Archive for the ‘Gavin Floyd’ Category

Jon Morosi is a Master Baiter

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Gavin Floyd, Jon Morosi on Jul 24, 2012

Jon Morosi would really like you, the internet savvy fans of Toronto, to click on his latest  ”purely speculative,” yet incredibly specific piece of trade-scenario building, which is “based on recent scouting activity,” and on which “certain caveats apply”– which is just a fancy way of saying that he’s totally making this up.

At least he’s honest about it, I guess. But… boy. That Morosi sure is a master baiter.

In the “purely sepculative” deal at Fox Sports, Morosi explains that the White Sox need a pitching upgrade to compete with Tigers, who made themselves better yesterday, acquiring Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante from the Marlins.

So what does he suggest? Chicago getting Zack Greinke by sending Gavin Floyd “to the Blue Jays for a package headed by Class A left-hander Justin Nicolino, then Nicolino and another piece – perhaps one of the White Sox’s young major-league relievers, perhaps one of their outfield prospects, Jared Mitchell or Trayce Thompson – for Greinke.”

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Think Floyd: Pitcher at the Gates of Dawn

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Brett Cecil, Gavin Floyd, Rotation Battles on Mar 13, 2012

Like a Syd Barrett acid trip gone into “Interstellar Overdrive” (OK, I’ll stop), this Gavin Floyd business refuses to subside, with my ‘Merkin friend, Scott Merkin of WhiteSox.com contacting ChiSox GM Kenny Williams for a tasty non-denial denial.

“I am not looking to move him,” Williams said in response to an email. Well then, I guess that’s settled, huh?

Meanwhile, Gregor Chisholm of BlueJays.com debunks the innuendo at his North of the Border blog with some exasperation. “Why this is actually news, I’m not sure,” he writes, “but since every time one of these reports surface south of the border it garners a lot of attention it becomes necessary for the Toronto media to respond in some way.”

Chisholm, quite fucking rightly, explains that “the fact that these reports are coming out now should suggest nothing other than that Anthopoulos is once again doing his due diligence.”

He feels that the rotation is essentially set– with both management’s and John Farrell’s love of Henderson Alvarez cementing his spot, and Dustin McGowan’s lack of options cementing his, leaving Brett Cecil as the biggest question mark, with Kyle Drabek somewhere behind him. Beyond that the Jays depth is mostly in terms of prospects, who might not be ready to help if injury or poor performance derails one of the main six. “Anthopoulos will continue to monitor the market for another starter because it’s just the smart thing to do,” Chisholm writes, “but pulling the trigger on a deal when there’s still three weeks to go until Spring Training is another matter entirely.”

Superficially the Floyd stuff maybe fits in with what we’ve been hearing out of Dunedin, but the rumours of Brett Cecil’s demise have surely been exaggerated. Yes, the velocity in his first spring start wasn’t where anybody wanted it to be, but it’s too soon to say it’s definitely going to say that way, and the Jays will probably give him an excess of rope this spring, because, as Gregor points out, they were quite pleased with the dedication he showed over the winter, after coming to camp having lost 35 pounds.

Cecil starts this afternoon in a split squad game against the Twins, according to the AP. Should be interesting…

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Morosi: Jays Still Pursuing Gavin Floyd

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Bullshit Rumours, Gavin Floyd, Jon Morosi on Mar 12, 2012

Yep. This again.

According to Jon Morosi of Fox Sports, “the Toronto Blue Jays have not given up their pursuit of Chicago White Sox right-hander Gavin Floyd.”

He adds that “the Blue Jays and White Sox have had dialogue about Floyd since the start of spring training, one source said,” and notes that the fact that Alex Anthopoulos was recently spotted scouting the Phillies’ Joe Blanton lends credence to the suggestion that the club is still looking for pitching help.

Yes, the Jays have a certain kind of depth and a lot of intriguing young pieces to fit into the rotation puzzle, and you’d really like to see some of those guys get a chance. At the same time, you can’t be certain that Henderson Alvarez will continue to be able to get guys out without a third pitch, or that Dustin McGowan will be healthy, or that Brett Cecil and Kyle Drabek will figure it the fuck out.

But let’s not overstate the strength of these signs. Speaking on Brady and Lang this morning on the Fan 590 (audio here), Jeff Blair of the Fan and the Globe and Mail explained of the scouting trip for Blanton that ”somebody in the Blue Jays organization told me, ‘If he was pitching in Tampa, we wouldn’t have gone to watch him.’ I mean, he was 10 minutes away. He’s a guy who the Phillies have said they’ve got to make a decision on, they’re willing to kick in maybe $2-million to move him, so they went to watch him pitch.”

Not really such big deal. Floyd is certainly less of a question mark in terms of performance, and has a better contractual situation (he’s owed $7-million this year, and has a $9.5-million team option for 2012, unlike Blanton, whose contract ends after this season), but I just don’t get the sense that this is really a thing. I mean, it’s not like Alex Anthopoulos is in the habit of making deals that people see coming from miles away.

Perhaps he’s feeling out the market for Floyd to take a run at him later in the year, in the likely event that the rotation needs shoring up? I don’t know. I’d sure like to see the Drabeks and the Cecils and the Alvarezes and the McGowans of the world show they don’t belong before going after a guy like Floyd, not that having too much pitching is ever a bad thing.

And shit, if the White Sox want, say, Cecil in return– and I have absolutely no reason to believe that they might– I say go for it.

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Morosi: AA Leaves Phils Game Once Blanton Exits

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Bullshit Rumours, Gavin Floyd, Jon Morosi on Mar 10, 2012

File this one away, says Jon Morosi of Fox Sports. Um…

Dun dun dun!!!!!

More like dumb dumb dumb! HEYO!

Seriously. Joe fucking Blanton? At $8.5-million dollars?

Giving up some kind of non-bag of balls asset? For guy who was out with elbow trouble from mid-May to mid-September last year, and came back only as a reliever? Who hasn’t hit the 200 inning mark since 2007? Which was also the last full season in which he posted a sub-4.30 FIP? Who has the eighth-worst HR/FB rate, and thirteenth-worst HR/9 rate among the 139 pitchers who threw at least 200 total innings over the last two years?

To pitch for the Blue Jays?

Yeah… I think I can find a place to file that one.

 

UPDATE: 

Well now, maybe we should hold our horses on this “Blanton sucks” / “this is ridiculous” talk. A couple tidbits from Twitter:

@SMcEwen_eh points out that “Blanton posted a 2.96 bbFIP in 2011 in small sample. Latos posted 3.05 bbFIP.”

@NickdaNutz says that Blanton’s “extreme HR/FB rate is unsustainable = regression. Blanton developed a sinker which has led to success in 2011 and so far in 2012.” He points us to an interesting RotoGraphs piece from last May about Blanton’s focus on keeping the ball on the ground more. And he also notes the .362 BABIP Blanton posted in last season’s 41 innings– a far cry from his career (Oakland-influenced) .299 BABIP, or the .291 he posted in his first season with the Phillies.

Meanwhile, at the Fan590, Mike Wilner notes that “prior to the game, Jays’ manager John Farrell joined pitching coach Bruce Walton to check out Brett Cecil’s bullpen session. Farrell was only there to see Cecil, and left when he was done. Managers don’t usually watch starters’ bullpens, so maybe the Jays have some concern there.”

Hmmm. OK, I’ll grant that there could possibly be more to this than my initial reaction allowed for. Which was, y’know, to be entirely smugly dismissive, in case you didn’t notice. Hmmm.

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Cafardo: On Boras, Jays Interest in Gavin Floyd

Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Boston Reporters, Bullshit Rumours, Gavin Floyd, Uncategorized on Mar 05, 2012

Here’s a tidbit that came across the wire (read MLB Trade Rumors) this weekend, from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe:

Gavin Floyd of the White Sox “continues to be a focus of teams looking for one more starter,” Cafardo writes. “He could be in play for the Blue Jays or Red Sox. The White Sox don’t appear eager to move Floyd, but general manager Kenny Williams wouldn’t be shy if it brought him a decent bounty in return.”

No word on what Floyd’s cousin thinks of all this.

So… there’s that.

He adds some interesting stuff from his chat with Scott Boras, who was in New England for MIT’s Sloan Conference this week. Boras “thinks that because the superpowers in baseball are going to save money on the luxury tax and can’t spend it in the draft because of restrictions in the new Basic Agreement, trade-deadline activity will decrease in time.”

Cafardo continues that the super agent “figures the savings will simply be profit because the money can’t go toward scouting and player development.”

“Not only will the Red Sox and Yankees benefit by paying no luxury tax if they stay under $189 million by 2014, they also will see a significant decrease in the amount of revenue sharing they must pony up,” he adds. But there will be no place for those clubs to put the saved money, due to the strict penalties on clubs spending over their draft allotment.”

“Any team now that is a successful team annually and says, ‘We’re about player development,’ well, their entire player development budget is going to be about $6 million-$7 million a year. And that’s not a team that’s entirely about player development when you’re making $400 million-$500 million a year,” Boras explains. “It’s just something that has really taken one of the most important aspects of our game – which is scouting – and put it in the back seat for almost 12-13 teams, really, and the most successful teams. The consequences of that are really detrimental to the franchises that create a great part of the economic success of the game.”

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