Saturday, May 16, 2009

Quickly: BJ Ryan

BJ Ryan may have lost his job as closer, but he returns to the Jays 'pen with another of his previous roles still firmly in hand: bullpen leader.

"You lose your role by not pitching good," said Ryan. "That's what it boils down to. You don't pitch good, you don't make pitches and you put your team in a place that they don't need to be in.

"We're playing such good ball right now that it's a tough spot, it is, but you blame it on the way you pitch. I didn't pitch well."

That's called accountability. It's what leaders do.

"You just get down there and help the team," he added. "We're playing good ball right now, so you get down there and when Cito wants me to pitch I'm going to come out there and pitch and hopefully get back to what you know you're capable of doing."

The assholes (that's right - assholes) who felt fit to boo Ryan's picture on the scoreboard before his return would be doing themselves a favour if they remembered how important Ryan was to the team before losing his way - and how important he still can be to the club for the rest of this season and next.

You have my respect, BJ Ryan.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This attitude is especially impressive given Ryan's headstrong, uber-competitive ways. Good on ya for giving props where they're due.

Voodoo Matt said...

Yeah! The Beej is back!
The worst part about seeing him struggle was the fact that he's the socond most competitive pitcher on the team (1st in the bullpen)

Let's all hope he gets back to 06 form. (He touched 89 a couple of times last night- That's good right?)

Darren Priest said...

How do you send Johnny Ray down after that performance?

Anonymous said...

how do you keep johnn janssen on the farm?

Darren Priest said...

Well, I guess it's a good problem to have.

Lackey's mom said...

Lackey was ejected today after two pitches. After missing six weeks of action, his first pitch was behind Kinsler, and his second one popped him.

WTF? Ejection?

Anonymous said...

He got a nice hand coming into the game Friday, if that's any consolation.

Voodoo Matt said...

Today's match-up doesn't really look fair. Maybe Doc should throw with his left hand to even things out.