Yeah, I didn't blog today. Big whoop. Probably won't tomorrow either. Or the next day. I'm getting on a plane at the asscrack of dawn and going to Toronto until Monday, with the entire basis of the trip being to see Roy Halladay in all his glory. Most of today's slacking was due to my wanting to finish Ocarina of Time for the 18th time before leaving for Toronto, but I didn't get there. Still have the Gerudo Valley Temple and Ganon's castle left to go.
And with that, I wrote most of what I've got in the writing-things section of my brain. I guess the game started already, and Brandon Morrow looks pretty good thus far. I'm also enjoying my sight of Andrew Mccuthchen, one of, if not the most underrated player in baseball. For whatever it's worth, Shin Soo Choo (in any other season but this one) is 1 and 1a with Andrew in my books, and maybe Hunter Pence if he would swing/throw prettier.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Cecil up, Stewart down, and more
Ok there's a lot today, so shut your stupid fucking faces for a second.
First, the stupid Tigers can go jump in a fire and stay there. Congratulations on your stupid seeing-eye singles, it's a damn miracle that the Jays were in this game late. Adam Lind wins the Zaunny, tying himself with Jose Bautista and Ricky Romero for the season lead*.
*- I started this blog about a week after Jose Bautista's torrid start. I'm sure he'd have gotten another 4 or 5 during that span. And let's not forget that Ricky Romero only plays every 5th game. Maybe retroactive Zaun-heads is a project for a later date.
Secondly, everyone else is doing it, I may as well too: if you've never seen Eastbound and Down, but you don't know how to properly use the internet to download elite television, The Score is showing season 1 uncensored every Monday after wrasslin', so about 11:15ET. While we're on the subject, make fun if you please, but I still watch wrestling, though not as religiously as I did as a kid. It's mostly for CM Punk, who did this last night. If you ever liked wrestling as a kid, you should watch this. It's still real to me dammit.
Ok, now for the actual news: I guess the big one is that Zach Stewart has been optioned back to AA New Hampshire after making his third start last night. I don't think this is at all punishment or whatever for not performing well enough, because it's tough to expect a whole lot more from a guy in his first three starts. Cecil being the guy coming back is proof enough for me. More on that in a second, but first more about Stewart.
In back-to-back starts it just seemed like everything kind of found a hole, though the Atlanta game looked like he was having some control issues. Last night's start looked a lot better in terms of control, but balls in play just kept finding spots to fall. All things considered, he put together two decent starts with a babip of .421, and I'm sure that would have regressed back to a normal number over a larger sample, since he doesn't throw 40 MPH balls in the middle of the plate.
So right, Brett Cecil takes Stewart's place in the rotation. To me, this means that Cecil is ready to return and be the same guy that we saw last year, which is pretty muchthe guy who got away with being slightly better than average and got decent run support, but he's a lefty sooooo.... Jojo Reyes. Anyway, Cecil will pitch against the pirates Thursday, which is probably by design. As result, Carlos Villanueva will pitch July 2nd vs. the Phillies, opposite some Ray Holliday guy.
Travis Snider passed a bunch of concussion-related tests, and has been cleared to rejoin the AAA LV 51's on July 1st.
Jesse Litsch will have another rehab start tonight, upping his pitchcount to 60-65. I assume this means that he will have one more after this one, and will then rejoin the team about 10 days from now.
Finally, Edwin Encarnacion is day-to-day with the suck, but also apparently has a lower back strain. Yay!
First, the stupid Tigers can go jump in a fire and stay there. Congratulations on your stupid seeing-eye singles, it's a damn miracle that the Jays were in this game late. Adam Lind wins the Zaunny, tying himself with Jose Bautista and Ricky Romero for the season lead*.
*- I started this blog about a week after Jose Bautista's torrid start. I'm sure he'd have gotten another 4 or 5 during that span. And let's not forget that Ricky Romero only plays every 5th game. Maybe retroactive Zaun-heads is a project for a later date.
Secondly, everyone else is doing it, I may as well too: if you've never seen Eastbound and Down, but you don't know how to properly use the internet to download elite television, The Score is showing season 1 uncensored every Monday after wrasslin', so about 11:15ET. While we're on the subject, make fun if you please, but I still watch wrestling, though not as religiously as I did as a kid. It's mostly for CM Punk, who did this last night. If you ever liked wrestling as a kid, you should watch this. It's still real to me dammit.
Ok, now for the actual news: I guess the big one is that Zach Stewart has been optioned back to AA New Hampshire after making his third start last night. I don't think this is at all punishment or whatever for not performing well enough, because it's tough to expect a whole lot more from a guy in his first three starts. Cecil being the guy coming back is proof enough for me. More on that in a second, but first more about Stewart.
In back-to-back starts it just seemed like everything kind of found a hole, though the Atlanta game looked like he was having some control issues. Last night's start looked a lot better in terms of control, but balls in play just kept finding spots to fall. All things considered, he put together two decent starts with a babip of .421, and I'm sure that would have regressed back to a normal number over a larger sample, since he doesn't throw 40 MPH balls in the middle of the plate.
So right, Brett Cecil takes Stewart's place in the rotation. To me, this means that Cecil is ready to return and be the same guy that we saw last year, which is pretty much
Travis Snider passed a bunch of concussion-related tests, and has been cleared to rejoin the AAA LV 51's on July 1st.
Jesse Litsch will have another rehab start tonight, upping his pitchcount to 60-65. I assume this means that he will have one more after this one, and will then rejoin the team about 10 days from now.
Finally, Edwin Encarnacion is day-to-day with the suck, but also apparently has a lower back strain. Yay!
Monday, 27 June 2011
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
So yeah. That's a video that has nothing to do with anything, except "Sweeeeeeeeeeep" in the title reminds me of the "maybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" in that video, so there you go.
And speaking of poop back and forth, the Cardinals sucked this weekend. Like super sucked. The Jays go to Detroit for a game now to make up for a rainout from like 3 weeks ago or something, and then it's home for a couple series, first against the Pirates and then against the Phillies. I'll be heading up for the Philadelphia series with my girlfriend, and might not write a thing on here while I'm in Toronto, so fucking deal with it.
Anyway, Ricky Romero surprised nobody by being really dominant yesterday. Let's give him a present.
And you know what? I'm just fine with all the good pitching performances lately.
Moving on, it's Monday afternoon, which means that there's nothing on the internet yet, save for the odd picture or recap of a hilarious end to a game (there was a walk-off intentional walk wild-pitch last night), so I'll just rely on my go-to things:
The Elias rankings have been updated over at MLBTradeRumors. Aaron Hill has dropped from a Type-A to a Type-B in projections, and MLBTR has a small article here about why that's actually a good thing for the Jays, though they blatantly disregard the fact that a team with a protected pick could grab him for what is still a better haul. Basically, the system is broken, and sometimes mediocre players get Type-A status somehow (i.e. Carlos Pena this past season), in which a team wouldn't dream of offering arbitration since they would probably accept it.
Other Jays checking in as useful- Frasor, Frank, Dotel, Camp and Rauch are all type-B relievers, with Frasor being the 2nd highest ranked type-B. He could easily move to Type-A, as could Frank if he blows fewer saves. Jose Molina is no longer ranked as Type-B, but is the highest of the unranked. I doubt that will mean anything though, since he's old, sucks, and will probably accept arbitration (or retire) at the end of the year since nobody else could possibly want him.
Juan Rivera and Edwin Encarnacion have done themselves no favors, as they are still nowhere close to obtaining Type-B status. Corey Patterson's stock has fallen as well, going from "nowhere close" to "further away than Encarnacion". All other Jays are either still under team control next season, or are John Mcdonald/Jayson Nix, and thus have no bearing in this discussion.
The LA Dodgers (via owner/scumbag Frank Mccourt) have filed for bankruptcy. Mccourt is a piece of shit who bought the Dodgers a few years ago and has basically used the club as a personal credit card, draining all the assets out of the club to finance his lifestyle. The faster they get this out of his hands, the better. This is something I read about a week ago and think I forgot to link. If for nothing else, scroll down to the diagram and read the two paragraphs below it that explain.
And finally, Delmon Young turned a routine flyball in to this (click on the pic for a gif):
And now he's hurt.
Update- Gregg Zaun twitter analysis
Saturday, 25 June 2011
So I guess that slump is over huh?
Hey, so remember that time Jose Bautista slumped his whole way through June? A head for you, good sir.
And I have nothing else to write about. Other than Eric Thames coming in and being a total good sport about getting called up and batting second and scoring runs and stuff. Naturally, he gets shifted to the bench tonight, though Jaime Garcia is a lefty so I suppose it would make sense to get Juan Rivera in to the lineup, which forces Thames out, and Aaron Hill to the 2-hole for some reason.
OK, good luck.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Called that one
Eric Thames, back up to the big club, Mike Mccoy gets shipped away again. This clearly confirms that Blue Jays management reads my blog. I like to think that if Brett Lawrie or Travis Snider were healthy, it would be either of them coming up instead, but we're just working with what we have right now. Given that Thames is an outfielder, the corresponding move involved here is sending Jose Bautista back to 3B to make room.
I'm not really sure why Mccoy is the guy going the other way instead of Edwin or Nix. I don't really know what the plan is with ol' Nixxy boy going forward, but I guess his defense at third has been pretty solid to this point, so heh. As for Edwin, well he sucks and should have been gone months ago, but OH MY GOD HE HIT 20 HR'S ONCE! Whatever, it's soon.
In other news, it turns out Brett Lawrie's hand isn't healing very well, and is apparently out until at least August. In theory, he might not see MLB action until next season. It would probably make a lot of sense to wait until next year to put him on the 40-man roster, though I can't imagine I'd complain if he was a September call-up if it meant giving the boot to Edwin/Nix.
Jesse Litsch had a rehab start yesterday, going 3.2 innings. 4 hits, 3 K's, 0 walks.
Nats skipper Jim Riggleman stepped down after the Nats won their 11th in 12 games. He apparently wanted to have a guarantee on his contract for next season, and the Nats said no thanks. He replied by going drinking with a bunch of sexy girls.
Brandon Morrow tonight for the Jays, Jake Westbrook for the Pujols-less Cards.
Umm. Uhoh. Edwin is playing third tonight. And of course, this game features the Tony Larussa at the managerial helm, which means the pitcher bats 8th!
Jays
Escobar SS
Thames LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Hill 2B
Molina C
Encarnacion 3B
Davis CF
Morrow P
Cardinals
Theriot SS
Jay RF
Holliday LF
Berkman 1B
Rasmus CF
Schumaker 2B
Molina C
Westbrook P
Descalso 3B
I'm not really sure why Mccoy is the guy going the other way instead of Edwin or Nix. I don't really know what the plan is with ol' Nixxy boy going forward, but I guess his defense at third has been pretty solid to this point, so heh. As for Edwin, well he sucks and should have been gone months ago, but OH MY GOD HE HIT 20 HR'S ONCE! Whatever, it's soon.
In other news, it turns out Brett Lawrie's hand isn't healing very well, and is apparently out until at least August. In theory, he might not see MLB action until next season. It would probably make a lot of sense to wait until next year to put him on the 40-man roster, though I can't imagine I'd complain if he was a September call-up if it meant giving the boot to Edwin/Nix.
Jesse Litsch had a rehab start yesterday, going 3.2 innings. 4 hits, 3 K's, 0 walks.
Nats skipper Jim Riggleman stepped down after the Nats won their 11th in 12 games. He apparently wanted to have a guarantee on his contract for next season, and the Nats said no thanks. He replied by going drinking with a bunch of sexy girls.
Brandon Morrow tonight for the Jays, Jake Westbrook for the Pujols-less Cards.
Umm. Uhoh. Edwin is playing third tonight. And of course, this game features the Tony Larussa at the managerial helm, which means the pitcher bats 8th!
Jays
Escobar SS
Thames LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Hill 2B
Molina C
Encarnacion 3B
Davis CF
Morrow P
Cardinals
Theriot SS
Jay RF
Holliday LF
Berkman 1B
Rasmus CF
Schumaker 2B
Molina C
Westbrook P
Descalso 3B
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Hop on the bus and get outta there
Ah yes, racism jokes. Because it's Atlanta.
Yeah, I totally missed the game yesterday. I had no idea it was an afternoon game, though I suppose I didn't bother to check. I instead watched Mad Men and played Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time all day long, going from the start of Dodongo's cavern right up to the Phantom Ganon in the Forest Temple.
And I guess it's a good job I didn't watch, having seen the "Jays in 30" thing. It's good to see that Jose Bautista showed up. Too bad nobody else was interested. Bautista hit a homerun, his 22nd of the year, and made a real nice catch robbing a homerun in the 7th inning, and that was pretty much it for the good guys.
Nice to get the fuck out of Atlanta, though I suppose St Louis isn't a ton better in terms of favorable opponents. Even without Albert Pujols in the lineup for the next 6 weeks, this is still a pretty tough team to face, though maybe we might see some offense out of the Jays for a change assuming Jaime Garcia doesn't pitch all three games. That series starts tomorrow, and then the Jays return home after a disaster of a roadtrip (assuming they don't sweep STL, which, let's be serious here...) I dunno, maybe these dudes just need an offday to fuel up. Up until the Mike Minor game, Jose Bautista looked kind of lost at the plate (by his standards) for the last week and a half of so, which is kind of a shitty thing when the guy carries the entire offense on his shoulders. And nobody else really looked any better, save for maybe Adam Lind at times.
On the injury front, Travis Snider saw a neurologist yesterday and there are no concussion symptoms, which means he should return soon-ish. Brett Lawrie still isn't swinging a bat, but he's doing everything else. Casey Janssen had an MRI on Monday, which revealed no structural damage. He is scheduled to begin a rehab program today. Jesse Litsch has another rehab start today. He'll probably have one more and then return to action.
OK, so Corey Patterson, in his last 17 games, has dropped 30 points off his batting average, and 97 points off his OPS., coming dangerously close to his mediocre career numbers, which are inflated by those 3 seasons in which he was actually kind of useful. And he's still got a .316 babip. So maybe we should get Eric Thames back up here. Or Mastro. Or Snider.
Whatever happens, Corey Patterson was pretty close to being a tradeable asset about 3 weeks ago. Corey Patterson looks a lot more like a cuttable piece of nonsense now. He surprised me by playing some half decent baseball at the start of this season, but he's been the fucking worst lately. Baseball-reference somehow has him listed as a 1.9 WAR player so far this season, which boggles my mind. Fangraphs has him at a more reasonable 0.7 WAR, thanks to +1.8 baserunning. So yeah, he's fast. That's literally all he can contribute anymore. I don't think I'm really jumping the gun when I say that there's nothing really shitty about just tossing him aside and getting some AB's for the young guys waiting in the minors.
Yeah, I totally missed the game yesterday. I had no idea it was an afternoon game, though I suppose I didn't bother to check. I instead watched Mad Men and played Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time all day long, going from the start of Dodongo's cavern right up to the Phantom Ganon in the Forest Temple.
And I guess it's a good job I didn't watch, having seen the "Jays in 30" thing. It's good to see that Jose Bautista showed up. Too bad nobody else was interested. Bautista hit a homerun, his 22nd of the year, and made a real nice catch robbing a homerun in the 7th inning, and that was pretty much it for the good guys.
Nice to get the fuck out of Atlanta, though I suppose St Louis isn't a ton better in terms of favorable opponents. Even without Albert Pujols in the lineup for the next 6 weeks, this is still a pretty tough team to face, though maybe we might see some offense out of the Jays for a change assuming Jaime Garcia doesn't pitch all three games. That series starts tomorrow, and then the Jays return home after a disaster of a roadtrip (assuming they don't sweep STL, which, let's be serious here...) I dunno, maybe these dudes just need an offday to fuel up. Up until the Mike Minor game, Jose Bautista looked kind of lost at the plate (by his standards) for the last week and a half of so, which is kind of a shitty thing when the guy carries the entire offense on his shoulders. And nobody else really looked any better, save for maybe Adam Lind at times.
On the injury front, Travis Snider saw a neurologist yesterday and there are no concussion symptoms, which means he should return soon-ish. Brett Lawrie still isn't swinging a bat, but he's doing everything else. Casey Janssen had an MRI on Monday, which revealed no structural damage. He is scheduled to begin a rehab program today. Jesse Litsch has another rehab start today. He'll probably have one more and then return to action.
OK, so Corey Patterson, in his last 17 games, has dropped 30 points off his batting average, and 97 points off his OPS., coming dangerously close to his mediocre career numbers, which are inflated by those 3 seasons in which he was actually kind of useful. And he's still got a .316 babip. So maybe we should get Eric Thames back up here. Or Mastro. Or Snider.
Whatever happens, Corey Patterson was pretty close to being a tradeable asset about 3 weeks ago. Corey Patterson looks a lot more like a cuttable piece of nonsense now. He surprised me by playing some half decent baseball at the start of this season, but he's been the fucking worst lately. Baseball-reference somehow has him listed as a 1.9 WAR player so far this season, which boggles my mind. Fangraphs has him at a more reasonable 0.7 WAR, thanks to +1.8 baserunning. So yeah, he's fast. That's literally all he can contribute anymore. I don't think I'm really jumping the gun when I say that there's nothing really shitty about just tossing him aside and getting some AB's for the young guys waiting in the minors.
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Hey, so this is depressing
These last couple games are really making me sad panda. I mean it's not like they're losing two of three to the Orioles or the Astros (oh wait...), but it would be cool to actually look like a big league team, though I guess sending Corey Patterson and the 3b triumverate of Jayson Nix/Edwin/Mike Mccoy out there day after day sort of nips that one in the bud.
Having said all that, Mike Minor threw a pretty good game after the first inning, and Zach Stewart was kind of all over the place. Atlanta is a pretty good team that was probably a giant favorite to win that game, especially when Adam Lind is the only person swinging a half-decent bat for the Jays lately.
And hey, we get to do it all again tonight! Jojo Reyes has been passable this year, and gets a chance to really stick to to his old team, those bastards.
Anyway, have you guys noticed how there's been like a billion articles about Jose Bautista this year? Well this one is pretty much the same, but written by Joe Posnanski, so better.
That's all for now. Too sad.
Having said all that, Mike Minor threw a pretty good game after the first inning, and Zach Stewart was kind of all over the place. Atlanta is a pretty good team that was probably a giant favorite to win that game, especially when Adam Lind is the only person swinging a half-decent bat for the Jays lately.
And hey, we get to do it all again tonight! Jojo Reyes has been passable this year, and gets a chance to really stick to to his old team, those bastards.
Anyway, have you guys noticed how there's been like a billion articles about Jose Bautista this year? Well this one is pretty much the same, but written by Joe Posnanski, so better.
That's all for now. Too sad.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Sigh
I think this guy is that bad comedian who had a show in like 2001 that had Libby from Lost as the hot girl, and Stacy Keach as the comedic dad, but the main aspect of the show (that guy up there^) just wasn't funny at all.
Anyway, that picture is the story of the bottom of the 7th inning last night. Ricky Romero, as expected, pitched really well (earning a ZH), but was kind of up against a buzzsaw in Tim Hudson. Romero called out his offense last night in an interview after the game.
"I've always said this, at one point, we can't rely on Bautista, we can't rely on Lind, we've got to get someone else to step up, get on base, or drive them in"So yeah.
Oh, and here's something. The Jays got 2 guys on base with none out in the top of the 9th. Then Corey Patterson tried to bunt. Great.
In other news, the Jays signed 15 draft picks, though none are likely to ever play a game of MLB baseball, since the earliest sign was an 18th rounder. As far as I know, a lot of the early picks are unlikely to sign until after the college world series, despite the fact that Jays picks were mostly highschoolers. Or that might be wrong, I don't fucking know.
Jesse Litsch is set to have another rehab start Thursday in AA New Hampshire.
Kyle Drabek sucked really bad in his first AAA start in Las Vegas, and as result, they don't want him throwing his cut-fastball anymore, but rather, focus on the 2- and 4-seam fastball.
Ozzie Guillen got tossed last night, and followed that up by booted Cubs' catcher Geovany Soto's mask about 50 feet.
Umpire Bob Davidson continued to be an embarrassment to baseball last night. Nyjer Morgan was beaned in the arm to start the Brewers-Rays game, but Davidson claimed that Morgan leaned in to the pitch. Brewer's manager Ron Roenicke and hitting coach Dale Sveum both complained and were tossed. Davidson has been in rare form all season long. If you remember back towards the start of the season when the Jays played a 14 inning game in Anaheim, losing on a phantom interference call... yeah, that was him. Have a look at his (wikipedia) track record.
Dale's reaction to that:
Thanks to mocksession for that one.
Monday, 20 June 2011
They're like me
It's not that the Jays are incapable of sweeping, per se. They just don't do it. There are still a lot of positives to come out of this series though. First, Cincinnati is a good team. A real good team. It would be nice if they could go out and develop/find a real ace starting pitcher, but having a bunch of average-or-slightly-better starters is definitely going to translate to success, especially with that offense. And the Jays took two of three from them, without the use of a DH.
Second, starters are going deep in to ballgames again. 6 straight starts have seen the Jays starter get in to the 7th inning or deeper. With an overworked bullpen, that's really good news. Speaking of which, Zaun-head to Carlos Villanueva for yesterday's performance. He made one mistake to a hitter who isn't particularly dangerous and it got taken for a ride, and that's about it. Bronson Arroyo pitched a pretty good game, so yeah, those losses happen every now and again.
A trip to the racism capital of America for three games is next for the Jays, as they take on the Braves for 3 games or pitcher-batting madness. Interleague play is so fucking stupid it makes me sick. Ricky Romero takes on FIP posterboy Tim Hudson.
Honestly, I expected more info on the Yunel Escobar extension in terms of analysis of just how fucking good this deal is for the Jays, or what they had planned with Adeiny Hechavarria, but there's not really a ton here. Beyond what I said yesterday, I can speak a bit more about Hechavarria.
As I said yesterday, his bat doesn't really project all that well; what I didn't know was that, according to Dave Gershman from Beyond the Boxscore (@dave_gershman on twitter), Hech has either the best or the second best glove in professional baseball. Not projected, and not the minors, but now, and in pro ball (he lists Boston SS Jose Iglesias as the other). I've also heard that Hech's bat speed is improving quite a bit, and we should probably keep in mind that he's still playing AA ball at age 21, so he's probably still a few years away from being an everyday player.
I suppose I jumped the gun a bit yesterday, when I suggested that this might be the end of the line for Hech's future at 2b in Toronto, since I didn't know that his glove was that good, so I thought he might make some nice trade bait for a team with a very offensive-minded third baseman. Given that he is a top-2 defensive shortstop, maybe that moves Yunel to 2nd or 3rd, based on what happens with Hill and Lawrie, and by extension, Thames, Snider, Gose, and others if Lawrie doesn't pan out as an infielder.
As for my analytical thoughts on the Yunel deal-- it is extremely team friendly when we consider the club options for '14 and '15. $5MM for next year seems like a bit of an overpay, considering that it will be his 2nd year of arbitration after a down year last year, but that is made up for with another $5MM salary in '13. The correct values, based on the way the arbitration system works, are probably in the range of $4 and $6 million respectively, so that's a wash. The real value comes in the Free Agent year club options, where Yunel would be worth at least $8MM per season on a multi-year contract if he can manage to remain anywhere near his current level of production. Shortstop is a premium position, and Yunel Escobar has been the second best shortstop in the AL this season.
Escobar needs to be worth about 2.5 WAR over the next 2 years (starting next year, add a WAR per season with each option) to make this deal a positive one for the Jays. He's been worth 1.9 already this year, and has been worth 2.1, 4.5 and 3.7 in the last 3 seasons, so I think it's fair to say that this is a very team-friendly deal. The club options allow AA to (1) re-evaluate what he has in Hech and give his bat time to develop, (2) re-evaluate Aaron Hill over the course of the next couple of months, and (3) most importantly, decide what he has in Yunel if Hill and Hech both pan out (or if he moves some of his catching depth, pitching depth, or outfield depth for a new 2nd baseman), allowing him to trade a very team-friendly contract, which would produce a huge bounty given the positional scarcity at short.
Update- Jonah Keri Fangraphs chat:
Update 2- This is more what I was looking for.
Second, starters are going deep in to ballgames again. 6 straight starts have seen the Jays starter get in to the 7th inning or deeper. With an overworked bullpen, that's really good news. Speaking of which, Zaun-head to Carlos Villanueva for yesterday's performance. He made one mistake to a hitter who isn't particularly dangerous and it got taken for a ride, and that's about it. Bronson Arroyo pitched a pretty good game, so yeah, those losses happen every now and again.
A trip to the racism capital of America for three games is next for the Jays, as they take on the Braves for 3 games or pitcher-batting madness. Interleague play is so fucking stupid it makes me sick. Ricky Romero takes on FIP posterboy Tim Hudson.
Honestly, I expected more info on the Yunel Escobar extension in terms of analysis of just how fucking good this deal is for the Jays, or what they had planned with Adeiny Hechavarria, but there's not really a ton here. Beyond what I said yesterday, I can speak a bit more about Hechavarria.
As I said yesterday, his bat doesn't really project all that well; what I didn't know was that, according to Dave Gershman from Beyond the Boxscore (@dave_gershman on twitter), Hech has either the best or the second best glove in professional baseball. Not projected, and not the minors, but now, and in pro ball (he lists Boston SS Jose Iglesias as the other). I've also heard that Hech's bat speed is improving quite a bit, and we should probably keep in mind that he's still playing AA ball at age 21, so he's probably still a few years away from being an everyday player.
I suppose I jumped the gun a bit yesterday, when I suggested that this might be the end of the line for Hech's future at 2b in Toronto, since I didn't know that his glove was that good, so I thought he might make some nice trade bait for a team with a very offensive-minded third baseman. Given that he is a top-2 defensive shortstop, maybe that moves Yunel to 2nd or 3rd, based on what happens with Hill and Lawrie, and by extension, Thames, Snider, Gose, and others if Lawrie doesn't pan out as an infielder.
As for my analytical thoughts on the Yunel deal-- it is extremely team friendly when we consider the club options for '14 and '15. $5MM for next year seems like a bit of an overpay, considering that it will be his 2nd year of arbitration after a down year last year, but that is made up for with another $5MM salary in '13. The correct values, based on the way the arbitration system works, are probably in the range of $4 and $6 million respectively, so that's a wash. The real value comes in the Free Agent year club options, where Yunel would be worth at least $8MM per season on a multi-year contract if he can manage to remain anywhere near his current level of production. Shortstop is a premium position, and Yunel Escobar has been the second best shortstop in the AL this season.
Escobar needs to be worth about 2.5 WAR over the next 2 years (starting next year, add a WAR per season with each option) to make this deal a positive one for the Jays. He's been worth 1.9 already this year, and has been worth 2.1, 4.5 and 3.7 in the last 3 seasons, so I think it's fair to say that this is a very team-friendly deal. The club options allow AA to (1) re-evaluate what he has in Hech and give his bat time to develop, (2) re-evaluate Aaron Hill over the course of the next couple of months, and (3) most importantly, decide what he has in Yunel if Hill and Hech both pan out (or if he moves some of his catching depth, pitching depth, or outfield depth for a new 2nd baseman), allowing him to trade a very team-friendly contract, which would produce a huge bounty given the positional scarcity at short.
Update- Jonah Keri Fangraphs chat:
Comment From Joel.
...So how about that Yunel Escobar extension. His agent is completely insane, right?
12:08
Jonah Keri: Just went on TSN Radio in Toronto and said as much, yes. Perhaps his agent doesn't trust the rest of baseball's establishment not to be short-sighted in its player evaluation, the way the Braves were. If we assume that Escobar's supposed off-field personality issues aren't actually a problem, then yes, a SS with a career .364 OBP, in an environment where you can count all the good offensive SS on one hand, is highway robbery at 2/$10M. It's a traveshamockery once you add 2 club options at $5M each.
Anthopoulos is Friedman. Friedman is Anthopoulos.
Update 2- This is more what I was looking for.
Sunday, 19 June 2011
MOAR-row
That was the Brandon Morrow that we all know and love. He went 6 and 2/3 innings, allowing 5 hits and just 1 walk, staying fairly efficient until throwing 25 pitches in the 7th inning. Zaun head.
In other news, the Jays locked up Yunel Escobar for his final two years of arbitration for $10MM. Naturally, since it's Alex Anthopoulos, the deal is complete with 2 team options, each at $5MM. Judging it right now, this deal is going to be about as team-friendly as possible, given the fact that Yunel is on pace to be worth about 4 WAR this year, not to mention the positional scarcity of quality shortstops. This kind of shuts the door on Adeiny Hechavarria, at least for the near future, though I don't think that bat projects as well as they thought it would when they signed Hech. 2nd base?
Early game today, as it's Sunday/getaway day. The Jays head to Atlanta tomorrow night to start a series with the Braves. Today it's Carlos Villanueva against Bronson Arroyo, who I believe used to get stomped by the Blue Jays back when he pitched in Boston. Villy said after his last start that he feels better and stronger with each start he makes, which is good news. He's pitched well this season and certainly deserves the spot that he has in the rotation, whether or not he keeps it for very long.
Quickly- Travis Snider suffered a mild concussion two nights ago after getting hit in the helmet by a pitch. Sad panda.
Brett Lawrie should be back in action in AAA by the all-star break.
Jesse Litsch threw a 2-inning rehad start the other night and he sucked.
Happy fathers day to all you dads out there.
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Jose Who?
Holy shit that guy.
The namesake for one of my fantasy teams, Drew Stubbs, apparently hit an inside the parker. My fantasy team is called "I don't know how to draw legs so I just Drew Stubbs" by the way.
I hear some dude fingerbanged his girlfriend at the Cincinatti ballpark the other day.
I fell down the stairs last night.
Friday, 17 June 2011
BULLPEN!
Jesus Christ. I mean, yeah it happens, and to every team really. Just kind of hurts to lose games that way against a bad team like Baltimore, especially when you catch a break like having Jeremy Guthrie leave the game after 5 innings. Guthrie pitched really well until he experienced back tightness and had to leave the game, and then the Jays subsequently scored two and tied the game. I'd have been totally fine with the loss if it was just Guthrie continuing to pitch the way he did, because he's a pretty good (and underrated) pitcher, thanks to how terrible the O's are.
And how about Zach Stewart? Miles ahead of where Drabek appears to be. right? Dude just threw strikes all day, and earned himself an easy Zaun-head. Let's keep in mind that, despite pitching well, he was up against the shitty old Baltimore Orioles getaway day offense. That means no Matt Weiters, plus Brian Roberts is still out of the lineup. I hate to burst a bubble here, but it's not like it was that hard, and frankly, Drabek probably could have handled this Baltimore lineup at least reasonably well. Yeah, you still have to throw strikes, which Drabes kind of sucks at, but still. Basically, what I'm trying to say here is that Drabek is a year younger and still projects a lot better, and that Stewart projects as a middle-of-the-rotation guy, and that this start from Zach doesn't really change any of that.
Adam Lind is cock off lately, huh? In his last 10 games he's Bautista'ed his batting average 25 points, his OPS by 112 points, and has 5 HR's. If only Bautista was hitting.
Interleague play resumes tonight for some reason. I really don't like interleague play at all, but it is cool to see Cincy play the Jays. I chose them a couple of seasons ago to be the NL team I was going to root for, since I liked the way they were going about their business. They're a good young team who has been sort of Tampa Bay lite, keeping under the radar, building a solid team of 1 or 2 stars and a bunch of decent players, while keeping costs relatively low, and it looks like they should have some measure of sustained success over the next few years. This is a model more closely resembling what the Jays are going to be like in the next 5 years or so. Not to mention, Joey Votto. Now he and Jose Bautista are going to be in the same building for 3 straight days, making baseball nerds the world over ejaculate in their pants.
After yesterday's game, Casey Janssen was placed on the 15-day DL with forearm tightness. I just assumed that this would coincide with John Mcdonald returning, but I've heard rumors that Brad Mills was the guy that would be coming up to replace him. I was looking around last night before I went to bed, and to this point I have seen nothing official that would suggest this to be true, but we'll know closer to game time tonight.
The Jays signed Ramon Vazquez to a minor league deal yesterday. Not sure why, but heh. I suppose this could be some kind of depth protection move for when Lawrie comes up, just in case someone claims Nix/Edwin when that DFA happens.
Trade Octavio Dotel to the Yankees please. The Yankees just had a Phillies throwaway start a game for the
yesterday, and they're just signing whoever the fuck has a pulse to pitch for them lately. It's not like the Jays are going to bother offering Dotel arbitration at the end of the year anyway (at least I fucking hope not). If anyone's going to give up anything for him, it's the Yanks. Apparently Farrell said the other day that they were going to drop a pitcher when Mcdonald came back, which the Casey Janssen injury kind of stopped, but Dotel had to have been a candidate given the fact that he's like 38 and has hardly been used.
Pirates' Catcher Chris Snyder had back surgery recently, and can barely move. As result, when his wife got in a car accident with a guy on a scooter (scooterist?), he couldn't help out when the dude attacked her and ripped the mirror off their car. Fucking relax, dude.
The Braves won their game last night in extra innings on a walk off balk, or for those of you who prefer efficiency, a balk-off. I came up with that immediately when I heard what happened; unfortunately, so did like 90,000 other people.
The battery in my wireless mouse died just now. Touchpads are so not for me.
And how about Zach Stewart? Miles ahead of where Drabek appears to be. right? Dude just threw strikes all day, and earned himself an easy Zaun-head. Let's keep in mind that, despite pitching well, he was up against the shitty old Baltimore Orioles getaway day offense. That means no Matt Weiters, plus Brian Roberts is still out of the lineup. I hate to burst a bubble here, but it's not like it was that hard, and frankly, Drabek probably could have handled this Baltimore lineup at least reasonably well. Yeah, you still have to throw strikes, which Drabes kind of sucks at, but still. Basically, what I'm trying to say here is that Drabek is a year younger and still projects a lot better, and that Stewart projects as a middle-of-the-rotation guy, and that this start from Zach doesn't really change any of that.
Adam Lind is cock off lately, huh? In his last 10 games he's Bautista'ed his batting average 25 points, his OPS by 112 points, and has 5 HR's. If only Bautista was hitting.
Interleague play resumes tonight for some reason. I really don't like interleague play at all, but it is cool to see Cincy play the Jays. I chose them a couple of seasons ago to be the NL team I was going to root for, since I liked the way they were going about their business. They're a good young team who has been sort of Tampa Bay lite, keeping under the radar, building a solid team of 1 or 2 stars and a bunch of decent players, while keeping costs relatively low, and it looks like they should have some measure of sustained success over the next few years. This is a model more closely resembling what the Jays are going to be like in the next 5 years or so. Not to mention, Joey Votto. Now he and Jose Bautista are going to be in the same building for 3 straight days, making baseball nerds the world over ejaculate in their pants.
After yesterday's game, Casey Janssen was placed on the 15-day DL with forearm tightness. I just assumed that this would coincide with John Mcdonald returning, but I've heard rumors that Brad Mills was the guy that would be coming up to replace him. I was looking around last night before I went to bed, and to this point I have seen nothing official that would suggest this to be true, but we'll know closer to game time tonight.
The Jays signed Ramon Vazquez to a minor league deal yesterday. Not sure why, but heh. I suppose this could be some kind of depth protection move for when Lawrie comes up, just in case someone claims Nix/Edwin when that DFA happens.
Trade Octavio Dotel to the Yankees please. The Yankees just had a Phillies throwaway start a game for the
yesterday, and they're just signing whoever the fuck has a pulse to pitch for them lately. It's not like the Jays are going to bother offering Dotel arbitration at the end of the year anyway (at least I fucking hope not). If anyone's going to give up anything for him, it's the Yanks. Apparently Farrell said the other day that they were going to drop a pitcher when Mcdonald came back, which the Casey Janssen injury kind of stopped, but Dotel had to have been a candidate given the fact that he's like 38 and has hardly been used.
Pirates' Catcher Chris Snyder had back surgery recently, and can barely move. As result, when his wife got in a car accident with a guy on a scooter (scooterist?), he couldn't help out when the dude attacked her and ripped the mirror off their car. Fucking relax, dude.
The Braves won their game last night in extra innings on a walk off balk, or for those of you who prefer efficiency, a balk-off. I came up with that immediately when I heard what happened; unfortunately, so did like 90,000 other people.
The battery in my wireless mouse died just now. Touchpads are so not for me.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Ricky Romero, ladies and gents
So that was Ricky. I don't think I need to explain that he was really, really good last night for 8 innings. It's kind of a shame that he had to walk the two guys to start the 9th and make things about as interesting as they could have been. “A bit of excitement, adrenaline and I wasn’t able to slow myself down anymore. I kind of got out of my game a little bit. It’s frustrating not getting it done but I’m glad Frankie came and did his job.”Easy Zaun-head for the guy, going 8+ innings, striking out a career-high tying 12, walking 4, allowing 1 run (inherited run by Frank), throwing a fairly efficient 114 pitches. To the naked eye, it just seemed like, before the 9th inning at least, he was just getting up there, throwing strikes 1 and 2, and finishing guys off. His best outing of the year was against Minnesota 3 weeks ago, but this one was right there.
Yunel Escobar, Adam Lind, and Juan Rivera all hit homeruns, and were all on base 3 of 4 times. Lind raised his batting average to .337, and is probably the hottest hitter in baseball right now. He's got himself a sexy little .333/.387/.614 slash line. That says something, since Jose Bautista, this season's best hitter to this point, has a .333/.489/.686 line on the year, even after struggling so hard in his last 15 games.
John Lott reports that John Mcdonald should be back this weekend. He's got a rehab start in A-ball tonight and another tomorrow, and should be ready to go Saturday.
Remember yesterday when I mentioned that thing about Jays' 1st Rounder Tyler Beede having a verbal agreement with the Jays before the draft? AA didn't like that, and according to a tweet to Dustin Parkes from Getting Blanked from Beede's dad, neither did the Beede's.
Zach Stewart makes his MLB debut today, and in an early game to boot. Good Luck Kid. SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Hill 2B
Encarnacion DH
Molina C
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Stewart P
O's
Hardy SS
Markakis RF
Jones CF
Guerrero DH
Scott LF,
Lee 1B
Reynolds 3B
Adams 2B
Tatum C
Guthrie P
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Now Walk it Out
I already used "Walk-off Flocka Flames" the last time they walked off, which I'm a bit disappointed at since I enjoy that so much, but shrug. Still a walk-off. Granted, this game should never have made it to the point that a walk-off was even available. Holy shit.
Of course, Adam Lind went ahead and ahead and fixed all that nonsense with one swing, earning a Zauner. The problem being the fact that the bullpen had to throw two extra innings, shortening that bullpen for tonight. Jon Rauch threw 2 innings, Jason Frasor threw a bunch of pitches in his inning of work, and Rzep has been a complete mess lately. It would be real nice if Ricky can go the distance tonight and give the bullpen a break, just in case Zach Stewart doesn't completely destroy in his MLB debut. It's the little things, you know?
Just off the top of my head, whether they are the fault of the Jays or not, here are all the things that magically kept Baltimore in this game:
- Yunel Escobar jogged his way right out of a Zaun Head after lollygagging his way to 2nd base (I'd have sent Mike Mccoy out to shortstop for the rest of the game after that by the way, but Yunel knew what was up right away, so yeah...). I'm not entirely sure that he would have been safe, but it looked close. Assuming he would have been safe with full hustle, that was the difference between having a runner on 2nd with your best hitter at the plate, or having a runner on 1st with your best hitter at the plate. Of course, Bautista roped a single up the middle directly at the ump, getting a deadball single. I doubt he gets pitched he same way with a runner on 2nd in that situation, so this may be a moot point.
- That wild pitch where JP Arencibia tried to move up but the ball hopped right back to Matt Weiters thanks to the
backstopumpire was bullshit. There's a massive difference between having a runner on 3rd with 0 out and having nobody on with 1 out, even if it's the bottom of the order coming up. Of course, this turned Aaron Hill's homer in to a solo shot. - Scrabble should probably be in the same boat as Francisco at this point in the proceedings. At least Frank has some nasty-blow-it-by-you-fastball stuff that suggests he won't struggle forever. Rzep doesn't throw nearly enough strikes to be given the amount of opportunities to struggle as he has lately in close-ish games, and it looks like people are starting to notice that all of his success early this year has come from people swinging at pitches outside of the strikezone. The result has been people being really patient against him, and wouldn't you know it, he's been walking people like mad, getting behind in counts, and throwing beachballs to guys like Matt Weiters.
- Edwin Encarnacion or Jayson Nix could have been pinch hit for by Juan Rivera. Not that it would have necessarily done anything, but it would have been cool to see Farrell try and replace high levels of suck with lower levels of suck, especially in important spots like late in a tie game, or in extra innings.
Of course, Adam Lind went ahead and ahead and fixed all that nonsense with one swing, earning a Zauner. The problem being the fact that the bullpen had to throw two extra innings, shortening that bullpen for tonight. Jon Rauch threw 2 innings, Jason Frasor threw a bunch of pitches in his inning of work, and Rzep has been a complete mess lately. It would be real nice if Ricky can go the distance tonight and give the bullpen a break, just in case Zach Stewart doesn't completely destroy in his MLB debut. It's the little things, you know?Anyhoo... Keith Law seems to think that Jays first rounder Tyler Beede is set to sign, and probably had an agreement in place before even being drafted. He seems to think that he'll sign for $3MM, which is way over slot.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports has a piece on Jose Bautista.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports has a piece on Jose Bautista.
Lastly, remember last week when Brett Lawrie was rumored to be coming up? And I went on about how the roster would be affected? Well what I didn't see coming was Zach Stewart, and his promotion to the big leagues. What happens here is that Stewart takes the roster spot that Lawrie was going to take, which means that if, when recovered from his hand injury, Lawrie is set to come up, he'll need to take the roster spot of somebody else currently on the 40-man roster.
As mentioned last week, the likely guy here is Scott Richmond, though Jayson Nix and Edwin Encarnacion can't possibly have much time left, and one or the other will probably be next to go once Dustin Mcgowan has to come off the 60-day DL relatively soon, or if any other prospects are to come up. Mike Mccoy doesn't really ever project to be anything more than Chris Woodward 2.0, so there's another name.
I'm sure AA is looking to move some guys via trade too. For example, Corey Patterson might fetch some fringe level prospect, Aaron Hill might be a decent reclamation project for someone if the Jays decide that they're going to reject the options on his contract, though he's currently projected to be a Type-A free agent, and won't drop below Type-B, no matter how bad he is, Juan Rivera could work out as a bench bat for an NL team, and any number of people in that bullpen could become commodities (Frasor, Frank, Rauch, Dotel and Camp are all Free Agents-to-be and project to be Type-B or better).
Moving any of these guys for prospects would enable AA to free up some 40-man space without straight-up releasing anybody, though I'm not sure he'd really give a shit about doing that or not.
Update- Holy shit! The first Moneyball trailer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-l3IXTQDsDg
Update- Holy shit! The first Moneyball trailer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-l3IXTQDsDg
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Breaking: Kyle Drabek sent to AAA, Zach Stewart recalled
(Warning- This post contains uses of "AA" meaning both Alex Anthopoulos, as well as the minor league level between A and AAA. You're on your own to figure out which is which.)
Thanks to literally everybody on twitter for breaking this one like 7 minutes ago. Drabek obviously had been fighting control issues, and probably confidence problems and mental anguish after crushing everybody literally his entire life up to this point. He joins Brett Cecil and Travis Snider in AAA. Stewart has been mediocre in AA New Hampshire so far this year, which makes me question the move at least a little bit. Naturally, I'm smart enough to not doubt AA, but an ERA over 4 in AA doesn't scream readiness to me.
I wonder if this has more to do with who is available to pitch when the time comes for what was Drabek's slot in the rotation. There are a couple of things to remember here: Item the first is that Jesse Litsch is due back in a week or so, and will surely get his spot back. In all likelihood, Litsch comes back, and Stewart goes back down to whence he came. Secondly, Brett Cecil just threw last night (more on that in a second), and probably wouldn't be ready to pitch again when this slot in the rotation comes up, though obviously he could have been skipped or pulled early last night. I'm not sure about Brad Mills, but even if he is theoretically available schedule-wise, which I have no idea if he is or not, maybe they just feel that the time is right to give Stewart a shot, since it's probably only a start or two (unless AA has something up his sleeve). They do seem really apprehensive, for whatever reason, to give Mills another shot in the bigs though.
I'm pretty sure Mills has 2 options left, though there is some loophole that doesn't guarantee the use of an option if a player spends less than 20 days on the MLB-roster (or something like that) that he may have qualified for during his stint late last summer. That may have something to do with it, but I'm not entirely sure on what the plan is for Stewart at this point concerning how long he's up, and whether he's up at the end of the season for good or not. Regardless, I'm excited to see him pitch for the first time.
Back to Brett Cecil, he threw a complete game shutout last night for the 51's, allowing 4 hits, striking out 7, walking 2. Velocity appears to be back to where it was last year, and I read somewhere that his changeup was nasty. I'll link that later if I can find it.
AA prospect Anthony Gose was suspended for 3 games after getting in to some kind of altercation with an opposing catcher.
The great young minds in the 2+2 forum are holding a fantasy draft. I knew I wasn't going to be around when they started, so I didn't get a team in, but still... here.
It looks like Seattlites like to troll their underperforming players just as much as Jays fans do; There's a bar in Seattle that has a promotion on, charging Chone Figgins' average for a draft. This post sums it up better than I could.
For some reason, I keep seeing Edwin Encarnacion's name in the lineup.
Oriole's pitcher Jeremy Guthrie (@jguthrie46) is in Toronto already and is tweeting up a storm. Apparently, nobody in Toronto recognizes him. He has rented a bike, and also plans to have a poutine while in town.
Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Arencibia C
Encarnacion DH
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Villanueva P
Orioles
meh
Thanks to literally everybody on twitter for breaking this one like 7 minutes ago. Drabek obviously had been fighting control issues, and probably confidence problems and mental anguish after crushing everybody literally his entire life up to this point. He joins Brett Cecil and Travis Snider in AAA. Stewart has been mediocre in AA New Hampshire so far this year, which makes me question the move at least a little bit. Naturally, I'm smart enough to not doubt AA, but an ERA over 4 in AA doesn't scream readiness to me.
I wonder if this has more to do with who is available to pitch when the time comes for what was Drabek's slot in the rotation. There are a couple of things to remember here: Item the first is that Jesse Litsch is due back in a week or so, and will surely get his spot back. In all likelihood, Litsch comes back, and Stewart goes back down to whence he came. Secondly, Brett Cecil just threw last night (more on that in a second), and probably wouldn't be ready to pitch again when this slot in the rotation comes up, though obviously he could have been skipped or pulled early last night. I'm not sure about Brad Mills, but even if he is theoretically available schedule-wise, which I have no idea if he is or not, maybe they just feel that the time is right to give Stewart a shot, since it's probably only a start or two (unless AA has something up his sleeve). They do seem really apprehensive, for whatever reason, to give Mills another shot in the bigs though.
I'm pretty sure Mills has 2 options left, though there is some loophole that doesn't guarantee the use of an option if a player spends less than 20 days on the MLB-roster (or something like that) that he may have qualified for during his stint late last summer. That may have something to do with it, but I'm not entirely sure on what the plan is for Stewart at this point concerning how long he's up, and whether he's up at the end of the season for good or not. Regardless, I'm excited to see him pitch for the first time.
Back to Brett Cecil, he threw a complete game shutout last night for the 51's, allowing 4 hits, striking out 7, walking 2. Velocity appears to be back to where it was last year, and I read somewhere that his changeup was nasty. I'll link that later if I can find it.
AA prospect Anthony Gose was suspended for 3 games after getting in to some kind of altercation with an opposing catcher.
The great young minds in the 2+2 forum are holding a fantasy draft. I knew I wasn't going to be around when they started, so I didn't get a team in, but still... here.
It looks like Seattlites like to troll their underperforming players just as much as Jays fans do; There's a bar in Seattle that has a promotion on, charging Chone Figgins' average for a draft. This post sums it up better than I could.
For some reason, I keep seeing Edwin Encarnacion's name in the lineup.
Oriole's pitcher Jeremy Guthrie (@jguthrie46) is in Toronto already and is tweeting up a storm. Apparently, nobody in Toronto recognizes him. He has rented a bike, and also plans to have a poutine while in town.
Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Arencibia C
Encarnacion DH
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Villanueva P
Orioles
meh
Monday, 13 June 2011
Offday internets
Weird, 4 straight days off for the Jays, today being the last of which. Baltimore comes to town tomorrow.
These are things I've found upon the many internets recently:
Fangraphs analyzes AA's draft strategy. Big surprise: the writer has no opinion, but says "we'll see how this works out for them", which is pretty much the ending for every FG article out there.
ESPN's Jim Bowden tweeted the other day that Jose Bautista has been tested 15 times in the last 3 years for PEDs. Naturally, they all came back negative. But, as Dustin Parkes at Getting Blanked puts it, there are still skeptics for some reason.
MLBTR examines prospect trades from July '09, which includes both the Scott Rolen for Zach Stewart deal, as well as the Michael Taylor for Brett Wallace for Anthony Gose clusterfuck.
Notgraphs gifulates Mike Mccoy's perfect inning from the other night (I thought they had an off-day the other night?).
Jesse Litsch's twitter, from right around 1PM ET:
I also got quite sunburnt yesterday.
These are things I've found upon the many internets recently:
Fangraphs analyzes AA's draft strategy. Big surprise: the writer has no opinion, but says "we'll see how this works out for them", which is pretty much the ending for every FG article out there.
ESPN's Jim Bowden tweeted the other day that Jose Bautista has been tested 15 times in the last 3 years for PEDs. Naturally, they all came back negative. But, as Dustin Parkes at Getting Blanked puts it, there are still skeptics for some reason.
MLBTR examines prospect trades from July '09, which includes both the Scott Rolen for Zach Stewart deal, as well as the Michael Taylor for Brett Wallace for Anthony Gose clusterfuck.
Notgraphs gifulates Mike Mccoy's perfect inning from the other night (I thought they had an off-day the other night?).
Jesse Litsch's twitter, from right around 1PM ET:
Jesse Litsch: Just threw my sim game was real good 2 solid quick innings no pain see how I bounce back tomorrow and get ready for rehab assignment
I also got quite sunburnt yesterday.
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Didn't happen if I didn't see it.
Didn't watch the game, so I (pretend to) have no idea what happened. Rajai Davis gets the Zaunner purely out of speculation on my part.
Kyle Drabek is probably going to walk a bunch of people today, especially given the way the Bostons take all those pitches and stuff. Of course, I refuse to watch their games, sooooo. Jon Lester supposedly pitches for Bostown.
Dustin Mcgowan update: the Score's Tony Ambrogio reports that Mcgowan will be throwing 2 innings every 3 days, and will soon be upping that to 3 innings every 4 days. Looks like they really are going to try and stretch him out and have another right-handed starter. Better than having another right handed reliever, I suppose.
Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Arencibia C
Encarnacion DH
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Drabek P
Boston
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Crawford LF
Saltalamacchia C
Drew RF
Scutaro SS
Lester P
Kyle Drabek is probably going to walk a bunch of people today, especially given the way the Bostons take all those pitches and stuff. Of course, I refuse to watch their games, sooooo. Jon Lester supposedly pitches for Bostown.
Dustin Mcgowan update: the Score's Tony Ambrogio reports that Mcgowan will be throwing 2 innings every 3 days, and will soon be upping that to 3 innings every 4 days. Looks like they really are going to try and stretch him out and have another right-handed starter. Better than having another right handed reliever, I suppose.
Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Arencibia C
Encarnacion DH
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Drabek P
Boston
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Crawford LF
Saltalamacchia C
Drew RF
Scutaro SS
Lester P
Saturday, 11 June 2011
Hangover Game
Hungover, tired, still in bed, and mostly naked. This will be brief, and made up of very few complete sentences, mostly irrelevant.
Early start in Toronto today. John Lackey gets the call for Boston, so Toronto wins. Brandon Morrow pitches for the Jays.
Day game after a night game, so Jose Molina bats 6th for some reason, and JP Arencibia sits. He's got a thumb issue though, so it's no big deal. This lineup is seriously depressing today though. Days off for Aaron Hill and Juan Rivera for whatever reason. Yunel is back though after missing yesterday's game with a quad. We used to call our apartment this past semester the quad. Quad is a funny word. Quad.
Farrell says that Frank will work in low-leverage situations to build up some confidence, and will then return to the closer role.
Kevin Youkilis has a day off today too. Fuck that guy.
I didn't watch the game last night, and have no idea what happened, who won, or who deserves the Zaunnie. Might remain that way, who knows. Maybe whoever gets it today can have two.
Finally, Jesse Litsch tweeted last night that he was backstage at a Katy Perry concert, making me incredibly jealous and not gay.
Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Encarnacion DH
Molina C
Davis CF
Nix 3B
McCoy 2B
Morrow P
Red Jerks
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Ortiz DH
Lowrie 3B
Crawford LF
Scutaro SS
Drew RF
Varitek C
Lackey P
Early start in Toronto today. John Lackey gets the call for Boston, so Toronto wins. Brandon Morrow pitches for the Jays.
Day game after a night game, so Jose Molina bats 6th for some reason, and JP Arencibia sits. He's got a thumb issue though, so it's no big deal. This lineup is seriously depressing today though. Days off for Aaron Hill and Juan Rivera for whatever reason. Yunel is back though after missing yesterday's game with a quad. We used to call our apartment this past semester the quad. Quad is a funny word. Quad.
Farrell says that Frank will work in low-leverage situations to build up some confidence, and will then return to the closer role.
Kevin Youkilis has a day off today too. Fuck that guy.
I didn't watch the game last night, and have no idea what happened, who won, or who deserves the Zaunnie. Might remain that way, who knows. Maybe whoever gets it today can have two.
Finally, Jesse Litsch tweeted last night that he was backstage at a Katy Perry concert, making me incredibly jealous and not gay.
Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Encarnacion DH
Molina C
Davis CF
Nix 3B
McCoy 2B
Morrow P
Red Jerks
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Ortiz DH
Lowrie 3B
Crawford LF
Scutaro SS
Drew RF
Varitek C
Lackey P
Friday, 10 June 2011
The Tale of One Bad Inning
It seems like Jays starting pitchers outings have fallen in to some sort of routine so far this year; start well, run in to trouble in one inning thanks to bloop singles, broken bat hits, and pop-ups that just kind of find a hole somehow, effectively ruining an otherwise good start. Ricky Romero continued the trend last night, allowing 3 runs over 4 hits and a hit batsman (and a throwing error to Jose Bautista that I don't remember seeing?) in the third inning, while shutting down the KC offense for the rest of the game, throwing a complete game, allowing just 4 hits and a walk over the other 7 innings. Good enough for a Zaun head in my eyes.
JP Arencibia and Adam Lind led the offense again. JP hit a triple in to the corner, knocking in 2 and just barely missing a homerun, which would have been good enough for a tie ballgame at that point, and since it was a 1-run game, I think of what could have been. Which I suppose is a loss in extra innings.
Boston comes to town tonight, which means that I'll not likely watch much baseball, since I can't stand watching the Red Sox play. Just sooooooo boring. Jojo Reyes will try to make it 3 wins in 3 starts against the lefty-heavy Red Sox. Clay Buccholz goes for Boston. Apparently Buccholz is 6-1 with an ERA under 2.5 in his last 8 starts vs. the Jays, though he's given up more homeruns so far this year than he did all of last year, which sounds good in the homer friendlyRogers Centre Skydome.
A few Bluejay notes from the internets:
The Jays signed supplemental draft pick Joe Musgrove, according to MLBTradeRumors.com. Musgrove went 46th overall. As of yet, the terms haven't been released, though the suggested slot signing bonus for 46th overall is $750k. Given how quickly he signed, plus the Jays' rumored aggression this season with high-schoolers, I'd be willing to bet that it's more than $750k.
In an unrelated piece of news, The Jays released outfielder DeWayne Wise. Similar to the Scott Podsednik release, both parties agreed that Wise wasn't part of the future of the organization, and the release was requested and granted with the hopes that Wise can find work elsewhere, possibly in the majors. Unlike Pods, Wise was actually useful in AAA.
Yunel Escobar will probably be out of the lineup again tonight. He took fielding practice this afternoon and apparently his mobility was limited, according to Mike Cormack of Sportsnet. Mike Mccoy again! Apparently Farrell said yesterday that he expected Yunel to be back tonight, but that's obviously not the case. No need to rush it though.
Casey Janssen got a save the other night, pitching the 9th inning in a close game instead of Frank Frank, Frasor, or Rauch. Free Jason, but Janssen is probably the next best thing. Apparently Rauch has a sore lat muscle in his back, and Farrell said that he thought giving Rauch a day off would be better than bringing him in.
Jesse Litsch's twitter:
And apparently, Dustin Pedroia is set to play tonight. He missed yesterday's game to fly down to Florida to get his knee checked out, but it's just a bruise and he's going to play through it. I hope he gets beaned directly in the kneecap.
Lineups
Jays
McCoy SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind DH
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Reyes P
Red Sux
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Lowrie SS
Crawford LF
Cameron RF
Saltalamacchia C
Buchholz P
Boston comes to town tonight, which means that I'll not likely watch much baseball, since I can't stand watching the Red Sox play. Just sooooooo boring. Jojo Reyes will try to make it 3 wins in 3 starts against the lefty-heavy Red Sox. Clay Buccholz goes for Boston. Apparently Buccholz is 6-1 with an ERA under 2.5 in his last 8 starts vs. the Jays, though he's given up more homeruns so far this year than he did all of last year, which sounds good in the homer friendly
A few Bluejay notes from the internets:
The Jays signed supplemental draft pick Joe Musgrove, according to MLBTradeRumors.com. Musgrove went 46th overall. As of yet, the terms haven't been released, though the suggested slot signing bonus for 46th overall is $750k. Given how quickly he signed, plus the Jays' rumored aggression this season with high-schoolers, I'd be willing to bet that it's more than $750k.
In an unrelated piece of news, The Jays released outfielder DeWayne Wise. Similar to the Scott Podsednik release, both parties agreed that Wise wasn't part of the future of the organization, and the release was requested and granted with the hopes that Wise can find work elsewhere, possibly in the majors. Unlike Pods, Wise was actually useful in AAA.
Yunel Escobar will probably be out of the lineup again tonight. He took fielding practice this afternoon and apparently his mobility was limited, according to Mike Cormack of Sportsnet. Mike Mccoy again! Apparently Farrell said yesterday that he expected Yunel to be back tonight, but that's obviously not the case. No need to rush it though.
Casey Janssen got a save the other night, pitching the 9th inning in a close game instead of Frank Frank, Frasor, or Rauch. Free Jason, but Janssen is probably the next best thing. Apparently Rauch has a sore lat muscle in his back, and Farrell said that he thought giving Rauch a day off would be better than bringing him in.
Jesse Litsch's twitter:
Jesse Litsch: Just threw my 2nd bullpen went real well felt great can\'t wait til Monday to get back into game action throwing a sim game at the complexProbably a week to 10 days away.
And apparently, Dustin Pedroia is set to play tonight. He missed yesterday's game to fly down to Florida to get his knee checked out, but it's just a bruise and he's going to play through it. I hope he gets beaned directly in the kneecap.
Lineups
Jays
McCoy SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind DH
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Reyes P
Red Sux
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Lowrie SS
Crawford LF
Cameron RF
Saltalamacchia C
Buchholz P
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Holy crap I forgot it was an early game
Holy crap! I forgot it was an early game! As if I'm previewing this shit (I predict a triple from JP Arencibia). I would have had some stuff written (probably) but my mom made me mow the lawn.
Adam Lind can have a Zaunhead for hitting a grand slam yesterday.
Brett Lawrie appears to have fractured the same hand that he was beaned on last week. There was too much swelling at the time to diagnose such a thing, but now a few days later it's shrunk up enough that they found a non-displaced fracture, meaning that he won't need a cast and that it should heal pretty much perfectly. He'll be out of action for at least 2-4 weeks, and will then likely have rehab starts somewhere. He was rumored to be getting the call up this past Friday until this injury happened.
I now realize that, since he's out of baseball activity for 2-4 weeks, he may (i.e. probably) not be in the bigs for the July 1, otherwise known as Canada Day, game against the Phillies. I'll be sitting in Left Field for that one, and if I don't get to see Lawrie while I'm in Toronto that weekend, I believe I shall be upset. Lawrie is, of course, Canadian, and probably would mucho like to play that one, but that's just speculation of meaningless opinions on my behalf.
Something that I thought of today... Lawrie could, in theory, be unavailable until early-mid July. The first trade deadline in the MLB in July 31. Let's say a month from now, Lawrie is set to return to everyday game action, which would require rehab play (not sure if that's included in the 2-4, but I don't think it is). Let's say that EE or Rivera (or Jayson Nix or whoever the fuck... disposable pieces/trade bait that would not be getting everyday AB's had Lawrie come up last week) start hitting halfway decently over these 2-4 weeks that Lawrie is out. Maybe there's some chance that they leave Lawrie down for another little while to audition those guys off to other teams, at least until August 1, where they can just waive the fuckers and hope someone claims them and either trade or give them away for nothing.
If that does happen, and Lawrie remains in AAA, they could theoretically just wait to have him as a September call-up (i.e. wait to put him on the 40-man roster), and then option him back to start next season for about a month, in order to keep his service time below 1 year. This would of course make it almost a certainty that he becomes a super-2, which would cost the Jays a bit more in arbitration a few years down the road, but they would get an extra year of development before using up the same amount of service time.
Worth keeping in mind is the fact that the Collective Bargaining Agreement is set to expire this offseason, and Super-2 may no longer exist by the time that happens, or the guidelines of super-2 may change by then, and AA, given his ability to see in to the future, may know what is about to happen concerning super-2 status and might have something up his sleeve.
Of course, this is all hypothetical, and is simply shit going on inside my imagination.
The Red Sox are coming to town, and that weasel Dustin Pedroia won't be around. He's gone to Florida somewhere to see a doctor about his knee.
I also read that Joba Chamberlain is going for Tommy John Surgery, after finding a tear in an arm muscle. Maybe that will finally make him good.
Adam Lind can have a Zaunhead for hitting a grand slam yesterday.
Brett Lawrie appears to have fractured the same hand that he was beaned on last week. There was too much swelling at the time to diagnose such a thing, but now a few days later it's shrunk up enough that they found a non-displaced fracture, meaning that he won't need a cast and that it should heal pretty much perfectly. He'll be out of action for at least 2-4 weeks, and will then likely have rehab starts somewhere. He was rumored to be getting the call up this past Friday until this injury happened.
I now realize that, since he's out of baseball activity for 2-4 weeks, he may (i.e. probably) not be in the bigs for the July 1, otherwise known as Canada Day, game against the Phillies. I'll be sitting in Left Field for that one, and if I don't get to see Lawrie while I'm in Toronto that weekend, I believe I shall be upset. Lawrie is, of course, Canadian, and probably would mucho like to play that one, but that's just speculation of meaningless opinions on my behalf.
Something that I thought of today... Lawrie could, in theory, be unavailable until early-mid July. The first trade deadline in the MLB in July 31. Let's say a month from now, Lawrie is set to return to everyday game action, which would require rehab play (not sure if that's included in the 2-4, but I don't think it is). Let's say that EE or Rivera (or Jayson Nix or whoever the fuck... disposable pieces/trade bait that would not be getting everyday AB's had Lawrie come up last week) start hitting halfway decently over these 2-4 weeks that Lawrie is out. Maybe there's some chance that they leave Lawrie down for another little while to audition those guys off to other teams, at least until August 1, where they can just waive the fuckers and hope someone claims them and either trade or give them away for nothing.
If that does happen, and Lawrie remains in AAA, they could theoretically just wait to have him as a September call-up (i.e. wait to put him on the 40-man roster), and then option him back to start next season for about a month, in order to keep his service time below 1 year. This would of course make it almost a certainty that he becomes a super-2, which would cost the Jays a bit more in arbitration a few years down the road, but they would get an extra year of development before using up the same amount of service time.
Worth keeping in mind is the fact that the Collective Bargaining Agreement is set to expire this offseason, and Super-2 may no longer exist by the time that happens, or the guidelines of super-2 may change by then, and AA, given his ability to see in to the future, may know what is about to happen concerning super-2 status and might have something up his sleeve.
Of course, this is all hypothetical, and is simply shit going on inside my imagination.
The Red Sox are coming to town, and that weasel Dustin Pedroia won't be around. He's gone to Florida somewhere to see a doctor about his knee.
I also read that Joba Chamberlain is going for Tommy John Surgery, after finding a tear in an arm muscle. Maybe that will finally make him good.
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Hey, a save!
Didn't lose in the 9th inning, what more can you ask for?
Kyle Drabek still isn't quite there yet. I'm not asking for Halladay 2.0 here (yet), but I do want to see a flash of what he can do. I mean, he's a power pitcher, and he didn't strike out a batter, walking three over 5.1 IP, and most importantly, he threw just 56 strikes over 103 pitches. Too many pitches, stemming from too many balls.
JP Arencibia and Adam Lind both hit homeruns, which is good. Always nice to get some run support for your struggling pitchers, though Kansas City's defense Yakety Sax'ed their way to some of those runs.
I guess Adam Lind gets the Zaunny, though JP is pretty close with his 2-run shot that really took some air out of the Royals sails. JP's defence behind the plate was pretty bad though, so I was pretty upset with him before that tater.
Jose Bautista continued his slump, only managing to go 1-for-2 with 2 walks (sarcastic use of "slump" is sarcastic).
Yunel Escobar left the game last night after the top half of the 4th inning, with what John Farrell called tightness in his quad. He's listed as day-to-day. John Mcdonald is still on the DL, so Mike Mccoy!
Coupla Links
Fangraphs charts Jose Bautista's homer pace of this season, comparing it with other great homerun seasons such as Jose Bautista's 2010, Barry Bonds' 2001, Mcgwire's 99 and Babe Ruth's 19 ought 27. Bautista, or course, has gone 9 games now without a homerun (hitting like .340 with an OBP of .500+ or something like that).
Fangraphs also looks at Kyle Drabek, and questions the Jays' decision of keeping him in the majors.
I missed this last week when it first came out, and then forgot to link it the other day... Rob Neyer thinks that the Jays are for real.
The ever-so-excellent Joe Posnanski writes about his memories of Kauffman Stadium, home of the Royals, before he moves away to not Kansas City.
Al Yellon of SBNation wants 26-man rosters, instead of the current 25, thanks to the way pitchers are handled in this day and age.
And finally, Jose Bautista leads All-star voting. And why shouldn't he? He's been the best player in baseball so far this season (though Albert Pujols is on fire...). The real problem I see here is that Yankees lead pretty much every category that doesn't have Jose Bautista in it, including Jorge Posada coming in at 3rd place among AL DH's, which makes a mockery of this system. Moreover, guys like Matt Joyce, Yunel Escobar, and Drew Stubbs probably won't make it to the game, just so scrubs like Jeter and Posada can find spots. Ichiro is having his worst season ever, but has still managed to accrue the entire Asian vote, doing what I like to call "Yao Minging".
Carlos Skillanueva gets the start tonight for Toronto. Danny Duffy goes for KC in his 5th career start.
Lineups
Jays
McCoy SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind DH
Rivera 1B
Molina C
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Villanueva P
Royals
Gordon LF
Cabrera CF
Hosmer 1B
Francoeur RF
Butler DH
Betemit 3B
Getz 2B
Pena C
Escobar SS
Duffy P
Kyle Drabek still isn't quite there yet. I'm not asking for Halladay 2.0 here (yet), but I do want to see a flash of what he can do. I mean, he's a power pitcher, and he didn't strike out a batter, walking three over 5.1 IP, and most importantly, he threw just 56 strikes over 103 pitches. Too many pitches, stemming from too many balls.
JP Arencibia and Adam Lind both hit homeruns, which is good. Always nice to get some run support for your struggling pitchers, though Kansas City's defense Yakety Sax'ed their way to some of those runs.
I guess Adam Lind gets the Zaunny, though JP is pretty close with his 2-run shot that really took some air out of the Royals sails. JP's defence behind the plate was pretty bad though, so I was pretty upset with him before that tater.Jose Bautista continued his slump, only managing to go 1-for-2 with 2 walks (sarcastic use of "slump" is sarcastic).
Yunel Escobar left the game last night after the top half of the 4th inning, with what John Farrell called tightness in his quad. He's listed as day-to-day. John Mcdonald is still on the DL, so Mike Mccoy!
Coupla Links
Fangraphs charts Jose Bautista's homer pace of this season, comparing it with other great homerun seasons such as Jose Bautista's 2010, Barry Bonds' 2001, Mcgwire's 99 and Babe Ruth's 19 ought 27. Bautista, or course, has gone 9 games now without a homerun (hitting like .340 with an OBP of .500+ or something like that).
Fangraphs also looks at Kyle Drabek, and questions the Jays' decision of keeping him in the majors.
I missed this last week when it first came out, and then forgot to link it the other day... Rob Neyer thinks that the Jays are for real.
The ever-so-excellent Joe Posnanski writes about his memories of Kauffman Stadium, home of the Royals, before he moves away to not Kansas City.
Al Yellon of SBNation wants 26-man rosters, instead of the current 25, thanks to the way pitchers are handled in this day and age.
And finally, Jose Bautista leads All-star voting. And why shouldn't he? He's been the best player in baseball so far this season (though Albert Pujols is on fire...). The real problem I see here is that Yankees lead pretty much every category that doesn't have Jose Bautista in it, including Jorge Posada coming in at 3rd place among AL DH's, which makes a mockery of this system. Moreover, guys like Matt Joyce, Yunel Escobar, and Drew Stubbs probably won't make it to the game, just so scrubs like Jeter and Posada can find spots. Ichiro is having his worst season ever, but has still managed to accrue the entire Asian vote, doing what I like to call "Yao Minging".
Carlos Skillanueva gets the start tonight for Toronto. Danny Duffy goes for KC in his 5th career start.
Lineups
Jays
McCoy SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind DH
Rivera 1B
Molina C
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Villanueva P
Royals
Gordon LF
Cabrera CF
Hosmer 1B
Francoeur RF
Butler DH
Betemit 3B
Getz 2B
Pena C
Escobar SS
Duffy P
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Draft Stuff, plus DIE FRANK FRANCISCO!
Now, in the title, when I say "DIE FRANK FRANCISCO", I'm obviously taking the stance of idiot fans who are overreacting. Yes, he gave up a run. And yes, he's blown a couple of saves. But I dunno, last night wasn't really all that bad, no matter the result. It's not like he gave up 3 walks or anything.
Frank's gonna be okay. It's not a big deal that he's still struggling. My only real problem with the whole Frank-Frank thing is that he's still being used in high-leverage scenarios, when guys like Frasor or Janssen could be used instead. I mean there's gotta be something going on with Frank, to the point where I don't think we're ever really surprised that he's blowing saves and getting the BJ Ryan treatment. Like remember the other day when Frasor came in in the 3rd inning to spell Shawn Camp, who was in turn spelling Kyle Drabek? That's where guys like Francisco, Dotel and (when he's up) Luis Perez should be used. Please.
Alright, so yesterday was day 1 of the MLB First Year Player Draft. It wasn't much of a surprise when Gerrit Cole went first overall to the Pittsburgh Pirates. I'm not going to lie and pretend that I'm a scout or that I know much about these undrafted prospects, so I'll just let MLB.com do it with this video.
Let's hope Drabek can find the zone tonight, and that Vin Mazzaro does that 11ER in 2 innings thing again.
Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Encarnacion DH
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Drabek P
Royals
Gordon LF
Cabrera CF
Hosmer 1B
Francoeur RF
Butler DH
Aviles 3B
Getz 2B
Treanor C
Escobar SS
Mazzaro P
Monday, 6 June 2011
Catching up
K I didn't write yesterday. Didn't feel like it. Fuck you, you're not the boss of me.
Anyway, I've spent most of my morning trying to find an animated gif version of Albert Pujols' celebration as he was about to cross home after hitting a walk-off of JeffRzepzcynski Samarzdija or something. For some reason, someone decided that it would be cool to get Szmamardja Samrdzija Sazmardja Jeff saying "No fucking way" and then Mike Quade contemplating suicide, but not Albert's dance.
Ah well... Jays. Let's see. Saturday. uhhh, Corey Patterson? Dunno what else really happened, as I wasn't around to catch this one. Skip it I guess.
Yesterday's was better. Adam Lind, huh? I had him on the bench for fantasy because it was his second game back and he had gone 0-3 the day before. Awesome. 4-4 with 2 taters. Won't make that mistake again. That dinger Yunel Escobar hit was a treat too. I'm gonna give them both Zauners.
Jays vs. the Royals today. Good news: the Royals are fucking awful! Brandon Morrow pitches tonight, and maybe this time every fucking ball won't find a hole like it did against the Indians.
In other news, the draft begins tonight. Probably Gerrit Cole going first overall to Pittsburgh. The Jays pick 22nd or 23rd or something, but then again a bunch of times over the next 50 picks. Sportsnet 1 has coverage beginning with a preview show at 6ET and then the real thing at 7ET. The Jays and Royals don't play until 8ET tonight, so there. Keith Law has a mock-draft here (ESPN Insider needed), or MLBTR has a brief synopsis.
Lineups
Bluejays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind DH
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Morrow P
Royales with Cheese
Gordon LF
Cabrera CF
Hosmer 1B
Francoeur RF
Butler DH
Aviles 3B
Getz 2B
Treanor C
Escobar SS
Paulino P
Anyway, I've spent most of my morning trying to find an animated gif version of Albert Pujols' celebration as he was about to cross home after hitting a walk-off of Jeff
Ah well... Jays. Let's see. Saturday. uhhh, Corey Patterson? Dunno what else really happened, as I wasn't around to catch this one. Skip it I guess.
 |
| X2 |
Jays vs. the Royals today. Good news: the Royals are fucking awful! Brandon Morrow pitches tonight, and maybe this time every fucking ball won't find a hole like it did against the Indians.
In other news, the draft begins tonight. Probably Gerrit Cole going first overall to Pittsburgh. The Jays pick 22nd or 23rd or something, but then again a bunch of times over the next 50 picks. Sportsnet 1 has coverage beginning with a preview show at 6ET and then the real thing at 7ET. The Jays and Royals don't play until 8ET tonight, so there. Keith Law has a mock-draft here (ESPN Insider needed), or MLBTR has a brief synopsis.
Lineups
Bluejays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind DH
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B
Morrow P
Royales with Cheese
Gordon LF
Cabrera CF
Hosmer 1B
Francoeur RF
Butler DH
Aviles 3B
Getz 2B
Treanor C
Escobar SS
Paulino P
Saturday, 4 June 2011
That's better
Nothing like a visit to Baltimore to wash the taste of two severe beatings out of your mouth. JP Tatercibia struck again, hitting a grand slam during my 6th or 7th beer, earning a Zaunny. All in all, that was a pretty good game. Rajai Davis had 3 hits and a steal, Yunel Escobar had two hits plus a walk, raising his batting average to .300, and Jose Bautista had a hit and 2 walks, on intentional... good one Buck Showalter, raising the OBP to an astonishing .504. Jayson Nix continued to be Jayson Nix, as we all pine for Brett Lawrie.
Vote for your Bluejay all-stars at MLB.com.
Adam Lind was recalled from his rehab assignment, and should play today. Eric Thames was the player sent back the other way. He did a pretty good job of filling in, though I'd have liked to see him get more of a chance in the field.
Rare weekend night-game for the Jays tonight. Jake Arrieta and Ricky Romero are pitching, in what should be a pretty good matchup given the actual talents of these two lineups.
Vote for your Bluejay all-stars at MLB.com.
Adam Lind was recalled from his rehab assignment, and should play today. Eric Thames was the player sent back the other way. He did a pretty good job of filling in, though I'd have liked to see him get more of a chance in the field.
Rare weekend night-game for the Jays tonight. Jake Arrieta and Ricky Romero are pitching, in what should be a pretty good matchup given the actual talents of these two lineups.
Friday, 3 June 2011
Brett Lawrie did not get called up
Brett Lawrie did not get called up.
Lineups
Lawries
Not Lawrie SS
Not Lawrie LF
Not Lawrie RF
Not Lawrie 1B
Not Lawrie C
Not Lawrie 2B
Definitely Not Lawrie DH
Not Lawrie CF
Not Lawrie 3B
P: Not Lawrie
Not Lawries
Not Lawrie LF
Not Lawrie CF
Not Lawrie RF
Not Lawrie DH
Not Lawrie C
Not Lawrie SS
Not Lawrie 1B
Not Lawrie 3B
Not Lawrie 2B
P: Not Lawrie
Lineups
Lawries
Not Lawrie SS
Not Lawrie LF
Not Lawrie RF
Not Lawrie 1B
Not Lawrie C
Not Lawrie 2B
Definitely Not Lawrie DH
Not Lawrie CF
Not Lawrie 3B
P: Not Lawrie
Not Lawries
Not Lawrie LF
Not Lawrie CF
Not Lawrie RF
Not Lawrie DH
Not Lawrie C
Not Lawrie SS
Not Lawrie 1B
Not Lawrie 3B
Not Lawrie 2B
P: Not Lawrie
Quickie
No Jays game last night, so there's not a ton to write aboot, but there's some stuff.
Tony Larussa and Bruce Bochy had a battle to see who was more incompetent last night. I don't know if I can embed gifs on here or not, but we'll give it a shot. I fucking hope it works, because this is amazing. Props to <3_tha_grind on 2+2 for this one. (Click on it).
Adam Lind went 3 for 4 with a double yesterday in a rehab start in A-ball. He hopes to return this weekend.
As I had predicted so nicely, Josh Roenicke was removed from the 40-man roster the other day, and was claimed by Colorado. Roenicke had been pretty inconsistent in parts of 2 seasons with the Jays after coming over in the Scott Rolen trade. This season in AAA Las Vegas, he's got an ERA over 6, with a bb/9 rate also over 6. The move is probably to make room for Brett Lawrie, who was rumored to be getting the call up, but is now day-to-day after being hit on the hand by a pitch. AA has a policy in which he likes to debut guys on the road, which means that it's either this weekend in Baltimore, Monday-Thursday in Kansas City, or wait until July 16th... or debut him at home.
Jose Bautista was named the MLB Player of the Month for May, the second straight month in which he's won that honor. He also won the award in July and August last season.
MLB.com has a draft preview for all teams on their website. Here is a link to the Jays' preview. The Jays pick 7 times in the first 76 picks, starting with the 22nd pick I think. The draft is June 6th and 7th.
Tom from Bluebirdbanter.com breaks down the Jays' hitters performance in May.
Remember like a week ago when Corey Patterson stole 2nd base so the White Sox could walk Jose Bautista? Joe Posnanski got mad. He doesn't like intentional walks.
Tony Larussa and Bruce Bochy had a battle to see who was more incompetent last night. I don't know if I can embed gifs on here or not, but we'll give it a shot. I fucking hope it works, because this is amazing. Props to <3_tha_grind on 2+2 for this one. (Click on it).
Adam Lind went 3 for 4 with a double yesterday in a rehab start in A-ball. He hopes to return this weekend.
As I had predicted so nicely, Josh Roenicke was removed from the 40-man roster the other day, and was claimed by Colorado. Roenicke had been pretty inconsistent in parts of 2 seasons with the Jays after coming over in the Scott Rolen trade. This season in AAA Las Vegas, he's got an ERA over 6, with a bb/9 rate also over 6. The move is probably to make room for Brett Lawrie, who was rumored to be getting the call up, but is now day-to-day after being hit on the hand by a pitch. AA has a policy in which he likes to debut guys on the road, which means that it's either this weekend in Baltimore, Monday-Thursday in Kansas City, or wait until July 16th... or debut him at home.
Jose Bautista was named the MLB Player of the Month for May, the second straight month in which he's won that honor. He also won the award in July and August last season.
MLB.com has a draft preview for all teams on their website. Here is a link to the Jays' preview. The Jays pick 7 times in the first 76 picks, starting with the 22nd pick I think. The draft is June 6th and 7th.
Tom from Bluebirdbanter.com breaks down the Jays' hitters performance in May.
Remember like a week ago when Corey Patterson stole 2nd base so the White Sox could walk Jose Bautista? Joe Posnanski got mad. He doesn't like intentional walks.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Off-day, ~1/3rd of the Way Through the Season Report Cards!
Not even acknowledging yesterday's game. Too busy watching the National Spelling Bee.
56 games in to the season (34% of the way through), there have obviously been some peaks and valleys. Obviously Jose Bautista has been the best hitter in baseball, which is always convenient. But I dunno, on a team like this, with the plan that is in place of this year being kind of a transition season from the rebuild to the competition modes, there are going to be a few frustrating spots in there, especially with a few stopgaps in the lineup. The really important thing is that the guys who are the real future of this team get their reps in.
So basically, what's gonna happen here is that everybody who's played so far is going to get a letter grade and I'm going to tell them what I think of them. Let's get on with it. Starting with the position players:
This took way longer than I hoped. Let me know if I forgot anybody.
56 games in to the season (34% of the way through), there have obviously been some peaks and valleys. Obviously Jose Bautista has been the best hitter in baseball, which is always convenient. But I dunno, on a team like this, with the plan that is in place of this year being kind of a transition season from the rebuild to the competition modes, there are going to be a few frustrating spots in there, especially with a few stopgaps in the lineup. The really important thing is that the guys who are the real future of this team get their reps in.
So basically, what's gonna happen here is that everybody who's played so far is going to get a letter grade and I'm going to tell them what I think of them. Let's get on with it. Starting with the position players:
- Yunel Escobar- A+
- Arguably the second best shortstop in the American League to this point in the season, and can definitely make a case for being the best, with Asdrubal Cabrera being his only competition. Asdrubal has never been this good, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him return to earth, but whatever... Yunel, so far this season, has been the 2009 Yunel that AA was certain still existed when he made the trade that brought him and Jojo Reyes to Toronto in exchange for Alex Gonzalez and Tim Collins, and is actually on pace to be better (4.5WAR in '09, 1.7 so far on pace for 5). Almost definitely the best all-around non-robot Bluejay in the batting order.
- Corey Patterson- B+
- To this point, Patterson has been pretty good. Don't expect this to keep up. The Getting Blanked podcast of yesterday (maybe the day before?) brought up the idea of hoping to trade him at some point, which was something that I never really ever thought up simply because he can't possibly keep this up. But fuck, I shouldn't underestimate AA, should I? There is nothing about what Patterson has done since 2006 that would suggest that he can keep this up, especially as a 31 year-old, as literally all of his stats this season are better than his career numbers. I would very much welcome a trade, and will laugh at anyone who takes him.
- Jose Bautista- A+
- Best player in baseball over the last season and a half. Deserves a billion +'s after that A. There's a billion thing written about him across the internets, no reason for me to go on.
- Juan Rivera- C
- This guy would probably be the worst Bluejay ever if he continued on the pace he was on in his first couple weeks, not to mention the complete lack of an semblance of hustle. He's turned it around with the stick over the last couple weeks, though, but he's still only hitting .235/.308/.345, which is not overly impressive for a DH, or 1B for that matter. But he's coming around. I was calling for his release earlier this year, and I don't think I'd be terribly upset if they disposed of him, but he's probably going to stick around for the rest of the season. I'd be shocked if he were on this team next year, and I don't think he'll fetch much in a trade anyway. Almost certainly a non-tender unless he lights it up over the next while.
- Aaron Hill- C
- I hate to give him a break, but he was hurt and missed time at the start of the year, which is always tough to do. He's popping it up much less often than he was last year, but he still kind of stinks with the bat. I'm really surprised at how high up in the batting order he's consistently batting, since his bat has been practically useless for a #4 or #5 hitter. Almost all of Hill's value at this point is in his defense, considering his strikeout rates are consistent with his career numbers, but his ISO and walk rates are down (over a 39 game/168AB sample, mind you). I expect both of his team options to be declined.
- Edwin Encarnacion- F
- Kind of a make-or-break year for Edwin, given the non-tender and paycut. I expect him to be DFA'ed when Brett Lawrie comes up, but he was always just a placeholder who had the potential to possibly catch fire. He didn't. Go away.
- JP Arencibia- A
- Not sure what more we could expect. Arguably the best catcher in the AL, given Joe Mauer's absence (Alex Avila and Russell Martin are also in the mix), and as a rookie, no less. If he's not an all-star, it's a travesty in my opinion (I voted for him), and he's certainly in the running for Rookie of the Year, though I doubt he gets it, given the attention Eric Hosmer has gotten (and Brett Lawrie is coming omg!)
- Adam Lind- A-
- Wish he wasn't hurt, because he was the hottest player in baseball right around the time he went to the DL. He should be back this weekend, but I'm pretty nervous, given the way last season went. He's played an excellent defensive 1B, but offensively, save for the 7 or 8 game stretch before he got hurt, he was mediocre with the bat. I have faith!
- Rajai Davis- B
- I've had fun watching this guy play, when he's been in the lineup. He's so fast, and uses it well, as opposed to Corey Patterson, who is almost as fast but runs the bases much worse. His fielding has been just fair at best, and his lack of ability to hit a ball hard is really hurting him, not to mention the strikeouts. But he's pretty fun to watch when he gets on base, and since coming off the DL like a month ago or whatever, and being moved down to the bottom of the order, he's really improved his batting numbers. I'd not be surprised if he were traded next year, given all the similar outfielders in the system and value that a speedy black guy has.
- John McDonald- B
- Obviously not an everyday player by definition, but is getting pretty close to everyday playing time, and has filled in about as well as he can. He's never really had much of a bat, but that glove oh my god. He pretty much defines replacement level player, and has played slightly better than that in his playing time this year, no matter how ugly that bat is. He's also a fan favorite, so yeah.
- Jayson Nix- C
- I feel generous, I guess. He's got raw power, and his babip is just .236 (which isn't a huge shift from his career norm, with a limited sample), and he's played well defensively, so I'd be willing to give him another little while until Lawrie is up. Frankly, though, I'd rather see McDonald in the lineup mostly everyday at 3B in order to field a really good defensive infield to help out the young pitchers (as opposed to offering personal catchers). All in all, Nix's defense has actually been pretty good, and has shown flashes of offense, even with that atrocious K-rate (30%). Basically, he's been a bad but unlucky (in terms of babip and injuries) version of what Edwin Encarnacion was supposed to be.
- Jose Molina- C
- No, that's not his position, that's his grade. .408babip over 71 AB's, so his .328/.386/.453 slash line won't keep up. He's there, I guess, but I really feel like his value to this team is overstated, though I can't really back that up. I meh at him.
- Mike Mccoy- C
- Thanks for filling in Mike. There's very little sample to go by here, and a lot of the time he's in the game, it's because the game is either a runaway, or because Jose Molina just magically got on base yet again, but needs a pinch runner.
- Eric Thames- B
- I've been pretty impressed by Eric to this point, especially given the fact that he's hardly gotten any fastballs to hit. He's only got 47 plate appearances under his belt to this point, and mostly at DH, so it's no surprise that he's been worth 0 WAR. I hope he stays up, but wouldn't be surprised if he were sent back down at some point when somebody rejoins the team.
- Travis Snider- C-
- Looked lost at the plate while he was up. He seems to be raking in AAA, not surprisingly, but they really want the power stroke to be there, which still doesn't seem to be developing. Let's not forget though, he's still only 23 years old, and only had 99 PA's. I actually thought he looked pretty good (for the most part) in the field while he was up here, to the point of actually going with him in CF in my MLB The Show '11 franchise, though Fangraphs doesn't particularly agree. I still think he's going to be a star, and needs to be in the middle of the order.
Pitchers:
- Ricky Romero- A.
- Definitely proving himself as an ace. He is, however, outpitching his fip by a full run, and xfip by about half a run, but by simply watching him, he's been really badass in a couple starts. Strikeout rates are up, walk rates are down, and homerun rates are actually up when compared to career stats (which, granted, is only 2 seasons). Still, an 81.5% LOB (left-on-base percentage) has me nervous, as I don't think that's exactly sustainable.
- Brandon Morrow- B
- I hesitated to give Brandon a B, until looking closely at his stats. Given the facts that (a) he began the year on the DL, and (b) he has a .368 BABIP ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!?!, I'm ready to give him a break. He's striking out batters at a higher rate than last year, or any other year for that matter, and is actually walking one fewer batter per 9 innings when compared to his career rates. Here's the big one: ERA: 5.17. FIP: 2.07. xFIP: 3.11. That .368 babip against really burns me up, because a 2.07 FIP is fucking lights out. It will probably rise to a level closer to his xFIP, because, believe it or not, he's been pretty fortunate with regards to homers, with a 2.0% HR/FB rate, which xFIP corrects (average is 10.5%).
- Kyle Drabek- C
- Throw some strikes kid. Morrow and Drabek aren't incredibly different pitchers, considering the velocity or their fastballs and effectiveness of their breaking balls. Drabek simply needs to work out the control issues and he's going to be real good. I read somewhere that he's on pace to set a record for walks in a season by a starter or something like that, which doesn't really surprise me. Dustin Parkes from Getting Blanked seems to think he should be sent to the minors to work things out, and I fully agree, assuming there is someone else who can come up to start, but,similar to the Brett Lawrie argument, he's done everything he can against minor league competition, so I dunno.
- Jesse Litsch- C
- Jesse is one of those guys who is a 4th-5th stringer on a decent-to-bad team, who just kind of holds a place for someone in the minors. He might be around again next year, but by the time last year's first rounders, sandwich picks, and second rounders show up (Mcguire, Wojo, Sanchez, Syndergaard) hopefully towards the end of next season, I expect him to be gone. He's not that good, he's simply the best of a bad situation, getting a shot to catch lightning in a bottle and work out.
- Jojo Reyes- C
JesseJojo is one of those guys who is a4th-5th stringer on a decent-to-bad team, who just kind of holds a place for someone in the minors. Hemightwon't be around again next year, but by the time last year's first rounders, sandwich picks, and second rounders show up (Mcguire, Wojo, Sanchez, Syndergaard) hopefully towards the end of next season, I expect him to be gone. He's not that good, he's simply thebestmeh of a bad situation, getting a shot to catch lightning in a bottle and work out. (I just thought this would be funny. He's actually been better than Litsch so far, and probably deserves something in the C+/B- area)- Carlos Villanueva- A
- Yeah, yeah, he had a bad appearance last time out. Big whoop, he's been absolutely excellent. I don't think Milwaukee really knew what they cast aside when they got rid of him, but I'm glad what happened happened.
- Brett Cecil- N/A
- Not enough of a sample, but probably in the range of a D. He's working on it though, and should be, at worst, as good as he was last year for the rest of his career. He showed flashes of brilliance last year, which leads me to believe that he'll be ok. Given the amount of pitching depth that this franchise has, and his struggles this year, plus he's a lefty, I can see him moving to the bullpen down the line, but certainly won't write him off yet.
- Shawn Camp- B
- Camp was excellent last year, and was pretty fucking good at the start of this season, but it's kind of fallen apart lately. He's a type-A free agent as of right now, but will more than likely be a type-B by the end of the year. FIP doens't particularly like him, and he's 36 years old, so I would hope that the Jays let him go this season in order to pick up a draft pick.
- Jason Frasor- A
- He's been excellent this year, despite his ERA being right around half of his FIP. He should be a Type-A by the end of the year, which kind of sucks if they ever plan on getting a pick for him. I would love to see him moved, if for no other reason than the fact that he takes fucking forever to pitch, but more importantly because nobody is ever going to sign a Type-A middle relief pitcher unless their 1st rounder is protected, which is obviously the big flaw in the free agent compensation system. Still, he's one of the few relievers that Farrell is using modestly correctly, being put in the game in high leverage situations.
- Mark Rzepcynszki or whatever- A
- Scrabble has been really good coming out of the bullpen, against both righties and lefties. ERA, FIP and xFIP are all under 3. He somehow manages to strike out a batter an inning (almost) despite throwing high 80's tops.
- Casey Jannsen- A
- Frasor, Rzep, and Jannsen have been the best members of this bullpen, despite Jannsen being in AAA for parts of this and last season, Rzep being a starter, and Frasor believing (correctly) that his market would be too small to test free agency. Jannsen pitches well against both righties and lefties, has a 3:1 K-to-walk ratio, and hasn't given up a homerun yet. ERA under 2, FIP under 2.5.
- Frank Francisco- C+
- I'll give him a pass for being injured to start the year and essentially not having a spring training. He's been shaky, but has still struck out over a batter an inning. He's been pretty dominant when healthy throughout his career, and still ranks as a type-B free agent. xFIP is 3.69, but he's thrown up some meatballs so I dunno. Jury's still out.
- Octavio Dotel- C
- He's effective against righties, and awful against lefties. Considering how good Rzep, Jannsen, Frasor, Camp... basically everybody but Dotel is against lefty batters, Dotel should never pitch against lefties and everything will be fine. I realize that Farrell is the one sticking him in there though, so heh. Type-B free agent projection right now, and that should remain. Probably won't be here next year, and I'm completely fine with that.
- Luis Perez- B
- Looks good, not enough of a sample though. If any of the bullpen members are moved this year/don't come back for next year, he's probably the replacement for next season, despite being a starter in AAA (though there are some other guys down there, i.e. Alan Farina).
- Jon Rauch- C+
- Doesn't really impress me. Looked good at the start of the season, and has been the exact reciprocal of badness since. That's my logic kicking in, since he's been worth 0.0 WAR.
Coaching:
- John Farrell- C.
- I'll give him a pass for a while, since it's his first season. Stop bunting so much, use Jose Molina less, don't be retarded with your lineup configuration, use Dotel in less retarded spots.
This took way longer than I hoped. Let me know if I forgot anybody.
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
This is getting a little silly
Alright Cleveland, I've got a little something to say to you fellas. You're not a good team. Actually quite bad. So knock it off.
Yesterday, Brandon Morrow was hurt by something that's been plaguing him all year, and that is balls just happening to fall in for hits. Brandon's season babip is .386. Are you fucking serious? This was a really hard game to watch, especially considering the way Morrow was striking fools out like mad, but having every ball in play falling in for a hit. It's shit like this that's making Cleveland win games that they shouldn't be winning.
Remember when people were saying last year that Jose Bautista's season was a fluke? Well, in theory, although this stat for batters is kind of useless*, his babip was .233, which, for a guy who hits the ball hard as consistently as Bautista, is pretty low. A lot of people smarter than myself were saying that, given that really low babip but high line drive rate, they would expect that next season (i.e. this season) would show a marked improvement in batting average, which has happened (despite his babip this year of like .346), whether or not they expected the homeruns to continue.
This is one of those things that projection systems look at and determine whether things that are happening are sustainable or not. Well, Cleveland putting the ball in play 15 times off Morrow and getting 9 hits? Not sustainable, despite how fucking infuriatingly often it's happened so far this season. And the Jays got the exact opposite treatment, though Cleveland's infield played some really excellent defense, with Hannahan and Laporta catching some liners that could have fallen in for doubles just as easily.
*- I think that this is an extreme enough example, since both numbers are such a big deviation from his career .275 mark, though obviously he's not the same hitter now as he was a couple years ago. Maybe this is a poor example...*
Yunel Escobar had a good game though... big surprise. Through 52 games or whatever it's been, the two best shortstops in the AL were playing last night at the Rogers Centre. Asdrubal Cabrera is literally the only shortstop in the AL who's been in the same category as Yunel (probably better, but it's close... Cabrera has been worth 1.8WAR, Yunel 1.7). AA crushed that trade. Zaun-head for the 2-for-2 with a HR and THREE WALKS. Are you serious? That's a Bautista game. Even Bautista went 3-for-5.
Whatever, I'm over it. Kyle Drabek tonight, vs. Josh Tomlin. Tomlin has outpitched his fip by about a run and a half (2.74 ERA vs. 4.43 fip, 3.94xfip), which makes him a theoretical league-average pitcher, as opposed to the dominant results he's had so far, so that story checks out perfectly with what's gone on so far this season for Cleveland. So yeah, fuck them.
And hey, did you guys hear? Brett Lawrie, some guy that someone got traded for and is doing something somewhere in the minor leagues or something, is apparently getting CALLED UP ON FRIDAY HOLY SHIT. If you've been under a rock since the winter but somehow found this blog and nothing else, you might not know that Lawrie was acquired for Shaun Marcum this offseason, is absolutely crushing in AAA, and is apparently ready to come up to the big squadron as early as Friday against the Orioles. Cito would probably have him on the bench, because he's an old fuck, but what we're being told is that when Lawrie comes up, he's up to stay and play everyday.
In all likelihood, considering how fucking useless they've been, I'd expect either Edwin or Jayson Nix to be DFA'ed. I talked about this yesterday, but something I didn't consider was the optioning down of Mike Mccoy or Luis Perez, though they would still need to find a place on the 40-man roster, which as I said yesterday, would probably coincide with a Richmond or Roenicke DFA. I'd rather see AA shake something up with a trade though, just because it's so much funner. Either way, that's going to be a fucking party.
By the way, Lawrie got beaned in the hand last night, about an hour after the rumor of his promotion was released, and he actually left the game. Quick scare, but it was just a bruise and he's going to be okay.
Yesterday, Brandon Morrow was hurt by something that's been plaguing him all year, and that is balls just happening to fall in for hits. Brandon's season babip is .386. Are you fucking serious? This was a really hard game to watch, especially considering the way Morrow was striking fools out like mad, but having every ball in play falling in for a hit. It's shit like this that's making Cleveland win games that they shouldn't be winning.
Remember when people were saying last year that Jose Bautista's season was a fluke? Well, in theory, although this stat for batters is kind of useless*, his babip was .233, which, for a guy who hits the ball hard as consistently as Bautista, is pretty low. A lot of people smarter than myself were saying that, given that really low babip but high line drive rate, they would expect that next season (i.e. this season) would show a marked improvement in batting average, which has happened (despite his babip this year of like .346), whether or not they expected the homeruns to continue.
This is one of those things that projection systems look at and determine whether things that are happening are sustainable or not. Well, Cleveland putting the ball in play 15 times off Morrow and getting 9 hits? Not sustainable, despite how fucking infuriatingly often it's happened so far this season. And the Jays got the exact opposite treatment, though Cleveland's infield played some really excellent defense, with Hannahan and Laporta catching some liners that could have fallen in for doubles just as easily.
*- I think that this is an extreme enough example, since both numbers are such a big deviation from his career .275 mark, though obviously he's not the same hitter now as he was a couple years ago. Maybe this is a poor example...*
Yunel Escobar had a good game though... big surprise. Through 52 games or whatever it's been, the two best shortstops in the AL were playing last night at the Rogers Centre. Asdrubal Cabrera is literally the only shortstop in the AL who's been in the same category as Yunel (probably better, but it's close... Cabrera has been worth 1.8WAR, Yunel 1.7). AA crushed that trade. Zaun-head for the 2-for-2 with a HR and THREE WALKS. Are you serious? That's a Bautista game. Even Bautista went 3-for-5.Whatever, I'm over it. Kyle Drabek tonight, vs. Josh Tomlin. Tomlin has outpitched his fip by about a run and a half (2.74 ERA vs. 4.43 fip, 3.94xfip), which makes him a theoretical league-average pitcher, as opposed to the dominant results he's had so far, so that story checks out perfectly with what's gone on so far this season for Cleveland. So yeah, fuck them.
And hey, did you guys hear? Brett Lawrie, some guy that someone got traded for and is doing something somewhere in the minor leagues or something, is apparently getting CALLED UP ON FRIDAY HOLY SHIT. If you've been under a rock since the winter but somehow found this blog and nothing else, you might not know that Lawrie was acquired for Shaun Marcum this offseason, is absolutely crushing in AAA, and is apparently ready to come up to the big squadron as early as Friday against the Orioles. Cito would probably have him on the bench, because he's an old fuck, but what we're being told is that when Lawrie comes up, he's up to stay and play everyday.
In all likelihood, considering how fucking useless they've been, I'd expect either Edwin or Jayson Nix to be DFA'ed. I talked about this yesterday, but something I didn't consider was the optioning down of Mike Mccoy or Luis Perez, though they would still need to find a place on the 40-man roster, which as I said yesterday, would probably coincide with a Richmond or Roenicke DFA. I'd rather see AA shake something up with a trade though, just because it's so much funner. Either way, that's going to be a fucking party.
By the way, Lawrie got beaned in the hand last night, about an hour after the rumor of his promotion was released, and he actually left the game. Quick scare, but it was just a bruise and he's going to be okay.
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