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