What to do in September...

When the rosters expand on September 1, the Jays have some questions to be answered.

Who will get the call?

Will roster moves be made to accomidate deserving players?

Does JP Arencibia deserve a call-up?

These questions have complex answers. Answers that I do not have.

But, what I do have is speculation. And incredible baseball sense, in my humble opinion.

So, from my heart to this perverted blog, here are my ideas.

1. Before September 1, release Kevin Millar when Travis Snider is called up. Start Snider every day in RF, while Lind plays every day in LF. This sets up their best possible future OF by putting their pieces into place.

2. Transfer McGowan and Litsch to the 60-day DL to free up 2 roster spots on the 40-man.

3. Release Michael Barrett. Combined with Millar and the 2 pitchers, this frees up 4 spots total.

4. Add Kyle Phillips to the 40-man. Call him up as the 3rd catcher. Play him.

5. Call up Arencibia. He may not deserve it, but he is the catcher of the future. That future could be next season if he shows power. Play him 3-4 times a week, with Phillips getting a start a week as well. Chavez and Barajas can be there to mentor and to play occasionally.

6. Add Kevin Howard to the 40-man. Call him up. Let him play some 3B about half the time. See what you've got.

7. Add Angel Sanchez to the 40-man. Call him up. Give him some playing time. He could be the utility guy next season.

8. Add Brian Dopirak to the 40-man. Call him up. He can play against lefties for Overbay and play some DH as well. He is an important part of the future.

9. Call up a bunch of pitchers on the 40-man allready. Accardo, Hayhurst, Mills, Murphy, Purcey, Davis Romero, and Wolfe have all seen Major League time. Re-call them.

10. Shut down some of the starters. Rzep and Cecil should be shut down.

11. Place John McDonald and Rod Barajas on waivers. If someone claims them, say goodbye. If they get through, trade them. Johnny would be great off the bench for an NL team and Rod could be a good back-up for a play-off team. The Jays need the roster space to see what kind of players they have.

12. Add Buck Coates to the 40-man. He deserves to be on this team.

So, with my suggestions, the roster would look like this:

Catcher: Arencibia, Phillips, Chavez
1B: Overbay, Dopirak, Ruiz
2B: Hill
3B: Howard, Encarnacion
SS: Scutaro
IF: Sanchez
LF: Lind
CF: Wells
RF: Snider
OF: Coates
UTL: Inglett, Bautista

That may seem like a lot of guys to have on the team. It is a lot, but there is playing time.

VS RHP:
Scutaro (SS)
Hill (2B)
Lind (LF)
Overbay (1B)
Ruiz/Dopirak (DH)
Snider (RF)
Wells/Coates (CF)
Arencibia/Phillips (C)
Howard/Inglett (3B)

VS LHP:
Scutaro (SS)
Hill (2B)
Lind (LF)
Ruiz (DH)
Wells (CF)
Dopirak (1B)
Encarnacion/Bautista (3B)
Snider (RF)
Arencibia/Chavez (C)

The pitching would look something like this:

Starters:
Halladay, Romero, Richmond, Purcey, Mills, Tallet. Going with a 6-man rotation would save the arms of Halladay and Romero a little bit. There is no need to run Doc into the ground.

Relievers:
Accardo, Frasor, League, Carlson, Murphy, Camp, Hayhurst, Janssen, Roenicke, D. Romero, Wolfe. Having so many bullpen arms would allow everyone to remain fresh. There is enough talent here that pitching any of these guys would not be a disastor, as Murphy and Hayhurst showed flashed of excellent ability early in the season.


So, there you have it. My suggestions as to what the Jays should do.

I will probably post at least 3 "What to do for 2010" features before the end of the season as well. I'm weird like that.