Two fans wrestle over the rights to Edwin Encarnacion's bat after it went flying into the stands.
After Edwin Encarnacion of the Toronto Blue Jays lost control of his bat, sending it flying into the stands, two fans had a bit of a tussle over who would get to take home a souvenir.
Texas fans are getting ornery!
I mean, come on guys, it's a bat!
Can't we all just get along and act like gentlemen, like this young Rangers fan from earlier in the game?
The Bisons lost again on Saturday continuing what has become an extended rough patch for the team. Lehigh Valley took the opening game of the series 2-1 as the Buffalo bats stayed cold. Liam Hendriks did his best to keep the herd in the game allowing just run over seven strong innings, but anything short of perfection would not have cut it.
"The offensive woes continue," said manager Gary Allenson but, "were just a hit away".
It took the team into the sixth inning to pick up their first hit, but the scoring opportunities were still there. Four early walks and a hit batter by Lehigh starter Brad Lincoln put several runners in scoring position, but no one came through with the big hit. Darin Mastroianni left the bases loaded in the second and Lehigh reliever Cesar Jimenez stomped out a ninth inning rally that had the tying run on second with one out. The lone run for the Bisons came on a solo shot by catcher Mike Nickeas in the seventh.
The important thing to take away from this game was how well Hendriks pitched. He worked quickly attacking batters and avoiding walks. On top of that general manger Alex Anthopoulos was on hand to see the performance.
"It was definitely good to lay eyes on him," said Anthopoulos and in regards to a possible call up to fill the empty rotation spot he said that "Liam definitely put himself into the mix".
Allenson agreed with that assessment, adding, "he has been outstanding here. He’s money. It’s not necessarily about the radar gun and how hard someone throws, it’s about how they pitch and get people out, and he does a pretty good job of it. He pitches good with guys on base, and limits the damage. He deserves the look".
Understandably Hendriks was in good spirits after the game, and interestingly enough he gave a conversation with his wife credit for his success. After the struggles he suffered last year his wife sat him down and told him to just be himself, and now with a fresh perspective he is pitching lights out.
"I have just come out here and taken a new mindset to everything, and have just been throwing everything for strikes and getting hitters off balance," he explained.
The other important issue addressed by Anthopoulos was the bullpen for the Blue Jays.
"The pen hit some bumps but they are much better than that as a group. Getting a guy like Janssen back is huge. Having McGowan now slide into the pen strengthens it that much more. It can only get better as long as we stay healthy. We are going to look to add whenever we get the chance," he said.
An optimistic view to be sure, but one guy that he does not see contributing to that effort is Marcus Stroman.
"I don’t think there is a scenario where we would keep him [Stroman] in a long role," said Anthopoulos. "The thought when we called him up was that he could give us a boost late in the game," he added but, "now with McGowan back and with Janssen back we have definitely discussed potentially either putting him in the rotation in Toronto, or having him come back here and start and be stretched out and available".
The Jays have been making roster moves left and right and clearly they are not done. These potential moves are all going to come into play likely within the next few days. Playing around with young arms is always a dangerous game because as we have seen with Ricky Romero it can end poorly. With that said if all goes well these are two dynamic young pitchers that could play a huge role for the Jays as they look to push back into the playoffs for the first time since 1993.
For the first time since May 27, 2012, the Rangers beat the Blue Jays in Arlington
Six runs feels like 60.
"arilngton" pic.twitter.com/bPWHmuD9rd
— nick pants (@nick_pants) May 18, 2014Player(s) of the Game: This game is obviously proof that player only meetings work.
In the past few days, a couple new mock drafts have come out with a new 'sexy' pick emerging for the Blue Jays. North Carolina State shortstop Trea Turner has been mocked to Toronto at #9 in both the latest Baseball America and MLB.com drafts. A college middle infielder isn't exactly a prototypical Blue Jays draft pick, but it seems like the front office is quite interested in Turner:
Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos was on hand for Trea Turner’s fine Tuesday effort against North Carolina that included a long triple and a potential steal of home, when the Wolfpack shortstop was ruled out by a home-plate umpire who was finishing a showy called third-strike call and did not get a good look at the play.-Baseball America
The New York Mets (picking #10) are also rumoured to have some interest in the NC State shortstop so if the Blue Jays were to pick him, it would be with the #9 pick. In many other drafts, including the most recent one released by Keith Law, he's been picked by teams such as the Padres who pick at #13 just a few picks after the Blue Jays so he should be available when Toronto is on the clock.
The Florida native was picked in the 20th round coming out of high school and was offered a fair bit of cash by the Pirates, which he turned down to attend college. The 20-year-old is a right-handed hitting and throwing shortstop who stands only 6'1" and 170 lbs. Turner has speed to burn, which resulted in a crazy 57 stolen bases in his freshman year. ESPN already rates his running speed at an '80' on the '20-80' scale and is something that will always be in the 'plus' column for him.
His defence is also considered one of his main strengths as there's very little doubt that he will stick at shortstop in pro ball. His massive speed allows him to get to all sorts of balls hit his way and he has the arm to finish the plays off.
In the video below you can see Turner show off both his speed and arm for NC State:
His hitting is probably considered the part of his game that currently lags behind, but it's far from being a weakness. His swing can get a little sketchy at times, as ESPN notes:
...he does have a considerable amount of drift in his swing and his hands can fall behind as well.
His approach at the plate is quite good and he rarely gets fooled, backed up by his 11.6 K% this season for NC State. The problem is that the swing doesn't feature a lot of power and he's a pretty small guy so there probably won't be a ton of home runs in his future, although he hit eight this past season. Most people seem to think he'll have good gap power, which will be even more punishing thanks to his blazing speed. You can see how his swing looks (for better of for worse) in the next couple videos:
It seems that Trea Turner has an okay chance of going to the Blue Jays at #9 if the team think that he will hit enough in pro ball to be able to support his great defensive play. Fellow Phillies SBN blog The Good Phight thinks Turner reminds them of Jose Reyes, which is probably fair, although I was thinking maybe Alcides Escobar. Personally, I'd be pretty surprised with the team taking Turner as he'd be the highest position player taken by the team in decades and the first college shortstop taken since the legend that is Aaron Hill was taken #13 in 2003 (those would be some big shoes to fill). I'll leave with you a reminder of what Trea Turner will bring to the team that drafts him:
Once again we have reached the promised land known as "Friday." And is there a better way of starting off your weekend than tuning into "Around The Nest" this afternoon at 5 pm Eastern to hear about the goings-on in and around Blue Jays minor league affiliates?
For those new to the blog, "Around The Nest" is a weekly audio podcast focused on the Blue Jays' minor league system. It is hosted by Lansing Lugnuts' broadcaster Jesse Goldberg-Strassler and he goes around the nest to speak with the broadcasters for every single active affiliate. This week, the show will start with the folks in Dunedin, then moving on up to New Hampshire, then Buffalo, and finally back to Lansing.
Bluebird Banter is very proud to have partnered up with them this season, and you as readers are asked to submit your questions about any Jays minor league player or team right here in the comments (before the show starts). The broadcasters will do their best to answer as many of them as possible during the podcast. All the broadcasters have seen the games live with their naked eye, so they can give you very good insight that you might miss by looking at boxscores.
I will start it off with three questions:
It's been a few days since we've had a roster move, I'm sure Alex was feeling withdrawl symptoms. But he'll be better today.
The Blue Jays have send Rob Rasmussen down to Buffalo. Rob only pitched 4 times for us, 2 innings, 0 earned runs, 2 hits, 1 walk, 1 hit batter, 2 strikeouts. He had some problems in last night's game, but if Reyes would have made the throw to first, it would have gone so much better.
Up come Bobby Korecky. Korecky pitched in 22 games for the Bisons and has a 0.29 ERA in 31 innings, allowing 16 hits, 8 walks with 32 strikeouts. Pretty amazing numbers. Korecky is a 34 year old right-hander. He's pitched in the majors for 3 different teams, a total of 24.2 innings, with a 7.30 ERA. He got into 1 game as a Blue Jay, back in 2012, giving up a walk and a home run in his 1 inning of work.
Korecky had to be added to the 40-man. That gives us 40 players on our 40-man roster. I was hoping they were holding the extra spot for a trade but I guess not.
Welcome to the team, Bobby, hope it is a long successful stint.
Marcus Stroman is on his way from Buffalo, to make Saturday's start for the Blue Jays. That's the plan at the moment. I would guess that Bobby Korecky would be going back down to Buffalo but maybe it will be someone else.
The idea seems to be that they want to watch Drew Hutchison's innings. He's already thrown 65 innings and May isn't over yet. Coming off Tommy John surgery, I can understand them being cautious with him. He is doing a great job, but there has been a drop of velocity in his last couple of starts, since the complete game shutout.
I've been wanting to see Stroman get a start. Of course, it would be Saturday, when I have to be away from the TV for the day. I get the feeling the Blue Jays know my schedule and plan things for when I'm going to be away. Stroman has had 2 starts for the Bisons since the Jays sent him back down. They weren't great. Over the 2 games, he's pitched 9 innings allowed 10 hits, 7 earned, with 2 walks and 9 strikeouts.
I wonder, if he looks good Saturday, could he get Liam Hendriks' spot in the rotation? Hendriks hasn't looked good, though he's been keeping the opposition off the scoreboard.
Update: Alex Anthopoulos, on Jays Connected, said that Stroman was scatched in case the Jays use up their bullpen again tonight and need someone tomorrow that could go multiple innings our of the pen. I really don't buy that one, but you never know.
That really isn't fair for Bobby Korecky.
They call him up.
He pitches, and gets all four batters he faces.
And then they DFA him.
Not fair at all.
Anyway, as we knew before hand, Marcus Stroman is on his way to Toronto. He's going to start tomorrow. The plan is to keep Mark Buehrle on his normal rest, he'll still start Sunday. After the off day, Drew Hutchison will start Tuesday, unless there is more they aren't telling us yet.
They do want to watch Hutchison's innings, so pushing him back, now and then, won't hurt. Hutch has seen a drop in velocity, but Gibby is saying there is no injury, they are just worried about fatigue. Course...they aren't going to say 'yeah his arm is about to fall off'. I won't say I'm not worried about him.
Late note, it is possible that Korecky could be going down on 'optional waivers', he does have an option left. So he'd be designated for assignment but , if he clears, he could be optioned to Buffalo.
The offense has come alive under Dale Sveum, with six runs, including two dongs.
Its not too early for Cooperstown is it?
The Royals offense perked up for the second night in a row, scoring six runs in back-to-back games for the first time all season in a 6-1 victory over Toronto. God bless Dale Sveum. Lorenzo Cain and Billy Butler each collected three hits with Cain hitting his second home run of the year, and Alex Gordon chipped in with a two-run home run and a pair of walks.
It looked like it might be a long night for the Royals when they went quietly in the first and Jose Reyes led off the bottom of the inning with a triple off Royals starter Jason Vargas. But the Blue Jays would strand Reyes at third, and the Royals would respond in the second with a run off a Lorenzo Cain single.
Then uh, this happened.
I'm pretty convinced Nori is staging some sort of comedic performance art as part of a traveling comedy routine. He is our Buster Keaton.
Alex Gordon would triple the lead in the fourth with a glorious two-run dong, his fourth round-tripper of the year. The Jays would finally get on the board in the fifth with a long solo home run by Jose Bautista, his 14th of the season. But other than that miscue, Jason Vargas would pitch very effectively, sprinkling seven hits and three walks over six innings, while striking out seven.
Lorenzo Cain would get the Royals to the magical four-run mark with an RBI single in the sixth, then cap his terrific night with a two-run home run in the eighth to put the game away. Greg Holland was put back in his glass container to be used another night as Kelvin Herrera finished off the hapless Jays.
The Royals were reeling earlier in the week, and the Jays were the hottest team in baseball. Now we're looking at no worse than a split in this series. Baseball is a funny game.
I didn't want to get out of my pajamas today. But I did. I can't tell you how disappointing that is. So, let's talk about the Twins for a few minutes.
Does Jon Jay have fans in the #MNTwins front office? Yes. Cardinals have surplus of OFs. Only logical teams would talk. Twins hush-hush.
— Darren Wolfson (@DarrenWolfson) May 31, 2014It sounds like St. Louis might be thinking about using their outfield depth as trade bait. Jeff Todd has more over at MLBTR, but essentially the Cardinals have six players who deserve playing time. Three of them are at Triple-A.
Jon Jay, St. Louis' center fielder, is a 29-year old left-handed hitter who is making $3.25 million in his first year of being arbitration-eligible. Since arriving on the scene in 2010 he's a .293/.355/.400 career hitter who doesn't have plus range in center, but he gets to all the balls he's supposed to and makes those plays. For a pretty decent player who would fit in at the top of the order for the Twins, he shouldn't cost an arm and a leg and would, of course, allow Minnesota to send Aaron Hicks to Triple-A.
#BlueJays have DFA'd Korecky for assignment. Stroman up and will start tomorrow.
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) May 31, 2014In December of 2003, the Twins sent Eric Milton to Philadelphia for Carlos Silva, Nick Punto, and a player to be named later. Korecky was the PTBNL. He made 16 appearances for the Twins over two stints in 2008, only posting one truly awful outing but nevertheless being the definition of "the guy you call up because you just don't have a better choice."
After being selected off waivers by Arizona in February of 2009, he made seven more appearances between '09 and this season. Yep - Bobby Korecky has made a relief appearance for the Blue Jays this year.
Can he keep it going? We'll see if somebody rescues him from DFA limbo.
Brandon has been guest blogging at Twins Now, where Mike Berardino covers the Twins for TwinCities.com and the Pioneer Press. Yesterday they posted a piece in which Brandon speaks to Phil Hughes about his strong start to the season, focusing on pitch selection and being aggressive. It's good work and highly recommended reading.
The @Twins expected to be among the teams at showcase for Cuban pitching prospect Raciel Iglesias this morning in Haiti. They see everyone.
— Jesse Sanchez (@JesseSanchezMLB) May 30, 2014In the next few weeks we'll start to see results from the organization's efforts with international players. I don't have much to go on with Iglesias at the moment, but if something happens we'll be sure to bring you whatever we can scrounge up.
WHAT A USEFUL SCOUTING REPORT. pic.twitter.com/VuISeiJaYr
— Jesse Lund (@TwinkieTown) May 31, 2014It's probably time to just quit the internet now.
We'll see you back here later today for the game!
After Friday’s loss to the Kansas City Royals, the Toronto Blue Jays announced that they have recalled Marcus Stroman to make Satuday’s start. To make room for him on the 25-man roster, reliever Bobby Korecky—who was just called up on Friday—was designated for assignment despite throwing a perfect 1.1 IP. However, the Blue Jays did not DFA Korecky to remove him from the 40-man roster (which would not have made any sense as they didn't need to add anyone onto the roster), so we hypothesized that they did so because in order to option him to triple-A, Korecky needs to go through optional waivers.
On Saturday morning, Bluebird Banter received confirmation from a source that Korecky has indeed been placed on optional waivers and is expected to clear and be returned to the Bisons by next week.
In the vast majority of cases, a designation for assignment leads to one of three outcomes which removes a player from the 40-man roster: outright to the minor leagues, release to grant the player free agency, or a trade to another team. However, there are two other possible choices an organization can make on a designated player in some special circumstances.
In this case, the Blue Jays want to keep Bobby Korecky under their control—they just didn’t want him on the active roster. But in order to send him down to the minors, Korecky has to go through an arcane procedure known as optional waivers. Even though Korecky had an option remaining (see our option and outright status chart), he has to go through waivers because he had made is major league debut more than three calendar years ago.
Optional waivers is like the appendix of baseball transactions; it’s there but it’s quite useless, but not bothersome enough (in most cases) for anyone to actively attempt to remove it. When a player is placed on optional waivers, any team can theoretically make a claim. If a claim is made, the player can be pulled back off waivers, but then he would not be allowed to be sent to the minors. Because no team would want to be blocked from sending players to the minors like that, there is a "gentlemen's agreement" between all the general managers in the league to not claim players on optional waivers. In fact, there is no known instance of anyone being claimed that way. Remember when the Red Sox signed Stephen Drew last week and assigned him to the minors? Drew needed to go through optional waivers, so theoretically a general manager who wanted to screw the Red Sox could've claimed Drew and forced him to get ready for the season in the major leagues.
The reason why Korecky was designated for assignment is that it takes time for waivers to go through the system (at least 48 hours). Players cannot be placed optional waivers until they have been added onto the 40-man roster. Since Korecky's contract was selected on Friday morning, that was the earliest time the Jays could've placed him on waivers. But they needed a roster spot by Friday evening, so Korecky was placed on the designated list to buy some time.
So in summary, Bobby Korecky will be sent back to Buffalo on an optional assignment, and will remain on the 40-man roster. Like all other players on optional assignments, he will need to remain in Buffalo for at least 10 days after he reports to the Bisons before he gets recalled (unless there is an injury). If he does get recalled and needs to be sent down again, he would not need to go through optional waivers again until August 1.
While rare, this transaction has been used in recent years by the Blue Jays.
Some of us may remember Jesse Chavez’s brief tenure with the Blue Jays, others may have missed it, still others probably have been actively trying to forget it (sorry). In August 2012, Chavez was designated for assignment to make room for Chad Jenkins. At that time the media was very confused about the transaction. But it was a very similar situation to Korecky, except that it had something to do with waiver periods that you can read about here.
Korecky has cleared optional waivers and has been assigned to the Bisons, according to the Toronto Star's Brendan Kenedy.
Some roster housekeeping ... Bobby Korecky cleared optional waivers, was sent to Buffalo and remains on the #bluejays' 40-man roster.
— Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) June 1, 2014I'm enjoying a day in small town Alberta, I'll have to tell you about the gopher museum in Torrington one day, so I didn't see the game. This will serve as a place holder for a recap, you can discuss the game in the thread.
I am glad Stroman had a good start. Nice when your team scores you 7 in the first Inning.
14 hits and 4 walks, and more important they scored the base runners.
The last game of a four-game weekend set sees the Blue Jays trying to split the series with the Kansas City Royals. Mark Buehrle faces right-hander Jeremy Guthrie who currently has a 4.14 ERA on the season. The Oregon native started against the Blue Jays on May 1st going six innings allowing eight hits and four earned runs in a 7-3 loss for the Royals. It looks to be another year of an average mid-four ERA for Guthrie who has made a career of being a reliable back-end of the rotation starter.
Guthrie throws mainly a fastball, changeup, and slider combination with a few curveballs as well. As with James Shields a few days ago, Guthrie is not afraid to throw his changeup to hitters of either handedness, with 23% of his pitches against left-handed hitters being changeups and 20% for right-handed hitters. The main difference for Guthrie is actually how he throws his slider almost exclusively to right-handers, while his curveball is mainly saved for opposite-handed batters. As you can see, Guthrie's slider has a lot of vertical break as well, making it similar in appearance to his curveball, but about 10 mph faster:
Today's @BlueJays lineup:
Reyes-SS
Cabrera-LF
Bautista-RF
Lind-DH
Encarnacion-1B
Francisco-3B
Lawrie-2B
Navarro-C
Gose-CF
Buehrle-P
Find the link between Jeremy Guthrie and former Blue Jays radio analyst who now works for the Astros broadcast team.
The Blue Jays try to salvage a split with the Royals, going up against the always reliable Jeremy Guthrie.
Jays and Royals split the 4 game series.
Mark Buehrle was so good, throwing 8 innings of shutout ball, giving up just 6 hits and a walk, with 3 strikeouts. He didn't give up many hard hit balls. He has 12 ground outs and just 3 fly outs. And he made it a nice short game too, at just 2:14.
Aaron Loup pitched a quick 9th.
On offense we had 10 hits and 2 walks. We scored on Dioner Navarro's solo homer in the 2nd and, in the 4th, Juan Francisco led off with a double, Brett Lawrie singled him to third and he scored on an Anthony Gose ground out. And Edwin Encarnacion hit his first home run of June, a 2-run shot in the 8th.
Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit, other than Gose, who was 0 for 3 with a strikeout. Lind and Edwin had 2 hits. Lawrie lost a hit on an challenge by the Royals. He was just out.
We almost had a big first inning. With 2 outs, Jose Bautista walks, Adam Lind singled and Edwin Encarnacion walked. Francisco just missed hitting a grand slam.
There was more than a few bad plays:
Jay of the Day is Buehrle (.505 WPA). Let's give Navarro an honorary mention for the home run and doing a good job with Buehrle. And give another honorary mention to Edwin.
No suckage Jays.
Tomorrow's an off-day, then we play the Tigers in Detroit for another series of statement games.
Buehrle was so quick, we only got 1100 comments in the GameThread. Nice job all. Reyden led us to the victory, with a statement GameThread. Winning like a Man. Can't be a contender if yo can't win the big GameThreads.
| # | Commenter | # Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reyden | 110 |
| 2 | publius varrus | 99 |
| 3 | T-Ball | 90 |
| 4 | Damaso's Burnt Shirt | 70 |
| 5 | Tom Dakers | 68 |
| 6 | ABsteve | 66 |
| 7 | jaysfan100 | 66 |
| 8 | MjwW | 56 |
| 9 | the_humourisironic | 53 |
| 10 | Redonred | 41 |
| 11 | e&n4e | 40 |
| 12 | Janz_V84 | 37 |
| 13 | TFSML | 34 |
| 14 | radivel | 33 |
| 15 | khaleeji | 31 |
| 16 | Siefert | 26 |
| 17 | ThatsRobbery | 24 |
| 18 | fishedin | 24 |
| 19 | PFHLai | 18 |
| 20 | KevinInCT | 17 |
| 21 | leafs71 | 17 |
| 22 | MapleMan | 15 |
Just as I was about to walk away from the computer and, you know, do something with my Sunday that doesn't include sitting at the computer, the Jays make a roster move.
Liam Hendriks is headed back to Buffalo. They won't make the corresponding move until Tuesday. Hendriks was 1-0 with a 2.31 ERA in two starts but he was the luckiest pitcher I've ever seen. He gave up many many hard hit balls that found gloves. We did win both of his starts, both by 3-2 scores and I was ok with giving him another start and hope that the luck continues. But I'd rather have Marcus Stroman make the starts.
Thanks for the fun Liam, I'm sure we'll be seeing you again.
In a very unsurprising announcement this morning, Edwin Encarnacion was awarded the Honda Player of the Month award as voted on by the Toronto chapter of the BBWAA. The choice was obvious after the Dominican launched 16 home runs in 30 games during May tying Mickey Mantle for the most dingers in May by an American League player. If you'll recall, outfielder Melky Cabrera and right-handed pitcher Mark Buehrleshared the Player of the Month honours for April.
Other contenders for the award this month included Mark Buehrle who had a 2.48 ERA in six starts, all of which the Blue Jays won. Jose Bautista also had a torrid May hitting .324 with a .417 OBP and six home runs, which would be good enough to win the Player of the Month most of the time. Neither of them could compete with the aforementioned 16 home runs hit by Encarnacion though, which went along with a .281 average and a .369 OBP. In spite of his monster stat line, the first baseman actually had a BABIP of .195, meaning his average could have been a whole higher had some of those hard hits balls dropped in.
Confirmation of the unanimous selection was provided by the Blue Jays:
.@BlueJays 1B @Encadwin named HONDA Player of the Month for May in a unanimous vote as selected by the Toronto Chapter of the BBWAA.
We'll see how long Encarnacion can keep up this ridiculous pace as the calandar has flipped into June and the Blue Jays stare down some tough pitching in the coming weeks including the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals. It's also likely that he will be bringing home American League Player of the Month honours for the month of May.
Here's a roundup of the month that Encarnacion just had:
The Blue Jays were 21-9 in May, just a terrific month to be a Blue Jays fan. Our pitchers ha a 3.74 ERA (down from 4.64 in April). The starters went 18-5 with a 3.42 ERA (4.41 in April), averaging 6.06 innings per starts. The relievers were 3-4 with a 4.40 ERA (5.03 in April) and had 13 saves. They pitched 2.93 innings a game.
Mark Buehrle: 5-0 with a 2.48 ERA in 6 starts. He pitched 40 innings (6.7 per start), allowed 38 hits, 1 home run, 11 walks with 24 strikeouts. Batters hit .252/.301/.338 against him. There isn't much to complain about. He's only allowed 2 home runs so far this season. He is fun to watch, the games go quick, he doesn't walk many, there hasn't been a lot of hard hit balls against him. He seems to like pitching to Dioner Navarro, but I'd don't know how much credit Navarro should get. It did seem to take awhile for J.P. Arencibia to get comfortable catching him, while Navarro seemed to have it down early in spring training, but he gets enough credit for not being JP.
R.A. Dickey: 3-1 with a 3.55 ERA in 6 starts. He pitched 38 innings (5.5 per start), allowed 34 hits, 3 home runs, 14 walks with 31 strikeouts. Batters hit .228/.299/.376 against him, not that much better than they hit Buehrle. He only had 1 bad start in May, the last one, when he gave up 10 hits and 5 earned in 5 innings, the only start he didn't make it through 6 innings. The others were 'quality starts'. He's still on a pace to throw over 200 innings. If he continues like this for the rest of the season, we really can't complain too much.
Drew Hutchison: 3-1 with a 3.94 ERA in 5 starts. He pitched 32 innings (6.4 per starts), allowed 28 hits, 5 home runs, 12 walks with 21 strikeouts. Batters hit .235/.303/.437 against him. He had his first career complete game, a shutout, on May 16th. The two starts since then weren't great. He is on pace for 182 innings, which seems like a lot for a guy coming off missing almost all of last year after Tommy John surgery. Gibby has pushed back his next start a few days, I'm thinking they might do that a few times the rest of the season.
J.A. Happ: 4-2, 4.09 ERA in 6 starts. He pitched 33 innings (5.5 per start), allowed 36 hits, 6 home runs, 14 walks, 29 strikeouts. Batters hit .273/.342/.462 against him. He's been better than I expected, which might be damning with faint praise, but if he can keep this up, I'm ok with him in the rotation. I'm not sure the odds are good that he will keep this up. He has looked a little more aggressive, at least early in his starts, throwing more strikes, getting ahead of more batters. And the 95 mph fastball is nice to see. He had 3 good starts and 3 not so good starts, ERA of 0.50 in the good starts, and 8.40 in the bad ones.
Dustin McGowan: 1-1, 2 holds, 3.13 ERA in 9 games, 3 starts. 3.94 ERA in the 3 starts, 1.29 ERA in the 7 relief innings. He pitched 23 innings, allowed 23 hits, 3 home runs, 8 walks, with 13 strikeouts. It is a small sample but he's allowed just 4 hits and 1 walk, with 3 strikeouts in the 7 relief innings. Gibby likes having him in the bullpen and if Happ and Stroman can pitch ok, it is all for the best. I really don't think he was set up to succeed in the rotation. The decision to put him there came too late in spring training, but we needed someone to start.
Liam Hendriks: 1-0, 2.31 ERA in 2 starts. He pitched 11.2 innings, allowed 6 hits, 2 home runs, 3 walks, with 8 strikeouts. Batters hit .150/.244/.325 against him. The polite way of saying it is that 'he used his defense'. And he used all the park, for that matter. Or you could say 'he got very lucky'. I wasn't against giving him another start to see if he could stay lucky or if he would learn what he needs to do so that he doesn't have to be so lucky. In his second start, he seemed to be getting better as the start went on, he was getting strikeouts when he needed them. I thought it was a good sign, but I'd rather have Marcus Stroman in the rotation. If he continues to pitch well in Buffalo, he'll likely get another chance sometime this year.
Casey Janssen: 0-0, 8 saves in 10 games. He pitched 10 innings, allowed 7 hits, 1 walk with 6 strikeouts. Batters hit .189/.211/.216 against him. He did have the one blown save, but that was on Jose Reyes' poorly timed error. He hasn't thrown more than 19 pitches in any of his appearances. I think they will be handling him with kids gloves for the rest of the season. I don't think I've ever been as happy to get someone back off the DL.
Aaron Loup: 1-0, 2 saves, 1 blown save, 7 holds, 1.72 ERA in 15 games. He pitched 15.2 innings, allowed 13 hits, 0 home runs, 4 walks and 13 strikeouts. Batters hit .232/.290/.321 (not quite the .088 batting average he held batters to in April, but still good). He seems to be Gibby's favorite. Or maybe he's just not had a tired arm yet this season. He hasn't had much of a split, lefties have a .496 OPS, righties a .554 OPS against him this season.
Steve Delabar: 1-0, 7 holds, 3.97 ERA in 12 games. He pitched 11.1 innings, allowed 9 hits, 1 home runs, 6 walks, 13 strikeouts. Batters hit .225/.347/.400 against him. More walks than you'd like, but he is back to getting more than a strikeout an inning. That's a happy sign. He gave up runs in 4 of his 12 appearances. He's not been the pitcher that we saw last year yet.
Brett Cecil: 0-1, 2 save, 6 holds, 2.45 ERA in 12 games. He pitched 11 innings, allowed 12 hits, 4 walks, 14 strikeouts. Batters hit .273/.320/.364 against him. He hasn't pitched since last Tuesday, which is a long time off for Brett. I wonder if there was some soreness or something that they haven't told us about. He doesn't often get a full week off. So far this year, LHB have hit him (.718 OPS) better than RHB (.667). I'm sure that's a sample size issue.
Todd Redmond: 0-2, 1 save, 5.06 ERA in 6 games. He pitched 10.2 innings, allowed 18 hits, 4 walks and 6 strikeouts. Batters hit .383/.453/.447 against him. He finally pitch in a game we won, on May 26th and then again on May 31st, getting the 3 inning save. The good news is that we haven't used him much. Not much work for a mop up pitcher when you are winning.
Esmil Rogers: 0-0, 1 hold, 8.53 ERA in 5 games. He pitched 6.1 innings, allowed 8 hits, 1 home runs, 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. Batters hit .308/.379/.577 against him (Edwin like numbers). He was really bad, and now he's in Buffalo.
Marcus Stroman: 2-0, 7.30 ERA in 6 games, 1 start. He pitched 12.1 innings, allowed 18 hits, 1 home run, 1 walk, 10 strikeouts. Batters hit .333/.351/.519 against him. You have to like a 10 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio. The start was great. I did worry about him when we scored 7 runs in the bottom of the first, he was sitting for a long time. Here's to 20 more starts this year.
Rob Rasmussen: 0-0, 2 holds in 4 games. Pitched 2 innings, allowed 2 hits, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts, 1 hit batter. Batters hit .250/.400/.375 against him. He got David Ortiz to ground out in his first appearance. Like many of the guys that have been up and down, I wouldn't mind him staying around a little longer so we could see what we have.
Sergio Santos: 0-1, 1 blown save, in 3 games. He pitched 3.1 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 home runs, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. Batters hit .286/.375/.786 against him and then he went on the DL. He should be back fairly soon, hopefully pitching much better.
Chad Jenkins: pitched in 2 games, a total of 1.1 innings, didn't allow a hit, or a walk, nor did he get a strikeout. Really nothing to show he was actually in the games. Faced 4 batters, got 4 batters out, 1 ground out, 3 fly outs.
Neil Wagner: he pitched once for us in May. It didn't go well, 1.1, 6 hits, 6 earned, 1 walk, 1 home run and went back to Buffalo right after.
Bobby Korecky : pitched once, faced 4 batters, got them all out, 3 ground outs, 1 fly out. Then they cast him out again. Another I wouldn't mind seeing pitch for us some more.
Steve Tolleson: pitched in a blow out. gave up a hit and got an out.
The Miami Marlins added another piece to their bullpen on Monday afternoon by signing reliever Kevin Gregg. Gregg spent a pair of seasons as Miami's closer.
After experimenting with former Chicago Cubs reliever Carlos Marmol, the Miami Marlins have turned to another former Cub to try and add depth to one of baseball's inconsistent bullpens. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported the Marlins have agreed to terms with free agent Kevin Gregg, who will spend eight or nine days in the minors before being promoted to join the team.
Sources: #Marlins agree with free-agent RHP Kevin Gregg, pending physical. Will start in minors, then join team after 8 or 9 days.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 2, 2014The move comes a day after the Marlins traded a draft pick to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for reliever Bryan Morris. Miami's 4.04 bullpen earned run average ranks 23rd in all of baseball.
Gregg spent last season at the back of the Cubs' bullpen, and posted a 3.48 ERA and 4.10 FIP while recording 33 saves in 62 innings pitched. 2013 was Gregg's best major league season since 2010, when he saved 37 games and posted a 3.51 ERA for the Blue Jays.
Gregg was reportedly frustrated that he couldn't earn a major league deal last offseason, and decided he would wait for there to be a need before signing with a team.
After adding Morris on Sunday, the move gives Miami much needed bullpen assistance. With Carter Capps on the disabled list and A.J. Ramos and Mike Dunn both struggling at times, Gregg should receive plenty of opportunities to pitch late in games.
Getting the ball to closer Steve Cishek with a lead has been difficult for the Marlins.
Gregg is familiar with the Marlins, as he served as the team's closer in 2007 and 2008. He has a career 4.07 ERA and has 177 saves to his name.
As Julian Santiago reported from Buffalo, the Bisons had an injury-filled day on Sunday, rivalling the darkest days of the 2012 Blue Jays season when Tom Dakers came into town. Today, the Bisons announced that one of the pitchers who was hurt on Sunday, Neil Wagner, was placed on the seven-day minor league disabled list. Also going onto the DL are relievers John Stilson and outfielder Brad Glenn.
Wagner, who was demoted to triple-A after a disastrous outing in that blowout against Cleveland a few weeks ago, was pulled from his outing having felt "forearm tightness." Wagner had just blown a save, and was pulled after feeling pain after sailing a pitch to the backstop shortly after that. His situation seems to be the most severe of the bunch, as he was sent off to Florida for further re-evaluations.
Go visit Amy Moritz's injury update blog entry over at The Buffalo News for more detailed updates, but to summarize, Ricky Romero will be "out a little while," Rob Rasmussen just has a bruise so is day-to-day, and Sean Nolin was described somewhat ominously as "fine." The Bisons called up lefty reliever Richard Bleier from New Hampshire, and Brett Carroll comes off the DL to fill Glenn's spot on the roster.
The Blue Jays have yet to announce a corresponding move for Liam Hendriks's optioning to Buffalo on Sunday. However, it's not like they have a wealth of healthy choices from the Bisons. With the injuries, Kyle Drabek starting tonight, and Bobby Korecky ineligible for recall, the likely candidate for the callup tomorrow is Chad Jenkins. Jenkins last started Thursday, meaning that he should be well-rested to join the big club on Tuesday.
The 2014 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft will be held in just two days, starting at 7 PM eastern time on Thursday. With the event coming up so quickly, it's time to talk some draft, discussing the possible picks and strategies for the Toronto Blue Jays.
After Scott C. profiled possible Jays targets Jeff Hoffman, Touki Toussaint and Trea Turner, and I myself made a ranking of High School pitchers, the Blue Jays' favourite demographic, I thought it was time for something different. Rather than profile specific players, let's simply talk rumors and strategies.
Another interesting draft note: Blue Jays' heavy hitters were rolling deep in Tallahassee yesterday & today to see Max Pentecost.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) June 3, 2014An interesting tweet from Kiley McDaniel, scout.com's draft expert, and a guy I hold in high regard. With "heavy hitters" we assume he means important members of the Blue Jays scouting staff, not Jose Bautista, Edwing and the bunch. Pentecost is an intriguing lad, as a catcher who can really hit, and probably can stick at catcher. If the Jays do believe Pentecost can stick at catcher, he certainly fits the profile of an up the middle talent the Blue Jays so often look for.
Here's a table of the cream of the 2014 crop, along with some recently drafted college hitters in their senior years:
| Name | AVG | OBP | SLG | BB | K |
| Max Pentecost | .423 | .483 | .631 | 29 | 25 |
| Trea Turner | .321 | .418 | .516 | 37 | 25 |
| Bradley Zimmer | .368 | .461 | .573 | 31 | 34 |
| Colin Moran | .345 | .470 | .544 | 63 | 25 |
| Hunter Renfroe | .345 | .431 | .620 | 35 | 43 |
| Mike Zunino | .322 | .394 | .669 | 31 | 47 |
| Tyler Naquin | .380 | .458 | .541 | 25 | 37 |
| Deven Marrero | .279 | .335 | .437 | 17 | 16 |
| George Springer | .350 | .458 | .624 | 36 | 38 |
| Kolten Wong | .378 | .492 | .560 | 42 | 20 |
The reason I've only gone back as far as 2011 is because that's the year the BBCOR bats were introduced. The new bat regulations have dropped the HR rate in college baseball from 0.68-0.96 (2000-2011) to 0.42-0.52 per game the last three years, this year reaching the lowest rate since 1970. Keeping this in mind, the stats of possible Jays targets Turner and Pentecost look pretty decent when compared to Troy Tulowitzki's .349/.431/.599 line with 14 BB and 35 Ks in Tulo's junior year. Not saying Pentecost and Turner share Tulowitzki's upside (who does, really?), but they certainly seem worthy of a top 10 pick. One thing to note with Turner is that his BABIP in 2014 was far lower than his BABIP in 2013, which seems to be a big reason for him dropping on boards. It might be luck, might not be.
Some fans were upset that the Blue Jays did not draft Kolten Wong when they chose Beede with 21st overall pick in 2011, but they got Stroman as a compensation a year later, and Stro's probably the better player. Other than perhaps Wong the Blue Jays have simply not had the premium college defenders available to them that can compare to Pentecost, Turner and Zimmer, so their recent draft tendencies are far from proof that the Blue Jays will not go for a college bat at this point in the draft. One last thing about Pentecost: he was really, really impressive in the Cape Cod League, the college summer league with wood bats. Zimmer not so much, and Turner disappointed with Team USA.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Alex Anthopoulos:
AA: "[...] I’d say a big part of refining our process is maybe we’re starting to examine the level of risk we’re willing to take."
Q: How so?
AA: "Just anything. More risk, most likely, more reward, and we may just modify it slightly. It doesn’t mean we’ll be risk-averse, but maybe not take the same level of risk. We’re just trying to balance it out a little bit more as we’re going through it. That’s not to say we’re not looking for talent, upside, all that kind of stuff. We’re trying to balance it."
Considering the relative failures of the 2011 and 2012 drafts, which have seen a lot of disappointing high school picks, Daniel Norris being the exception, compared to the 2010 draft, it's perhaps not a surprise that a bit of an adjustment might be coming. The Blue Jays had a lot of picks in 2011 and 2012, but a lot of those have failed to progress in the direction of a decent prospect. Jacob Anderson, Jacob Musgrove (traded, injuries), Kevin Comer (traded), Matt Smoral and Tyler Gonzales have been hugely disappointing first-round supplemental picks. Meanwhile Mitch Nay, D.J. Davis, Christian Lopes, Matt Dean and Dwight Smith have at least moved up some levels, but they haven't taken a huge step forward the way the 2010 draft trio of Syndergaard, Sanchez and Nicolino did at the lower levels.
More Kiley McDaniel:
Mock draft teasers: Nick Gordon/1-1 rumor still alive & UVAs Nick Howard rumored as high as 11/TOR w/multiple tms in teens kicking the tires
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) May 30, 2014I hear you asking: "Well, why would the Blue Jays take a college reliever, that doesn't seem to be their style?" And you're right, it's not the Blue Jays style. But McDaniel explained in his mock that it would be a huge under slot deal, which would mean more money to be thrown at the plentiful high school arms later in the draft, and that does seem to be the Blue Jay way of recent years. Also, Nick Howard's a reliever right now, but some feel he can go back to starting, which he did pretty succesfully in his sophomore season (higher K/9 than Hoffmann in his sophomore season, for example) after relieving in his freshman year. The 15.34 K/9 Howard's sporting in his return to the bullpen is certainly impressive, but we don't know how well he'd have done in the rotation this season. There's a chance he could have been in the top 10 mix if Virginia had let him start, but he could also have been out of first round consideration altogether. Howard's also played the field for Virginia, so there's some thought he could improve when he focuses solely on pitching.
Some thoughts from Jonathan Mayo:
Are there any current players in the Majors who have a similar game to Trea Turner?
-- Sadiq R., Queens, N.Y.You've struck on one of the biggest question marks surrounding the NC State shortstop. His plus speed makes him very interesting, especially if you think he can stick at short (most seem to). While there have been some questions about his hit tool because of some unusual mechanics at the plate, he's performed, putting some concerns to rest this year by finishing strongly. But he doesn't look like or do it like anyone in the big leagues, at least according to some scouts I spoke to. Having an MLB comparison isn't essential, nor is it necessarily a predictor of success or failure. But being able to see a big league model that compares favorably would likely help ease worries for teams looking at Turner in the top half of the first round.
While I usually don't like it when a pitching prospect needs his delivery changed, I can't help thinking that there might be a lot of untapped potential in Turner's bat if he has a swing overhaul. I don't know how risky that is, though. It didn't work for Travis Snider but I think there's also a lot of success stories in this area.
Frankie Piliere, expert from PerfectGame in a draft chat:
Grant Holmes is rarely mocked to the Blue Jays, but he's been linked to them quite a bit, so he's not out of the picture yet. Will Stroman's success make them more keen on smaller pitchers?
And more Trea Turner:
That's pretty darn positive, and Piliere's not some amateur, he knows his stuff.
Let's go back to Nick Howard:
Another advantage to Howard might be that he has less innings on his arm, because he only started for one year in college. I like his delivery for the most part, although he does throw across his body. Don't think the Blue Jays will actually go the Howard route, but I can see the arguments for taking him.
Then some rumors from Chris Crawford's latest mock (he has the Jays taking Turner 9th):
No. 11: Toronto Blue Jays Name Position School Slot Jeff Hoffman RHP East Carolina $2.8883M I wouldn’t call this a lock, but assuming he’s still on the board — and I’d be surprised if he wasn’t — I think this will be the direction the Blue Jays go. Other names I’ve heard associated with both picks are Touki Toussaint, Newcomb, Derek Hill and Holmes.
Derek Hill is a speedy center fielder with little power who might be the dark horse for this pick. But the guy I'm interested in here is Sean Newcomb, who gets mocked to the Mets, Phillies and sometimes Mariners quite often, but not to the Blue Jays. Newcomb's a college left-hander who throws really hard with a good, clean delivery. The problem? He's faced poor competition in college, and yet still has some command issues. In other words, he's a project despite being a college pitcher, and that type of pitcher doesn't usually go top 10. But the scouts seem to love him, so who's to say the Blue Jays don't?
