In the midst of this past weekend’s Blue Jays sweep of the highly offensive weapons of the Chicago White Sox , where our Blue Jays starters proved to be the difference, and last night’s terribly pitched game by Brett Cecil in Boston, I present to you my first edition of a new column titled “The North Poll”.

This column is very simple.

A quick update about the Toronto Blue Jays, followed by a question asked by me, in the form of a poll, where you, the reader, votes on that particular question. Does that sound simple? Well it is. So let us try it, shall we.

The Toronto Blue Jays pitching rotation on Opening Day 2008 was as follows:

1. Roy Halladay
2. AJ Burnett
3. Dustin McGowan
4. Shawn Marcum
5. Jesse Litsch

Roy Halladay is the only fixture in a makeshift 2009 Blue Jays rotation.

This rotation did an exceptional job for us last season, and was consistently taking the mound for most of the season.

Now fast forward to the off-season. The Toronto Blue Jays lost AJ Burnett to the financial “kings of baseball” the New York Yankees, while Shawn Marcum and Dustin Mcgowan had off-season surgery and are lost for the 2009 season.

With spring training 2009 upon us Roy Halladay, Jesse Litsch, and David Purcey were pencilled in as our first three starters in the rotation.

Casey Janssen was ready to return to the Toronto Blue Jays after missing the entire 2008 season to fight for a rotation spot in spring training with the likes of Ricky Romero, Scott Richmond, Brett Cecil, Brad Mills, Matt Clement, Mike Maroth, and Ken Tanahashi.

Janssen went down with yet another injury during spring training, and after a hard fought spring, Rickey Romero and Scott Richmond came out on top as our number four and five guys. The rotation looks like this to being the 2009 season:

1. Roy Halladay
2. David Purcey
3. Jesse Litsch
4. Rickey Romero
5. Scott Richmond

The date is now Thursday May 21, 2009 and after a slew of injuries to Ricky Romero, Jesse Litsch, and the demotion of David Purcey due to a poor start, the Blue Jays rotation looks like this:

1. Roy Halladay
2. Scott Richmond
3. Brian Tallet
4. Brett Cecil
5. Robert Ray

The Blue Jays rotation has become a revolving door of pitchers pieced together by coach Cito Gaston and General Manager JP Ricciardi. The rotation is about to change once again, and this is where you, the reader, comes into play in regards to this article.

Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston has some tough decisions to make in the coming weeks. Most notably who's going to be in the Blue Jays rotation.

News has arisen that both Ricky Romero and Casey Janssen have finished their rehab starts and are ready for a return to the rotation. Roy Halladay and Scott Richmond are not going anywhere.Cito Gaston has let the media know that Brian Tallet (normally a long man in the Blue Jays bullpen) is here to stay, while young prospects Brett Cecil, and Robert Ray are pitching extremely well, but may have their spots at jeopardy.

The “North Poll” question of the day is:

Which two Toronto Blue Jays pitchers should stay as our number four and five men in the rotation?

[poll id="2"]

Let us hope that Cito Gaston and the Blue Jays make the right decision, and continue their first place baseball on their way to what I hope, is an excellent month of May.