Gose For Wallace

Whoa. Didn't see this one coming.....

Your Toronto Blue Jays traded Brett Wallace, our first baseman in waiting, for Anthony Gose, a 19 centrefielder.

Our boy Jay Ballz did two interviews with Sir Gose A Lot last year. You can check them out here and here. Keep rocking the high socks and the crooked cap kid!

Gose was selected in the 2nd round, 51st overall, in the 2008 amateur draft. At that time, he was a 17 year old outfielder as well as a pitcher. Apparently he had "electric" breaking stuff on the hill. Gose received a $772,000 signing bonus and was rated as the Phillies 6th best prospect entering this year. The left handed hitting, left handed thrower is billed as being lightning fast. He stole 115 bases in 245 minor league games to date but was also caught 48 times. His full stats look like this:

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Lev	Aff	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2008	17	Phillies	GULF	Rk	PHI	11	41	39	4	10	2	1	0	3	3	1	1	12	.256	.293	.359	.652
2009	18	Lakewood	SALL	A	PHI	131	572	510	72	132	24	9	2	52	76	20	35	110	.259	.323	.353	.676
2010	19	Clearwater	FLOR	A+	PHI	103	461	418	67	110	17	11	4	20	36	27	32	103	.263	.325	.385	.710
3 Seasons						245	1074	967	143	252	43	21	6	75	115	48	68	225	.261	.323	.367	.690

Analysis:

I think it is fair to say that Adam Lind will be playing 1st base for your Toronto Blue Jays for a long, long time. It will be easy to find a DH in the off season.

With respect to Wallace, he has been traded three times in just over a calender year. Is he the next Andy Marte?

AA has said many times in the past that he covets the speed game. Today he proved that. Here is what he had to say on the FAN590 shortly after the trade was announced.

Take a look at your lead off hitter of the future:



Update:

The one and only Jay Ballz sent over a beauty pic that I just have to share:

That's the new guy holding the trophy with not so new guy Travis d'Arnaud.

Foreshadowing?

A Lesson in Minor League Pitchers, Over-Simplified

If you know how to throw at least one good pitch... you're in Rookie ball or Extended Spring Training.
If you know how to throw at least one good pitch AND you know where it's going... you're in Single-A.
If you know how to throw at least two good pitches AND you know where only one of those pitches is going... you're in High-A.
If you know how to throw at least one or two great pitches and one good pitch AND you know where only one of those pitches is going... you're in Double-A.
If you know how to throw at least one or two great pitches and one good pitch AND you know where those pitches are going... you're in the Majors.
It's true. A pitcher who can command great stuff is only stuck in Triple-A if his Major League team is stalling to save money later on (Washington, Strasburg) or has no open spots in their starting rotation (Tampa Bay, Hellickson).
Triple-A is the placeholder league -- and that's why it's great to see the Blue Jays' Triple-A hitters (I'm looking at you, Brett Wallace) mashing the ball on their way to upcoming promotion.

Checking In On The Farm

Triple-A Las Vegas (12-12) accomplished the difficult feat yesterday of compiling 17 hits and three walks... but scoring only five runs (four in the ninth) in an 11-5 loss. The 51s now have a .294 batting average as a team, paced by 2B Jarrett Hoffpauir (.345). Meanwhile, 1B Brett Wallace continues to lead the Pacific Coast League with nine home runs.

Good news from Double-A where the first place New Hampshire Fisher Cats (16-7) are on fire, winners of six in a row. C Brian Jeroloman's batting .350 with a league-leading .458 on-base percentage; OF Eric Thames has 20 RBIs, second in the league; and speedy OF Darin Mastroianni leads the league with 12 stolen bases. I should mention, too, the terrific performance by 2B/3B Brad Emaus (.326, 2 HR, 16 RBIs, 15 walks and just two strikeouts in 14 games).

Yesterday the Cats were tied 5-5 with Reading in the fifth inning -- and then received a grand slam from Callix Crabbe amidst a seven-run explosion. New Hampshire cruised to the 16-5 rout.

In Dunedin (14-9), immensely talented 20-year-old Henderson Alvarez has only allowed one earned run in four starts (24 1/3 innings). He's 3-0 with a 0.37 ERA. Joel Carreno leads the team with 34 strikeouts, including 10 in six innings in a win at Tampa on April 27.

At Single-A, the Lansing Lugnuts' (14-10) six-game winning streak (including the first victory for 2009 1st round pick Chad Jenkins) came to an end on Thursday night. Two nights later, some history in Lansing: the 1,000th win in the franchise's history, thanks to a walk-off blow from sparkplug outfielder Chris Hopkins.

Unfortunately, perhaps the main early headline has been injuries to some promising players. Kenny Rodriguez is DL'd in New Hampshire, Travis D'Arnaud is on the shelf in Dunedin, and Matt Fields, Dave Sever, and Mark Sobolewski have all been sidelined in Lansing. Nothing looks serious as of yet, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

We Are Not Even Rebuilding, Yet.....

I know it's been a while since I posted "an original".

This topic has been floating through my mind for quite sometime.

re·build

 /riˈbɪld/ Show Spelled [ree-bild] verb,-built or (Archaic) -build·ed; -build·ing.

–verb (used with object)

1.

to repair, esp. to dismantle and reassemble with new parts: to rebuild an old car.

2.

to replace, restrengthen, or reinforce: to rebuild an army.

3.

to revise, reshape, or reorganize: to rebuild a shattered career.

–verb (used without object)

4.

to build again or afresh: With the insurance money we can rebuild.

So the line the brain trust has been using to describe the 2010 version of your Toronto Blue Jays in my opinion is bullshit.  We are not rebuilding, yet.

If you look at our Opening Day line up this year and compare it to last year, you will notice a downgrade in talent.  That is not rebuilding.  That is simply plugging holes.

In my mind, a rebuild is when you take a few young players, who clearly have no business playing at the Major League level, and run them out there so that they can get some valuable experience without worrying about the results so much.  Think: 2009 pitching staff.  Guys like Cecil, Rzep, Mills, Ray, Richmond got experience that will hopefully make them better the next time around. 

A few things have to happen before we can call it a rebuild:

• Trade Lyle Overbay
• Trade Scott Downs
• Trade Jason Frasor
• Trade Alex Gonzalez
• Trade John Buck

These veteran players are useful Major Leaguers.  But they are just spare parts on a playoff team.  They all will be free agents upon the conclusion of this season except Gonzalez.  He has an option that can be picked up. 

The problem we have here in Toronto is that we have no one knocking at the door, with the exception of Brett Wallace and J. P. Arencibia.  They should be up with this team, right now, in hopes they are able to mature as players.  But Boy Wonder is very conscious of their service time as he should be.

So therein lies the rub.  We cannot rebuild, yet.  We have to run out the vets all season and hope the preform well enough that someone is stupid enough to give us good talent for them in a trade.  This will happen close to the trade deadline at the end of July, if at all.  There is a possibility that we are forced to keep these players all season and decide whether or not to offer them arbitration in hopes that they decline and we get compensation draft picks for the 2011 Amateur Draft after they sign with a different team via free agency.
         

This season should be called a transition year.  Boy Wonder had very little to start with and he needs some time to get the talent required to rebuild.  He has shown the ability so far to trade for those types of players.  Brandon Morrow comes to mind.

Looking Forward:  
  

We, the people, need to keep it in perspective.  We are not a good team and I doubt that will change anytime soon.  We must live in the moment and cheer for our boys.  Wins and loses are not as important as personal stats right now.  We have to get our free agents to be going but only so that they can be shipped off to a team in the hunt.

Nobody said it was going to be easy.....

What happens in Vegas...

It's the PCL and so all offensive numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt... but it's good to see that the Las Vegas 51s are simply crushing the baseball early on.

Brett Wallace (.283 avg, .377 obp, .630 slg) is leading the team in walks, tied for the league lead (five homers) and is batting a cool .375 against southpaws.

J.P. Arencibia and Brian Dopirak are tied for the team lead in RBIs (9), but neither one has been great so far. Give them time.

Third baseman Christian Colonel's batting .343... but also has eight errors in 12 games.

Brad Mills (2-0, 2.04 ERA in three starts) has found his mojo. How does 24 strikeouts and four walks work for you in 17 2/3 innings? Not a bad start out of Brett Cecil (2-0, 2.45 in two starts). Closer Rommie Lewis is 5-for-5 in saves, tied for the league lead.

In summary... nothing spectacular, but a lot of encouraging performances taking shape.