DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Coming off what he called "mentally the toughest year of my career," Blue Jays left-hander Ted Lilly already finds himself ahead of the game this spring.
He is, at least, ahead of schedule from the previous two springs when he showed up with injuries that put him behind the other pitchers.
Last year, it was a shoulder injury sustained after getting a little overzealous in his winter workouts. That eagerness resulted in some shoulder tendinitis that prevented him from throwing in even one Grapefruit League game.
He did manage to make two minor-league starts before he began the regular season on the disabled list.
Lilly's season continued down that rocky road as he went 10-11 with a career-high 5.56 ERA in 25 starts.
WONKY WRIST
In 2004, it was a wonky wrist that he injured trying to move a television set. That setback limited him to just three starts in spring training before he went on to post a solid 12-10 mark.
Lilly made sure he didn't put himself in harm's way again this past winter.
"I definitely was more conscious of making sure I didn't take any chances or do something that would set me back," he said. "I think the last two springs were kind of flukish. It was a few weird things and bad timing."
That careful approach had Lilly throwing with the rest of the Jays pitchers on Saturday in the first official workout of the spring. He even snapped off a few good-looking curveballs.
One of two left-handers in the rotation against this year, -- Gustavo Chacin returns as the other -- Lilly tinkered with his off-season routine, getting started a little earlier because of the fact that he threw so few innings last year, just 126 1/3 after falling well shy of 200 the year before.
"I didn't lift weights a whole lot," he said. "I was a lot more careful with that. It was a little more throwing and baseball-specific work."
As much as he would prefer to just forget the 2005 season altogether, Lilly knows there were lessons to be learned from his struggles.
He believes his inability to make the proper adjustments as he ran into problems was more the cause of his struggles than the early injury.
"I've always felt like I could find a way to pitch myself out of a hole, and last year I don't ever feel like I did that," Lilly said. "I never got on any kind of a roll."
Manager John Gibbons said he is not sure where Lilly will pitch in this year's rotation after being counted on as the No. 2 man each of the past two years. That spot will be filled by right-handed newcomer A.J. Burnett behind staff ace Roy Halladay.
How the 3-through-5 starters -- Lilly, Josh Towers and Chacin -- line up will be something Gibbons decides on this spring.
