Marcum's Unbelieveable Return

"Leading up to it, everybody was asking me if I was nervous," Marcum said. "I was like "No chance." I've never been nervous in my life. But then I got out there today, waiting to pitch that first inning and was more anxious than excited or nervous. I can't wait to get back out there and compete again."

Two shutout innings, blanking the Yankees, and going on to win 9-1. Marcum had a 2.30 ERA in 5 minor league starts last year on his way back from elbow surgery that saw him retrofitted with a brand-new elbow. Marcum was the pitcher of old, the great junkball thrower that had no-hit stuff like we were used to seeing. When Marcum last pitched effectively in 2008, he would take no-nos deep into ball games. The Blue Jays have not seen a pitcher like Marcum since the likes of Dave Stieb.

Toronto made a mistake years ago in not keeping Kelvim Escobar and Chris Carpenter and waiting out their injury period. With this group of young pitchers, Toronto has now gone through the injury process and they are ready to perform again.

So Shaun Marcum is back. And the Blue Jays have scored 9 or more runs in the last three games. Jose Bautista is leading the charge as the leadoff hitter- demonstrating how important Marco Scutaro was last year as the best leadoff hitter in the American League. Bautista better save some of this for the regular season.

Usually the bats are cold the first little bit of the season and the pitching is ahead, but that doesn't seem to be the case for the fast-starting Blue Jays who are 3-1 after four games of Grapefruit Play.

And there are so many storylines surrounding the Blue Jays and all the great pitching comebacks like Shaun Marcum, Dustin McGowan, Jeremy Accardo, Jesse Carlson, Jesse Litsch (June), and Casey Janssen who have all battled injury at one point or another.

Alex Anthopolous has many options going forward, and Cito Gaston is going to have a great finishing year as manager of the Jays. He'd like to go out on top and he thinks all the guys in his lineup with the exception of Gonzalez and McDonald could hit 20 homeruns.

Lind has also belted a homerun, Aaron Hill is becoming one of the most patient hitters in the league, and Toronto is going to have an exciting team...

The key for the Blue Jays will just be making sure that the pitching holds, because it looks like Toronto will have Morrow, McGowan, Romero, Marcum and either Cecil or Rez- more likely Cecil. The Triple M boys could be featured.

An early contender to take John Buck's job is J.P. Arcenbia who has hit bombs in spring training action already- up and down the lineup I'd fear Toronto. On the plus side, a healthy Dustin McGowan and Shaun Marcum will be so crucial to getting over the devastating loss of Roy Halladay.