Toronto’s rotation is so wrecked by injuries that the Blue Jays have called up 40-year-old Ramon Ortiz to start tonight against the Red Sox. Seriously, here’s proof from the Blue Jays’ official website and everything:
Obviously being 40 years old doesn’t preclude someone from still being a good pitcher, but being 40 years old and Ramon Ortiz does. He didn’t pitch in the majors at all last season and hasn’t had an ERA below 4.75 since way back in 2004. Since then Ortiz has logged 533 innings in the majors with a 5.47 ERA while striking out just 5.1 batters per nine innings.
And yes, I realize by writing a post about this Ortiz is probably destined to throw seven innings of one-run ball versus Boston tonight. In the meantime the Blue Jays are +200 gambling underdogs, which means a $100 bet would win $200 and they’re expected to win 33.3 percent of the time. That’s actually not too crazy considering Jon Lester is good and the Blue Jays have only won 36.1 percent of their games this season before sticking Ortiz in the rotation.