Weekly Round Up : May 24 - 30

Consider this your required reading for the week.  The Natural.  Has a nice ring to it.

Courtesy of our boy Jay Ballz @ PhoulBallz

Halladay, generally a very composed individual, showed emotion after the final out was recorded, smiling big, for all to see. With 2 outs in the 9th inning, Halladay induced a grounder to third baseman Juan Castro, who ranged left, spun around and quickly threw out former Phillie Ronny Paulino, at first base, to lock up the landmark game in the lore of Philadelphia baseball.
Roy Halladay is now Mr. Perfect.

So the one night I shut it down and get some much needed sleep and Roy does this?  Go figure.  I wonder if the Philly faithful are still worried about trading away their prospects for this guy?  I think not.

Callum from Mop Up Duty was live blogging the game.  Great job as always.

Courtesy of Baseball Prospectus:

DL: You’re off to a great start this season. Why?

 VW: I try to be consistent, I think. I got into so many bad habits last year, whether it had to do with my wrists or my head or whatever the heck was bothering me. It was kind of a strange time. I went into the offseason, had the wrist surgery, and kind of had a chance to step away from the game, clear my head and be with my family. What I went through last year changed me mentally and made me stronger. Coming into the season, it was just go out and try to be the best player I can be.

Nice interview with Vernon.  Once Hill and Lind get going, he should get a lot more RBI opportunities.   

 RIP little Gary Coleman

Courtesy of John Lott @ The National Post:

The transformation of Jose Bautista began in a clubhouse video cubicle last July, with Cito Gaston and Dwayne Murphy looking over his shoulder and whispering words of wisdom.
He had heard the message before. This time, something clicked.
"I just remember sitting there in the video room looking at the film, comparing [my swing] to other people," Bautista said. "Wording it the way they did, what they said just made total sense."
Gaston, the Toronto Blue Jays manager, and Murphy, the hitting coach, chant the same mantra to every struggling hitter: Start your swing earlier. 

Did you know that Bautista and Wells together have hit more homeruns than any other duo in baseball with 28?  Now that they are hitting back to back in the order, I wonder what happens when Snider returns?   

Courtesy of CBS:

Now, nearly two years later, Marcum has finally confirmed his usefulness. In some ways, he has even exceeded expectations, walking a career-low 2.0 batters per nine innings, which is especially impressive considering control is one of the last things to return following surgery. He still has the same respectable strikeout rate. He still has the same cut fastball that keeps hitters from making solid contact. Over his last 35 starts dating back to his semi-breakout 2008 campaign, he has a 3.22 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP, which is the stuff of Cy Young contenders. 

I think he may be deserving of an All Star Game nomination.  We can't vote on pitchers as fans but I hope the people that do have taken note of his brilliance this season.   

Courtesy of Forbes:

Baseball fans pour through the turnstiles to see certain teams and avoid others like the plague. The top 5 draws (based on percent of stadium capacity for which tickets were sold for both home and road games) this season have been the Red Sox (87%), Phillies (86%), Yankees (83%), Twins (82%) and Cubs (82%). The bottom five are the Blue Jays (46%), Athletics (48%), Mariners (49%), Royals (50%) and Reds (50%). I think most of the explanation is based on three factors: winning, star players and television (either national or cable). The top 5 draws have at least two of these factors going for them while the bottom five have at most one. It also tells me that teams that focus too much on Money Ball rather than paying up for superstars do more harm for the popularity of the game than good.

Interesting analysis by the author.  When will the fans start to come back and watch this exciting team? 

Courtesy of ESPN: 

• Who's on Fausto?: Here's one to keep your eye on. We keep hearing the Blue Jays will have money to spend if they're still in the race. And one player they clearly have their eye on is resurgent Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona.
"They're definitely tracking Carmona," one scout said. "They've probably watched a dozen Carmona starts in a row, going back to spring training. Every time I've seen him, they've had a guy there who wouldn't normally be there, guys who were only coming in for a day and then leaving."

Anytime I hear Carmona's name, I think of this.  Good times.

Courtesy of Sportsnet:

Hey Buck, what is the purpose of the necklaces that the players, mostly pitchers, wear? Dave Walters
BUCK: I just asked the Jays trainer the theory behind the necklaces as I wasn't sure. He told me they are Titanium and are thought to have an impact on the ionic composition of the body. The necklaces are said to help the body bring the chemical balance closer to normal and give the player a "refreshed" feeling. The same is thought about the copper bracelets you see some golfers wear. I am not sure how effective they are but the players wear them an awful lot. 

That takes care of that.  Thanks Buck.  

Courtesy of Globe Sports:

Paxton Affair Update:

Paxton was expected to be drafted higher last year, but teams feared both his bonus demands and Boras, called “one of the shrewdest and best-prepared negotiators in sports” by Beeston. Toronto offered a bonus in excess of $873,000 (all currency U.S.), the figure recommended by MLB’s head office, but it was not enough, and Paxton was one of two highly drafted Canadian pitchers who did not sign with the Jays.
“I don’t really know what their motivation was, or what their tactics were,” Paxton said. “It’s too bad we couldn’t get something figured out. We both kind of agreed to disagree.” 

Paxton is 1 -1 with a 5.11 ERA in 3 starts pitching against a bunch of nobody's.  Fuck em.  Looks good on him.

Courtesy of CBS:

Frasor sees velocity return: Toronto RP Jason Frasor lost velocity on his pitches earlier in the season and was worried that he could no longer dial it up like he used to. Frasor, however, told MLB.com that he is back to throwing as hard as he knows he can and it has helped his confidence of late. "I just kind of like to throw everything as hard as I can and see where that gets me," he said. "But it came back and hopefully it sticks."
(Updated 05/26/2010).

Fantasy Analysis

Frasor has given up one run over his last 11 innings with 11 strikeouts. Prior to that, Frasor had struggled with a 9.35 ERA over his first 10 games of the season. He has clearly turned things around but remains nothing more than a low-end middle reliever for the deepest of AL-only leagues that use true middle men at this point.  Remember the good old days?  The Blue Jay Hunter sure does.

 

Game 50 Recap: It's Been A While

That right there is the grip used for quite possibily the best change up in the Major Leagues.

I have been watching as many games as I can. The west coast swing made it quite difficult to stay up and give you all a report. With the boys back in town for what use to be known as Flashback Fridays, I had a chance to make some notes.

Aaron Hill is running MUCH better. He didn't hesitate to advance to second base on a poor relay throw after his solid RBI single in the first inning. He even tagged up on a medium fly ball and went to third, eventually scoring on Bautista's triple. Neither of those leg plays were possible even a week ago. Important to have that speed in the two hole. He also homered on an 0 - 2 fastball / mistake that was up in the zone in the bottom of the 6th.

Buck Martinez referred to the Rogers Centre as the SkyDome during the Wieters at bat in the top of the 2nd. Wonder if there is a fine for that?

John Buck really controlled this game from behind the dish. He helped Marcum get out of trouble all day and made some huge blocks on balls in the dirt. That gives the pitcher confidence to throw the breaking ball in any count, in any situation. Buck even went to the outside indicator after veteran Miguel Tejada got to second base. As a former catcher, I was disappointed in the fact that I did not really know what the purpose of those signs were. Obviously, they are signals similar to the fingers but after a few phone calls to the crew, jaysaremy2ndfavoriteteam informed me that they are usually used to signal to the middle infielders on attempted pitch location. He used to be a shortstop, you see. Fucking little guys.

Roberto Alomar made a brief appearance in the booth with Pat and Buck. He is in town for the roll out of his new clothing line called Second 2 None.  After sucking The Cito's dick for a bit, he stated: "There have not been a lot of big, big numbers offensive wise" when discussing the Jays style of play this year. Apparently he has not been watching to close.  I wonder if he is going to stick around for a little Men's C slopitch on Monday night in Georgetown?   I'm being serious.  Click that link right now.

Starting pitcher Shaun Marcum had to work for this W. He struggled with his command a little bit but he was able to get out of a few jams and strand the base runners. In the 6th inning, his final inning, he reaches back into the tank and K'd the side. Impressive performance.

His line: 6 IP, 6 Hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 106 Pitches

How do you not mention V Dub?  He hit a laser beam in the bottom of the 6th inning giving him 12 on the year. It also put him second on the career all time list for home runs by a Toronto Blue Jay with 204. He now trails only King Carlos and his 336.

#SorryVernon

I will end with this: my prayers have been answered.  Lyle fucking Overbay and his .197 average got moved down in the order.  Thank fuck.  He responded with an 0 for 3.  Shocking.

Game 24 Recap: Timely Hitting, Quality Pitching = Blow Out

Your Toronto Blue Jays put up a bunch of crooked numbers on the boxscore.  A 10 - 2 thumping tends to include that.  Looks like the team has done some sort of voodoo ritual on the bats.  Thank God.  Hopefully we can keep it going.  We were 3 for 7 with runners in scoring position and had 6 two out RBI.

Everybody except Fred Lewis and Jose Bautista got in on the fun.  A quick look at some of the individual hitting performances:

Alex Gonzalez went 2 for 3 with 2 homers and 4 RBI.  The first one was a three run job to get us on the board in the second inning.  The other one he hit in the sixth was a frozen rope to the pull field.  He got his average up to .289 for the season.  Impressive display from the all glove shortstop.

Vernon Wells went 3 for 4 with a homer his 200th for the career.  It took him nearly 5,000 at bats to reach the milestone.  Congrats is in order.  Oh, and one more thing: #SorryVernon.

Aaron Hill was 1 for 4 with a walk and 2 RBI.  He seems to still be a little banged up from his hamstring injury.  Playing on the turf can not be helping. 

Travis Snider was 1 for 3 with a walk.  His plate appearances are getting a little easier to watch.  Still swinging for the fences but at least now he seems to be grasping the concept of working towards a hitters count.

John Buck continued his hot streak with a 2 for 3 night.  He managed to get his average up to .215 for the year, which is 60 points higher than it was on Thursday.

The pitching side of the house did a fantastic job tonight as well.  Brandon Morrow seems to have found his groove and won his second game of the year.  Just keeping pounding that zone down early in the counts, then climb the ladder with the hard stuff Brandon and everything will be ok.  I promise.

Tonight his line was 6 IP, 7 Hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K on 109 pitches.  73 of those were strikes.  Nice outing.

Jason Frasor came in and tried the pitching thing again.  First pitch he threw almost took his head off on the comebacker.  To his credit, he settled down and striking out two batters in his inning of work.  Mr. Umpire missed the call on the back end of a double play or else he would have faced the minimum.

Looking Forward:

We got Dana Eveland taking the ball for us against Gio Gonzalez for the 1:07 start.  Eveland is coming off a bad start against Boston where he gave up 7 earned runs in just three innings pitched.  I wonder if he has another bad one or two, will he be a candidate to move to the pen?  He is out of options and would need to be exposed to waivers if the brain trust tries to send him down.  Wolverine is scheduled to begin his "rehab assignment" soon and will do so as a starter.  His return is said to be sometime in May.

Quickly:

Speaking of waivers, much to my surprise Merkin Valdez passed through them unclaimed on Thursday!  He will join the 51s in Vegas after being outrighted to the minors.  Bonus.