BB: You said in an earlier interview that the organization
uses first person evaluation for defense rather than the new defensive
metrics. Many of our readers saw Vernon Wells miss a lot of balls at
the wall that, in our readers opinion, he would have caught in previous
years. Did the organization see the same and was it just that there
were a lot of close plays in 2010 or did you think that Vernon, because
of age and body type, might have lost a step or two?
AA: I think the interview you're referring too may not have
captured the meaning of my comments. Principally, we rely on first
person evaluations for defense but we do use defensive metrics to
either support or dispute what our scouts are seeing with their eyes.
We continue to explore defensive metrics and incorporate them into all
of our defensive evaluations. In Vernon's case, the metrics did indeed
indicate that Vernon did not have a strong defensive season. However,
in examining all the criteria and in using all the tools at our
disposal, we believe Vernon will have a much stronger year defensively
in 2010.
Consider this your required reading for this week. Great stuff by the team over at Da Box.
Paxton Affair Update
The Kentucky Court of Appeals on
Friday denied UK lefthander James Paxton's request for interlocutory
relief, which was essentially an appeal of the circuit judge's denial
of his request for a temporary injunction that would allow Paxton to
play without having to meet with NCAA investigators. Paxton's attorneys were hoping the courts would assert Paxton's
right of due process under the school's code of conduct, which would
mean he would not have to testify against himself in an NCAA hearing.
Media reports surfaced last summer quoting a Blue Jays executive saying
that agent Scott Boras handled Paxton's negotiations after the Jays
drafted him in the supplemental first round. That would be a violation
of the "no agent" rule and would render Paxton ineligible to
participate this spring, in all likelihood. Paxton attorney Rick
Johnson said in an e-mail that his side would determine by Monday
whether or not to file another appeal with the state's Supreme Court. "Given that this case was one of first impression and of national
importance, and given that it directly addressed whether or not
student-athletes are entitled to the same civil rights as everyone
else, it is very disappointing that the court of appeals did not even
address our constitutional arguments," Johnson said. "In the meantime, the number one senior college baseball player (in
the nation, according to BA's preseason rankings of the top prospects
by class), who has been accused of no wrongdoing, and who remains
eligible to play and is a member in good standing of UK's baseball team
is being withheld from play, because of UK's irrational and
unsubstantiated fear of the NCAA, which is just one of many points
missed by the court of appeals." It's looking more and more likely that the Wildcats will be without their ace lefty in 2010.
The clusterfuck shitshow continues.....Yawn, next.
Afterward, McGowan said all feels fine with his comeback although
neither he or the Blue Jays are certain how hard he may be throwing as
the club is holding back using the radar gun to gauge his velocity. “That's a no-no,” explained a Blue Jays official. “Guys try to hump up and they hurt themselves.” The Blue Jays are reluctant to use the radar gun on their pitchers,
especially those who are trying to return from an arm injury, as it
tends to make them want to overthrow trying to push the speed higher. “That thing (h)as wrecked more arms,” Dr. James Andrews, the noted U.S.
orthopaedic surgeon who has saved the arms of many a baseball player,
once noted. McGowan is not sure how hard he might be throwing, but doesn't really care at this stage in his recovery. “Right now I feel pretty good,” he said. “I feel like I'm letting it
go pretty good. Not quite 100 per cent yet but a couple more bullpens I
think I can really start turning it loose.” “Everytime I grabbed that curveball it feels like I've got a softball in my hand,” he said.
A few weeks ago, before we signed Gregg,
I put up a post about McGowan. In it, I threw out the idea of letting him close out games for us at some point this season. I made the following suggestion, if he were to ever head to the mound in relief:
He could drop one maybe even two of his pitches
out of the arsenal, preferably his least effective and/or the one that
causes him the most pain in his wing, and still have the stuff to do it. I guess we now know which pitch that would be.....
Dustin McGowan slid his fingers over the seams of the baseball that
rested in his glove. Years of experience told him that he was holding
the ball in the correct manner, but the grip felt completely foreign to
the Blue Jays pitcher. McGowan had not thrown a curveball in 561 days. Third inning. Orioles
second baseman Brian Roberts at the plate. First pitch. McGowan sent a
breaking ball diving low and inside for a ball. After working four
innings that afternoon for Toronto, the young pitcher left the game
with an aching right shoulder. McGowan is also out of player options, putting the Blue Jays in an
interesting position. If Toronto wants to send him to the Minor
Leagues, McGowan would first need to clear waivers, giving other teams
the opportunity to claim him. In order to avoid that process, Toronto's
options are limited to placing McGowan on the disabled list to open the
year or bringing him north with the team.
Can we at least talk about him going to the bullpen? Obviously he has more value to the team as a starter but at this point doesn't it make sense to cap his innings and maintain his health?
Toronto's
Rogers Centre SkyDome suppresses home run output by about 1
percent, according to traditional team-adjusted park factor
calculations. Fascinatingly, though, the primary reason isn't the
park's dimensions. In fact, as a percentage of total outfield flies,
the park sees 19 percent more home runs than expected.
The reason: Teams playing at the
Centre Dome have hit the ball into the
ground a full 2 percent more often than the same teams playing
elsewhere, the fifth-highest rate of grounders in the league. Thus,
getting the ball into the air in the first place represents half the
battle. John Buck, the Jays' new catcher, hits a ton of flyballs, often for power, and moves from the Kansas City Royals' homer-stealing Kauffman Stadium to Toronto.
Interesting take on our home park. I wonder how much of the high groundball rate we can attribute to the departed Doc and his nasty pitch repertoire?
Meanwhile, the Jays have two young, twenty-something catchers, J. P.
Arencibia and Kyle Phillips, each of whom now have had considerable
experience and moderate success at AAA. There is absolutely no reason
to believe the combo of Arencibia and Phillips would be any worse, at
least offensively, than Buck and Molina, or Buck and Castro. Even if
they were, getting them experience in the big leagues during a season
in which Toronto must be considered a rebuilding franchise, seems a
worthwhile proposition...seem, in fact, very much like the definition
of "rebuilding." Even if Anthopoulos and Gaston have reservations
about going with two rookie catchers, I still can't understand why they
need
THREE hopeless veterans. What a nightmare the past year has been for Blue Jays fans.
A closet Jays fan on the West Coast questions our "rebuilding" strategy. I can't say I disagree with him. More and more it looks to me as though we are going to need to trade our veterans for prospects BEFORE we can even start rebuilding.....
Courtesy of You Don't Know Dick @ The Star:
The positive news for Toronto fans is that, with all these young
pitchers in serious competition, the team should rack up impressive win
totals in Grapefruit League play.
Isn't that like being the valedictorian of summer school? The comments section of his article this week seemed abnormally tame. I wonder if Dick is paying his friends and family to write in nice comments? Or maybe, just maybe Dick decided to think before he sat down to preform his magic this one time.
Jordan Bastian provides some insight from spring training on You Don't Know Dick
via twitter:
I had forgotton how hard and violent Rich Griffin of The Star types on his laptop. Take it easy! It's not a typewriter! LINK
Griffin just attempted to type softer for our sake. "It's not working out," he said. And now he's pounding away again. LINK
Griffin is now blaring rap music from his laptop to help drown out the loud typing. LINK
I better start to watch what I say about him because clearly Dick is a GANGSTER! I wonder what he was listening to.....Anybody want to take a guess? I'm thinking maybe N.W.A.
The Mets have come to terms with
Rod Barajas on a major league deal worth at least $1MM, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via
Twitter). Rosenthal says the 34-year-old catcher can make $1MM more in easily attainable incentives. Since
the Type B free agent agreed to a major league deal, the Blue Jays will
receive a supplemental first-round pick (#41 overall) as compensation.
Barajas
turned down an offer of arbitration earlier
in the winter and it probably cost him. He made $2.5MM with the Blue
Jays last year and it would have been a surprise to see the club offer
a significantly reduced salary. The Blue Jays, who
signed catchers
Jose Molina and
John Buck, would not have obtained the compensation pick if Barajas had signed a minor league contract.
Carlos Delgado, 37, underwent hip surgery this week for the second time in
nine months, according to his agent, David Sloane. He will be out four
months, but still plans to play this season, Sloane said. Dr. Marc Philippon, the same surgeon who repaired Alex Rodriguez’s hip,
reconstructed the labrum in Delgado’s right hip and also performed a
micro-fracture procedure on his hip socket. Delgado
currently is on crutches, but already is riding an exercise bike and no
longer taking medication for pain, Sloane said.
Nice to see Kenny got the story right on try number two. He did I complete one hundred and eighty degree turn from
this story published just over a week ago. WTF? No way Delgado feels a twinge in Puerto Rico, meets a doctor based in Colorado, gets checked out, gets the results of being checked out, decides on whether to do surgery and finally has the surgery in the eight days between those two stories. Yeah, not happening. I bet he was lied to by the agent.
Point being, not even a month ago in front of the cameras, The Cito firmly put his mouth around Delgado's cock at the
state of franchise address even after his new boss Boy Wonder said no. AWKWARD. Now Delgado goes under the knife again.
Simple Question: Is there any chance the lame duck field manager doesn't go out with a bang in his final season? Keep reading.....
Can I Get A Quote, Please?:
"I think that will probably be the most competitive part of spring
training." — GM Alex Anthopoulos on the open battle for spots in the
rotation.
"When there are opportunities to get more athletic, to bring more athletes into the organization through the Draft
and so on -- guys that can bring the element of speed and certainly
bring defense to the table -- that's something that from a personal
standpoint I'd love to add to this organization.
"Again, things need to line up for that to happen and it's not
something that can happen overnight. But I think it's something that,
as we move forward, we're going to try to put a little bit more of an
emphasis on."
"We're definitely starting to address it from a player development
standpoint,"
"We added a baserunning coordinator this
year. We're excited about him -- someone to spend a little more time to
focus solely on that. We never had that before, at least since I've
been here."
"I just don't think we have any pure basestealers,"
"Certainly, we have a lot of guys that are capable of doing it, but the
opportunity has to present itself. You don't want to run for the sake
of running. You don't want to run into outs. Maybe we'll be a little
more aggressive on the basepaths, but I really believe you have to have
the personnel to do it.
"Right now, we're just not a team that's equipped with a lot of speed."
"It's an exciting brand of baseball when you can play defense and add
speed,"
"One thing about that is it plays in all
parks. People talk about trying to build a lineup and a team for their
ballpark and so on. Well, speed and defense plays all over the place."
"We're trying to create a culture around here,"
"It's important to me that when we watch minor-league games, we play
the game the right way, all our players are doing that and being taught
that, from base-running to hitting the cutoff man, to wearing the
uniform the right way.
"We're going to hand out awards for those little things."
“It was in-depth — many, many
hours of interviews — and, as a result, I feel like we’ve been able to
address the concerns that everyone had,”
“I think it has blown over,”
The Cito said.
“I think some of our guys got suckered into it. Players
are going to stick up for each other. There may have been some
individual dissatisfaction but I don’t think that reflected the feeling
of the whole team.
“When Gillick and Beeston were here before, the one thing I
remember is if we had some bad people around, we got rid of them,
didn’t keep them around. I think maybe that if there were some people
here who were troublemakers, that they’re not here anymore.
“I expect that will help us get back to an attitude of ‘Let’s go out and play ball and not try to run the team ourselves.’ ”
“My door is always open, once again I will tell that to these guys in spring training. If
there’s something you don’t like that’s going on, come in and tell me.
I’ll listen.
“You can never make everybody happy. You’re not going to get
everybody to like you. Do you think everybody in their clubhouses likes
(Tony) La Russa? Or (Lou) Piniella?”
“It’s going to be very interesting, in
baseball you can never be surprised at what you see. The anticipation
of what we might see is kind of exciting. It could be painful. It could
also be very good and lots of fun.”
“I’ve been a part of this
organization for a long time and I’ll still be a part of it for the
next five years and I think it’s going to be an exciting time.”
"When people ask me about knowing
this is my last year this is the way I look at it: I’m excited about
the direction we’re taking,”
“I know (Gonzalez) hit ninth his whole career, but if we
move Hill successfully to No. 3 and Lind to hit No. 4 — and that’s not
carved in stone because I want them both to be comfortable — then maybe
Gonzalez could slide into that second spot. We’ll take a look at it.”
“I’m not counting Snider out, hopefully he comes around
and is the kind of player we hope he’s going to be. He has a big future
with us.
“I hear only good things about (Wallace), I’m going to
have to wait and see. As far as I can tell, we did pretty well with
these kids. You always wonder about the one who got away (Halladay) but
that’s in the past.”
"I don't think I ever got to a point where I didn't think I could go
back to Toronto," The Doctor said.
"I loved playing there. Going back for another year wouldn't
have been the worst thing that ever happened. I always had that in the
back of my mind."
"Anytime you want to be a part of something you watch it,"
"It does get hard. For me it was more about wondering how are
you going to stack up, how are you going to handle this and how fun
could it be? It was harder than most years this year.
"I
never wanted to look forward to going anywhere other than Toronto. But
knowing that things had gotten close and the team I had the best chance
to go to was in the World Series made it tough. Not only that, but one
of your friends is pitching against them. It was a lot of mixed
feelings."
"It's part of it, there were
times in Toronto you could hear every single guy yelling at you. I
don't know what's worse, 40,000 or five guys you can actually hear.
(Philly's) a challenge. They expect to have a good team and they expect
people to perform. I expect the same thing. I would probably boo
myself. It's just too good of a team to disappoint the fans."
"For those guys (young pitchers), it's important that they create their own identities,"
"That's something Chris Carpenter and I got caught up
in, trying to live up to people that had been (with the Jays) in the
past. It's important for those guys to make themselves stand out,
create their own way."
"With my luck, I'll match up against him, just like in Toronto,"
GAY J Burnett laughed of his failed return to the Rogers Centre. "I've heard
that he's been working out and he's already a legend. One of (the
Phillies') front office people's sons goes to school with (my son) and
I was talking to him and said, `Wait till you see this guy.'
"And now he's already a legend."
"Everything that Doc brought to the game is going to be missed," new pitching coach Bruce Walton said.
"The fortunate thing is that he was here, we all learned
from him in his 10 years. Romero got to spend a year with him; Marcum
got to spend two or three years, Frasor, Downs, (Jesse) Carlson, all
these guys, so that's a plus. Everything we've learned from him we're
still going to do.
"We're going to miss his leadership and
we're going to miss his unbelievable performances during the season and
his consistency."
“With Roy Halladay it was kind of fun last season,”
“We took for granted that we pretty much had a day off
when he started. We knew Doc was going to get us back on track if we had a
two-game skid, or keep that three-game streak alive.”
My philosophy is 'pound down,'"
"It's just a
simple term that means pound the strike zone down in the zone. Make the
hitter work. 'Pound down' means throw strikes downhill, just like Arnie
taught. It means attack, throw strikes and pitch down. Pound down.
That's my philosophy. That's my motto. It includes three or four
aspects.
"Yes, get ahead. Yes, attack. Yes, we're going to throw strikes
down in the strike zone. We're going to throw strikes at the knees all
the way across the strike zone. We're going to make you work and get
your hits down there. We're not going to make it easy on them. We're
not going to throw belt-high strikes where everybody wants it. It's
nothing that they haven't heard.
"That's part of me and that's something that I will retain and something that I will really preach."
"We have room to make mistakes down in the zone,"
"It might
not mean pounding down to both sides of the plate right away. Let's
pick one and pound down. If we miss on one side of the plate or the
other and they're misses down, we're going to be better off than
missing up. I think this is going to help them simplify what they need
to do right away."
"I had a chance to come in and be a starter, and I think Toronto wanted
me because of what I'm good at — helping run a staff," new catcher John Buck said.
"I was 17 at the time and the Astros had Zaun and Brad Ausmus behind
the plate,"
"They wanted me to learn how to help a staff, it
was ... your whole existence to help pitchers.
"It's nice to get hits, too, but they pounded the defence into me all the time."
"No, it hasn't changed me," 2009 first round pick Chad Jenkins said.
"If anything, it's been the
pressure. People think certain things about you and you try to live up
to them, and that's what can make it worse. I'm trying to work as hard
as I can and not stick out for anything unusual."
"That was the hardest part, waiting for the right deal."
"The whole numbers thing with players is something that's going to
happen," reliever Jesse Carlson said.
"When you lose a guy like
Roy you don't go out and replace him easily."
"I'd love to see more bags (stolen bases and base running)," Aaron Hill
said.
"I just hope our younger guys realize the chance they have here.
There is a lot of opportunity in the organization for them to step up
and make the big leagues. That chance doesn't come along often.
"It's a great time to be a Blue Jay."
BLUE JAYS (54-51, 12.5 GB AL EAST)
YANKEES (66-38, -- GB AL EAST)
"I think that will probably be the most competitive part of spring
training." — GM Alex Anthopoulos on the open battle for spots in the
rotation. 
“I think it has blown over,”
The Cito said.
