Won 5, lost 10

Okay, that's a wrap in Winter Haven, the Jays 9-5 losers to the Tribe and falling to 5-10 for Florida.

Shaun Marcum took the loss, giving up 10 hits and five runs, only three earned, over 3 2/3. Included was a Travis Hafner homer, while Andy Gonzalez pelted a two-run shot of the Jays Mike Gosling in the eighth. Non-roster lefty John Parrish, who'd been going so well (seven Ks over three innings his last time out) got nicked for a couple of runs over 2 1/3.

Still trying to figure out what Armando Benitez said in an earlier interview, but already have the ankles taped for St. Pete tomorrow when Jesse Litsch goes against the Rays and B.J. Ryan's teed up for his first real inning.

Getting to know Armando

So, while the mighty Jays headed off for Winter Haven and the Cleveland Indians this morning, the newest Blue Jay turned up in Dunedin and started working up a sweat.

And, for a big guy – let’s be nice and say, oh, 260 – there was a lot of it.

A lot of joviality, too. Well, at least Armando Benitez’s got a job now. And $700,000 (U.S.) if he makes the team.

“A great guy,” said Jeremy Accardo, former teammate of Armando Benitez when they were with the Giants. “He was one of my favourite pitchers growing up. I used to love that recoil (Benitez will kind of jerk his arm back after his delivery.)

Benitez and Accardo spent the entire BP session standing beside one another, yakking it up. Benitez got the sweat on about an hour later in the weight room. Says he’s been working out in the Dominican the past two months, waiting for the call. He got it early this week, turning up at Jays’ minor-league complex early Tuesday morning. General manager J.P. Ricciardi signed him to a minor-league deal on the spot. Weird, of course, was the fact that some 20 to 25 minutes later, Casey Janssen pulled himself off the same bullpen mound with shoulder discomfort. The MRI, of course, revealed a torn labrum and Janssen faces season-ending surgery early next week.

We’re just sitting down to transcribe what Benitez said into the tape recorder – and that’s going to be a treat. He did say he’d had a good first day, knew a fair number of the guys from his 14 years in the bigs and “they made me feel at home …. like I’ve been here before.” He also said he thought he’d ready to throw in a game in about a week.

Over at Winter Haven – and when I ever mention Winter Haven, I like to include “Chain o’ Lakes Park on the shores of Lake Lulu. Would you have fun on a Lake named Lulu or what?

Oh, yeah, over at Winter Haven, it’s 5-4 Cleveland, the Indians hitting in the fifth. Gregg Zaun, one of a handful of Toronto regulars is 3-for-3 with a homer and double.

Shaun Marcum got cuffed around a bit – 10 hits and five runs over 3 2/3 – Travis Hafner touching him for a two-run homer in a three-run Cleveland third. Hafner also reached on a single in the first after catcher Sal Fasano dropped a foul pop, which eventually led to a couple of runs that shouldn’t have happened.

Thursday’s breakfast: Well, lunch actually, owing to the waiting for Armando thing: Good old Subway, assorted. And milk.

A.J. helps trim those Bucs

So where were we?

Right, Jays and Pirates. Game went so quick, never got out of the clubhouse after talking to A.J. Burnett about his mostly tidy four innings. A 4-1 final for the Jays, by the way.

Most everyone in the pressbox figured they'd actually seen a Burnett curveball out there -- on the pitch he used to whiff Ronny Paulino in the second. This, we've been led to believe, was impossible, of course, because of that stub of a nail on his right index finger. "Change-up," said Burnett. "I'm still just a two-pitch pitcher."

And, against the Pirates, good for four hits over four, a run in the third on a pair of Pirate doubles, a walk and four Ks. Pitches 56, strikes 32. Pen was terrific in back of that -- Jason Frasor, Brian Wolfe, Randy Wells and, for the save, Josh Banks combining for five frames of two-hit shutout. Right after his 1-2-3 ninth, Banks got word he was headed for the minor-league complex. Life's hard.

Game also featured Vernon Wells' first homer of the spring -- a solo shot for a 2-1 go-ahead, into the trees beyond the fence in left, leading off the fourth. Vernon was feeling good, a little goofy, even, afterward.

"There were two strikes. I saw some blurry white thing. I swung. It went out," he explained. "He also said he probably had his eyes closed. "I think that works more often that not."

J.P. Ricciardi was in a playful mood as well, when, given the sudden thinness of the starting rotation with the loss of Casey Janssen, somebody mentioned the name Josh Towers.

"I think he's gonna make Colorado, but he'd look pretty good right now, huh?" Ricciardi said. We're sure he was kidding. Positive.

Game on: Pirates vs. Jays

YOUR BLUE JAY LINE-UP DU JOUR

And, if this is Wednesday, it must be the Pittsburgh Pirates

David Eckstein, SS

Alex Rios, RF

Vernon Wells, CF

Frank Thomas, DH

Scott Rolen, 3B

Aaron Hill, 2B

Reed Johnson, LF

Rod Barajas, C

Marco Scutaro, 1B

A.J. Burnett, P

This one's on bluejays.com (if you're having a slow day at the office). .... Gus Chacin, as expected, moved over to the minor-league complex today but that had nothing to do with the four runs he gave up to his first four Yankees batters yesterday. ... Can't see the laptop screen for the sun. ... Today's Florida breakfast: More of what I thought were tangerines but turned out to be mandarin oranges. And Nescafe.

Blue Jays mail bag

Every Wednesday, baseball columnist Richard Griffin answers your Blue Jays questions. Click here to submit a question.

NOTE: Before we move on to this week’s mailbag, just an overnight note from the Olympic qualifiers in Taipei, where Team Canada late last night moved its record to 4-1 with an 11-0 win over Spain. Sorry, Jose Calderon. Arriba, Canada!

Q-So after seeing Vernon Wells a little bit, should the fans expect a return to form for Vernon, or a repeat of last year?

Jon Kruithof, Hamilton, ON

A: I believe this will be a bounce-back year for Vernon in '08, following the surgery to repair damage to his left shoulder. No matter how much he denies it (which is admirable) a wonky left shoulder was surely a part of his hitting woes a year ago. However, I do feel that Alex Rios is now a bigger offensive weapon than Vernon and should take over the three-hole in the batting order, dropping Wells to four or five. Good numbers for Vernon this year would be a .285 average, 40 doubles, 28 homers, 110 RBIs and 55 walks. In addition to that, he is one of the top three defenders in centre field in all of baseball.

Q: Richard,

We hear about the "clubhouse atmosphere" a lot - that it is good or bad. It seems that this year the Jays clubhouse should be good. Can you estimate how many extra wins that translates into - if any, and give your opinion on the importance of it.

Jim Anderson, Cambridge

No word yet on Janssen

Hopefully, we'll learn something tonight but, as of going-home time following the Yankees 6-1 win, still no word on what's up with Casey Janssen, who was only a couple of pitches into a warm-up sessions this morning, when he felt something in his shoulder. Even if a scheduled MRI shows nothing serious, he'll still get shut down for a couple of days, clearly a setback in his bid for the fifth starter's spot. Which, of course, now gives Jesse Litsch the inside track there. Not that the kid couldn't have earned it on merit.

It's not going to be Gustavo Chacin, of course. Never was.

"Still maybe only 80 per cent," he said Tuesday, after giving up four earned over two frames in the start against the Yanks. "I feel better every time but it's still had to pitch if you're not comfortable."

Chien-Ming Wang looked pretty comfortable for the Bombers, checking Jays on two hits over his 3 2/3 as the Yanks clipped the Jays 6-1 for the second time this spring (2-0 on a rain-shortened, five-inning affair back on March 4).

Breakfast? Not yet. Lots of Pepsi, though. Not my generation.

Janssen sore; Benitez signs

Few snafus on the Internet this morning, folks. Maybe the laptop. Maybe the brainpan. If  you're reading this, somebody figured something out.

In any case, busy day at the minor-league complex, where most media types had gathered to watch B.J. Ryan in his final tune-up for an actual spring game. This went swimmingly -- 16 pitches, nine strikes. Scott Downs threw after that. Then Brian Tallet. Then Dustin McGowan, who would have, otherwise, been the starter against the Yankees at Legends Field this afternoon, set about tossing four simulated innings against Toronto minor leaguers. Then Casey Jans .... hold on.

Nope, Casey Janssen felt something a little wonky in his shoulder and shut it down after a couple of warmups. Before you knew it, Janssen was off to see Dr. Steve Mirabello for a possible MRI.

"That's automatic these days," said manager John Gibbons. "Something doesn't feel right, you go get it checked out." We're waiting on word here but it could be the team's first physical setback of spring. Ryan, by the way, will go Friday against the Rays. For real.

By interesting coincidence (aren't they all?), even before Ryan's stint, Jays' deep thinkers were taking a look at one big stranger in camp. Turned out to be 35-year-old Armando Benitez -- he of the 289 career saves for six different teams over 14 big-time season. He was looking for work and showed enough that he got some, namely, a minor-league deal with the Jays. GM J.P. Ricciardi pretty much signed him on the spot, ultimately missing Ryan's four batters (one whiff, one walk).

"We'll have him in major-league camp, probably Thursday," said J.P. "We'll get him in shape, then we'll see. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right now, we're just going to keep stockpiling as many arms as we can. He's not in shape but he's got a lot of experience behind him. Obviously, we're not looking at him as a closer, but maybe he can pitch himself into a spot where we can get some of those middle innings."

We're guessing here that Janssen shut it down, maybe 15 minutes after Benitez signed on.

OVER AT LEGENDS

Well, Gustavo Chacin, supposedly coming along nicely from all his problems of a year ago, had to tackle the Yanks. It didn't go so well: A lead-off bunt by Melky Cabrera, a walk to Derek Jeter, a double up the gap by Bobby Abreu to score two, an Alex Rodriguez homer to right to score two more. 4-zip, Yankees.

And that's how it stood until, like, JUST FIVE SECONDS AGO, when Cabrera whacked a run-scoring single off Kane Davis to make it 5-0.

SOME PLAYER MOVEMENT

Five guys to the minor-league camp: Infielders Russ Adams, Sergio Santos and Pedro Lopez, catcher of the future Brian Jeroloman and right-hander Tracy Thorpe.

Tuesday's Florida breakfast: Nothing yet.

Kissimme, you fool -- part II

Okay, that's a wrap now -- 4-3 Astros.

The Roys, Halladay and Oswalt, not only shared the same name yesterday, but pretty much the same pitching line as well. As in:

Halladay 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 Ks, 68 pitches, 18 batters faced. For a spring ERA, for three starts, nine innings, of 4.00

Oswalt   4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 Ks, 70 pitches, 18 batters faced. For a spring ERA, for three starts, nine innings, of ... well, 4.00.

One small difference: the Lance Berkman monster homer in the second, off Halladay's first change-up of the day. Halladay said it wasn't the pitch as much as it was the location.

Another bright spot: Brandon League, looking very much like the pitcher Jays were getting so enthused about two years back. He got stretched out to two innings and 33 pitches, getting ground-balls from six of his eight guys. These included a pair of infield hits to start the fifth then, after catching Berkman looking at strike three for the first out, another pair of grounders to shortstop Marco Scutaro -- the first for the go-ahead and eventual game-winner. On the strikeout, third baseman Hector Luna dropped a perfect peg from catcher Rod Barajas that had the front runner in a double-steal by 10 feet.

And that's SKOO-ta-row, not Skoo-TEAR -o.

Tomorrow, they get the Yankees in Tampa, probably spinning Gus Chacin out there for a couple of innings as the starter. Dustin McGowan, the skedded starter, and Casey Janssen, also due up, will both get some four innings of simulated-game over at the minor-league complex to keep them shrouded from Yankees' prying eyes. B.J. Ryan gets an inning at sim-city, too. We'll be trying to simulate a blog from there.

 

Spring Fling

TONY DEJAK/AP

Five strikeouts in four innings for Roy Halladay on Monday. We are pleased.

Kissimmee, you fool

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Jays and the Houston Astros. A battle Roy, Al? Why, of course, Halladay vs. Oswalt. Not on any sort of airwaves we've detected and, therefore, not sure you want the lineup but Alex Rios, Rod Barajas and, probably, Marco Scutaro, likely the only three who'll be heading north with the big club. Others of note: Travis Snider, Curtis Thigpen, Adam Lind, Buck Coats, Russ Adams.

Someone on the Houston side of the press box asked, in all seriousness, "Is this a Toronto split-squad?" Answer: "Yes, the other half didn't get on the bus." Astros going with their "A" troops, including Miguel Tejada, who is no longer talking about you know what.

ROGER AND ME: Ditto for Roger Clemens, still hanging out around here on a personal services contract with the Astros. He comes and he goes, working with Houston's minor leaguers, mostly the pitchers but, occasionally, with a catcher named Koby. That would be his son, apparently destined for Class-A.

Still, we felt obliged to go looking for the man, virtually certain of a blow-off. Turned out, Roger was supposed to be somewhere else, watching his kid play against some college team. All those tough questions unanswered. "I can tell you what he'd say," offered a Houston writer. Please, we implored. "We're moving forward on that," he said. Okay, but what was the question? "Pretty much anything you asked," he said.

GAME ON: Rios a shattered-bat double to left off Oswalt in the first; Lance Berkman, a ridiculously long two-out homer off Halladay in the bottom half. Clean through the fabric hitters' eye in dead centre -- actually, through one of those holes that lets the wind through. About 420 feet to the eye, maybe 25 feet high, still on a line. .... Jays tie in the second on a two-out Thigpen double, followed by a bllop-single (very much like a bloop-single) from Hector Luna.

THE DRIVE OVER HERE: Almost two hours flat from the condo, counting a pit-stop at a Burger King for a breakfast sandwich. Central Florida towns pretty much like we remember: Zephyrhills, Apopka, Thonotosassa, Dinosaur World, Mango and, of course, Weigh Station.