Thursday, November 11, 2010

Managerial Roster Finished,Some More Hardware for Bautista

One of the legends of the glory days in Blue Jays history is coming back to the Rogers Centre. Pat Hengten is going to replace Rick Langford as the Jays bullpen for 2011 season.Also joining the Jays staff is Don Wakamatsu as bench coach,Torey Lovullo will be the first base coach, and Luis Rivera as coaching assistant. Brian Butterfield will stay with the Jays to be the third base coach, Dwayne Murphy will remain as the Jays hitting coach, and Bruce Walton will be the pitching coach. Wakamatsu will be allowed to interview for the job of managing the New York Mets,as he was before he signed with the Jays. This staff is very energetic and should be a perfect with the young team that the Jays will put on the field in 2011.

Last week Alex Anthopoulous made a move to decline CL Kevin Gregg's option for the 2011 season. Gregg is a "Type B Free Agent", meaning that if the Jays offer him arbitration, and he declines the Jays will get a sandwich pick in between the first and second round of the 2011 MLB draft. Of course the Blue Jays only get that pick if Gregg signs with another team.

AA also made an interesting move a week ago,when he acquired C Miguel Olivo from the Rockies,for a player to be named later.Only a few hours later AA declined Olivo's 2011 option,once again securing a compensation pick if he signs elsewhere.From those two moves you can tell the direction AA and the Jays are moving in,they want to rack up a lot of draft picks.

In other free agent news, Postseason miracle worker, Cliff Lee had an interview this week, with non-other than GM Brian Cashman,GM of the New York Yankees.

Jose Bautista won his second award of the off-season so far today,when he racked up a Silver Slugger for the most powerful outfielder. Jose will likely win the Most improved player award,which fellow teammate 2b Aaron Hill won after the 2009 season.

Make sure to vote for the TYIB awards,especially for the Blue Jays going for the awards.