Blue Jays until you're blue in the face

There's enough Blue Jays news from Saturday to last several postings, but I'm going to try to cram it all into one. First off, Shaun Marcum is on the DL with an elbow problem, and Adam Lind is finally back up. Cito Gaston says he wants to play Lind, so I'm wondering if his call-up is Gaston's call. From the MLB.com site:

"I'm going to play him," Gaston said. "This kid is having a great year down there and he's hit everywhere. I think he's one of the kids that's going to be a part of the future of this club. He's going to get a chance to play."

Gaston's got to give Lind a stab at left field, where the Jays have been terrible. Lind is only 1-19 with the big league club, but check out his Triple-A stats vs. the guys he'll be up against for the job:

Adam Lind: .328 AVG/.394 OBP/.534 SLG
Brad Wilkerson: .243/.332/.347
Matt Stairs: .255/.330/.411

You'd think Lind can at least compete with the veterans.

While Lind is the more notable call-up, the Jays also recalled Brandon League. He's a former 2nd-round draft pick who's never been called on to start in 72 big league outings. A quick look at his minor league numbers reveals that in 20 appearances this year he has zero starts. With the time it took the Yankees to "lengthen out" Joba Chamberlain it would seem impossible for the Blue Jays to insert League into their rotation. The wire story from the Canadian Press said Gaston hadn't decided on a replacement for Marcum in the rotation, appearing to leave open the possibility for League to be considered. If he hasn't started a game in the minors, however, that possibility would seem to be highly improbable.

Finally, Richard Griffin is more or less calling for Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi's head in an opinion piece in the Toronto Star.

Ricciardi is clearly feeling the heat of late. When he ripped into Adam Dunn on his own radio show three days ago as the result of a probing question from a fan, while at the same time questioning Jays fans on their baseball intelligence, Paul Godfrey was furious. The prez is the consummate politician and knows you don't bite the hands that feed you.

As for the incident with Dunn, the Reds outfielder and all of his friends and many others in the very close-knit players union will now have nothing to do with Ricciardi and the Jays into the future. It was tough enough to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox when Ricciardi wasn't perceived as a loose cannon and a foreigner.

If the Jays were ever seriously considering allowing Ricciardi to continue in his role, they aren't now. The word "clown," as used by Dunn in his description of the Jays GM, was devastating to an organization that has always prided itself on its dignity.

I'm surprised Ricciardi isn't gone already.

That's enough Toronto talk for a while.