What a douche.
“I love how some dudes hate me for dating their fantasy girl, as if they were going to if I hadn’t” - John Mayer
Tags: Derek Jeter, Douche, Minka Kelly, St. Bart's
One more day. Yep, I keep telling myself that. Free Agency opens up on the 20th. Will the Jays be active? I don’t think so.
AA quote via Bastain regarding the Jays & Free Agency
I don’t think it’ll happen all in one offseason. There definitely is a plan. We have players that we have, as an organization, targeted to try to acquire. We’re going to do the best we can to acquire the players, and we’re certainly set up for a Plan B and C if we don’t get them
In related cheapo Jays news the club is cancelling their yearly season holder BBQ and trip to Flordia. If this happened a year or two ago (when the team sold hope) I wouldn’t bitch but now the club is essentially putting up the white flag in the name of rebuilding and cutting back on a key season ticket selling point.
Besides the Marco Scutaro sweepstakes and watching other AL East teams spend the $$$ there may not be much to keep casual Jays fans interest this off-season. Sigh… At least we’ll have our daily Doc rumors.
Random Jays Crap:
AL East small market stud Evan Longoria is the surprise cover athlete on the upcoming MLB 2K10 game.
I’ve always wondered why the video game companies don’t crack out a Jay on the Canuck version. They have to change the packaging anyways on account of bilingual laws. How about Doc or AHill on MLB 2K10?
Does Placido Polanco have the range to play a near or slightly below average defensive SS? If he’s available on the cheap he might be worth a look for the Jays.
Pat Gillick rumours are starting up. This quote from a Perkins Star article certainly lacks credibility. The “word is out?”
The word is out that Gillick might well latch on to a senior consulting role in Toronto similar to the one he took when he retired as GM of the Philadelphia Phillies after they won the 2008 World Series.
More insane Halladay rumours have surfaced on ESPN, USA Today, MLB Trade Rumours and Twitter. Yes, Twitter. Halladay for one of: Kershaw, Kemp, Ethier + some additional prospects. My take? No way.
Look at the trade value of the Santana, Lee, and CC. Arguably the best single value (at the time) acquired amongst all three of these deals was Matt LaPorta (in the CC deal). LaPorta was a top 15ish prospect. The names being batted around in the Halladay deal are all-star level players with proven big league track records and multiple years of control. Comparing the two is ridiculous.
Tags: Free Agency, Marco Scutaro, roy halladay, toronto blue jays
If you are a Jays fan, not too much. Adam Loewen, who struggled at single-A this season, struggled here. Brad Emaus improved upon his AA production - albeit against inconsistent competition. Reidier Gonzalez is good but how good? We don’t know, he pitched only a handfull of innings in relief.
I do know a little about Robert “Bobby” Ray on the other hand. Scouts have been comparing his delivery to that of Carl Pavano’s (is this a good thing or a bad thing?). His mission at the AFL was to add some tools to get LH hitters out and he seems to have done that by refining his cutter and introducing a hybrid split-fingered change. He performed at replacement level or slightly better during his few spot starts and all signs point to him topping out as a serviceable 5th starter. Exciting stuff yes?
Well maybe not. Let’s move now to some Canadian content shall we? Remember Phillippe Aumont? The Mariners prospect who played for Team Canada at the WBC? The same Aumont who showed nasty stuff by getting out of a bases loaded situation by jamming David Wright and striking out Kevin Youkilis and Curtis Granderson in order?
Phillippe is was in the AFL working in relief as he has all season in the minors. Aumont, who normally tops out at 94mph with his fastball, was routinely popping the upper 90’s on the radar gun. However, just like how he got himself into trouble at the WBC, he has been erratic with his secondary stuff. He struck out 17 in 11 innings but also walked 7. Basically he was falling behind in counts and forced to pitch strikes that hitters knew were coming. No need to panic - Aumont is still just 21 years old.
Update: Adam Loewen hit his 2nd HR of the AFL season tonight. Yippee. Also, in a game where Tigers Prospect Cale Iorg’s team has 24 runs and 23 hits through 7+ innings right now, he does not have a hit. That’s pretty much par for the course for Cale.
Tags: Arizona Fall League, Bobby Ray, Cale Iorg, Detroit Tigers, Phillippe Aumont, Robert Ray, Seattle Mariners, team canada, toronto blue jays, World Baseball Classic
3 years ago Earl wrote a post on the infamous Dock Ellis. It is an interesting and fun read but now we have video to go along with the story which is an absolute treat.
Tags: Acid, dock ellis, LSD, Pittsburgh Pirates
For once, I am not talking about Gregg Zaun. In this case I am referring to Detroit Tigers catcher Gerald Laird.
Today the American League Gold Glove awards were announced and at the Catcher position, Joe Mauer of the Twins was awarded the…. award.
Let’s be clear: offensively, Mauer had an MVP calibre type season. Defensively? You know the part of the game that the Gold Glove is supposed to be based on? Not so much.
Let’s compare 4 defensive metrics for these 2 catchers: passed balls, fielding percentage, range factor and perhaps most importantly caught stealing percentage.
First off it needs to be stated that Laird played 1090 innings at the catcher postion to Mauer’s 939.
Passed Balls
Laird: 9
Mauer: 9
Fielding Percentage
Laird: .997
Mauer: .996
Range Factor
Laird: 6.83
Mauer: 6.93
CS%
Laird: 42%
Mauer: 26%
To sum up: Laird had the same amount of passed balls as Mauer while having played 151 innings more while having a nasty dirtballer named Verlander to catch. Fielding percentage and range factor - although not huge stats for a catcher - are negligible.
Where it becomes particularly evident is the CS%. Laird controlled the running game while Mauer did not, plain and simple.
As Keith Law said today on his Twitter account: “Mediocre Fielder Hits Way to Gold Glove Award.”
Perhaps the voters were throwing Mauer a bone in case he doesn’t win MVP or maybe it is because he is so damn pretty but regardless, this is one award he does not deserve to win.
Tags: catcher, Detroit Tigers, Gerald Laird, Gold Glove, Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
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