Happy winter! Danny Knobler of CBS Sports Knobbled his way to some Jays traffic (um… for his Tweet?) yesterday afternoon, giving us the first ever-so-slightly shifting flake of innuendo in what’s presumably going to grow into an off-season avalanche:
One non-Tiger note from today’s Tiger column: Blue Jays had nine different scouts watching Edwin Jackson’s final 3 starts this year.
— DKnobler (@DKnobler) October 15, 2012
Danny Knobler of CBS Sports would like you all to kindly go fucking nuts…
This, as you internet-savvy readers will have noticed, comes from a tweet he posted earlier today. (I’d embed it via Twitter as normal, but the code they offer has made one of its many intermittent disappearances at the moment).
Knobler is not wrong about the notion that it would be difficult to find a non-filler arm on the trade market without being able to assume some salary. As for the question of the Jays’ supposed money concerns, while I’m sure certain segments of the fan base will be quick to throw up their hands in triumph at more evidence that Rogers are tight fist-fucking fisted cheapfuck-fists, it’s probably worthwhile to point out that it’s not exactly Chapter One in the Negotiator’s Handbook to come right out and tell clubs that you’ve got a huge blank cheque ready to hand them cash. So…
Update: And, of course, almost as soon as he says that, Knobler tweets that the Jays have acquired Sean O’Sullivan in a trade, in exchange for cash. So, unless they’ve given the Royals their advance scout– HEYO!– I guess the Jays do have some funds at their disposal. Granted, I don’t think that’s the kind of money Knobler was talking about in the first tweet, but… whatever.
O’Sullivan, for the record, has been a shade (ok 8/10th of a win) below replacement level over 193 career innings with the Angels and Royals. He has a 5.02 FIP at Omaha in the PCL this season.
With Joey Votto having now bankrupted Cincinnati for generations to come, the folks at CBS Sports are going to require a new dimension by which to acknowledge the Jays’ existence. Danny Knobler gave it a go yesterday, calling the club’s decision to promote Joel Carreno in place of Brett Cecil “stunning and understandable, if that combination is possible.”
What appears stunning to him, however, is kinda odd…
Imagine if the Red Sox were starting a guy who had zero starts above AA. The Blue Jays are doing just that. cbsprt.co/HcfVj6
— DKnobler (@DKnobler) April 3, 2012
Right. Like Kyle Drabek and Henderson Alvarez did last year… because the Jays triple-A affiliate is in the shitty Pacific Coast League, and the Red Sox at least have Pawtucket.
No matter. It’s doom and gloom for the Jays, who “end spring training with a patchwork rotation that calls into question their chances of survival in baseball’s toughest division.”
Maybe I’ve just cooled on Cecil and Dustin McGowan, and am overly optimistic from what I saw of Kyle Drabek this spring, but… is it really such a step down from what was originally planned to Drabek and Carreno? Is it a step down at all, frankly?
Having followed the Jays through camp, I don’t think it is.
Besides, as Knobler himself acknowledges on Twitter, Carreno is only to be a temporary fill-in, ostensibly until Dustin McGowan gets back.
Of course, the “end of April, at a minimum” timeline on McGowan’s return– as John Farrell gave over the weekend, according to John Lott of the National Post– is probably overly optimistic, seeing as it relies on him being healthy enough to start throwing again on schedule by the end of the week, then building his arm back up, setback-free, over the course of the month. Still, it’s not going to be long before some of the guys at New Hampshire start knocking on the door anyway. The Jays weren’t afraid to call up Henderson Alvarez after just 14 starts and 88 innings in double-A last year, and the best arms who’ll start the season there– Drew Hutchison and Deck McGuire– already have three Eastern League starts under their belts.
It was always going to be a patchwork rotation here, so it’s hard to be too concerned about it now.
For some reason the guys at CBS Sports continue to poke and prod their way around the notion of Joey Votto– who reaches free agency two full effing seasons from now– one day signing with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Last week it was Jon Heyman, who asked Votto straight up about club policies that limit the length of free agent contracts to a certain number of years– five, I believe it was. Hmmm… who could he have been referencing?
Now today we get Danny Knobler– the Knobler!– who has gone to the finest source possible for insight into the workings of the Jays front office…
Vernon Wells?
“I think there could be an exception to the rule,” Wells told the Knobler. “They have the resources to do what they want, but they’re very calculated.”
“So could that exception be a first baseman, maybe a Canadian first baseman who can become a free agent in a couple years?” the Knobler oh-so-subtly asks.
“There are exceptions to the rule,” Wells said.
So that’s that… DID’JA HEAR! VOTTO IS COMING!!!!!
