1 Blue Jays Way: Gonzo

Showing posts with label Gonzo. Show all posts

2010-07-18

Weekly Round Up : July 12 - 18

Consider this your required reading for the week. Great story about our other Cuban shortstop. Morgan Campbell absolutely nails it.

Courtesy of Mop-up Duty:

Asher Wojciechowksi – Auburn Doubledays (A)

Like (Noah) Syndergaard, Asher Wojciechowski was drafted this year in the sandwich round and signed quickly. Signed out of the well-respected college baseball program of The Citadel, Wojciechowski is further advanced and was assigned to single-A Auburn. The Blue Jays view him as a “bulldog-like” starting pitcher. Since he was a closer, he is being stretched out by starting games but only going 3-4 innings. Regardless, he has been putting up stellar numbers by relying on his fastball that tops out at 94mph with good downward plane and a slider that projects as above average. He does have a changeup that is not yet playable but he is working on it as a 3rd pitch.

Great work by the guys over at Mop-up Duty. Lots of ink on our new draft picks and higher level prospects.

Courtesy of Klaw @ ESPN:

Jake (Toronto)

J.P. Arencibia will be up with the Jays once John Buck likely gets traded. What should we expect out of him?

Klaw

Low-average guy who makes up for it with power and some patience, although (sorry, broken record here) he is repeating AAA and some of what he's doing there this year is a function of that. As their cheap catcher for three years while they wait on d'Arnaud, though, Arencibia should be a good to great value.

Normally I ignore Klaw because he is a whiny little bitch when it comes to Blue Jays analysis but this seems right to me.

Courtesy of Hardball Talk:

After no doubt watching Major League for the umpteenth time, prospect guru John Sickels decided to take a stab at projecting Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn's career numbers, including transactions and injuries and all sorts of stats.
Someone really needs to do this for every character in every baseball movie, if only because I always suspected Roger Dorn was underrated and the kid who broke his arm in Rookie of the Year probably had a worse WHIP than you'd think.

Any reference to the best baseball movie ever will always be welcome at 1bluejaysway.

Courtesy of King Jordan:

After tonight's 3-2 win for the Blue Jays, the team announced that it had designated infielder Nick Green for assignment to clear a spot for pitcher Shaun Marcum (due to be activated from the disabled list). What does this have to do with Snider? Let me explain.
Removing Green from the roster leaves the Jays with 12 position players and 13 pitchers (six starters and seven relievers). For the next 10 days or so -- or the minimum amount of time Snider must remain in the Minors -- Toronto will play short-handed on the bench. Why, you ask? To ease the workload for the starting pitchers.

6 man rotation in the house! Well sorta. This is only possible because The Cito continues to refuse to make any in game moves. For the next little while we will have only Johnny Mac, Wise and the back up catcher on the bench.

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

Where are the Jays headed as the trade deadline approaches? The Gonzalez deal offers clues as to what Anthopoulos may be thinking about revamping his roster to young and controllable:

Lyle Overbay: The 33-year-old first baseman, earning $7 million (all figures U.S.), is a free agent at the end of the year. Unlike shortstop-for-shortstop, the Jays don’t need to receive a young first baseman in return. If Overbay goes, they will either call up Brett Wallace or fill in with Adam Lind who has been working more intensely with a trapper and Brian Butterfield over the past month.
John Buck: The 33-year-old catcher, earning $2 million, is a free agent at the end of the year. As an all-star, his value has increased and the Jays would rather keep Molina because if they bring up J.P. Arencibia, having a breakout season at Triple-A, the veteran backup is a better mentor.
Edwin Encarnacion: The 27-year-old third baseman, earning $4.75 million, is arbitration-eligible and a free agent following 2011. They already placed him on waivers and nobody took him so the only way they could move him is if they offered to pay the remainder of his salary this year — which they would surely be willing to do.
Jose Bautista: The 29-year-old right fielder/third baseman, earning $2.4 million, is arbitration- eligible and a free agent following 2011. Bautista is one of Gaston’s favourites and his versatility and intensity make it difficult to understand why they would deal. They should hang on to the major-league’s home run leader, giving them off-season flexibility in adding either an outfielder or a third baseman. Then they could sign Bautista to a well-deserved three-year deal.

Ah Dick. You try so hard to be insightful.

Here's what I'm thinking: If the plan is to keep J-Bau around then we will be either signing him to a one year deal again or taking him to arbitration. Due to his excellent production this season, he will likely project as a Type A free agent after a good 2011. Then we could shop him around at the deadline next year (think Scott Downs) and demand a great prospect. Or we could hang onto him and offer him arbitration again. If he declines and signs with a different team (think Marco Scutaro) then we get a couple of picks in the 2012 Amateur Draft. I guess what I am trying to say is his value will be higher in the future. It makes no sense to sign him long term right now.

Courtesy of Shi Dividi @ The Canadian Press

More parts may arrive before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, as Anthopoulos has several strong chips to play with in relievers Scott Downs, Kevin Gregg (who has club options for next year or the next two seasons) and Jason Frasor, plus catcher Buck and first baseman Lyle Overbay, all potential free agents.
But anyone who thinks Anthopoulos will scorch the ground just to get rid of them hasn't been paying attention. It looks like all four players will qualify for draft pick compensation should they sign elsewhere, so only an asset of significance will pry them away since the Blue Jays are under no financial pressure to deal them.
Additionally, Anthopoulos doesn't want his young players to develop in a negative, losing culture, so he won't pick the team apart unless it's really worth it.
“Naturally the assumption is (the Gonzalez trade) is a precursor to a flurry of other moves and a look to move veteran players,” said Anthopoulos. “We're not looking to shop any of our players, or move any of our players specifically.
“I try to keep in touch with teams and continue to have dialogue and it's more a process where we target players, we call teams about specific players.”

In Boy Wonder we trust. Amen.

Courtesy of Fan Graphs:

Alex Gonzalez is currently the NL Leader in Just Enoughs with ten. Jose Bautista is second with eight. Both have HR/FB rates that eclipse their career averages. Even though the park factor for overall runs in Toronto favors the pitcher, the factor for home runs largely favors hitters. According to StatCorner, the RHB HR park factor in Toronto is 110, heavily favoring the hitters. This is balanced out by a 92 park factor for singles for both hands, which is why we see pitchers seemingly favored at the Rogers Centre.
All of the factors for a heavy decline in the second half are there, particularly for Alex Gonzalez, who moves to Turner Field and its 90 park factor for RHB HRs. These players are getting lucky in almost every possible sense with home runs. The Braves are likely to fall victim to a drop in power from Alex Gonzalez, and any team, particularly without a RH-friendly ball park, would likely see the same out of Jose Bautista.

I have linked to this post numerous times over the week when challenged about the Escobar / Gonzo deal by smug Braves fans. The comments section was quick to point out that the author didn't mention one important detail.....

George says:

Bautista has 8 no-doubters (2nd only to Vernon Wells in the majors), 8 just enoughs, and no lucky home runs according to HitTracker.
He’s hitting for major power and has been since September of last season. That’s not a matter of luck

2010-07-14

Blockbuster

Boy Wonder does it again!

The Trade:

Your Toronto Blue Jays received SS Yunel Escobar and LHP JoJo Reyes in exchange for SS Alex Gonzalez, SS Tyler Pastornicky and LHP Tim Collins.

Analysis:

For starters, I will send it over to our boy Jesse for his take on the deal:

This is a challenge deal. A challenge deal (a term created I believe by Bill James) is where teams trade players of exact same positions, pitting those players against one another. A challenge deal is much easier to evaluate in the long run because players at the same position are directly comparable.

Some examples of other challenge deals are:

Toronto perspective: shortstop Yunel Escobar is better than shortstop Alex Gonzalez (regardless of their stats this year) and minor league shortstop Tyler Pastornicky (playing “eh” in A-Advanced, though he’s still young); and left-hander JoJo Reyes is better than left-hander Tim Collins.

The Atlanta perspective is the exact opposite: Gonzalez and/or Pastornicky is/are better than Escobar. Collins is better than Reyes. Anyway, three players are better than two.

By the way, Sal Fasano is a fan of Reyes. Likes the way he pitches.

I neither defend nor disparage the deal right now: Time will settle the winner and loser of this one, and probably pretty clearly, too.

I will add that Toronto’s system has a plentitude of middle infield prospects, causing Pastornicky to become expendable. It is very likely that Lansing shortstop Ryan Goins now gets promoted to Dunedin, where I believe he will outperform Pastornicky’s production. This moves Justin Jackson back to a full-time role at shortstop with the Lugnuts.

To hear what Jesse has to say about Tiny Tim Collins click ahead to 5:47. I must warn you, it may pain you to do so.

More Analysis:

I, unlike Jesse, am ready to call this one right now: AA fleeced em. I mean he should be wearing a ski mask into the office tomorrow.

First off, we got the best player in the deal. Hands down. No disrespect to Gonzo and the career year he is having but.....

At this time last year Joe Polanski had Yunel Escobar rated in his top 100 baseball players, of any position in both leagues, including pitchers. No way does a guy lose that type of ability in half a season. It's just not possible. Christ, he managed to get an MVP vote in 2009.

For argument sake, let's examine the offensive data. Keep in mind his 2009 totals for AVG, OBP and Runs were good enough for top 25 in the NL. More importantly his .373 batting average with runners in scoring position ranked third in the entire Major Leagues. Also worth noting, he has hit .312 in the second half of the season for his career.

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB
2007	24	ATL	NL	94	355	319	54	104	25	0	5	28	5	3	27	44	.326	.385	.451	.837	118	144
2008	25	ATL	NL	136	587	514	71	148	24	2	10	60	2	5	59	62	.288	.366	.401	.766	103	206
2009	26	ATL	NL	141	604	528	89	158	26	2	14	76	5	4	57	62	.299	.377	.436	.812	116	230
2010	27	ATL	NL	75	301	261	28	62	12	0	0	19	5	1	37	31	.238	.334	.284	.618	70	74
4 Seasons				446	1847	1622	242	472	87	4	29	183	17	13	180	199	.291	.368	.403	.771	105	654
162 Game Avg.				162	671	589	88	171	32	1	11	66	6	5	65	72	.291	.368	.403	.771	105	238

If those aren't nerdy enough for you. I suggest you take a look at Fan Graphs.

Here are all his 14 home runs from the 2009 season courtesy of Hit Tracker. Click the link for some videos of his bombs. Start by watching the 459 footer he hit in Arizona off John Garland. Love the trot.

What about his defense at shortstop?

Well let's shoot it over to the guy that has been watching him since he got to the big leagues former Blue Jay manager Bobby Cox. Here is what he had to say in February of this year before he put him in the dog house:

"Escobar, to me, is a Gold Glove winner at short," Cox added. "He's as good as it gets."

For the 2010 season he has the most assists as a shortstop in the NL to go along with a top three range factor.

How about his contract info?

According to Cot's Baseball Contracts he has 2.121 years of Major League Service time and is arbitration eligible for 2011-2013. At that point, he can become a free agent. He is currently being paid $435,000, which is just above the league minimum. He is represented by the Wasserman Media Group which is only worth noting because they are not Scott Boras.

In the interests of being thorough I must mention a few things. He has been labeled as having an attitude. Now I'm not going to sit here and pretend to know what that means. I can guess he plays the game with the same fire and passion that every other Cuban I have ever seen in the big leagues but here are the facts courtesy of Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com:

In 2009 he was removed from a game on June 14 because of a lack of focus.
On June 25, he took exception to a charged error by gesturing toward the press box and pouting in his next at-bat.
He was benched by his manager for disciplinary reasons.
He was deemed abrasively brash by opponents.
all while continuing a tense relationship with the Atlanta media.

"People would perceive it as being flashy, but he's always said, 'That's just me," said Braves bench coach Chino Cadahia, who's been Escobar's interpreter since he made it to the big leagues.

"It's just a lot of people don't understand his whole story. But I'm not defending him to some of the things he's done, because they've been wrong, and I've told him they've been wrong. But at the same time, if they understood where he came from, how he was able to get out [of Cuba] and the stuff he had to do to do this, sometimes you understand a little better some of his actions."

"He has to be himself most of the time," Cadahia said. "But being himself, he has to be able to control being himself, also. We definitely want him to be Yunel Escobar. But he can be Yunel Escobar and not show anybody up."

Yunel had this to say about it:

"Us Latin players are a bit aggressive, and sometimes that gives off a bad impression," Escobar said in Spanish "We play a brash game, an aggressive game, and that's what I've been demonstrating here.

"People have misinterpreted those mannerisms. But honestly, I'm not a bad kid, and I don't disrespect anybody. I respect the game."

"This is the year I'm trying to focus on [learning English], because I've already been here three years since 2007, and a lot of people have wanted to talk to me, but I couldn't talk," Escobar said. "I'm getting tired of that. I have to express myself to people because a lot of people want to get to know me, but they can't because of the language.

"Things happened last year where there were just misinterpretations that brought me problems I've never really had before."

"Every year that passes, I feel more like this is my home, and I gain a little bit more confidence," Escobar said. "Since I got here in 2007, I've felt a bit out of place. I didn't know how they were going to treat me, because it was the first time I was in a big league clubhouse."

I think now is the time I drop this on you. Must read.

All that and he hits into a lot of double plays. Like over 20 a year. And you could call him a little soft. But that is it. Promise.

Some More Analysis:

On centerpiece Yunel Escobar:

"It's fair to say that if Yunel Escobar was performing like he did last year, it would have been a much more difficult deal to make," GM Alex Anthopoulos said.

“If Yunel was doing what he did in the past, he’s not available to us and this trade does not present itself. This was an opportunity for us to take a chance on a very talented player."

“We control the player for three years after this,”

“We feel as though he has a chance to be a core player. Certainly he’s having a down year but, again, when you look at what he did the years prior to that, (we are) getting a very high-ceiling, talented shortstop that was arguably coming into this year as one of the better young shortstops in the game.”

"It's never a bad thing to have two great players,"

"We're just as high on Adeiny Hechavarria. We absolutely believe he's going to be an All-Star caliber shortstop. When we get a chance to add another guy like that in Yunel Escobar, we're never going to shy away from the talent."

“When you have depth at premium positions … It’s an absolutely outstanding problem to have,”

"I certainly believe Alex Gonzalez is going to continue to have a great year and help the Braves get to the playoffs, their aspirations are to win the World Series, but Yunel Escobar, long-term, is a guy we think is equally as talented ... and he certainly has greater upside."

"Where there's smoke there's fire and we weren't going to roll our eyes at that,"

"Everyone we've spoken to has said, first and foremost, this is a good kid and that was the number one factor for us. There have been run-ins, other issues, and I think it's a product maybe of the style of game he plays, maybe it didn't mesh well with the Atlanta Braves."

“Everybody that we spoke to — former teammates, coaches, minor-league staff, everybody — the response was the that this was a good kid,”

"Jose (Bautista) said he was a good kid, quiet, not a problem in the clubhouse at all. But he does play a flashy kind of game and I think being in the environment we have here for him, I think this is an opportunity for him to thrive."

"When we looked at it, we said, 'Well, we're either going to go off of three years of track record that Yunel Escobar has showed as a young man, or the three months that he's performed so far.'"

"We think there could be some mechanical things that can be addressed in his swing, and I think he may need a fresh start and a new organization and a city like Toronto that embraces Latin players,"

"There's no question his power has been lacking from what it has been in previous years,"

"The biggest concern for us was the lack of power and we really had our scouts focus on batting practice and make sure the raw power was there and we were pretty diligent about examining his health. The raw power is still there, and we think it's just a matter of making some tweaks."

"He can still drive the ball in batting practice. I think it's just a matter of making some tweaks."

"If you look at the Cuban player, they play with a lot of flare, a lot of emotion, a lot of flash,"

"But I think it can be exciting for fans. Toronto fans love watching a high energy player who brings a lot of passion and desire to the shortstop position and I think he's going to be able to thrive in this environment."

"Just talking to Cito Gaston, he said Tony Fernandez was very flashy as well and he thrived here, he was a fan favourite."

"I think Yunel coming to a city like Toronto — that a lot of Latin players seem to love and enjoy for obvious reasons — it’s a fresh start for him. It’s a new organization. Getting with people like (manager) Cito (Gaston) and (hitting coach) Dwayne Murphy, that will unlock some things.”

"We did a lot of homework and we feel like this is going to be an environment for him to really thrive."

"At the same time acquiring someone like Yunel Escobar along with Jo-Jo Reyes -- two young, talented players (was key). Going into the season, Escobar was widely regarded as one of the best young shortstops in the game. He's 27 and he's controlled (rights-wise) for three years beyond 2010 and he also has a chance to be a core player."

On JoJo Reyes:

"(The Pacific Coast League) is a tough league to pitch in and we want to try to get the best out of Jo-Jo," Anthopoulos said "He's had time in the big leagues before. He was a highly touted prospect. It's just a matter of getting him into the right environment to get some success, to get some confidence going. His stuff is certainly there."

"He hasn't had a great performance this year,"

"We have some scouts that feel pretty strongly about him and think he has a chance to bounce back and be the player he was in the past."

On Alex Gonzalez:

"The production and the results speak for themselves," Anthopoulos said. "As I told Alex, the two most professional position players that I've probably been around in my time in the game have been Scott Rolen and Alex Gonzalez.

"Just the way he carries himself and the way he conducts himself, he's a tremendous teammate and a quiet leader -- not an easy guy to part with."

"It wasn't a reflection on Alex at all. He's absolutely exceeded any expectations we had for him. He's a plus player, a plus defender. What a tremendous competitor, tremendous person and good role model for the younger players. That's what made this so complicated."

On prospects Tim Collins and Tyler Pastornicky

"Both guys are very talented," Anthopoulos said. "I give the Braves a lot of credit. I think they did a great job from a scouting standpoint. The makeup of both players is outstanding. I spoke to both of them today. They're both tremendous kids, very hard workers, outstanding baseball players and very tough, intense competitors."

"We were reluctantly willing to give up both players,"

"But it was not an easy decision to make."

“We think Tim Collins can pitch in the big leagues right now as a 20-year-old with a great arm,”

“That was the cost to doing it.”

Boy Wonder has spoken. It should be noted he sees Escobar as a top of the order hitter.

Conclusion:

I didn't even bother to mention the other players in the deal. It's not because I forgot but more because this trade, to me, boils down to this:

We just traded a potential lefty bullpen stud, a potential back up infielder and a season and a half of a 33 year old Major League shortstop we got for nothing.

FOR

A potential All Star and a lefty with big league starting experience.

2010-06-28

Press Release: Cano, Longoria Headline All-Star Voting By Baseball Bloggers Alliance

New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano was the leading vote-getter in All-Star Game ballots cast by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, outpacing Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria. Cano received a whopping 45 votes, with only Longoria and Texas's Josh Hamilton also reaching the 35-vote level in the American League. Starting pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies led the National League with 36 votes.

Cano was the clear choice at second base by the BBA, with only the one vote received by each of Seattle's Chone Figgins, Texas's Ian Kinsler, and Boston's Dustin Pedroia keeping Cano from an unanimous decision. Longoria's 39 votes outpaced Boston's Adrian Beltre (with six), with Michael Young of the Texas Rangers a distant third with two votes.

The rest of the American League infield, if selected by the BBA, would feature Minnesota's Justin Morneau, who just edged out Detroit's Miguel Cabrera by two votes for the first base nod, and New York Yankees' captain Derek Jeter at shortstop, as he more comfortably finished ahead of Elvis Andrus of the Rangers and Alex Gonzalez of the Toronto Blue Jays.

While the Rangers were close with many of their infielders, it is in the outfield that they finally break through, as Hamilton led all outfielders with his 35 votes. He would be joined in the outfield by Tampa Bay's Carl Crawford and Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki, who used a late surge to surpass Alex Rios of the Chicago White Sox for the final slot. Texas also would be honored with the designated hitter, as Vladimir Guerrero easily outpolled the Red Sox's David Ortiz for that position.

The battery for the American League was Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins and David Price of the Rays. Mauer won handily over Boston's Victor Martinez, while Price got the nod to start over the Mariners' Cliff Lee.

Races in the National League were a little more competitive.

The closest race was in the middle of the diamond. As of right before the deadline, Philadelphia's Chase Utley and Atlanta's Martin Prado were tied with 16 votes apiece. The late votes pushed Utley over the top 19-16.

Other close races included third base, which saw New York's David Wright take out Washington's Ryan Zimmerman by four votes and Cincinnati's Scott Rolen by six, and the last outfield slot. Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers and Andre Ethier were overwhelming picks, receiving 30 votes each, but Chicago's Marlon Byrd slipped past Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen by two votes in the last surge of voting to take the final position.

Rounding out the National League selections were Colorado catcher Miguel Olivo, St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols and Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Jimenez was the overwhelming choice to take the ball for the senior circuit, receiving over 30 more votes than his closest competitor.

All members of the BBA were eligible to make their selections. Bloggers were allowed to vote for either the American League, the National League, or both leagues if they so desired. Ballots were published on the individual blogs as a show of transparency.

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in 2009 and numbers 184 blogs covering all major league teams and various other aspects of baseball among its members, as well as blogs and sites that have affiliated as Friends of the BBA. The official website of the BBA is located at www.baseballbloggersalliance.com. The BBA can be found on Twitter by the handle @baseballblogs and by the hashmark #bbba. Members of the BBA may be heard at Blog Talk Radio each Tuesday night with their call-in show, BBA Baseball Talk.

The list of participating blogs:

American League (48)

Baseball Is My Boyfriend

DMB Historic World Series Replay

Double G Sports

Dugger's Corner

The Eddie Kranepool Society

The Hall of Very Good

Long Live Shea Stadium

Pennant Race Baseball

SeatGeek

The Sporting Hippeaux

Stan Musial's Stance

The Straw That Stirs The Drink

Subway Squawkers

Switch Hitting Pitchers

National League (52)

Baseball Is My Boyfriend

The Baseball Journeyman

The Eddie Kranepool Society

Fungoes

The Hall of Very Good

Long Live Shea Stadium

The Outfield Ivy, Cardinal Chapter

The Outfield Ivy, Cubs Chapter

Oysta Buns

Pennant Race Baseball

Pitchers Hit Eighth

Raise The Jolly Roger

SeatGeek

The Sporting Hippeaux

Stan Musial's Stance

The Straw That Stirs The Drink

Subway Squawkers

Switch Hitting Pitchers

Tetreault Vision

The Tribe Daily

True Grich

Victoria Seals Baseball Blog

Websoulsurfer

Wezen-Ball

2010-05-30

Game 51 Recap: That's two in a row! For us...

Good afternoon fellow Jays fans! A beautiful day, a tad too hot for this guy so I decided to enjoy my couch and watch a Jays game.

Nothing too exciting today and it was over quickly, Ricky must have had somewhere to be this afternoon.

Let's get to the good stuff:

Lewis continues to impress, first pitch the Jays saw today went to left and Freddy started the day off with a double. Almost looked like he wasn't going to make it home until Wells drove him in with his own double.

The Jays scored 3 in the first frame and none of those runs came in off a home run. That was a nice change, I get worried that all these bombs will dry up and we won't be able to score. A worry hitting coach Dwayne Murphy doesn't seem to have. See the bad section later.

It was nice to catch a game without Buck mis-pronouncing players names. But there is a bad side to that coin. Again see the bad section later on.

Looks like the seven spot is suiting Lyle just fine, hit his 3rd homer in 2 days. Glad to see him come around and start doing, well anything. The Angels are now looking for a first basemen after some seriously bad luck yesterday.

Ricky pitched well, only walked 2 and struck out 7 earning the fans some free pizza and doing it all on only 102 pitches for his second complete game of the year. Amazing the difference when he isn't pitching in front of his family. Just looked at his stats and this one looked like a done deal from the start, day games, on turf and at home he's been solid with an era well under 2.

Sam Cosentino started to talk about Ohman's scoreless streak and one pitch into his day J-Bau launches one. Then the wonderful announcer starts again and BOOM Gonzo lifts one out. 6th time this season the Jays have gone for back to back jacks.

The three homers today lifts the May total to 53 and the record for a month is 58. We've got Garza tomorrow night, so it's not looking like we're breaking the record.

Speaking of records, J-Bau has tied the Jays monthly homerun record with 12. That ties him with Cruz Jr and Delgado. This record has a chance to be broken since Jose has been going nuts this month.

Like I hoped, the Jays completed the sweep.

Now on the bad:

Dwayne Murphy was interviewed before the game and was asked about the low average's and on-base percentage and basically came out and said that they are over-rated and outdated stats and that they don't tell the entire story. Then asked about all the homers and said, the homers are nice, it just means we're scoring. Wow, cheerful guy. Not sure what would excite this guy.

Like I said earlier, Buck wasn't in today. But that gives us Sammy C and holy crap this guy is even worse. No show of emotion at all, hello Mr Monotone.

Ricky's first inning balk was just a sign of things to come, but with a better result a few innings later when he picked off Patterson trying to steal.

John Buck came up in the first and the third with runners on and both times did nothing, one strikeout and one pop up. His bat seems to have cooled a wee bit.

Gonzo made a couple of strange errors today. The first one was a ball that E5 should have had and Gonzo almost seemed surprised that it got to him and made a brutal throw that missed the bad by 15 feet. Then later he was attempting to make a Tony Fernandez type throw and it just dropped out of his hand. For a guy that was praised for his defense he's seems to have made more then a few errors so far this season. Although he prolly gets to more balls then most giving him more chance at an error. Ya, let's go with that.

That's all I've got, like I said it was a fairly quiet game.

A couple of things from Halladay's perfect game:

Apparently the Florida Marlins in a very classy move have given Roy the rubber from the mound.
Roy was back at the stadium at 8:45 this morning working out and someone said, you couldn't sleep in after throwing a perfect game yesterday? Classic Roy response, "I can sleep in during the winter".

Looking ahead:

Tomorrow the first place Rays come to town. I wonder how many of their criminals will be "detained" at the airport?

Garza (5-3) Vs. Morrow (3-4) with a 7:07 start.

2010-05-09

Weekly Round Up : May 3 - 9

Consider this your required reading for the week. G20 update. Looks messy.....

Courtesy of Fan Graphs:

Signed to a one-year contract with a team option for 2011 by the Blue Jays this offseason, Alex Gonzalez did not attract much attention on the free agent market after being cut loose by the Red Sox. He netted just $2.75 million for this year and his option is worth only $2.5 million. There was good reason for that lack of fanfare. Alex Gonzalez hasn’t been a good hitter ever aside from 2007. He has survived by being a solid glove man at short stop but having turned 33, one had to wonder how much longer that would hold out.

If he keeps up his hitting, how much value Gonzo will have in a trade later in the season to a contender? That is a pretty cheap option for next season.

Courtesy of Fox Sports:

The Romero game marked the start of Buck’s education.
“I’m not really a superstitious guy,” he says. “Just after the seventh inning, going into the eighth, I talked to Papi (pitching coach Bruce Walton) and asked him, 'How many pitches do I have? Do I need to push my pitcher?' He looked at me like I was crazy. I thought, ‘Why are you looking me like that?’ Then I looked up and saw zeros across the board. I said, ‘Damn!’”
Buck says he was simply locked in on the hitters. “I’ve got a little pea brain,” he explains, chuckling. “I can only process so much.” But seriously . . . “My superstitious thing is not breaking my routine,” Buck says. “I always go over the hitters from the previous inning (with the pitcher), talk about a couple of pitches may have been overthrown, what we want to do on the next guy.”
And so it was Monday night, when Cecil took a perfect game into the seventh inning. “I kind of noticed I was the only one sitting by him, talking to him,” Buck says. “But once we got to the seventh, it was in my mind.”

It's not your fault John, it's King Jordan's doing. He is all powerful.

Courtesy of St. Paul Saints:

Kevin Millar and the St. Paul Saints announced Wednesday that he will return to the ballclub after a 12-year Major League career. Millar, one of the most incredible stories in Saints history, began his career in 1993 with St. Paul and will return for his victory lap with the Saints beginning this Saturday, May 8.
The Saints roster now stands at 25 players, 11 pitchers and 14 position players. The Saints can carry 27 players during spring training, but must be down to 23 by opening day. The Saints then must be down to 22 players 14 days after the beginning of the season.
Millar will make his Midway Stadium return on Opening Day, Thursday, May 13 when the Saints take on the Wichita Wingnuts at 7:05 p.m.

I wonder if his victory lap will have a pit stop after they realize he is a fucking shitty baseball player.

Courtesy of MLB News, Rumors, Scores, Predictions, and Stats

We have yet to play New York, Detroit, Minnesota, or Seattle and we still have 16 games left to play against Tampa and Boston. That leaves 99 games left against winning teams from '09—not including 12 games against the Rockies, Giants, Cards and Phillies, all winning teams from the NL.
At our current pace we are looking at a record of 33-66 against the winning teams in the AL. Lets say we run just over .500 during Inter-league games at 8-7, that leaves us at 41-73.
48 games left to play against the worst of the AL.
Lets be optimistic here and say we have a .700 record against these teams and end up 34-14. That gives us a record of 75-87.
Coincidentally, that was our record last year. Good enough for 4th in the AL East, a full 28 games back of New York.

Hate to rain on the parade but we have had a pretty easy schedule up to this point.

Courtesy of BlueJays.com

It was a decision that fell in line with the Blue Jays' overall approach to their starting pitchers this season. Gaston and pitching coach Bruce Walton do not want to exceed 100-105 pitches with any of the starters unless the situation dictates otherwise. Up to this point, the Jays have done well in executing that strategy.
Through 30 games, the rotation has exceeded 105 pitches only four times, and no pitcher has logged more than 111 throws in any one outing. Entering Friday, the Jays' starting staff was averaging 15.5 pitches per inning (fourth best in the Majors behind the Cardinals, Twins and Rays) and 98.1 pitches per game.

Pitch limits are a fact of life.

Courtesy of Toronto Sun:

Stats

Expected to go in the second or third round, the San Jose native was hitting .407 with 13 homers and 59 RBIs when he tore his quad late in 2008 and his stock fell.
Asked if he remembers the incident, Eric Thames answers as if he thinks of it every day.
“It was against Santa Clara, ground ball to second, I was running up the line and beat it out,” Thames said.
He didn’t go on Day 1 of the 2008 draft and the next day was at the Lucky Stars tattoo parlour getting “Rage of the Gods” burned into his left biceps when his agent phoned. The Jays selected him in the seventh round and he was given a $150,000 US signing bonus.
“I’m into mythology and history,” he said.
Thames shares the league home run lead with seven, and has 25 RBIs, two behind the leader. He has a .324 average, third on the team.
“You should see him in the batting cage. He’s an animal. He hits for hours,” manager Luis Rivera said. “His work habits are outstanding and if you want to make the big leagues, you need good work habits. When he was drafted, he wasn’t 100%.”
A muscular six-foot, 205-pounder, built like a running back, Thames was a weightlifter for years. No more.
“I’m into yoga now,” he said. “Lifting makes you look good on the beach. Yoga helps guys get to the big leagues.”

You had me right up until that last statement Eric. Don't ever say shit like that again.

Courtesy of The Blue Jay Hunter:

Usually, it's been the Blue Jays who have been suffering from late-inning collapses. Lately, they have been the ones delving out the frustrating losses.
I know this is a couple of days after the fact, but listen to Bruce Drennan's rant from Sports Time Ohio on the Cleveland Indians late-inning loss to the Blue Jays back on Wednesday.

Classic stuff. I have been giggling over this video for a few days now.

Nerding it up in Simulation Nation:

According to OOTP 11 we go 3 - 3 for the week. Our record is 18 - 21, good for 4th place, 7 and half games behind the Red Sucks.
Of note: I got an e-mail about Aaron Hill's injury. The manager said: "You can't make excuses in baseball, because there is always a game tomorrow."

According to The Show we have a huge week! 6 - 0. Our record sits at 25 - 14 and we are tied with the Evil Empire for 1st place.
Of note: Shawn Camp is having a nice season. 4 - 1, 2.97 ERA, 33.1 IP, 29 K, 19 Appearances, 4 Holds, 2 Saves and righties are hitting .143 off him.