The Toronto Blue Jays made two transactions after Wednesday’s game that are destined to be referenced anytime a baseball writer uses the phrase “addition by subtraction.”  Josh Towers (1-8 9.00) and Russ Adams (.258 2 16) were both sent down to AAA Syracuse.  The Blue Jays immediately become the favorites to win the AL East.  The biggest question right now is, “What took them so long?”

The problem's not with the ball, Josh

Lots of pitchers start off with shaky Aprils and rebound to have fine seasons, but there was no reason to believe that Josh Towers was such a pitcher.  I can understand sticking by a first round draft pick.  I can understand standing behind a guy who’s throwing 98 MPH.  I have no problem with continually starting an ineffective pitcher with a curveball that breaks from ear to knee.  But Josh Towers was a 15^th round pick by the Baltimore Orioles whose fastball topped out at 91 MPH.  Worse yet, his slider had so little movement that you’d swear it was a changeup, and his changeup never varied as much as 10 MPH from his best fastball.  His stuff was nonexistent; Towers survived through pinpoint control of all of his pitches, and once that command deserted him, he became more hittable than Jose Lima.

How much better off are the Blue Jays without Towers?  They went 1-9 in games that he started, meaning that they have a 24-12 (.667) record in non-Towers games.  But more than that, Towers has only averaged 4.5 innings per start this year.  That means that the Blue Jay bullpen has had to pitch nearly as many innings as Towers did during his starts.  A tired, overworked bullpen may have cost Toronto games in which Towers did not even start.  They’re just lucky that über-ace Roy Halladay averages over seven innings per start.

Is this the longest throw that Russ can handle?

As for Russ Adams, his inability to make a standard throw to first base has been compared to that of Steve Sax and Chuck Knoblauch.  His 10 errors at shortstop are surpassed only by Carlos Guillen, who still has a better fielding percentage than Adams by 18 points.  But it’s quite likely that Adams’ throwing problems were physical more than mental, since he’s never had the arm to play shortstop.  Among 2005 shortstops, The Fielding Bible ranks Adams 29/32 in their plus/minus system, 20/32 in percentage of double plays turned, and 31/32 in relative range factor.  The fact that he was slightly better at the shorter throws needed in double plays further highlights his arm problems.  Therefore he’s going to spend some time at second base for Syracuse.

But it may be that his future role is as a backup infielder.  You see, Adams has never hit well, either.  He hasn’t posted an OPS over .768 at any minor league level since low-A ball, and has a major league OPS of .722.  Unfortunately, while replacements Aaron Hill and John McDonald are solid and excellent defensively, neither promises to bring much more punch to the plate (Hill has shown some promise in that tregard, McDonald none).  Worse yet, the organization lacks a middle infielder with even a .650 OPS at the double or triple-A levels.  Maybe they could make a play for one of the six lackluster second basemen on the Cubs’ 25-man roster (that’s not hyperbole; count them), but it’s hard to imagine that they’ll come up with someone who’s more of a liability than Adams.

In other AL East news, the Red Sox recalled reliever Jermaine Van Buren from Pawtucket to replace the injured/ineffective Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle L. DiNardo.  The Yankees acquired Erubiel Durazo and Nick Green for their minor leagues and activated Gary Sheffield from the DL despite his broken hand.  While these are indeed positive transactions, they’re a long way from the net gain that the Blue Jays experienced Wednesday night.  Boston and New York are going to need to make some blockbuster moves to keep pace with their Canadian adversaries.