu Ohka

Bullpen:

R – Jason Frasor
R – Jeremy Accardo
L – Scott Downs
R – Casey Janssen
R – Shaun Marcum
R – Victor Zambrano
L – Brian Tallet

DL: R – Troy Glaus (3B), R – Reed Johnson (OF), S – Gregg Zaun (C), L – B. J. Ryan, R – John Thomson, R – Brandon League, L – Davis Romero

Typical Lineup:

R – Alexis Rios (RF)
L – Adam Lind (LF)
R – Vernon Wells (CF)
R – Frank Thomas (DH)
L – Lyle Overbay (1B)
R – Aaron Hill (2B)
R – Jason Phillips (C)
R – Royce Clayton (SS)
L – Jason Smith (3B)*

*Ryan Roberts starts at third base against lefties.