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Travis Snider Called Up
by Tom Dakers
on Aug 18, 2009 3:18 PM EDT
in News
2 comments
Jordan Bastian Twittered that Travis Snider is up and Joe Inglett is down. I thought we decided that the 20th was the day that he could be called up but likely the Jays know better. I'm glad to see him and hope that Cito will play him everyday for the rest of the season. Please Cito.
2 comments
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A Strategy?
by Tom Dakers
on Aug 18, 2009 1:24 PM EDT
in Analysis
41 comments
By know you all know that the Jays didn't sign 3 of their top draft choices. Yeah, I'm not happy about it either, but I'm going to suggest it is possible that there is a strategy that the Jays might be working that we haven't thought about. The Jays picked more players, this year, that expected over slot money than they had in the past and signed some of them.
If a team doesn't sign a top round draft choice they receive a similar pick in the next season's draft. So if you were drafting would pick someone you might not sign knowing that next year you could take someone that is more signable. I mean, why not take a shot at someone you might not be able to sign. If you sign them, great. If you don't, well you can use those same picks next year. Now the second year if you don't sign the pick you are out of luck so you have to be more careful.
Next year, well it works better, you get more picks, some you can take chances on and hope you can sign some of them. The picks you get for not signing the guys this year you are more careful with.
If next year's draft is as deep or deeper than this year's you really don't lose that much. Let's say you get 1 or 2 guys that you wouldn't have if you weren't willing to take a chance on signing them and also get the safe picks that you would have been taking in the first place.
Yeah I know, too much of an apologist. But if you keep using this strategy, year after year, it might work out well in the long run.
41 comments
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Nationals sign Stephen Strasburg
by Tom Dakers
on Aug 18, 2009 12:13 AM EDT
in News
44 comments
$15.67 million over 4 years for a guy that hasn't thrown a professional pitch yet. Good work if you can get it.
44 comments | 0 recs
Jays sign a couple of draft picks
by Tom Dakers
on Aug 17, 2009 1:26 PM EDT
in News
54 comments
Jim Callis at Baseball America is reporting that the Jays have signed a couple of our draft picks this morning. We signed Daniel Webb our 18th round pick with a $450,000 bonus, three times slot for late round players. Webb can hit 94 mph with his fastball. We also signed outfielder K.C. Hobson, our 6th round pick for $500,000 also well over the the $150,000 suggested slot. Hobson is son of former Red Sox Butch and has good power in his left-handed bat. He can throw a 90 mph fastball but we are looking at him as an outfielder.
Keith Law at ESPN doesn't figure we'll sign Canadian Jake Eliopoulos but will be signing 3rd round pick Jake Marisnick.
The deadline for signing this year's draft picks is coming up quick so there will be lots of signings today. They always seem to go to the last minute. Washington Nationals still haven't signed first pick Stephan Strasburg.
54 comments
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Should he stay or should he go, J.P. Riccardi
by Tom Dakers
on Aug 17, 2009 9:00 AM EDT
in Analysis
68 comments
After reading 352 articles about how JP Riccardi is stupid and should be fired in the last few days, I figured I should chime in on the subject. Why? Because my mother always told me that if everyone one else jumped off a bridge, I should too. Or at least that's how I remember it. It's not that we haven't talked about it on here often enough. Hugo and I debated the subject just a couple of months back.
To me a lot of the articles focused on the wrong things , there is a good case to be made that he should go, but if you start with ‘he has done nothing right', it isn't a fair argument, because he's done many things right. Also to pick on things that really aren't his fault or are unimportant isn't fair. But then there are numerous things that he has done wrong. Let's take a look at some of the arguments, after the jump.
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When Gregg Zaun beats you, you know life is not going well, Jays lose to Rays
by Tom Dakers
on Aug 16, 2009 6:07 PM EDT
in Game Recaps
13 comments
Really the game was lost in the first few innings. In the first we had runners on the corners with 1 out and Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells struck out. In the 3rd, bases loaded, none out and Adam Lind hit a soft fly to center. B.J. Upton's throw home was offline but Joe Inglett on 3rd couldn't see that from where he was and put on the brakes. Overbay struck out and Wells ground out. In the 4th, runners on 1st and 2nd, Rod Barajas flied out, Inglett struck out and Marco Scutaro ground out.
In the 5th with runners on 1st and 2nd, Lyle struck out again, but Vernon singled and drove home a run. The line 'even a stopped clock is right twice a day' springs to mind. Aaron Hill scored, crashing into catcher Dioner Navarro. Navarro didn't move, but he also didn't drop the tag on Hill before Hill reached past to touch the base. After that Randy Ruiz struck out and Edwin Encarnacion flied out.
We had 9 singles until Scutaro hit a solo homer in the 9th. It is tough to score when you can't hit any extra base hits, but today was particularly annoying. We had a little streak of hitting a lot of homers but yesterday and today, we really didn't hit anything hard, other than Scoot's homer. Scoot had a good day going 3 for 5 and Aaron Hill was 2 for 4 with a walk. Everyone else had one hit except Lyle (0 for 4) and Barajas (0 for 4). Rod is hitting a big .238 now, his line for August is .147/.171/.235. His July wasn't any better. What say we put Chavez in as the everyday catcher. His version of can't hit at all is better than Rod's and he plays better defense. I know Rod is a streak hitter but it's been in a slump since the end of May. We really don't have the bats in the other spots to totally give up offense from our catcher.
Marc Rzepczynski (or Scrabble as he will be know around here, for his 40 point name, Torgen's suggestion, I thought Zeppo for the Marx brother that no one remembers) pitched a very good 6 innings, giving up 6 hits, 3 walks, only 1 run and 1 strikeout. He deserved the win. A few more strikeouts would be good, I don't think you can make it as a starter in the MLB with just 1 K in 6 innings but it worked for him today. Jesse Carlson pitched a perfect inning. But Brandon League did not impress. He loaded the bases then got to a full count with Gregg Zaun before Zaun hit one out. Zaun might not be great but when he knows there is a fastball over the plate coming he can hit it. League hasn't looked good since his 3 innings against the Yankees Wednesday. Maybe he could have a couple of days off?
Jays of the Day are Scrabble (.229 WPA) and Hill (.106). Carlson deserves an honorable mention. Suckage Jays are League (-.376), Overbay (-.250) and Barajas (-.140). Joe Inglett should get an honorable Suckage mention for a careless error in right. He really doesn't look good out there. I really can't wait for them to call Travis Snider up. Any chance that they release Millar to make room for him? Yeah I didn't think so either. Encarncion made an error at third when a ground ball went right through him but he made a couple of nice plays too.
The Jays have tomorrow off, then three games against the Red Sox in Toronto. The Jays said today that Brett Cecil will make the start Thursday. Glad to see he isn't going to miss anymore time. Scott Downs, on the other hand, is going to need a bit more time.
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And They Fly North When Winter's Done / And We Get Burned in Summer Sun - 8/16 Game Thread, Jays at Rays
by hugo
on Aug 16, 2009 1:22 PM EDT
in Game Threads
307 comments
Hi everyone. Florida, especially non-panhandle Florida, doesn't make for very good songs (unless one likes songs about chain restaurants and humidity, I suppose). But I pulled this one from a good South Florida song, "Snowbirds and Townies" by Further Seems Forever.
After yet another home run yesterday, Travis Snider should be coming up on super-2 safety sometime this week and I'd expect him to be brought up sometime by next weekend. Snider is hitting .339/.435/.673 for Vegas with 14 home runs in just 47 games. Not to be outdone, Brian Dopirak also homered and is hitting .344/.376/.566 in AAA with 7 home runs in 29 games after posting a very similar line in AA, so he should be up in September at the very latest. I know it's the PCL, but Dopirak made huge progress this year and even if the Jays aren't counting on him to be a regular in the majors next year, they'll likely bring him up for the month as a reward. Let's face it, he might as well get the at-bats rather than the alternative.
In other news, Brett Cecil has been declared ready to start on Thursday against the Red Sox. Should be a good test for the young pitcher.
The Jays face off against the Rays this afternoon in the rubber game of the series. A win would be nice after yesterday's poor effort. Mark Rzepczynski pitches for the Jays and looks to get back on track after a rough start his last time out, while Matt Garza pitches for Tampa.
For some reason the lineup widget isn't working, but our Millar-less lineup reads:
Scutaro, SS
Hill, 2B
Lind, LF
Overbay, 1B
Wells, CF
Ruiz, DH
Encarnacion, 3B
Barajas, C
Inglett, RF
Let's go Jays!
307 comments | 0 recs
That was a sad effort. Rays beat Jays
by Tom Dakers
on Aug 15, 2009 10:46 PM EDT
in Game Recaps
6 comments
Blue Jays 3 Rays 8
We really do have this ability to make bad pitchers look good. Scott Kazmir came into the game with a 6.50 ERA and we did seem to get to him a bit at the start, but either he settled down or we went to chasing pitches off the plate and we only got 3 runs in 6.1 innings off him, while striking out 7 times. The rest of the way the Rays pen shut us down.
Brian Tallet started well but gave up 4 runs in the 3rd and another in the 5th. In 5.2 innings he gave up 10 hits and 2 walks. not good enough. Josh Roenicke and Brandon League didn't do much better, though in League's case he gave up 4 soft hit ground balls, 2 went thru the infield for hits and 2 were outs. Casey Janssen pitched a perfect 8th and looked good.
Offensively we got 0 fors from our 'cleanup' hitter Kevin Millar, Adam Lind, Jose Bautista and Raul Chavez. Vernon Wells was 1 for 4 but other than the 1 hit he looked terrible. Aaron Hill hit a homer. Randy Ruiz was 2 for 4 and really hustles. I'm sure he's not the most talented player but he really seems to be trying his hardest.
I'd rant more about Millar but I'm tired and let's face it, it isn't getting us anywhere. I've been ranting about him since spring training and he is still here. With my luck he'll out last me. I'm not sure who deserves more scorn, JP for having him on the team or Cito for putting him in as cleanup hitter. If he is even invited to spring training next year I will burn both of them in effigy.
We have no Jays of the Day. Tallet (-.307) and Chavez (-.101) earn the Suckage award.
Tomorrow at 1:30 Eastern the Jays have Marc Rzepczynski (1-3, 4.38) goes against Matt Garza (7-8, 3.80). It's gotta be a better game than today's was.
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