In yesterday’s link dump, Stoeten relayed some “quotes” that I sent out via Twitter. Since I’m new to this whole “stand around while guys I used to watch on TV talk” thing, my tweets tend to ooze out without much structure and often free of sense and/or context.
So here are the full quotes from AA when asked about minor league promotions and the whole piggybacking thing currently driving Noah Syndergaard to drink.
Prior to tonight’s opening of MLB’s Rule 4 Draft– and the Jays’ charity golf tournament, which is happening today– Alex Anthopoulos jumped on the Fan 590′s airwaves and spoke to Jeff Sammut about draft strategy, and where Vladimir Guerrero is at, among other subjects. Obviously there’s not a whole lot that the GM could reveal about how tonight is going to go down, but that’s largely because he doesn’t know for sure himself.
“We kind of run these quasi-mock drafts,” he explains. “Then we’re looking at signability, because now at this point every one of the advisors and the families and the players have pretty much given an indication of what it will take to sign them. So, you start looking at it and you start to say, OK, well, is there a scenario where if we get a few of these selections, and we have to pay them, do we maybe take not as good a talent in the fourth round or in the eighth round and try to save some money there, so we can sign the picks up high? So, that’s all part of it. It’s the opportunity cost of the pick– is there one player who’s good enough to forgo taking not as good a talent a round a few rounds behind. So, that’s going to be part of the strategy that we’re going to talk about, but we’re going to have to obviously let the board play out as well.”
The impression given was that this was something that wasn’t focused on too heavily until late in the process, because it’s so dependent on who’s available at which pick. If we believe him, then, the club doesn’t appear to necessarily plan on maximizing the amount of dollars they can spend on early picks by punting ones later, rather, it’s going to come down to who’s available and how they think they can make the money fit.
Did you hear that Dustin Diamond, or whateverthefuck the name of the scrub the Twins will send to the hill this afternoon hoping to pick up their tenth win in thirty four games, is Canadian? Because, oh… you will. Give either the Sportsnet or the Fan 590 broadcast about ten seconds at any point during the game, and I suspect you will. Why? Because that’s what the people want!
Ahh, but whatever. Look at all those right-handed hitters! Now… let’s scuttle the shit outta some asses!
Scuttlebutt
During the post-game JaysTalk yesterday on the Fan 590, Mike Wilner played a conversation he had with Alex Anthpoulos, where the GM dismissed rumours about the club being in on Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino of the Phillies. Money quote:
“One thing that I will stress, and I guess I can’t– imagine if these words were in bold, italicized, stars around them, underlined: I don’t believe that I’ve yet to make a transaction, or we have an organization have yet to make a transaction, that’s been leaked to the media ahead of time, that our talks have been leaked to the media ahead of time, and– in bold, underlined, all the above– almost everything I’ve heard about us– trade rumours, in the media, on the internet, have almost– I think 99.9% of the time have been wrong. So… without confirming or denying, take that huge hint– *wink* *wink*– and take it and run with it, so no one needs to write about it, talk about it. I can’t stress that enough.”
You can hear the full interview and the rest of JaysTalk at Miked Up. And with that said… here’s more people talking about that rumour!
- Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe talks to an AL GM who tells him “The Jays are looking to do something big. I just don’t see the Phillies bailing out on Hamels. They can still win it.”
Elsewhere, Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun– in an epic notebook post– looks at how John Farrell has started to wade into the murky waters of pinch hitting for guys who aren’t used to being pinch hit for– step right up, JP Arencibia and Adam Lind! Of course, the Arencibia decision was pretty questionable, though if Lind never sees a lefty again, we’ll all be the better for it.
Also at the Sun, Mike Rutsey talks to Kyle Drabek about his outing Friday, in which the young pitcher insists he didn’t pitch all that badly. Ruh-roh!
TV: Sportsnet
And now the lineups, by way of the live box score at theScore.com. And for those of you who’ll be out and about, be sure to follow all the action on your phone with Score Mobile…
Toronto Blue Jays
K. Johnson 2B
Y. Escobar SS
J. Bautista RF
E. Encarnacion 1B
B. Francisco DH
B. Lawrie 3B
C. Rasmus CF
J. Arencibia C
R. Davis LF
R. Romero LHP
Minnesota Twins
D. Span CF
B. Dozier SS
J. Mauer 1B
J. Willingham LF
R. Doumit DH
T. Plouffe 3B
E. Komatsu RF
D. Butera C
J. Carroll 2B
S. Diamond LHP
Image via Apres la Pub.
‘Tis the season for hyping up the… er… season, which means that this week we’ve seen Alex Anthopoulos in all sorts of fun and interesting places that the Jays GM doesn’t normally venture. Or, at least, two fun and interesting places: speaking with Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler on the Sportsnet telecast of Tuesday night’s game, and on the CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight.
You can watch the Strombo stuff at Strombo.com, on YouTube, or at the bottom of this post. And if you’re cool like that and have MLB.TV, you’ll be able to find AA’s interview buried with Sportsnet’s broadcast during the bottom of the second inning.
Of course, if you’d rather not sift through to find the nuggets, I’ve taken the trouble of transcribing a shit-tonne of highlights from a couple of interesting, and more-revealing-than-usual chats…
As you may have heard about in the previous post, Mike Wilner had some audio from yesterday’s post-game at Miked Up– as he’s rather awesomely been doing all spring. Turns out, it wasn’t entirely from Alex Anthopoulos. Starter Brandon Morrow and manager John Farrell spoke to the media as well, and here’s the gist of what they said, as well as all the non-Drew Hutchison stuff from the GM…
John Farrell
The manager felt that Brandon Morrow threw the ball well in the last three innings of his outing Thursday against the Philles– when he really started to establish his fastball, which makes his off-speed stuff that much more effective. Farrell suggests he’s taken the opportunity this spring to go out there and “pitch,” rather than just throw the ball, as he’s done in the past.
“It’s very positive that he’s not relying on just sheer power, with a hard fastball and a hard cutter,” the manager said of Morrow’s spring. “He’s disrupted some hitters’ timings, and when he’s able to get some guys out front, that’s when he’s able to get a two- or three-pitch out, which is what we’re looking for to get deeper into ballgames.”
To the fact that for the second game in a row he’d moved Kelly Johnson into the leadoff spot, with incumbent leadoff man Yunel Escobar hitting second, Farrell simply said he was “taking a look.” He added that he felt that Escobar can use the whole field, and has “the ability to hit the hole” a little more [no, you turn six], while Johnson is more of a dead pull hitter. In other words, with a runner on he likes Escobar’s ability to get the ball through infielders playing at double play depth, plus the advantage he can provide on a hit and run.
Far be it from me to make too much of a deal of a comment Alex Anthopoulos made that I simply don’t have the perfectly-reasonable explanation for– or… actually… that kinda sounds exactly like something I’d do– but I was struck by something the Jays GM said about prospect Drew Hutchison during a scrum with the media after yesterday’s Spring Training win over the Phillies.
Asked, as heard in an audio clip posted by Wilner at Miked Up, about non-40-man guys who are surprisingly still in camp– Jon Diaz, Yan Gomes, and Drew Hutchison– Anthopoulos explained that the first two are mainly still around because of their roles. They’re looked upon as utility-type bench players, the GM says, because they’re serving that role at this point in camp as well.
“Hutch,” he continued, “is more the fact that we’re going to watch his innings. Normally he would be sent out, if he was going to be built up to five innings and so on, but we’re going to probably keep his innings down at the beginning of the year– two to three innings, for the sake of argument. We haven’t finalized all that yet. He’s on a five man swing– a five man rotation– right now. He’s up to three innings, he’s not going to go beyond that [for now]. So, it doesn’t do him any harm to be here, he’s not on the 40, so if anything, guys like Deck and Jenkins have a little more rope to get built up, and that’s why they needed to get down there, to be built up a little bit more.”
Interesting. Especially since Drew Hutchison threw 149.1 innings last year, between A-ball, high-A and double-A, while McGuire threw just 125.1, and averaged practically the same number of innings per appearance (though Jenkins, it should be noted, tossed 167.2 innings .
So… what exactly is the deal there? Are the Jays simply planning ahead for Hutchison having an extended season by way of a September call-up? With the expectation that he’s going to be getting regular turns in the big league rotation? Or maybe just saving his bullets to help them in some kind of a stretch run?
I’m not saying I’m opposed to it or anything, I’m just a little surprised by the plan. Have I missed something here?
Alex Anthopoulos was on the Fan590 this morning with Jeff Blair and Stephen Brunt (audio here), and while a lot of it was typical Anthopoulosian blather, he did admit that he overstepped when he proclaimed last year that Adeiny Hechavarria was a shortstop, end of story, and he had a few things to say that were definitely worth noting– even if we don’t necessarily believe what he’s saying. Actually, especially if we don’t.
Part Three of Three – Adeiny Hechavarria
On the surface the relatively-early demotion of Adeiny Hechavarria to the Jays’ minor league camp may seem like an indication that all is still not well with the Cuban prospect. But that didn’t quite gibe with what we’d been hearing this spring. For instance, in the Toronto Sun on Saturday, John Farrell raved about the shortstop’s bat after the club faced the Astros.
“The display that Hechavarria put on was as good as anything we’ve seen in camp,” he said. “A line-drive base hit off of (Brett) Myers, a 420-foot home run to centre field. He had an outstanding day.”
He added that Hechavarria looks like a completely different hitter compared to last year. “It centres around his physical maturity. His bat speed is noticeably quicker. He is growing into a man and has a man’s strength. It’s playing out on the field.”
Assistant GM Tony LaCava added that “He’s built like a football cornerback. If he’d been born in this country, I doubt baseball would have gotten him.”
Unsurprisingly, Anthopoulos is in line with his lieutenants when it comes to his evaluation.
“He looked great, and I even told him that this morning when I sent him out,” Anthopoulos explained to Blair. “I said, ‘I didn’t want to have to send you out, because I love being able to see you play.’ He’s so much fun to watch.
“He swung the bat outstanding in Spring Training– he’s got so much better. I always try to temper that enthusiasm with– it’s Spring Training, and the fact that he’s getting challenged with fastballs, and not as much 0ff-speed, but just everything was better. Even, Jose Bautista was telling me the other day, the bat speed seems better, he’s a lot stronger. And he worked out a lot more– you guys have already seen him. He’s already cut and strong, but he worked at getting a lot stronger, he was more prepared, and it’s showing: the strength in his body, the bat speed. Even from a defensive standpoint. He’s great, but I thought he was much better this Spring Training than last Spring Training.”
“The big thing we’ve stressed to him is being selective,” Anthopoulos adds. “And he did it a bunch of times this Spring Training, where he may have gone down 0-2 and worked the count back to full. Just his at bats were so much better. So stressed that to him, to continue to try to be selective, because he’s got power, he’s got strength, and if he can be more selective he’ll really do some damage with the bat.”
“Adeiny’s got tools to be more than that,” he says, comparing Hechavarria to Alcides Escobar, the Royals’ gold glover with a bottom-of-the-order bat, “but he hasn’t shown it yet. I’d love to be able to say that he’s going to be more than that, but until we see it over the course of a season, we don’t know. But there’s definitely more ceiling there– the worst case scenario he’s a bottom-of-the-order bat, but he’s got the ability to be so much more.”
The GM isn’t completely off the deep end here, despite all the good he sees– which, frankly, sounds a lot more optimistic than where I think most fans have been at with Hechavarria to this point.
“We still have a lot of minor league data that shows he doesn’t have the bat yet,” the GM cautions. ”As excited as we are about Adeiny, we’ve seen it with a multitude of young players– Adam Lind, Travis Snider– how many of these young players come up and stay up?”
That said, Anthopoulos was far closer to fawning that to overly cautious. And while it’s not like we could expect him to trash his own very expensive prospect, he certainly didn’t have to say so much, or do it so glowingly. It almost makes you wonder if the poor numbers he’s posted throughout his minor league career really are a product of the things that the Jays have been trying to get him to work on– that maybe they projected him as growing into a bigger and stronger body and set about changing his swing to suit it.
Almost.
Whatever the case, good words are… um… good.
