Go Time: The Bad Guy

Staff ace "Razor" Ramon Ortiz will go against the Rays tonight.  I'd typically do a crude job of MSPainting Ortiz' face on to the above picture, or something along those lines anyway, but I'm at work and probably won't get home until pretty close to game-time.  As such, this is definitely going to have to do.

My not doing photoshops is a story in and of itself, but I'd like to have a chat about this Anthony Gose fella.

See, I really don't think he's ever going to hit.  I saw a comp for Gose as "Pre-2013 Carlos Gomez," which I think is totally fair.  I doubt Gogo is suddenly magically good with the bat, but regardless, his career batting line, without looking it up again, is like .253/.300/.393, which is really only good if you're a gifted defender at a premium position.  Gogo is great in CF for Milwaukee, and from what we've heard, Gose will be the very same, meanwhile adding value with his baserunning and steals and whatnot.

There are rumblings going around that Gose isn't ready for MLB, using his mediocre batting as perfectly good evidence.  He's only hitting like .227 in AAA so far this year, so yeah, anyone saying this is probably right.  We certainly don't need another Ricky Romero situation on our hands again.

The issue I see with that is that Gose is probably never going to hit at anything near a league-average clip, so his growth probably isn't going to be stunted by this callup, even if the callup is permanent, since (a) hitting coach Chad Mottola had some success with him last year in Las Vegas (I know, I know, hitter-friendly PCL), and (b) his value as a defender and baserunner is probably at or near peak, and it certainly sounds like he's MLB-ready as far as fielding and running are concerned.

Beside, once Rajai Davis returns, Gose is probably sent back down, barring any other injuries or DL stints, to say, Melky Cabrera.  Gose was worth more per game, in a small sample, than Colby Rasmus was last year, and he did all of that with a below replacement level bat at a premium position.  I don't think the bat is anything to worry about, especially for a two-week callup where he won't be playing everyday.

Stuff
Josh Johnson threw for Dunedin last night or yesterday or something, going three reasonable innings in his first rehab start.

Marc Hulet scouted some Jays for Fangraphs.