Game recaps from Mike Wilner, John Lott and Brendan Kennedy, and a recap from the Las Vegas win.

JAYS LINKS

Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays - May 29, 2012
Gameday preview of tonight's game.

Jays vs. MLB umps
Omar Vizquel has some advice for the frustrated Jays.

How Blue Jays latest roster moves affect Adeiny Hechavarria
Griffin breaks down the recent Jays roster moves.

Nomad Chavez finds a home
Vagabond Jesse Chavez hopes a successful springtime move to the rotation has finally allowed him to find a home with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Toronto Blue Jays prospect Anthony Gose has tools, confidence
Nothing really new here but I always like reading the prospect pieces.

2012 MLB Draft Target No. 7: Chris Stratton
Jays Journal is looking at some potential draft targets of the Jays. They are also continuing their top prospects posts.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

A Graphic Look at Adam Jones Production vs Actual Cost
A Beyond the Boxscore graphic.

Who Will Come Out Of The AL East?
Parkes looks at ZiPS projections and coolstandings.com in a regression piece.

Controversial call by umpire Bill Welke costs Tigers (GIF)
The Jays aren't the only ones with umpire issues.

Should Rockies Give Up On Jamie Moyer?
Rob Neyer thinks the jury is still out, but that we might not be seeing much more of Moyer.

Barry Bonds hoping to help out with Giants
Well, that could be interesting.

No No-No, No Cry
No Mets pitcher has ever thrown a no-hitter - Craig Glaser wonders how unlikely their no no-no streak is, and how many no-hitters would we expect them to have?

Well, I don't have any interesting baseball stories to tell like Minor Leaguer did yesterday. I spent the long weekend being productive, which isn't nearly as fun as spending the long weekend watching baseball. Oh well, it was a great weekend weather wise, and a good long weekend for the Jays, winning 3 of 4. Nice to take the game in Tampa last night, hopefully the Jays can keep it up tonight. Game recaps of that win from Gregor Chisholm, Wilner and Griffin. To top off a good baseball weekend, the Fisher Cats pitchers combined for a no-hitter. Here is the recap from New Hampshire.

Finally, before I jump into the Jays links, take 5 seconds and check out this sweet colourization of the Willie Mays famous catch. Great stuff.

JAYS LINKS

Pat Hentgen sees greatness in Blue Jays prospects
Hentgen spent a week at Lansing recently, and he has great things to say about the young pitchers there, going as far as making comparisons to Roy Halladay, Chris Carpenter and Justin Verlander.

J.P. Arencibia named AL Player of the Week
He is the first Blue Jay catcher to win the award.

Litsch in limbo
An update on Litsch's situation.

Vladimir Guerrero set to become the 56th player to suit up for Expos and Blue Jays
Kevin Glew gives us some Canadian related facts about the Jays most recent acquisition.

MLB youth academy lifts 51s' Gose to great heights
Anthony Gose has been hitting well, and could soon be the third player from The Compton Urban Youth Academy to play in the majors.

Future Shock: Monday Morning Ten Pack
Kevin Goldstein writes about D'Arnaud in a prospect update. He finishes with this:

Despite his on-base struggles, big league catcher J.P. Arencibia is still a valuable commodity for his power alone, but with the first-base slot suddenly open due to Adam Lind's continued struggles, there just might be a way to keep both the incumbent and the top prospect in the end.

I'm not sure that JPA can hit well enough to play 1B or DH, but who knows. He won't be any worse than Lind was to start the season I guess.

While Texas still reigns, there is some hostile movement coming from the right
Power rankings are a waste of time, rabble, rabble, rabble. I know they're not the most useful exercise, but Jonah Keri has the Jays up to 7th in his weekly list.

Lots from around the league after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

A win, a win! Nice to see the bats wake up and a pretty solid outing from Drabek last night. Game recaps as usual from Mike Wilner, John Lott, Gregor Chisholm and a minor league recap of yesterday's Fisher Cats double header split.

JAYS LINKS

New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays - May 17, 2012
Gameday preview of tonight's game where the Jays take on Phil Hughes. Hughes, although good last game, hasn't had a good start to the season so hopefully we'll see another offensive outburst tonight. Also of note:

Bautista's shot on Wednesday was his 122nd with the Blue Jays, tying him with Jose Cruz Jr. for ninth in franchise history.

Pitching key to Toronto's Interleague fortunes
Gregor Chisholm previews this seasons interleague schedule. This part=ouch:

The Blue Jays are coming off four consecutive losing seasons against the National League, and overall, the club is just 123-142 since Interleague Play was introduced in 1997.

Vladimir Guerrero begins journey back to the big leagues
Apparently Vlad's main goal is to make it to 500 home runs. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have another 51 HR's in him.

Toronto Blue Jays' Adam Lind looks to turn his luck around
Apparently Lind thinks he's been a victim of bad luck.

Regression to the frakin' mean
A few thoughts from The Southpaw

The Weight of Expectations
Let's manage those expectations, shall we?

Thoughts on AL East strength
Joe Lemire writes about the dominance of the AL East so far, along with a few other early season trends, including a decrease in multi-homerun games and longer appearances by starting pitchers.

Greetings From Dunedin
Another prospect update from Bradley Ankrom.

Appealing or postponing?
Here's my one and only article covering the Lawrie helmet throw and subsequent suspension (because quite frankly, I'm sick of hearing about it). Shi Davidi wonders if Lawrie (and the Jays) are appealing the suspension, or postponing it so that the four games aren't against an AL East rival.

Best baseball blowups
Well, I guess this one is related to the Lawrie incident too - the Toronto Sun has 9 videos of baseball's 'best' blow ups. The rosin bag as a grenade was pretty funny.

Lots more from around the league after the jump!

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Well that was a disappointing start to the home stand for the Jays. Hopefully they can rebound tonight, but David Price seems to save his best for the Jays so we'll see. At least my softball team won our first game of the year so it wasn't a completely disappointing night! As usual, I'll start you off with game recaps from Mike Wilner, Brendan Kennedy (Toronto Star), Gregor Chisholm and here's the recap of the Las Vegas win from yesterday.

JAYS LINKS

Blue Jays helping bring baseball to Haiti
A nice feel-good story about Rogers impact on youngsters in Haiti.

Blue Jays’ Brandon Morrow embraces being a role model for diabetics
Brandon Morrow has quite a routine to follow in order to keep is diabetes in check. His 'personal mission' is to let diabetic kids know that their dreams are possible.

Tampa Bay Rays at Toronto Blue Jays - May 15, 2012
Gameday preview of tonight's game.

With the Blue Jays, expect the unexpected
According to Farrell, the results of the 10 game road trip were unacceptable.

Is Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista about to break out?
Guy Spurrier at the National Post takes a look at pitch selection and compares Bautista's hitting outcomes between 2011 and 2012. Nice article from a daily, with actual analysis.

Santos progressing, throws from 90 feet
Good news! McGowan is throwing as well according to the Chisholm piece.

Has Brett Lawrie Already saved 14 runs so far this year?
Tango chimes in on Lawrie's crazy defensive metrics thus far. Some interesting discussion in the comments as well.

A Review of the New Blue Jays Uniforms
Ian at The Bluejay Hunter likes the new uni's. Now that we've seen them in action for a month, what are everyone's thoughts?

More Links, from around the league, after the jump!

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Here's a links post that I'm sure about 10 of you will appreciate (based on TFSML's poll, below). Joking aside, since yesterday was an off-day and there are only about 15 links today, I thought I'd take the opportunity to take a quick look at a few of the Jays minor league players and how their major league equivalent numbers would compare to the current Jays.

This post ended up a lot longer than I had originally expected, so I'll start you off with your links and if your interested in the MLB equivalent numbers of the AAA Jays players, head on down after the jump to check those out. If people are interested in this sort of thing, I'll do another post in a month or two, separate from the links post. For the links, I'll start you out with Minor League recaps from yesterdays Las Vegas win and Fisher Cats loss.

JAYS LINKS

Offseason work paying off for Edwin Encarnacion Encarnacion
John Farrell says that Anthopoulos deserves a lot of the credit with regards to Encarnacion.

Snider in no rush - sportsnet.ca
Shi Davidi has a piece on Snider's injury, and his relationship with AAA hitting coach, Chad Mottola.

Seize the day, Jays
Ken Fidlin says it's important that the Jays take care of business against Oakland and Minnesota this week, especially considering their schedule in upcoming weeks.

The Most Expensive Bench Coach In Baseball
Parkes wonders why the Jays bother using one of their roster spots on Vizquel

Three Things From Week Five
The 500 Level Fan talks about the pitching staff, JPA, and slow starts.

Forgotten Former Toronto Blue Jays
Callum Hughson takes a look at how a whole bunch of ex-Jays are doing this season.

San Francisco Wins Battle of ’07 Multiple Draft Picks
Marc Hulet looks at the four teams (including the Jays) that had five picks before the 2nd round in the 2007 draft, and updates us on how they've done.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Is 5 Games Enough For Cole Hamels?
I'm sure everyone has heard about this - Hamels admitted to throwing at Bryce Harper...just because he felt like it. Rob Neyer wonders if 5 games is enough, considering Hamels won't really miss a start.

San Francisco Giants' Guillermo Mota gets 100-game ban
And in slightly more substantial suspension news...

The perils of rebuilding: how "the right way" in theory can be absolutely the wrong way in real life
Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times takes a look at early season attendance trends in an interesting piece.

Flip Flop Fly Ball – 20 Strikeout Games
Craig Robinson with yet another great info graphic.

The Mariano Rivera Fact Sheet
Mike Axisa takes a look at some interesting nuggets about Rivera's career.

Werth’s Injury Will Keep Harper Around
Jayson Werth is hurt again, which means Bryce Harper's job is safe for a while.

The Orioles are squawking, while our no. 1 is looking ragged
If you want to know how the rest of the league is doing, check out Jonah Keri's "The 30".

The major league equivalencies are after the jump!

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Nice series win against the Rangers! Game recaps from yesterday afternoons win from Brendan Kennedy (Toronto Star), Bill Lankhof, Wilner and Robert Macleod. I also have recaps from The 51s' win yesterday, and the Fisher Cats loss. How does everyone think we'll do in Los Angeles this weekend? I think I'd be happy with the Jays winning two - thoughts? Oh, and for a little bit of hilarious, check out the Worst call of the MLB season so far. Lots more links today so keep reading!

JAYS LINKS

Carlos Villanueva Explains Role With MLBPA
Interesting article on Charlie V.

Homers and Pride
Joanna at Hum and Chuck with some thoughts about the Rangers series.

Toronto Blue Jays at Los Angeles Angels
Preview of the Jays next series - at least they don't have to face Weaver.

Jose Bautista is El Hombre compared to Albert Pujols
Griffin writes about the Angels struggles.

Woman celebrates 100th birthday at Blue Jays game
Awesome! This is what I want to do for my 100th birthday! Except, my birthday isn't in the summer. So, maybe my 100 yr, 6 month birthday. Or my 99 yr, 6 month birthday just in case I don't make it that far.

Omar Vizquel hints toward retirement
He's 51% sure that this is his last year.

A few more Jays links, and lots from around the league after the jump!

Continue reading this post »

Does anyone else remember that year that the Jays won 16 or 17 games against the Oriole's? Neither do I. Game recaps of yesterday's loss from Wilner, Gregor Chisholm, Griffin, and John Lott.

JAYS LINKS

Johnson among AL second base leaders
Griffin is happy with Kelly at 2B. He stacks up well by other metrics as well thus far. He's 2nd in wRC+ (behind Kinsler) and 3rd in UZR/150 (behind Kinsler and Cano).

Thames takes series-opening loss hard
Lots of people inside the Blue Jays' clubhouse were surprised at how hard Eric Thames took Tuesday night's 2-1 loss to the Orioles, but manager John Farrell wasn't among them.

This Tricky Thing with Thames and Travis
Is that we still like him? What would people think of Snider in LF, EE at 1B and Thames at DH?

Toronto Blue Jays' Omar Vizquel 'grateful' to be playing at age 45

Baseball player. Painter. Dancer. Musician. Poet. Writer. Calf-thrower. Lover of arepas

Omar sounds like a cheesy movie character cliche.

A few more Jays links and lots from around the league, after the jump!

Continue reading this post »

It's never much fun writing these after a blowout loss, but they happen. I think today I'll pass on the game recaps. They're not a whole lot of fun to read after a loss like that. Hopefully the Jays rebound today and it'll be interesting to see how Alvarez pitches after not having his best stuff on the weekend. There are a couple of minor league recaps, where Vegas lost and McGuire had a good game, leading the Fisher Cats to a win. Also a very long prospect update post, so be sure to check that out.

JAYS LINKS

The Kelly Johnson Conundrum
Ian thinks that if the Jays are planning on resigning KJ, that they should do so now. Thoughts? What do you think Johnson would be worth on the open market?

Toronto Blue Jays weighing their options for fifth starter
Since Carreno did pitch last night, I'm assuming it will be between Hutchison or Chavez. Or the mystery trade / waiver claim man.

McGowan returns to his throwing program
McGowan is throwing again...which puts him roughly 6 weeks from making his season debut. I didn't think he would be out until June because of the foot thing.

2012 MLB Draft: Blue Jays Hold 5 of first 60 picks
The 2012 MLB Draft order was released on April 17 and the Blue Jays are only one of two teams with five selections in the first 60 picks (1st round and supplementary 1st round).

MINOR LEAGUE LINKS

Greetings From Dunedin: April 18
Bradley Ankrom has a giant prospect update post. This was written yesterday, before last nights games. Good stuff.

51s start fast, then fizzle in loss to Bees
Another loss for the 51's. At least Gose and Hech each put up a couple of hits. And Snider had another double.

Top-pick McGuire hurls Fisher Cats to victory
Kevin Gray with the scoop.

David Rollins: Dialed In
Jared Macdonald at Jays Journal looks at Lansing's number 4 starter, who he tells us not to overlook.

Lots of 'around the league' links after the jump, including early season trends, and the ageless wonder.

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Here are your Tuesday morning links. A little quiet around regarding the Jays after the off day yesterday. I think maybe the most interesting Jays related information is that Gregor Chisholm, in an fan mail piece, thinks that Drew Hutchison might have a chance to pitch for the Jays whenever they need a 5th starter again. He thinks that it's between either Joel Carreno or Hutchison and that Cecil and Laffey probably won't have a chance. Who would you rather see pitching? Do you think Hutchison is ready to pitch in the majors, or would you rather see him pitch a couple of months of AA? In the same article, Gregor noted that David Cooper could be trade bait later this season. Is Cooper actually worth anything as trade bait?

JAYS LINKS

Eric Thames: Outside Adjustments
Matthias Koster takes a look at how pitchers are pitching differently to Thames this year than they were when he first made the majors last season.

Blue Jays and Rays built the same way
Griffin compares the Jays and Rays position by position. And also supplied this tidbit that I hadn't heard:

The Jays now have inherited the longest current MLB streak of under-30 starting assignments, The last 30 or older to start for the Jays was 275 games ago, Brian Tallet on June 8, 2010. The next will likely be Dustin McGowan when he comes off the DL to become the fifth starter.

Toronto Blue Jays get some country flavour with Colby Rasmus, Evan Crawford
The National Post has a little piece about how Rasmus and Evan Crawford have known each other since they were 12.

Blue Jays Batting Order Optimization
Scott Barber at Jays Journal goes through the optimization exercise. I would have liked to see him run the optimization with projected wOBA instead of career wOBA. Career numbers give a huge boost to Lawrie thanks to small sample size. Anyone care to let me know the results?

The rest are after the jump!

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Nice start to the season! Four wins, 2nd place in the east. Hopefully the Jays keep it up this weekend against Baltimore. There's no game today, however I have a boat load of links for your reading pleasure. Grab a coffee, read, discuss. Want to talk about something else? Feel free. Here's a few Jays links to get you started, but much much more after the jump.

JAYS LINKS

Those Shifty Blue Jays
Drew Fairservice at Getting Blanked looks at how the Jays utilized the exaggerated infield shift against different Red Sox players - seems that they are making well informed decisions on where to place their infielders.

Drabek Watch: Overanalyzing His First Start
Don't worry Matt, if bloggers didn't over analyze everything, we wouldn't have much to talk about. Nice post about Drebek's first start.

Blue Jays grounds crew jumps the gun
Whoops!

Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays
Paul Casella at MLB.com previews the upcoming Jays / O's series.

Lots of Minor League Links, Game Recaps and Around the League Links after the Jump!

Continue reading this post »

It's finally here bluebird-ites! One of my favorite days of the year - opening day. Lots of links for you to read. Have fun in the comments and be back here this afternoon for the game thread!

JAYS LINKS

Toronto Blue Jays at Cleveland Indians - April 5, 2012
MLB.com previews today's opening day match-up.

Five Bold Predictions and my AL East preview
Doug Plourd at JaysProspects has a few minor league predictions for this season.

Why not in 2012?
Shi Davidi says that there are questions that need to be asked with the Toronto Blue Jays, but for a change, "Why not in 2012?" deserves to be among them.

Up-the-middle mix of d'Arnaud, Hechavarria, Gose sets pace for 51s
It's too bad Vegas isn't closer because it could be a lot of fun watching this team this year.

Fisher Cats start their title defense tonight
Kevin Gray previews the Jays AA affiliate.

More Jays links and a few from around the league after the jump!

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I think Tom's recap below is probably enough for everyone so no recaps in today's link post. Lots of talk today about Cecil and whether he'll make the rotation or not. Which direction do you think the Jays will go? Two more days folks! Happy days are almost on us!

Edit: According to several tweeters, Cecil has been optioned to AA and Joel Carreno will fill his spot on the staff for now.

JAYS LINKS

Cecil concerns grow
Shi Davidi wonders if Cecil will break camp with the team or not - thoughts? Any predictions on the starting staff?

Projected 2012 New Hampshire Fisher Cats Roster
Jays Journal has the projected AA roster. Considering their starting rotation (Hutchison, McGuire, Jenkins and Carreno), if Cecil doesn't make this rotation to start the year, when do the Jays start converting him to a reliever?

Roger Clemens' son, a Fisher Cat, is his own man
Speaking of New Hamshire, Koby Clemens (a first baseman) is suiting up for the Jays AA affiliate this season.

How was Dunedin? Funny you should ask
Bob Elliot with a fun little spring training story.

Return to Cleveland significant for Blue Jays infielder Omar Vizquel
Omar is looking forward to this one.

The rest are after the jump, including talk of those two big contract extensions that happened this week.

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You know what everyone - I hate spring training. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it'd be a blast to actually be in Florida for a week or two during the spring, but I hate spring training from the confines of my living room here in the great white north. Every year the same thing happens - I get super excited for about two days after it starts. By the end of the first week, after I realize that I won't actually see any spring games thanks to the terrible Rogers coverage, I stop caring a little bit. After week two, I've read about 927 fluff articles about players in the best shape of their lives and players with new 'great' attitudes and all that. By the end of week three, the position 'battles' are over and we still have a week or two left.

Come on regular season, we're ready for you!

The big news yesterday was obviously the Dustin McGowan extension. Lots of articles about that around however, not many with actual opinions. Wilner likes the deal. Parkes and Stoeten both hate the deal, the other 73 articles didn't offer an opinion one way or another. I'm kind of surprised that the fan poll below was so in favor because it is a bit of a risk, but really, it's only $3M. If it blows up, whatever, big deal. If that $3M prevents the Jays from signing someone down the line, then fine, this extension was a mistake. But is that really going to happen?

On a slightly more entertaining note, the Star has a hilarious picture from the broadcast of a Cards game. Minor League Guy on Third. Now picture this happening to a top Jays prospect - say Anthony Gose. Hilarious!

Lots more after the jump.

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Grab a coffee. Read. Discuss.

RECAPS

Griffin

Wilner

The Globe and Mail

Brittany Ghiroli (MLB.com)

- A whole lotta links after the jump -

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Fangraphs has wrapped up their positional ranking series, covering relievers here. I thought I'd take a look at how the Jays have fared, position by position, compared to the other AL East Teams. An archive of all of the posts can by found here.

Do those numbers make sense? Any stand-outs? Onto the links.

Game recaps of yesterday's win over the O's by Jeff Blair, Griffin, Wilner and Jim Hawkins (mlb.com).

Apparently half of the main stream media decided to write about Omar Vizquel yesterday. Take a look at these articles by Blair, Elliott, Jim Hawkins and Griffin if you want.

Lots more after the jump!

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Minor Leaguer brought the heat yesterday with approximately 749 links (nice post by the way)! I don't have quite so many but hopefully there's enough to keep you entertained for a while.

I'll start it off with recaps of yesterday's loss from Tom, Gregor Chisholm, The Globe and Mail and Richard Griffin. And for a little fun, Ian at The Bluejay Hunter and Scott at Getting Blanked have photoshop fun with Kyle Drabek and Bobby Valentine.

JAYS LINKS

Blue Jays pitcher Henderson Alvarez more relaxed at second spring training
Griffin with a spring training piece on Alvarez and his improved slider / cutter.

Blue Jays buzzing about young Cuban Hechavarria
A piece on Vizquel and Hechavarria. Apparently Vizquel'd debut was two weeks before Hech was born. Heh.

Crawford impressing when opportunities arise
According to Chisholm, reliever Evan Crawford is impressing some people. Doubt he makes this bullpen but could be a mid-season callup.

Jays never dull with Lawrie around
Another article about Lawrie's impact in the Jays clubhouse. I do like this quote from him though:

"I’ve taken a lot of pride in my defence," he says now. "That was the biggest concern that people had. I had no position to play, so I wanted to prove the point that I could play the position, that I could play any position. "I did need to hone my skills at third base when I went to triple A and needed to prove that I could play there. That was what I was there to do. I just wanted to prove that I was really sound."

More after the jump!

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Hello all - sorry you haven't heard from me in a few weeks but I got stuck in a field job that took about 4 weeks longer than it was supposed to and I just haven't had time to really spend much time at all around here, never mind putting posts up.  Well, that's done for now (hopefully) and I should be around somewhat consistently again.

For those new to the site, and for the vets as well, feel free to use this as a chatter spot.  Want to talk about last nights game (okay, neither do I), you can do that here.  Want to talk about anything around baseball (and probably anything not related to baseball within reason), feel free.  With that, onto your links.

Jays Links

Jays' kids quick learners
Shi Davidi on the Jays' youth movement.

Does Brandon Morrow hit the wall or does the wall hit Brandon Morrow?
Drew wonders if Morrow consistently suffers from bad luck, or if there is something to his late(r) inning demises.

The skill is there. I don't think there is much development left for Brandon Morrow, more discovery.

Jays, Drabek search for silver linings
John Lott talks with John Farrell about Kyle Drabek. Sounds like they remain confident in him despite the atrocious Vegas numbers.

Adeiny Hechavarria Improving in New Hampshire
Mat Germain at Jays Journal compared Hechavarria to Jose Iglesias and to Yunel Escobar's age 24 AA season and concludes that he is making good headway toward becoming a viable everyday player.

Jays making a uniform change - thestar.com

It’s expected the Blue Jays uniforms will have a new look for the 2012 season, one that will reflect a Canadian theme more than ever.

Any ideas on what the new uniforms should look like? I despise the patriotic theme, and would love if they just went back to the early 90's uniforms and logo.

Around the League

Is The Best 1-2-3 Halladay, Hamels and Lee? - Beyond the Box Score
Satchel Price at Beyond the Boxscore wonders if the Phillies trio is the best in baseball. There is most definitely some stiff competition.

Jim Thome quietly closing in on milestone 600th HR

Thome is close to joining an exclusive club. With 598 home runs over his powerful 20-year career, Thome is on the verge of becoming only the eighth player in professional baseball history to hit 600. And there are all kinds of people around the game who couldn't be happier for him.

I know Thome has been good for a long time, but it still surprises me just how good he was. He's set to join some very elite company (roughly 1 in 1000 major league batters hit 600 home runs).

In Which Two Canadians Fight About A Sport That Is Not Hockey
Chris Jones and Jonah Keri debate science versus art. Good stuff.

Don't Worry: We Know Michael Young Is Really Good At Baseball
Rob Neyer touches on Michael Young's 2000 hits and the debate over the significance of the milestone that followed, in an article about target audience:

My baseball-playing friends, you have to understand that we're not writing for you. We're writing for us: All the millions of mere mortals who could never, for any number of reasons, do what you do. We would like to do what you do. We admire what you do, and celebrate what you do. But we also analyze what you do, and we're compelled to point out the relative merits of what you do.

Stephen Strasburg to make second rehab start Friday
Sounds like Strasburg might be pitching in the majors again this year.

Little League Championship not just for the boys
The Vancouver Sun has a nice piece on the female representation at the Little League Championships.

I've been waiting for this piece on Jose Bautista for a while, and Joe Posnanski doesn't disappoint.  Pos is one of my favorite writers around right now and this is an enjoyable read.  He writes about Bautista's rise to success while giving us short clips of other 'Amazing True Sports Stories'.

Do you believe in miracles? Can you?

We live in a time of mirage, of Photoshop and special effects and undetectable designer drugs. We live in a time when truth and illusion tango unhappily, when reality television seems more unreal than cartoons, when identities are stolen and online personalities invented, when the President must show his birth certificate to an unbelieving portion of the nation, when baseball's record books have become choked by men who are admitted—or outed as—steroid users.

Can you believe in miracles?  That's the question Pos asks the readers.

"You know what you should do," Wells said. "Think about starting as early as you can possibly imagine, so early that it seems ridiculous. And then start even earlier than that. What do you have to lose? If you look like a fool, you look like a fool. It's just one game."

It was just one game. Bautista stepped in against Scott Baker in the bottom of the second inning. O.K., he would remember thinking, I'm going to start so early it will be ridiculous. Baker pitched, and Bautista felt as if he started his swing before Baker even let go of the ball—"I thought, You want early, I'll show you early." He expected to miss everything, but he felt his bat hit ball. It was more than that, though, because the feeling of hitting a baseball hard, really hard, doesn't feel like anything else in the world.

The ball smashed against the leftfield wall so hard, Bautista thought he could hear the impact over the sounds of the cheers.

Holy s---, Bautista remembered thinking as he stood at second base. What was that?

I liked this part of the article and I don't remember hearing Vernon Wells' quote before (although there's a good chance I just missed it).  Cito Gaston and Dwayne Murphy had been trying to get Jose to start his swing earlier and he was struggling with it, and this is when it clicked.

Do you believe in miracles? Can you? Or maybe those are the wrong questions. Maybe the real question is: Do you believe that people who never stop trying or believing are capable of doing amazing true things? And if not: What's the point of watching?

And Pos ends the piece with that great line.  If you can't accept stories like Bautista's; stories like Dazzy Vance and Hank Sauer; stories like Kurt Warner's and Priest Holmes of the NFL, then what is the point of watching?  Because those are the guys that really make sports fun and exciting.  Anything can happen and anything will happen.

And, the rest are after the jump.

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So, how about that Escobar extension?  There's surprisingly little chatter around the blogosphere about this deal, however I think it's a great contract - maybe one of the best that AA has inked yet.  Buying out Escobar's two remaining arbitration years at $5 each would have been pretty good by itself, but adding two team options for his first two free agent years at the same price?  Great stuff from AA.  Take a look at some of the comparables - guys like Alexi Ramirez and Jose Reyes are (or will be inked) to way more money than Yunel just signed for.  So, is everyone happy with the deal?

On to the links...

Jays Links

Jays coach recalls Father’s Day gifts
Don Wakamatsu was inspired by his father and grandfather, who survived a Japanese internment camp during World War II, and now his oldest son has been drafted by the team.

Change in perception
After the Jays took a risk in acquiring Escobar, the shortstop continues to pay dividends.

Hutchison helps Lansing clinch berth
The Jays will have at least one affiliate playing in the playoffs this year!

Jose Bautista's Key to Success: His Beard
Ian at BlueJay Hunter wonders if Jose's beard contributes to his success (haven't we all wondered this at some point?) Ian shows off his graphing skills to answer the question.

The rest of the Jays links, and chatter from around the league are after the jump.

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Lots of Kyle Drabek and Zach Stewart talk in the links today so I'll post those on the front page, and the rest are after the jump!

Jays Links

Gregg Zaun on Kyle Drabek
Callum Hughson at Mop-Up Duty summarizes Zaun's thoughts on Drabek and his demotion.

Drabek down, Stewart up
Drew at Ghostrunner is worried about Drabek's future.

Stewart Gets The Call, Drabek Takes The Fall!
Batter's Box summarizes Stewart's minor league career thus far.

What's The Opposite of Drabekkuh?
Stoeten at the Drunks has an interesting point regarding the Stewart promotion:

Stewart's placement on the 40-man roster very possibly means that Edwin Encarnacion's days as a Jay are numbered...someone else will have to go when Lawrie is healthy and ready to be promoted-- and someone else still when Dustin McGowan comes off the 60-day DL-- and I'm thinking that Scott Richmond, Jayson Nix and Encarnacion are the prime candidates left to be DFA'd.

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There seems to be a bit of a hangover around the blogosphere today after day 2 of the draft, so just a quick link post for today - how is everyone feeling about the draft?  Think we'll be able to sign a significant portion of the 'hard-to-sign' picks?  Not really a lot of Jays links today, but lots of draft talk from around the league.

Jays Links

Escobar exits with tight quad injury
Hopefully it's nothing serious!

Jays go big on young arms under innovative draft strategy
It sounds like Griffin liked the Jays draft approach, and that he thinks they'll sign a lot of these hard to sign players.

Roster Smash Up Derby! Who Will Survive?
The Tao of Stieb wonders how the roster will shake out between now and the end of the season.

Around the League

Washington Nationals Add Another Huge Talent

The Nationals have collected a trio of awesome talents. Which is all you can do, really. The rest is up to them, and the Fates.

Rob Neyer is a fan of the core that Washington is building, and really, who isn't? Zimmerman, Harper, Strasburg, and now Anthony Rendon could be the basis of a fantastic team a few years down the road.

Day One Steals And Surprises
One Blue Jay day one pick makes the 'sleepers' category.

Justin Upton, Ryan Braun make 2005 best MLB draft class ever
Tom Verducci summarizes the top 6 drafts since the start of the amateur draft in 1965.

It’s Warmer; Now Where’s The Offense?
Hitting is still down, the league average weighted On Base Average (wOBA) is at the lowest mark since 1989. Is this an aberration, or a sign of things to come?

A Proposal to Fix the Super Two Issue
We have all heard about the Super Two issue this year, with the imminent Brett Lawrie call-up, and Dave Cameron has a proposal to fix that issue.

Who took Willie Mays’ Picture?
Mike Cardano tries to track down who took an alternate photo of the famous Willie Mays catch, from behind the centerfield wall. Thanks to Parkes for this one.

The Way Of Baseball
Shawn Green wrote a book, and the 500 Level Fan reviews it.

New York Mets owe it to David Wright to trade him, even if third baseman is reluctant to depart
The title says it all

After Yunel's big homerun yesterday, I thought it was time to give him a bit of love, in a similar fashion to what I did for JPA a couple of weeks ago.  FanGraphs isn't a big fan of his D, or his baserunning overall so far this year, but hitting wise, Yunel is among the best in baseball at SS (4th in wRC+) and since he came into the league, he's 6th overall in the league among SS (5th if you don't count Michael Young).  We have one of the best offensive shortstops in baseball right now, let's enjoy Yunel's bat!

Lots of draft related links after the jump.  Any predictions for tonight?

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Sorry for the complete lack of Link posts this week.  Life has been ridiculously busy, and I have hardly had time to check out this site, never mind all the others I need to check to put a post together. 

Jays Links

Send Kyle Drabek Down!
I think Callum Hughson makes a few good points here. What do you think the Jays should do with Drabek? Let him take his lumps in the majors, or let him work thinks out in the minors?  Maybe I'll put up a poll.

Blue Jays plan to be aggressive at Draft
The Jays sound like they're willing to go over slot again this year. Not unexpected news, but good news nonetheless. Andrew Tinnish (director of amateur scouting) also talks about the value of having their scouting team in place for over a year now.

One Third Done - Prospect Review
Gerry at Batter's Box grades the Dunedin and Lansing prospects so far, and the news looks pretty good. He'll follow up with New Hampshire and Las Vegas soon, so keep an eye out for that.

Keep reading for more Links.

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For a discussion point that I didn't touch on in any of the links, what do you guys think will happen with Dustin McGowan?  Will he pitch well enough that the Jays call him up in 30 days?  Or will someone claim him on waivers if the Jays try to push him through?  I imagine that since the Jays have shown enough confidence in McGowan to sign him again this year, that if he shows even the slightest ability to pitch and stay healthy again, that he'll be on this team in a month.  Thoughts?

Jays Links

Toronto Blue Jays Jose Bautista should not face questions about steroid use

Ken Rosenthal comes to Bautista's defense, in an article about journalistic standards.

If Bautista tests positive, it's a story. If Bautista is linked to PEDs through a government investigation, it's a story. But if Bautista keeps hitting home runs without a hint of wrongdoing, it's a baseball story, nothing more.

Bautista denied chance to be the hero

The Globe has a recap of last nights game. Here is Farrell's reasoning behind the Patterson steal:

He noted – correctly – that Bautista was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in his previous head-to-head encounters with Crain. "He [Crain] got behind in the count, 2 and 1, it was clearly a running situation, that we felt we could take the base easily," Farrell said. "Even if Corey’s at first base on a 3-1 count, they’re not going to pitch to him [Bautista]. They’re going to see if he’ll chase a breaking ball off the plate."

Really John, he's 0-4 against a pitcher and that's what you're basing your decision on?  Zero hits in four freakin at bats. Big deal - can you please stop basing your decisions on minutely small sample sizes?  This is a concerning trend.

Defense Matters Question Mark

Drew at Ghostrunner takes a look at the Jays defense so far.

Jo-Jo’s Circus

Joe Posnanski with a blog about bad statistics, using Jo-Jo's "winless" streak as an example.

An Interview with Lansing Lugnuts Manager Mike Redmond

A good interview of first-time coach and ex-player, Mike Redmond.

The rest are after the jump.

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Have we shown JP Arencibia enough love this year?  I'm not sure that we have.  A quick perusal of the FanGraphs leaderboards for catchers with more than 140 plate appearances reveals that JP is 5th in baseball in that group with a 0.358 wOBA.  Considering he's ahead of American super-hero, Buster Posey and the greatest catching prospect since Johnny Bench (Max Matt Weiters), I think I will dedicate this link post to the awesomness of JP's bat.  Lets enjoy our first young catcher that can occasionally hit a baseball since...Pat Borders.

The last time the Jays had a catcher hit greater than a .350 wOBA was Greg Zaun in 2006.  The last time the Jays had a catcher under 30 hit greater than .350 wOBA was Pat Borders in 1990.  Seriously, it's been 21 years since we could get really excited about a relatively young catcher playing on the Jays.  Keep it up JP!  Links after the jump.

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Just a quick link post for everyone today.

Jays Links

Romero, Arencibia play game in boy’s memory
Jays stars take to the field with heavy hearts after learning of young fan’s death.

Jays Minority Report: Electric arms jumpstart Dunedin’s surge
The Star takes a look at Dunedin's pitching staff, with some notes from manager Clayton McCullough.

Jays' Glenn launching balls into orbit
The Sun profiles 2009 23rd round pick, Brad Glenn. This guy kind of reminds me of Brad Fullmer.

Missing: Kyle Drabek’s Curveball
Parkes does some investigatory work to find out what happened to Drabek's curve. 

Alomar to represent Blue Jays at Draft
And, apparently Lind is going to be out at least 10 more days.

Jose Bautista: Gold Glove Candidate?
Matthias Koster is wondering if Bautista is a gold glove candidate - with his offensive numbers, he pretty much has to be considered, right? (note, I fully realize that the gold glove is supposed to be awarded based on defensive prowess)

Soft Skills
Drew at Ghostrunner is showing some Johnny Mac love.

Is the Legacy of Joe Carter Overrated?
Like it or not, the answer is yes. Really though, Carter's first 3 seasons with the Jays were fun to watch. Apparently he hit a fairly important homerun too.

10 Photos - 2011 Lansing Lugnuts (Part One)
Batters Box has some fantastic photos of the Lugnuts in action. Part 2 is here.

Around the League

Don't assume Dustin Ackley will start slow
This is somewhat relevant to the Jays call-up situation, as Dave Cameron wonders if great minor league BB:K ratio's translate to immediate success in the majors.

Projecting how Derek Jeter, other again Yankees will do in 2012
SI attempts to project how the six ageing Yankees starts will play next year.

Little love for interleague
Sounds like many in the league would like to take a step back from the inter-league play. There is also a bit on balanced schedule:

Some like the schedule being weighted heavily with interdivision games, others would like to see a more even distribution of the contests across the league. Some like 18 interleague meetings a season, others would rather see the number hacked down to 12 or even six outings. This is the time to debate the pros and cons. "That’s a main topic every agreement, a balanced schedule to get it as fair as possible," says Aaron Hill, the Blue Jays union-player rep. "But a lot of different things come into play. It is one thing that’s an issue."

Rain-outs suck.  Is it raining everywhere in North America right now?  I kind of think it is, and I for one am glad the Jays are back at home under the cover of the Dome tonight!

Tired of the Jose Bautista gushing yet?  I don't think I'll ever be.  Jon Paul Morosi has jumped on the Bautista bandwagon, and according to the article, Bautista has an...interesting way of measuring a players production:

"The proper way is adding RBIs and runs scored and subtracting the home runs, because you’d get double credit for that," the player explained. "Then you divide that by the number of games played.

"If your index is over 1, or close to 1, that’s amazing. If you had nine players like that on your team, then you’re scoring nine runs per game, and that’s never happened, ever, in the history of baseball."

Curious on how the Jays stack up according to the Bautista index?

The top 9 guys add up to a Bautista Index of 0.94.  That would actually be pretty good if this team could stay healthy!

The other big story of the day is that baseball lost another of its greats this week, with the passing of ex-Twin Harmon Killebrew.  There are quite a few Killebrew stories around the web this morning - Jim Caple's piece reliving the life and career of Killebrew is quite good, and well worth a read.

Many more links after the jump.

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I'll start this post off with a couple of the more interesting articles, and the rest are after the jump.

Jays Minority Report: Gold Gloves predicted for Gose and Hechavarria

The Toronto Star spent some time with AA Coach, Sal Fasano and he had some glowing reviews regarding a few of his players.  Sometimes we get get down on these guys because of their poor hitting numbers so far, and the jury is still out on whether they will be able to hit in the majors, but it's nice to hear what someone who actually sees them play every day has to say about them.  Regarding Adeiny Hechavarria:

"Hech is outstanding defensively. He has talent that I’ve never seen. He can do anything with his glove," says Fasano...

"I see him as Omar Vizquel but with more range. He might have a little better arm. He’s built like Tony Fernandez with just as much ability if not more," says Fasano, invoking two of the best fielding shortstops in the American League in the last 25 years.

There's also an interesting note about what the Jays expect of Hech this year, and apparently they have hired a coach just to help him with the transition to North America.  I'm not entirely sure if I knew that.  Fasano had this to say about Gose:

He’s one of the, if not the fastest player in the organization," Fasano says of Gose. "He gets tremendous jumps, you rarely see him out of position. He has a big arm that’s accurate. He has one of those arms that if you were to put him on the mound, he could be a pretty good No. 2 or No. 3 pitcher."

Think Devon White or Vernon Wells in their primes, says Fasano of Gose’s fielding ability.

Sal Fasano had a few tidbits about other players as well, so head over to that article for those.

Left-hander Marc Rzepczynski following Scott Downs' path | MLB.com: News

This is a very good piece on Marc Rzepcyznski's development as a reliever, the difference's in how he approaches bullpen appearances and the parallels of his career compared to Scott Downs.  Well worth a read:

"He's on a very steady pace to become one of the better left-handed relievers in the game," Farrell said of Rzepczynski, who the team converted to a full-time reliever in Spring Training.

...the figure that stands above them all is the fact that of the 65 batters he's faced, just one has mustered an extra-base hit off the southpaw -- Jed Lowrie's double in Tuesday's 7-6 Blue Jays win over the Red Sox.

"We have all the confidence in the world when he comes to the mound. He's been very good for us," Farrell said, noting that Rzepczynski has improved his velocity in 2011, beginning to touch 93 mph on his fastball.

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