First Career Win

That kind of performance shows you just how much meaning the win has for a pitcher.  Drew Hutchison, in his major league debut, went 5.1 innings, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks, but because Luis Mendoza was slightly more terrible, Hutch gets a W beside his name.

I'm pretty amazed that Hutchison was even given the chance to come back out for the 6th inning, since he was clearly kind of gassed, and was having a fair amount of trouble finding the zone.  I haven't looked at his heat maps or pitchf/x charts or anything yet, but if I had to guess, I'd say he threw too many balls, which led to a lot of working behind in the count, which led to fastballs down the middle of the plate, which led to Alex Gordon taters.  I'm sure there was a babip issue there, seeing as Alcides Escobar had four hits, but meh.  In hindsight, it was cool to get 4 innings out of Villanueva and Oliver, especially if Santos is down for two weeks.  I thought it was weird to see Oliver go 1.2IP, but it turns out he only threw 16 pitches, so whatever.

I'm not sure if anybody else noticed, but Colby Rasmus spitting hot fire lately, and earned his 4th (!) Zaunhead of the year with last night's performance.  The bottom 3 of the order (Lawrie, Rasmus, JPA) went 7-for-12, accounting for half of the hits, meanwhile Jose Bautista was 0-for-5.

I was wondering why Sergio Santos wasn't brought in to finish the game once two guys got on base in the bottom of the 9th, but that's been put to bed; Santos was placed on the 15-day DL with shoulder inflammation.  That isn't good news.  Apparently Francisco Cordero will be the closer in his absence, and Evan Crawford has been recalled from AA New Hampshire.

Sergio Santos was placed on the 15-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation, Evan Crawford recalled atmlb.com/I2BkAV via @bluejays
— Blue Jays-Official(@BlueJays) April 22, 2012

Ricky Romero goes against Danny Duffy today in an afternoon game.  I don't know a whole lot about Duffy, but apparently he got tagged last June against the Jays?  I certainly don't remember that, but I'm seeing 5 runs and 8 hits over 4 innings.  Either way, he's looked good so far this year with a couple of strong outings against Oakland and Detroit.  He's a lefty, so expect Rajai Davis to play.  Romero has been bad, good and bad over his first three starts respectively, so this one should be good unless I'm bad at patterns.

Stuff
JP Arencibia and Brett Lawrie do a joke interview.

You can watch all 27 outs from Phil Humber's perfect game in about 6 minutes.  What the fuck are you swinging at Brendan Ryan?

Yesterday's Red Sox-Yankees game is a thing of beauty.


Source: FanGraphs

And speaking of the Red Sox, they acquired Marlon Byrd, and his -59 wRC+ to replace Jacoby Ellsbury, in exchange for Michael Bowden and a PTBNL (seriously?  Another PTBNL fiasco with these two teams?).  The Cubs will be paying most of Byrd's salary.

Lineups will be up when they're up, I guess.


Lineups
Jays
Escobar SS
Vizquel 2B (note: What?)
Bautista RF
Edwin 1B
Rasmus CF
Lawrie 3B
Francisco DH
Davis LF
Arencibia C

Romero P

Royals
Bourgeois CF
Gordon LF
Butler DH
Hosmer 1B
Betancourt 2B
Francoeur RF
Moustakas 3B
Quintero C
Escobar SS

Duffy P

Hutch

Fast.  I had heard that Adam Lind was out, and that Eric Thames would be batting 5th for some reason (presumably to stagger lefties and righties... I don't think this matters nearly as much as you think it does Johnboy).  Someone lied though.  Kansas is countering with Yuniesky Betancourt in the leadoff spot, since they would prefer to ease Hutch in to his big league career with an out.

Phillip Humber threw a perfect game against the Mariners today.  Typically, I'd say something like "It doesn't count because it's Seattle" but now that I think about it, the only perfect game that would count in the last few years would be Dallas Braden's against the Rays.  Still, pretty sick.

Give JP the ZH for yesterday.

Cecil to the 7-day DL with a groin strain.

Good luck kid.

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

Hutch P

Royals
Betancourt 2B
Gordon LF
Butler DH
Hosmer 1B
Francoeur RF
Pena C
Moustakas 3B
Escobar SS
Maier CF

Mendoza P

Tampa Bay Ray Stay Away

Too much fucking Tampa.  Their style is both entertaining and effective, but just don't do it against the Jays man.  At least it's just the Royals this weekend.  Anyway, I'm sleepy from working today and I'm probably going to go drink a bunch now, so this will likely be brief.

If I'm not mistaken, Edwin got on base three times yesterday (ZH), and nobody else really went out of their way to look good after the third inning or so, save for JP Arencibia, who, as it happens, couldn't catch a throw from RF.  Henderson Alvarez looked pretty mediocre, and didn't really get much help from John Farrell, who, again, didn't yank his homer-prone starter until it was a little late.

I think the big news du jour is the revelation that tomorrow's starter will be Drew Hutchison, the 21-year old 2009 5th rounder.  I talked a bit about Hutchison yesterday, though I didn't think it would mean anything since I figure he shouldn't be called up yet, given his 230-ish professional innings, including 30 or so above A-ball.  But, if they think he's ready, who am I to say anything different, right?  All I can do is snark on the internet when it all goes awry, since I wasn't sitting there telling everybody that he should come up.  It's not like there's any option that's a whole lot better; in a perfect world, you're bringing up someone who gives the team a chance to win without mortgaging the future development and service time, but all the options were either crappy, or young and slightly raw.  If they really wanted Joel Carreno to pitch, they'd have probably altered his throwing calendar in some way.

The Jays optioned Evan Crawford to AA New Hampshire to make room for Hutchison (or they will, if they haven't yet), and transfered Jesse Litsch to the 60-day DL to make room on the 40-man.

It looks like Brett Cecil left his start last night after the first inning with an apparently groin strain, according to Barry Davis of sportsnet.  Not sure how serious it is.

By the way, just as a little reminder and a sort of "relax, it's still early" kind of thing, tonight's pitcher, Kyle Drabek, looked pretty good after two starts last season, before shittiness set in and he went crazy before getting sent down.  This isn't to say that Drabek hasn't figured out the control/command issues, but two starts just isn't very much in the parlance of a season.

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

Drabek P

Royals
You don't post your lineup, I don't put it up.  Fuck you.

Getaway Day Preview

Hendy tonight.  Hope he keeps it going in the right direction.  He'll take on Jeremy Hellickson, against whom, Jose Bautista is a career 4-for-5 with a tater.  How's that for a sample?

Some stuff for you before we get to the lineups.  First, it would appear that Saturday, when the Jays need a fifth starter to come up, they plan on using either Jesse Chavez or Drew Hutchison, according to Gregor's twitter.  Other candidates included Aaron Laffey, Brett Cecil, and Joel Carreno.  Chavez was DFA'ed by the Royals in October of last year, and claimed by the Jays.  They then DFA'ed him, but got him through waivers to outright him down to AAA, so he'll need to be added to the 40-man if he pitches.  Hutchison was drafted in 2009 in the 15th round (late due to signability issues), and is 21 years old.  He's made 6 starts in AA New Hampshire between this year and last, and has an ERA under 2 over 31 innings, where he has a WHIP under 1 and a 33:5 K-to-bb ratio.  I expect Chavez.

Looks like we might be getting a Rays fan to come to the dark (i.e.: blue) side.

I don't really have anywhere to confirm or disconfirm this, but I'm hearing some rumblings about the roof at the dome being open.  Apparently it was open all day today, which happens every now and then.  Obviously, the issue is whether or not it is warm enough now and will remain warm enough in to the evening/night in Toronto.

Lineups
Jays

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

Alvarez P

Rays

Jennings CF
Zobrist RF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Scott DH
Joyce LF
Keppinger 2B
Molina C
Rodriguez SS

Hellickson P

That Thing I Said...

... about the offense coming alive?  Yeah, heh.  It looked like this one was going to be a big old marathon full of homers and constant runs, but then Toronto was like "nah, we're not in the mood, you guys go ahead", which sounds a lot like my idea of what sex is.

I mean, to further my rapey sex analogy, it wasn't really as bad as it sounded, because for 8 innings, the game was reasonably within reach, and probably could have been closer had Morrow been yanked earlier the way he should have.  The Jays had 2 men on in the 8th inning and certainly could have made a game of it, but Tampa got out of that inning and then scored like 6 runs in the 9th just to kind of finally say "listen, I'm tired and going to bed, but I'm getting laid first.  You can either enjoy it, or we're just going to rape you" and Farrell, not in the mood for a rape, said "Why don't you have Carlos Villanueva?"  Villanueva, having not pitched since like the 2nd game of the season, was all dry and cobwebbed down there, and needed some foreplay, which explains the walks, and then immediately took one to the asshole when he wasn't watching.

So yeah, that small sample narrative about the Rays having scored like 26 runs in their last 7 games can be put to rest, and so can the one about the Jays having some outrageous run differential through their first ten.

Having said that, the Jays put up 12 hits last night (plus two walks), so I'd hesitate to say that offense is the problem, even if they did only score two runs.  Sometimes that kind of thing just happens and double plays get in the way, and sometimes you just get a guy or two on base every inning, only to get Joe Morgan mad by not hitting well with runners in scoring position.  If we can let cooler heads prevail on that piece of silliness, I think we can all agree that if you get 12 hits and 2 walks, especially against a pitcher like David Price, the runs are going to come at a higher rate than 2 per game.

Don't look now, but Yunel Escobar had 4 hits last night (ZH), and Colby Rasmus hit the ball hard twice.  Escobar, after starting like 2-for-23 or something, has the batting average up to .263.  Rasmus, meanwhile, is up to .231, which is higher than Kelly Johnson, by the way.  Bautista got on base three times, and Luis Perez threw two perfect innings, striking out four.  It's not all bad, kids.  And I may as well remind you now that even the best team in the league this year will lose 60-ish games, so one loss, in the grand scheme of things, blowout or not, doesn't really amount to a whole lot.

Stuff
Alex Anthopoulos spoke with Jim Bowden of the MLB Network (MLBTR thread here), and said that he'd like to add another impact bat, more so than adding an impact arm to his rotation.  Interesting.  Obviously, these things can change with performances and injuries, but reading between the lines, and I'm not entirely sure where he's looking to add, the obvious points of focus can be 1B/DH and left field.  I would be shocked if Edwin were going anywhere, but I can certainly see AA getting tired of Adam Lind, if he doesn't regain his 2009 form quickly.  If Lind is the guy getting dumped in this hypothetical scenario, there are alternatives to bringing in a strict 1B.  Edwin could be moved to 1B to make room for another DH-type, or Bautista could go to 1B to make room for another outfielder, assuming that's the eventual plan with him (which, if it isn't, it should be, based on absolutely everything but his arm).  Of course, if they don't think Snider is ready to come up, and Thames keeps being his mediocre self, they could throw another LF in to the mix.  I'm not sure who would be available at the moment, but after a month or so, we should be able to at least get an idea about which teams are going to quit on us and make some guys available.

Doug Walton is a Jays Producer for sportsnet, perhaps?  I say that just judging from his twitter handle, but he drops a little blast of interesting on us:

Travis Snider leads PCL in OPS...has more walks than strikeouts #Jays
— Doug Walton (@JaysProducer) April 19, 2012

Now, this OPS business doesn't tell us a whole helluva lot, seeing as Snider has seen AAA in parts of four separate seasons, piling up 605 PA's according to his baseball-reference page, and they play in the Arlington of the AAA leagues in Las Vegas, but it's certainly a little encouraging.  That walks>K's thing is always nice to hear as well, but again, probably isn't a whole lot more than white noise.  It's something though, I suppose.

If you missed it, Matt Cain and Cliff Lee had some duelling shutouts last night. Lee actually threw 10 innings and 102 pitches, only to come out of the game and immediately see his team lose.  Cain answered with 9 innings of 2 hit ball (that makes 3 hits and 1 walk over his last 18 IP/two starts).  This 11 inning game lasted an hour less than the 9 inning Jays game.

Here's your official 2012 draft order.  We kind of knew what to expect, thanks to the internet, but we can rehash.  The Jays will pick 17th overall, thanks to their record last season, and will then pick 22nd overall due to their inability to sign Tyler Beede last year.  They'll get three more picks in the compensation round; 50th overall for losing Frank Francisco, 58th overall for losing Jon Rauch (getting compensation for "losing" Jon Rauch doesn't sound right), and 60th for losing Jose Molina.

Apparently hitting a baseball is "Clearly impossible", according to a professor at Yale.

Finally, here's a gif of Bautista's padded high-five with Lawrie the other night.

Offense Comes Alive

Is this an original idea?  Google didn't really tell me much when I typed that in, but I can't possibly believe that I'm the first person to come up with such an idea.  Either way, four partially-related thoughts:

Anyway, yeah that was nice.  You can always rely on a good batch of offense when Jeff Niemann comes to town.  That Bautista homer was a fucking blast, and he just looked like he had a nice little game for himself anyway, no matter what the stat sheets say.  The timing and approach looked a little better, plus he had a cute little play to throw out Carlos Pena at 2B in the first inning.  As referenced yesterday, Adam Lind continues to demolish Jeff Niemann.  Lind actually had three hits and a walk last night, and is probably going to need to get himself a Zaunhead.

I'd like to point out that, despite going a combined 1-for-7 (plus a walk), both JP Arencibia and Colby Rasmus got some good swings in and hit the ball pretty hard.  JPA even complained on twitter about hitting the ball hard three times and having nothing to show for it, and I'm pretty sure I pointed out the other day that Rasmus has an xbabip (expected babip, based on line drive%, groundball% and flyball%) of like .400, but a babip of like .200.  So yeah, it's early, and we should be able to look past the batting averages of .200 and .063, since the balls are going to start falling in if they keep hitting them hard.  That, plus defense.  I might make a whole post out of this soon, but I'm not going to shit my pants about it after 9 games or whatever when even a full season isn't a big enough sample for stuff like babip.

Ricky didn't appear incredibly sharp last night, but this post at DRaysBay will explain that, at least partially.  I'm not sure if this works perfectly, since Romero is one of those reverse-splits pitchers, but the point is still the same: Romero's changeup is neutralized against lefties, though he's counteracted that with increased curveball use so far this season (at least he did against the Red Sox).  It's a good read, and is just another example of how far ahead of the game the Rays are.

Umm, Mr. Farrell, can we speak candidly, for a moment?  Top of the 8th inning:

Pitcher Change: Francisco Cordero replaces Jason Frasor.
1.Carlos Pena singles on a bunt ground ball to shortstop Yunel Escobar.
With Evan Longoria batting, wild pitch by Francisco Cordero, Carlos Pena to 2nd.
2.Evan Longoria flies out to right fielder Jose Bautista.
3.Luke Scott walks.
4.Ben Zobrist strikes out swinging.
5.Matt Joyce called out on strikes.

What the fuck is this shit? Oh right, Cordero is the "8th inning guy".  Seriously, get your lefties in to the ball game against the good lefty batters.  Perez vs. Pena, Cordero/Janssen vs. Longoria, Oliver vs. Scott, Zobrist and Joyce.  This is fucking easy and makes me furious when major league managers, getting paid multiple million a year, get this so terribly wrong.  The worst thing is, if it were the 7th inning, this almost certainly would have been handled correctly.

Rays come to town

Quickly now, I'm going to go try and sneak in a few holes at the local pitch n' putt.  Ricky tonight.  And Tampa isn't very good against lefties!  And Ricky crushed the Rays last year!  That means they win tonight.  And yes, I'm aware of what the Baltimore Orioles did last year, but that didn't count, so fuck you.

Anyway, that stuff about Ricky Romero and last year, and I'm plagiarizing this from the Yahoo! preview of the game... Romero went 3-0 against the Rays in 6 starts last season with a 2.02 ERA, holding Rodriguez, Zobrist, Longoria, Jennings and Joyce to a .088 average.  Carlos Pena and Luke Scott are 2 for 22 career against Romero as well.

Jeff Niemann, on the other hand, sucks.  Adam Lind is like 12-for-22 or something like that vs. Niemann over his career.

Day off for former Jay Jose Molina.

Stuff (AKA things I read at work today)
Notgraphs strikes again.  Are you a Jays' fan?  Of course you are.  Unless you're reading this as a personal favor to me.  Which you shouldn't.

MLB Daily Dish talks about how it's time to either play Travis Snider or to trade him.  No kidding.  He's only 24 though.

Dave at fangraphs knows why I hate watching Red Sox games.

Not that anyone cares, but an update for my fantasy teams.  I'm leading 1, 2nd in 3, 3rd in 1, and dead last in 1.  That last one has Tim Lincecum.  Ugh.

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

Romero P

Rays
Jennings CF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Scott DH
Zobrist RF
Joyce LF
Rodriguez 2B
Brignac SS
Gimenez C

Niemann P