DUNEDIN, Fla -- In a time of uncertainty, there is no greater comfort for a baseball manager than to be able to look down his bench and identify one lead-pipe cinch.
For the Blue Jays and their imponderable starting rotation, that would be Roy Halladay, even after yesterday's unsightly sixth inning against the Houston Astros.
The good doctor got lit up for more runs -- five -- in one inning than he had in all his previous spring appearances combined on the way to a 9-7 Houston victory.
Significant?
Let's just say that Halladay's April 6 opening-day start is not in jeopardy.
"We don't worry about Doc at all," manager Cito Gaston said. "He's just feeling his way toward getting ready for that (opening day) start. I'm pretty sure he's not happy, but we're not bothered."
The Blue Jay doubts, and there are enough of those, all exist further down the pitching food chain. A bit more clarity could come as soon as today when they travel to Fort Myers to play the Minnesota Twins, with starting candidates Matt Clement and Scott Richmond scheduled to follow each other to the mound for Toronto.
As of now, Halladay and Jesse Litsch have the top two spots in the rotation sewn up. Unless something goes seriously wrong in the next two weeks, lefty David Purcey will be slotted in at No. 3. After those three, the three top candidates for the last two spots are Clement, Richmond and untested rookie Brad Mills. On the fringes of the job search are Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil and Casey Janssen.
Janssen is nursing a sore shoulder and, given that he is coming off surgery, there is little chance the Jays will risk bringing him back too soon. He's more likely to be ready by May 1 than April 1.
Cecil and Romero already have been dispatched to the minor-league complex but Romero is coming back to make the trip to Sarasota tomorrow as the Jays face the Cincinnati Reds. Romero is going to start and is scheduled to throw six innings while Litsch gets his work in a triple-A game. Cecil also is just a phone call away.
Mills has looked a little shaky the last two times out and his star may have fallen just slightly.
"I just think we're asking a lot of a guy like Mills to go from double-A to the big leagues," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said yesterday. "That's a big jump. It's a lot to put on him. Same for Romero, same for Cecil. That's why we're just trying to buy as much time as we can for them but sometimes you can't ease them in, you've got to throw them in.
"At some point they're going to be with us. At some point, they're part of where we're going. When you look at the long range, we're going to have (Shaun) Marcum back at some point, We're going to have (Dustin) McGowan back. So if we're going to continue to get these kids some experience, at some point they have to get their feet wet.
"We never wanted to rush Marcum, Janssen and Litsch but we had to. And they survived. Hopefully these guys will, too."
If they are successful in signing Shawn Hill, the Mississauga native who was released by the Washington Nationals this week, it would add one more possible starter to the Jays' system which has become something of a baseball version of Lourdes. He has had a history of arm problems (I know, you've seen this movie before) and would need some time to get himself ready but he could be a useful starter.
"We're just trying to get as many arms as we can in here," Ricciardi said. "We know the young kids are going to struggle at times. We're trying not to put them in spots they might not be ready for. If we get some veteran guys here and they can hold the fort, eventually Romero, Mills, Cecil will all pitch for us. We want to ease them in. The Hills, the Clements will just allow us to buy some starts for the kids."
In the meantime, Halladay has two more starts to get himself into the right head space for the Detroit Tigers on opening day. Right now, that's the least of Toronto's problems.
KEN.FIDLIN@SUNMEDIA.CA
