AA Chats

Thanks to several people on twitter for being privy to a conference call with Alex Anthopoulos today.  Mike Cormack (@mikecormack) of Sportsnet, John Lott (@lottonbaseball) of some Toronto newspaper, and Shi Davidi (I think, but @shidavidi anyway), and probably more than them have been tweeting details since about an hour ago. Here's what I got:

• The bullpen could maybe use another upgrade, and he (AA) is still open to dialogue, but he's probably done making major moves for the offseason.
• AA loves Oliver, both as a pitcher and a person.  Even if he regresses at age 41, he still represents an elite reliever, and compared him to both John Franco and Terry Mulholland, guys who maintained success in to their 40's.
• Expect Drew Hutchinson to play a part at some point this season.  He'll start the year in AA (which doesn't really mean anything in terms of what they think of him as a prospect -- he's only 21, and appeared in 3 games in AAA last season, and many people, especially top pitching prospects, have gone straight from AA to the majors, i.e. Henderson Alvarez), and Anthopoulos is more excited about Hutch than about any other pitching prospect, apparently.
• Rajai Davis and Jeff Mathis are pretty much locks to find spots on the bench, with Mike Mccoy on the inside track to be the backup SS.  It seems to me like one of Travis Snider or Eric Thames will be back in AAA instead of hanging out on the bench, and rightfully so.  Luis Valbuena and Ben Francisco aren't necessarily guaranteed spots, apparently.
• Tim Raines and Larry Walker should be in the HOF.  Apparently someone cared enough to ask that.
• Barry Larkin is in, apparently.