Go Time: Pay Attention

So.  About that question I asked earlier... Turns out Edgar Gonzalez has not only been DFA'ed already, but he's already cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Buffalo.  What do I know?

That leaves plenty of room for Casper Wells to join the club tonight in Kansas City.  Good.  Now if only we can get a decent performance from a starter so we don't need to see some shitty mopup dick like Gonzalez.

Stuff
RA Dickey is going to be on 60 Minutes, and someone posted a trailer to my facebook.  But Dickey sucks now! so I'm not going to link to it because he sucks!  Nah, here.

This is the best photoshop I've ever seen, mostly because of how topical it is to my musical interests, Blue Jays interests, and internet interests.

Other than that, I'm watching the Masters.

Lineups
Jays
Reyes SS
Cabrera LF
Bautista RF
Encarnacion 1B
Arencibia C
Lind DH
DeRosa 3B
Rasmus CF
Bonifacio 2B

Happ P

Royals
Gordon LF
Escobar SS
Butler DH
Perez C
Moustakas 3B
Francoeur RF
Cain CF
Tejada 1B
Johnson 2B

Mendoooooooozzaaaaaaaaaaa P

Important Question of the Day

Why the fuck hasn't Edgar Gonzalez been DFA'ed yet?

Go Time: Fister? Destroy Her

Had planned on watching today's game from the comfort of my god damn couch, and had an idea for a nice big post about the awesomeness of Jose Reyes, but I ended up getting called in to work, so that appears to be out the window.

It's supposed to rain all day in Detroit, which really begs the question as to why they don't have (at least the option of) an indoor/covered stadium there, given the geography.  If it's too cold to play outside in Toronto, it's too cold to play outside in Detroit, if you ask me.

Speaking of cold, did you see how great a job Detroit did at holding that 5-run lead yesterday?  Yeah.

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The Jays have claimed Casper Wells off waivers from the Mariners, and have DFA'ed Alex Burnett to make room/  Burnett was just claimed the other day from the Angels, if I'm not mistaken, but the sheer amount of waiver claims that the Jays have made in the last 6 months are really making me dizzy.  Either way, Wells' addition probably means that we're about to see the end of the 8-man bullpen horseshit.

For Wells' part, he was DFA'ed from Seattle to make room for Jason Fucking Bay, of all people, despite actually having some use.  He can play all three outfield positions, and has hit lefty pitching to a .264/.349/.489 line over his short career.  The Jays will face lefties Chris Sale and Jose Quintana this weekend against the White Sox, games that both Adam Lind and Colby Rasmus can now safely be penciled to the bench for.  Rajai Davis was previously the only other outfielder on the bench, though Brett Lawrie's return will help that as well, with Izturis or Bonifacio coming off the bench to provide some utility.

Speaking of Lawrie, look for him to be back in about 10-14 days, according to John Lott.  Lawrie was taking BP recently, and has been fielding grounders as well.

Go Time: Back to Work

Jose Bautista returns to the lineup today, albeit at DH.  Good.  It's a Jose Bout-time.  Let's get a quick preview in before first pitch.

Three day games in Detroit this week, which is kind of weird.  It's presumably because Detroit is too far north to be playing night games outside, but that might just be me.

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National Post has a thing about Brett Cecil getting his velocity back, thanks to the use of a weighted ball program.  Pretty sure Steve Delabar is doing the same kind of thing, which caused a revival of sorts in his career.  If you've never seen me link to any of his stuff, Kyle Boddy of Driveline Baseball does all kinds of stuff like this, including working with a bunch of high school kids helping them gain velocity and stuff.

Speaking of Kyle, he writes for the Hardball Times on occasion, as I'm sure you've seen linked before.  Well, if anyone noticed anything whacky with Ubaldo Jimenez last week against the Jays, Kyle has a look at some mechanical changes.

JP Arencibia compared coaching styles of John's Gibbons and Farrell, in a talk with Sid Seixeiro, which Stoeten tackles over at DJF.

Lineups
Jays
Reyes SS
Cabrera LF
Bautista DH
Edwin DH
JPA C
Rasmus CF
Davis RF
Izturis 3B
Bonifacio 2B

Morrow P

Tigers
Jackson CF
Hunter RF
Cabrera 3B
Fielder 1B
Dirks DH
Avila C
Peralta SS
Kelly LF
Infante 2B

Sanchez P

Jays Claim Gomez, DFA Bush

The Jays have ended the Dave Bush experiment, as awesome as it was, and have claimed infielder Mauro Gomez off waivers from the Red Sox.  Bush has been DFA'ed, as result, so now the Jays will have 10 days to trade, release or outright him to the minors, assuming nobody claims him off waivers over the next two days.  Which... uhh, yeah.  He gave up four homeruns yesterday.  Bison.

Gomez is 28, and is from the Dominican Republic, which probably explains a whole helluva lot.  He got 50 plate appearances last year with the Red Sox, and hit to a .275/.324/.422 line over that little sample.

Ultimately, this is probably a better use of a roster spot than Bush, and probably Jeffress too, given the command issues.  We can always call him "Gomey" if all else fails, but anytime he shows up and does something good, he can always say something like "MAUR!" with pictures of fat kids and cake and stuff.

Go Time: Dickey Day

Google is telling me that this is an original idea, sponsored by Scotiabank.  And rightfully so, since this is a National holiday or sorts.

Alright, good talk.

Go Time: The Aftermath of the Worst Ever

I don't know how I could do it, but I would really like to look up the worst individual games ever played for this franchise, because what Emilio Bonifacio did last night was probably the worst thing to ever happen to a single Blue Jay ever.

WPA certainly wouldn't work, because practically any blown save of 2 or more runs would have to outdo Boni's performance, simply thanks to the leverage index.  Boni's first two strikeouts and his first error, for example, probably didn't have a massive impact on the outcome of the game last night.  Seems to me as though the other two errors and the other two errors were pretty egregious, at least in comparison.  I'm currently at work, and definitely don't have the time to look such a thing up, nor can I imagine it being all that fun after about 40 seconds, but it might be a project for when I get home.  Still, I can't imagine anyone having a worse game, other than possible doing the exact same thing he did defensively, and grounding in to a bunch of double plays instead of just striking out with guys on base.

Kind of ironic too, that we were all praising Boni for the weakest hit double in franchise history, less than 24 hours earlier.  Again, I'm at work, so I won't do it, but it would be a nice exercise to find all the nice things that were said about him after that hustle double, and to contrast them with all the terrible, vitriolic statements made last night, after three errors and 4 strikeouts, batting in the 2-hole, behind Jose Reyes, who got on base 4 times.

Elsewhere, I thought Josh Johnson was okay, but I'd really like to see a starter get kind of deep in to a game.  Janssen, Oliver and Delabar should all be ready to go after being unavailable for yesterday's game, and Sergio Santos and Aaron Loup didn't pitch last night either.  Cecil, Jeffress and Rogers can come or go as they please, I guess, but I don't think there's a huge worry about any of them.  Rogers looked fucking horrible last night and should probably be DFA'ed to get a position player up here to fill the bench, especially with Jose Bautista still questionable for today's tilt.

By the way, Jose Bautista is questionable for today's tilt, according to Shi Davidi, who says Bautista will either not play, or will DH.

I don't see lineups yet, so fuck it.  Good luck JA.