CharlieV: Ace

Got through five innings! With a lead!  Consider my timbers shivered.

And Adam Lind.  He hit two homers, and Aaron Hill hit for the cycle again.  So it's 2009 again.  I'd bet on the Saints to win the Super Bowl.  But really, it's one game (and park factors, in the case of Aaron).  I'm giving Charlie the Zaunhead.  Because spite.

Henderson Alvarez goes today.  The Angels are actually kind of putting forward a bit of a B-lineup today, so Alvarez might even get through the 3rd inning for a change... Janssen, Coco and Oliver have all thrown in back-to-back nights, so, while it's not time for panic yet, this is one of those days where the bullpen could probably use a rest, or at least one of those games where we're not in to the bullpen after an hour.  The internet is telling me that Ricky Romero is pitching tomorrow too, and we all know how that's gone so far this year.

I don't even think there's any stuff today.  There were rumblings of the Dodgers trading Zach Lee for Carlos Lee yesterday, but that's been squashed.  If you aren't familiar with Zach Lee, let me just say that this trade would have been a really bad idea for the Dodgers.

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

Alvarez P

Angels
Trout LF
Izturis 2B
Pujols DH
Morales 1B
Trumbo RF
Callaspo 3B
Bourjos CF
Romine SS
Wilson C

Richards P

Close one, I guess.

Source: FanGraphs

 What a frustrating piece of shit game that was.  Whether it's the part where Brett Cecil doesn't get yanked until he gives up 8 runs, or the part where it takes 5 strikes to get Albert Pujols out (Janssen only got 4, so naturally Albert singles and scores), or Rasmus sliding under a tag and getting called out.

I feel like if that Pujols doesn't score that run in the Angels' half of the 9th, the Jays might have gone with a bit of a different strategy, going for a tie, but with Rasmus/Bautista/Encarnacion up, maybe not.  Anyway, a few close calls that go the other way and the Jays could have very well won that one (though when Jeff Mathis is the lynchpin/Zaunhead, I guess you can't really complain).  And of course, the whole "Ricky Romero going 3+ innings the day before" thing probably didn't help issues much.  What more is there to say, really?  This team needs pitching.

Cue Ken Rosenthal of FOX, among others, telling us that the Jays are currently issuing the "full court press", whatever the fuck that means, with regards to acquiring starting pitching.  In other news, taffy is delicious.Seriously, I could have told you this (and I have, actually) 30 times since the offseason; 3 guys in their 20's who have never thrown a full season of major league baseball in the AL East where never going to be productive enough to get them all the way to the promise land.


So yeah.  Same news.  There was always going to be some major consideration about trades, because this team needs some pitchers.  Not just for this year, but going forward until all of those big prospects in the minors can zip on up to the bigs.


Stuff
The Yankees have claimed Chris Schwinden off waivers from the Indians.  That's not really anything newsworthy for us, except that the player removed from the 40-man to make room for him is Danny Farquhar.  These two have just been claimed and DFA'ed over and over by seemingly every team in the league lately.


Other than that, who gives a shit?


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


Charlie P


Angels
Trout
Trout
Trout
Trout
Trout
Trout
Trout
Trout
Trout

Trout

Rick Rolled

Really awesome image courtesy of John Lott

Uh, yeah.  I suppose we'll ignore this one too.  Zaunhead to Jose for destroying a ball and hitting a Red Sox fan's truck. Presumably.

Things don't get any easier today, as Mike Trout comes to town.  I suppose the rest of the Angels are going to show up too, but who gives a shit, really?  Whatever, I hate watching Boston games, so whatever.

Stuff
First and foremost, Trevor Bauer pitches tonight in Atlanta.  I suggest skipping the Jays game.

My piece on the Youkilis trade was up on Nowhere Plans the other day, but I forgot to link it.  Here goes.

Fangraphs' Eno Sarris examines Ricky Romero's struggles this season.  I think the main thing that we have to take from this piece is that Romero outperformed his peripherals last year, and that the expectations were probably a bit high coming in to this season based on some unsustainable numbers last season.

Also at fangraphs, Dave Cameron presents his stat nerd All-star roster for the AL, in which you'll find Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, with honorable mention going to Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus. I assume Brandon Morrow would have been in there had he remained healthy, but that's just me.

Speaking of Morrow, John Lott lets us know that Morrow is feeling no pain in his oblique, and that he has began throwing lightly. No timetable yet.

Lott also tells us that CharlieV is going to stay in the rotation beyond his scheduled spot start on Friday.  He says that he's ready and willing to stay there.

Still with Lott, Henderson Alvarez is apparently showing some normal swelling in his arm, and isn't a concern going forward.

Finally with Lott, here's a piece on Casey Janssen and his fast closerness. Actual closer, Sergio Santos, still has no timetable for his return, as the swelling in his arm is still fucking him around.

The Phillies DFA'ed Chad Qualls, and the White Sox DFA'ed Will Ohman, both of whom aren't Jesse Chavez, Robert Coello, or Scott Richmond.  Just saying.

Gettin' Me Pissed

That's John Farrell's juggalo face, btw.  And yeah, I'm a little miffed at how Farrell juggled his bullpen last night.  Now, I'm not suggesting that the pitch Frasor threw to Saltalamacchia was good or anything, because it was a bit of a meatball:

And I'm not suggesting that getting Perez in there to face the lefty (Kalish) is a terrible strategy either.  And while we're at it, I don't even mind taking Laffey out in that spot.  It's just that when the contingency plan is getting David Pauley and Scott Richmond in to a close (ish) game, maybe we can take a step back and re-assemble our thoughts.  Either let Frasor finish it out, or let Perez finish it out.  I will recite a list of things that were going through my head between the Saltalamacchia homerun and the 3rd out of the inning. This will be in no particular order.

• "Why is David Pauley warming up?"
• "It's not like Kalish is so good that the matchup absolutely has to be there. He's batting .248/.280/.248. Just leave Frasor in. You're only going to pull Perez after one hitter anyway."
• "It's a tie game, and I'm going to turn this shit off because it's going to end in a blowout."
• "Wouldn't this be a good time to have anybody but David Pauley on the mound?  Like, Coco, even? Janssen?  Oliver? CharlieV*?"
• "Louie's splits are even very pronounced. I'd way rather him than Pauley, even with the wrong side of the matchup."
• "Don't walk this guy Pauley."
• "Why the fuck did you walk that guy Pauley?"

That little asterisk signifies that CharlieV will be starting on Friday in place of Jesse Chavez, which I didn't know at the time.  It makes the Pauley selection a little more logical in the sense that he used Pauley and not literally anybody else, but I think the fact remains that he burned through two major league relievers so that he could get a guy who has been DFA'ed twice this season in to the game, while Oliver, Janssen and Cordero just sat and watched because it wasn't "their inning" yet, but we're not going to argue little semantics here. But yeah.  All those things happened.  Maybe we don't always need the right matchup when it burns through three pitchers to get one out.  Little shit like that, you know? Especially within the division.

Anyway, when nonsense like that goes down, it allows people to focus on that, instead of Adam Lind and Aaron Laffey shutting my mouth and rubbing my nose in the mud.  Laffey was actually pretty damn good yesterday, going 6 innings of 3 hit, Zaunhead ball in a park where he should be thrilled with 3 innings of 6 run ball.  This all but assures him of getting another shot to start, given the rotation situation and the Villanueva announcement.  Someone finally stepped up, I see, considering all the spot starters were going like 3 innings before getting mercy-yanked.  I'm not even going to try to piece together what the rotation looks like now, or what the plan is if Henderson Alvarez can't make his next scheduled start.  Lind was okay himself, getting two hits and hitting the ball reasonably hard a couple of times.

Stuff

Shi Davidi tells us that Jamie Moyer has a deal in place with the Jays in which he'll throw two games in AAA, and then the Jays have to make up their minds about whether or not they want to promote him.  Can't be any worse than Pauley, right? Or Chavez. Or Richmond. Or Coello.  Or Henderson Alvarez. (Note: Yes, it can be worse.)

Jon Morosi of FOX was talking to Alex Anthopoulos, who says that he's still not going to rush to acquire an arm, and probably won't make a big deal until mid-July, if at all.  Nothing new there, considering nobody has any fucking arms available anyway.  Can't just find a fucking trade partner out of thin air.  And I don't suppose there's a whole lot of point to acquiring an impact starter when everyone's hurt and the team is in last place in the East, if I can be completely honest with myself.  Maybe if they weren't throwing away games by tossing David Pauley straight in to the god damn fire.


Omar Vizquel has more or less announced that he'll retire at the end of the season, according to Zach Links of MLBTR.

Travis Snider had two more hits last night for Las Vegas, and Shawn Hill went 6 innings, allowing 6 hits and 1 walk, striking out 6.

Cuban prospect Yasel Puig has been declared a free agent.  He's apparently looking for something similar to what Jorge Soler was expected to sign, before he got like nine years from the Cubs.  Kevin Goldstein believes that the favorites are the Dodgers, Braves and Cubs.

Today in umpire incompetence: 

Not sure about you, but if I'm Jack Hannahan, which I'm definitely not, by the way, when that ump gets his finger in my face for a call that he fucked up that badly, I'm going full retard and turning this in to some kind of Muy Thai scenario and kneeing him square in the chops.

Ready to Laff

I didn't check, but I can only assume that everybody used some variation of "Laffer" or "Laffing" or whatever. Naturally.

It's the beginning of the begging tonight, as Adam Lind returns to the starting lineup.  He'll bat 8th against Dice-K.  Fuck that guy.  I suppose you could be sitting there asking me "Who are you talking about when you say 'fuck that guy', Lind or Dice-K?"  To that, I suggest you use your imagination, and decide to fuck whomever the hell you please.

Stuff
Hey, are you sick of Blue Jays getting hurt?  Well, a bit of a reprise for you, as a Las Vegas 51 has been injured for a change.  Future MVP Travis d'Arnaud is going to miss 6-8 weeks with a torn PCL in his knee, which he suffered sliding the other day.  We are still stuck with JP Arencibia and his .284 on-base percentage, it would seem.  The bright side is that there is no need for surgery.

Henderson Alvarez had his MRI today, and apparently it's just a mild inflammation, and he should be able to make his next start.  No need for Jamie Moyer. Yet, anyway.

The game appears to have already started, with an 8-pitch Lawrie double and a botched fielder's choice. Gonna need about 13 runs of support for Laffey please.

Zaunhead to Rasmus for yesterday.  Vote that fucker in to the All-star game.

I Miss Jesse Litsch

This is getting a bit wild.  Rumors surrounding Alvarez suggest that the arm soreness isn't anything overly drastic, so I guess there's that.  It's not like he's been so fucking fantastic that this is going to be the straw that breaks the camels' cock or anything, but I'd certainly rather Alvarez than some AAA-lifer scrub like Chavez or Laffey.

Speaking of which, The Jays have called up Scott Richmond.  Robert Coello has been returned to AAA to make room for Richmond on the active roster, and Drew Hutchison has been placed on the 60-day DL to make room on the 40-man.

And to show you that the apocolypse has indeed presented itself, the Jays have signed Jamie Moyer to a minor-league deal.  This entire post is serious.

Life After Kevin

Yeah.  Whoopty fuck.  Let's move on, shall we?

I actually wrote about this for Nowhere Plans today, and it will probably be up on the site tomorrow. It might have been up today, but apparently I used a picture that I'm not allowed to use for some reason, so the fucking nazi bosses over there got mad and won't put it up until I find another picture.  Or something.  Suck on the power rankings while you're waiting.

And hey, let's keep this one in a happy mood, because Adam Lind, despite being called up to start the second session of the "Adam Lind Era", finds himself on the bench to start this series against the Red Sox.  Naturally, the Red Sox have a lefty starting in Felix Doubront, which means that Ben Francisco is rocking the DH spot.  Tight, I suppose.

And that's about it.

Lineups
Jays
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Edwin 1B
Johnson 2B
Escobar SS
Davis LF
Francisco DH
JPA C

Alvarez P

Red Buffoons
Nava LF
Pedroia 2B
Saltalamacchia C
Gonzalez 1B
Middlebrooks 3B
Ross RF
Kalish CF
Punto SS

Doubront P

Recalls, Demotions and Transfers

So the Jays got stepped on yesterday.  Let's just forget that that one happened and move along, huh?

Adam "Not Travis Snider" Lind was recalled after last night's game.  Lind, of course, had been sent down to AAA, waived, removed from the 40-man roster, and all that nonsense.  He's gone down to Las Vegas and proved to us that he didn't forget how to dominate AAA pitching, which was never really the problem.  I assume that Lind still can't take a walk, or hit a lefty's breaking ball, or not swing at shitty pitches all the time, though we'll have to wait and see, I suppose.  I'm really hopeful that they don't just toss him right in to the 5-hole, but I've seen dumber things, and lineup alignment isn't really all that important, so whatever.

Meanwhile, Travis Snider remains in AAA, despite knocking the cover off the ball lately.  I wouldn't say that it's going to be overly long before we see Snider again, but with the way Rajai Davis is playing over the past month or so, I can at least understand the thought process, especially if Rajai is playing his way towards some trade value.  With Davis playing so well, the Jays don't really need an outfielder as much as they need a 1B/DH type, which explains Lind.  I mean, I'm not going to even entertain the idea that Rajai Davis is anything more than a 4th OF/bench guy, and that idea that he's playing too well to justify bringing Snider back up is laughable, especially for a team who finds themselves in last place in the division, but whatever.  I'm sure Davis will return to his actual talent level soon, and Lind will probably show us more of what we already know about him, so if Snider can avoid yet another wrist injury, we should be good to go.

The real victim here is David Cooper, who has been demoted to AAA to make room for Lind.  I'm not exactly a huge fan of Cooper, nor do I believe that he's a regular, everyday player, especially at 1B in the AL East, but he definitely hasn't done anything to deserve a demotion.  He hit .292/.343/.431 in 69 plate appearances, which, in an admittedly small sample size, is quite a bit better than Lind has done in the last 2.5 seasons, save a for a hot month early last year.  I'm sure the fact that Cooper is making the pro-rated portion of $490K, and Lind is making over $5MM has something to do with it, but still.  Maybe Lind can get hot for a month and get traded or something.

Sergio Santos was transferred to the 60-day DL to make room on the 40-man roster for Lind.  The Jays also activated Ben Francisco from the 15-day DL, and optioned Mike Mccoy to AAA.  Francisco will probably see AB's against lefties as part of a DH platoon with Lind.  If not, ugh.

In other news, Kevin Youkilis (and cash) was traded to the Chicago White Sox for former Jay Zach Stewart and utility man Brent Lillibridge.  A real nice haul for the White Sox for what they gave up.  I might have something up on Nowhere Plans for that one, but I haven't decided yet.

Finally, Trevor Bauer is going to make his MLB debut on Thursday for the D-Backs.  Cancel your plans for Thursday night, and thank me later.

Rasmatazz, Pt. 2

Holy defense, huh?

That was getting frustrating for a while, with all the overhead liners that turned in to outs.  Even without the 9th inning, that game should have probably been about 10-0 in the 5th inning at one point or another.

Anyway, good ole Colby came through in a big way there in the 9th, and I guess Edwin kind of did as well, with the go-ahead tater.  Edwin's homer was worth a tidy +.351 WPA, which, in a close game... well you get it.

What else?  I guess today is the last game of the interleague schedule, which sounds fucking fantastic to me.  Pitchers batting.  Fucking horseshit.  Having said that, the Jays are currently 9-8 over the interleague schedule, which means that, at worst, they'll be .500 on the year, as opposed to their typical 2-12 against the NL.  All this nonsense without Brandon Morrow.

Speaking of the interleague shit and pitchers batting, we're going to actually have a DH tomorrow and after that.  That could mean that there will be another roster move, sending a pitcher down and bringing up a hitter.  Travis Snider and Adam Lind are both tearing up AAA, and could very well be the answer there, though David Cooper hasn't really done anything to deserve sitting on the bench, and Rajai Davis has played his cock off since the Thames demotion, so let's not lose our heads here.  All these bats and nowhere to put them... get some arms AA (this is a sarcastic comment)!

Jesse Chavez today, and that's pretty much what it is, I guess.  He couldn't get out of the third inning last week or whenever it was that he started, and has a career fip and xfip over 5.  Just grin and bear it, I guess.  This will all be over soon.  I dunno, Brett Cecil was actually pretty serviceable yesterday...

Stuff
Doug Walton, a producer for sportsnet, seems to always have little arbitrary-endpoint stats that show the bright side of things on his twitter, and today is no different.  Some of the highlights.

• Rajai Davis is .318/.375/.470 since the becoming the everyday-ish LF.
• Bautista and Edwin are on pace to hit 100 HR's between them.
• Anthony Gose is hitting .323 since starting really slow.  Pretty much the same for Travis d'Arnaud (.361 in his last 55 games).
• Colby Rasmus is OPS'ing higher than your usual suspects of CF's over the last month.

Sportsnet's Mike Cormack looks at some upcoming roster crunches that the Jays may be looking at over the next month or so.  Guys like TDA, Adeiny Hechavarria, and Anthony Gose could potentially be on their way up, Kelly Johnson and Edwin Encarnacion are going to be free-agents and could be traded, and guys like Travis Snider and Adam Lind are performing reasonably in AAA.  Meanwhile, the entire rotation is fucking broken.

Not that it really means anything, but Dave Gershman tells us that AA and Andrew Tinnish are meeting with Chase (not Matt) DeJong in Miami.

Let's all vote Edwin in to the allstar game, huh?

Lineups

Jays

Lawrie 3B

Rasmus CF

Bautista RF

Edwin 1B

Escobar SS

Davis LF

Johnson 2B

JPA C

Chavez P

Heat

Reyes SS

Ramirez 3B

Stanton RF

Morrison LF

Dobbs 1B

Infante 2B

Cousins CF

Buck C

Buehrle P

Run Support!

Hey, so run support is nice, huh Ricky?

The Jays went and put up 12 runs last night, and I wouldn't really mind if the same thing happened today, considering Brett Cecil is on the mound today for the Jays, and we don't really have any reason to trust him yet.  Having said that, he was at least reasonable in his last start against the Phillies, and the Marlins' offense isn't exactly a whole lot better.  Baby steps.

Anyway.  Lawrie had himself a nice little game last night, so he can have the Zaunhead.

Stuff
I'm sure all of the Blue Jays writers have all of this stuff up and going, but Shi Davidi is really my go-to guy, so we're just going to link his account and assume that everything that I've heard over the last 24 hours has been reported by him at one point or another.  Sounds fair, right?  Fuck you, I'm not lazy, you're lazy.

Sergio Santos is throwing again, and is pretty much starting from scratch, as if it were the first day of spring training again.  No timetable for his return.

Alex Anthopoulos says that he isn't really sure what's going to happen with Marcus Stroman (in terms of if/when he gets signed), but he feels good about Chase DeJong.  Stroman will be a college senior next year, so it would probably be in his best interest financially to sign now (that is to say, he'll be one of those guys who signs for $5000 next year) rather than be a re-draft next year.

Drew Hutchison is going to try to avoid surgery, and will be on a no-throw program for 4-6 weeks.  If all goes well, expect him back in September.

Alan Farina has been activated from the 60-day DL and sent to the minors.  Kyle Drabek was moved to the 60-day DL to make room.

Jesse Chavez will start Sunday, which moves Henderson Alvarez back a day.  Aaron Laffey will get the start on Tuesday.

Set Your DVR's Children

He is the most must-see superstar in baseball.  He has power unlike anybody I've ever seen.  He swings like a motherfucker and scares everybody when he misses.  I am not talking about Jose Bautista.  No, folks, I'm talking about that dapper young man pictured above-- Giancarlo Stanton.

Now, I know what you're saying: Nobody gives half a shit about the National League.  And you're right for the most part.  They have the odd dude in there like Andrew Mccutchen and Jose Altuve, but really, the NL is just kind of a waste of time when the AL is around.  But Stanton.  Oh. My. God.  Stanton.

22 years old, 6'5'', 245lbs of scoreboard smashing power.  And, provided you have SN1 or a reliable internet connection and the ability to procure an illegal stream, you, my friend, will be able to watch this beast for the next three games. Hopefully.

Fortunately for us, aside from Stanton, Jose Reyes, and Hanley Ramirez, the Marlins don't have any offense whatsoever.  John Buck hit a homer last night (or the night before?) and pulled his hamstring.  He'll still play tonight, so meh. Logan Morrison is sitting tonight as well, so we'll see Justin Ruggiano cleaning up.  Pfft.

Stuff

Jose Bautista is pretty much back to normal, according to Fangraphs.

Jon Morosi compares and contrasts the 2011 Jays draft with the 2002, a.k.a. Moneyball draft of the Oakland A's.  Fingers crossed.

I guess Edwin gets a Zaunhead for Tuesday's game.  Nobody else really did anything worth a fuck.

Assuming everyone cares, and also because I put all my "stuff" in to the other post I did this morning and need more stuff to write about, I'm going to tell everybody about my fantasy teams.  I have 3 roto leagues, and 3 head-to-heads.  I lead two of the roto leagues (1 by a little, 12 teams; 1 by a massive, massive margin, 10 teams).  I'm also dead last in my 3rd roto league, mostly because I have Tim Lincecum on that team.  

I'm 4 of 12 in a head-to-head league that I lead for the first little while, but then lost 7 of the 23 guys to injury (Longoria, Santos, Gardner, Zimmerman, etc.).  8th of 16 in another (a lot of minor injuries in that one, but still, a lot of waiver wire stuff).  Finally, I have a keeper league in which I'm 10 of 12, mostly by virtue of my draft strategy of grabbing guys like Logan Morrison, Brandon Belt, Trevor Bauer, Danny Duffy, and Brett Lawrie for cheap, and attempting to keep them forever, making my team meh now, but amazing later.

Pretty much the entirety of my twitter feed seems pretty blood-thirsty, looking for a Travis Snider promotion.  Snider's hit a bit of a hot streak, and it would appear that there are no worries about his wrist.  Snider has hit 3 HR's in his last 3 games, and is batting .345 in AAA (Las Vegas, though).  There are some available AB's for him, assuming management doesn't have issues with David Cooper, Mike Mccoy, and Yan Gomes, wherever they may be, not getting everyday MLB AB's.  I doubt they want Snider DHing, so the natural fit is LF.  The only problem with that?  Rajai Davis has played well since Eric Thames was demoted, and may even be building up some trade value with his .267/.328/.442 line to go along with 16 steals (4 cs).  I doubt they want Davis DHing either, but who knows.

John Lott tells us that Travis d'Arnaud was named Player of the Month for the month of May [note: June is almost fucking over], with a .367 batting average and 10 HR's.

Lineups

Jays

Lawrie 3B

Rasmus CF

Bautista RF

Edwin 1B

Escobar SS

Johnson 2B

Mathis C

Davis LF

Romero P

Miami Sound Machines

Reyes SS

Ramirez 3B

Stanton RF
Ruggiano CF
Infante 2B

Kearns LF

Sanchez 1B

Buck C

Sanchez P

Things to Know After an Offday

Trade Rumors!  Actually quite a bit of stuff from MLBTR over the last few days.  The Jays remain in "Buy mode", and are apparently looking at Wandy Rodriguez.  Rodriguez is making $10MM this year, $13MM next year, and would have a $13MM player option in 2014 if he is traded, which may as well just be guaranteed, since he's not much better than league average now, and he'll be 35 in two years time.  Needless to say, if the Astros want anything significant in return, they'll have to eat some hefty salary.  I just don't see this one going down.

The Jays acquired Sean O'Sullivan from the Royals for cash considerations, and claimed David Pauley off waivers from the Angels. SOS, as I'm sure he's called by many, and will continue to be called by me, isn't overly good.  He's got an ERA of about 7 in AAA this year, and an ERA over 6 for his major league career.  Pauley has been DFA'ed twice this year, and has a career ERA over 4.5, so meh to him too.

Pauley is apparently on the active roster, and the Jays have optioned Joel Carreno back to AAA.  The Jays play 17 games in 17 days before the allstar break, so I assume that there's going to be more roster shuffling to fill the rotation and keep the bullpen fresh.

Danny Knobler reports that the Jays are telling teams that they can't take on any more salary in trades.  Cheap fucks!

Ben Badler of Baseball America tells us about some international prospects that the Jays are apparently rumored to have interest/the lead in.

Rotographs looks at the Jays' rotation from a fantasy perspective.

It looks like Anthony Gose and Travis d'Arnaud will play for the USA in the futures game on all-star weekend.

The Jays promoted Andrew Tinnish to assistant GM, and promoted Brian Parker to scouting director.  I think AA has like 3 AGM's now.

Rasmatazz

Bit of a wild one, huh?  And nothing about that bottom of the ninth inning felt comfortable to me at all, even with Casey Janssen finally getting a chance to pitch.  Don't believe me?

Source: FanGraphs

Bautista and Rasmus homered back-to-back twice, and were worth a combined .849 WPA.  Of course, Coello and Frasor were worth almost the exact same, only in the negative form.  Both Bautista and Rasmus are going to need Zaunheads for that.

Anyway, today, Joel Carreno is going to make a little emergency start for the Jays, after yesterday's little bullpen fiasco.  Luiz Perez was probably the scheduled starter, with a chance of Aaron Laffey, I suppose, but with CharlieV and Robert Coello both needing to come in, I think it was pretty clear that they needed another arm to come up.  Yan Gomes has been sent back down to Vegas, and Farrell says that this is a "Plan D" situation.  Yovani "Lamborghini" Gallard goes for Milwaukee.  He's really good.

Stuff
Looks like the Jays are in on Wandy Rodriguez.  Big surprise.

Kevin Goldstein of Prospectus has an update on the Jays top 14 prospects.  If you have money.

Apparently Rogers is trying to get the MLB Network in Canada.  That would be fucking awesome.  Parkes at Getting Blanked has the scoop.

Lineups
Jays
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Encarnacion 1B
Johnson 2B
Mathis C
Vizquel SS
Davis LF

Carreno P

Beers
Gomez RF
Morgan CF
Braun LF
Ramirez 3B
Hart 1B
Weeks 2B
Ransom SS
Maldonado C

Gallardo P

ALVIIIIIIIIN

Ok, I'm not going to do any MSPaint-o-shop on this one.  I just imagined Dave from Alvin and the Chipmunks yelling at Henderson Alvarez last night.  Because Alvarez was horrific.  Like, headachingly bad.  And it's so hard to get really mad at him, because he's like 22 or 23, and it's not like there's a better option sitting around in the minors or anything.  Anyway, I don't know if people liked the Chipmunks when they were kids, or if they even remember or care or whatever, so I wasn't about to go do several hours' (i.e. 4 minutes) worth of work on a photoshop that 9 people are going see when most of them either aren't going to get it or just don't give a shit about the cultural reference, or a reach at one, at least.  That's not to insult my readership, it's just... whatever.  Anyway, Dave is me, Alvin is Henderson Alvinrez, and that picture is right before Alvin goes and eats all the cookies, or shits in someone's mailbox or something and gets yelled at or some bullshit story.

It would have been cool to see him at least get in to the 7th inning, for glaven out loud.  Bullpens can't just go out there and throw a fucking infinity of innings without breaking down eventually, and I'd be shocked if things weren't in a bit of an emergency in terms of arms getting too many innings in, which is the exact point of Operation "Hey Henderson, get your fucking sinker down since we're going to have Jesse Chavez and Fuck knows who pitching the next two games."  Having said that, John Farrell kind of fell ass backwards in to managing his bullpen reasonably well yesterday, but only if we consider today as his main objective.  I'm sure his thought process kind of sucked (Tie game, 7th inning?  Let's leave Coello in for two more batters, and then get Oliver in there for a batter so we can pinch-hit immediately!), but it should actually work out alright for him, at least coming in to tonight's game, where the wild card of wild cards, Jesse Chavez, will almost certainly need some 'pen help.

Let's go back to Sunday, where Farrell sacrificed a full day of Luis Perez in order to save the rest of his bullpen (presumably?).  Cecil threw 5 innings, and Perez came in for the 6th, 7th and 8th, which kind of eliminates him from playing in Monday's game unless we're talking some kind of real emergency (which is actually where we were headed through Alvarez' first two innings), before Jason Frasor came in for the 9th.  Frasor, as we all know, is nothing special when pitching in back-to-back days, so ideally, he'd not pitch in Monday's game either.  Anyhoo, Farrell got through yesterday's game (and almost won!) without using Janssen or Frasor, and Darren Oliver only threw one pitch, so if, heaven forbid, Jesse Chavez can't close this one out himself, there are some decent options available and healthy, for a change.  I dunno though, we might  just see fucking Coco again, especially if it's a nice spot to use Oliver or Janssen. Because that's just how Johnny fucking rolls.

As an aside to this, I assume that Coello and Laffey probably aren't entirely available tonight, which makes it kind of stupid that Evan Crawford was optioned to AAA, in my opinion.  If both are good to go for tonight (Laffey is probably either starting or being used as a kind of insurance policy for whoever starts tomorrow for the Jays, so whatever).  Still, if Crawford was always going to be sent down (and maybe that wasn't always the plan), it would have been convenient to see him get the mop-up duty instead of Laffey, considering the bullpen wear and tear lately.

Zaunhead for Jose Bautista for his game-tying homer, though Lawrie gets honorable mention for having a real nice game, and Edwin as well, for hitting a massive homerun.  Bautista's HR came with a +.337 WPA.

Stuff
And you thought Buck tripped over his words a lot.  This might have been some kind of miniature stroke on the behalf of Dave Barnett, Rangers' play-by-play guy.

Aaron Hill hit for the cycle last night.  Not that it fucking matters any more than being a 4-hit night.  I've seen better.  Also, Aaron Hill drives me bananas and I don't really care if he sucks for the rest of his career.  Having said that, he's been on a complete tear lately.

Tyler Thornberg will start for Milwaukee tonight against the Jays, having been called up this afternoon or something.  The Brewers DFA'ed Brooks Conrad to make room.  Thornburg's minor league numbers look pretty good, and Marc Hulet ranked him as the 2nd best prospect in the Brewers' system this offseason.

Jays' Quarterback Anthony Alford hit his first pro HR today for the Gulf Coast League version of the Jays, according to John Lott.

The Jays announced the signing of Matt Smoral for $2MM, twice the suggested bonus.  The Jays have about $1.7MM or so (plus 5% of that, technically*) left to sign Chase DeJong and Marcus Stroman without penalty.  Stroman's suggested slot is $1.8MM, and DeJong's in $620K, so both probably aren't going to get there.  As of right now, this isn't updated to include Smoral's bonus (as far as I know), but this is a pretty extensive look at the Jays' draft, thanks to Baseball America.  If that link is updated (and it could be; the Jays drafted a bunch of 4-year college guys who signed for peanuts, after all), pretty well everything changes, I guess.  Stroman and DeJong could be signed to slightly over-slot deals in that case, and the Jays might even have some extra money kicking around for the guys they picked outside the first 10 rounds**.

*: Teams can spend between 0 and 5% of their draft budget, and incur a 75% tax on that particular overage.  After that, above 5% incurs a 100% tax and a potential loss of future draft picks.

**: Players taken in the 11th round or later are subject to a $100k max bonus.  If those players sign bonuses above $100K, the overage counts towards the aforementioned draft budget.  Obviously, if the Jays use up their entire remaining budget on Dejong and Stroman, they won't be able to give overslot deals to the highschoolers taken in rounds 11-40 or whatever.

Cecil!

He didn't get lit up.  I could handle this.

What I probably can't handle is the moving of any real assets for Jeremy Guthrie, which is the current rumor floating around.  Mike McDade isn't exactly your blue chip prospect like an Adam Lind or a Travis Snider or anything, so it probably isn't really a big deal.  It's just that uh, Jeremy Guthrie isn't a very good pitcher anymore.  He's been pretty well average (a bit better, I guess) for a few years, and has gotten fucking lit up since being moved to Colorado and falling off his bike.

Other than that... sweep! Against the Phillies!  17 straight division titles or something!  Milwaukee tonight. We'll get to see Ryan Braun.  Fucking cheater.

Stuff
Kyle Drabek is going to have Tommy John Surgery again. That kind of sucks.  This will be his second, but according to Barry Davis, both Shaun Marcum and Kyle Drabek have had TJ twice, and both have had productive major league careers.  Ironically, perhaps, Shaun Marcum will not start against the Jays tomorrow, due to elbow tightness.  The Jays still don't have a pitcher officially slated to start on Tuesday or Wednesday either, despite how soon that is.  All of this stuff is coming from Davis' twitter account.  He's really bringing it tonight.

The Jays have signed Shawn Hill.  He's from Canada. He's a pitcher.  He was playing in some kind of independent league.  He uhhh... meh.

Vlad Guerrero isn't anywhere close to signing with anybody.  Maybe he shouldn't have requested his release. Fucking bozo.

Night off for Kelly Johnson.  He looked like he was kind of feeling it towards the end of yesterday's game, but I haven't heard anything official about injuries or anything of that nature.  I'd be shocked if he wasn't feeling pretty beat up.  Omar Vizquel gets in to the lineup in his place, for some reason.  No DH tonight, so we might get to see Edwin in LF at some point if the Jays want to get Cooper or Gomes in to the lineup.

Lineups
Jays
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Edwin 1B
Escobar SS
Davis LF
JPA C
Vizquel 2B
Alvarez P

Broors
Oaki RF
Morgan CF
Braun LF
Ramirez 3B
Hart 1B
Weeks 2B
Kottaras C
Maysonet SS
Wolf P

Finally, a Walkoff Flocka

Good.  I'm glad.  Would be nice if Ricky Romero showed up here sooner or later though.

Yunel and Rajai Davis both had themselves nice games, with Yunel getting on base 4 times, and Rajai walking off with a double to the gap.  Zaunhead for Yunel.

Last game with the Phillies this afternoon, before going to see the Brewers in Milwaukee.

Stuff
Buster Olney gives us some high-quality, open-ended speculation, when he says that the Jays might either bail on the season now that three of their five rotation pitchers are hurt, or they'll go full retard and get Matt Garza.  It's okay to not write anything, Buster.

The Nats DFA'ed Brad Lidge. Can't be worse than Coco, right?

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wonders if the Jays might go after Manny, now that Vlad Guerrero is gone.  Meh.

Ken Rosenthal suggests that the Cubs are shopping Ryam Dempster, though Dempster has 10-and-5 rights, which is essentially a no-trade clause.  He's said that he'd like to stay in Chicago, but would probably accept a deal to go to a contender.  The Jays apparently have checked in, and definitely have the prospects, but it's tough to tell whether Dempster would accept the trade.  Matt Garza may be a better fit, considering he has another year of control after this one, whereas Dempster will be a free agent after the season.  Rosenthal also points out that the Jays are looking around for pitching.  Finally, he says that Vernon Wells will probably be released, thanks to injury problems and the fact that Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout have established themselves in the outfield.

Lineups
Jays
Lawrie 3b
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Edwin DH
Johnson 2B
Escobar SS
Gomes 1B
Davis LF
Mathis C

Cecil P

Phillies
Rollins SS
Polanco 3B
Pence RF
JIMMERS DH
Victorino CF
Ruiz C
Luna 1B
Mayberry LF
Martinez 2B

Kendrick P

Fuck

This is getting a bit silly.  Hutch threw 9 pitches last night before being pulled with an injury.  He's been diasnosed with a UCL strain (no tear!), and will be on a no-throw program for two weeks, according to Gregor Chisolm. He's been placed on the 15-day DL, and as far as I know, there hasn't been another roster move, though I'm sure that's coming.

So yeah. Romero/Alvarez/Cecil/Chavez/Laffey?  I haven't looked at the schedule lately, but I'm really hoping that we're in an easy stretch over the next month or so (which is probably the case, since they're playing against a bunch of NL teams!). Save the tough stuff until the rotation looks like a rotation, huh?

And while we're at it with the sadness, I'd just like to point out that the season is fucking over now, so Brandon Morrow doesn't need to rush back from his injury just to help out and take one for the team.  Sounds good? Good.

I think we have to go with CharlieV for the Zaunhead for last night, no?

Carlos Ruiz is out of the lineup for the Phillies today, though he said that he was taken out of the game yesterday with menstrual cramps, not an oblique injury, and could have played today, apparently.

Lineups
Jays
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Edwin 1B
Johnson 2B
Escobar SS
Gomes DH
JPA C
Davis LF

Romero P

Phillies
Rollins SS
Polanco 3B
Pence RF
JIMMERS DH
Victorino CF
Wigginton 1B
Mayberry LF
Schneider C
Martinez 2B

Lee P

So the sky IS falling

Can't even beat the Expos anymore.  No, but really, the Nats are a pretty good team, and I'm sure everything is going to be back to it's fresh, happy, normal self as soon as the sweep of the Phillies is over.  While we're here (i.e. under .500, way behind in the division), we may as well have a look at what could possibly happen in terms of trades.  I don't really know what AA has planned, and I don't actually think he's going to look to move much since he's got something that's at least pretty close to a finished product.  Still, I'm sure there are going to be some mild changes between this year's team and next year's. Obviously there are more pieces nailed down at this point than there were on this date a year ago, but there are definitely still some holes in the roster, and there are probably going to be a few more before too long.

The main piece would be Edwin Encarnacion.  Edwin is probably in a position to command a 4-year deal at the end of the season, by virtue of being a 29-year old free agent-to-be enjoying a career year.  He has some suspect defensive abilities (though he's been alright at 1B this year), which should limit his market to AL teams looking for a DH or 1B/DH combo, so maybe he won't do any better than the 3y/$27MM than Josh Willingham got this past offseason from Minnesota (though Willingham is 33).

Another free agent-to-be is Kelly Johnson.  Johnson accepted arbitration and has been plenty valuable to the Blue Jays so far during his tenure.  So far this season, he has a league average OPS+, which is beyond good for a 2B, and has been pretty solid defensively too.  He just turned 30 in February, so he still has some worthwhile playing days in front of him.  The Jays could obviously extend him if they feel that they'll still need him (i.e. if Yunel doesn't move to 2B, or if Hech isn't ready to come up), but that would probably be plenty expensive; Johnson has been worth [2.2 rWAR, 1.5fWAR] so far this year, so something like Rickie Weeks' 4y/$38.5MM could be seen as a comp.  I find that Johnson is quite underrated/underappreciated, so he probably won't get quite that high, but I don't think 3y/$27MM is out of the question for him either.

I'd be surprised if JP Arencibia were moved, simply because I don't think that they're overly confident in giving Travis d'Arnaud the full time gig.  Having said that, JP isn't really all that good, once you get past the twitter stuff and the Ricky Romero BFF situation that has gotten him fan-favorite status with Torontonians.  Catching is significantly harder than 1B, especially considering the positional scarcity (because really, who couldn't play 1B?), and that's really his only excuse for being as bad as Adam Lind offensively.  If they can get something for him, then go nuts and let Mathis and TDA split.  It probably won't happen, but I wouldn't exactly be pissed.

I think we can count the amount of pitchers who are nailed down on one hand.  Morrow isn't going anywhere, neither is Romero.  Santos probably sticks around, same with Hutchison.  I doubt anybody else is entirely safe.  Drabek is almost certain to be sent back down at some point when they can handle it, and if Alvarez doesn't develop (and throw) an out pitch, he'll have minimal value.  Norris, Mcguire, Syndergaard, Sanchez, Nicolino, etc. are going to be knocking on the door at some point, and there won't be much room in that rotation, or room for the fodder, for that matter.

Coco could go for a bag of balls, Frasor is a free agent at the end of the year, and Oliver was friends with my grandfather.  Jannsen and Perez will probably stick around, but if anybody comes and says "Hi, we have your 2B of the future if we can have Luis Perez", well they're as good as gone.

Beyond that, in terms of major league talent, everyone else is going to be staying put, and anything else that gets moved will be from the prospect pool.  Some prospects are obviously more available than others.  Guys like Gose, Marisnick, Sanchez, Norris and Mcguire probably aren't going to be moved anytime soon, unless it's for a bona fide star.  Guys like Chad Jenkins and Asher Wojciekowski (or whatever) have seen their stock fall a bit, so they could be made available.

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Kyle Drabek has been DL'ed with right arm issues.  He left his last start after hearing a pop, and I'm sure they're plenty glad about that, since they don't necessarily need to use an option to send him to AAA to try and "rehab", or "find out how to fucking throw a strike" if things can be fixed quickly.  Brett Cecil has been recalled.  Hold on to your hats.

It's not that Cecil has been terrible in the minors so far this year, because he hasn't.  He hasn't been good either, mind you.  It's just that if you have any kind of established skill as a pitcher, it's not that hard to get AA hitters out.  It's not like there are guys in AA who have "light-tower power", as Kevin Goldstein would say, so the HR's are fewer and farther between.  A 40:14 K/BB ratio is encouraging, but again, AA.  His velocity is still down, but, again, velocity isn't everything if you can spot your pitches.  Cecil hasn't shown us that he can do that, exactly, so we'll see.  It's not like  the Phillies have any kind of offense anyway.

Apparently AA is in on Justin Morneau.  He's in on everybody, so let's not overreact about this, but having said that, he's apparently been more interested in Morneau than practically anybody else, according to Danny Knobler of CBS Sports.  It definitely makes sense, from a fit standpoint.  Morneau is under contract until the end of next season, and is a pretty good hitter.  Obviously, the $14MM (x2) pricetag is a bit of a hindrance for a guy who has had the health issues that Morneau has.  He's got a .241/.313/.489 slash line (119 OPS+, adjusted for Target Field), which would play just fine at the Rogers Centre.  He's regarded as an above average defender at 1B, and could be spelled as a DH by Edwin (or Cooper? Gomes?).  Being under contract next year would serve as a contingency plan for the Jays if Edwin walks as a free agent at the end of the year.

As an aside, Morneau's concussion issues began after his contract was signed, so I would be shocked if that contract wasn't insured, which would remove a lot of the injury risk that the Jays would be taking if such a trade went down.

Jose Bautista went ahead and posted another +WPA the other day against Strasburg.  Good for him, and thanks to everybody else for showing up.  I say this kind of facetiously, since it was Stephen Fucking Strasburg, but you get the idea.  Zaunhead.

Livan Hernandez was DFA'ed by the Braves.  If you'll remember to last week, Hernandez looks a lot like Coco out there on the mound, we can only hope.

Finally, Ian Kinsler was thrown out of last night's game.  His reaction?

Lineups
Jays
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Edwin DH
Johnson 2B
Escobar SS
Cooper 1B
JPA C
Davis LF (Free Yan Gomes, Moises Sierra, Travis Snider, Eric Thames, etc.)

Hutch P

Philadelphia Collins
Rollins SS
Polanco 3B
Pence RF
JIMJAM DH
Victorino CF
Ruiz C
Wigginton 1B
Mayberry LF
Martinez 2B

Worley P

Strasburg

Strasburg.

Oh, and I'm sad. Let's trade for Ryan Dempster.

Stuff
Brandon Morrow was officially placed on the 15-day DL today.  Yan Gomes has been Mike Mccoy'ed back to the big leagues, a day or two after being sent back to Las Vegas.  I can only assume he did not leave Toronto when he was sent down the other day.  The Jays will probably call up Jesse Chavez to take Morrow's spot in the rotation, though Brett Cecil's name has been floated around as well.  Cecil pitched in AAA last night, allowing 11 hits in 6.2 innings, so it sounds like Chavez.

Bryce Harper answered some guy's question in a hilarious manner.

Nowhere Plans power rankings.

85%Sports has a neat little draft tracker, complete with everybody taken within the first 10 rounds (i.e. all picks that count against the draft budget) and how much they signed for, what the slot was, and how much the team saved, as well as a team-by-team rundown of how much they've spent and saved, and how many people they've signed and left unsigned to this point. God help me if I could have made that any more confusing-- just fucking look at it yourself.

Did anybody notice that Bautista was 2-for-2 with a HR and two walks yesterday?  I know I didn't.  I mean, I noticed the HR, and I remember him walking twice, but I guess I didn't really notice that he was on base 4 of 4 times.  He can have a Zaunhead, and should probably get like 3 for being the only Jays' position player to have a positive WPA.  Nice of everybody to show up.

Lineups
Jays
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Edwin 1B
Cooper DH
Escobar SS
Johnson 2B
JPA C
Davis LF

Drabek P

Harpsburgs
Lombardozzi LF
Harper RF
Zimmerman 3B
Morse DH
Desmond SS
Espinosa 2B
Moore 1B
Ankiel CF
Flores C

Strasburg P

No-rrow

Fuck.  It's an oblique strain, and it probably won't be a brief situation.  My brief, sombre twitter conversation with Kyle of Driveline Baseball:

It can be, usually recurs in-season though. RT @alexgrady80 a pitcher with an oblique strain doesn't sound like a day-to-day thing, right?
— Driveline Baseball (@drivelinebases) June 12, 2012

So yeah, expect him to either take a long time to allow this one to heal, or expect him to be re-injured, I guess?  Oblique injuries are so fucky, in that they just kind on linger forever.

I fully expect him to be DL'ed and to miss a month or more, but obviously I'm not a doctor (or I wouldn't be writing a fucking baseball blog with all my time!).  They don't have to make up their minds about a DL move until Tuesday of next week, since that's when Morrow's spot in the rotation comes up.

After yesterday's 9 full innings of bullpen work, the Jays have sent Yan Gomes and Chad Beck down to the minors, and have recalled both Evan Crawford and Aaron Laffey, to allow the bullpen to replenish, though, really, Frasor only threw an inning, Oliver and Janssen both sat.  I just got home from the beach, so I may have just missed it, but I don't see anything that suggests that anybody is unavailable for tonight's game if absolutely needed.  CharlieV probably doesn't pitch unless completely necessary.  Nice to see them take the tarps off of Coco though, instead of preserving him for some useful innings that he'd just fucking blow anyway.

Apparently Vlad Guerrero has asked to be released from his contract with the Jays, which is fine, I guess, since he wasn't hitting in AAA with Las Vegas, so who cares?

Zaunhead to Colby Rasmus for last night, and a get-well soon Zaunhead for Morrow.

Harper

Harper

HARPER! Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper. Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper, Harper Harper Harper! Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper! Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper? Harper, Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper. Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper; Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper -- Harper Harper Harper Harper (Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper). Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper. Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper Harper, Harper.

[Bonus Content preview of Tomorrow: Strasburg!]


Stuff
Recent Zaunheads go to Rasmus (Sunday), Bautista (Saturday), and Edwin (Friday).

Former Blue Jay Edwin Jackson takes the hill for the Nats tonight, against Jays ace Brandon Morrow.  I mostly just wanted to point out that Jackson is a former Blue Jay, despite never appearing in a game with the team.  The more I think about that whole trade, the more I like it from the perspective of the Cardinals.  That's not to say that I like it, because they gave up a starting CF with 4 years of control, but, again, the return that they got somehow seems less retarded to me now, considering the draft picks that they got for the loss of both Dotel and Jackson.  I don't know how much cash was sent to the Cards, or how useful that really is to a team, but that's also something that you have to remember (as well as the salary dump of Tallet/Walters/Miller).

The Jorge Soler sweepstakes have apparently wrapped up, with the Cubs winning the rights.  The Jays were rumored to be interested, but weren't seen as favorites.  Everything that I've read suggests that he'll get a 4 year deal worth at least $20MM, and that if he were eligible to be drafted, he'd have definitely gone in the first round, perhaps in the top 10.  He isn't signed (yet) per se, but the Cubs apparently submitted the highest offer, similar to the way they do the Japanese posting system.

Both Dustin McGowan and Sergio Santos suffered setbacks in their respective rehab assignments.  Santos threw his second bullpen session and felt discomfort in his shoulder, so they want to dial things back in terms of intensity.  McGowan has felt tightness in his shoulder throwing from flat ground, and doesn't really have a timetable to return.

Baseball Prospectus has a look at Vlad Guerrero, with gifs.  In case you haven't heard, he did good in A-ball, but has sucked in AAA, over small samples.

Speaking of A-ball, the Jays' High-A team in Dunedin clinched a playoff berth (it's a weird two-half system) with a win the other day.  Travis Snider, on a rehab assignment, helped them win by going 4-for-5 in the game.  He's apparently stealing bases too.

Jose Valverde sucks, and has resorted to cheating. Meanwhile, Chris Perez probably swallows his dip.

And, this.

Jays Courtin' Quentin?

I was going to put this in to today's "stuff" stuff, but I just couldn't stuff all of this stuff in to one paragraph, and it was really stuffing up the stuff.

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports figures that the Jays are going to be in on the Carlos Quentin sweepstakes.  It's a natural fit, I suppose, given the production the Jays have gotten so far out of Eric Thames and Rajai Davis.  Travis Snider is there, but has some wrist issues going on.  Anthony Gose has been playing LF in AAA, which presumably means that he'd play in left, if he ever got called up while Rasmus was still kicking around.  Yan Gomes is there, but he's really just Yan Gomes.  Apparently Edwin could play LF if he was really needed to (since Cooper can't, and Lind, god forbid, can't either).  Any number of DH combinations can be made, even with Quentin in the picture, however, so we don't necessarily have to say that it's one or the other.

Basically, what I'm trying to say here is that, if the Jays really wanted to go and upgrade their lineup, left field is a pretty good spot to begin, since there aren't a whole lotta 1B's out there and available, so Quentin definitely makes at least some sense.

The thing with Quentin is that he's got a lot of stuff going against him, in terms of trade value.  He's nothing special defensively, at best, and can't really be trusted beyond LF (1B, I guess?).  He's not exactly cheap, at $7MM, he'll be a free agent at the end of the year, and he's had a history of injury issues, including recovery from knee surgery that's caused him to miss all but 9 games so far this year.

Those 9 games, by the way? He's got a .484/.543/1.097 slash line.  Obviously that's not sustainable, but Quentin does offer some decent production; he's a career .255/.348/.499 hitter, so he's plenty valuable until his defensive metrics sap away some value.

All things considered, if the Jays are looking to upgrade the lineup (offensively), Quentin certainly works, since there are multiple holes in the lineup.  He's never played 1B in the majors, which is the position that he's probably best suited for, but with Edwin, Gomes and Cooper still hanging around, they probably wouldn't need him to. Rajai Davis is certainly there to spell him in LF as well, so I don't think the defensive issues are overly worrisome, and he wouldn't be blocking Travis Snider or Eric Thames, if they get their shit together, since the DH spot doesn't exactly have anybody's name tacked on to it.  We just need to negotiate on a price.

3 months of Quentin definitely isn't worth a top prospect, especially with a $7MM pricetag.  I'd be surprised if the Padres were looking for anything other than prospects or young MLB-ready guys who are still making the league-minimum.  Obviously there can be some cash exchanging hands if the Padres want something nicer, but the fact remains that adding Quentin, at the $5MM or so left on his contract, might get an extra win of value over what's there now, and that's if they don't play him in the outfield everyday.  Obviously if this just becomes a cash-dump, they can have Trystan Magnusson and we'll be fine, but considering where the Padres are on their win-curve (and their $55MM team salary), they probably don't want a 27 year old AA reliever.  Quentin was acquired for two halfway decent prospects, so I think we could probably expect something similar.

The Jays have a wealth of prospects at the moment, and could acquire Quentin without even having the names Gose, d'Arnaud, Sanchez, Syndergaard, Marisnick, Nicolino, McGuire, Norris, etc.  Again, I don't know enough about each individual member of the Jays' system, but I'm sure the Jays would be willing to part with a Stilson, Nolin, or Wojciechowski if the price happened to be right.

Bullpen Disasters

Just kind of expanding on my last post ("post")... do you guys remember Casey Janssen?  Yeah, well he hasn't pitched since like Sunday.  Oh but he's the closer, so let's save him for later, and stick in Coco.  Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that the loss last night was Coco's fault, because all he did was induce a weak grounder to 2nd and then maybe throw another pitch or two.  It's just that Coco stinks, and is fresh off of stinking the night before, and shouldn't have been stuck in to the game when he was.  It doesn't change anything, but Jesus Christ, why give him the chance?

Beyond that, Chad Beck pitched in a tie game.  I don't even.  I watched this game at the bar, and therefore didn't have sound on, so maybe I missed something? If so, please inform me, but this whole thing seems fucking braindead (not a balk by the way).

And this is a real question, by the way: is it actually kind of hard to manage your bullpen in an NL game, when you're an AL manager and don't usually have to worry about shit like this?  Like, I think we all know how I feel about Drabek as a major league pitcher (and pitchers batting, for that matter), but I still understand the thought process behind trying to squeeze one more inning out of him, since the pitcher spot was due up first in the next inning. That plan needs to be scrapped fucking instantly when Uggla walks and Heyward is coming up though.  Personally, I'd let CharlieV pitch that inning, but Perez is a reasonable option so long as YOU DON'T TAKE HIM OUT OF THE GAME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INNING, BURNING UP ANOTHER PITCHER SINCE YOU CAN'T LET HIM FUCKING HIT.  If you want to get through the inning with 1 pitcher, yank Drabek and trust a reliever. Ugh.

Over it.

Jose gets a Zaunhead for last night.


Stuff


Tim Hudson has been scratched from his start tomorrow, and Julio Teheran has been recalled to make a spot start.

In recent "small sample!" news: Rasmus is 2-for-14 since his 5-for-5 game.  I'm sure people are going to shit all over him, using that arbitrary endpoint.  I'd just like to remind everybody to give it a minute.  I prefer Rasmus at the bottom of the order, but only because I think Kelly Johnson should be up there, but whatever.  I think Rasmsus is fine there.

And the Jays are apparently looking at Carlos Quentin.  I'm going to make a full post about this.

Lineups
Jays
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Edwin 1B
Johnson 2B
Escobar SS
Davis LF
Mathis C
Hutchison P

Bravos
Bourn CF
Prado 3B
Mccann C
Uggla 2B
Heyward RF
Freeman 1B
Simmons SS
Constanza LF
Hanson P

Hi John.

Learn to manage your fucking bullpen.

So I've Noticed...

That pretty much every time I go drinking lately, I forget to write.  I'm not really sure if it has anything to do with how much I enjoy drinking, or if it's simply me focusing in on drinking and devoting all of my energy to it.  I mean, getting really drunk at like 4 in the afternoon and eating a bunch of meat isn't exactly some difficult stuff that completely precludes me from writing my personal thoughts down or whatever, so I dunno.

Anyway, yeah.  Francisco Cordero.  Good job, good effort.  Teased us with 9 halfway decent appearances or something like that, and then fucked 'er against Orlando Hudson, of all people.  Don't worry about the offense pretty much dying after the 3rd inning, or Henderson Alvarez throwing a cement mixer to Alex Rios, tying the game.  This one's on Coco. Because he sucks.

But John Farrell sure fucking loves him.  I'm pretty sure the entire internet's written something about Coco, so I'm not really going to bother with it.  I mean, I've done it before, either with him, or Jojo, or Brian Tallet, or Dana Eveland or Juan Rivera.

Having said that, Adam Lind and Eric Thames got their comeuppance, and Coco was pulled from the closer's role pretty quickly when it was determined by everybody ever that he's too fucking horrible to be in there in high-leverage situations (like last night!).  I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that Coco is going to get fewer chances late in close ballgames if he keeps doing what he's doing.

Anyway, I suppose I owe to it Brandon Morrow to say something like "Great job!" or something like that, which I suppose is what the Zaunheads are for.  He, more or less, gets a shiny new Zaunhead every fifth(ish) day, and will probably end the year with about 28 of them, if I understand anything about math.  Mike Mccoy will get one as well for last night's game (though Hendy seemed to do well until that HR, and JP Arencibia walked twice (!!!!) in one game).

Interleague starts tonight. Necessary at-bats from pitchers!  Whatever, it's just fucking baseball.

Stuff
It would appear that the Jays have agreed to sign Anthony Alford, the apparently unsignable dude that they picked, even though he said that he wouldn't sign, since he's the starting quarterback for Southern Mississippi University.  Apparently he can keep playing football, under this deal?  I'm sure more will be released soon.  Obviously, he could go to the NFL and be a complete waste for the Jays, but I dunno, 30 QB jobs vs. way more spots in MLB rosters...

Related, check out this database of draft signees and slot money.  Pretty neat.

Sportsnet has a 1-on-1 with Colby Rasmus.

The Jays have optioned Robert Coello to AAA, and re-called Chad Beck, in what has become somewhat of a revolving door of nonsense in the bullpen.

"He's a Pederast, Dude."

This is a Big Lebowski reference, for anyone who doesn't happen to be on quite the same page as I.  Don't fucking tell me that you haven't seen that movie.  And spell-check is telling me that "movie" isn't a word.  What the fuck is going on here?

Anyway, the White Sox are looking for vengeance for the beating that their pitching staff took last night, and they'll do so by sending some Quintana guy to the mound.  He should be a pushover. I don't think his name is Jesus, for the record, but maybe it is?  I doubt it, but I don't think it matters either way, and we do advance to the next round robin.  Am I wrong?  Am I wrong?

Uhh, what else?  Paul Konerko is nowhere to be seen.  He probably kidnapped himself.  That fuckin' bitch.  I did not watch my buddies die face down in the muck so that whore... deep breath.  But really, Paul Konerko was a late scratch last night, and isn't in the lineup for the ringers (i.e. dirty undies, the weight, the "whites"... the ringer can not be empty).

Speaking of ringers... we've got Brandon Morrow tossing tonight.  And with no Konerko in the lineup for the White Sox, I feel confident.  Ricky Romero looked alright to me, save for a fat one given to AJ Pierzynski and some spotty defence behind him.  I think the most important part of the day was his lack of walks, though he looked like he was pretty done for out there in the 8th, even after throwing like 90 pitches or something similar.

I feel like I'm forgetting something.  Something... about last night's game.  Something central to the Blue Jays.  Oh right, Alex Rios had two hits last night, and he used to be a Bluejay.

And Colby Rasmus went 5-for-5 with a 2, 3 singles, and a smooth homerun.  And a Zaunhead.  Lineup experiment worked out alright, huh?

Stuff
"Baseball Abbreviations" is a category on Jeopardy tonight.

Edwin Encarnacion is a scratch again.  Barry Davis says the same thing he said yesterday: Edwin's hand feels better, but is still sore enough that he can't grab a bat comfortably, and that he'll try again tomorrow.

The priceless (the good kind) John Lott has a bunch of stuff on his twitter today, mostly about the draft and draft picks, and I assume that he talks about the same stuff mentioned below in this article for the National Post, though I haven't read it yet.  Among the items:

• Tyler Gonzales, a 1st sandwich round pick, has said already that he will sign close to slot.  "The money they have offered … it’s enough for me. I’m ready to play. I’m ready to start my career." 
• Matt Smoral tweeted today that he was "off to Dunedin!"  Lott tells us that he's probably going to Dunedin for a physical, and hasn't necessarily signed (yet).  Gonzales is also gone to Dunedin, also for a physical.  MLBTR points us to a Peter Gammons tweet that suggests that the deal is already done, though I don't see anything that quite confirms that yet.  [Update: Keith Law says that he's signed for $2MM.]
• Lott says that Andrew Tinnish, Jays scouting director, said that the Jays intentionally drafted college seniors in rounds 4-10 in order to save slot budget room for their earlier picks, and that they had thought about doing so in preparation for the draft.
• Some of those college seniors are signed already, though they won't announce which ones yet.  Mini-camps start next week.

Mike Cormack of SN tells us that Tinnish also said today that the Jays have a good shot at signing all of their 1st-through-10th rounders.

Baseball America has a list of college seniors who have already signed on the cheap, and the Jays have saved at least 300k on Tyler Donahue, who got a "4-digit" bonus for going in the 4th round.

Lineups

Jays

Lawrie 3B

Rasmus CF

Bautista RF
Arencibia C

Escobar SS

Johnson 2B

Gomes 1B

Cooper DH

Davis LF

Morrow P

Dirty Undies

De Aza CF

Beckham 2B

Dunn DH

Viciedo LF

Rios RF

Pierzynski C
Ramirez SS

Flowers 1B

Hudson 3B

Quintana P

Bulls vs. Jays

All right you fuckers, lets see what you're actually made of.  "Oh, we're the hottest team in baseball!" you say?  Well, a lot of people would be if they played in the AL Central.  They've had a nice, easy schedule, and this little winning stretch has come with them playing against the Twins, Indians, Cubs and Mariners.  Sure, they also played (and beat) the Rays and Angels over the last three weeks, and we can pretty well rehash this same argument any time a team from the AL Central wins 9 of 10 or whatever, but that's not really the point.

Having said all of that, the Sox are getting some nice offensive contributions from everybody but Alexei Ramirez (and Brent Morel/Orlando Hudson), and have gotten some very nice pitching performances out of Jake Peavy and Chris Sale (until his arm falls off), plus a perfect game out of tonight's starter, Phil Humber.  I dunno, I'm seeing some pretty big regression in the near future.

As for the Jays, apprently Edwin Encarnacion is going to get at least a single night off, according to Barry Davis, and Shi Davidi reports a little more on the soreness of his hand.  No Edwin means that there's going to be an incredibly whacky lineup in there tonight.  Of course, when you realize how important the lefty-righty-lefty-righty makeup on a lineup is, this is clearly quite optimal (I'm being sarcastic).

I'm not sure why Farrell has opted to take Johnson and Escobar out of the 1-2 spots, and I'm really not sure why he's putting Lawrie and his .314 OBP in the leadoff spot, and I'm really, really not sure why the R-L-R-L-R-L-R-(S)-R thing is so fucking important to him when it will only (maybe) become an issue once or twice in the game.  I mean, I guess it kind of work against the White Sox, with Ohman, Thornton and Santiago in the bullpen, but I doubt it really matters a whole lot in most games, especially when a dude like Thames was around and would get platooned against lefties (Thornton actually doesn't have any real pronounced L/R split).

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I'm not going to bother writing about the rest of the Jays' picks until after the draft, since I don't really know anything about a lot (read: all) of the guys they've taken since the 2nd round.  I'm sure there are plenty of other spots you could look if you're that impatient.  MLB.com would be my first guess, though Bluebird Banter seems to be posting a little blurb about each pick.

Tommy Lasorda is doing well after suffering a minor heartattack either last night or today.

Are you still mad about the Jays trading away Tiny Tim Collins(ecum)?  You should be.

The Jays traded Ruben Gotay, a minor league infielder, to the Braves, for cash yesterday.  Big whoop. Also at MLBTR, there are some rumblings about draft signing bonuses and stuff.  Rumors suggest that Mark Appel told the Astros that he'd turn down an offer of $6MM, should they draft him first overall.

The Jays will continue to carry 8 relievers through tonight's game.  I can only assume that this means that they want Yan Gomes to come back up, and he won't be eligible to return to the majors until tomorrow (I thought today, but apparently not), since a player must spend 10 days in the minors before being recalled (unless someone is DL'ed).  I'm sure Edwin's status going forward will determine what the Jays ultimately do with regard to their roster makeup.

Lineups
Jays
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Johnson DH
Escobar SS
Cooper 1B
Arencibia C
Vizquel 2B
Davis LF

Romero P

White Sox
De Aza CF
Beckham 2B
Dunn DH
Konerko 1B
Rios RF
Pierzynski C
Viciedo RF
Ramires SS
Hudson 3B

Humber(fect) P