Jays vs. Indians May 31

Quick preview here.

Brandon Morrow will destroy Cleveland hitters, and Mitch Talbot will be destroyed by Jays hitters.

Anthony Castrovince has a story about Jose Baustista on MLB.com.  I think I've heard this one before.

Keith Law runs down his top 25 prospects, including Brett Lawrie.

Speaking of Lawrie, Trent Rosencrans expects to see him with the big club pretty soon.  Something he doesn't mention is the fact that the Jays 40-man roster is currently full, and Lawrie is not on it.  Now, if Lawrie comes up and someone on the 40-man is injured at the time, they can be placed on the 60-day DL as a temporary solution to that problem.  The much more likely scenario is that someone useless is removed from the 40-man roster to make room for Lawrie, whether that is through trade or a DFA.  Looking through the roster, I don't see anybody in the minors that appears to be worth cutting loose, save for maybe Scott Richmond or Josh Roenicke, who will be 32 and 29 respectively by the end of the year.  What would make more sense?  The DFA/outright release of a fellow 3b, either Edwin Encarnacion or Jayson Nix.

Along those same lines, let's not forget about Dustin McGowan, who is also on the 60-day DL, but is approaching the end of that stint.  My best guess about what's going to happen there, in order of likelihood:

• A member of the bullpen or Jojo Reyes is traded for someone who is not on the 40-man of the other team (or cash/player to be named later), and Mcgowan (who is out of options and must be placed on the 25-man roster or exposed to waivers upon his return from the 60-day DL) takes that spot in the bullpen.  If it's Jojo, Carlos Villanueva will start.*  This kind of hinges on Jesse Litsch and Brett Cecil's return.
• One of Edwin or Nix is DFA'ed or released, Mcgowan gets his spot, and the other is disposed of when Lawrie comes up.  This would shorten the bench even more (unless the Lawrie move happens first), and crowd the bullpen, however.
• Dustin gets traded for anything anybody wants to give back.  This all hinges on what Mcgowan does during his rehab appearances and how scouts and pitching coaches view his progress.  I doubt the Jays would want to move him in a trade, considering that, in two straight offseasons, they've resigned him and continue to give him chances to come back.  He's 29 and still under team control, but hasn't seen MLB action since mid-2008.  I have no idea how that fits under team control (i.e. whether his time on the DL is eating up service time or not), but I can't see them giving up on him yet. 

*Apparently, according to Tony Ambrogio, the Jays are considering letting Mcgowan start again, and will begin stretching his arm out with 2 inning stints in rehab.  I hear he struck out someone the other night with a 95-MPH 2 seam fastball that was downright nasty, but I don't remember where I read that, or if it's true or not.  Comment section??

As of right now, I wouldn't consider Juan Rivera as someone in danger of being released/DFA'ed.  He's actually been pretty good over the last little while, so I'll admit that my calling for his immediate release a few weeks ago was a little premature.  That's why AA is AA and I'm here writing a blog.  I don't see Rivera being on this team next year, and he could be a bat for someone to buy at the deadline if he can keep hitting the way he has over the last few weeks.  If that's the case, I expect a contending/playoff NL team to pick him up as a pinch hitter.  Otherwise, non-tender (they won't offer him arbitration) him, re-sign for $2MM or say bye.

Not that he would have gotten the start tonight anyway, but Edwin Encarnacion had a toenail removed yesterday, and is unavailable until tomorrow.  I've had a toenail removed twice, and had no interest in doing anything other than sit on the couch for at least 3 days, so take that for what it's worth.  Granted, if this isn't a big toe, I have no expertise on the matter.

Lineups

Jays

Escobar SS

Patterson LF

Bautista RF

Rivera 1B

Arencibia C

Hill 2B

Thames DH

Davis CF

Nix 3B

Morrow P

Indianos

Brantley DH

A. Cabrera SS

Choo RF

Buck LF

Santana C

Sizemore CF

O. Cabrera 2B

LaPorta 1B

Hannahan 3B

Talbot P

NOW are there any questions?

Yeah, so remember yesterday when I said that the game Sunday was a really bad curbstomping?  I think yesterday's game trumps Sunday's.  That was fun.  This offense just seems to be pounding liner after liner, which is always good considering the way they should be, given the career numbers of Patterson, how badly Rivera has regressed in the last couple years, how completely awful Jayson Nix is, etc.  It seems completely outrageous to assume that this can keep up, but I'm going to enjoy the shit out of this while it lasts.

And the Joje got that hypothetical meaningless monkey off his back, so that's good.  But really, it's a stupid streak that shouldn't be mentioned ever, and I'm not going to go scrub his balls because he finally picked up a win, just the same way I didn't scrub Hill's or Encarnacion's the other day for doing something that they should have done weeks ago.  Simply, Jojo was effective against what is a pretty bad true-talent team, no matter what the Indians' record is.  This is not a sustainable run, this is not a good team, and without Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore, things should be (are?) hopeless for them to succeed.  They're probably a 75-win true talent team that ran really hot to start the year, and if they win 45% of their games for the rest of the year (75 wins = .450 win percentage) then the season should be looked at as a success.  This is the exact opposite of the Red Sox, who started 0-6 and everyone shit their pants, but look where they are now.

Anyway, the thing about Jojo getting that win exciting me... it's not necessarily because he's pitched poorly in each of his last 29 starts, because he hasn't, in fact, he's actually been pretty good in 4 of his last 5, but that's not what I'm getting at (though he wasn't amazing last night, he was simply decent and up against a below average team that didn't show up).  If the Jays decide that they want to turn him in to something via trade, it seems a whole lot more likely that someone will bite on him if he has a winning record, whether that does or does not mean jack shit.

Jojo is the perfect example of why pitching wins and losses don't mean anything; he's found a way to get losses/not get wins, whether it be through a lack of run support, blown saves, unearned runs, or just simply being bad.  Any pitcher, especially a stopgap 5th starter reclamation project who has been sent to the minors time and time again, is going to have a rough outing here and there, everyone is going to get a save blown, everyone is going to get no run support here and there, and so on.  It's a dumb streak, and it's too bad that he still has that little record stuck beside his name, because it's going to be hard to trade "a guy who just can't win games", just in case any dinosaur in a front office thinks that way.

It would be awesome if he could put up a few consistent starts in a row.  In his 11 starts this season, he's got 6 good ones, 1 meh one, and 4 outright bad ones, though he last 6 starts include 4 of those good starts.  If he can keep stringing together some decent pitching over the next month or so, he could turn in to something.  Better yet, if the Jays put up some run support for the dude (before yesterday, he had received a maximum of 3 runs of support), he might be able to win a game or two that he shouldn't have and really trick some fools.

But hey, here's something I've been thinking of over the last few hours.  Let's say that, for whatever reason, be it injury, trade, someone sucking, whatever..., that Jojo is still in the rotation 8 weeks from now, leading up to the two weeks before the trade deadline.  Let's say that his typical performance falls somewhere within what he's done in his last 5 starts (i.e. 1 dumpster fire, 3 goods, 1 decent, and more importantly, 3-4 more full seasons of team control), I'm not completely convinced they give up on him all that cheaply.  AA clearly saw something there when he swung a deal to acquire him in the Yunel trade.  Obviously the Jojo we've seen in his good appearances is what AA saw, and it's definitely a work-in-progress type of thing.

Obviously this is all just hypotheticals, and I'm sure that he's gone/relegated to the bullpen by the trade deadline, if not sooner.  Given the way AA likes to work, something is certainly coming with this pitching staff.  Those relievers that he built up during the offseason are going to turn in to draft picks (as of yesterday, and this is about 99% certain to change, pending free agents Shawn Camp (Type A), Octavio Dotel, Jason Frasor, Jon Rauch, and Frank Francisco (all type B's) will either turn in to picks or still be (moderately) effective pieces of the bullpen next year, which could certainly boost value.  Casey Jannsen and Mark Rzepcynski, given the way they've pitched this year, will almost certainly have a spot on the team in the coming years, not to mention the guys that are coming up through the farm (i.e. there's no room in the starting rotation for guys like Brad Mills, but he could find a bullpen role).  Whether or not someone is interested in Jojo before the end of the season remains to be seen, but he could definitely be a guy to fill a hole created by a bullpen trade.

To be blunt, people fucking love lefties coming out of the bullpen.  Jojo has pretty decent splits, and, as a starter, has a BAA of right around .230 vs. lefties, which would likely drop if he became a bullpen specialist (batting average against typically rises after multiple meetings in a game, and is thus more likely to drop in a relief role).  .230 obviously isn't anything super amazing as a LOOGY (Lefty opposition only guy), but again, that should drop.  I dunno, he's probably a waiver deal.

Okay, so about that game yesterday... I'm not giving Jojo the Zaun head.  I already said that I wouldn't, and am not about to go back on my word.  Frankly, I was most impressed by Rajai Davis' game.  When he actually hits the ball/gets on base, he's among the most entertaining players in baseball, given his speed, both in the field and on the bases, and his awareness.  Some of the jumps he gets, his stolen bases, and what stuck out to me yesterday, the ability to take the extra base when there's a momentary lapse in concentration (I'm talking about the Orlando Cabrera error, a.k.a. the Orlando Cabrerror, in which he scored from 2nd base on a grounder to the 2nd base hole.  He also managed to go 3-for-4 with 2 doubles, 2 RBI and 3 runs scored.  Zauner.

Brandon Morrow pitches tonight.  I'm just waiting on him to really crush a team's soul.  He's among the most dominant pitchers in the league when he's really on, which happens only on occasion.  His last start looked like a pretty big step in the right direction though.  Mitch Talbot goes for Cleveland, which is good, given that he sucks.  He's got an ERA close to 6, which is always good to see, especially when the good guys are swinging the bats as well as they are.

Couple items of note: Adam Lind had 4 AB's in his first rehab start yesterday, and is expected back in the lineup by the weekend.

Grady Sizemore will play centerfield for Cleveland tonight.  He's been out with a wonky ankle I think.

Any Questions?

Do you guys remember that time that Tiger Woods won the US Open at Pebble Beach like 10 years ago?  He was the only person under par for the whole tournament, and won by like 15 shots or something retarded?  The next issue of Sports Illustrated featured Tiger on the front, making a U Mad face, with the headline "Any Questions?"

Update- Thanks to hard Lemonade for the google-work

U mad?

I say this, because that game yesterday was one of the worst curbstompings of a ballgame that I've seen the Jays issue in a long long time, and with Jose Bautista, the only real offensive threat on this team, going 1-for-4.  John Danks was straight up bad, and Ricky Romero was pretty good once he settled in after a shaky first inning.

The real highlight was the Aaron Hill grandslam, his first homer of the season, which was followed up nicely by Edwin Encarnacion's first homer of the year, which happened to come off the personal bat of Ricky Romero.

And then of course, there was the little spat between Bautista and Danks after a Bautista popup that, by all rights, came on a pitch that should have been hammered.  Bautista slammed his bat down.

"I just told him to run the bases," Danks said. "He was out there acting like a clown. He's a good player. He's had a great year and a half, no doubt, he's been one of the best hitters in the league. He was out there acting like he's Babe Ruth or something.  I've had a pretty crappy year to this point but I have pride still, I'm not going to let him sit out there and show me up like that."

Bautista answered with:

"I was upset at missing a pitch, if he took it the wrong way, I'm sorry. I'm not here to make him feel good. It really doesn't matter to me what he thought. What I'm not going to allow is when I'm running by him, him yelling at me again, so I yelled back at him."

So by taking 3 of 4 from Chicago, the Jays move over .500 again, but will have their hands full (?) with the Cleveland Indians, who are the owners of the best record in baseball.  I really don't see this lasting for Cleveland (hence the question mark above), and I think this record is just a function of playing better than expected, a decently easy schedule so far (hello AL East), and the plain old small sample size argument.  This team, with this pitching staff, can't possibly be a true-talent 85 win team.  Prove me wrong guys...

Then again, Cleveland gets to face Jojo Reyes tonight, so maybe they really are running hot.  Fausto Carmona goes for Cleveland.  Carmona has a worse ERA than Jojo, despite pitching in the AL Central, by the way.


Probably more later, but there just aren't that many interesting things available at this point on a monday.

Walkoff Flocka Flames

That's a good rap joke.

Jose Bautista gets the Zaun head because he's not Corey Patterson, and he didn't wait till his 7th AB of the game to hit a tater.  Plus, Patterson bats in front of Bautista so all he gets is fastballs, right? (Answer: no, that's fucking stupid and illogical).  And I mean, it's not like I'm spiting Patterson because I don't like him;  Jose hit a 3-run bomb and got on base 5 of 6 times up.

Frank Francisco is fucking lost up there, though the pitch Konerko hit for that weird double was actually a pretty good pitch that just kind of found it's way to the ground thanks to the defensive alignment.  Jason Frasor, Shawn Camp, Luis Perez, and Mark Rzepcynski all pitched fairly well out of the bullpen to save the day for Vanillanueva, who looked rocky.

Early game today.  Ricky Romero takes the hill against the 0-7 Jojo Reyes John Danks.

Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Encarnacion DH
Davis CF
Nix 3B

Romero P

Sox
Pierre LF
Ramirez SS
Quentin RF
Konerko 1B
Rios CF
Dunn DH
Castro C
Lillibridge 2B
Morel 3B

Danks P

Holy Crap!

A victory!  Cool!  I didn't get to see much of it because I had to go drinking, and the bar we were at only had 9 big fucking TV's mounted all over the place.  A tenth miiiiiight have been able to fit a baseball game in (you know, that sport that actually had a Canadian team playing), but with just 9 screens visible from the entire bar, the only way to go is all hockey.

And hey, this game starts pretty early today, which means I can't watch it either.  Carlos Thrillanueva goes for Toronto, and Edwin Jackson for Chicago.  DON'T SWING.  Edwin Jackson is effectively wild at the best of times, and downright dangerously out of control at the worst, so I'm sure he'll be somewhere in between as long as the Jays will let him.

Coupla things for you:  Dave Cameron from Fangraphs has a piece about Edwin Encarnacion's defense, and calls for his relegation to a permanent bench role, if not his straight up release.  I've always assumed that they'll release him whenever Lawrie/Snider/Cecil/whoever comes up, and I've never really had a huge problem with him being on the team (other than he sucks) since he's not going to be here next year, but Cameron actually makes a lot of sense.

There's really no reason to keep him on the roster, let alone in games, considering how awful he's been with both the bat and the glove (arm?), especially since he was a reclamation project after getting non-tendered at the end of last season. Why not give Mike Mccoy and John Mcdonald the full share of playing time?  I think they've earned it, McDonald for being a fan-fave and defensive magician, and Mccoy for going to and from Las Vegas more than.... As a poker player, you'd think I could come up with some kind of gambling joke, but alas, here we are.  I mean, I realize that hopping on a plane 7 times in a season just to be the replacement 25th guy on the roster shouldn't mean much in terms of deserving playing time, but Jayson Nix and EE both just fucking suck so hard.

And speak of the devil, Mike Mccoy got called up today, when John McDonald was put on the 15-day DL.  Not quite sure why, but I'll either report on that later, or just let you figure that shit out yourselves.  I didn't know this tidbit until after I wrote the above paragraph, but fuck it.  Leavin' it anyway.

And now it's time for your daily Adam Lind setback report:  What was supposed to be a rehab start today will now be a Monday start.  Stay tuned Monday for another disappointment.  Jesse Litsch won't throw for at least another 7 days, according to some guy named Eric Koreen?  I've never heard of him, but apparently he's a basketball writer for the National Post.  I'd rather have John Lott's expertise, but maybe he's on vacation or dead or something.

Former Jay Joe Inglett was released by the Astros yesterday.  That's fucking embarrassing.  I dunno, I'd expect to see him in a Jays uniform sooner or later.  I mean, they signed Chris fucking Woodward, DeWayne Wise, and Edwin, all former Jays that nobody fucking wanted, seems like a natural fit.

Newsflash!  Roy Halladay is still baseball's best pitcher!

Despite his recent suckiness/return to normalcy, Corey Patterson remains in the 2-hole for Toronto, and is DHing to boot.  I really hope this farm system pans out.  JP Arencibia gets the questionable day off, despite Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek not pitching today.  If this was the plan all along (i.e. yesterday and today), why not let Molina catch Drabek yesterday, like he apparently fucking has to all the time for some reason, and have JP DH so that he can catch today instead of having that fat shit Jose Molina in the lineup two days in a row?  Maybe there's something I don't know.  According to my best men, JP took a couple foul balls to the thumb yesterday, but is available.  Maybe that means if they REALLY need him?  I don't fucking know.

Lineups
Jays

Escobar SS
Patterson DH
Bautista RF
Rivera 1B
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Thames LF
Molina C
Nix 3B

Villanueva P


White Sux
Pierre LF
Ramirez SS
Dunn DH
Konerko 1B
Pierzynski C
Rios CF
Vizquel 2B
Lillibridge RF
Morel 3B

Jackson P

Wow.  This turned out pretty long, especially for a post without a single picture, zaun head, no recaps, or anything overly useful.  I should get in to politics.

A slice of Humber Pie

Good first 8 innings yesterday, huh?

Brandon Morrow offered his best start of the season, with JP Arencibia behind the plate, no less.  Funny how it was right around this point in the year last year where Morrow started to become the team's best pitcher (it was actually a little bit earlier, but whatever).

Bit of a bullpen clusterfuck though.  Rzepscynski looked downright nasty with the ball moving all over the place, enough to strike out everyone that he didn't bean, managing to confuse JP twice.  The John McDonald error didn't help either.  I dunno, it's not as bad as everyone seems to think, and with this anemic-at-times offense, this is sort of something you've just got to expect from time to time.  Maybe with all the 1- and 2-run losses this year, things will even out next year when it matters and we can get some 1-run wins?  Is that too optimistic?

Brandon Morrow really stood out for me yesterday, and earned a Zaun head.  There were flashes of it in his last start, but yesterday was the first time that I really thought that he was the same pitcher as he was in the second half of last year.  I'd love to see more consistency in throwing strikes (duh...) since he's just so nasty.  He does throw way too many balls, and thus too many pitches and not enough innings, to be considered a true ace (not that that title means anything), but I'd love to see him get deeper in to ballgames, or at least get to the point he's getting to without throwing 120 pitches each time out there.

There is something to be said about that Corey Patterson steal in the 8th inning last night with Jose Bautista at the plate.  There was a bit of a twitter stank last night; I mean obviously it's kind of silly to open up a base with Bautista at the plate in a tie game in the 8th inning, we can all pretty much agree with that one.  Here's where I want to kind of defend the play.

In a 2-1 count, with the outfield playing with their backs to the fences to prevent anything over their heads.  Obviously if it's a tater, it's a tater and it doesn't matter where the defense lines up.  The White Sox counteract the stolen base strategy by not throwing to second, and intentionally walking Bautista the way it happened.  If the ball is hit... there's a chance that it's a grounder and a double play, however small.  Patterson running obviously helps avoid that, whatever.  But let's say it's a hit.  If it's a light single, Patterson moves to third, we're in pretty much the same spot as we were before to be honest, probably needing a single from Juan Rivera.  A gapper scores a run.

If Patterson doesn't steal, a gapper doesn't score a run, a ball just leads to an intentional walk.  If Bautista is ever going to get a pitch to hit, it's going to be on the 2-1 count.  2-2 might be a good pitch, but in order for that to happen, it has to actually be a strike, in which case, I'd trust my best hitter to put a good swing on it.

Basically what I'm trying to say here, is that stealing here is actually kind of defensible, but only in this exact situation.  The pros and cons of this steal are pretty negligible, so it basically comes down to a calculated risk and aggressive move that hardly has any real bearing on the game, but without the steal, it needs to be either a) a homerun, or b) 2 hits.

Heh.

Coupla Links


MLBTR has some Jays stuff here.

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet has a bunch of stuff for us, and I'll just link to his twitter here and you can find it from the source yourselves:

Dustin McGowan is set to start a rehab assignment.  Since he's on the 40-man roster and has no options left, the Jays have 30 days to either call him up to the big league club, or outright him to the minors, which would expose him to the other 29 clubs through waivers.

Jesse Carlson had exploratory surgery either yesterday or the day before, where they found a tear in his rotator cuff or labrum or something.  They fixed that up, but he's going to be out for the season.

Adam Lind, after like 80 setbacks, is set to play in an extended spring training game tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure that EST is finished really soon, which may mean rehab starts in AAA with Snider and Cecil.

Hey, remember a couple weeks ago when David Purcey was traded for a minor league reliever?  Well he just got traded again, this time to the Tigers for Scott Sizemore, who looks like he's going to be not terrible at some point, and thus, the A's just finished a trade-rape of the Bluejays (to be fair to AA, it was trade for something or give him away for nothing, soooo).  Detroit meanwhile, for some reason, has 4 lefty relievers in their bullpen now, though there are minor-league options there.  From the A's perspective, this probably opens up a spot on the 25-man roster for Andrew Bailey, who is expected back within the next week.

Kyle Drabek vs. Mark Buerhle tonight.  Do better tonight guys, though I can't see how that's possible with Jose Molina DH'ing.  Let's see if these lineups are accurate.

Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Molina DH
Nix 3B

Drabek P

Whites


Pierre LF
Ramirez SS
Quentin RF
Konerko 1B
Pierzynski C
Rios CF
Dunn DH
Vizquel 3B
Beckham 2B

Buehrle P

No, really. Let's trash the place.

Yeah, same old.  Jays got stomped, Jojo sucks, someone save us, sell sell sell.

I'm not going to sit here and lie about not wanted Jojo Reyes' head cut off or anything, because I've certainly wished for it, and out loud too, but I dunno, his last couple starts (before yesterday's beachball convention, that is) have probably earned him at least a couple more starts.  He's shown that he can be worth something.

It doesn't help that Jojo just set some meaningless record that's getting a lot of attention, but I'm starting to allow myself to be convinced, despite not having admitted it out loud until now (mostly because I've written twice since his last start, where he actually performed really well, and would have earned a Zaun-head had I not already promised myself that he wouldn't be getting any this season simply out of spite), that he can in fact be turned in to something useful.  Pittsburgh fell for it with Dana Eveland (who was traded for Ronald Uviedo, a pitcher on the Jays' AA team) last year, and Eveland had an ERA over 6 through 9 starts.  If anyone was actually looking at Reyes as a trade candidate, they would know that he's pitched much better than what is indicated by his traditional stats (i.e. 0-4 record omg!).  I mean, yeah, he's gotten hit pretty hard in some starts, but his fip is almost a full run better than his ERA (3.90 vs. 4.70), and frankly, his ERA isn't so bad that we need to start rioting.  It doesn't help that he's given up 9 unearned runs in 10 starts either.

I'm not trying to say that he's good by any stretch, but maybe he's not as bad as I've been saying he is?  After looking at his fangraphs page, I'm seeing some pretty similar (actually better, especially if you consider the league-worst .347 babip) numbers to Jesse Litsch this far in to the season (50 inning sample-size be-damned!).  I mean, we all know that Jesse is no better than a 4th starter with a rare flash of excellence here and there (read: 2.5 years ago), which Jojo, up to this point in his career, has never shown other than 2 starts ago.  Maybe I'm just pining for Brett Cecil to come back, which, and I can't say this with any degree of certainty, seems likely to coincide with Jojo's departure barring any more injuries to the pitching staff.  Whenever that happens.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I expected Jojo to be off the team by now.  And frankly, he's a big-bodied lefty who can throw low-90's heat, which is always a commodity.  He's not incredibly different from David Purcey, who fetched a not-terrible relief prospect earlier this year (in what will likely prove to be a pretty bad trade-rape on Oakland's part), despite putting up awful numbers.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that the more random prospects that are in the Jays' system, the better the chances that one of them catches on, and someone's bound to take a flyer on Jojo if he doesn't get sent to the bullpen and succeed there.

I can't believe I just wrote that much about Jojo Reyes.  Anything to avoid a recap of yesterday's game though, right?  Man, what a dumpster fire that one was.  Looking at the boxscore, umm, hmmm.....  Eric Thames? I guess... gets a Zaun-head?  Maybe Farrell for actually pinch-hitting JP Arencibia for John Mcdonald?  Fuck.  I dunno.

Around the League


Coupla big ones from yesterday. The first item of note is the fact that it took Philadelphia and Cincinnati 19 innings to play a game last night.  Second baseman Wilson Valdez came in and pitched a perfect 19th inning, hitting 90MPH on the gun and earning the win.  Apparenltly he shook off Raul Chavez at one point, which is funny.  Ryan Howard claims that Valdez has some nasty stuff, throwing sinkers from 2nd base all the time.  Valdez has the same number of wins as Chris Carpenter (who won his first game last night after being brutal in his previous starts of the year), and one more than Jojo Reyes.

And under the category of stuff my girlfriend won't like, Buster Posey appeared to have broken his ankle last night after a nasty looking collision at home plate.  Looks like Buster is now Bustee, amirite?  Pablo Sandoval actually just tweeted a few minutes ago:

pandoval48 Pablo Sandoval 

Good morning I feel so bad because we lost buster for rest of the season it's gonna be hard with out him

Though there is no official word to this point in a release from the team, at least from any of my sources.

The Cleveland Indians returned to the form that everyone expected at the start of the season, losing 14-2 to the Red Sox.  The Red Sox, particularily Carl Crawford, performed a Talbotomy (thanks to @mlbastian for that one) on Mitch Talbot, knocking in 7 in the first inning, and 20 hits total.

Linkage


Joe Posnanski has a little thing about the silly consecutive starts without a win thing that Jojo has going on.  For those who are unfamiliar with him, Joe is probably the best writer for people who are looking to get in to advanced stats but are still a little intimidated.  He doesn't use great big fucking words and ugly math stuff in every post, he's simply a smart guy who writes well enough so that people of any baseball-IQ level can read and understand.

MLBTR reports that The Jays had an apparent interest in Jose Reyes during the offseason.  They of course already have Yunel Escobar, but maybe (theorizing here...) they would have sent Hill to 3B, and move either Escobar or Reyes (probably Reyes, who is worse defensively) to 2B?  I dunno, AA was probably just "kicking the tires," as AA always says. (update- I accidentally clicked on the live chat on fangraphs when my dog jumped on the trackpad on my laptop, and I happened to see this as the first thing that popped up half an hour in to the chat:

Comment From JT Is Reyes so much better than Yunel Escobar that the Jays would be wise to acquire, or was that AA doing due diligence and kicking all tires?

 12:22 Matt Klaassen: I'm not sure it makes sense for the Jays to get him just for the rest of the season unless they're sure they can sign him. He's better than Yunel, but how much are the Jays willing to pay for 1 win extra? Maybe they're thinking they can move one of them to second (bye-bye Aaron Hill)? I'd guess just due diligence, but AA has surprised us before.

Speaking of Fangraphs, this article makes very little sense.  Thanks to Pudge714 on the twoplustwo forums MLB Regular season thread (excellent baseball discussion btw, except for the odd moron) for pointing this conclusion out:

Maybe he’ll continue this streak, bring his wOBA up to .420 or so, and then cool back down and stay at the .386 level. Maybe he’ll cool down in the next few games and settle at around .363, as he did last year. There’s no real way to tell, given the information we currently have available.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe you shouldn't bother writing an article if that's what your conclusion is.

Looks like the Mets are selling a minority share of the team for $200MM to a group from Greenlight Capital. That's a da spicy meatball.

Brandon Morrow and Phil Humber today, as the White Sox come to Toronto for a 3-game set.  Humber has been good so far this year, and Chicago stinks, so this should be a decent matchup.

  Lineups later immediately:

Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Thames DH
Davis CF
McDonald 3B
Morrow P

Whiteys



Pierre LF
Ramirez SS
Quentin RF
Konerko DH
Dunn 1B
Rios CF
Pierzynski C
Vizquel 3B
Beckham 2B
Humber P

That's it, let's trash the place

Right?  I dunno. It's not like that was a game that the Jays deserved to win or anything.  I mean, yeah, it was a blown save and a bullpen meltdown, but let's be honest about this game.  There was a 1-inning spurt of offense that was based around singles that just kind of randomly found holes, and that's about it.  CC Sabathia no-hit the Jays for the second half of the game.

Personally, I'd have left Romero in the game for the 8th, and remember thinking the same last night (so don't call me a hypocrite after yesterday's post).  My rationale was that, while effective, the Jays' bullpen has been very overworked, especially given the way Farrell used the bullpen after Villanueva came out on Monday.  That, and Romero is pitching about as well as anybody in the world right now.

Anyway, I'm still behind Frank Frank, no matter how average he's been, but I think the leash is getting a little shorter.  I'm ready to give him a bit of a pass since he's coming back from a pretty serious injury, though if that's the case, maybe he shouldn't see quite as many high-leverage situations as he does.  Given the fact that he threw 20 pitches in Monday's game, I'm not sure he should have been in there last night to begin with.  Frasor threw 23 in his inning on Monday, Rauch threw 29.  Which brings me to my next point.

Free Shawn Camp.  Where's that guy been anyway?  He's been arguably the Jays' best reliever over the last year and a half, and has taken care of high-leverage spots just fine for the most part.  You'd think that when your bullpen throws 7 innings (plus a spot start) in 2 games, your best reliever would probably be in there somewhere, but I guess not.  And it's not like Janssen HAD to come out of the game when he did.  He looked just fine, and is equally effective against LHB than Rzep is.  Just seems like kind of a fancy-pants strategy to be yanking guys left and right.

Meh, I'm over it.

Early game today.  Jojo Reyes pitches today, which obviously means that Jose Molina is batting 5th.  Wait a second. What?  Nope, I'm serious.  Thrilled.  Freddy Garcia goes for the Yankees.  Jose Bautista is a career 4 for 6 against Freddy, with 2 HR's and 3 walks.  It's a good job that Jose Molina is protecting the guy who's protecting Bautista.

Adam Lind was eligible to come off the 15-day DL today, but didn't.  He's still a few days away, but will begin a rehab assignment either today or tomorrow.

Retroactive Zaun-heads:  Ricky Romero for yesterday, Carlos Villanueva for Monday (5IP, 2 hits in a spot start), Yunel Escobar for Sunday (2 for 3 with 2 walks), and Jose Bautista for Saturday (2 HR's), and Aaron Hill (3 for 4, isn't Jojo Reyes).  That's a lot of forgets in a row.

Lineups

Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Rivera 1B
Molina C
Hill 2B
Thames DH
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Pitching: Reyes

Yankees
Jeter SS
Granderson CF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Martin C
Swisher RF
Jones LF
Nunez 3B
Pitching: Garcia

Jays vs. Yankees- May 24

Oh, right.  I have a blog.  Forgot for a second.

Jose Bautista hit a homer yesterday, and JP Arencibia continued to be excellent.  Carlos Vanillanueva went and threw 5 successful but boring innings, and the Jays improved to a slightly-better-than-.500 record.  It's been announced that Villy has earned himself another start, coming up on Saturday against the White Sox, so that sounds good.

And tonight... holy cow.  Ricky Romero and CC Sabathia?  In the same game?  With Edwin Encarnacion in the lineup?  Um, I'm ready for this.

By the way, about the lineup configuration and revolving door of cleanup batters, and this one's been covered by practically every Jays' blogger out there, but what the shit was up with (1) Yunel batting 4th, and (2) having him bunt?  I mean, he's been swinging the bat really well, so moving him to 4th behind Bautista isn't all that bad, though I would much rather have him leading off where he was in order to have someone on base for Bautista, but don't fucking bunt with him.  The worst part of this is that it worked, and led to a 5 run inning.  Well.  That's not the worst part, because 5-run innings are good.  I'm talking more about the fact that Farrell tried something that was pretty fucking stupid, and it actually worked out swimmingly.

As a poker player, there's something that you're supposed to keep in mind when playing, and that is that bad decisions can work out well, and good decisions can have poor results, but no matter the result, you should still make the best decision possible, and a decision isn't necessarily a good one simply because the result was a positive one.

That is to say, just because you found a golden toilet seat to replace your wax paper one, thanks to your decision to jump off a bridge, that doesn't necessarily make jumping off a bridge smart.  For example: Pinch-hitting John Mcdonald for Jose Bautista wouldn't ever be a good idea, even if Mcdonald hit a base-clearing triple, unless you had the clairvoyance that proved the ability to know said triple was coming.  So stop it.

And yeah, Escobar is back up top tonight.  Good.  JP up to 5th.  Also good.  Hill batting 6th.  Good. Edwin back in the lineup at DH.  Bad.

According to Bryan Hoch (@bryanhoch on twitter), Rafael Soriano has been shut down indefinitely with shoulder problems, and is headed to see the dreaded Dr. James Andrews.
Lineups

Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Encarnacion DH
Davis CF
McDonald 3B

Pitching: Romero

Jeter DH
Granderson CF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Martin C
Swisher RF
Gardner LF
Nunez SS

Pitching: Sabathia

My weekend

I got drunk.  I slept in my girlfriend's car last night.  It was fucking cold.  So that's why there has been nothing for the last couple days. I can say with a degree of certainty that I both smell like bonfires, and have yet to shower today as of now (~3:00pm)

I hear some guy hit 2 homeruns while I was gone, but some really bad team came in and took 2 out of 3?  Not sure how I feel about this whole thing.

I seriously can't be assed to write anything extraordinary today, what with the hangover and the I-haven't-seen-them-yettedness of yesterday's games.  What I do know is that the Jays had no business winning Saturday's game, but had no reason to lose Friday's, so it's a bit of a trade-off I guess.  I would expect to have things back to normal tomorrow as far as getting things written goes.  We're closing in on game #50 of the season, so I'll probably have some kind of "Oh Boy, a round number!" report card kind of thing. Or not, I dunno.

Carlos Villanueva gets a start tonight in place of the injured Jesse Litsch, who won't pitsch for at least 2 weeks with a shoulder impingement or something.  Litsch did have Tommy John surgery recently enough that this is probably a thing that they will be careful about.  Fartolo Colon goes for the Yankees.

Lineups aren't up yet, but I probably won't add them later because I'm tired.  Get your own damn lineups.

Ugh

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Hill 2B
Rivera 1B
Davis CF
Thames DH
McDonald 3B
Molina C
Pitching: Morrow



Bourn CF
Sanchez 2B
Pence RF
Lee DH
Wallace 1B
Johnson 3B
Barmes SS
Bogusevic LF
Quintero C
Pitching: Myers

See? It's not all bad

How about Ricky Romero going out there and sweeping that 5 error performance under the rug?  This guy is such a stud.  That outing was definitely worthy of a Zaunny.  By the way, if you somehow missed it, Ricky and JP Arencibia dedicated this game to a 3 year old boy named Ryley Martin, who died the other day.  They had met him opening weekend, and he was suffering from leukemia.  Both really picked up their games, last night, Ricky by pitching a second straight gem, and JP by hitting a 2-run HR, and scoring the eventual game winner.  Had they not both dedicated this game to Ryley, things would be normal, but they both did, and they both performed; they both get Zaun-heads.

That was a pretty decent ball game if you ask me.  I mean yeah, they let Wade Davis get in to the 7th inning having thrown only 62 pitches or something nonsensical like that, but I love me a good pitchers duel, so hey.  Wouldn't have minded if they'd let him throw a pitch here or there instead of just swangin' at everything as if they were a big team fulla Ruths or something.  Jose Bautista had about as bad a 2-game set as he knows how, but fortunately, Houston is in town for three games, so it's all good.

Oh, so you did notice?  Yes, it is the beginning of the fancy-pants, unnecessary inter-league games.  Such a joke if you ask me.  Either do away with the unbalanced schedule, or don't do inter-league play.  It was a novelty when it first happened like 10 years ago, but nobody cares now.  There's even less of a rivalry between every single matchup, save for the Chicago teams, NY teams, LA teams and the odd other matchup.  And in order for those to happen, other teams have to play each other, leading to snoozers like Toronto-Houston, or Detroit-Pittsburgh.  Boooo, nobody cares.

Having said all of that, Jojo Reyes goes for Toronto.  I've been waiting for him to be cut for a while now, but he's actually pitched well in each of his last two outings, and now is facing Houston, which bodes fairly well for him.  Aneury Rodriguez sounds like a guy who would not make any other rotation, but he is starting for Houston tonight.  They've lost 5 in a row, while the Jays have won 7 of their last 8.

And hey, remember yesterday when John Farrell said that the Jays would play both Juan Rivera and Edwin Encarnacion at first base until Adam Lind comes back?  And then Edwin sucked?  And then he said (I paraphrase here) "Edwin will still play, but Rivera gets the start tonight.  This has nothing to do with Edwin sucking balls at defense"?  Yeah, Rivera plays at first again tonight.  So yeah.  I'm not exactly sure how everybody in AA and AAA is doing, but the days of that pipedream of turning Edwin in to a compensation pick are drawing to a close.  Of course, it's only two games, so we shouldn't read a whole bunch in to this.  But oh boy, can't we just have this dream for a second?

Apparently Adam Lind is set to resume baseball activities tomorrow, so I guess we should see him in about a week.

Around the League
Roy Halladay pitches tonight vs. Texas.  He is truly excellent.

The Chicago Cubs play in Boston at Fenway for the first time tonight since 1918.  That's kind of neat I guess, but still, fuck interleague.

Last night in Oakland, Tyson Ross lasted only 7 pitches before pulling out of the game with an injury. Former Jay David Purcey came in pitched pretty decently and actually kept the A's in this one for a while, until the Twins put up 6 in the 7th and won 11-1.

Some guy that I've never heard of is 3-0 for the NY Mets.  Dillon Gee brought a no-hitter in to the 6th, apparently, as the Mets won 1-0 over Washington.

Jason Giambi steroided again last night after a several year break off the juice.  He hit 3 HR's and had 7 RBI, as Colorado beat Philadelphia 7-1.

Finally, and this has nothing to do with baseball, Macho Man Randy Savage died yesterday, suffering a heartattack while driving.  A quick Zaun head to him.  And I suppose that if I'm giving him one, I should also be giving one to both Mel Queen and Harmon Killebrew.

Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Hill 2B
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Thames DH
Davis CF
Nix 3B

Pitching: Reyes

Astros
Bourn CF
Barmes SS
Pence RF
Lee DH
Michaels LF
Downs 1B
Johnson 3B
Hall 2B
Towles C

Pitching: Rodriguez

Okay let's relax

I mean, yeah.  5 errors is a lot, and that kind of game is the kind that's going to give a fan some headaches.  It was a good effort to make the comeback, but having (eventually) watched this game after hearing that they were down 6-0 and had made 4 errors, I honestly thought it was going to look way worse than it was (Fuck... did Bautista get an error for hitting the base with the ball?  The odds of that.... and then for that to lead to another error?  Give me a break).

But there are a couple of things I do want to point out about this team.  The first is that when this team is winning in a a year or two, Jesse Litsch is pretty unlikely to be tossing the meatballs to Matt Joyce (which, by the way, doesn't appear on Pitchf/x for me), let alone making throwing errors.  And if he is pitching, then he's probably going to have to improve a hell of a lot.

Next, this team is worse than what the results have shown.  With Jose Bautista being worth like a billion wins, and pitchers not named Ricky or Brandon throwing 3 out of 5 days, plus injuries, the Snider and Cecil demotions, etc., well, to be perfectly honest, I'm thrilled to see a .500 record on this club.  I mean Jojo fucking Reyes pitches every 5th day.  There's a reason that a lot of people think this team is going to get good within the next few years: it's because they are, in fact, going to get good within the next few years.  Have you noticed these little conveniently placed "farm report" things on the Jays telecasts this year?  The ones that have never been there before in any other year?  It's not really a coincidence that the Jays (Anthopoulos) focus on improving this team via the farm system (draft, international signings, trades), then the Jays suddenly have a top-5 ranked farm system, and suddenly we get to know these guys who are down there.

Know who else managed to make a throwing error playing first base?  Edwin!  And you know what?  He'll be gone soon too.  We're going to be seeing these farm guys soon, but until then, there's going to be the odd game that a shit-baller starts, or that Jose Bautista doesn't go 4-5 with 2 HR's, or 5 errors get made.  This kind of thing happens from time to time, and to better teams than this one.  I'm not really all that interested on breaking the internet every time it happens.  Granted, they came back and made it interesting, so hey.  And let's not forget that they had won like 6 in a row last week.

Some Adam Lind news for you: despite saying that he felt good like a week ago, Adam Lind will apparently need somewhere in the area of 10 more days before returning, and is a week away from any game action (which would be rehab assignments, not MLB time).  That's a far cry from this past weekend, where he said that he was surprised to be held out of the lineup on Friday. Then there was that time earlier this week when he was placed on the DL retroactive 9 days so that he'd only be out a few more days.

What's going on tonight, anyway?  Just Ricky Romero, no big deal.  And that means that Matt Joyce might be held out under control, since that dude doesn't hit lefties well at all.  Big fucking relief the way he's been lately.  And hey, remember the last time Romero pitched?  Sure, it was against Minnesota, but still.  Wade Davis pitches for Tampa.  He's ok I guess.

Juan Rivera gets the start at first base tonight.  Farrell said in an interview with someone that this was unrelated to EE's adventures at 1B last night, but who believes that noise?

Lineups:

Jays
Escobsar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Hill 2B
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Thames DH
Davis CF
Nix 3B

Pitching: Romero

Rays

Zobrist RF
Damon DH
Longoria 3B
Joyce LF
Upton CF
D.Johnson 1B
Rodriguez 2B
Brignac SS
Shoppach C

Pitching: Davis

Oh good, not rain

Not raining today.  Eric Thames makes his major league debut.  Good luck kid.  Fat Murray Hewitt goes tonight against Jeremy Hellickson.  If you're mad that I'm recycling the Fat Murray gag from yesterday's post, I've got two words for you.

Lineups:

Jays


Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Hill 2B
Encarnacion 1B
Arencibia C
Thames DH
Davis CF
Nix 3B
P: Litsch


Rays

Fuld LF
Zobrist 2B
Damon DH
Longoria 3B
Joyce RF
Upton CF
Kotchman 1B
E. Johnson SS
Jaso C

P: Hellickson

We're going streaking

Through the quadruple game-win streak and in to the gymnasium of six-game win streaks.  A six-gamer feels so good when it touches your lips.

Alright, quick recap:  Jose Bautista completely ruined his slugging percentage last night by only going 2-for-5 with 2 singles.  I'm pretty sure he broke his wonderbat, the one that he carved out of a branch that almost struck him that time he locked himself out of the house, while shielding himself with a large piece of sheet metal, under the biggest tree he could find during a lightning storm (that's a poorly written tv reference).

For a change, this was a pretty balanced effort out of the Jays, scattering 12 hits across the board.  Aaron Hill had 2 hits, as did Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Yunel Escobar, who also walked and had a sac fly (not to mention a little D), enough to get a Zaun head.

Kyle Drabek went 7 innings, allowing just 3 hits against a streaking Tigers offense.  The only problem is the fact that he walked 6 guys, striking out just 2, and he threw 113 pitches, to which I say the following:

Seriously, Farrell?  You've got 8 fucking guys in your bullpen and you send a rookie who leads the league in walks out to pitch in a tie game after he's thrown 100+?  Come on dude. Glad this worked, but you're going to have a mutiny on your hands here soon.

Anyway, I'd like to point out that, despite only allowing 3 hits, Drabek was not good yesterday.  The fact that he only gave up 1 run is a minor miracle.  He threw 113 pitches, and only 58 for strikes.  I really can't believe that he got sent out for the 7th, and I can't believe he stayed out there after the leadoff walk.  Heck of an infield defence though with Johnny Mac at 3rd.  Drabek's fip was 4.94 last night.  You got some dinners to buy kid.

So yeah, Drabek's thrown 915 pitches so far this season over 9 starts and 50.0 innings.  That's averaging 101 pitches a start, and 18.3 per inning.  Brandon Morrow threw 2519 over 146 innings last year (17.2 per) and was shut down early, though that was his first full season as a starter.  Still, Drabek is a future ace pitcher (as in NOT a current ace), let's try treating him that way please.

The Jays will try and make it 7 straight tonight against Rick Porcello.  Fat Murray Hewitt goes for the good guys (that's a moderately well written tv reference).

Around the League


Do you guys remember Kevin Gregg?  You should.  He walked 2 guys and then Adrian Gonzalez hit a double off the green monster to complete the squandering of a 5-0 lead for the Orioles.

Do you guys remember Shaun Marcum?  You should.  He's a good pitcher.  He went 7 innings allowing only 5 hits and 1 run, striking out 4 and lowering his ERA to 2.54.  John Garland was almost as good for the Dodgers in a losing effort, but this game was really all about defense.  Link to the gameday videos.

Tim Lincecum was really good through 4 innings last night.  Too bad he pitched the 5th and 6th innings too, and gave up 7 runs.  Carlos Gonzalez hit a 3-run homer to put Colorado up for good.

And Royals' Manager Ned Yost almost certainly ruined a young pitcher's life last night.  Kyle Davis only last a few batters before being pulled with an injury.  Nathan Adcock then came in and allowed a couple runs (2 charged to Davies), before being pulled for Vin Mazzaro.  Mazzaro was supposed to start tonight, but rather than running through the entire bullpen, Yost chose to send Mazzaro in and try to find someone else to start tonight's game.  Mazzaro proceeded to 14 runs over 11 hits and 3 walks over 2.1 innings, including 10 in the 4th inning.  MAZZARO THEN CAME BACK OUT TO PITCH THE 5TH INNING.  Get serious Ned.

Coupla little things
John Farrell was named as an assistant coach to Ron Washington's AL All-star team today.  Good news for him.

Franklin Guttierez is scheduled to catch a plane today and return to the Mariners lineup before this weekend.  It remains uncertain whether he will make a diving catch with a glove, or simply board the plane and not literally physically catch it. (You see, I worded that phrase that way intentionally, since he's pretty good at defense.)  Apparently the Mariners are also thinking of moving Dustin Ackley to the big club.  Prospect Porn!

Twins Hall of famer Harmon Killebrew died this morning after entering hospice care less than a week ago.  He was 74.

Dallas Braden is out for the rest of the season with shoulder problems.


Lineups:
Jays


Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Encarnacion 1B
Hill 2B
Arencibia C
Thames DH
Nix 3B
Davis CF

Pitching: Litsch

Tylers

Jackson CF
Dirks LF
Boesch RF
Cabrera 1B
Martinez DH
Peralta SS
Avila C
Sizemore 2B
Inge 3B

Pitching: Porcello

May 16- Jays vs. Tigers

Quickly now, I probably could have mentioned earlier, but Jose Bautista got the Zaun head last night.  Big fucking surprise, right?  So yeah, good for him.

Remember the other day when I told you that Adam Lind was pencilled in to play Friday in Minnesota, but then it turned out I was lying?  Then I told you that he'd probably play tonight?  Well I was lying again.  He's out of the lineup one mo' 'gin.  Apparently he thought he was playing (so he might be available to pinch hit at some point tonight? Please?) up until a few hours ago.  Mike Rutsey of the Toronto Sun first broke this one as far as I can tell.  Story here.  I guess this means that Juan Rivera and Edwin are both still in my god damn lineup.  Fuck.

Looks like Grady Sizemore has gone ahead and ruined his other leg, and has been placed on the 15-day DL.  That guy was actually pretty good like 4 years ago when he played.

The Houston Astros officially got sold today.  Some guy, I dunno.

The Cincinnati Reds are pretending that Aroldis Chapman is hurt, and have placed him on the disabled list as well.  Not sure why they don't just option him to AAA, but either way, he's gone from brilliantly talented to Brian Tallet in like a week.

Albert Pujols got pitched at last by Francisco Cordero.  It almost got him in the face, but hit his wrist ultimately.  This wasn't too unlike that team earlier this year where Jose Bautista got beaned in the hand actually.

Kyle Drabek takes to the mound tonight for Toronto.  He's up against Max Scherzer in a matchup that will be really entertaining in like a years time, but both are certainly passable.  Rajai Davis hits 8th tonight.  I dunno, if he's going to be down low in the order, put him in the 9 hole.  I don't want people on base for John Mcdonald, I want them on base for Jose Bautista.

Lineups:
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Encarnacion 1B
Hill 2B
Rivera DH
Arencibia C
Davis CF
Mcdonald 3B

Pitching: Drabek

Tigers
Jackson CF
Dirks LF
Boesch RF
Cabrera 1B
Martinez DH
Peralta SS
Avila C
Inge 3B
Santiago 2B

Pitching: Scherzer

The Best Player in Baseball

There he is folks.  And he's wearing the right color on his jersey too.  That's always really convenient.  It would be pretty neat if people were on base in front of him, but hey.

Oh, and if somehow you've been vacationing off the planet until this morning, Jose Bautista hit 3 more homeruns yesterday, bringing his total up to 16 for the season.  There's something to be said about that: the year that Barry Bonds hit a record 73 HR's in a season, he had 15 at this exact point in the season.  Want more?  Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau have a combined 5 career homeruns at Target field over the last season and a quarter since it's been opened.  Jose Bautista had 5 THIS SERIES, and has 7 in 5 games.  Similar to The Rogers Centre Skydome, Target Field has a nice dark backdrop behind the CF fence (in other words, it's easy for hitters to pick up the ball out of the pitcher's hand), you just have to hit the ball far to get it out of the park since it's so big.  Fortunately, Bautista does, in fact, hit the ball far.

Care for some post-game quotes? Done.

Adam Lind said:

"He doesn’t swing at their pitch ever.  You’re witnessing the best Blue Jay ever.”

Maybe a bit of a stretch (Alomar, Fernandez, Delgado, HALLADAY?!?!?!?), but shit, he's certainly doing okay.  I think I'd need a bit more of this performance to grant him GOAT status.

John Farrell:

“The second home run, it’s an 0-2 pitch.  It’s a ball in, not on the plate and yet he’s able to get the barrel on the ball and drive it out of the ball park.  The one thing he’s doing, he not only has an awareness of the strike zone, he’s seeing the ball exceptionally well, he’s disciplined and he’s obviously playing with a heck of a lot of confidence right now.”

Michael Cuddyer:

"He’s turned himself into the best hitter in the game, as far as I’m concerned. It’s pretty amazing. Every single ball he hits, whether it’s a foul ball or whatever, is right on the barrel. To me it looks like he’s used one bat the whole season. It’s unbelievable. Words can’t describe what he looks like at the plate right now.” 

Finally, and most awesomely, Twins' Manager Ron Gardenhire:

“Every time we made a mistake, he put it in the seats." 

So I got that goin' for me.  More on him later.

Brandon Morrow, again, threw a fuckton of pitches over 5 innings.  He was sharp early, as usual, but threw 50+ pitches over his last two innings.  Still, 8 strikeouts over 5 is good.  I feel like he's pretty close to where he wants to be, but isn't quite right yet.  Those really fun Brandon Morrow outings where he just makes guys look like complete buffoons are on the way folks.

After the game, the Jays activated Jayson Nix, and optioned David Cooper back down to AAA Las Vegas, and I am completely indifferent.  Adam Lind is due back today, which will send either Corey Patterson, Juan Rivera, or Edwin Encarnacion to the bench (probably in some sort of systematic rotational thing).

To be perfectly honest, I'd rather see John McDonald play every day at 3rd considering how bad EE and Rivera have proven themselves to be, and how bad Corey Patterson actually is/will be when he regresses to his actual talent level.  My expectation is for Patterson to continue playing everyday, given the way he's played recently.  I mean, it's not like Edwin (-.6 WAR) and Rivera (.1 WAR) are doing anything to prove that they belong.  Patterson and McDonald are actually contributing in some way, Patterson with the bat, and Johnny Mac with the glove (though fallible humanoids would probably point to Johnny Mac's 2 HR's and say "hey man, Mac's hitting the ball well."  News for you: no he isn't).

The only team hotter than the Blue Jays right now is the Detroit Tigers, who the Jays happen to play next.  If you choose to remember last week, before the current 5 game winning streak, you'll remember that the Tigers pretty much decimated the Jays over a 4 game set in Toronto.  This one's a 2-gamer in Detroit.

Links: The Jose Bautista Version
When Jose Bautista signed his contract extension this summer, a lot of people were really concerned that the Jays just signed the Vernon Wells contract, version 2.0, just a few days after having moved version 1.
The Wells contract is a whole new can of worms that I'm not interested in getting in to, but Bautista's contract is not anywhere near that bad, even if Jose were to regress big time.

Basically, Jose Bautista, and his $8MM salary for this season, needs to be worth just shy of 2 WAR this season for the Jays to break even on their deal.  Given that Bautista, so far, through 40 games (he's played 32) has been worth an astonishing 3.9WAR, I think the Jays are probably going to get their money's worth this season.  There's more to contract value than that, but that's the gist of it.

Dave Cameron from Fangraphs wrote a piece about Bautista's value to the team from a monetary view. And it's good if you're a Jays fan. Here's a quick taste:

"I doubt any GM has ever had a better off-season than than the one the Blue Jays young GM just had."

MLBTR looks at the extension in the same fashion Dave does.

Dustin Parkes over at Getting Blanked compares Bautista to other players, and other teams, and tries to justify his earlier comments about this contract being bad.  Basically, he's telling us not to get ahead of ourselves and assume that Bautista is going to be this good for the duration of the contract, and that there wasn't really any reason to go out and spend this much at this point, especially when these extra wins that Bautista is putting up mean less to a team that, in all likelihood, isn't going to use them to get to the playoffs in the AL East with the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays all offering much better competition.  Look at the "Marginal Wins" section from my "Stats" page for more about what (I think) he's referring to.

Zack Sanders compares Bautista's 2011 so far with the start of the greatest offensive season ever, Barry Bonds' 2001.

So yeah, dude knows what he's doing.

More later.

Update: Holy shit, does Dave Cameron have a hard-on for Bautista or what?  At least this is modestly entertaining: Chuck Norris-style Jose Bautista Facts... Oh wait a second, these are all true.

SBNation's Jeff Sullivan looks at the "True landing spots" of JB's homeruns since the start of last season.  Careful... there's a few graphs.  This is something Sullivan wrote about a month ago that shows us that Jose is getting a lot fewer pitches in the strike zone.

From a Pirates blog, talking about the decision and fan reactions from the fateful trade that sent Robinzon Diaz to Toronto in exchange for some scrub.

The Toronto Star's Richard Griffin gives us a poorly kept secret about Bautista.

Beyond the Boxscore has a really funny looking, mildly confusing graph.

Too hung over and tired.  All I have for you is this:

Yesterday's Zauner goes to JP btw.  Naturally, he gets the day off today. High fives.

Lineups:
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Encarnacion 1B
Hill 2B
Rivera DH
Davis CF
McDonald 3B
 Molina C

Pitching: Morrow!

Tweens
Span CF
Plouffe SS
Kubel DH
Morneau 1B
Young LF
Cuddyer RF
Valencia 3B
Butera 1B
Casilla 2B

Pitching: Duensing

Ricky Rom-hero

What a boss. 8.2IP, 4 hits, 3 walks, no runs, a Zaun head, obviously, and just simply making batters look bad.  Carl Pavano, on the other hand, went threw about a jillion pitches and several baserunners over 5 innings, but magically didn't give up any runs. Jose Bautista continued to amaze, going 3 for 4 with a walk and a homer.  That dude is so stellar.

Adam Lind didn't play yesterday after being penciled in a few hours before the game, and it doesn't look like he'll be in the lineup today either for the afternoon game.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was due to the weather in Minnesota (cold and rainy), which would be bad for a tight back.  But what do I know?

Jojo Reyes gets the start for Toronto today.  He's actually turned down the suck in his last 2 starts.  Maybe he's figured it out?  Doubt it.  But still, he's a lefty who can throw low-90's heat, so he's going to get infinite chances in the bigs.  I still prefer Brett Cecil.

Couple things from yesterday:

Roger Bernardina made what may be the best catch I've ever seen last night, though my cousin Josh made a good one in peewee where he mashed his head on the fence and knocked himself silly, but robbed a grand slam so it was worth it.  I do not have video evidence of that catch though, so deal with it.

Brandon League balanced out his hot start with 3 blown saves in the last 5 days.  He gave up a 3-run walkoff shot to Travis Hafner in the 9th for the Mariners in their 5-3 loss.  Having said that, this shows that he gets squeezed more than any pitcher in the league (or just throws a lot of balls?).  It makes me happy inside to think that the Jays (see: Alex Anthopoulos) turned League in to Brandon Morrow.

Speaking of walking off, Canada's own Joey Votto had a walk-off RBI single in extras for the Reds yesterday, as they won 6-5 against St Louis.  They scored a run in the bottom of the 9th to tie it too.

This is funny:

Basically, Arizona's affinity for hitting pitchers has resulted in a better offensive output than 2 starters for the Twins.  That's how bad the Twins offense is without Joe Mauer.

I could probably come up with more to write but I'm hungover and don't feel like it, so I'll finish with this piece that details a dispute between the league and player's union about draft slot bonuses.  If I understand the system correctly, there is a maximum salary that a newly drafted player can make in a season, but there is nothing stopping a team from offering a signing bonus to ensure that a player signs a contract when drafted.  Stephen Strasburg, for example, got a record $15.1MM signing bonus 2 years ago.

The dispute between the MLB and the MLBPA is about the MLB's desire for a standardized bonus based on draft slot, as opposed to an open-ended system that is currently in place. The MLB has a recommended signing bonus for each pick, but a lot of guys who are drafted out of highschool in the 3rd round or later get offers much higher than what is recommended by the MLB in order to get them to sign, similar to what 1st and 2nd rounders get, with the hopes of encouraging them to forgo college ball. Basically, this whole dispute is the MLB's way of trying to avoid giving unproven players $15 Million before they play a professional game.

Early game today, with a 4:00 ET start.

Lineups
Jays

Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Rivera DH
Hill 2B
Arencibia C
Cooper 1B
McDonald 3B
Davis CF

Pitching: Reyes

Twangs

Span CF
Plouffe SS
Kubel DH
Morneau 1B
Young LF
Cuddyer RF
Valencia 3B
Hughes 2B
Rivera C

Pitching: Blackburn

May 13- Jays vs. Twins: Go Ricky

Ricky Romero takes to the hill tonight against the Twins, who will throw Carl Pavano at us.  The Jays took 3 of 4 from Minnesota to start the season, and Minnesota really sucks so far this year, so these are good news items.  Yesterday was an offday, which explains why I'm previewing tonight's game already.

As of right now, it looks like Adam Lind will play tonight.  If you've been under a rock for the last week, he's been out with back spasms, but is apparently set to return, playing DH.  Juan Rivera takes first, apparently...  Jayson Nix is scheduled to return from the 15-day DL on Sunday.
**update** Aaaand Adam Lind is scratched.  EE at 1st, Rivera at DH.

Other than that... don't really have much for ya.  Couple links I guess:

Bluebird Banter has a piece about Kyle Drabek's makeup.

Here's something that questions the Carl Pavano signing of this past offseason.

Just how clutch can some people be?  Apparently about as clutch as a puck to the head. (Note: that is not what the actual thesis of this post is.)  But really, this is a pretty good post that shows that the whole concept of "clutch hitting" is pretty much a small sample size taken too seriously.

Not sure how I missed this the other day, but the White Sox scored the winning run in the 10th inning the other night on a  wild pitch during an attempted intentional walk.  Serious, man?  Still not as bad as this one though. Know what else I missed the other day?  From the same game?  Jake Peavy came back and pitched 6 solid innings, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, striking out 4 and walking none.  Good for him.

The Palm Beach Post reports that Hanley Ramirez, who's been slumping all year long so far, has said in an interview "By May 30, I will have seven homers. And I'll be batting .290. You better take a picture. Write it down."  He has 2 HR and is batting .217 to this point.  Good luck kid.

Here is a video of Cardinals pitcher Kyle Lohse handing in the lineup card for the Cards while impersonating manager Tony Larussa, who has missed the last few games due to health concerns.

Around the League


Carlos Beltran hit 3 2-run homers yesterday, one to each field, as the Mets beat up on Ubaldo Jimenez, who is performing less than admirably considering the year he had last year.  Beltran's performance yesterday might be convincing enough to get some team to take a flyer on him as a deadline acquisition, which would open up some much needed payroll flexibility for the Mets.

Jaime Garcia is still crushing, improving to 5-0 yesterday after another good effort, going 7 innings allowing 9 hits and just 1 run.  Matt Holiday hit another homerun and Colby Rasmus went 3 for 5 in a 9-1 win.

Eric Hosmer hit another homerun in the 6-run second inning for the Royals, as they beat the Yankees 11-5.  The Yanks scored 4 in the 5th inning to make it look less embarrassing, but this game was ugly through and through.

Finally, some sad news. Former Jays pitching coach Mel Queen died yesterday.  He was 69. Former Twins slugger and all-time American League HR leader Harmon Killebrew has also announced that his fight against cancer is coming to a close as he's entered hospice care.

Lineups:

Jays

Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Rivera DH
Hill 2B
Arencibia C
Encarnacion 1B
McDonald 3B
Davis CF

Pitching: Romero


Twins

Span CF
Plouffe SS
Kubel DH
Morneau 1B
Young LF
Cuddyer RF
Valencia 3B
Hughes 2B
Butera C

Pitching: Pavano

Holy Cow!

Yeah, safe.  Cool right?  9 runs.  Against the best team ever.  Holy shit that was joy to watch.  Though, to be honest, we can thank Terry Francona for this one.  He opted to leave John Lackey in there for what seemed like 4 days too long.  Farrell would have yanked him in the 4th inning I'm sure (rightly so).  I mean, he wasn't (read: isn't) very good last night (read: ever anymore).

And holy bottom of the order production Batman.  The 7-8-9 batters for Toronto went 6-for-10 with a walk,  6 RBI and 5 runs scored.  Johnny Mac was trending on twitter last night, and deservedly so, after hitting a solo shot and a 2-run double in the 5-run 7th, earning himself a Zaun-head.  Oh but wait, Rajai Davis went 4-for-4 with 2 steals and 2 runs scored, ALSO EARNING A ZAUN HEAD! Oh my god the carnage.  Two Zaun heads, I can't even believe it.  But seriously, both of those guys deserved it, because they both played a hell of a game.  I didn't know who to give it to, so I asked Gregg Zaun on twitter who he thought deserved it.  At first he said Johnny Mac, but then asked if they could share it.  Yes.  They can share it. (I'm @alexgrady80 if you're not following me, he's @greggzaun.  If you're on twitter and not following Gregg Zaun, you're seriously doing it wrong.)

And let's not forget about ole Gingerballs.  He went out and pitched pretty decently, going 5.2 innings allowing 6 hits and 3 runs.  That HR he gave up to Adrian Gonzalez was, surprise surprise, on a decent pitch down and away, and I'm not sure any other hitter in the majors hits that ball out of the park.  The fact that this game was played in The Rogers Centre The Skydome didn't really help hold that ball in either, but hey, Adrian Gonzalez is good at baseball.

It's an offday today.  Boring, right?  Sucks that this was only a 2-gamer, the way the Jays played these last two games, especially after the shitkicking the Tigers delivered.  At least Minnesota shows up tomorrow.  They've been fucking awful so far this year, and Joe Mauer is out of the lineup, so that's good news, from a Jays standpoint anyway.  Twinkie Town has more on the sad state that this offense is in.

Around the League


San Diego doubled their season output (not really) by scoring 8 runs in the 8th off Milwaukee pitching, winning 13-6.  They were up 5-0 after the top of the third, only to lose that lead when Milwaukee scored 2 in the 4th, 3 in the 5th and 1 more in the 6th to go down 6-5.  Then Milwaukee's bullpen gave up 8 runs on 9 hits and a walk.  Good one.

Royals' super prospect Eric Hosmer hit his first career homerun in front of his friends and family, and then knocked in the game winning run in extra innings.  Here is a link to the video of an interview with his family (Bonus: AJ Burnett makes an error during said interview!), as well as a look at the HR and the RBI sac fly.

The Phillies won a wild won last night, bailing out Cliff Lee.  He gave up 3 runs over 6 innings, leaving with his team down 3-0.  The Phillies answered with 2 in the 7th, 1 in the 8th and 2 more in the 9th to secure a 5-3 win.

Coupla Links


Apparently they used fat from the body to repair a torn labrum in Bartolo Colon's shoulder last year.  Clearly not a lot though, amirite?  If this remains legal, this looks like it might be a breakthrough in terms of pitching arm surgery, given Colon's performance so far this year.  Apparently the doctor who performed the surgery likes to use HGH, which is banned by the MLB, so this might get investigated and outlawed in the future.

Kendrys Morales is out for the season, according to MLBTR via CBS sports.  He broke his ankle last year stomping on home plate after hitting a walk-off homerun, and will now require a second surgery.  Mark Trumbo has filled in quite well in Anaheim and appears to be the first baseman of the future, so I wouldn't be surprised if Morales' days in Anaheim were done.

And finally, Hong-Chi Kuo has been placed on the 15-day DL with anxiety problems, with people calling it another case of the yips, which is funny.  Yips is originally a term used in golf, where an otherwise good putter just can't make short putts, but it has eventually evolved in to a simple nervous twitchity mental mindfuck thing.  If anyone's been around baseball long enough to remember former Yankee's 2B Chuck Knoblauch getting boo'ed out of New York because he couldn't throw to first from 50 away, that was yips.  And of course, our own Gregg Zaun suffered from this too.  But look how awesome he turned out!

Hangin' with Mr Cooper

Well that was some fun now, wasn't it?  Maybe this Cooper kid isn't so bad after all.  A walk-off.  Against the Red Sox!

Holy crap a lot happened in this game (most of which I missed while watching Thor, which is was quite good, by the way), so let's recap this one with several short sentences:

Jon Lester stunk, but remained really classy the whole time.  Kyle Drabek still can't really find the strike zone with any real consistency.  Adrian Gonzalez is a good hitter.  Jose Bautista is better.  JP Arencibia continues to show that he should be playing everyday.  Yunel Escobar got hit with a ball and is probably out for the next game or two.  David Cooper served as a respectable replacement, earning a Zaun-head.  Rajai Davis is fast.

So with Yunel out day-to-day, and Adam Lind still out with no real certainty of a return time, but nobody going on the DL, and there being 8 people in the bullpen, it would appear that TOR will be going with a 1-man bench.  Breathe.  At least Jesse Litsch is pitsching tonight, so JP Arencibia should get the nod behind the plate, instead of being the oddly-chosen odd-man out.

Coupla Blue Jays related links for you:


Fangraphs wonders which MLB pitcher has the best "stuff".  Dave from Fangraphs does a live chat once a week, and someone asked if Brandon Morrow has the best "stuff" in the majors, which prompted him to just write an article about it.  I figured A-Rod probably has the best stuff since he has the most money, but I guess I misinterpreted the question.

When Milton Bradley got cut the other day from the Mariners (you know you're bad when...), The Mariners were technically cutting the cost of Carlos Silva, for whom they acquired Bradley last year.  This article in the Seattle Times examines the other expensive cuts over the last few years (Hint: there's a Blue Jay on this list!)  As an aside, Bradley was once traded for Andre Ethier, this blog's most mentioned non-Jay.

Jays beat writer Gregor Chisolm (@GregorMLB on twitter) writes that Travis Snider isn't ready to return to the bigs, and if Adam Lind goes to the DL, Snider won't be brought up (I'd expect that to be Mike Mccoy, especially with Yunel Escobar out a couple days after taking a ball to the shin-ankle thing).  Snider is hitting .425 in AAA through his first 10 games, and has a .511 OBP, but apparently isn't hitting for power, which is what we really want out of him.  Lind says that he's "feeling much better", but isn't sure when he will resume baseball activities.

And finally, in a piece that is about as minor as it gets, The Oakland A's optioned Jerry Blevins to AAA, and have called up Trystan Magnusson.  If that name sounds familiar, it's because he was traded from Toronto, along with Danny Farquarson (who turned in to David Purcey) for Rajai Davis this summer.

Around the League


Well Roy Halladay and Josh Johnson both really disappointed last night, didn't they?  Roy allowed 2 runs, 1 earned, and Josh Johnson allowed an earned run too.  Buncha scrubs.  I was expecting perfection.

Shaun Marcum kind of disappointed too, but I'm not sarcastic this time.  Clayton Richard only lasted 3.1 innings, allowing 8 runs (7 earned).  Marcum struck out 8 over 6 innings, but allowed 9 hits and 5 runs.  I dunno, it's the Padres man, you should be better than that.

Tim Lincecum and Ian Kennedy went out and saved the day though, both dummying the opposing lineups.  Kennedy went 8 shutout innings, allowing 4 hits and walking 3, with 8 K's.  Timmy, not to be outdone, went 8 shutout innings, also allowing 4 hits, but only walking 2 and striking out 9. (note: dayum)  Brian Wilson came in to pitch the 9th, allowing a walk and a hit, but no runs.  The giants answered in their half of the 9th by walking off on a Cody Ross double, capping off a great night of baseball.

Jesse Litsch pitsches tonight for Toronto, going up against John Lackey.  This one starts at 7 ET at the Rogers Centre Skydome.  This one's on Sportsnet 1, which I get at home.  And remember that day two weeks ago when I found out that I get that channel at home?  I also get AMC at home.  This just keeps getting better and better.