That sounds a lot like Josh Towers which is odd because both lead the Jays in unearned runs with nine.

Of course Litsch has slightly better stuff than Towers and, as you mentioned, is doing his AAA apprenticeship at the big league level and is still pretty young. Being able to minimize damage after defensive miscues is something he’ll get better at with experience (I hope).

In my mind he hasn’t nailed down the No. 5 job. Having said that, I think I’d be pretty happy if he can give 180+ innings of league average pitching in 2008.

I like this point you made:

“If I had to take a guess, I’d say he was trying too hard to keep his sinker low against a tough team, and was overthrowing his cutter to the inside part of the plate and falling behind.”

That sounds an awful lot like Mike Timlin and Jason Frasor when asked to close games with Toronto. He needs to take a lesson from Greg Maddux; he stated that when you get into trouble, you shouldn’t try to throw harder, you should try to throw softer–that way your arm is relaxed and your pitch won’t flatten out over the heart of the plate.

I guess we’ll have to wait until 2008 for a better read but credit where it’s due: He has been a pleasant surprise. After all, when you phone your AA affiliate and ask who’s pitching best because you need a warm body to start a game and all they give you the name of a kid that was drafted in the 24th round. He then comes up and throws close to 100 innings of 4.11 ERA/113-ish ERA+ work–that’s pretty impressive.

Best Regards

John

P.S. Russ Adams is batting .333/.450/.576 and scored 10 runs and driven in nine in 33 AB. I doubt this is his true level of production (sample size and all that) but I’m curious, has he turned the corner or is this just a fluke? If he could give the Jays .280/.350/.400 in 2008 it would be a major help to the Jays in next year. Even league average or slightly better at SS would make a not insignificant difference for the offense.