Now it’s time for all the stuff I don’t figure on making full posts out of, with the spiffy ALTERNATE graphic by Matt English (aka @mattomic) that I just couldn’t keep letting stay dormant. It’s your Afternoon Snack… er… Afternoon Hangover… er… links!!!
At Getting Blanked, Parkes gets all service time-y on the Jays decision to call up Drew Hutchison. To me… meh. If he projected to be more than a mid-rotation starter, I might worry about him hitting Super Two, but… if he did, it would mean he’s pitching well enough to stick in the Majors anyway, so I’ll take that.
At Minor League Ball, John Sickels weighs in on the promotion, saying that “if anyone can handle it, it is Hutchison.”
Marc Hulet of FanGraphs gives his take on Hutchison as well.
Ben Badler of Baseball America says, of Hutch, that “even though he throws across his body, it hasn’t hampered his command, and because he hides the ball well with his arm stroke, it’s tough for hitters to pick up the ball out of his hand, though there is some question among scouts about whether the deception that works against Double-A batters will fly against big league hitters.”
Badler thinks Hutchison will hold his own as a fifth starter, get ground balls, and keep his team in the game, while his BA colleague, Jim Callis, said in a chat this week that “his precocious command and feel would allow him to hold his own if the Blue Jays need him to fill in. I doubt he’d be overwhelmed.”
Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star seems to fully grasp the extremely sensible reasons why potential off-season deals for top-of-the-rotation pitchers were nixed, either by the Jays, or by the clubs Anthopoulos attempted to deal with, yet he still insists on calling the pursuit a failure. The fuck? Wouldn’t making bad deals have been a failure? The Jays will be fine. Jesus.
Shi Davidi of Sportsnet looks at Adam Lind’s constantly changing swing mechanics– now with no leg kick! I scoff, but there’s been some good to come out of it: “According to fangraphs.com, only 19.8 per cent of Lind’s swings have come on pitches outside the strike zone, compared to 37.1 per cent last year.” Of course, part of his better-looking numbers is due to the fact that he only has eight plate appearances against left-handers so far (although, with the tiny-sample wRC+ of 17 he’s put up, that’s probably eight too many).
Sean Fitz-Gerald of the National Post chronicles yesterday’s Twittergate situation surrounding JP Arencibia (aka Aaron Cibia), with some quotes from Alex Anthopoulos, John Farrell, and the in-denial player himself.
Also in the Post, Eric Koreen writes from Miami that baseball seems beside the point at the new Marlins stadium, which “seems like the SkyDome, 23 years later, with the shock value inflation accounted for. Except, the Toronto stadium was packed for five years. In the fifth game here, there are just 24,544 fans.”
MiLB.com has noticed that Aaron Sanchez and Justin Nicolino might be pretty good.
Want to work in Major League Baseball? The Jays have a posting for an intern in Baseball Operations that would tickle a lot of fancies around here, though they say there’s no actual job or start date, per se, so it’s probably nothing– and may, in fact, be up on their website in perpetuity– but they’d still like to have you on file. Fuck, why not? Just don’t tell them I sent you.
Now… the Grid will tell you that us DJFs host Jays Days at Opera Bob’s, which isn’t true, though we might be there from time to time. But that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a great atmosphere for the second one of the season, Sunday, at Opera Bob’s in Toronto (Ossington/Dundas), when the Jays take on the Royals. Check out the Jays Days site for a calendar of their events, and give them a follow on Twitter, @BlueJaysDays.
Lastly, on the occasion of Fenway’s 100th Anniversary, the Atlantic tells of how it almost didn’t make it past 50.
I would pay $30 for a AA coffee mug!
Can we please stop with the _____gates. Every time something comes up some hack reporter thinks it’s clever to add gate to the end of it. That’s not at Stoeten cause I can’t think of any other time he’s used it…just in general. It’s not funny. It’s not clever. It’s really not even accurate to compare.
Now, I’m getting drunk and trying to figure out a way to get past this SN-1 bullshit.
Beat me to it, and on that note.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9JgxhXW5w
Can we stop with the can we stop putting gate at the end of every controversy arguments. They are more annoying then the ____gate itself.
I still remember Wilnergate from a couple years ago.
Pabst Hentgen? Jose Zima? Appletino Martinez?
Where were you when I wasted a whole day coming up with terrible MLB booze puns? (Jesus, you should’ve seen some from the reject pile)
haha these are amazing. excellent work matt
“although, with the tiny-sample wRC+ of 17″
ahahahhahahhahahaha. i think “funny stat of the day” would fit well on this blog
JUAN BOOZEMAN.
So what’s this post about?
Sox gonna lose again. The only time of the season when I love the Yankees muhahahahahahahahaa.
I don’t think Harmen Killebrew’s name really needed altering.
Stoeten is clearly drinking Parkes under the table in that graphic (especially since he’s about one foot shorter).
This is an epic graphic. I really want to have a drinking contest with Andrew.
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NajqDkSTAUY
Todd Bottlemyre? That is fucking amazing!
4 20!!!!!!!!!!!
This new graphic is awesome, love the names of all the players / people. Props to @mattomic for the work