Jojo Reyes makes the news one last time

Never again, after today, will the name Jojo Reyes be mentioned on this blog.  That guy is the worst.  Having said that, he got claimed off waivers today, making the worst nightmare of the Toronto Blue Jays organization come true.  Or something.  I dunno, that guy is super terrible, and I seriously couldn't give one third of one shit about him being officially gone for good for absolutely no return, out of fear that either (a) whoever came back the other way would miraculously make it to the bigs and suck even worse than Jojo, or (b) he could somehow claw his fat fucking face back to the Jays roster in some emergency scenario.

Anyway, Baltimore ate him up, and must now keep him on the active roster, much like the Jays, or expose him to waivers for the other 29 clubs.  I'm not sure exactly what the waiver priority list looks like, but the fact that the O's saw a place for him really makes me laugh, and actually makes me feel sad for them, since they were supposed to be halfway decent this season thanks to a strong, young core of good pitching.  Well, Jojo has right around the worst numbers of any pitcher in the league this year, so he's clearly a boost to that team.  Just goes to show you how much value people see in left-handed pitchers.

This is my comment that I made in the MLBTR thread, trolling O's fans.

Sometimes I forget that baseball players are people too, and aren't just there for my (and by extension, our) entertainment.  I wrote a pretty nasty "GTFO" post to Jojo on the day of his last start,  and another much nicer, but still mean one on my blog the day of his DFA.

  Don't get me wrong, I don't feel bad for writing what I wrote, because frankly, it's just the internet, and I'm not sure if anyone ever really means anything negative that they post on the internet, but I can say this with 100% truth:  Jojo Reyes, more than anyone else ever since I began watching baseball at age 3 (almost 24 now), has frustrated me simply by existing, let alone holding a roster spot on my beloved bluejays.  I called for that DFA more times than for any other player, and in only ~60% of a season.  This includes the dark, dark days of giving guys like Jacob Brumfield 200 AB's, Alex Rios not trying, BJ Ryan being BJ Ryan, Mencherson, Craig Grebeck being an everyday player, and so on.

As a Jays fan, I really do feel for the Orioles.  It sucks to lose for years and years on end, and I don't think anybody (save for Pirates fans) knows what it feels like to literally go a decade without having their team play a single game of meaningful baseball in September. I literally don't remember a playoff run ever happening.

But Jojo Reyes?  Get serious.

In other news, both Arthur Rhodes and David Purcey were DFA'ed today, Rhodes by Texas, Purcey by Detroit. Detroit went ahead and traded one of their better prospects in Scott Sizemore for Purcey a couple months ago, which... uhh... lol tigers.  Rhodes was DFA'ed to make room for newly acquired Mike Adams, while Purcey was DFA'ed in favor of David Pauley.  I'm not sure if these guys will be August trade guys or if they're just cut, but, like I mentioned above, everybody shits their pants over lefties, so I assume both will find work somewhere.  I kind of want the Jays to trade some poop minor leaguer for Purcey, just to ease the pain of getting owned so badly by Oakland.

Elsewhere, this is easily the best thing I read all day.  It's basically assumed conversations between GM's who made deadline trades with each other, and they're all hilarious.

Kenny Williams: Alrightie, Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen to you guys. Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart to us.

Alex Anthopoulos: Yep. Done. Thanks for this, I think it will work out for everyone involved.

Kenny Williams: I know we're only three games back, but this team isn't going anywhere, you know?

Williams hangs up the phone. Drums his fingers on the desk for a couple of minutes. Stares out the window. Checks the internet, sees that Jackson was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. He picks up the phone again.

John Mozeliak: Hello?

Kenny Williams: John, Kenny from the White Sox. Listen, I understand you picked up Edwin Jackson. What would it take to move him again?

John Mozeliak: Uh ...

Kenny Williams: We're only three games back, and he'd fit our rotation perfectly. We can give you Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart. We need this guy, John. Help us out.

What else?  Houston won last night, despite putting out this lineup:

1. Luis Durango, CF
2. Jose Altuve, 2B
3. Jason Bourgeois, RF
4. Carlos Lee, 1B
5. J.D. Martinez, LF
6. Clint Barmes, SS
7. Jimmy Paredes, 3B
8. Humberto Quintero, C
9. Bud Norris, P

I can confidently pronounce only 6 of those names.  Thanks to some guy, who I assume is named Josh Sizemore, who, again, me assuming here, copy and pasted this from someplace:

Four of these players were in the minor leagues ten days ago. FOUR. Jason Bourgeois (and his two career home runs and .674 OPS) is batting third. THIRD. Carlos Lee, your cleanup hitter, is tied for the most home runs (five) hit at Minute Maid Park this season, which sounds great until you realize (a) he is tied in that category with Lance Berkman and (b) Berkman is on the Cardinals.

Brett Lawrie is not in the lineup for the Jays tonight, which I can only assume means that he won't be here for the entire series.  I want to say that it's to give EE a chance to get to Type-B status, but the new Elias rankings just came out and that endeavor looks less plausible than it did last week.

Not only does that pick look less likely, but Shawn Camp is no longer on pace to be a Type-B either.  Either can still obviously climb back, but assuming those don't become picks, and with Jason Frasor/Octavio Dotel being gone, the Jays will have to rely on getting compensation picks from the likes of Jose Molina, Aaron Hill, Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch, who all currently project as Type-B's.

Each of those men, if we can be honest for a quick sec, are players that I personally feel less than comfortable offering arbitration to at the end of the year.  I feel like Hill almost certainly accepts after the turds he's laid these past two years, and would almost certainly be taking a paycut if he were to take a contract on the Free Agent market.  Molina looks like he's one of my grandfather's friends, and I'd hate to see that geriatric tub of lard block d'Arnaud if that has any chance at all of happening next season, though I think he only made like a million or something this year (and has been worth well over the 0.2WAR needed to fulfill that contract value), so the arb raise wouldn't be all that big, and the contract would be easily DFA-able if d'Arnaud were ready to come up at this time next year. Rauch just isn't that good and, much like Hill, probably wouldn't find a raise on the Free Agent market. Frank Frank is significantly better than how he's pitched/the results he's gotten this season, and would probably prefer to take a guaranteed raise/not-paycut and rebuild his value, rather than risk the market after a poor season.

At this juncture, I have little doubt that the Jays would happily take Frank back, since there really isn't a whole lot that can go wrong (i.e. worse than what's gone on this season) with a giant black dude who throws 97MPH, looks scary as fuck, is still modestly young.

Ricky and Rays tonight.