Wednesday 20 July 2011

Another Walk-off Flocka Flame



So the Jays are good at extra innings.  Maybe they should just play extras in every game, and then they'd be like 82-17 this year or whatever that equates to.  If you missed it, Rajai Davis kind of stole the show and 3 bases, scoring the winning run on John Mcdonald's walk-off sac-fly.  Yunel Escobar collected 3 hits, walked once, and scored a Zaunny.  Jose Bautista went 1-for-6 in his return, while DH-ing.  I think he's supposed to play in the field tonight.

Props to Brett Cecil for getting his shit together after allowing a bunch of baserunners/runs through the first couple innings.  Seattle scored 4 in the 2nd on 2 HR's, which is essentially the equivalent of any other team scoring 10.  Cecil settled things down and only allowed 2 hits from the 3rd-7th inning, before getting bailed out by his bullpen, who went 7 scoreless innings, allowing 5 hits.  Casey Janssen returned to action after spending time on the DL with arm issues, and he threw a scoreless top of the 14th.  Marc Rzepczynski threw 2.1 innings of nearly perfect ball, allowing just the 1 hit while striking out 2.  Jason Frasor uncharacteristically allowed 3 hits and a walk over 1.1ip, somehow not allowing any runs.

The latest Elias rankings are out, with a special thanks to MLBTR.  They looked a little buggy yesterday when they first came out, which is why I didn't mention it, but they appear to have been fixed and are good to go.  From a Bluejays perspective, one change is Jose Molina, who has flip-flopped from type B to unranked and back a couple times this year.  He is back to a Type-B as of yesterday, which is mainly a moot point in my opinion.  I don't think Molina leaves at the end of this season if he's offered arbitration, but who knows?

Aaron Hill is now a type-B, and should remain that way for the rest of the year, which is good news if for the Jays, as someone will now be more likely to sign him and get a compensation pick for the Jays in next years draft.  Alberto Callaspo and Brandon Inge are ahead of Hill at this point by the slimmest of margins, but Hill sucks now.

Edwin Encarnacion has actually made up some ground with his recent increase in playing time, and, while still an unranked free agent (with a club option, by the way), he has made a pretty decent jump in the ranks.  I honestly thought that there was a chance of 0 that he would make his way up to type-B status, but here we are.  With Brett Lawrie waiting in the wings, and Jose Bautista likely heading back to the outfield, there may not be a ton of AB's available for Edwin, though they could just as easily make room for him if he keeps rising in the ranks.

And here's a thought: Edwin has a 1yr/3.5MM club option on his contract for the upcoming offseason.  If he's having a rough year this season, and is almost at a type-B, maybe it's worth a shot to platoon him next year against lefties and be a bench player otherwise.  He has a career 112OPS against LHP, which isn't really anything all that special.  I'm not trying to say that I'd have any problem with non-tendering him/trading him at the end of the season, but if there is any room at all for him on the team next year, then it's not really the end of the world.

As for relief pitchers, Octavio Dotel is somehow the highest ranked Jay, near the top of Type-B status.  Jason Frasor, Shawn Camp, Jon Rauch, and Frank Francisco all remain type-B's safely, and will need some extreme scenario to arise to change that.  Dotel is actually getting pretty close to Type-A, which goes to show just how flawed this system really is.

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