Jays Sign Vlad Guerrero, It Isn't 2002

Ken Rosenthal of FOX sports is reporting that the Jays have signed 37-year outfielder DH guy Vlad Guerrero to a minor-league deal worth a pro-rated $1.3MM.  Guerrero is a career .318/.379/.518 hitter over 2147 games, and was useful as recently as two years ago with Texas.  Last year, he had a .290/.317/.416 slash line with the Orioles as a DH over 145 games.  I'm not exactly sure why he hadn't signed somewhere already this offseason, but heh, what can you do?

I assume that Guerrero will be used as a not-Ben Francisco alternative if he gets to the big league roster, as in he'll DH when Edwin plays 1B and Lind sits, and sit on the bench when Edwin DH's.  Obviously, Omar Vizquel's career as a pinch-hitter in game-on-the-line situations is nearing an end, as Vlad has a career .322/.400/.572 slash line against lefties.

All things considered, this is a pretty low-risk situation for the Jays.

On to tonight's action against the Twinkies.  It's going to be the battle of the 1:1 K:BB ratios-- Henderson Alvarez will pitch for the Jays, against Jason Marquis.

Former Jay Darin Mastroianni looks like he'll get at least one game, which will allow him to extend his proverbial cup of coffee. Such an event shows you how terrible the Twins are, though I think Denard Span's injury-ish is the real meaning of that call-up.  Span ran in to a fence and missed a game the other day, so we'll see how they monitor that.  The Twins, even beyond Span, are fighting some injury troubles.  They lost Justin Morneau last week to a DL stint, and Alexi Casilla is banged up as well.  Beyond that, Danny Valencia has been terrible so far this year and was sent to the minors, and Francisco Liriano was relegated to the bullpen.  Another former Jay, PJ Walters, is expected to start Sunday's game in Liriano's place.  Pretty upset that Brian Dinkleman isn't starting this one.

Stuff
David Robertson's era as a setup man?  Something like 2.85, maybe a bit less.  Robertson's ERA as a closer?  54.00.  Clearly, he doesn't have the closer's mentality.  Casey Janssen, on the other hand, has himself a career 3.84 ERA (combined, as a starter and reliever), but is perfect (!) as a closer.  0 blown saves as a closer, 0 hits, 0 walks, 0 runs, and a 33% strikeout rate.  Janssen>Robertson.

Janssen's never made a batter do this as a closer though:

It appears that the MLB is at least considering outlawing the old "Step to third, throw to first" trick, which sounds just fantastic to me.

Lineups
Jays
Johnson 2B
Escobar SS
Bautista RF
Edwin 1B
Thames LF
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Lind 1B
JPA C

Hendy P


Twins
Span CF
Dozier SS
Mauer 1B
Willingham DH
Doumit C
Plouffe 3B
Komatsu RF
Mastroianni LF
Casilla 2B

Marquis P