Student, Meet Teacher

On Friday evening at Citizens Bank Park, a 33 year old Roy Halladay schooled the Toronto Blue Jays. Two days later, a man 14 years his senior accomplished the very same thing.

Albeit, Jamie Moyer didn’t quite stifle the Blue Jays bats as well as Halladay did, but he kept them quiet enough to pull out the win and well-needed series victory for the struggling of late Philadelphia Phillies.

I’m not quite sure what exactly has contributed to the downfall of Brett Cecil: that makes three starts in a row in which he’s surrendered five or more earned runs.


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It’s a little disheartening, yet I don’t think it’s something to be extremely concerned about. Cecil was absolutely on fire during his personal five-game win streak, and now he has cooled off considerably.

Although he didn’t give up any home runs against the Phillies on Sunday, Brett Cecil had been touched up in both previous starts. It sounds like he’s been having some trouble keeping pitches down in the zone, and opposing hitters are making him pay for it.

Cito does the Lineup Shuffle

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that Cito Gaston penciled in John McDonald as the leadoff hitter for Sunday’s game. One can understand the manager’s rationale for using McDonald against Jamie Moyer as he was a .375 lifetime hitter, but there are other times where I think Cito is just drafting up lineup cards at random.

It’s funny because he’s so adamant on keeping things consistent for his players, and yet just a few days after moving Aaron Hill and Adam Lind out of the two and three spots in the lineup, he’s changing things up more than he has all season.

Don’t you think it seems like a bit of an odd move when you take one of the traditionally worst hitters on your team who predominantly hits in the nine slot, and make him your lead off hitter? Not only that, but you put him in LEFT FIELD?

If Cito Gaston is hoping to shake things up by making these off the wall decisions, it’s not working. To me, it just reeks of desperation and it feels like he’s grasping at straws and coming up with nothing.

Ian Hunter

Ian has been writing about the Toronto Blue Jays since 2007. He enjoyed the tail-end of the Roy Halladay era and vividly remembers the Alex Rodriguez "mine" incident. He'll also retell the story of Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS to his kids for the next 20 years.

5 thoughts on “Student, Meet Teacher

  • June 28, 2010 at 6:11 pm
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    Cito has done a lot one line up shuffling lately. Not sure what to make of it…

  • June 28, 2010 at 7:11 pm
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    Beats the heck outta me, Mattt. But now I think that the floodgates are open for lineup changes now that Cito has finally moved Lind and Hill down in the lineup.

  • June 28, 2010 at 8:34 pm
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    Yeah, but we only have to be baffled by Cito's moves for another 3.5 months. Then we'll have a whole new manager to be baffled by the moves of!

    That said, I'm still giving Cito the standing ovation at his last home game as a Blue Jay this September.

  • June 28, 2010 at 11:26 pm
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    Cito is just an old man – maybe he forgot his pills that day.

    As far as Cecil, I imagine this is regression to the mean. Wasn't he always seen as more of a #2 to #4 starter ultimately as opposed to a guy with knockout stuff? The Blue Jays rotation always struck me as the reincarnation of the late 1990s / pre-Santana Twins rotations, where you had a bunch of guys who threw strikes and didn't dominate, but kept you in the game enough to potentially win.

  • June 29, 2010 at 3:46 am
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    sadp, that's what I keep telling myself. I should have some sort of Cito countdown calendar or something on the website. I'll probably be a little sad to see him go as well, but not from a managerial standpoint: more so just because we've been through so many highs and lows with him these past few seasons.

    Steve, the funny thing is that the only member of the Blue Jays starting staff that strikes me as a power pitcher is Brandon Morrow. The rest of the guys seem more like finesse pitchers, and Brett Cecil definitely falls into that category. I mean, he's not going to overpower hitters, but just like Marcum and Romero, that changeup is deadly.

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