Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Welcome Back Brett!


RHP Brett Cecil has been recalled from AAA Las Vegas today while the Jays have optioned RHP Zach Stewart back to AA. I believe Stewart knew he wasn't going to be here a long time because his stuff never came from AA when he was called up, it just stayed in New Hampshire. Cecil went 8-2 with a 5.26 ERA, but his ERA doesn't matter because he was pitching in the insane hitting league in the Pacific Coast League. Cecil was in the minors to get his velocity back, which dropped significantly during spring training. As a result of his low velocity he was not able to get any hitters out, so he was sent down. Stewart pitched one good game out of his three in the majors, but the other two were not worthy of him being here. Stewart will go back to AA because it is a much better league for pitchers to develop in than the PCL. Cecil will pitch on Thursday vs. the Pirates, taking Carlos Villanueva's spot in the rotation. Villanueva will pitch Saturday vs. the Phillies when Roy Halladay steps on the mound in Toronto for the first time since being traded.

This will be my last post until late July or early August because I will be away.Jose Bautista faces his old team the Pirates for the first time since he was traded to Toronto, so this will be an interesting game to watch tonight.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Patterns in the Blue Jays Play?


Over the past week the Blue Jays have had many pattern in the way they play, although it has really stretched through out the entire season. From June 14th, when the Jays opened up a series against Baltimore until yesterday the pitching has been spectacular, while the offense was struggling.The Pitchers have allowed 25 runs in 79 innings pitched, which comes out to an ERA of 3.16, a very good mark for an entire pitching staff. The offense on the other hand has scored just 23 runs in those same 9 games which is an average of 2.60 runs per game, or 23 runs in 74 innings which comes out as the opponents ERA as 3.10, which is slightly better than the Jays pitchers. This trend goes back the enitre season when the pitching would be dominant and the hitters wouldn't even take the bats off there shoulders. The best example of that would be Ricky Romero. When Romero Loses, the Jays have scored 8 runs, that's 1.14 per game, which means in those losses, if Romero wanted to win he would need an ERA of 1.13 or lower, that is ridiculous. Romero did call out the offence after he took his seventh loss of the season on Monday night after only allowing two runs in a beautifully pitched game by both him and his Atlanta counterpart Tim Hudson.

The Jays are off today and a move could be made to bring a player up because John Farrell said that the Jays need a spark in there lineup to get there offence going.
For those wondering Dustin McGowan is going to start his rehab assignment soon, and could be back with the Jays in less than two months.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Drabek Sent Down, Stewart Recalled from AA


Kyle Drabek has been sent down to AAA, even though Manager John Farrell said he wouldn't be. The last player in the Scott Rolen trade will finally get his chance to play for the Jays as Zach Stewart will be taking Drabek's spot in the rotation. Stewart is 4-3 with a 4.39 era in New Hampshire, while Drabek has allwoed 22 earned runs in his last 22 and 1/3 innings. This move comes as a shock to me because of Brett Cecil's stellar performance in Las Vegas, but clearly the club still wants to see an improvement from the PCL wins leader.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Realignment?


With the current CBA set to expire in December, many rules and other things will likely be changed. There has been a rumour that the MLBPA, and the MLB have been talking about realigning the leagues, to have two 15-team leagues, instead of the NL having 16 teams, and the AL having 14. The obvious question is, will there be interleague everyday, if this does get thrown into the CBA next year. The answer of course is yes, but is that good for the league. Of course it isn't, the AL teams would be furious, why should the AL have to have a pitcher bat, when there rule is to have a DH? So if the 15-15 leagues does happen, could this mean the NL is going to start to use the DH,or could it mean that the AL is reverting back to the old system, and having a pitcher bAT. The team that is rumoured to be the front runner to move if this actually happens is the Houston Astros. The two reasons why they are the front runner are that they are in the 6-team NL Central, and they would be able to move to the 4-team AL West, and because they would create a rivalry with the Texas Rangers, which would bring in a lot more money for the teams.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

2011 MLB Draft Preview


With the 2011 first year player draft less than 24 hours away it is time to talk about it. This is going to be a special draft because it is likely to be the last one with the "Type A, Type B" compensation rule. This rule makes no sense for both the players, and the MLB so it is one of the rules most destined to be changed in the next CBA. The players take a huge pay cut because teams with low draft picks are resilient to sign a player if that takes away the teams first round draft pick. When the bottom feeding teams cant add from the free agent pool, it means that the only teams improving are the ones with high draft picks, from around pick 15 and above, because they can sign players, and not care what happens to there pick. It makes no sense for the league because of the sandwich round in between the first and second rounds of the draft.This creates a huge number of draft picks to teams who lose players in the off-season, but makes the teams that don't get barely any talent from the draft. The premier example is the Pittsburgh Pirates this season. The pirates have the first pick in the draft, but there next pick is the 63rd, which means they only get one high ceiling player, and the rest are high risk players. In between those two picks, teams such as our Toronto Blue Jays, and the Tampa Bay Rays have a plethora of picks, and will improve drastically more from the draft then a team like Pittsburgh. The Pirates haven't had a winning season in 18 years, and this system is partially the reason.
This is also anticipated to be the last draft without draft pick trading, a rule in the other big three North American sports, yet to come to the MLB. This rule would fix the compensation rule, because it would allow teams like Pittsburgh to move up into the compensation round, from the second and third rounds of the draft.
2011 MLB First Round Draft Order
1 Pittsburgh Pirates
2 Seattle Mariners
3 Arizona D-backs
4 Baltimore Orioles
5 Kansas City Royals
6 Washington Nationals
7 Arizona D-backs
8 Cleveland Indians
9 Chicago Cubs
10 San Diego Padres
11 Houston Astros
12 Milwaukee Brewers
13 New York Mets
14 Florida Marlins
15 Milwaukee Brewers
16 Los Angeles Dodgers
17 Los Angels Angels
18 Oakland A's
19 Boston Red Sox
20 Colorado Rockies
21 Toronto Blue Jays
22 St Louis Cardinals
23 Washington Nationals
24 Tampa Bay Rays
25 San Diego Padres
26 Boston Red Sox
27 Cincinnati Reds
28 Atlanta Braves
29 San Fransisco Giants
30 Minnesota Twins
31 New York Yankees
32 Tampa Bay Rays
33 Texas Rangers

Brett Lawrie was placed on the 7-day DL in Las Vegas today, but it is retroactive to June 1st, meaning he could play again on June 8th. He likely wont be on the Jays until June 17th in Cincinnati, because AA likes to start prospects away from the Rogers Centre.

Rumors are circulating that the Jays are switching uniforms next season, i personally like the newer ones, and i think the Jays have to stop trying to change everything back to the glory years, because that doesn't win championships, winning teams do.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Best Laid Schemes of Mice and Men Go Often Awry


On Tuesday afternoon Alex Anthopoulos hinted that superstar prospect Brett Lawrie will be making his major league debut on Friday night at Camden Yards in Baltimore. About five hours later Lawrie stepped into the batters box in AAA to face newly called up pitcher Anthony Bass of the Tucson Padres. On the second pitch of the at-bat, Lawrie was hit by a mid-90's fastball, and was taken to the hospital for x-rays. The twitter world was going crazy, and every single Jays fan was holding there breath, praying that Lawrie would be okay. After 3 hours of sitting and waiting to hear what had happened to his hand, Lawrie posted on twitter that it was just a bruise, and nothing was broken. Lawrie, who is batting .354 with an ops of 1.092, a very good mark. The stat that was holding the Jays front office back from calling him up was BB/K, but he has raised the mark significantly since he was told to only swing at pitches in the strike zone , even if it means less hits. Lawrie has hit more home runs since the discussion as the result of only swinging at pitches he knows he can hit. He is likely to join the Jays on the upcoming road tip, but will not be ready to play in Friday's game because of bruising. Fantasy owners should pick him up immediately because he will be playing against a weak pitching staff in Kansas City next week when he gets called up to "The Show".

The Jays Gm also announced that Dustin McGowan might come back to the bigs as a starter, not as a reliever like the team suspected. McGowan will begin a rehab assignment when extended spring training ends, and will then need to be called up to the Jays, or put on waivers.

4 Dunedin Blue Jays were named to the FSL All-star game today. Among them is 2010 first round draft pick Deck McGuire, who has a 2.70 era, and a 1.20 whip in A+ so far this season.

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