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: Nov. 8 - 14

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 Dave Feschuk:

You can certainly see the argument for making more free-agent noise, and pronto. Call me impatient; a more aggressive approach would get my vote. Selling hope is nice, but an average crowd of 20,068 showed up to watch hope this past season.
Still, while franchises built around annual marketing campaigns would probably urge a young GM to sign the biggest names available, consequences be damned, Anthopoulos says he isn’t being asked to be a This-is-the-Year salesman. He’s got a honeymoon of a chance to be a full-fledged architect of something special. He’s building at his pace.
If magic happened and 2011 happened to be The Year, he said, he’s more likely to announce it in July, and make the appropriate acquisitions on the fly.
“We’re told to look for ways to improve the club ... and if the right baseball opportunity is there, the funds will be there,” Anthopoulos said. “It’s not about spending for the sake of spending ...”
He’s not spending for the sake of spending, and maybe that seals it. Manny being Manny in Toronto, and certainly Manny being happy in Toronto, seems unlikely.

I found this article on unusual MLB contract clauses. It says Manny "to be paid out in 16 installments of $1.94M, from 2011-2026." So the way I see it, he could sign for a small discount this offseason and still get paid.

Courtesy of TBO.com:

DUNEDIN - A driver plowed through the Toronto Blue Jays training facility today, running through fences before coming to a stop next to a batting cage.
Pinellas County deputies said Robert E. Gibson, 50, 1440 Wildwood Court, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries suffered in the one-vehicle crash.
Deputies said Gibson was heading east on Solon Avenue in his 2002 Ford F150 pickup at about 4 p.m. when the truck left the road and ran into the Cecil Englebert Recreational Complex.
Authorities said Gibson drove through two fences, across the ball field, through another fence leading to the batting cage area before coming to a stop.
No one else was injured. Gibson's truck sustained heavy front-end damage and had to be towed from the scene.
The crash remains under investigation.

This guy either hates baseball or he is really upset with the lack of free agent signings up to this point by your Toronto Blue Jays.

Courtesy of Bobby Elliott:

The Blue Jays have inquired about the availability of Kansas City right-hander Zack Greinke.

This one sentence sent shock waves through the fanbase. 

Courtesy of Mike Fast:

Release Point Consistency
Which pitchers have the most consistent fastball release points from game to game?  Looking at game-to-game consistency apart from the major shifts on the rubber or in arm angle provides a more interesting answer.  The values presented below use the root-mean-squared change in release point from game to game with changes over about six inches removed from the calculation.
Here are the pitchers with at least 300 innings in 2008-10 and the most consistent release points from game to game.

Pitcher	RMS Change (inches)
Shaun Marcum	1.6
Ricky Romero	1.6
Jarrod Washburn	1.6
Josh Johnson	1.7
Chris Carpenter	1.7
Justin Verlander	1.8
Aaron Cook	1.8
Nick Blackburn	1.8
Jon Lester	1.8
A.J. Burnett	1.8

Very, very interesting read.

Courtesy of Jim Callis:

Q: How do the four righthanders the Blue Jays selected in the first and sandwich rounds of the 2010 draft—Deck McGuire, Aaron Sanchez, Noah Syndergaard, Asher Wojciechowski—rank in terms of ceiling?

A: We posted our Blue Jays Top 10 Prospects list online on Friday, with McGuire at No. 2, Wojciechowski No. 6 and Sanchez No. 9. (To find out where Syndergaard checks in on our Jays Top 30, you'll have to buy the 2011 Prospect Handbook.) Those rankings are based on a combination of potential and likelihood of reaching that potential, so Rob's question is an entirely different matter.
McGuire has a good arsenal of pitches and definitely the most polish of the group, but he conceivably could rank fourth in terms of pure stuff when all of those pitchers are finished products. Wojciechowski has the best present fastball, sitting at 92-94 mph and touching at 96, but Sanchez and Syndergaard already touch 95 and have a lot of projection remaining in their slender frames. McGuire operates at 90-94 mph.
There's not much to separate McGuire's slider, Sanchez's curveball and Wojciechowski's slider. Syndergaard has made good strides with his curveball in the last year, but he figures to have the fourth-best breaking ball of the quartet. Syndergaard might have the best changeup in the long run, however, as none of them have one that stands apart from the rest right now.
Sanchez has the biggest upside of the four Jays premium picks, followed by Wojciechowski, McGuire and Syndergaard. McGuire is a lot closer to his ceiling, which is why he ranked the highest on our Jays Top 10.

Little bit of prospect porn for ya!

Courtesy of MILB:

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Pacific Coast League Most Valuable Player J.P. Arencibia of Las Vegas, International League Most Valuable Pitcher Jeremy Hellickson of Durham and Albuquerque's John Lindsey, who led Triple-A with a .353 batting average, are among the 10 players selected to the Topps Triple-A All-Star Team. The best performances in all Minor League Baseball classifications are again being honored by the Topps Company of New York in conjunction with Minor League Baseball.
J.P. Arencibia, 24, of Miami, hit .301 with 32 homers and 85 RBIs on his way to earning MVP honors in the Pacific Coast League. In 104 games, the Las Vegas 51s catcher had a .626 slugging percentage and a .986 OPS. The Toronto Blue Jays selected Arencibia in the first round in 2007 out of the University of Tennessee.

J.P. gets the nod to be part of the Topps Triple-A All-Star Team. Isn't that like being named the valedictorian of summer school?

Courtesy of Matt Eddy:

The number of MiLB free agents has declined steadily in the past four years, falling from 602 in 2007 to 561 in ’08 to 536 in ’09 to 533 this season.
Any player who was not on a 40-man roster on Nov. 6 qualified for free agency if he had accumulated at least six years of service time (minors and majors inclusive) while still bound by his first uniform minor league player contract. That contract is broken if the player is released or granted free agency by other means before he logs six years. [Update: Teams also can re-sign players to minor league deals prior to Nov. 6 to prevent them from joining the free agent ranks. This is what we've seen in the past few installments of Minor League Transactions. ME.]

Toronto Blue Jays (17)
RHP: Lance Broadway (AAA), Clint Everts (AA), Dirk Hayhurst (AAA), Steven Register (AAA), Merkin Valdez (AAA)
LHP: Willie Collazo (AAA), Zach Jackson (AAA)
C: Raul Chavez (AAA), Jonathan Jaspe (AA)
3B: Shawn Bowman (AA)
SS: Manny Mayorson (AAA), Jesus Merchan (AAA)
OF: Jason Lane (AAA), Chris Lubanski (AAA), Ricardo Nanita (AA), Welinton Ramirez (Hi A), Aaron Mathews (AAA)

A complete list of all Minor League free agents. Anybody jump out as a must re-sign?

Courtesy of King Jordan:

Considering Bautista is eligible for arbitration this winter -- or possibly in line for a long-term extension -- the Silver Slugger certainly helps his bargaining position.
"I would think it does," Bautista said with a laugh. "I'm not an expert on what gives you leverage, or more bargaining power, but I can tell you this: If I didn't receive it, I probably wouldn't be in the same position now. Accolades are always good in the negotiation process."
Bautista said that he and his agent, Bean Stringfellow, have yet to enter into contract talks with the Blue Jays. Toronto's right fielder said he understands -- given that the Jays have been dealing with hiring manager John Farrell and piecing together the team's coaching staff -- and he hopes to begin discussing his contract around mid-December.
"The team has been busy with all the stuff going on," said Bautista, who earned $2.4 million in 2010 and is eligible to become a free agent next offseason. "They were doing the managerial search, the coaching staff. I think they're going to get to the negotiations down here pretty soon, but I haven't heard anything yet."

Courtesy of Craig Calcaterra: 

The Worst:  I hated the caps with the big maple leaf they wore in the Roger Clemens era, but I really hate the “Jays” lettering on the current duds, especially the black alternates.  Like so many teams searching for a sartorial identity, the Blue Jays have settled on something that is simply generic.  If you were making a movie about baseball and couldn’t get the rights to use real major league teams, you’d come up with something that looks a lot like what they wear these days.
Assessment: If they’re not going to embrace the big Jay head in the middle of a pullover shirt, they should at least try to do something memorable and maybe even a little audacious.  What they have right now is so blah.

I'm not a fan of the most recent uniforms. Neither is this guy. 

Courtesy of Fox Sports:

Blue Jays: The Jays are in contact with the Marlins. Uggla could fill a void at third base, and the Jays are again willing to spend for the right players. They also have shown a willingness to carry potential free agents with the idea of collecting draft picks if those players sign with other clubs.

Uggla to the Jays? Seems like the Marlins are in sell off mode (again)

Courtesy of Mike Fish:

Alomar and his family name remain beloved in his native Puerto Rico. Little more than a year ago, he captured headlines back home by marrying Maripily, dubbed in gossip circles as the Paris Hilton of Puerto Rico. The celebrity couple was all smiles last summer for his enshrinement in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, where he was honored for his All-Star play and championship seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays. These days, Alomar stays busy with a clothing line he's launched, splitting time between Toronto, Tampa and Puerto Rico. But since retiring in 2005 as a 12-time All-Star, his baseball legacy slightly tarnished by the infamous spitting incident with umpire John Hirschbeck, Alomar's life has also been littered with soured relationships and legal wrangling. At least four women, including his estranged wife, have accused Alomar of being HIV positive and having unprotected sex with them. Alomar has steadfastly denied being HIV positive.
Amid the lingering personal turmoil, Alomar looms on the cusp of his greatest professional achievement. His name tops the list of players who'll be under consideration when Hall of Fame ballots are mailed out next month, and his Cooperstown induction is almost a foregone conclusion. His first time eligible last year, Alomar fell just eight votes shy of the required 75 percent of ballots cast. He was a favorite for election, though media accounts indicated some voters were reluctant to make him a first-ballot selection because of the spitting incident.
"His dream is to make the Hall of Fame," Maripily said of Alomar, a lifetime .300 hitter and one of the game's best-ever second basemen. "He was disillusioned that he did not get in [last year]."
Alomar told Newsday after the vote he was shocked by not being elected: "I'm surprised. I'm real, real, real surprised. Sometimes you have to deal with the good and the bad."

A look into the personal problems of the best Toronto Blue Jay to ever wear the uniform. Sad really. Moral of the story kids: don't marry anyone dubbed in gossip circles as the Paris Hilton of Puerto Rico.

Courtesy of Dave Cameron:

He’s probably best known for his brutal defense at third base, where he’s earned the nickname E5. In six years of mostly partial playing time, he’s still managed to rack up an awful -44.5 UZR, over half of which comes from his error problems. His career fielding percentage is .936, which is pretty terrible for a guy who also doesn’t have very good range. Toronto fans hate his defense with unbridled passion. He scored a 29 on the Fans Scouting Report in each of the last two years – remember, the rating is out of 100. That puts him in the same company as Jonny Gomes, Manny Ramirez, and Jose Guillen. Yeah.
Walks? He’s not a big fan of those, either. He’s drawn 216 unintentional free passes in 2,548 trips to the plate. He’s not an uberhack, but it would be charitable to call him anything other than a free swinger. What Encarnacion can do is hit the ball over the wall. He’s got significant home run power, averaging 24 home runs per 600 at-bats in his MLB career to date, and launching 21 in part-time action last year. Those home runs are why he was available on waivers in the first place, however.
As a 5th year arbitration eligible player with some decent counting stats to point at, and a $4.75 million base salary in 2010 to build off of, he’s looking at a pretty decent arbitration award this winter. If the A’s choose to offer arbitration, he’d probably be looking at a $6-$7 million paycheck in 2011. The Blue Jays had no interest in paying him that much, which is why they cut him loose to begin with.

I was hoping we could swing a trade for E5 but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Weekly Round Up: Oct. 25 - Oct. 31

Consider this your required reading for the week.

Consider this your required viewing for the week. And consider this a close second place.

Courtesy of 500 Level Fan:

I no longer think it is a terrible idea to sign Manny Ramirez.

In two words, here’s why:

Motivation.  Legacy.

In this writer’s opinion, Manny Ramirez has truly been motivated five times in his career:

1. 1994: His rookie year in Cleveland, to prove he belonged in the majors – .269 average, 17 HR, 60 RBI, .878 OPS, 2nd in ROY voting

2. 2000: His final season in Cleveland, a contract year – .351 average, 38 HR, 122 RBI, league-leading 1.154 OPS, All-Star, Silver Slugger

3. 2001: His first year in Boston, to prove he was worth his contract – .306 average, 41 HR, 125 RBI, 1.014 OPS, All-Star, Silver Slugger

4. 2004 World Series: To prove he could perform in the World Series – .412 average, 1 HR, 4 RBI in 4 games, 1.088 OPS, World Series Champion

5. Second half of 2008: First arrival in LA, to prove Boston wrong for trading him – .396 average, 17 HR, 53 RBI in 53 games, 1.232 OPS, 4th in NL MVP voting

There’s no way a beat up Manny Ramirez was motivated upon arriving in Chicago last year, to a team that doubted him and was already out of the pennant race.

So why will he be motivated in 2011?  Because of that second word: legacy.

Jeremy has got some great points right there. I'm still torn. Gonna have to wait and see if the White Sox offer arbitration.....cuz if they do, than forget about Man Ram in Toronto.

Courtesy of Chris Zelkovich:

The Toronto Blue Jays payroll will increase for the 2011 season and could rise even more if the team is in contention next summer.

Rogers Media president Keith Pelley said in an interview Wednesday that the team’s payroll will increase over the winter, mainly because of the number of Blue Jays eligible for arbitration. Those eligible include American League home run champion Jose Bautista and pitchers Brandon Morrow and Shaun Marcum.

“Obviously, the payroll will need to be increased to be able to sustain the team we had this year and then compete for a championship,” Pelley said. “This team is poised to be a competitive, exciting ball club for the next 10 years.”

A new talking head in charge. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Courtesy of You Don`t Know Dick:

How about from the player’s side, Bautista’s feelings of loyalty to the Jays for giving him the opportunity to play every day after four years of journeyman status? Or what would be best for him moving forward — a multi-year deal after just one superb season, with lingering doubts playing on the bottom-line offer, or a second fabulous season that would erase any doubts and set him up for life?

“It depends on how you look at it,” Bautista said. “From my point of view as a player, I’m not worried by any concern that the team might have whether I can repeat it or not. I have no problems with an arbitration deal and going back out there and hopefully doing as well as I did this year. Maybe I won’t hit 54 home runs. I want to be a productive player. That being said, I can also hit 60.”

Congats on the Hank Aaron Award! So where does he finish in the MVP vote? 

Courtesy of John Lott:

Butterfield refused comment on his other options, but he would have had no difficulty finding work elsewhere. He is highly respected throughout baseball and has always been popular with his players.
He said he does not know Farrell well, but developed respect for his work as Boston’s pitching coach over the past four seasons. Former Red Sox pitching great Curt Schilling was among many of Butterfield’s baseball friends who spoke highly of Farrell, he said.
“Curt Schilling is someone I have the utmost respect for, and he thinks John Farrell is one of the brightest, best men in all of baseball,” Butterfield said. “That was certainly good enough for me.”
Butterfield played five years in the minor leagues and began his pro coaching career at 26, eventually managing five years in the minors. Now 52, he remains confident he will manage in the majors.

I give him a lot respect for sticking around with the team. Now go out there and make Adam Lind into a first baseman, God damn it.

Courtesy of Roto Graphs:

Because as bad as last year looked, there was a progression in his numbers that might give his owners some hope. Here are his isolated slugging percentages, starting with his rookie year, and not including last year: .125, .113, .136. And his flyball percentages: 22.9%, 24.7%, 30.0%. And his groundball percentages: 56%, 58.2%, 50%. And his HR/FB: 7.9%, 9.1%, 10.1%. If only last year’s .062 ISO, 28.4% flyballs, 53.6% groundballs and 3.3% HR/FB didn’t spoil the fun, you could say that his batted ball profile was trending towards more power.

A decent article written from a fantasy perspective on Esco. Does anyone really care if he hits bombs? Don't get me wrong, it's always nice to have but I would much prefer to see him work the count and get on base for the big boys.

Courtesy of John Lott:

Backup catcher Jose Molina will return to the Toronto Blue Jays next season, providing them with a veteran presence to complement the expected full-season debut of J.P. Arencibia.
The Jays have picked up Molina’s US$1.2-million club option. Molina, 35, batted .246 with 12 RBIs and a career-high six homers. He threw out 40.6% of potential base stealers.
In his 11-year career, Molina has a .236 average while stopping 37.7% of steal attempts against him.

As expected, we exercised the option on Molina. Classic catch and throw guy. Whatever he does with the stick is gravy.

Courtesy of Shi Davidi:

In John Farrell he certainly believes he's found that man, a former big-league pitcher who has worked both as a farm director and pitching coach and whose only real question mark seems to be a lack of previous managerial experience.
The 48-year-old from Monmouth Beach, N.J., named the 12th manager in franchise history Monday afternoon, is an articulate speaker with a commanding presence and a winning background.

His challenge now is to leverage a strong and wide-ranging resume to take charge of an entire team, and match wits with four elite rival managers in the American League East.
"There were a lot of very qualified candidates out there, but what it came down to was who had the chance to be the best manager, long term," said Anthopoulos. "It was very difficult for me to go into this process and hire someone who I felt could be good but not great, it's not the way I operate, I don't think it's what we need in this division and to get where we need to get to.
"I had to hire someone that I felt had a chance to be great."

This was the best write up I could find on our new fearless leader. I must say, seeing him in a Red Sox uni up till the point he was hired made me angry. My hatred for them runs deep.