The Forgotten Man

When pitchers and catchers report to camp in 4 days I'm thinking that LHP Brad Mills will probably need to be wearing a name tag. It would seem that Millsy has been passed on the starting pitcher depth chart. New field manager John Farrell didn't even mention him as a candidate for the open two spots in the rotation. Ouch.

Let's look at what we know:

- Brad Mills has 1 option year left. Meaning he can be sent down to Vegas for this year but looking forward, he needs to be on the MLB roster in 2012.

- He relies a lot on his 86 MPH fastball. Like 58% of the time.

- His change up is clearly his best pitch. Batters swing at it about half the time and they miss it about 17% of the time.

- J.P. Ricciardi drafted him twice. In the 22nd round of the 2006 draft and then in the 4th round of the 2007 draft. The player must give consent in order for this to happen.

- J.P. already pooched one of his former draft picks - Brad Emaus - in the Rule 5 draft.

Conclusion:

If Brad Mills is to be traded, based on his pitch repertoire and velo, he probably would be better suited in the NL. He does have some MLB experience and is a young, controllable left handed starting pitcher. I have to think that the receiving team would prefer to get him when he still has that option year left.

If I was in charge I would call The Mets division rivals and let it be known we are thinking of moving Mills. Then sit back and wait for the news to filter it's way to J.P.

I'm not sure how much value Brad Mills actually has - right now - but I'll venture a guess and say that it will never be higher.

Game 109 Recap: Live And In Effect

So LastRow500's decided to quit slummin' it last night, and head on down to the 'Dome to take in the Jays and Rays.  Matt Garza (11-6) fresh of spinning a no-hitter was on the bump against the Jays' Brett Cecil (9-5).  I had hoped to catch the MLB debut of J.P. Arencibia but The Cito held him out of the line up.

My 2nd row Jays' dugout seats provided a fantastic view point of the unfolding events of the night.

Here are my observations.

First, the good:  Brett Cecil plain dealing!  Recovering from a 3 hit 1 ER first to shut down the Rays offence, over 7 IP allowing only the 1 ER over 4 hits, and 9 K's. Stranding 5 Tampa Runners including grinding out a tough 5th inning that featured a leadoff walk to Upton, and a single to Sean Rodriguez.  A double play courtesy of Evan Longoria eased the stress a bit, until Willy Aybar walked to put runners at 1st and 3rd.  With Ben Zobrist at the plate, Cecil reached back for a 94mph fastball that Zobrist is still looking for to K and end the threat.  An uneventful 8th and 9th courtesy of Camp and Gregg sealed the deal.

The Bad: Really tough for me to find anything bad in a Jays' win, but if I had to choose, Garza stymied the Jays' bats all night showing his no-hitter form early and often.

The Ugly: The Rays' defense. 2 errors lead to 2 un-earned runs.  Despite a 8IP complete game, with no ER's, Garza proved to be the hard luck loser.
The continued struggles of Aaron Hill. From my vantage point, he looked plain over matched.  Credit Garza, but Hill looked behind on a couple of mis-hit, lazy fly balls to RF.

Today's matchup features Brad Mills fresh on a recall from AAA Las Vegas (1-0) against James Shields (10-9).  The much anticipated debut of J.P. Arencibia is slated for todays game.

Weekly Round Up : Apr. 12 - 18

Please consider this your required reading for the week.  Inflatable Raft met his agent for the first time at a Hooter's in Cancun.  Sweet.

Courtesy of MLBTR:

Toronto's supporters can still hope, though. If Wells hits well this year and has healthy enough legs underneath him to impress scouts and turn around his defensive numbers, teams may be willing to trade for Wells and pick up some of the money he's owed. Jerry Hairston Jr., Mark Kotsay and Rick Ankiel lead the next crop of free agent center fielders, so teams aren't about to find elite solutions on the open market. The Blue Jays will not be able to trade Wells without paying the vast majority of his contract, but they can dream about a deal that allows them to shed $10-20MM.

Trade Vernon?  Is anyone still interested in this idea after his hot start?

Courtesy of MILB.com:

Starting ... relieving, it doesn't seem to matter what the role is to Luis Perez of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The 25-year-old left-hander was used for three hitless innings of relief on Opening Day, and he made his first start of the season Tuesday against the host Reading Phillies. The results were the same -- Perez was unhittable both times.

Luis Perez is on the 40 man roster.  He wouldn't be there if he sucked.

Courtesy of You Don't Know Dick @ The Star:

There are mixed reviews on Hechavarria as a defender, but the fact is he is now on the clock, having been signed and optioned to the minors. The Jays paid him an up-front signing bonus of $4 million, with $500,000 for 2010 and the rest staggered over the next three years (2011-13). The $4.5 million will count as major-league payroll pushing the Jays' 2010 total up over $66 million. Using his first of three options this year means that he is being fast-tracked to the majors. He needs to be on the 25-man roster by Opening Day of 2013 or he will have to be placed on waivers and likely claimed. But by all reports that is not going to happen. The more likely scenario is that he is the Jays starting shortstop early in the 2011 season with John McDonald as his tutor. 

Dick fucked up the story (again) and needed to be corrected by someone that hasn't lost their mind.  Click here for his correction tweet.

Courtesy of Joe Cowley @ Chicago Sun-Times

Forget the obvious in failing attendance and a shrinking Blue Jays payroll. You can flip on the hotel television and skim through the stations to get the pulse of what's going on. It's NHL, junior hockey, college hockey, high school hockey, Justin Bieber, Canadian Olympians, and more hockey.
Somewhere between celebrity Texas hold 'em tournaments and MuchMusic videos, you might, just might, get a Jays highlight.
After Tuesday's game, a fan asked a local talk show host if building a new stadium would help. Even the host -- Canadian, I'm guessing -- admitted that no one would care after a year.

This guy got destroyed on twitter by the Toronto faithful.  I hit him up with this.

Courtesy of Jeremy Sandler @ National Post:

The article also relied on quotes from Alex Rios, a former Blue Jay who was booed lustily during this week's series, and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and pitcher Freddy Garcia, both Venezuelans.
It did not offer a chance for anyone currently with the Blue Jays to respond, though a response of sorts did come immediately with several unflattering revisions to the writer's Wikipedia entry. Cowley was also taken to task by Blue Jays fans on Twitter, who created the hashtag #WhyJoeCowleyHatesToronto to track their collective efforts.

By the time this story was published, most of us had had enough.      

Courtesy of FanGraphs:

Fred Lewis is pretty clearly a Major League quality player. In 1,048 plate appearances in the major leagues since 2006, Lewis has recorded a .277/.355/.420 line, showcasing good plate discipline and slightly below average power. His 109 wRC+ suggests an above average player. 2009 was a down year for Lewis, however, as his ISO dropped from .158 to .132. As a result, his wOBA and wRC dropped to .327 and 98 respectively, the first year in which he has been below average in either statistic. The projection systems see him as slightly above average this year, and ZiPS in particular expects a return to 2008 levels.

Courtesy of Beyond The Boxscore:

Toronto almost definitely isn't going to continue to play as well as they have so far this season, but they continue to show that they're in a better position than many made them out to be a few months ago. For practically nothing, the Blue Jays managed to get their hands on a useful player with some team control left. Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos has made a pretty good impression so far in his tenure replacing J.P. Ricciardi, and that should continue with nice moves like this.

Both of these pieces discuss the Fred Lewis trade which is tough to do considering we have not actually completed the trade. 

Courtesy of Baseball America:

No. 4	BRAD MILLS, LHP	BLUE JAYS
Team: Triple-A Las Vegas (Pacific Coast) Age: 25 Why He's Here: 1-0, 0.79, 11 1/3 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 18 SO The Scoop: Life has been good lately for Blue Jays lefties. Ricky Romero nearly threw a no-hitter earlier in the week for Toronto, while Double-A New Hampshire's Luis Perez has been nearly unhittable as well (see below). Mills doesn't have plus velocity, but he's been able to get hitters out by locating and mixing his pitches, including a 70 changeup on the 20-80 scale and a sharp curveball.
2010 Stats

No. 8	TRAVIS D'ARNAUD, C	BLUE JAYS
Team: high Class A Dunedin (Florida State) Age: 21 Why He's Here: .400/.406/.667 (12-for-30), 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBIs, 1 BB, 3 SO, 1-for-1 SB The Scoop: When you're involved in a series of trades involving Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Brett Wallace, it's easy to get overlooked. Maybe that's the case with d'Arnaud, the former Phillies farmhand who went to the Blue Jays in the Halladay trade. His quick bat and hand-eye coordination make him difficult to strike out, and he's flashed power with two home run in the pitcher-friendly Florida State League. With J.P. Arencibia's struggles in Triple-A, d'Arnaud is looking more and more like Toronto's catcher of the future.
2010 Stats

No. 13	LUIS PEREZ, LHP	BLUE JAYS
Team: Double-A New Hampshire (Eastern) Age: 24 Why He's Here: 1-0, 0.00, 10 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 SO The Scoop: Sure, he's repeating Double-A, but Perez has thrown 10 innings of one-hit ball to start the season. Perez doesn't have the otherworldly strikeouts of some of the other pitchers on the Hot Sheet, but he gets his fastball up to 93-94 mph with heavy sink to keep the ball on the ground. He might fit in best as a reliever in the Blue Jays' bullpen down the road, but if he can continue to befuddle hitters he might get a chance as a back-of-the-rotation starter.
2010 Stats

3 of the top 13 players mentioned in the "Prospect Hot Sheet" represent your Toronto Blue Jays.  Everybody loves prospect porn!

Nerding it up in Simulation Nation:

According to OOTP11 your Toronto Blue Jays will go 5 - 1 this week coming up including a sweep of KC!
Of note: Shawn Camp was suspended 9 games for initiating an on field disturbance.
For the year: 11 - 8.  1 game behind Tampa Bay for first place.

According to MLB 10 The Show we will go 4 - 2 for the week. 
Of note: Brandon Morrow and Shawn Camp have 3 wins and are among the leaders in wins for the AL.
For the year: 13 - 6.  2 games behind Boston.