So long, dental plan.

The dental plan, in this case, is Brett Lawrie, who broke a finger yesterday during warmup, and is now finished for the season.  Lisa, in this case, is John Farrell, and the braces can be... Edwin playing third, I guess?  At least until Yunel Escobar comes back, if that even happens.  Jonathan Diaz is available, and is now probably even more likely to get a callup than he was before.  It was already rumored that he may be on the way up, and now with no infielders left, who knows what's going to happen?  There's only 7 games left, so it's not a huge issue, but Jose Bautista could potentially play third for a week and give Adam Loewen everyday action in right.  They could also just keep Adam Lind at first everyday and have Edwin play third hilariously.  It doesn't really matter though.

The real story here is the way the Rays and Red Sox can't win games anymore, letting the Angels right back in to this race.  2.5 games is a pretty big lead with just 6-7 games left, and the fact that the Sox play the Rays thrice this week is actually pretty bad news for LA.  I feel like both Tampa and LA need to win the rest of their games to get in, and neither has a particularly easy schedule finishing out (LA plays 1 more against the Jays, 3 against OAK and 3 against Tex, TB plays 3 against TOR and 3 against NYY).  TB's double-header loss yesterday was an absolute fucking disaster.

There's a little bit of the same nonsense coming from the other side of baseball too: Atlanta has been doing some serious dog-fucking the last week or so, and have completely squandered their giant lead in the wild card race, allowing St. Louis to catch up to the tune of a 1.5-game lead.  STL finishes their season about as easily as possible, with 1 more against the Mets this afternoon, then 3 against the Cubs and 3 against the Astros.  Atlanta is off today, then play 3 against WAS and 3 against PHI.  This should get interesting.

This basically means that I'll have to wait a couple days before finishing all the playoff primers, but should be able to get most of them done while the wild card races are finishing up.

Move the nonsense

Ok, too many .gifs.  Those are going to slow down the front page for at least another day or two, but who doesn't love .gifs?  Right, everyone loves them.

I feel like it's my duty, however, to write something instead of just going around finding some funny imagery.  There are enough .gifs on the internet to move across any possible series of emotions, that we're not really doing a whole lotta work.  Having said that, I'm going to link to a whole bunch of writing that other people did anyway,  so really...

Thanks to @northyorkjays on twitter, we're told that Brett Lawrie has been the best 3B in baseball over the last 30 days, or pretty much since his callup.  Sort by WAR, become expert!  But seriously, he's been fucking awesome.

Also from twitter, @graymatter11 reports that Chad Beck, Adam Loewen, Danny Farquhar, David Cooper, Brad Mills and Kyle Drabek have all been called up for September.  Chris Woodward was also called up the other day after Yunel Escobar was removed from the game with a jammed wrist, when Francisco Cervelli slid in to second base like a dickhole.

John Lott of the National Post discusses the long road back for Dustin Mcgowan.  I might cry.

Former Jay Zach Stewart, traded to the White Sox in the Colby Rasmus trade, took a perfect game in to the 8th inning against my highschool baseball team the Minnesota Twins in the 2nd half of a double header.  He finished with a complete game shutout, allowing just 1 hit, walking none and striking out 9.  Before anyone overreacts about this, saying stuff like "WTF why did we trade Stewart?!?", shut up.  I'm sure I could go out there and at least keep my team in the game against that lineup.

Brett Lawrie earned himself another Zaunhead yesterday for his performance, not only with the bat, but also in the field, playing an excellent third base.  Lawrie obviously hit the tater to finish it all, but also got on base twice more with walks.  I'm going to make a judgement call and give one to Henderson Alvarez as well, who put forth his second consecutive start without allowing a run.

The Jays made it official this morning, and released Brian Tallet.  It took all of one appearance for them to realize that this was the right move.  Tallet was DFA'ed a few days ago, and shockingly (not really shockingly) cleared waivers after the DFA.  What I don't understand is why they let him rehab his injury and all that jazz when they had no intention of keeping him around (though I suppose the Villanueva and Rauch injuries could have played a part in that).

Finally, Stephen Strasburg returns to the Nationals' rotation tonight after missing nearly a year due to Tommy John surgery, the causes of which were explained by Driveline Baseball's Kyle Boddy.  I'm pretty sure I remember reading him predict this TJ, but I can't find it so whatever.

So Wil Ledezma was DFA'ed for that

Now I do remember ranting recently about Brian Tallet being the worst pitcher in the history of baseball, and that by no means should he ever enter a game in any sort of leveraged situation.  Well, my friends, it took literally 40 hours for him to not only come in to a 1-run game in extra innings, but to subsequently blow that lead and lose the game for the Jays without any incredible amount of effort.  Tallet went out there and got 1 out, throwing 23 pitches, just 9 for strikes.

I do remember reading on twitter last night that once Casey Janssen was determined to be no longer available (he has tightness in his back, otherwise he could have probably went out for the 10th inning), all that was left in the bullpen in terms of available pitchers were Dumb and Dumber, AKA Tallet and Rommie Lewis.  I'm still not sure why Frank Frank was a no-go, or what the plan was if this game went another couple innings, but whatever.

Now I also remember mentioning yesterday how losing a few games down the stretch isn't all that big of a deal, assuming there's an interest for a Type-A free agent out there, which is actually a pretty limited bunch of guys*, but I'm not sure if the losses have gotta be this obvious.  I'm not incredibly sure what there is to expect with Tallet in a ballgame other than exactly what happened, even if it's against the Baltimore Orioles.  The AAA season ends September 5th, at which point I'm sure at least one pitcher will come up as a September callup for expanded rosters, and I'm modestly confident that Tallet will be DFA'ed/released when there's another arm there to clean up the puke.

Speaking of September callups, Bluebird Banter lists the candidates for such an event here.  I'd go yes on PJ Walters and/or Brad Mills as the aforementioned puke cleaner though, but that's just me.

Brett Lawrie gets a Zaunhead for his 3-run tater.

*- Some of the potential targets include Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols (as if he's not a Cardinal next year), Chris Carpenter (though I'm not sure who would give up a draft pick for a 38-year old starter who isn't as good as he used to be), or maybe one of those silly closer types that the Jays desperately need to give up a draft pick for (Matt Capps, Ryan Madson, Koji Uehara, Heath Bell, Jonathan Papelbon to name a few).  I'm sure a lot of these guys won't be free agents, and even more won't be anywhere close to the Jays radar.

Jojo Reyes starts for the Orioles tonight.  When asked for comments, the entire Jays offense replied:

It's a point of pride

Warning: this is kind of rambly, and will end up being pretty controversial.  If anyone completely disagrees with what I'm saying, you have every right to.  Frankly, I'm not even completely sure that I agree with myself.

All too often do we hear casual sportsfans, who don't know anything about anything, make a wild claim about their team upon realizing that there's not much chance at a playoff berth (i.e. Jays fans circa each of the last 20 years).  They'll say stuff like "They should just lose the rest of their games on purpose so they can get the first overall pick," or something along those lines.

Now of course:

It's obviously an incredible shit in the mouth of your fans and players to just go out there and fuck off for the last 2 months of the season, which explains why nobody goes to Marlins games.

But the Bluejays are in a pretty unique situation, and I'm not sure it's a complete accident.  Thanks to the perfect storm of affairs going on with this team, including but not limited to:

• Their incredibly tough division, and thus, incredibly tough schedule,
• Injuries to their starting (and backup) CF,
• Poor performance by supposed impact guys Kyle Drabek and Travis Snider,
• Several potential Type-A and B free agents,
• The strength and hype of the farm system,
• The willingness to spend, and the availability of money from ownership

The Blue Jays can actually get away with playing guys like Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco as often as they have, despite how terrible they've been, since they're both close to free agent comp status.  They can also have a guy like Darin Mastroianni starting in CF at times, because OMG PROSPECT! and thus, not necessarily going out there and putting the best lineup forward everyday, but without slapping fans in the face.  On literally every Bluejays telecast, we get a "farm report", exaggerating just how good some of these guys within the system really are.

This isn't to say that the Jays farm isn't as good as advertised, because it definitely is good, a consensus top-5 system based on several different opinions.  Unlike most teams, however, we (the fanbase as a whole, not necessarily people who go out of their way to read stuff about the Jays and advanced stats and whatnot; I mean your average Jays fan who catches 50 games a year on TV) are getting a very good idea of not only who these people are, but also how close they are to making it to the bigs.  Brett Lawrie got his balls waxed by Sportsnet literally all season long, as did Eric Thames before his callup.  Drew Hutchinson and Nestor Molina have been getting a ton of attention since the Henderson Alvarez callup, and Marcus Knecht is Canadian (!!!!!) and tore up single-A this year.

Most people who only watch a couple of games a week (read: most Jays fans) now actually know who some of these guys are, which gets them excited, since every team who ever hears anything about any of their prospects assumes that they're going to be an all-star in 3 years.  For example, remember that time David Cooper hit a homerun this year?  8 years, $120MM at least.  Remember that time last year where Brad Mills went 8 innings allowing 2 hits against the lowly Baltimore Orioles, or the fact that he's torn up AAA each of the last two years?  He's Shaun Marcum!  Travis d'Arnaud won the AA MVP award!  Bautista 2.0!

What's my point, you ask?  Well, we all know how AA loves his draft picks, which explains why Jon Rauch keeps getting a chance to close despite how terrible he's been.  That's because saves count more than they really should when it comes to free agent compensation.  Well the thing with free agent compensation is this:  It's great to get compensation for losing your guys, but something that the Jays haven't done in a long time, but could very well do this offseason (*cough* Prince Fielder*) is actually acquire one of these free agents that could cause them to lose a draft pick.

Question: But wait a second, Grady.  Wouldn't losing more game just mean that the Jays are giving up a better draft pick?

Answer: No, you fucking idiot.  The 15 teams with the worst records in baseball are protected from losing their first rounder if they sign a Type-A.  Currently, those teams include all the embarrassments of the league, plus the Rockies and Jays.  Cleveland and Chicago have a better winning percentage as of right now, but there are still about 25 games left in the year, and lots can change in that time.  The Jays are tied at the moment with the Reds for the 15th worst record, thanks to the recent skid, despite Cinci's schedule being way easier.  The tie-breaker is determined by last year's record, which the Jays win against CIN and CHI, but lose to both CLE.

I submit that if the Jays are going to make a serious run at any type-A's, thus forfeiting a draft pick, it's not a terrible idea to get some AAA and AA players up as some September callups, and let them play in a bunch of games.  This gets them time in the bigs to see what's to be expected in the near future, it doesn't alienate the fans because prospects are making their major league debuts, and all prospects are as good, if not better than, Brett Lawrie despite being Americans/internationals.

They don't necessarily have to do it everyday, and are still trying to win games.  It's not like fans will be be pissed with a 6-man rotation comprised of whatever they have plus Brad Mills or Kyle Drabek or whatever the fuck, or giving Adam Lind a coupla days off a week[sidenote: can Cooper be as bad as Lind has been over the last two months?  Might even be an improvement].

The Jays' current draft picture for next year includes the 15th overall selection, the 21st overall as compensation for failure to sign Tyler Beede, and a pick or two (maybe more) from guys like Kelly Johnson, Jose Molina, Jon Rauch, and Frank Francisco, plus the 15th pick of each subsequent round.  By having a protected pick in the first round, the Jays could conceivably sign a guy like Prince Fielder, plus have 6 of the first 50 picks, on top of having a top-5 farm system.

The best (worst?) part?  The Jays don't even need to tank all that bad.  They pretty much have to play as they've been playing, considering their last 28 games are made up of a schedule that leaves 6 games with Baltimore, and 22 others against teams with better W-L records, including 15 against the Yankees, Red Sox or Rays.  Of these 28 games, the Jays could seriously play some good baseball and lose 15+ without the bat of an eye.  It's not like Baltimore or Chicago are an automatic sweep, nor are the TB/BOS/NYY series an automatic get-swept, but .500 for the rest of the year, given the schedule, is probably a bit ambitious.  Especially with NYY, ANA and BOS fighting for the division, plus CHI has an outside shot of making their division semi-close with a win streak.

Is there really a big difference between a 2nd rounder and a 1st rounder?  Well, probably not big enough to justify intentionally losing any games, given the volatility of the MLB draft (that is, first rounders sometimes flame out and never become big leaguers, 15th rounders sometimes become superstars).  But on average, according to some guy, a pick in the 10-20 range of the draft is worth just over 4 WAR, whereas the 50-60 range is worth 1.4 WAR, which is a difference of about 2.75 WAR.  This seems like an "extra 2%" situation, where you have to capitalize on every edge you have, no matter how small.

Basically, what I'm saying here is that I wouldn't be all that upset if the Jays got some September call-ups in to the lineup a couple times, as they probably will do anyway, and just lie to us and say "we want to see what some of these guys can do" with regards to their prospects, instead of saying what they mean, which is "Yeah, we wanna tank a couple games to stay behind Cincinnati in the standings because we want to have Prince Fielder, but also a first rounder."

Then again, they got Daniel Norris with a third round pick so I'm just talking out my ass here.