19 May 2007

John Schuerholz and the Braves' front office has been on a season-long quest to fill the final two spots in the rotation. Mike Hampton went down, Lance Cormier went down, Kyle Davies and Anthony Lerew have struggled, and Mark Redman is awful. I would be shocked if Schuerholz doesn't go out and get someone to plug into the back of the rotation, but that deal could be right around the corner. For a couple weeks now there have been rumors that the Blue Jays would go the way of a fire sale this season and play for the future. It doesn't sound like they will move the two big guys at the top of the rotation, but the Toronto Sun is reporting that J.P. Ricciardi has been shopping around both Josh Towers and Toma Ohka to General Managers around baseball.

J.P. Ricciardi made some calls this week. He told clubs that right-handers Josh Towers and Tomo Okha were both available for trade. And ... ta da ... wait for it ... that the Jays would be willing to pick up some of the money owed the two starters.

Both Towers and Ohka gotten off to awful starts and both have since been moved to the bullpen. Towers is 1-3 with a 5.81 ERA while Ohka has gone 2-4 with a 5.52 ERA so far this season. The redeeming thing is that both have enjoyed previous success and a move from the hard-hitting AL East into the NL could work wonders. Ohka, who was signed as a free-agent this offseason enjoyed moderate success with the Brewers and much more before that with the Expos, but Towers is certainly the more intriguing possibility. Towers, 30, has given up an absurd amount of homers but other than that his peripherals are absolutely fine. He is going to give up a good number of hits, but great control limits the amount of baserunners to a reasonable mark. Take Toronto's short centerfield porch out of the equation and we could be looking at a guy that would be around a 4.50 ERA, perfectly acceptable for a fifth starter. Maybe we give up J.C. Holt or Martin Prado, one of our infield prospects for them. It seems like it would be just about what the Jays could expect.