Now it’s time for all the stuff I don’t figure on making full posts out of, with the spiffy graphic by Matt English (aka @mattomic). It’s your Early-Afternoon Snack…
Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun notes that, despite his 327 career saves, Francisco Cordero “will set up for [Sergio] Santos, holder of 31 career saves.” Apparently aghast, he adds, “What’s next, Anthony Gose, who will open at triple-A Las Vegas, hitting third opening day instead of Jose Bautista?” This has to be a joke, right?
Asked if he thinks Colby Rasmus will ever repeat or exceed his 2010, Kevin Goldstein tweets that he’s “not optimistic after discussions for” his most recent Baseball Prospectus piece.
Speaking of, at Getting Blanked Drew takes issue with the executive who compared Rasmus to JD Drew, noting that most people would kill to have the kind of career that Drew has. JD, that is. Although…
Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated has his latest updated list of pitchers to be concerned about, regarding the Verducci Effect– none of whom are Jays, not that it matters, as Derek Carty of Baseball Prospectus adds more (paywall’d) evidence to the pile that says the theory is bunk.
According to a tweet from the former, Kyle Drabek and Travis d’Arnaud are rooming in Dunedin. Nice view.
Ben Nicholson-Smith of MLB Trade Rumors notes that the Jays have four players on their 40-man roster with less than five years of service who are out of options: Davis, Perez, Santos and Valbuena. They have two more with over five years of service who are out– McGowan and Mathis.
From my old stomping grounds at theScore Buzz, it’s Gary Pettis holding a Gary Pettis card on a Gary Pettis card. My mind is, like, totally blown, man.
Holy shit: Fox Sports North, via Baseball Think Factory, talks to the Twins’ Joe Benson on the dangers of playing in Venezuela– and after the robbery at gunpoint he just experienced, he’d know.
Bluebird Banter ranks Joe Carter as the 36th best Blue Jay of all time, admitting that they really don’t know what to do with him, given that he was thought so very valuable by the standards of his day– standards that have changed dramatically since then.
Bradley Woodrum of FanGraphs looks at the various projections for Yu Darvish, and… um… look away, if you put any stock into such things. They’re good.
Lastly, the Globe and Mail wonders how the sports world might be different if Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had signed with the team that drafted him in 1995: the Montreal Expos.
Is it just me or are the old jays beat writers like Elliott and Griffin going crazier by the day? Even Blair seems to be just making up shit now.
I’d prefer Cordero to close and use Santos in the higest leverage situations. With Santos being able to strike batters out, he is best used in high leverage situations.
Closing is so arbitrary and so are saves. Use Santos when he is most needed, and I don’t care if that is in the 5th inning with the basesloaded and nobody out. That is a bigger situation than pitching a clean 9th inning, facing the bottom of the order.
I think they are and it is really unfortunate because the fan base grows (regrows), the casual fan reads those guys and gets terrible ideas into their heads.
They also have Paul Molitor in at #35. Interesting because I remember how awesome Molitor was for the Jays for a couple of years. (Although it wasn’t for that many years I guess).
“What’s next, Anthony Gose, who will open at triple-A Las Vegas, hitting third opening day instead of Jose Bautista?”
Bautista hitting 3rd in the lineup…that’s crazy talk. We just signed a guy with more than double Bautista’s RBIs: Omar Vizquel.
It’s really just a question of whether we’d be better having him bat 1st or 3rd.
However, we do need to be a bit worried about Vizquel’s defence; he’s got more errors than Encarnacion. He’d probably be well suited to DH.
Cito?
That thing by Elliott has to be a joke. Right?? Please tell me it is.
Um, not a good feeling on that Goldstein tweet.
Ugh I know. I’m not looking forward to debates over RBIs and saves etc from casual fans. Hopefully they jump into the Jays blogosphere and learn a bit more.
And if Rasmus flames out, what did we really give up for him? Rzep would be the only player of any value that left Toronto. It was a great gamble, and knowing what we know today I would still do it.
Oh yeah definitely me too. Worst case scenario he flames out entirely, but since we didn’t give up that much, and with Marisnick and Gose on the way, it wouldn’t be the end of the world or anything. But it would still be disappointing. Just a couple of years ago it looked like he was going to be a major star.
I still think he’s too talented to fall flat.
700WLW in Cincinnati had an hour long discussion today about Votto “inevitably” going to Toronto. I guess this was sparked by an article in the Chicago Tribune saying something to the effect that it was a matter of time before Toronto used it’s glut of young pitching to pry Votto away.
Apparently everyone is ignoring how the Reds are clearly going for it this year.
Cito asked me to post it because Stoeten’s fax machine doesn’t appear to be working.
He’s upset that the Brewers snapped up Patterson a couple of days ago, but he’s looking forward to Mathis catching full time this year; CERA doesn’t lie. Arencibia did a good job at not clogging up the base paths last year, but he’d benefit from spending 3 or 4 years as Mathis’s understudy.
Everyone said the same thing about Travis Snider. Not writing him off either, but I think it’s safe to say at this point Snider will never be as good as he was advertised the last 4 years.
I would say Stewart was the most valuable piece given up.
Rasmus will be a valuable addition , simply because we will never, ever look into the outfield and see Jaun Rivera, Rajii Davis and Cory Patterson as the outfield. If he hits, so much the better.
what the fuck is elliot talking about
You don’t have a link of that, do you? (if you were listening to a podcast or something)
I’d be really curious to see how they view it. I’m surprised they see it as an inevitability.
The Nats have signed Edwin Jackson. 1 year, around 10 million apparently.
I’ve said it before, but I would have liked to see the Jays on him with that kind of contract. That’s potentially pretty nice value.
Looking at the Jays right now, I don’t think it’s impossible that in August we’ll be saying ‘good team, but we really need a solid, 200IP guy in the middle of the rotation’. Romero and Morrow should be fine, but there’s just so much uncertainty after that. Jackson isn’t ideal, but on a one year 10 million deal, I think he’d make sense.
Ah well.
In recent years, some analysts have become obsessed by the “new” baseball stats. While they’ve added a lot to our enjoyment and understanding of the game, Grif makes a good point when he says that they might be better indications of future success than methods of evaluating past accomplishments. Back in the day, pitchers did not turn the ball over to the bullpen after six. They finished what they started. So, with a big lead, it was “here it is; hit it.” That had to take its toll on career numbers. So too, back in the ’60′s, did lowering the mound six inches. Today, if you had to win one game, you’d likely want Roy Halladay or Tim Lincecum to pitch it. Back in the ’80′s it would have been Dave Steib or Jack Morris. To me, that is a much better indication of their place in the game than all the WAR’s and BABIP’s and whatever else’s that can be dredged up to discredit them.
Sounds like these guys don’t know how the Jays conduct business. Votto might be even more of a pipe dream than Fielder was.
The new-age baseball statistics don’t discredit Roy Halladay, though, they only serve to show how much better he is than everyone else.
He’s got the perception now, too, due to being in Philly, but if it was only a few years ago that he was being largely ignored by the US media and most baseball fans. That’s why such statistics are valuable…they give us more knowledge about how well these players are actually performing beyond how they are perceived (think about the overrated Derek Jeter).
No doubt, he would have likely been very good value at this price. The Jays want to see what they have in their young pitching (and McGowan), though, same as most years. Trying to contend isn’t really the priority, as much as many of us might want it to be.
tough to say though…even last year, which was a disaster for Snider, he went on a couple of great runs. He’s still young enough and talented enough to put it all together.
Nah…I don’t think Stewart will ever be more then a just below average to average major league pitcher…and those aren’t hard to find.
I just don’t get the love for EJax. The Jays have 5 pitchers who could be as good or better in 2012…for a lot less money. He is a league average pitcher, especially if you put him in the AL Beast!
The Sun deserves Elliott. Anyone looking to that rag for reasonable opinion and analysis may have life issues outside the scope of a debate about baseball.
I don’t think he’s great. His WHIP is terrible.
But the Jays rotation is such a huge question mark right now. I mean right now the 3,4,5 is Cecil, Alvarez, McGowan. That could be alright, but equally it could be terrible. A lot of uncertainty there.
I think the team is unlikely to push for a second wildcard, but if it could be had with around 90 wins I think there’s a small, outside chance they could approach it. Jackson isn’t great, but would be nice insurance if the back end of the rotation doesn’t put it together. Plus it’s a one year deal, so you’re not really blocking any young guys coming up.
Doesn’t matter now though. And shit, I guess it says something about the guy if all he could get was a one year deal and had to wait until February to get it.
Could say he’s being undervalued by most of baseball. Sometimes that happens.
Good points, but I think that is also my argument. I don’t know what will happen with Cecil, Alvarez, McGowan etc., but since I don’t think (barring circumstance) that were pushing for the playoffs this year either…Let’s see what we got…we have plenty of options should a shoulder blow out or a guy ends up being a total bust. Oh well, ain’t gonna happen now anyway. I think my point is that it’s all or nothing: go for a stud and be willing to pay a heavy fee…or wait and see what we have this year.
Still, during that time that he pitched for the Jays, you still had every MLB player that had faced him telling whomever asked that he was the best…
Yeah… I guess my point is – if the team performs a bit better than expected, but the rotation is still a little thin… a guy like Jackson could make a big difference..
Agreed. I’d rather have Jackson and his 3.8 WAR in the 5th spot than Brett “don’t ask me to blend” Cecil and his 0.6 WAR. He seriously belongs in the pen.
If you squint and take a dim view I can see what Elliott means about having a career closer, who could still close, and makes more money closing over the young guy. But I don’t care enough to really spend much time dwelling on it.
Blair interview with AA on Jan 31 was hilarious. He told him that the honeymoon was over. Also, he said that Beeston was sending a warning shot to rogers that they have to increase payroll to get to the playoffs twice in 5 years.
or could be that he will continue to be inconsistent like he has his whole career
I’m no fan of his, but yes, it’s clear that Bob Elliott is trying to be funny there.
Maybe I was wrong about Beeston. Jeff Blair thinks he was knowingly putting pressure on Rogers by guaranteeing playoff appearances within the next five years. If that is the case, then maybe the infamous If You Come We Will Build It comment was a similar exercise in pressure. That is what Rogers surely must have told him when he went to talk to them about budgets. And he has neatly used the media and the blogs to demonstrate how well that policy would go over with the tv-watching, ticket-buying fans…
Are you kidding me? Molitor was NAILS. Whoever made that list better have some amazing people 1-34. Molitor NEVER missed the key hit. Good 1st baseman when called on too.
I think Snider can do it. He has to show pitchers he can take a walk and he has to learn how to deal with lefties throwing soft outside stuff.
Edwin Jackson has actually been quite good for the last three seasons. Not really inconsistent at all.
I don’t see it that way at all. Beeston works as a mouthpiece for Rogers, he certainly doesn’t put pressure on them in front of media and fans.
To me, it was very much the same as any other year (except without the usual vague promise of a higher payroll sometime in the future).
how come no one ever wants to keep him? he tantalizes and then shows everyone why he will never match his ability with production. maybe that’s it more than anything. inconsistent might be the wrong word, but he clearly is an underachiever
I don’t get the hate for Jackson. I wouldn’t say he’s inconsistent at all. He gives up too many hits, but overall you’re getting a solid 200 innings. Good k to bb rate and he keeps the ball in the park. His problem is keeping the ball on the ground.