The Weekly Round Up

Consider this a must click link.

Consider this your required reading for the week.

Consider this your required viewing for the week. This one was a very close second place.

Consider this your required listening for the week.

Courtesy of Ken Fidlin:

Two years ago in spring training young outfielder Moises Sierra, coming off a good year at Class A Lansing, impressed a lot of people not only with his bat but with his strong outfield arm.

That arm has led the club to experiment with Sierra at third base.

“It’s exploratory,” said general manager Alex Anthopoulos.

Alright enough already. He`s on the 40 man roster and he`s never played above AA ball. Forget 3rd base. Forget hitting. Let`s see if he can pitch.

Courtesy of THT:

4. Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto got good in a hurry. There isn't a can't-miss prospect in the bunch, but it's a strong top 10, with the top five likely to appear in my top 100 prospects, and there is plenty of talent throughout the system that is waiting for recognition.
1. Brett Lawrie / 3B/2B/OF
2. Kyle Drabek / SP
3. Deck McGuire / SP
4. J.P. Arencibia / C
5. Chad Jenkins / SP
6. Travis D'Arnaud / C
7. Carlos Perez / C
8. Adieny Hechavarria / SS
9. Zach Stewart / RP/SP
10. David Cooper / 1B

Yet another top 10 list for ya. I`m waiting not so patiently for this one.

Courtesy of The 5th Starter:

Dear Brett,

I have already placed so many of my hopes for the Blue Jays future on your youthful shoulders. Your left-handed-right-handed swing gives me chills. Your youthful athleticism gives me comfort that you can adjust to an infield home, and offer significantly more value to the team going forward.

That said, I've just returned from your likely future home (Las Vegas, Nevada)

I've also realized that while you are in the aforementioned Vegas, you will turn the delicate age of 21.

Now, like a good Canadian boy, I'm quite sure that you are already drinking regularly (For those of you who are unaware, the drinking age in most Canadian Provinces is 19) and I'm sure you've developed an excellent tolerance. Your tolerance will count for nothing in the dry, desert heat. Your willpower will be tested (repeatedly) and you may even end up with more Eminem lyrics tattooed upon your juvenile limbs.

The 5th Starter sends an open letter to Brett. Fantastic stuff.

Courtesy of Mop Up Duty:

2011 Toronto Blue Jays Promos and Giveaways

Another pitiful season of Toronto Blue Jays giveaways and promotions. Outside of opening day, the Jays are giving away only 50,000 promo units ALL season!

The boys over at Mop Up Duty call out the cheap bastards @ Rogers for their weak giveaways and promo schedule for this year coming.

Courtesy of North of the Border:

Speaking of those B-Games, the Blue Jays released their schedule of extra contests. The club will play all three of their B games against Philadelphia, which makes sense since the Phillies play in neighboring Clearwater, Fla. The two clubs will take the field on Feb. 26, March 2 and March 17. The first regular game of Spring Training is Feb. 26 at the Florida Auto Exchange Stadium against the Detroit Tigers.

B-Games are the shit! (That means they are good) Normally they take place at remote high school like ballparks and they can't sell tickets for them. If anyone is lucky enough to be going down for Spring Training keep these dates in mind.

Courtesy of OOTP:

Around the OOTP offices, we're looking forward to two events in April: Opening Day and the expected shipping of Apple's second-generation iPad. It may not have been announced yet, but we all know the next iPad is coming, and one lucky fan who pre-orders Out of the Park Baseball 12 by February 28, 2011 will receive one.*

Our lucky winner will also take home a copy of iOOTP, which will bring the excitement and realism of OOTP to iPad, iPhone®, and iPod touch® when it steps up to the plate at the iOS App Store this spring.

Last year I got my hands on a copy and did a sim for the 2010 season. Click here to see the results. *Spoiler alert* it predicted the Giants win of the World Series. Hopefully again this year I`ll get the opportunity to do another sim and report the results prior to the game going on the market. Stay tuned for that.

Courtesy of Through The Fence Baseball:

My name is Ryan Shopshire and I will begin writing my blog exclusively at Through The Fence Baseball. This is my first time writing a blog so the more input that you readers give me the better. First I want to tell everybody a little about my baseball background. I am a so-cal boy born and raised in the most beautiful place in the states, Orange County California. I played my high school years at Orange Lutheran High School, a premier power house. After high school I accepted a scholarship at Long Beach State to play for the Dirtbags. My freshmen year there I experienced my first injury playing baseball (a stress fracture in my throwing elbow) and made me miss my entire season. At the end of the season exit meetings the coaches decided that Long Beach would not be my home the following season. This was a big blow to me because this was my first choice school out of high school.

Rock solid blog. One of our prospects is doing an exclusive with them. You should probably be following along.

Courtesy of Bluebird Banter:

An idea shamelessly stolen researched from James Kannengieser at Amazing Avenue. Baseball-Reference counts page views player and team pages and they list the top 200 pages here. Here are the Jays and former Jays that are in the top 200:

Rank	Player	Page Hits	Jays WAR	Career WAR
14	Roy Halladay	336245	47.4	54.3
16	Jayson Werth	316167	0.2	18.7
26	Jose Bautista	256654	7.6	5.9
45	Rickey Henderson	184966	0.3	75.3
62	Roger Clemens	160101	17.8	74.8
69	Roberto Alomar	151833	20.1	63.5
83	Ted Lilly	137041	7.4	25.1
95	Frank Thomas	127891	1.7	70.6
112	Scott Downs	114616	9.5	8.4
114	Fred McGriff	113753	18.9	50.5
124	Kyle Drabek	110531	0.1	0.1
135	Chris Carpenter	106164	6.8	28.6
137	Bengie Molina	105853	0.4	8.6

Kyle Drabek could crack the top 100 before the end of his first season in the big leagues. Lotta Buzz.

Courtesy of ESPN:

1. Joe Carter, 1997 Blue Jays: .234/.284/.399 (-25 rbat), 102 RBI

For Carter, 1997 was his last full season and his worst, but in addition to No. 1, he also occupies spots 11, 15, 47, 105, 129 and 139 on the list. Carter was a more athletic and longer-lasting version of Armas. The Jays plugged Carter into either the number three or four spot in 157 of their 162 games in ‘97, where he cost them significantly in runs and wins on both sides of the ball despite the RBI.

Shame on you stats dorks for hating on Joe. Why don`t you take this and shove it up your ass.

Courtesy of tampabay.com:

"What AstroTurf's press release didn't tell you is the real reason why Tampa Bay is installing their product — they are getting a free field."

FieldTurf says AstroTurf's three-year licensing deal with MLB Properties includes a provision that gives a free AstroTurf carpet to the Rogers Centre, the Toronto Blue Jays stadium in Toronto, plus a new field for the Rays at the Trop.

The Rays agree they're getting a freebie.

If I were the cost-conscious Rays, I'd grab that deal, too.

FieldTurf president Eric Daliere says his company was approached by Major League Baseball with a like licensing offer, but declined it.

"We were not willing to have them subsidize free fields or large royalty fees. When Tampa Bay and Toronto paid for turf, they chose FieldTurf," Daliere said. "We would encourage any clients looking to obtain a baseball field from AstroTurf to ask for the same deal that Toronto and Tampa Bay got."

So the turf was free after all eh? No shit. Check out the bullshit the cheap bastards @ Rogers were saying back then as to why they made the switch.

Courtesy of John Lott:

After his manager denied he was hurt, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Travis Snider revealed Sunday that he has been held out of workouts for the past week because of a rib-cage injury suffered while playing golf.

In a media scrum a few minutes earlier, manager John Farrell alluded vaguely to Snider missing drills because of “a little bit of tightness in his overall core.” Asked if the tightness was the result of an injury, Farrell replied: “No, no, no. Just bringing him along a little slower.”

But after undergoing treatment in the trainer’s room, Snider told reporters he “tweaked something” in his left upper rib cage while playing golf about a week ago. It did not bother him immediately, he said, but tightened up the next day.

Both Snider, the Jays’ starting left-fielder, and Farrell suggested the injury was relatively minor. The 23-year-old left-fielder said his condition has improved, but “not significantly,” and he can neither swing nor throw at the moment.

“We don’t expect him to be way behind or certainly not delayed,” Farrell said.

No more golf kid. Baseball time.

Courtesy of The Canadian Press:

Manager John Farrell watched over the bullpen sessions of his pitchers Sunday and two of them caught his eye.

Left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes, a candidate for both the starting rotation and bullpen, and right-hander Jesse Litsch, a leading contender for one of the two spots in the back of the rotation.

"Jo-Jo Reyes continues to throw the ball very well," said Farrell. "A guy who was a highly touted prospect with Atlanta before being sidetracked with a knee injury, in the early sessions he's thrown the ball very well. ...

"I thought Jesse Litsch threw the ball well today. It's become more evident, just the repair of the hip and the surgery on the elbow a couple of years ago, he's been free and easy and is throwing the ball good."

I just wanted to point out that I picked these two guys to fill out the 4 and 5 spots in the rotation for the 25 Man Roster Challenge. I`m the only person to do so.

Courtesy of Husker Extra:

Nebraska baseball coach Mike Anderson said Tuesday that freshmanpitcher Logan Ehlers, still waiting for the NCAA to make a decisionon his eligibility status, will not travel with the Huskers to thisweekend's season-opening round-robin tournament at Texas State inSan Marcos, Texas.

At question is whether the left-hander from Nebraska City -- whoin August turned down $800,000 to sign with the Toronto Blue Jays'organization two months after he was drafted in the eighth round --violated an NCAA bylaw that pertains to the use of advisersthroughout the bargaining process. The NCAA allows such arelationship, but prohibits advisers from having contact withmajor-league organizations during contract negotiations.

Anderson said the school and sanctioning body have hadback-and-forth communication, but the NCAA has yet to provide itsruling in writing.

The Paxton Affair - which is still going on - now has some company. WTF is going on with kids that don't sign with us? Two different players in back to back years? Can't be a coincidence.

Courtesy of Jeremy Sandler:

Cosentino began working with the Blue Jays as a bat boy in 1987 and has been involved with the team in some capacity for most of the time since then. He will continue to work for Rogers on the network’s junior hockey broadcasts.

“I’m extremely disappointed that Rogers Sportsnet has decided to remove me from broadcasts,” Cosentino said during a phone interview Wednesday. “But in our most recent discussions, we’ve been talked about increasing my role and my exposure in hockey and I’m excited about that opportunity.”

The departures leave play-by-play man Buck Martinez and analyst Pat Tabler to handle the Blue Jays games.

I can deal without Rance always harping on our hitters to "be aggressive early in the count" but I think I'm gonna miss Sudden Sam. He brought some energy to the broadcasts.

Weekly Round Up : July 26 - Aug. 1

Consider this your required reading for the week.  There is a chance we here at 1BlueJaysWay may have some more news on Hechevarria for you real soon.....

Consider this your required viewing for the week.  Fleeced em.  Absolutely fleeced em.

Courtesy of Our Boy Jesse:

Glenn hits for the cycle as Lugnuts beat Kings, 9-5

LANSING, Mich. – Brad Glenn hit for the fifth cycle in team history and the first since 2007, helping the Lansing Lugnuts (17-13; 53-46) chop down the Clinton LumberKings (14-15; 51-47), 9-5, on a Monday Summer Fun Day on Jackson Field.
Glenn singled in the first inning, homered in the third, dropped in a fluke sun-aided double in the fifth, and then broke a 4-4 tie with a two-run triple off of reliever Jose Jimenez (2-4) in the seventh inning to give the Lugnuts the lead for good.
He capped off the game by drawing a walk in the eighth inning, loading the bases ahead of A.J. Jimenez's three-run game-clinching double.
The Lugnuts' previous cycle was accomplished by Travis Snider on July 7, 2007, at Fort Wayne. Corey Patterson (1999), Donnie Hood (2003), and Chip Cannon (2005) were the other Nuts to achieve the cycle in the team's 15-year history.

Gotta love the old sun aided double trick!

Courtesy of MILB:

Sobolewski named FSL Player of the Week

Dunedin Blue Jays third baseman Mark Sobolewski has been named the Florida State League Player of the Week for the time frame of July 19-25. He becomes the fourth Dunedin player to win the honor this season, joining catcher Travis d'Arnaud, outfielder Welinton Ramirez and super utility player John Tolisano.
Sobolewski was fantastic in the weekend series against Bradenton, going 7-for-12 with two home runs and two doubles. On the week, he was 11-for-26 (.423) with three home runs and the two doubles. He also drove in 10 runs and scored eight times himself.
Sobolewski was named a First Half All-Star this season with the Lansing Lugnuts, the Single-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, where he hit .313 with four home runs and 24 RBIs. He also added 15 doubles.
So far with Dunedin this season, the 23-year-old is hitting .274 with four home runs and 22 RBIs, nearly the same numbers he had with Lansing, but in 51 fewer plate.

This guy is slowly moving up the depth chart @ 3B. 

Courtesy of You Don't Know Dick:

Consider that among all MLB outfielders, Bautista ranks: first in home runs and outfield assists; second in RBIs, extra-base hits, OPS, slugging and bases-on-balls; and third in runs scored.
“He’s a young guy that can still play third base for you and play the outfield, play first base, so that’s what I would do, but that’s just me,” Gaston added. “I can talk to him about playing a certain position and it’s, ‘Wherever you need me.’ Managers always appreciate guys like that on your ballclub.”
The Jays need his versatility and don’t need to save the money. They have him for one more season. If he goes through the arbitration process the Jays could then either trade him at next year’s deadline or begin negotiations for an extension if he proves in 2011 that 2010 was no fluke.

Dick nailed it.  Doesn't happen often so savor the flavor sir.  

Courtesy of CBC Sports:

The 29-year-old Mike Jacobs is a lifetime .253 hitter with the Mets, Florida Marlins and Kansas City Royals.
The left-handed hitter averaged .208 in 28 at-bats this season with New York, which designated Jacobs for assignment on April 18. He cleared waivers and has spent most of the season at AAA, hitting .260 with 15 home runs and 57 RBIs in 86 games.
Last season, he hit 19 home runs and added 61 runs batted in while making $3.25 million US with the Royals last year.
Jacobs had 32 home runs and 93 RBIs in 2008 with Florida.
He provides some depth for the Blue Jays should they choose to deal free-agent-to-be Lyle Overbay.

Depth move at AAA.  He does have almost 2000 MLB at bats under his belt but he strikes out a fucking tonne and has amassed a lifetime .313 OBP in the big leagues. 

Courtesy of Husker Extra:

In the three weeks since he became an eighth-round draft pick of the Toronto Blue Jays, Nebraska City pitcher Logan Ehlers has turned down two offers to sign.
“We had the (signing-bonus) number set, and everything,” he said, “so right now we’re playing the waiting game.”
That’s usually how it works for anyone who has college aspirations but is in a position where they could command a large enough signing bonus to head straight to professional ball.

Don't know how this one slipped past the goalie but I just had to share it.  We gotta get this kid to sign before he strikes out another 20 batters in a game.  

Courtesy of MLBTR:

Many of the best trade chips in baseball play for the Toronto Blue Jays, but the team held onto all of them when their rivals didn’t meet the club’s asking price. Scott Downs, Jason Frasor, Kevin Gregg, Jose Bautista and John Buck remain in Toronto for one simple reason: in the end, no team presented GM Alex Anthopoulos with an overwhelming offer.

“I don’t think we were that close today,” Anthopoulos said. “There were things we had on the table that were available to us, but not enough to make us make a trade.”

Translation: Stop trying to fuck with the new guy everyone.

Courtesy of CBS Sports:

Camp to have workload limited: Toronto RP Shawn Camp has been given a heavy workload this season but manager Cito Gaston would like to limit his innings, going forward, reports MLB.com Monday. "I want to do that with him," Gaston said on Monday. "I had a little talk with him about that." Gaston has frequently turned to Camp to clean up messes but will try to limit that going forward. "Of course, he wants to go," Gaston said. "He wants to pitch. Some kind of way, if I can give him off through the next few days, it'd be great -- hopefully. I don't know if it's going to happen. Maybe a couple of days and then if we use him, then we have the off-day."
(Updated 07/26/2010).

Fantasy Analysis

Camp entered Monday with a 3-1 record and a 2.92 ERA over 49 1/3 innings. Camp has allowed six runs over nine innings in his last 10 appearances, however, and opponents have been hitting .410 against him over that span. Camp has struggled of late and Gaston believes it has something to do with his workload. "He's only had a couple rough times out there this year," Gaston said. "That's going to happen." Camp is not in line for save chances and remains just a middle-relief option for Fantasy leagues that care about them. (Updated 07/26/2010).

Courtesy of CBS Sports:

Lind a future first baseman?: Toronto DH/OF Adam Lind is going to see playing time at first base down the stretch. MLB.com reports part of the reason why Toronto is going to give Lind a look at first base because the Blue Jays will be looking for a starting first baseman for the 2011 season. "We want to see him play first to see if he can play over there," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "But, you know, in the offseason there's still some first basemen out there that you can go get."
(Updated 07/30/2010).

Fantasy Analysis

Lind has played most of his major-league career in left field or at DH. He played some first base in college and has spelled current 1B Lyle Overbay in a handful of games. Overbay is a free agent after the season and Toronto just traded away prospect Brett Wallace on Thursday, so looking at first-base options now is clearly a priority. The main thing is that Lind is still getting regular at-bats for Toronto. His .225 average and moderate power numbers in 2010 have been disappointing. Lind has been doing well in July, batting .301 with five homers and 11 RBI in 22 games, so there is hope he can still perform like a high-end Fantasy option down the stretch. (Updated 07/30/2010).

Courtesy of Shi Davidi:

Return of Travis Snider forces Cito Gaston to get creative with Blue Jays lineup

Snider, considered one of the team's future cornerstones, will be shuffled around into different spots whenever fellow outfielders Fred Lewis, Jose Bautista, Adam Lind and Vernon Wells, third baseman Edwin Encarnacion and first baseman Lyle Overbay get a day off.
He'll likely hit in the spot of whoever he's subbing in for, including leadoff hitter Lewis.
"You know, I've thought about that here and there, and if I take Lewis out of the lineup we're not going to put Bautista in the first spot, so it might be Snider up there. He's pretty much my choice if I go that way," said Gaston. "If I have Lewis in the lineup, then Snider will go somewhere else. It's going to be a little mix and match." 

This is the article that set off the shitshow on Twitter that I wrote about earlier.  I figured there may be a chance Snider was being sat down until the deadline because a spot was about to open up.  That didn't materialize, so now we are going to roll with this roving platoon for a couple of weeks and see what happens.  Could end up messy.  Especially with dip shit The Cito "managing" it.

Courtesy of Shi Davidi:

Much has been made of his poor stats — he's been caught stealing 27 times to go with his pedestrian batting average — but Anthony Gose says he's deliberately taken steps backwards in some areas in order to take a few steps forward down the road.
"When you're learning something new the success may not be there right away, results aren't always instant," he said. "I feel I've made tremendous progress from last year to this year.
"Defensively I feel I've gotten better, better routes to the ball, I've worked on making better throws to the bases. Baserunning I feel the adjustments I've made have just made myself better, better reads of the pitcher, getting better jumps. ...
"Offensively I feel that I've progressed also, maybe not in statistical means, but mentally at the plate, and also physically, mechanically, I feel I've progressed to some degree and it will all come together."

I heard that he is the 3rd youngest player in High A or something like that.  Patience is a virtue everyone.....

Courtesy of John Lott @ National Post:

TORONTO - Anthony Gose knows exactly what the critics are saying.
After almost two full pro seasons, he should be a better hitter. He steals a bunch of bases, but gets caught too often. He covers a lot of ground in centre field but makes too many fundamental mistakes on defence.
"Everything has been baby steps. I'm 19, and I have a lot of learning to do," said Gose, one day after his unexpected trade to the Toronto Blue Jays. "I've got a long ways to go before I'm a complete player."

He made his first start last night for Dunedin the high Class-A Florida State League, switching from the Phillies' FSL club a few miles south in Clearwater.
Dunedin coaches promptly began to work on "refining [his] approach at the plate," Gose said in a conference call.
"We started addressing those matters here already on my first day," he said.

Maybe they DID have the "you run like Hayes but you hit like shit" speech already!

Courtesy of Fan Graphs:

Wallace is pretty much just the opposite. His game is so dependent on offense, that even getting to 2-3 WAR consistently will be an issue. After Lance Berkman moves out of Houston, Wallace is the future at first base. He’s not good there, and is surely somewhere worse than 2.5 runs below average. To even reach 3 WAR, he’d have to produce 25 runs with the bat to be worth three wins. And given the fact that he’s never walked 50 times or hit 25 home runs in any season, getting to a .370 wOBA seems impossible.
Houston didn’t do well today. With their best chance to finally acquire a player they could build their future around, they acquired two players with role player ceilings.

Brett made his MLB debut on Saturday with Houston.  He finished up 0 for 4 while playing 1B and hitting 6th in their line up.  Please refrain from crying about this.  Everything is gonna work out later.  Trust me.

Courtesy of Toronto Star Photo Blog: