Thursday 31 May 2012

I've Got a Theory...


... and it's that Jason Hammel is both an idiot, and not a very good pitcher.  I suppose you could classify this as a hypothesis, since there is definitely some evidence that proves my side, but I've never met the dude, and before last night (more specifically, after last night's game, where Hammel made some truly brilliant* comments), I had never really heard of anything that suggested anything in either direction about his intelligence.

Well.  After giving up 4 solo HR's (and 5 other hits), Hammel, in his post-game media scrum, blathered the following nonsense:
I don’t think you can take swings like that, not knowing they’re coming. There’s rumours and things like that, I don’t know. I can’t speak on that but they were taking very, very strong hacks on breaking stuff. It’s something I’ve never seen before.
Yeah, well our good friend Abe Lincoln once gave us this gem:
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Allow me to elaborate; Hammel was worried about a 4th place team stealing signs, a story that he probably got by reading through some hearsay evidence that has been more-or-less completely disproven, and is worried about them knowing when his breaking ball was coming.  He allowed two hits all night on his breaking pitches, meanwhile giving up 4 HR's, all on fastballs.  He threw 42 curveballs and sliders (combined), and allowed hits on two of them.

And then there's the idea that a hot streak of 7 nice starts where you pitch way over your head might not actually make you a good pitcher.  A look at his career stats (and let's not forget that there is a lot of Coors Fieldness going on in these) would suggest that Hammel is nothing more than a below-average starter, so maybe that little homer-binge has more to do with Hammel being a shitballer, and less to do with sign-stealing.  But you know, make excuses and don't be a fucking man about it.

Oh, by the way, you got swept. Fuckers.

Morrow gets the Zaunhead for his performance last night, but also for "get well soon" purposes.  Lawrie gets one for Tuesday's game, by the way.

*- "truly brilliant" with the exaggerated bunny ears of sarcasm.

Stuff
The Jays optioned Aaron Laffey back to AAA after last night's game, since they no longer need the extra pitcher, though, as far as I can tell, they haven't announced who will be coming back up to the big club yet, just that it will be a position player.  Yan Gomes can't come back up yet, since it has been fewer than 10 days since his demotion, and the same goes for Eric Thames.  I'm scared that it's going to be Adam Lind, but there are other possibilities.  Travis Snider could come up if his wrist is good to go, Adeiny Hechavarria could be the guy if Kelly Johnson or Yunel Escobar need some more time (they wouldn't call him up just to sit on the bench), or it could simply be Vlad.  They don't need to announce the move today, since they have an offday.

If you missed it, Brandon Morrow was hit with a line drive last night, but X-rays came back negative, and he was diagnosed with a shin contusion, which, I think, is fancy talk for a bone bruise.  Day-to-day.

Sergio Santos might throw a bullpen at some point over the next few days, according to CBS Sports.

Nowhere Plans power rankings are up (finally).  I wrote my part Sunday, whereas the other two contributors wrote their parts either Monday or Tuesday, due to them being lazy American fucks (well, either that, or the fact that Monday was a holiday in the states).  Either way, I've already been scolded for having Baltimore too high, but they had only lost two in a row at that point in time so whatever.  Also at Nowhere Plans, Dan has a bit about the Adam Jones extension.

And finally, today in "LOL Padres", Carlos Quentin has only played three games, but he's already tied for third on the team in homeruns.

Wednesday 30 May 2012

What the Hech?



 Mike Cormack of Sportsnet is giving us some treats today.  The following is three of his tweets all smushed together:
Farrell says he wanted to give Johnson two days off to rest hammy. Should be fine for Friday.Something very weird is up with Hechavarria. Still can't get US citizenship sorted out allowing him to travel to Canada.Farrell could not elaborate on Hech's status, seemed as confused as us. Hinted he may have been called up had it been sorted out.
So yeah, I think we can safely say that this is about Kelly Johnson's hamstring and Yunel's groin issue.  More when it becomes available, I guess.  Johnson is out of the lineup tonight, which, combined with the offday tomorrow, gives him back-to-back days off as a rest.

Update:  John Lott of the National Post tells us that Hech is cleared to enter Canada, and has been since before the end of spring training, at least.  The obvious caveat is that they want him to keep getting AB`s, so maybe if either Johnson or Escobar needed to be DL'ed for any stretch of time, this might be a bit of a different story.

Stuff
Jonah Keri's power rankings for Grantland are up.  Among other things, he notes that Henderson Alvarez has the worst k/9ip in all of baseball for qualified pitchers.  Yeesh.

There were rumblings of the Jays skipping some starts at some point in the rotation, with the upcoming days off, but apparently not anymore.
I think this means Drabek is going to pitch against Boston. Crikey.

Jon Morosi of FOX.com writes about Alex Anthopoulos, and the likelihood of moves this summer.

Roy Halladay is going to seek a second opinion, but he's probably going to be out for 6-8 weeks with a lat issue.  Apparently this won't affect the Phillies' desire to extend Cole Hamels,  Sorry, Jays fans, but that trade isn't happening.  Extension talks between Zack Greinke and the Brewers appears to be non-existent though!

Morrow is looking to get back on track tonight.  Regression on a stick (a.k.a. Jason Hammel) goes for the Orioles.  Nick Markakis will miss tonight's game with a hand issue.  X-Rays were negative, but meh.

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

Morrow P

Orioles
Chavez LF
Hardy SS
Davis DH
Jones CF
Weiters C
Reynolds 1B
Betemit 3B
Flaherty RF
Andino 2B

Hammel P

Blue Jays Draft Review, Part 1


I don't really know exactly what I'm going to be doing with this series, or how many pieces it will entail.  I'm probably just going to try and do a new post or two every day about a few years until the day of the actual draft this year, and then just be done with it.  I doubt I'll spend too much time looking over the last two or three drafts, since there are so few major leaguers from them and we have no idea who should have went where in hindsight.  What I am sure of is that there is going to be an awful lot of me shitting on JP Ricciardi's draft strategy, or at the very least, the poor job the Jays did at drafting and developing quality prospects during his regime.

I'd like to point out that there isn't really a whole lot of sense in looking back and saying stuff like "Ugh, I can't believe Toronto was so dumb taking Russ Adams [or whoever, depending on the year/round] when Cole Hamels, Matt Cain, and Joey Votto [or whoever] were still available," because I'm sure they looked at all of those guys and decided that Adams (in this particular example) was the best player available, especially when you consider the fact that Votto went in the 2nd round, and practically every team passed him by in the first round.  Having said that, I'm totally going to say stuff like "we drafted Russ Adams, but could have had Jon Lester instead."

2010 and 2011
These drafts saw the Jays load up on some high school pitchers, who, at this point, look like they should develop in to something.  Obviously, they won't all be superstars, but the fact that they went and got 6 arms in the first three rounds of '10, and 5 more in the first three rounds of '11 (not counting Tyler Beede, who didn't sign) makes it a lot more likely that they will get a few useful major league arms.  Obviously, allowing type-A and -B free agents to walk has earned them this type of a system, and trading pieces like Roy Halladay, Scott Rolen, etc. has helped.

Anyway, it appears that the 2009 draft isn't going to pan out, for the most part (with a few notable exceptions), mostly because we don't really hear a whole lot about it, since the 2010 and '11 picks (notably the pitchers) and Adeiny Hechavarria seem to get most of the attention.  There are definitely some nice pieces that came out of that draft though, so let's have a look.

First, I think we should mention that the Jays' 2nd, 3rd and 4th overall selections of this draft ended up not signing, which scored the Jays 3 extra picks in the 2010 draft, and that class was deep as fuck.  I'm sure this was intentional-- I wouldn't necessarily say that they picked guys that they knew they couldn't sign, but instead took guys, similar to what they did with Daniel Norris last year, that were going to be tough guys to sign.  They knew that if they didn't sign Paxton, Eliopoulos and Barrett, that they would get compensation picks for the 2010 draft, which landed them 3 guys who are all performing very well in the minors right now.  Obviously, getting a guy like Paxton (ranked as the #52 overall prospect by Baseball America) would have been nice, but Noah Syndergaard is the alternative.  The point remains, however, that when 3 of your top 4 picks don't sign, the chances of success from that particular draft class is diminished incredibly.

Second, and just because I'm going to do it with all the other years that we actually kind of know the results from, I'll include how many WAR came from each class.  Drew Hutchison is the only one from 2009 to see the bigs, and most of the '07 and '08 class either haven't seen the bigs yet, or have only played as rookies/September callups, which makes the WAR totals pretty deceiving and almost irrelevant.  This will be a better experiment once we get to the 2006 (and prior) draft.

2009: 52 players, -0.2 WAR 
Chad Jenkins (1st round-20th overall) was the first pick of the Jays in this draft.  He's currently in AA New Hampshire, and is there, I guess.  He's not exactly lighting it up, but minor league numbers don't really translate all that well to figuring out who's going to do what in the bigs, especially in the AL East.  He doesn't walk many, at least, but that's really about it.  Mike Trout was taken by the Angels 7 picks later.

Jake Marisnick (3-104) is one of the best prospects in the Jays' system.  He was taken as compensation for the Yankees' signing of AJ Burnett.  Scouts and writers just verbally blow Marisnick all the time (example, example 2, example 3), and it seems like a borderline consensus that Marisnick is some kind of 4.5-5 tool monster-in-training.  If, at any point, you feel angry with AJ Burnett for leaving, and I'm not sure why you would, since it was a perfectly reasonable thing for him to do and he sucks now, but uhhh... this guy is going to be really good.

Drew Hutchison (15-460) and Yan Gomes (10-310) both went in this draft, and are the only two members of this draft class to appear in the majors for the Jays.  Again, we're pretty early in to the lifespan of this draft class, so we'll obviously have to wait a little while to see how this one turns out, and a lot of the 2010 draftees are directly related to the Jays' inability to sign three guys from this draft, so the success of the 2009 draft is, in a way, tied directly to the success of the 2010 draft.

2008: 44 picks, -3.1 WAR
David Cooper (1-17) has had a pretty sexy minor league career, but seems like one of those guys who just won't ever do much of anything in the majors. He was the AAA MVP in 2011, and won himself a batting title as well, but did so while playing half of his games in an inflamed run environment.  To boot, he doesn't really have any defensive value.  He'll never be a star, but he might have a career in front of him as a AAAA guy, a bench player, or maybe a starter for Houston.  I'm more interested in the guy who was drafted by Milwaukee directly before him, who just happens to be the Blue Jays' starting 3rd baseman.  Brett Wallace was also a part of that draft.  Anthony Gose went 51st over

Tyler Pastornicky (5-159) was traded to Atlanta as part of the Yunel Escobar deal, and has been worth -1.3WAR so far this year for the Braves.  Pretty much no defensive skills when compared to other shortstops, and his bat is so bad that he pretty much has to stay at short to be serviceable.

Eric Thames (7-219) has had some time with the Jays over the last two years, and, to me at least, it seems like pitchers have pretty well figured him out.  He also looks like a baby deer out in left field.  Anything I`ve ever read about him projects him as a 4th outfielder/bench type going forward.  Thames gave us 95 games of -0.1WAR last year, and has been worth another -0.8WAR over 160 AB's this season, even though he's getting platooned against LHP.

Others include Evan Crawford, Danny Farquhar, and Michael Crouse.  Some early Blue Jay pick from that draft that haven't really panned out include Kenny Wilson (2-63), Andrew Liebel (3-95), and Mark Sobolewski (4-129).  Wilson is 22 and is in his third run of A-ball, Liebel is no longer in the Jays` system, and Sobolewski is struggling in AA.

2007: 35 picks, 4.2 WAR
Kevin Ahrens (1-16) was taken as compensation for the loss of Frank Catalanotto, and hasn't really done much. At 23, he's still in high-A, and has been nothing special, especially since it's his 4th try.  Could have had Jordan Zimmermann or Giancarlo Stanton, who both went in the 2nd round, but as a whole, this is a pretty weak draft class.

JP Arencibia (1-21) has settled in as the everyday catcher, providing some nice power, choppy on-base skills, and unspectacular defence behind the plate.  His defence actually looked pretty good early this season, and he can certainly still improve, but with Travis d'Arnaud waiting in the wings, I'm sluggish about his future as an everyday catcher going forward.  I doubt the Jays trade him, since it's hard to have too many catchers, especially given the attrition rate of catchers, and the way the Jays eased JP in to his current role.  His bat, doesn't play anywhere else (i.e. first base) unless his on-base skills improve, so we'll probably see JPA and d'Arnaud split time for a while, then maybe move JPA to a backup role, getting him some days at C and giving d'Arnaud half-days-off, where he can DH instead of being behind the plate.

Brett Cecil (1-38) was taken as compensation for the loss of Justin Speier.  He looked like he was going to be good-- 2 WAR over 172 innings in his first full season, as a 23 year old in 2010-- but he's lost some velocity and has no command within the strike zone, to the point where he needed to be demoted to AAA halfway through 2011.  He's currently in AA, and, unsurprisingly, has some decent numbers so far this year.  Having said that, I don't really know what kind of velocity or command that consists of, especially since he doesn't really have to worry about people smashing every belt-high fastball out of the park the way he would in the bigs. Travis d'Arnaud went one spot before Cecil.

Marc Rzepczynski (5-175) was drafted by the Jays, and offered up 1.9WAR in 176 inning for the Jays before being sent to St. Louis in the Colby Rasmus trade.

Other selections include Justin Jackson (1-45), who is hanging around AA and might be Mike Mccoy, Trystan Magnusson (1-56), who had a cup of coffee last season with Oakland before being re-acquired by the Jays, and Brad Mills (4-145) of 82MPH fastball fame.  Alan Farina (3-115), Mike McDade (6-205) might somehow make some kind of mark in the bigs yet, and then there's Darin Mastroianni (16-505) and Brad Emaus (11-355), who saw some big league time and were confirmed to be AAAA players.

Matt Moore (8-245) and Brandon Belt (11-348) were bargains in this one.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Eric Thames to AAA

According to the Jays' Official Facebook page, which I cant link from my PS3. Cool. I personally have had enough of this experiment, especially now that the formula for getting him out has been derived and published league-wide for quite some time now.  Mike McCoy has been recalled from AAA, presumably to help fill the infield roster crunch that the Yunel and KJ injuries caused, though he can play some outfield with alittle more grace than Thames as well.  I still expect Rajai Davis to get the bulk of the time in left with the current roster formation, with McCoy serving as a backup and utility bench dude, but he's gotta be a better option than Omar Vizquel for pretty well everything, no?

And is it finally time for Travis Snider to come back up full time? I figure they're looking to give him a few games of rehab to take care of his wrist issue, but this could very well be the beginning of part two of the Snider era in Toronto.

Aaaand I think I'm just going to turn this into today's post.  Kelly Johnson, huh?  Drew Hutchison too.  I didn't give out Zaunheads for at least 2 of those blowouts (I think?), and I really can't decide who did better between an injured Johnson and an impressive Hutch, so they can just both have one and we'll be done with it.

Speaking of being done with it, Francisco Cordero is pretty bad, huh?  I'm sure I freaked out about Dotel or Francisco last year when they eventually offered some decent production, or at least weren't as bad as I was making them out to be, but uhh, Cordero really sucks.

Stuff
The new CBA is out for the public.  311 pages.  Prospectus has a summary of it behind a paywall here.

Grantland has something about the funnest team in baseball.

Monday 28 May 2012

Kill. Destroy.


Stuff
Doing something different today.  Stuff first, actual post later.  Desert, then the meal.  Sex, then the foreplay. Roll, then the rock.

Sergio Santos threw from 120 feet today, and he'll throw from a mound either Wednesday or Thursday, says Shi Davidi.

Kelly Johnson is apparently good to go, as he's in the lineup, but Yunel Escobar won't play, and is apparently day-to-day, according to the little yellow thing on my fantasy baseball rosters.  I'm wondering if Johnson is sucking this one up for a game or two with Yunel out of the lineup and nobody else to take over. I'd be shocked if he was at 100%

Also from Shi Davidi, the Jays have recalled Aaron Laffey to be a longman out of the bullpen, just in case.  I'm not sure who is available and who isn't tonight, but the Jays bullpen really got used quite a bit this past weekend to the point where some guys are definitely needing multiple days off.  As a result, Chad Beck was sent back down to Vegas, without even appearing in a game.

Fangraphs looks at Miguel Montero's extension.


Motivational Speech
Alright, you ragtag bunch of misfits.  You're opening up a 3-game set at home, against the apparently first-place Baltimore Orioles, the worst team in the division, no matter what their record says about them.  It's time to get your spray paint cans out and jetpack yourself above the fold, back to where you belong.  It's not funny anymore; it's time to fucking do this.

And you, Ricky.  I've got a bone to pick, good sir.  You're the ace.  You're the slumpbuster. This is your team, and you're the guy that goes out there when the team needs it and throws an 8-inning 3 hit shutout.  You're the guy that goes out there and fucks a fat chick to break that dryspell, and you're the guy that leads march back in to Shelbyville to get that fucking lemon tree and brings it back home to where it belongs.  Fuck those turnip-juice drinking cousin-marriers.

Let's. Fucking. Do this.


Lineups
Jays
Johnson 2B
Rasmus CF
Bautista RF
Edwin DH
Thames LF
Lawrie 3B
Cooper 1B
Mathis C
Vizquel SS

Romero P

Orioles
Avery LF
Hardy SS
Markakis RF
Jones CF
Weiters C
Betemit 3B
Davis 1B
Reynolds DH
Andino 2B

Hunter P

Update: Hey so that's fucking embarrassing.  Romero isn't actually pitching tonight, as I'm sure anybody who has already read this has figured out by now.  I mean, I'm going to leave it, because who gives a fuck, and I can just use it tomorrow too I guess, so uh... yeah.  Go Hutchypoo.

Fan on a Ledge


If Sam Worthington's photoshopped arm looks like it's coming out of his belly button, it's because his actual right arm is at his side, and needed to be covered up.  If Elizabeth Banks looks weird in that hat, it's because I was going for a Fernando Rodney look that doesn't exactly translate to my photoshop skills (which are minimal, based on nothing more than Sam Worthington's belly button arm).  Otherwise, this was actually a halfway decent movie, in my opinion.

Anyway, the Jays have lost 5 in a row, and gave up like 34 runs in a 3-game set this past weekend.  I'm here to talk you off the ledge that is the Blue Jays season that you're about to jump off of.  It isn't that they're playing well but still losing, because they got blown out of the water in two of three, and haven't had a really good pitching performance in about two weeks now, it's just that 5 games, over the course of a season, really isn't all that much.  And it's not like Minnesota walked in to Toronto and swept us away; we lost 5 of 6 against the two best teams in the AL in their parks, and without a bullpen for half of it.

Beyond that, injuries are creeping in, and if there was someone around to take over for Eric Thames' sad excuse of himself, that probably would have happened already.  As is, though, the Las Vegas 51's can't beat the Rangers or the Rays, because most major league teams can't do so either.  There are obviously some things that need to change (the aforementioned Thames issue, Kyle Drabek can't throw strikes again, there is apparently no middle infield anymore, etc.), but every team is going to go through these stretches over the course of a 162 game season.

And let's not forget, it took 5 losses against 2 really, really good teams just to get back to .500 in a difficult division.  This team is good enough to turn back around and win 5 in a row and get right back to where they were... fuck, the White Sox have won 9 of 10 or something like that.  Good teams go on 5-loss stretches all the time, and bad teams go on 5-win stretches just as often.  This is a good team that went on a 5-loss stretch; let's give it a while before panicking.

Sunday 27 May 2012

Just Got Home

Went to the beach.  Did I miss anything?  Darvish is pitching?  7-1 after 3?  Yeah, fuck this, I'm going to go drink and eat meat.

The Jays called up Jesse Chavez yesterday, which probably explains why they weren't interested in whichever Japanese team's offer to buy Chavez.  Yan Gomes has been optioned to AAA Las Vegas to take his place.

Kelly Johnson got a cortisone injection in his hamstring on Friday, and wasn't able to play today, even after a day off yesterday.

Sergio Santos' shoulder doesn't appear to be healing as well or as quickly as first thought.  He's yet to do longtoss, and definitely can't start a rehab assignment until that goes down.  That rehab assignment is probably going to be long too, since the injury happened so early in the year.  I'm kind of thinking that it might be time to cut him loose from my fantasy teams, mostly because between my 6 teams, I have 20 guys on the DL, and not nearly enough DL/bench spaces.

Is it almost time for the Jays to check in on Roy Oswalt?

Saturday 26 May 2012

Roster Foundation, Part 3

A bit of a wrinkle, for this one.  I'm going to look through the farm system, and see how most of those guys came to the system.  There is a very, very good chance that I miss multiple guys, but that's just something I'll have to live with, I suppose.  There are obviously a billion guys in the system, so anybody who was drafted with a pick that already belonged to the Jays will be simply ignored.  I'm just looking at guys who came via trade, or who were drafted in a spot that was given to the Jays as compensation (either for losing a Type-A or Type-B free agent, or for the failure to sign a player picked in the first three rounds).  Just thinking about this before writing, this is probably going to be rather lengthy.


  • Jacob Anderson: Drafted 35th overall in 2011, in the 1st sandwich round.  He was taken as compensation for the loss of St. Patrick himself, Scott Downs.
    • Downs was released by the Expos in 2004 and latched on with the Jays.  He started in the system as a starter/swingman, but turned in to one of the most reliable and consistent relievers in the majors.  He gave the Jays 408 innings and 8.4 WAR, typically in high-leverage situations.
  • Joseph Musgrove: Taken 46th overall in 2011, also in the 1st sandwich round.  He was taken as compensation for the loss of John Buck.
    • Buck signed a 1-year deal with the Jays before the 2010 season, giving the Jays 1.5 WAR over 118 games.  He signed with Miami the next offseason for 3y/$18MM.
  • Dwight Smith: Taken in the 1st sandwich round in 2011, 53rd overall.  He was taken as compensation for the Jays loss of Kevin Gregg (haha).
    • Gregg signed a 1 year deal with Toronto before the 2010 season, and he put up 1.0WAR over 59 innings (37 saves!).
  • Kevin Comer: Taken in the 1st sandwich round in 2011, as compensation for the loss of Miguel Olivo.
    • Olivo was acquired for cash considerations, was offered arbitration, and never played a game with the Jays.  AA more or less bought a draft pick.
  • Daniel Norris: Taken in the second round of the 2010 draft.  The Angels signed Type-A, Scott Downs, which should have given the Jays a 1st rounder, but the Angels had a pick in the top 15 slots, which protected their first rounder, giving the Jays the Angels' 2nd round pick.  The Jays took Norris, who was a first round talent, but was considered to be a tough guy to sign.  Never fear.
  • Aaron Sanchez: Taken in the 1st sandwich round in 2010 (34th overall) for the loss of Marco Scutaro, who signed with the Red Sox.  Typically, the Jays would have gotten the Red Sox' first rounder, but they signed John Lackey as well, so Anahein got the first round pick.
    • Scutaro was acquired from Oakland in 2007 for Graham Godfrey and Kristian Bell.  Scutaro played two seasons in Toronto as a starter for the first time in his career, and was very effective, giving 9.3 WAR in 289 games.
      • Bell was taken in the 11th round of the 2006 draft, and spent a few years in Oakland's system, never getting above AA.  He's been out of baseball since 2009.
      • Godfrey was drafted in the 34th round in 2006.  Over parts of 2 seasons, he's been worth -0.3WAR.
  • Justin Nicolino: Taken in the 2nd round of the 2010 draft, also as compensation for the loss of Marco Scutaro.
  • Asher Wojciechowski: Taken in the first sandwich round in 2010, as compensation for the loss of Rod Barajas.
    • Barajas played 2 seasons in Toronto, compiling 2.1 WAR, hitting 30 HR's over 837 PA's, and then signed with the Mets.
  • Noah Syndergaard: Taken in the 1st sandwich round in 2010, as compensation for the failure to sign James Paxton.
    • Paxton was drafted in the 1st sandwich round of 2009, as compensation for the loss of AJ Burnett, who signed a 5y/$82.5MM deal with the Yankees after the 2008 season.
      • Burnett was signed as a free agent by Toronto after the 2005 season, to a 5 year, $55MM deal, though Burnett opted out of the final two years and $24MM to test the free agent market.  In three years with the Jays, he was worth 6.0WAR over 522 innings.
  • Kellen Sweeney: Taken in the 2nd sandwich round in 2010, as compensation for the failure to sign Jake Eliopoulos. The Jays drafted Eliopoulos again in 2011, this time in the 43rd round.  Again, he didn't sign.
  • Marcus Knecht: Taken in the 3rd sandwich round in 2010, as compensation for the failure to sign Jake Barrett.
  • Jake Marisnick: Drafted in the 3rd round of the 2009 draft. That selection was given to the Blue Jays as compensation for the loss of AJ Burnett.  Typically, the Jays would get the Yankees' first rounder, but the Yankees had signed two other higher ranked Type-A's that offseason (Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia, if I'm not mistaken).  Marisnick is looked at by scouts as a 5-tool future big leaguer.
  • Kevin Ahrens: Chosen 17th overall in 2007 by the Jays, as compensation for the loss of Frank Catalanotto.  Ahrens is 23 and is still in high-A ball, for his 4th try.
    • Catalanotto signed a 3 year, $13.5MM deal with Texas, as a Type-A fere agent.  He signed in Toronto as a free agent in 2003 for 4 year and $10MM, giving the Jays 5.9WAR over 4 seasons and 1800-ish PA's all over the field.
  • Justin Jackson: Also taken in the 2007 draft, he went 45th overall (1st sandwich), also as compensation for the loss of Catalanotto.  He is currently in AA New Hampshire, and might maybe have some kind of future as a bench guy.
  • Trystan Magnusson: As mentioned in part 1, Magnusson was chosen in the first sandwich round in 2007, as compensation for the loss of Ted Lilly.  He was traded for Rajai Davis, but was re-acquired recently for cash.  He had a quick cup of coffee for Oakland last year (sucked), and he is currently rehabbing an injury in High-A Dunedin.
  • Anthony Gose: Acquired via trade for Brett Wallace.  Gose was drafted by the Phillies, and was an untouchable in the Roy Halladay negotiations, but was eventually made available to Houston in the Roy Oswalt deal.  Depending on who you ask, Gose is the Jays' top prospect.  He's just 21 playing in AAA, and is sporting a .280/.360/.413 slash line (in Vegas) with some apparently amazing defense.
    • Wallace was acquired from Oakland for Michael Taylor.
      • Taylor was part of the Roy Halladay trade, along with Kyle Drabek and Travis d'Arnaud.
  • Chad Beck: Acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for David Eckstein.  Beck was drafted by the Jays in the 43rd round of the 2004 draft, but didn't sign.  He appeared in 3 games in 2011, getting 2.1IP.  His AAA numbers are pretty mediocre over 62 IP, but again, Las Vegas.
    • Eckstein signed a 1 year, $4.5MM deal with the Jays before the 2008 season, and provided 0.0 WAR in 76 games and 303 PA's.

Roster Foundation, Part 2

If you haven't read part one yet, go do so now, or at least get a quick look at the explanation of what's going on.  Or skip it, I don't give a fuck.  We've looked at the position players already, so now let's get a glimpse at the pitchers.

  • Ricky Romero: Romero was drafted 6th overall by the Jays in the 2005 draft, and has been worth 11.6 WAR (the fangraphs version of this is very different, if memory serves me correctly, due to Romero's outshining of his fip and xfip last year-- the difference is something like 6.2 WAR to 2.8).
  • Brandon Morrow: Acquired from Seatlle for Brandon League and Johermyn Chavez before the 2010 season.  He's been worth 3 WAR over 2+ seasons (again, fWAR and rWAR are very different, and Morrow's fip gives him like 4fWAR for 2011, whereas he was a 1.2 rWAR player.)
    • League was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2001 draft, giving the Jays 1.2WAR over 200-ish innings in parts of 6 seasons.
    • Chavez was signed as an international free agent, and has reached AA as a 23 year old.  He's repeated every level so far, and doesn't appear to be overly impressive to the point of warranting a shot at the bigs, unless there's something that I'm missing.
  • Henderson Alvarez: Signed by the Jays as an international free agent.
  • Kyle Drabek: Acquired in the Roy Halladay deal, along with Michael Taylor and Travis d'Arnaud.  Drabek has been worth 0.3WAR over various cups of coffee with the Jays, and was the centerpiece (at the time) of the deal.  Taylor was immediately flipped for Brett Wallace, who was eventually flipped for Anthony Gose.  Wallace and Taylor are both toiling around in the minors at the moment, while Gose is the Jays 2nd (or third, or fouth, depending on who you ask) best prospect.  d'Arnaud has been recently ranked as the 4th best prospect in all of baseball, and has the upside of an all-star catcher.
    • Halladay is a sure-fire hall-of-famer.  In parts of 12 seasons, Halladay was worth 45.6 WAR, earned a Cy Young, was a 7-time allstar, and is probably the greatest Blue Jay player of all-time (at least in my eyes).  This was done in a pretty under-the-radar fashion, thanks to Canada being Canada, and baseball being America's Pastime.  He went 17th overall in 1997.
  • Drew Hutchison: taken in the 15th round of the 2009 draft.
  • Brett Cecil: Drafted in the 1st sandwich round, 38th overall in 2007.  Cecil's draft slot was given to the Jays as compensation for the loss of Justin Speier.
    • Speier was acquired in 2003 as part of a 3-way deal.  Speier was sent to Toronto, Mark Hendrickson was sent from Toronto to Tampa Bay, and Joe Kennedy went to the Rockies from Tampa.
      • Hendrickson was drafted 6 times (!!!), and finally signed with the Jays in 1998.  He's really, really tall, and was a basketball guy, which explains the multiple drafts.  He finally signed after the Jays took him in the 20th round, and gave the Jays 1.1 WAR over 195 innings.  Hendrickson was still in the league as of last year, though he was released by the O's after last season, and is still just kind of there.
  • Carlos Villanueva: Acquired from Milwaukee for a PTBNL (presumably a PTBNL or cash, because I've never seen anything that suggests that anybody was sent to Milwaukee).
  • Dustin McGowan: 1st sandwich round, 33rd overall in 2000.  That pick was given to the Jays for the loss of Graeme Lloyd.  McGowan has been worth 0.9WAR over parts of 5 seasons and infinite injuries.  
    • Lloyd was worth 0.9 WAR in his only season with the Jays.  He came over from the Yankees with Homer Bush and David Wells, in exchange for Roger Clemens, and pitched just one year.  Bush was worth 2.2 WAR with the Jays over parts of four seasons, before being released.  Wells was worth 7.3 WAR over two seasons in his second stint with the Jays, before being traded to the White Sox in "Shouldergate" for Mike Sirotka.
      • Clemens was inked as a free agent, signing a 4 year, $40MM deal, and gave us 19.4 WAR over two seasons.  His 1997 season was his best, WAR-wise, as a professional, with 11.6.  He won the "triple crown" in both seasons.
  • Casey Jannsen: Drafted by the Jays in the 4th round in 2004.  He's been worth 3.9 WAR in parts of 6 seasons as a starter, reliever, and now, closer.
  • Luis Perez: Signed as an international free agent in 2003.  He's been worth 0.3 WAR over 88 innings.
  • Joel Carreno: Signed as an international free agent in 2004.
  • Evan Crawford: Drafted in the 8th round in 2008.
  • Francisco Cordero: Signed as a free agent.
  • Darren Oliver: Signed as a free agent.
  • Ryota Igarashi: Acquired from Pittsburgh for cash.
  • Jesse Litsch: Drafted in the 24th round in 2004.

Forgot

In my haste of getting ready to go drinking, combined with the roster foundation project that I've got going on (of which, part two should be up either today or tomorrow), I forgot to write a little preview dealy for last night's game.  And really, it's probably a good thing, because I'd have written about how awesome Brandon Morrow is, and has been this season.  Well, about that.  Ian Kinsler made Morrow throw as many pitches in one AB as Derek Holland threw for the whole first inning, and the rest of his batters weren't a whole lot better.

I'll be honest, I only watched the first inning, and most of that was on fast-forward on my TiVo*, and pretty much instantly turned the game off after 1 inning.  Texas is a great team to watch, but not when they're stepping on my favorite team.  I might go back and watch the good parts, since it's supposed to thunderstorm today, but I dunno if I can be fucked to do that.

It would appear Jeff Mathis pitched? I might have to watch this one after all, since he had a cleaner inning that Brandon Morrow.  Fuck, he can have a Zaunhead for that one.  That should be a new rule; any position player who gets through an inning automatically earns that days' Zaunhead.

I guess we missed some stuff yesterday, so let's jump in to that.

The Jays placed Ben Francisco on the 15-day DL, and recalled David Cooper to replace him.  They've also recalled Ryota Igarashi, and optioned Evan Crawford back to AAA.  Really trying to "AAAA" this roster right now.  Finally, Dustin McGowan was placed on the 60-day DL.  That move opens up a spot on the 40-man roster, which suggests to me that there might be another move on the way.

About Francisco, apparently he's got a tear in his hamstring, and will be out for a little while.  He'll be shut down for 7-10 days, and will then need to rehab.  Kelly Johnson has a hamstring issue too, but his MRI came back negative.  He might see a day off today or tomorrow.

Call to the Pen wrote about Brandon Morrow.

Travis d'Arnaud was named the AAA player of the week.

Jayson Stark says that three teams aren't interested in Adam Lind.  No shit.

MLBTR looks at the Jays' contract issues for the upcoming offseason.

In non-Blue Jay stuff, The Diamondbacks, probably realizing that they weren't getting JPA or TdA anytime soon (this actually had nothing to do with it), extended Miguel Montero for 5 years and $60MM.  Montero is good and all, but I just had to see that kind of commitment given to a catcher, given the attrition rate at the position.

The Orioles made an extension of their own, locking up Adam Jones.  This one isn't official yet, as far as I know, but will apparently be in the 6 year, $85MM range.  Jones had one year of arbitration eligibility left, before hitting free agency, so he'll probably get something like $10MM next year and $15ishMM annually after that.



*- I just kind of assume that it's "TiVo" with that capitalization.  I'm not sure why, but I'm going to keep writing it like that.

Friday 25 May 2012

Roster Foundation, Part 1

Hey, do you guys remember that time the Jays acquired Jose Bautista, utility OF/3B for a AA catcher?  Yeah, me neither.  Like, literally, I don't remember that happening.  I know that it happened, and I know that it's a pretty important event, as far as the evolution of franchise goes.  I also know approximately how long he's been on the team, and therefore when the trade in question occurred (August 21, 2008).  Finally, I know who he was traded for (PTBNL Robinzon Diaz).  But the actual event... yeah, can't really think back and say "Oh yeah."  This is obviously because, at the time, this trade wasn't really anything.  Bautista was making $1.8MM in 2008, and probably would have been non-tendered by the Pirates at the end of the season, considering it's the Pirates, and the trade, to me, in hindsight, looks like it was meant to be a salary dump of sorts.

It's shit like that that I'm looking in to; little deals turn in to big deals, big deals turn to little deals, and sometimes, as we'll see, little deals turn in to other little deals, which turn in to medium sized deals twice, which turn in to little deals again, if that makes sense.  Basically, I'm going to track every player back to the origin of either a free agent signing or a draft pick.  This would be a fun, but exhausting, exercise to do with the Tampa Bay Rays franchise.  We could make a fun little flowchart out of this, but we also probably won't. All WAR figures are from baseball-reference.com unless otherwise stated.

Part 1 will focus on position players, Part 2 on pitchers, and then Part 3 will focus on guys in the farm system who are there as result of free agent compensation.

  • Kelly Johnson: Acquired from Arizona in August of 2011 for Aaron Hill and John McDonald.  Since coming to Toronto, Johnson has a .258/.357/.413 line in about half a season's worth of AB's, and has been worth roughly 2 WAR since then.  Arizona appeared uninterested in keeping Johnson for another year at his price, and probably would have ended up non-tendering him if they couldn't find a trade partner.  Hill was set to be a free agent, since the Jays certainly weren't picking up his option(s) and weren't interested in his mediocre-at-best play (ARI declined his options, but re-signed him for two years this offseason).  McDonald was thrown in for his defensive magic, with Stephen Drew being on the shelf, but re-signed with ARI for two years as well this offseason.
    • Hill was drafted by the Jays in 2003 draft, as the 13th overall selection.  He had two pretty good seasons, sandwiching a missed season or so, due to a concussion.  Over parts of 7 seasons, Hill put up 15.1 WAR, though he was worth -0.3 in his age 28 and 29 seasons (as a Jay).
    • McDonald was essentially named as a PTBNL in a trade for himself, so we won't bother with that.  He was also granted free agency and eventually re-signed with the Jays in 2009, so again, we won't bother.  We'll instead go back to 2004, when he was first acquired by the Jays, for Tom Mastny.  As a Blue Jay, he was worth 4.1WAR over parts of 7 seasons as a benchy and fan favorite.
      • Mastny was drafted by the Jays in the 11th round of the 2003 draft, totalling 94 innings of -0.8WAR ball, before being sold to a Japanese team.
  • Yunel Escobar: Acquired from Atlanta, along with Jojo Reyes, in exchange for Alex Gonzalez, Tyler Pastornicky and Tim Collins.  Atlanta was growing frustrated with Yunel's flashy play, or something retarded, which was apparently enough to warrant not having a decent starting shortstop for the next  however long [from that day until whenever Andrelton Simmons gets good enough to take the starting SS position away from Pastornicky].  Escobar, in a little over 1000 PA's, has a .280/.351/.383 slash line, and has been worth 6.5 WAR in Toronto with some pretty good defensive numbers backing him.  Jojo Reyes also happened, for a while.
    • The Jays drafted Pastornicky in the 5th round of the 2008 draft.  As a 22 year old, he's been worth -0.8WAR so far this season, and probably won't turn in to anything, since he's just a right-handed Eric Thames who does a poor job of playing shortstop, instead of LF.
    • Collins was signed as an undrafted free agent by JP Ricciardi, and has since been flipped to KC in a 5 player deal.  He's been worth 1.3 WAR to KC in 88 innings out of their bullpen between last year and this year, and probably shouldn't have been included in the Yunel deal, since he was killing minor league pitching, and was obviously not really in the plans in ATL.
    • Gonzalez was signed to a 1-year, $2.75MM deal with a club option.  He was mostly a stop-gap until AA could find something better.  Well, he did.  Granted, Gonzalez was worth 3.2 WAR over 85 games, thanks to his hitting 17 HR's.  The Jays sold very high.
  • Jose Bautista: As mentioned, acquired from Pittsburgh for Robinzon Diaz.  Bautista has been, arguably, the best hitter in baseball over the last few seasons.  17.5WAR since joining the Jays, -2.8WAR with all other clubs.  Nice.
    • Diaz has 148 career PA's, good for 0.5 WAR.  Better than I thought.  It's too bad he's been out of the bigs since after the 2009 season.  He's bounced around various minor league systems, and is currently in the ANA system.  He was signed as an amateur free agent in 2000.
  • Edwin Encarnacion: This one's fun, pay attention.  Edwin was a part of the return for Scott Rolen, and since joining the Jays, he's been demoted, DFA'ed, released, granted free agency, re-signed, and had an option exercised.  For the purposes of this excercise, we're just going to pretend that he wasn't in the Oakland system for like 10 days, and out of the Jays' care for a month.  Edwin has been worth about 4 WAR over part of 4 seasons (2 full seasons of AB's, give or take).  He tore the cover off the ball over the second half of 2011, and has been pretty good so far this year, with 14 HR's in 45 games.  Zack Stewart (more on him in a minute) and Josh Roenicke (claimed off waivers by Colorado, -1.2WAR with the Jays over 36 innings) were also involved in the deal.
    • Rolen should be a hall-of-famer when his career is over; 65.5 WAR over 17 partial or full seasons.  His time in Toronto was more-or-less brief-- 203 games of 6.9WAR baseball before being moved to Cincincatti.  I think there was cash involved in the deal, but I don't see that listed here.  He was acquired from STL for Troy Glaus, in a weird 3B-for-3B deal, though I guess the turf was fucking with Glaus' feet, and the Jays liked Rolen's defense better than they liked Glaus' offense, I guess?
      • Glaus was worth 7.1 WAR for the Jays over 2 seasons, though injuries caught up to him in the second, limiting playing time and production.  Glaus came to Toronto, with Sergio Santos (1.0, the shortstop version) for Miguel Batista and Orlando Hudson.  Santos didn't appear in games for the Jays (yet), before being claimed off waivers by the Twins.
        • Hudson was drafted by the Jays in the '96 (33rd round) and '97 (43rd round) drafts, eventually signing the second time.  He was a fan favorite in Toronto over parts of 4 seasons, until the trade.  He put up WAR totals of 2.9, 5.0, and 3.1 in his three full seasons in Toronto, earning his first of 4 gold gloves.  He's fallen off a cliff these past two years though.
        • Batista signed with the Jays as a free agent (3y/$13.1MM), before being traded back to where he came from.  In two years with the Jays, he was worth 1.7 WAR, including -0.1WAR before being moved.  So yeah, Orlando Hudson helped the Jays get Edwin.
  • Colby Rasmus: You guys probably remember this one.  Rasmus (and Brian Tallet, PJ Walters, Mark Teahen, and Trever Miller) was acquired in a big rigamarole of a deal.  Rasmus has been okay, in a small sample, and plays nice defense, and we can hope that the bat comes along the way it acted in his 2009 and 2010 seasons.  The Jays gave up Edwin Jackson, Marc Rzepczysnki, Octavio Dotel, and Corey Patterson (and cash) in the deal.
    • Jackson was acquired earlier in the day with Mark Teahen (instead of cash) for Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart, so really, he wasn't ever a Blue Jay.
      • Frasor was re-acquired this past offseason, after spending a few months in Chicago, much to the behest of White Sox fans.  In a roundabout way, Edwin Jackson was acquired for Stewart, Miles Jaye (17th, 2009), and Daniel Webb (18th, 2010).  Either way, Frasor was acquired for Jayson Werth before either were any good. 
        • Werth was acquired in 2000 for John Bale, a Toronto 5th rounder, who threw 5.2 innings for the Jays.
      • Stewart appeared in a couple of games for the Jays, tallying 16 innings.  He's since provided some mop-up duty out of the bullpen, and might not ever really perform to the hype that was surrounding him while he was a top prospect in the Jays' system.
        • Stewart was acquired in the Scott Rolen deal, listed above (Rolen for Edwin, Stewart and Josh Roenicke. Rolen was acquired for Glaus, who was acquired for Orlando Hudson and Miguel Batista, who were drafted and signed as a free agent, respectively).
    • Rzep was a Jays' draft pick, going in the 5th round in 2007.  Scrabble started for a little while, and definitely showed some potential, but didn't really appear to have the upside to stay in the rotation heading in to the 2011 season.  As result, the Jays moved him to the bullpen, where he kicked some ass as a lefty specialist.  He was worth 2 wins over 160-ish innings during his time in Toronto, and was apparently a deal-breaker for the Cardinals.
    • Dotel made a quick stop in Toronto, signing a 1 year, $3MM deal before the 2011 season.  He was worth 0.4WAR during his 29 inning stint, though he wasn't exactly used correctly (that is, he was allowed to pitch against more than 0 lefties).  He was worth 0.2WAR for STL after the trade, though he was pretty good in the playoffs, which isn't counted there.
    • Corey Patterson signed a minor league deal with the Jays for $900k before the 2011 season.  His season started pretty amazingly, carrying a .293/.323/.462 line in to June.  He got the Adam Lind treatment, staying in the 2-hole for the next 8 weeks, as he OPS'ed .503 and .463 in June and July, respectively, to drop to -0.7WAR.
    • Teahen, Tallet, Walters and Miller were all DFA'ed between the time of the deal and the beginning of the 2012 season, and were alternatives to cash considerations.
  • Brett Lawrie: Acquired straight up for Shaun Marcum.  Probably a big mistake for the Brewers.  Lawrie has been worth an astonishing 6 WAR in 84 games, over parts of two seasons as a 21 and 22 year old, and half of that has come during an offensive slump.  Look out.
    • Marcum was drafted by the Jays in the 3rd round of the 2003 draft, and provided the Jays with 9.1 WAR over parts of 5 seasons (plus a missed year due to Tommy John), including a 3.8WAR year in his last year as a Jay.  He's given the Brewers 3.2 WAR in a year+, and will be a free agent at the end of the season.
  • Rajai Davis: Davis was acquired from Oakland for Danny Farquhar and Trystan Magnusson.  Pretty much a bench guy, though he's serviceable as a platoon bat.
    • Magnusson was re-acquired for cash.
    • Farquhar was re-acquired in exchange for David Purcey, after he was DFA'ed.  Purcey was selected 5th overall by the Jays in 2004, and began sucking right around the time he made it to the majors.
      • Purcey was traded to Detroit for Scott Sizemore soon after. That deal looked awesome for Oakland until Sizemore was sidelined with TJ surgery, but an injured Sizemore is probably better than Purcey, who was released by the Tigers after the season. 
    • So basically, Davis for Purcey and Cash.
  • Ben Francisco: Acquired for Frank Gailey. Only 37 PA's as a Jay, and he's not making the most of them.  He had two respectable years in Cleveland in '06 and '07, but hasn't gotten much playing time since then. Francisco would get playing time if he was still in Philadelphia this season, thanks to injuries to everybody, but he's frankly a bench bat with little to no defensive value, and he's making nearly $2MM this year.  Salary dump
    • Gailey is 25 and still in AA.  He was a 23rd rounder for the Jays in '07, and has struggled every time he's moved up.
  • Jeff Mathis: Acquired for Brad Mills.  Mathis has been a serviceable backup for JP Arencibia so far, despite having a reputation as the worst hitter in the history of the big leagues.  Over 37 PA's, Mathis has been worth 0.4 WAR.
    • Mills was drafted in the 4th round of the 2007 draft, and appeared in 48 innings over parts of 3 seasons for the Jays, giving them -1.2WAR and 81MPH of fastball.
  • JP Arencibia: Drafted in the 1st round (27th overall) of the 2007 draft.
  • Travis Snider: 14th overall in the 2006 draft.
  • Eric Thames: 7th round of the 2008 draft
  • Adam Lind: Taken in the 3rd round of the 2004 draft, via the Angels, as compensation for the loss of Kelvim Escobar, who signed a 5 year, $41.5MM.  He gave the Angels 13 WAR, and missed most of the second half of that contract due to injury.  In parts of 7 seasons with the Jays as a starter and reliver, Escobar put up 9.6WAR.
    • Escobar was signed by the Jays as an international free agent in 1992.
  • Yan Gomes: Drafted in the 10th round of the 2009 draft.
  • Omar Vizquel: Signed this past offseason (2011/12) to a minor league deal.
  • Vladimir Guerrero: Signed as a minor league free agent.

Thursday 24 May 2012

Too Many Walks


Title says it all, no?  I don't know if anybody was expecting Romero to repeat last season's success, because he beat his peripherals by a pretty comfortable margin, but I don't think anyone was expecting a regression to the point where he's a Drabek-type either.  Sure hope he fixes things, though.

Ricky has said, a couple of times now, that his fastball command hasn't really been anywhere close to what it should be, and he doesn't exactly seem like he's one of those guys who will just go out there and play, and just accept it when what he's got isn't good enough (*cough Vernon Wells*).  If anything, he appears to be the exact opposite, if we can base anything on his twitter rant from last night (within that link).

I believe in you, Ricardo.

Anyway, James Shields is pretty good at pitching, if nobody's noticed yet.  And Kelly Johnson noticed.  He looked completely lost at the plate all day, striking out four times. Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista each supplied two hits, one of which being a homerun (Edwin gets the Zaunhead).  Don't look now, but Jose's OBP is up to .337.

Speaking of OBP, have you guys noticed that the formula to getting Eric Thames out is to just throw three pitches that aren't strikes?  .299 OBP to this point in the season.  I bet he's thanking the lord for Travis Snider's wrist issues (and Adam Lind's Adam Lind'edness) right about now, because I would suggest that that (those?) is (are?) the only reason(s?) that he's still in the majors right now.  I mean, he's offering nothing with the bat, and this:

Anyway, it's an offday today, as the Jays are travelling to Texas for a 3 gamer against the Rangers, before going up to Baltimore and probably putting forward a poor effort, from a collective standpoint.  Then you'll see me avoid the internet for a few days because people who think that the Orioles are an actual team are just going to use this as even more evidence proving so.

Stuff
DJF looks for a decent comparable for free-agent-to-be, Edwin Encarnacion.  They suggest Josh Willingham's deal with the Twins (3y/$21MM) to at least be a place to start.

Behind a paywall, Keith Law ranked Travis d'Arnaud as the 4th best prospect in the minors, now that Matt Moore, Bryce Harper, and Mike Trout have lost their eligibility.  He was ranked 6th at the start of the year, which means that he's been leapfrogged by a few guys.  A few things of note:

  • Orioles' prospects Dylan Bundy (#1) and Manny Machado (#3) both rank above TdA, as does Rangers SS Jurickson Profar.  
  • Profar and Bundy both jumped TdA, while Cardinals' pitcher Shelby Miller dropped to #9.
  • d'Arnaud is the only 23 year old on the list.
  • Jays' Aaron Sanchez was given an honorable mention, of sorts.
  • The D'Backs have Trevor Bauer, Archie Bradley, and Tyler Skaggs at 8, 12, and 13.
I'm sure we'll be seeing other lists soon, from guys like Kevin Goldstein (BP) and Jim Callis (BA).

Speaking of Kevin Goldstein, Shi Davidi will be on the next Baseball Prospectus podcast, which is hosted by Goldstein and Jason Parks. That should be up soon-ish, as they're recording tonight.  Still speaking of Kevin Goldstein, he's got a quick (free) piece up at BP about some minor leaguers that he's seen recently.  This includes Blue Jays Adeiny Hechavarria, Mike McDade, and John Stilson.

Finally, I'm going to do something kind of complicated, based on the preliminary research I was doing today for the draft thing that I mentioned yesterday (more in a second).  Basically, I'm going to look at the current roster, and determine where each guy "came from", by which I mean figuring out how each guy become a part of the team.  Jason Frasor, for example, was traded for Jayson Werth in like 2004.  Werth was acquired for some dude named John Bale in Dec. 2000.  Bale was drafted in the 5th round of the 1996 draft.  Everything is connected.

Once that's done, I've decided that I will in fact be doing a little draft primer, probably dating from the present and going backwards until I run out of time (draft day).  The first few (i.e. most recent) drafts should be together and up soon, and might have a bit of a different format from the rest, since the last three drafts typically make up a massive percentage of guys who are still within the lower half of the system, and are pretty tough to project.  Not only that, but I've actually heard of most of the guys in the last couple of drafts, and fully expect each of the first rounders to become all-star big leaguers, which is obviously retarded (I doubt Hutch, Sanchez, Maguire, Syndergaard, Nicolino and Stilson all even make it to the bigs, let alone all become useful pieces for the Jays).

[Update:] As I was writing all that baloney up there, there was an announcement of a trade!  The Jays acquired catcher Paul Phillips from the Milwaukee Braves for cash considerations.  I can only assume that this is a move that gets another catcher to AAA in the absence of Yan Gomes, who is with the big club right now (and maybe for the foreseeable future?).  Of course, Travis d'Arnaud is the main catcher in AAA LV, but Gomes was his backup. I believe I read something the other day about AJ Jimenez (AA catcher) going down to Tommy John surgery too, so that may also be related.  Either way, I doubt you'll ever see or hear from Paul Phillips in terms of MLB playing time, so it's not a huge deal.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

One Bad Inning


I have no way of backing this up, so it could very well be a selection bias or something, but it seems like a lot of Jays' losses come down to one big inning.  I'm sure the same can be said about a lot of games, but whatever; my statement is more a function of having really young starters who haven't had to worry about working out of jams against big-league lineups as often as other older rotations, and playing in the AL East probably doesn't help a whole lot either.

If you missed it, the Rays entered the 4th inning with a 1-0 lead, only to score 5 runs and blow the game open. Never mind the fact that the Jays scored 4 in the top of the 5th, because this game wasn't ever really close after that, since the bullpen couldn't hold the Rays offense down.

On the bright side, Jose Bautista was 3-for-4 (with another opposite field single to beat the shift!) and a Zaunhead, and Yan Gomes hit his 2nd homerun of the season, putting him 1 shy of Adam Lind after 100-ish fewer plate appearances.

Ricky Romero will go tonight for the Jays, with the hope of getting the Jays a series win in Tampa for the first time since the Rays got good.

Stuff
JP Breen looks at Luke Scott, probably because he hit a homer off Hutchison last night.

Getting Blanked linked this piece from Over the Monster, where they look at the Red Sox' 2007 draft, which got me to thinking about how that worked out for the Jays.  Well sirs, it's not pretty.  Let's dive in, shall we? (Note: He chose '07 because the average draft class takes 5 full years to develop to the point where you can project who will make it and who won't.)

The '07 Jays draft has produced 7 major leaguers out of 35 players (30 rounds), totaling 3.9 rWAR.  JP Arencibia and Brett Cecil were both sandwich rounders that year, and have accumulated 4.1 of the 3.9WAR of the round (that's not a typo).  Add 5th rounder, Marc Rzepczynski (who has since moved on to St. Louis) who gives another 1.9 WAR, and that goes to show you just how bad everybody else has been, whether or not they`ve made it to the bigs.

Brad Mills (-1.2 WAR), Brad Emaus (-0.6), and Darin Mastroianni (-0.1) have at least made it to the bigs, though all are with other organizations and have been terrible.  Mills was turned in to Jeff Mathis, who is currently backing up JP Arencibia to the tune of 0.4 WAR.  Emaus turned in to Chris Malone, a 28 year old pitcher who appears to have been either released, or became a free agent at the end of last season, and Mastro was selected off waivers by the Twins, getting in to 7 games so far this season.  Frank Gailey, a 23rd rounder, was traded for Ben Francisco this past offseason.

There are still some pieces left toiling in the Jays` minor league system, however.  1st Rounder, Kevin Ahrens, has never reached the bigs, and hasn't made it past high-A yet, at age 23, sandwich rounder Justin Jackson is still in AA and probably won`t make it to the bigs, Trystan Magnusson was recently DFAed, but saw a few games last year for the A`s and Jays.  6th rounder Mike McDade is beating up on AA pitching in his 2nd go-around in New Hampshire, and might see some time in the bigs somewhere along the line.  The only other names I even recognize are Alan Farina and John Tolisano, both of whom are in AA New Hampshire for the 2nd time, and putting up respectable numbers.

I`m excited to look back in a few years to get a good look at AA`s first few drafts, compared to JP Ricciardi, considering AA`s strategy of high school arms and loading up the scouting department vs. JPR`s strategy of taking prep guys, but it really does appear that JPR`s drafting strategy left a lot to be desired, looking at other drafts.  The 2012 draft is coming up in about 2 weeks, so maybe I`ll have a look at a year-by-year analysis going back to the `03 draft or so.

Lineups
Jays
Johnson 2B
Escobar SS
Bautista RF
Encarnacion DH
Arencibia C
Thames LF
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Gomes 1B

Romero P


Rays
Pena 1B
Upton CF
Joyce RF
Sutton 3B
Scott DH
Johnson SS
Rhymes 2B
Gimenez C
Thompson LF

Shields P

Tuesday 22 May 2012

drabek steals one

I would quite like my computer back. No point writing if i'm just posting from my ps3.

Drabek went and put up another quality start to silence the haters, which is totally a real thing that actually happened, so we can ignore the 6 walks and 52/48 strike/ball ratio.

Zaunhead to Yunel.

Carlos Pena is hitting  leadoff for tampon bay tonight. I see that i just wrote tampon bay and not tampa, but it's actually got a nice ring to it.

New groundrules please. ''At the umpires' discretion'' is an amendment I would suggest.

Edwin will DHtonight due to a back issue (but I can't link to Barry Davis from aPS3 because there is apparently no keyboard command).  Hutch and Matt Moore, lineups yourselves.

Monday 21 May 2012

Tampa

Went to the beach, got all burnt and shit.

Farrell should have pulled Alvarez after the 3rd or 4th inning with a rested bullpen.  Regression is going to hammer Alvarez.  Well, it already has, really, in his last two starts.

We were promised more roster moves today, but I haven't seen anything yet.

Jesse Litsch has apparently said that his arm infection or whatever could be career threatening.  Of course, he's not very good, which is also career threatening.

3-for-5 with a HR gets Jose another Zaunhead.

Get your own lineups.

Sunday 20 May 2012

Please Sir, Can I Have Some Moarrow?


Dominance.  Kind of boring that the Jays only scored two runs, especially after the Mets starter, Miguel Bautista, left the game after the 2nd inning, but two was all they needed anyway.  But yeah, 3 hits and 1 walk over a complete game shutout.

Yunel Escobar had two hits for the third straight game, by the way.  Since starting the season slowly, Escobar has his OBP back above .300, and he has a .328/.377/.406 line in the month of May.  Regression!  I doubt anybody is really surprised that Yunel has brought things back together, but he certainly didn't look good to start the season.  Related, can we end the "Rajai Davis hot-hand" thing?  Guy hits two homeruns and suddenly he's swinging out of his shoes... get Rasmus back in to CF please.

Henderson Alvarez goes today against Dillon Gee.  Apparently David Wright (batting .409 on the year) is still sick, and was actually worse yesterday than he was Friday, so we might get to avoid him today, or at least avoid a healthy one.  Having said that, Dillon Gee just isn't all that good, and the Mets' kind of need a long start out of him, since the bullpen has gotten some mileage in the first two games of the series.  Gee has been shelled in each of his last two starts.

Stuff
Apparently Adam Lind wasn't told that he was being placed on outright waivers.  That doesn't sound like an AA thing to do, and the Jays didn't officially announce that move either, so I suppose it's possible that it didn't happen?  Shi Davidi of Sportsnet has more here, but I suspect we'll hear more about this before too long.  I'm wondering if this was a ploy by AA to just try to sneak him through the waiver wire or something.  Either way, Lind knew he had been optioned to AAA, but that's all he was told.

Travis Snider left the game the other night with more wrist soreness, according to Wilner.

Jim Callis of Baseball America is going to be on the Fan590, talking Blue Jays at 11:20ET.  You'll proably want to tune in if you like prospects.

It's an afternoon game today, by the way.  Be ready.  This thing is also today, so get to the dome early:


Lineups
Jays
Johnson 2B
Escobar SS
Bautista DH
Edwin 1B
Arencibia C
Thames LF
Francisco RF
Rasmus CF
Gomes 3B

Alvarez P

Mets
taking too long.

Saturday 19 May 2012

Jays Wa(i)ve (goodbye to) Lind


The Jays have placed Adam Lind on outright waivers at some point today.  It's basically a DFA, but they're not cutting/releasing him if he clears, as far as I know.  Either way, he's exposed to the other 29 teams in the league, and if anybody claims him, they'll take on his contract.  From Cots:
A club that wishes to remove a player from its 40-man roster but keep him in its minor-league system must first place him on outright or special waivers. Outright waivers are not revocable, so a player claimed on outright waivers may not be pulled back by his original club. A club may not request outright waivers on a player with a complete no-trade clause or on a player ten-and-five rights.
It's a pipe dream that anybody takes him, but Brian Sabean still has a job, so who knows?  It's not that Lind isn't worth taking a flyer on or anything, it's just that he's owed a pro-rated $5MM for the rest of this season, another $5MM next season, and the buyouts on the three club options totaling another $3.5MM.

If he gets claimed, it's obviously no big deal, but the more likely option is that he gets through and heads down to AAA to see if he can learn to take a pitch.  His being removed from the 40-man suggests to me that they're going to send Yan Gomes back down once Lawrie's suspension is finished, and that someone else will come up.  Either that, or Vlad Guerrero is pretty well ready to come up and needs a roster spot.

I'm sure we'll see Lind again at some point this year (assuming he goes unclaimed), though obviously he won't have the same amount of slack that he had been given previously.  Presumably, he'll be re-added to the 40-man when Dustin McGowan goes to the 60-day DL or whatever.

Danny Knobler of CBS sports says that there are some other moves on the way, whether that means that Snider is coming up, or Thames is going down, or something just right out of left field (see what I did there?).

Just thinking out loud here, who could possibly have the need for a lefty first baseman with 20+ HR's in his bat? [aside: does the rest of the league even consider Lind to be a first baseman?  He really doesn't have any defensive value at 1B, or anywhere else, for that matter.]  I present to you my list of potential (hopeful) suckers.

  • Baltimore already has a series of 1B/3B-types in Mark Reynolds, Chris Davis and Wilson Betemit, but I doubt any of those guys really preclude a roster move.
  • Cleveland has Casey Kotchmann giving them some below-replacement production at 1B.  Jose Lopez has played 1B as well (and Carlos Santana's value plummets when he doesn't catch, especially since Lou Marson is awful).
  • Oakland seems too cheap for this kind of thing, but they don't have any great options at first at the moment.  Daric Barton is a great fielder, but he doesn't really offer anything offensively.  Kila Ka'aihue (or whatever) is swinging a decent bat lately, despite a really low walk-rate.
  • Seattle might be a bit worried about Justin Smoak, if he continues on this path.
  • The Marlins just sent Gaby Sanchez to the minors, though Logan Morrison is probably going to get 1B time in his absence, since LoMo is an embarrassment to outfielders the world over.
  • The Phillies are getting chewed up with injuries, and have a weird combination of Laynce Nix, Ty Wigginton, and John Mayberry Jr. getting most of the 1B time in Ryan Howard's absence.  Apparently Howard is coming back soon, though.  The scary thing is that Lind is probably an improvement over a few guys on that bench.
  • Milwaukee seems like a fit.  They lost Prince Fielder to free agency, and lost Mat Gamel to a season-ending injury.  Travis Ishikawa, Taylor Green and Brooks Conrad have contributed nothing offensively.
  • Casey McGehee and Garrett Jones haven't done much for Pittsburgh yet, but I doubt Pittsburgh is looking in to spending at this point in time.  They did pay $15MM and prospects for AJ Burnett though, I guess.
  • This seems like the kind of thing Brian Sabean would jump all over.  Aubrey Huff sucks, Brett Pill is just some guy, and Brandon Belt probably banged Bruce Bochy's daughter or something to get treated the way he has.
So there you have it.  9 teams could have some kind of need for a 1B.  I don't think anybody is going to claim Lind, but you might be able to find a trade partner within that list of teams, assuming the Jays pick up some of the ~$13MM owed to Lind between now and the end of next season (or take on another bad contract).

Nice Game Pretty Boy


I'm not explaining this.  Either you get it or you don't.

I had Jon Niese in my fantasy lineup yesterday.  Heaven help me.

I'm too hungover to really do much of anything in terms of writing.  The receipt that was in my pocket this morning suggests that I drank three pitchers of draft last night, so needless to say, I've got a headache.

Uhh, 14 runs, huh?  Two homers from Rajai Davis?!?!? Two more from JPA?  That works.  JP can have a Zaunhead for that.

It appears Evan Crawford has been suffering from back spasms, but he probably won't be DL'ed, though he might end up back in AAA before long if that continues.

Buck and Tabby have called Miguel Batista "Bautista" three times already.

Friday 18 May 2012

Let's take a relaxed opinion towards work and watch the baseball match


"The Nie Mets are my favorite squadron."

Hey, so that was kind of a sweep.  Of the evil bastard Yankees, no less.  And now the Mets are in town.  And they're supposed to suck.  Other than a few Seinfeld and Simpsons references, that's pretty well all I have for you, since I don't really pay a whole lot of attention to the National League, save for the Nats, Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew Mccutchen.

Jose Bautista gets a Zaunhead for his game last night, though again, multiple people could have qualified, namely, Yan Gomes for a 2-for-3 in his MLB debut, or JP Arencibia for being responsible for those two important runs to make it 4-1, instead of 2-1.  Drew Hutchison did a nice job as well, going 6 innings and holding a potent Yankees lineup in check.

Of course, that would have quite possibly been a 3-1 lead (or more) if Rajai Davis didn't suck at bunting, if Ben Francisco didn't suck at baserunning, and John Farrell didn't suck at not calling for bunts.

Ricky Romero pitches tonight for the Jays, and he'll go against the guy that I wanted AA to acquire this offseason, Jon Niese.  Niese, of course, signed an extension with the Mets, making it really unlikely that he gets traded within the next couple of seasons.  The Mets have been surprising so far this year, but I can't see it holding up, considering I can't honestly say that I've ever heard of half their lineup.

Stuff
Fangraphs shits on Adam Lind.

Vlad Guerrero might be closer to coming back than first thought.

Roy Oswalt threw for the Red Sox and Phillies, which is kind of Blue Jays new, I guess.  They could go get Oswalt if they really wanted to, and the Red Sox getting him would mean that the Jays would have to face him (maybe).  Whatever.

Tango looks at shifts (linking to Bill James Online).

David Wright will sit out tomorrow's game, according to Terry Collins, according to according to Adam Rubin of ESPN.

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

Romero P

Metros
Torres CF
Turner 1B
Wright 3B
Duda DH
Murphy 2B
Hairston LF
Nieuwenhuis RF
Johnson C
Cedeno SS

Niese P

Thursday 17 May 2012

Adam Lind AAA'ed, Stuff


Lotta news today.  Starting with Lind-- wasn't really ready for this.

Nor was I ready for Kyle Drabek having such a nice start last night, but heh. More on him in a second.  Just to think, a year or so ago, Adam Lind was more or less on fire, picking up the slack for Jose Bautista, while Kyle Drabek was shitting himself on his way to a demotion back to the minors.  Not that Drabek isn't another three or four garbage starts away from a trip to Vegas or anything, just uh... haha, Lind.

Lind has been pretty fucking terrible over the last year, after having a red hot first two months last year, and a good season in 2009.  I don't think we really need to rehash just how terribad he's been over the last 2+ seasons or so, since we've done it over and over (and so have a lot of others), so we won't delve in to that.  What we will say is something along the lines of "Hey guys, you can stop saying stuff like 'Let's trade Adam Lind' because he won't fetch dick."

I doubt he ends up getting released or anything (yet), because they're obviously going to give him another shot, especially considering the fact that he's got the rest of this season and all of 2013 left on his contract, which equals about $9MM ($5MM for both '12 and '13), plus three club options with $3.5MM worth of buyouts.  I'm not sure what they think they can get out of him once he returns, but he's probably a halfway decent bench option, albeit an expensive one, compared to whatever the other options are. They're probably going to give him more time on the bench than Juan Rivera or Mark Teahen before straight up releasing him, if that's really an option down the road.

As for last night, we'll give JPA the zaunhead for his effort, though we probably could have found any number of deserving parties (Edwin and Drabek, namely).  Giving one to Alex Anthopoulos for demoting Adam Lind is probably something that I'd typically do in this situation, but this shit is about 9 months overdue.

Drabek looked a bit better than he has in his last few starts.  He spread 3 hits over 7 innings, but he still walked 4, and threw just 60 of 113 pitches for strikes. He's still missing the zone way too much, especially to right-handed batters.

I'd just do the "Joe Maddon vs. Ricky Romero" thing against Drabek and load the lineup with RHB's if I were an opposing coach.  Having said all this, I'm encouraged, at least a little, by Drabek's start last night.  I know I shit on the guy a lot, but it's out of love.  His performance against lefties is definitely encouraging, and it would appear that he's attacking (finding?) the zone a little better, because he's at least close on a lot of his pitches, and he's getting enough swinging strikes to make it passable.


Stuff
Yan Gomes (and not Travis Snider) has been recalled to fill Lind's roster spot.  He'll play 3B tonight, because Brett Lawrie has dropped his appeal of his suspension.  Lawrie decided that there wasn't really a whole lot of point to the appeal, as long as Joe Torre knew that there was no physical harm intended.  Anyway, Gomes had a nice spring, and has been good in AAA (in hitter-heaven LV, mind you), and can play 1B, 3B, and C, which will give the Jays some flexibility in terms of not having Edwin or Omar Vizquel play 3B.  It would appear that Edwin is going to play 1B everyday, moving forward.  Could be worse, I guess.  I'd rather Bautista go to first, Snider come up, and Edwin stay at DH, but whatever; I'm sure they wanted Gomes for his defensive flexibility, and once Lawrie comes back, that could very well fill the spot if they're sending Gomes back down.  With Lawrie and Lind out tonight (and I'm not sure what the deal is with Eric Thames), this lineup looks kind of depressing tonight.  I guess it's just going to take some time getting used to the post-Adam Lind (hopefully) era.

I realize this post was all over the place, but I'm trying to get it up before the game starts, and I just got home a little while ago and came home to all this news, and immediately started speculating.  I won't have my own computer for the next week at least, since I had to take it in due to an impending motherboard destruction, so I couldn't really make a new post out of everything that happened, and won't be able to do so for a little while either.

Arod gets his turf day, with Jeter back in the lineup.


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

Hutchison P

Yankees
Jeter SS
Granderson CF
Cano 2B
Teixeira 1B
Ibanez LF
Swisher DH
Chavez 3B
Jones RF
Martin C

Hughes P

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Yankee time

The Jays are going to get Hiroki Kuroda and the Yankees tonight in the opener of their two-game set.  Kyle Drabek goes for the Jays... more on him in a second.

Kuroda spent his whole MLB career with the Dodgers until becoming a free agent after the 2011 season.  He came over to the States for the 2008 season at the age of 33, zipping over from Japan, and pitching pretty well for the Dodgers over 4 seasons.  Of course, that was in the NL West, and in a pitcher-friendly park/league.

Kuroda signed with the Yankees as a free agent this offseason, inking a 1-year, $10MM deal.  He's been okay this year, I guess, if you ignore his really bad debut, and his really bad third start.  The league switch has definitely been a bit tough on him, and I'm sure Yankee Stadium has a little something to do with that, but his peripherals aren't great.  He's outperformed his fip and xfip dramatically to this point, his k/9 is down by 2 full strikeouts, his walk rate is up by a full walk, and his fastball velocity is down by 1.5 MPH (though he's throwing more sliders and fewer 4-seamers, so that could make sense).

The Jays outrighted Trystan Magnusson to Dunedin (High-A), which removes him from the 40-man roster.  It seems like everybody is calling this a reaction to Brett Lawrie getting suspended and the Jays needing a replacement, but that simply isn't accurate, from what I can tell.  Not only has Lawrie not been suspended (yet, anyway), but he'll be allowed to appeal that suspension and continue playing until his hearing, which needs to be done in person at the MLB offices in New York.  The Jays don't go to New York until after the all-star break, which apparently means that if he is indeed suspended, assuming he appeals, his suspension won't be served until some time in July.  I don't know how legit that is, for the record, and don't really have anyway to confirm or disconfirm such news, but I'd say Wilner knows more than I do about this kind of thing.
This seems pretty outrageous to me, and maybe if they just say "Hey, 1 game and a cash fine" he'll just accept it or something.  And it's not like they're half a country away from New York-- they're in Toronto, so I can't really see why the don't just send him on an offday or on the way to/from Boston or Baltimore or whatever.  Basically, "I don't know", is what I'm trying to say.  Lawrie is in the lineup tonight though, so take that however you'd like.  I've heard that the league announces suspensions, but not fines, for the record.

Anyway, what I think the Magnusson thing really means is that someone is going to get added to the 40-man and called up to the bigs in the next day or two.  Perhaps a starter?  To take over for Kyle Drabek?  Who can't throw strikes?  And needs to go back down to AAA to figure out his mechanical inconsistencies or learn that he has a mid-90's fastball and knee-bending curve that can just get batters out so you don't have to fucking nibble?  Deck Mcguire, perhaps?  Or maybe they found a trade partner to score a 1B/DH and get Adam Lind the fuck outta here.

I'm basing this on entirely nothing, but if that whole thing about the suspension not taking place right away is real, then there's no need for a knee-jerk DFA, and I doubt that this is anything more than a coincidence that Lawriegate happened on the same day as this roster move.

Stuff
Check in with Pete Rose, who lives in Las Vegas, of all places.  Semi-related, ESPN is doing a bunch of "30 for 30" shorts, and this is one of the first ones.  Here's hoping they do a bunch more.

Joe Torre doesn't think Lawrie did it on purpose, which is probably good news.

Turf.  No Jeter tonight.  Sorry ladies.  The Jays counter with an offday for Yunel Escobar, a DH day for Adam Lind, and a 2-hole for Eric Thames and his .308 OBP.  Your move, Yankees.

Lineups
Jays
Johnson 2B
Thames LF
Bautista RF
Encarnacion 1B
Lawrie 3B
Rasmus CF
Arencibia C
Lind DH
Vizquel SS

Drabek P


Yankees
Granderson CF
Swisher RF
Cano 2B
Rodriguez 3B
Teixeira 1B
Ibanez LF
Chavez DH
Martin C
Nix SS (Haha, what?)

Kuroda P

Jose Molina Strikes Again!

[Note: Jose Molina had nothing to do with this, maybe except for the fact that he may have been in the vicinity at the time of the incident in question]




So yeah.  If you somehow missed it, Lawrie took a 3-1 fastball (#5) outside and began walking to 1st, only for umpire Bill Miller to call a late strike.  Lawrie reacted the way most people would at a questionable and late call, and slowly walked back to the box.  Lawrie then took a high change-up (#6) for ball 5 strike 2 strike 3 and ended up losing his shit at Miller for spite-ringing him up.


That Jose Molina sure can frame a pitch in the 9th inning!  And really, that's probably all we'd hear if Lawrie didn't go all Jon Rauch.

Anyway, this would have just pretty well blown over had the helmet not hit Bill Miller, but uhhh.... not so much.  It didn't look to me as if he was intentionally throwing the helmet at him, because why the fuck would you bounce it instead of just straight up biffing it at your target, but whatever.  There are a few angles of the incident out there and, to me, he was just throwing it to the ground without really giving a shit of where it was headed afterwards.

Buster Olney of ESPN (retardedly, imo) uses the Delmon Young incident of 2006, where Young struck out in a similar fashion to Lawrie, and then threw his bat at the umpire from the on-deck circle area.  These are two entirely different situations, based on the intent, but Olney thinks that Lawrie will probably get 8-10 games (Young got 50).

Umpires get evaluated all the time by the MLB for the purpose of having their best umpires calling the playoffs, and I'd be surprised if this piece of shit even gets considered.  At least he got what he deserved.  That beer cost like $14, and they stop serving in the 7th inning, so getting hit with that beer is like the perfect storm of shit.  Too bad it missed his face. (Zaunhead to that fan, by the way).  Oh yeah, but don't throw shit on the field.



Edwin gets a Zaunhead too for his homerun off Price.