Stupid Roster Tricks

I know I'm just an ignorant blogger sitting in my mom's basement in my underwear, but I just don't get the Blue Jays. Yes, Frank Thomas is old. Yes, Frank Thomas is expensive. Frank Thomas was also really the only serious power threat on the Blue Jays roster and by releasing him the Blue Jays have pretty much guaranteed that they will score fewer runs than they did last year, probably twenty to thirty. Because the players that the Jays plan to replace Thomas are bad hitters.

Don't believe me? Let me present the Jays lineup for tonight. Granted, Alex Rios is out of the lineup tonight.

SS David Eckstein, the scrappiest of the scrappy
LF Shannon Stewart. I had forgotten that he still existed.
2B Aaron Hill. Really? Hitting third?
CF Vernon Wells. Your idea of a cleanup hitter?
RF Matt Stairs
1B Rod Barajas? Really, Rod Barajas? You're killing me here.
C Gregg Zaun
DH Robinzon Diaz. If your DH is hitting eighth, you don't understand the concept.
3B Joe Inglett. Because the mighty leadership of Scott Rolen is still on the DL with the 2,673rd injury of his career.

Remember, this is a team that thinks it can compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. Bless their hearts, we all have our delusions. Essentially, the Jays threw away their best power threat because he's expensive and grumpy. That's no way to run a roster.

Neither is the Brewers brilliant idea of carrying fourteen (14) (yes, 14) pitchers. When you're building a space shuttle, for example, it's good to have multiple redundancies, because you need that backup in case one system fails. When building a pitching staff, it's not such a great idea. I get it that you want that extra starter because you're not sure of the status of Ben Sheets, but do you really need all of the following at the same time:

Derrick Turnbow
Guillermo Mota
Salomon Torres
David Riske
Seth McClung

Maybe you should just pick two or three and dump the rest, so that you can get some other players on your roster who can hit and play in the field. Just a thought. Right now your "bench" consists of Mike Rivera (who you won't use), Craig Counsell, and either Tony Gwynn or Gabe Kapler, whichever one isn't in the lineup. There is no scenario in which this will work.

I'm sure that Brewers will return to a more reasonable roster shortly, but this mess is going to cost them a game before they do. In a division which might be decided by a single game, that could prove very costly.