Just in case you were wondering why Yan Gomes got the call-up after Adam Lind’s demotion, instead of David Cooper, Travis Snider, or anyone else, Mike Wilner provides the answer…
Lawrie has dropped the appeal of his suspension and will begin serving it tonight. He’ll miss tonight and the Mets series. #Bluejays #jays
— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) May 17, 2012
Originally I slapped a “WORDS FORTHCOMING!” tag underneath Wilner’s tweet here, but… what the hell is there to say, really? The move to bring up Gomes to play third for these four games makes total sense. And it gives him a chance to give John Farrell a reason to keep using him once Lawrie comes back, rather than give DH at-bats to Ben Francisco, as I suspect would be the plan.
I mean, Gomes had a great spring and has been impressive so far in Las Vegas, but the reason he stuck in so many minds this March was because he remained in the Major League camp so long, along with a few other guys the club saw as non-prospect eventual utility guys. As many commenters have astutely pointed out, he’s a useful guy to have on the bench, as he can catch– allowing John Farrell to be less conservative about pinch running for his catchers, if that’s a problem– and play at either corner infield position. He could stick around, but I suspect Ben Francisco is the first place they turn to fill their newfound DH void, even after Lawrie is back.
According to a Gregor Chisholm tweet, Francisco will DH tonight.
I suppose I could say something about Lawrie’s suspension and the dropping of the appeal here but… I kinda think we’ve exhausted that topic, yes?
Image of Yan Gomes by Robert Rogers/Getty.
Voddo Matt over at Getting Blanked had it right, shazam!
He’s a very smart guy.
Voodoo*
Makes sense, might as well get it over with, curious as to why they wouldn’t wait another day.
Well, damn. I was hoping he’d wait until sometime after this weekend.
Me too. i’m going to creepy Brandon Morrow bobble head giveaway day on Sunday.
the icing on today’s cake would be AA making a huge fuckin trade for big bat / #1 starter. i think he still holds hope for snyder in left
Yeah, so who gets traded? Maguire, Thames, Hech, JP, or maybe Darr-No’d………hmmmmmmmn. Just throwing shit out there.
The Greek Geek is probably Whoring up a Valuable offer to someone as we write, but what kind with be unveiled is gonna be a guess.
I dont think that AA will trade at all til there’s better defined buyers and sellers. At this point he could end up paying too much.
HOLY SHIT!
Edwin on 1st and VLADDY DHing by the end of May!
If Yan can cook, so can you!
I hope that Yan can ‘ Wok the Wok, and Talk the Talk’
I see you like to “wok on the wild side”
not really understanding the rationale of not waiting until the Yanks are gone
This way he’ll be back in the field for the road series against Tampa Bay and Texas. Those are more important games than the Yankees right now.
Well ya i guess if they expect the appeal process would be next week it makes sense
Call this a defeatist attitude, but we always lose vs. the rays anyway, might as well do it then.
I like waiting til the off day (24th) between the Rays and Rangers series….Then Appeal…if you dont get a game off the suspension the you serve the 3 games vs Texas and 1 against Baltimore. That way you have your strongest lineup possible for 3 AL East games and hope you get a game against Baltimore back.
Maybe felt like he was going to get shit calls at the plate with this crew again tonight too.
Hm. Could actually be. That, and/or until he serves the suspension, he/the team figures he’s gonna get a rougher time than usual at the plate. Would make sense according to how those hundred-plus year old ‘unwritten rules’ seem to go.
Could be an option, to show how “truly contrite ” Lawrie is.
Maaaaan, I’m going to watch either the friday or saturday game #selfishdisappointedfan
Fuck.
I had 3rd base side seats for tonight… 2nd row… i had many words for Mr Lawrie and his umpire buddy….. alas.
I’ll have to come up with something for Gomes now.
I hope you have something good for Arod
Just holler at A-Roid with a speakerphone during popups, “HEY! I GOT IT”.
Then tell him after he drops it that was for Howie Clarke Muthfukah.
respect
Miller will be at 2B tonight
Is Yan a better defensive 3B than EE?
Has to be!
someone else getting called up as well then no? Gomes replaces and Lawrie and Snider replaces Lind? Please??
I just thought that too….
Jays lose 2 position players, but have only recalled one.
Suspended players still count on the 25-man roster.
From AA’s comments in the conference call, it sounds like if Gomes fails to impress over the course of Lawrie’s suspension, Cooper or McDade may be coming up.
Yeah, I’m just figuring that out now… thanks.
Learned something new today.
This could be a win-win all around in a few weeks time. They just might get Lind fixed. You never know, the guy has proven he could do it before. Certainly would go a long way to helping them down the road if he’s fixable even as part of L R platoon with Vladdy.
They also get a nice look at Gomes at the MLB level for potentially the same period of time.
Well Lind was going great til his back went out last year. If the problem is still his back, (and he’s kind of alluded to that in interviews) those things are notorious for healing very slowly. I like it better if he heals in Vegas.
If his back is ok but he just cant hit, maybe Mottola can fix him. It’d look good on both him and Mottola.
I assume since it goes from cleanup hitter to demoted that Eric Thames will be batting 4th for a few weeks?
Can put Thames wherever the need to now with only 3 left handers in the lineup. Maybe the batting order goes something like this when Lawrie is back
Johnson
Escobar
Bautista
EE
Lawrie
Thames
Fransisco
Rasmus
JP
Thames needs to go.
Johnson
Escobar
Bautista
EE
Snider
Lawrie
Rasmus
JPA
Add a Dh somewhere in there and go.
I highly doubt we’ve seen the last of Lind in a Blue Jays uniform. It’ll probably be similar to what happened with EE a couple of years ago. Unless Lind can’t hit in Vegas either…
I think this is the beginning of the end of Lind in Toronto.
Well I hope so. This team is too close, imo, to keep wasting AB’s on 1B/LF like Lind & Thames.
My comment from the Lawire gets 4 games, is appealing post:
“—Being completely serious here—
Does anyone else think Lawrie should just take his lumps and drop the appeal after tonights game, so that 3 of the 4 games are against the Mets (a team not competing for an AL WIldcard obviously) and he’s right back in there against the Rays on Monday? This also kind of acknowledges that it was a fair suspension.”
I guess AA is reading this blog afterall
I thought of you right away Scott.
Hey! Our old buddy is available!
http://www.rotoworld.com/player/mlb/3566/brian-tallet
RE: Rotoworld
Padres released LHP Brian Tallet.
Tallet surrendered a whopping 22 hits, 10 walks and 15 earned runs in 16 innings at Triple-A Tucson. He’s a lefty, though, so he should be able to land another gig.
Will be interesting to see what John Farrell makes of tonights lineup.
Probably something like:
2B Johnson
SS Escobar
RF Bautista
1B Encarnacion
LF Thames
DH Francisco
CF Rasmus
C Arencibia
3B Gomes
Watching Yan Gomes take infield practice @ 3rd from butters as I type and he seems to be doing alright.
Huh? Are you Mike Wilner or do you live in the Condo that overlooks Roger Centre?
^See name^
OMG HE IS A SEAGULL
Nah. He’s that guy on the AM640 traffic commercials with the plane
any rumblings of a new deal for EE or Johnson? They Jays don’t have anyone under contract on their MLB roster for DH, 1B or 2B. A bit concerning.
While technically Adam Lind is still on their MLB payroll next year for $5 million.
Too bad the shot in the dark contract extension tactic used on McGowan wasn’t employed on EE or KJ.
because ee or kj would actually get paid real money
Real money on either of them who will actually play another game for the Jays is still a better investment than monopoly money on McGowan.
The same could have been said about Lind’s contract which was considered very team friendly at the time.
The risk of McGowan’s contract is, what, $3.5 mill/ Just because we aren’t used to seeing injury prone guys extended does not make it “risky” or even a “poor risk”. Case closed.
Smart… Appeals so he can play the Yankees, drops so he can sit the Mets