Curveball, bats are afraid

After some careful consideration and healthy debate it has been decided that Travis Snider is in fact Pedro Cerrano.

Weekly Round Up: Nov. 15 - 21

Consider this your required reading for the week.

Consider this your required listening for the week.

Consider this your required viewing for the week.

Courtesy of Dejan Kovacevic:

The Pirates are set to make four significant moves toward forming new manager Clint Hurdle's coaching staff: Ray Searage as pitching coach, Gregg Ritchie as hitting coach, Jeff Banister as third base coach and Nick Leyva as bench coach.

Leyva, 57, is the only outside addition, having been bench coach last year in Toronto under Cito Gaston. It is believed that he was Hurdle's choice for right-hand man.

Good luck Nick. You are gonna need it in Pirate land.

Courtesy of Jon Paul Morosi:

Will the Toronto Blue Jays trade for Justin Upton? It's too early to tell. But the mere fact they're making a push says plenty about their intent to become a perennial contender in baseball's best division.
Numerous times in the last week, I've said to people in the industry that Toronto will make at least one playoff berth in the next three seasons. No one has laughed. The organization is indeed in very good shape. The addition of Upton, 23, would speed up the Jays' transformation into a postseason club.
The 2012 season looks like a prime target for Toronto's first October baseball since Joe Carter and Mitch Williams. For one thing, commissioner Bud Selig is dropping strong hints the playoffs will expand to include a fifth team in each league beginning in that year. And the Jays' best prospects — right-hander Kyle Drabek and shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria — should be high-impact players by then.

This column kicked off the hot stove season for Jays fans in a hurry. Would we like to see Upton in a Blue Jays uniform? Sure we would. Would we like to pay the price tag (Snider and Drabek) needed to make it happen? Ah, no.  

Courtesy of MLBTR:

The Blue Jays are keeping their options open when it comes to ranked free agents. Even though signing a Type A free agent before next Tuesday would mean surrendering a draft pick, Anthopoulos says the Blue Jays would not hesitate to sign a Type A player this week if the deal is right. Though the Blue Jays may simply be keeping their options open, the news will interest the Toronto fans who are wondering about Type A free agent Manny Ramirez. It seems unlikely that the Blue Jays would sign a Type A free agent before the deadline to offer arbitration, since the organization appears to value draft picks highly, but Anthopoulos says he'll consider it. Toronto's first round pick (21st overall) is not protected.

Deadline to offer arbitration to free agents is tomorrow. (At midnight I assume) Naturally, Manny's name came up a bunch of times this week.   

Courtesy of Los Angeles Times:

It is also about supply and demand, in a DH market crowded with Guerrero, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Jim Thome, Jermaine Dye, even Andruw Jones.

Ramirez did not wow the White Sox. The Angels and Boston Red Sox do not need a DH. The Yankees say Jorge Posada will be theirs. The Oakland Athletics, a landing spot for Mike Piazza, Frank Thomas and Jason Giambi in recent years, say they are not interested in Ramirez.

If Guerrero returns to Texas, that could narrow the Ramirez market to the Detroit Tigers, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays and perhaps Baltimore Orioles.

"There aren't many guys that can hold down the middle of the lineup," Boras said. "That's the issue.

"I think Manny Ramirez is a Hall of Fame hitter. Teams look at that ability and, if they adjudicate that ability is still intact, they're going to be seeking those extraordinary talents before they proceed elsewhere."

Scott Boras = the devil

Courtesy of Jeremy Sandler:

Prepare for it to end badly. Book the talk radio time for angry callers. Make sure any giveaway of 10,000 dreadlocked bobbleheads happens early in the season.
Because if there is one piece of advice for the Toronto Blue Jays should the much-discussed rumour of Manny Ramirez ending up at One Blue Jays Way come true, it is to prepare for the inevitable train wreck, one even Denzel Washington has no chance to stop.
While team officials insist Ramirez’s visit to town last weekend did not involve official talks, the team appears to be giving the 39-year-old a long look. It is unlikely anything will happen before next Tuesday, when Ramirez will certainly be available without the cost of a compensatory draft pick.

Toronto’s interest in Ramirez goes back, at least, to baseball’s 2008 winter meetings. Former general manager J.P. Ricciardi told anyone who would listen that Ramirez was all set to sign with Toronto, but ownership refused to give him any money.

Cheap bastards @ Rogers keeping it real yo!

Courtesy of Benjamin Kashin:

What it means:

After clearing waivers this past June, the Blue Jays couldn't sneak Encarnacion through a second time as the Oakland Athletics claimed him on Nov. 12. Regardless, Encarnacion wasn't likely to fit in the Jays' plans for next season. His departure leaves the Jays with a significant hole at third base, especially if All-Star Jose Bautista spends the majority of his time in left field as expected.

It's pretty hard to take the author of this piece seriously when they say shit like this. Guess the sports editors over at the Sun are few and far between.

Courtesy of Slam! Sports:

Buck, 30, is coming off a breakout season with the Toronto Blue Jays. He hit .281 with 20 homers, 66 RBI and an .802 OPS in 118 games -- all career bests. However, he also had the worst strikeout-to-walk ratio in all of baseball at 111 to 16.
Still, his terrific campaign landed him on the American League All-Star team for the first time in his career. He also threw out 28 percent of baserunners attempting to steal.
Before signing a one-year, $2 million deal with Toronto last winter, Buck had spent the first six years of his career with the Kansas City Royals. He is a .243 lifetime hitter with 90 home runs in 702 games.
The Marlins were in need of catching help.

I guess fucking so. 3 years at 6 million for John Buck. That is just a little bit insane.

Courtesy of Yahoo Sports:

“I think the more teams you have in it, the month of September will obviously be more meaningful,” said Toronto Blue Jays president Paul Beeston, Selig’s onetime No. 2. “The minuses - two of them obviously are the integrity of the schedule and the history of the game, where you know the best teams always moved forward. But we really crossed that bridge, didn’t we, when we went from two teams to four teams, and then four teams to eight teams? So that bridge has been crossed. I’ve changed. I could add more teams.”

Beeston is old school. But I'm guessing the shit TV ratings for the playoffs are too much to ignore. I'm thinking a few extra playoff spots can only benefit teams like us moving forward. But I still maintain that a balanced schedule is the way to go.

Courtesy of Gregor Chisholm:

The Blue Jays added five players to their 40-man roster Friday in advance of a midnight ET deadline for setting rosters prior to next month's Rule 5 Draft.

Right-handers Joel Carreno (Class A) and Alan Farina (Double-A), catcher Brian Jeroloman (Double-A), and outfielders Darin Mastroianni (Double-A) and Moises Sierra (Class A) were all added.

The additions mean all five players will be protected during the Rule 5 Draft on Dec. 9 and cannot be selected by another Major League team. The Blue Jays still have two open spots on the 40-man roster, which could indicate the club plans to be active during or prior to the Rule 5 Draft.

Two notable omissions on the 40-man roster are third baseman Brad Emaus and outfielder Adam Loewen.

The new Jays beat reporter has spoken. Make sure to give Gregor a follow on Twitter if you have not already. I think that Emaus gets scooped in the rule 5 draft but doubt he stays on a 25 man roster all season. That being said, if the team that selects him is from the NL, then I think his chances of being lost forever increases due to the extra bench spot.

Courtesy of Scott White:

9. David Cooper, 24, Blue Jays
Where played in 2010: Double-A
Minor-league stats: .257 BA, 20 HRs, 78 RBI, .769 OPS

Cooper entered last season as the expected replacement for pending free agent Lyle Overbay, which is perhaps the reason why the Blue Jays were willing to deal Brett Wallace to the Astros. But the team's first-round pick in 2008 appears to have stalled at Double-A New Hampshire. He spent his second full season there last year, and though he doubled his home run total from 10 to 20, he actually declined in batting average (.257) and on-base percentage (.327). He profiles as more of a doubles hitter than a pure slugger, which is already a strike against him at a position like first base, and he'll have to improve his consistency if he ever hopes to hold down a major-league job. Still, the Blue Jays' lack of options at the position gives him some low-end AL-only appeal.

I found this article while I was looking for potential trade targets at 1B for Boy Wonder this offseason. To my surprise, we have a guy on the list. Not to sure how I feel about that.

Courtesy of Brad Johnson:

Now entering his age 23 season, Snider once again appears to be a good late-round sleeper candidate. Albert Einstein is credited with defining 'insanity' as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Indeed, promoting Snider for a third straight season may be a bit insane. Thankfully this is something we can take advantage of since "sane" owners should be passing on him.
There are several reasons to like Snider in 2011. From a pure scouting perspective, the kid is strong. His isolated power should easily eclipse the .200 mark. It also appears as though he has a stable niche on the roster, putting him in line for about 140 starts. Taken together, 25-30 home runs along with a fairly strong contribution to RBI seems very plausible. Depending on where he bats in the order, he could be in line for a decent amount of runs scored, thanks to Toronto's power-centric approach. His batting average might hurt a little, but then again it could bounce back. As noted previously, Snider hits the ball hard. In 2010, he managed a ridiculous 24.1% line drive rate. Further, if he can increase his fly ball rate above last year's 34.9%, a true power outburst might be in the offing. Ironically, "the next Jose Bautista" could very well be a fellow Jaybird.

The annual Travis Snider will be a breakout star articles have officially started up.

Courtesy of Dayn Perry:

AL Manager of the Year

Who will (probably) win it: Ron Washington, Rangers
Who should win it: Cito Gaston, Blue Jays

There's no assailing the fine work done this season by Washington, who led the Rangers to their first postseason series win and first pennant. He's a steady hand who inspires loyalty in his men while also maintaining control. Still, Washington had a talented roster and benefited from a weak division. Gaston, in contrast, led the Blue Jays to a winning season despite playing an unbalanced schedule in the brutal AL East. Given that the Jays lost Roy Halladay last winter, got uncharacteristically poor numbers from Aaron Hill, struggled to find a third baseman and played 111 games (!) against teams with .500 records or better, it's a minor miracle they won 85 games. That's to Gaston's tremendous credit.

Fox Sports runs this piece and.....

Courtesy of BBWAA:

The other first-place votes went to the Tampa Bay Rays’ Joe Maddon, the 2008 winner who placed third with 44 points, and the Toronto Blue Jays’ Cito Gaston, who retired at the end of the season.

Somebody bought it!

Courtesy of You Don`t Know Dick:

Why? Because Davis has an on-base percentage that needs work and Anthopoulos is not done dealing. As he continues to try to strengthen the team, he doesn’t know in what area future additions will come.

Anthopoulos is like a street juggler with a pocketful of extra balls. The other day, the ball with Dan Uggla’s name dropped and bounced away so he reached into his pocket without breaking rhythm, with an array of balls still in the air, and replaced it with another. He believes he can keep that act going all winter. Using an analogy from a different sport, Anthopoulos runs the West Coast offence of trade strategies. Instead of looking for the bomb on every down, he dinks and dunks his way down the field.

Jesus Christ Dick. 

Courtesy of BBWAA:

Because of the heightened interest in this award, the list of voters is below, grouped by which pitcher they listed first on their ballot:

Hernandez: Ken Rosenthal, Fox; Amalie Benjamin, Boston Globe; Michael Silverman, Boston Herald; Erik Boland, Newsday; Joe Smith, St. Petersburg Times; Mark Gonzales, Chicago Tribune; Lynn Henning, Detroit News; John Lowe, Detroit Free Press; Sam Mellinger, Kansas City Star; Joe Posnanski, SI.com; Joe Christensen, Minneapolis Star Tribune; John Shipley, St. Paul Pioneer Press; Hirokazu Higuchi, Chunichi Shimbun (LA); Tim Brown, Yahoo Sports; Jorge Ortiz, USA Today; Ray Ratto, At Large (SF/Oakland); Kirby Arnold, Everett Herald; Larry Stone, Seattle Times; Richard Durrett, At Large (Dallas-Fort Worth); Anthony Andro, Fort Worth Star Telegram; Morgan Campbell, Toronto Star.

Price: Mel Antonen, USA Today; Tony Fabrizio, Tampa Tribune; Phil Rogers, Chicago Tribune; Chris Assenheimer. Elyria (OH) Chronicle.

Sabathia: George King, New York Post; Bob Elliott, Toronto Sun; Sheldon Ocker, Akron Beacon Journal.

Bobby Elliott didn't vote for King Felix in the AL Cy Young ballot. Just bringing some attention to that fact.

Courtesy of Shi Davidi:

The cost for Davis — double-A right-handers Trystan Magnuson of Vancouver and Daniel Farquhar — will do little to deplete a farm system stocked with potential trade chips, and Anthopoulos isn't wary about throwing them on the table.
"If the right trade is there, we'll make trades," said Anthopoulos. "You can't look at it and say I need to have 'X' amount of prospects in the minor-leagues. What are you getting back, what are you trading away, what are they ultimately going to be, how replaceable are they, whether it's in the following year's draft, whether it's minor-league free agents, big-league free agents.
"That's the evaluation."

Some insight behind the thinking of the Rajai Davis trade.

Courtesy of FanGraphs:

The slowest 5 pitchers are:
Daisuke Matsuzaka – 25.9 sec.
Matt Garza – 25.8 sec.
Josh Beckett – 25.2 sec.
Clay Buchholz – 24.6 sec.
CC Sabathia – 24.6 sec.

All of them are in the AL East! Shocking, I know. 

Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports:

Luis Rivera, manager at Class AA New Hampshire in 2010, explained his role as a major league coaching assistant for 2011: “I will be in the coaching staff, but not in the game. My job is to get the players ready before the game. I’ll be on the field for batting practice, maybe throw some, and watch the players. When the game starts, I will go to the press box to take notes on the game and prepare a report for (manager John Farrell) after the game. I’ll share my thoughts. It’s something I’ve never done before, and hopefully it will be a great experience for me. I’m going to see how I like it. I have a choice. If I don’t like it, the doors are open for me to come back to coaching and being a manager again.”

You forgot to mention translate for Yunel and eventually Adeiny.

Weekly Round Up: Oct. 11 - 17

Consider this your required reading for the week.

Consider this your required listening for the week.

Courtesy of MLBTR:

Thanks to the average fastball velocity data available at FanGraphs, we can make all kinds of fun lists.  Today we'll compile the hardest-throwing free agent relievers (minimum 20 innings in 2010).

1.  Kyle Farnsworth - 94.9
2.  Jesse Crain - 94.8
3.  Kerry Wood - 94.4
4.  J.J. Putz - 94.0
5.  Jose Contreras - 94.0
6.  Joaquin Benoit - 94.0
7.  Guillermo Mota - 93.9
8.  Frank Francisco - 93.4
9.  Rafael Soriano - 92.9
10.  Jason Frasor - 92.8

Looks like Frasor got over his "dead arm" phase from early on in the season. He's a type A free agent. Can you say: sign and trade?

Courtesy of Fuck Yeah The Maple Leafs:

Even Leaf fans hate Damien "Suck My" Cox. Perfect.

Courtesy of Bobby Elliott:

While Roy, his father also named Roy and Linda, spent hours at the park, taking turns throwing batting practice to their son as Miranda and Heather tracked down fly balls. Heather remembers her brother taking her fishing at the Arvada reservoir.
They were pals. Roy caught a fish, named it Mr. Blue Gills and made the fish talk to Heather, age 7, before tossing it back.

Bob really digs deep for some quotes in this piece. 

Courtesy of King Jordan:

With his incredible Major League debut aside, how does J.P. Arencibia's less-than-inspiring performance impact the direction of the team with regards to the catching situation for 2011?
--Trevor P., Mississauga, Ontario
To be honest, Arencibia's production down the stretch this season probably will not impact Toronto's plans too much. He received very little playing time over the final month of the season, making it difficult for him to show much in the batter's box or behind the plate.
Beyond that, the fact remains that Arencibia has nothing left to prove in the Minor Leagues. It is time for the Blue Jays to give him a shot in the Majors. Whether that means he will be the starting catcher or part of a tandem when 2011 opens is the big question.
All-Star John Buck can be a free agent and he has earned a full-time job as well as a long-term contract. Veteran backup Jose Molina's contract with the Jays includes a $1 million club option for 2011. Exercising that option would appear to make more sense if Arencibia is in the plans as the starter or if a shared role is in the young catcher's immediate future.

Our boy LastRow500's gets his question answered by King Jordan! To follow him on Twitter click here.

Courtesy of Beyond The Boxscore:

I read this article at least three times and still don't quite have my head around it.

Courtesy of Baseball America:

Pacific Coast League Top 20 Prospects

1. Buster Posey, c/1b, Fresno Grizzlies (Giants)
2. Mike Moustakas, 3b, Omaha Royals
3. Michael Pineda, rhp, Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners)
4. Madison Bumgarner, lhp, Fresno Grizzlies (Giants)
5. Dustin Ackley, 2b, Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners)
6. Logan Morrison, 1b/of, New Orleans Zephyrs (Marlins)
7. Tanner Scheppers, rhp, Oklahoma City RedHawks (Rangers)
8. J.P. Arencibia, c, Las Vegas 51s (Blue Jays)
9. Justin Smoak, 1b, Oklahoma City (Rangers)/Tacoma (Mariners)
10. Brett Wallace, 1b, Las Vegas 51s (Blue Jays)

Some pretty impressive names on this list. Nice to see J.P. getting some love. You could argue that the PCL MVP should be higher on the list but.....

Courtesy of Bobby Elliott:

After the draft, the Jays asked Sweeney not play high school baseball.
“They didn’t want me to get hurt, but I wasn’t going to sign before Aug. 15, so we figured if I got hurt there was time for me to get healthy,” said Sweeney, who hit the first pitch he swung at for a home run down the right field line against the Waterloo West WarHawks.
The infielder found out — yes, found out — he’d agreed to terms in mid-August after his Thomas Jefferson High Jayhawks lost 3-2 to top-ranked Mason City, a game in which he was walked intentionally four times.
“My parents came over ‘sorry you lost, but congratulations, you just agreed to terms with Toronto,’ ” Sweeney said. “The Jays phoned after I’d left for the game two hours away and told me not to play. But my parents didn’t want to let the team down.”
Gary and Lori Sweeney kept the news secret, although they told Kellen’s coaches. Gary is a production planner on the Quaker Oats assembly line, so he knows all about timing.
“All the girls back home ask when I’m going to Toronto,” Sweeney says with a smile. “I tell them it doesn’t work that way.

'Gary is a production planner on the Quaker Oats assembly line, so he knows all about timing.' Ah, what?

Courtesy of MLBTR:

The problem is, few careers resemble Bautista’s. He played for four teams in 2004, played five positions in 2006 and seemed destined for a career as a utility man when the Blue Jays acquired him in 2008. And in 2010? He made the All-Star team and led the major leagues in extra base hits and home runs.
If your head is spinning, imagine how arbitrators - the decision-makers responsible for settling salary disagreements between teams and players -  would feel after considering Bautista’s case for a few hours. The Blue Jays have a history of avoiding arbitration, so there seems to be a good chance that they don’t go to a hearing this time, but the potential for one will shape the sides’ discussions.
The Blue Jays can argue that Bautista deserves a limited raise, but they have to be careful, according to one longtime arbitration consultant.
“You lose a lot of credibility with an arbitrator if you have a guy who had a monster year and you start pissing all over him,” says Michael Vlessides, who has faced most leading baseball agents on behalf of various MLB teams over the course of the past two decades.
 
Anybody that gets quoted as saying "pissing all over him" in an article, is cool in my books. I included the comments thread in the link because there really are some drastically different points of view on J-Bau.

Courtesy of Morgan Campbell:

Technically, Bautista can play with Licey if he chooses. As a native Dominican he’s free to play for his hometown team according to both the Winter League Agreement — a rulebook ratified last winter between MLB and four Caribbean leagues — and the Jays.
“We’ll address all the players the same way,” Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos wrote in an email to the Star. “It’s up to the players if they choose to participate in winter ball.”
But the Winter League Agreement’s “extreme fatigue clause” allows teams to curtail winter league action for players with more than 503 plate appearances. This season Bautista totalled 683 plate appearances and 569 at-bats.
Whether or not the Jays ask him to sit out the Dominican season, Bautista’s top baseball priority is still the team that pays him the most.

I wonder how they settled on the number 503? Why not a cool 500?

Courtesy of Rob Cribb:

About 70,000 samples from football, hockey, basketball and baseball — from amateur to professional levels — were submitted to WADA-accredited laboratories last year.
North American testing was conducted in WADA labs in Montreal, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.
Of more than 6,000 tests on hockey players, which included both professionals and amateurs, 1.3 per cent came back positive. In baseball, the figure was 2.5 per cent for nearly 20,000 tests. Basketball had 2 per cent positives in about 11,000 tests. And football’s 42,000 tests produced 0.77 per cent positives.
The findings come with caveats, Howman said, including the fact that some leagues test for fewer substances than WADA and conduct testing when the likelihood of catching cheaters is low.

Interesting read.

Courtesy of Nick Cafardo:

Source: Sox bench coach Demarlo Hale getting second interview with Blue Jays

Second interviews = legit interest. It's tough keeping up to date with the manager search and realistically by the time anything is published, it's old news. 

Travis Snider Rules

Photos courtesy of daylife

I absolutely fucking love this guy.