What’s going on with BJ’s soreness? Shouldn’t this lead management to be more careful in letting him go out there for a bit of time to make sure he’s fully healed?

Mike

MW: Yep. And it will. But it won’t be based on what management thinks is the right thing to do, it’ll be based on what the doctors think.

Have you had an opportunity to talk to the new hitting coach Denbo and see his approach in his new role?

I’ve read he likes video a great deal. Have you been able to sit in on a session with any of the players to see how he goes about his business?

I know it’s only spring training and the offensive stats don’t mean a thing, but have you seen any improvements in regard to the hitting instruction from last year or is it sort of a difficult thing to judge this early?

MW: I did get a chance to talk to Denbo, he was a featured interview on a pre-game show last weekend, I think. I like him. Smart guy, knows hitting, and hopefully he can get through to the players.

It’s a very difficult thing to judge hitting instruction in general, because there’s only so much a coach can do. Denbo isn’t Mickey Brantley, and that’s the most important thing. Not that I think Mickey did a bad job, but because the players might have needed to hear the same stuff said in a different way from someone else. I don’t think a hitting coach has nearly the effect on a team that a lot of people seem to. To me, it comes down to the player doing his job. The coach can help break down a swing, help with getting the players reps in the cage, help the players do their work and maybe come up with the occasional nugget that a player hadn’t thought to do himself, but I think it’s a stretch to believe that a coach can change the way a veteran big-leaguer has hit his whole life.

MW: Haven’t heard anything yet, but I’m assuming with the super-cool relaunch we may be good to go.

MW: That’s got to be some sort of misprint. Pedro had already had five years in the bigs by the time he was 26, and Rogers had had two very good years as a reliever.

Beyond the numbers, how was AJ today? Was he working on his change-up and got beat up or just too many adventures with the wind or what?

MW: He was OK, not terrific. If not for the wind, he wouldn’t have allowed a run over the first four innings, and would have saved some pitches into that fifth. But he wasn’t throwing his change-up for strikes as he had been the past couple starts, and that made a big difference.

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/M/Bill-Murphy.shtml

Johnson’s second half stats in 2006 were skewed lower because he played almost every day and got a lot more bats against right handers, than he did in the first half-but he did continue his high output against lefties.

If Stairs is in the lineup against right handers what position does he play other than left field-except for the occasional spot at 1st.

Hey, I don’t have a problem trading Johnson, I just think it’s better for the team to go north with him, prove he’s over the injury, give Lind time to further develop and then trade Johnson when we can get something of value for him. At the moment, we’d probably get nothing.

Stewart’s already on a minor league contract which I think means we can send him to AAA for a month or two in the meantime.

By the way, I agree with your assessment of Coats; although he’s had a good spring, he’s not close to Lind in potential.

MW: You seem to be missing the point. The Jays aren’t looking at that spot for someone who can only hit left-handed pitching. They also would like some insurance in case one of Stairs, Wells, Rios, Overbay or Thomas gets hurt, so they want to have someone there who can play every day. That’s Stewart, not Johnson.

I agree with you that Johnson’s trade value is very low right now, but the difference between releasing him for nothing and trading him for less than what they’d have gotten a year ago is still worth trying to make a deal if he’s not going to make the team.

How do you see the bullpen shaping out?

I’m not sure how many pen arms they are going to carry.

Maybe: Ryan, Accardo, League, Downs, Frasor, Parrish/Tallet, Wolfe?

MW: Definitely seven in the pen, but we’ll have to see what happens as far as the soreness B.J. felt today is concerned before we can pencil him in for a spot. But I think that if Ryan is healthy, your seven are bang on, though you might be able to now add Bill Murphy into that mix with Tallet and Parrish, but I doubt it. John Gibbons said Friday that Tallet wasn’t going anywhere.