After picking Jeff Hoffman 9th and Max Pentecost 11th, the Blue Jays selected right-handed pitcher Sean Reid-Foley 49th overall in the second round of the 2014 MLB Draft. The slot value for this pick is $1,128,800 and will likely end up costing slightly more for the high schooler who was projected by many to go in the top 20 picks of the draft. Reid-Foley was born August 30, 1995 in Jacksonville, Florida and measures in at 6'3" 205 lbs. Out of Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville, Reid-Foley features a strong four-pitch mix with strong movement on both his fastball and changeup.

When Woodman663 previewed high school pitchers last week, Reid-Foley ranked fifth behind four pitchers taken in the first round and actually ahead of a handful of pitchers already selected, with our resident draft hound saying:

Reid-Foley (6'2, 210) has been mentioned in the same breath as the Blue Jays, but more as "outside chance" kind of guy. I thought Reid-Foley was mighty impressive at the Perfect Game All-American Game, and I like that he throws multiple pitches for strikes, but there's one big red flag: high pitching arm elbow in his delivery. Not as bad as Mark Prior had it, but still something I'd probably stay away from if I'm the Blue Jays. Has plenty of zip on the fastball at 92-94 mph.

Reid-Foley has no control problems and throws a ton of strikes, making it a fairly safe pick for a high school pitcher. His delivery is a little awkward and he tends to throw across his body, although he has no problem repeating it so you can't criticize it too much. He's committed to nearby Florida State, but the Blue Jays should have some extra slot money to throw at Reid-Foley to make sure he never steps foot on the Seminoles' campus.

AN contributor Phil Naessens talks about his hatred for the Yankees, his joy at seeing the A's beat them two out of three and much more including a free chance to win $109 bucks.

I don't know who coined the phrase "chicks dig the longball" but they must have been a Yankee fan. Every great Yankee team I can remember or read about was built around guys hitting bombs....and big ones at that. That short right field porch in the "house that Ruth built" and in the new Park has helped propel the Yankees to one of the most incredible records in all of sports history so when teams like the A's waltz in there and give them a dose of their own medicine it really makes me smile.

Allow me to backtrack a bit here.

Growing up most if not all of my family and friends were New York Yankee fans. Not me; I'm not one to run with the masses so to speak and I decided to become a New York Mets fan instead. My Grandfather was a Detroit Tiger fan and after spending countless summers as a child with him listening to Ernie Harwell on the radio I became a Tiger fan as well. The Tigers played the Yankees some 18 times a season which meant 18 times a year my team had the chance to beat the Yankees. The only chance my Mets had would be to reach the World Series and back then the two teams were never good enough to both reach the Series at the same time.

Any time I would bring up the Mets or any other team that was doing well Yankee fans would tell me; "Where's your history?  We got the Babe, the Iron Horse, the Clipper and the Mick". The core four.....the Mount Rushmore of Baseball. You got nothing. Fahgetaboutit." After the first couple of times it was okay but after listening to this crap nearly 20 times a day it became really annoying.

The other thing that really annoyed me about the Yankees growing up was the way that George Steinbrenner dude would spend money. Free Agency was upon us and whenever the Yanks had a need good ol' Georgie Boy would fill it paying more than everyone else for dudes who could hit the long ball and beat our beloved teams. There were also times when the Spankees were very successful because of the long ball and even longer spending but as far as I was concerned it just wasn't fair, was really annoying and I absolutely hated those muther effers for it.

Flash forward to 2014 and not much has changed. George Steinbrenner is no longer with us but the Yankees are still trying to win games by spending ungodly sums of money for players they hope will win them games with the long ball. Sadly for them their half a billion dollar spending spree this winter hasn't produced the results they were looking for that doesn't make me sad at all.

Yes, my name is Phil I am an unashamedly unabashedly absolute Yankee hater.

I took special satisfaction in watching Brandon Moss, Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Donaldson, Major Leagues bargain basement version of the half a billion dollar Yankees, go bombs away and beat the overpaid and underperforming Bronx Bombers in their own house at their own game. It's too darn bad they couldn't do it again with Drew Pomeranz pitching the best game of his career on Thursday but we will take the series victory all the same.

You know what else is fun about beating the Yankees? Smack talking Yankee fans after they lose to light spending superior teams like the A's. I'm not talking about what they call "trolling" I'm talking about actually calling up your favorite Yankee fan and giving them the business. There's nothing more enjoyable than listening to a Yankee fan make excuses as to why their beloved Bombers can't seem to hit their way out of Monument Park and they always wind up going back to the standard;

"Where's your history?  We got the Babe, the Iron Horse, the Clipper and the Mick". The core four.....the Mount Rushmore of Baseball. You got nothing. Fahgetaboutit."

The best part about beating the Yankees is talking with Alex about it on my show. We obviously talked about beating the Yankees but we also talked about how this A's team is arguably the best team in baseball, we answered a young listeners question about why Coco Crisp is so popular and looked ahead to the weekend series with Baltimore.

If you are an NBA or OKC Thunder fan interested in finding out if the Thunders Kevin Durant is soft and what makes the San Antonio Spurs so good. J.A. Sherman from the SB Nation Thunder blog Welcome to Loud City joins me to do just that.

If you would like the straight scoop on the St. Louis Cardinals then please tune into the show as Viva El Birdos Eric Johnson joins me to give all the latest on Oscar Tavares, Kolton Wong, the Cardinals offensive struggles and a preview of their weekend series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

One last thing: listeners of this show and readers of this column are invited to play a free fantasy baseball game on June 6, 2014 compliments of Draft Street and the Phil Naessens Show. Click this link right HERE, fill out your lineup for your chance to win $109 bucks for free! You can listen to the show below or download it from my site here

With three picks in the first two rounds, the Blue Jays were able to snap up some elite talent on the first day of the 2014 edition of the MLB first-year player draft. Is it too early to call it a success, and what kind of players can we expect the Blue Jays to target going forward?

It's hard not to get excited by the first day of this year's MLB draft if you're a Blue Jays fan. The Blue Jays snapped up three legitimate first-round talents, one of which could have even gone 1st overall had he not blown out his elbow. The guy I'm talking about is of course right-handed pitcher Jeff Hoffman, a college pitcher with a really high upside. In a dream scenario, Hoffman gets fully healthy and pitches like Justin Verlander, developing into a legitimate ace atop the Blue Jays' rotation. One of the riskier picks in the top 10, Hoffman could also struggle with injuries or even never fully regain his former stuff or command and never reach the majors. Is Hoffman going to be the next Wade Townsend (who needed TJ shortly after he joined the Rays and never got healthy again), or is he going to become the next Verlander, with a mid-90s fastball and several plus offspeed pitches? A lot of that is projection, as Hoffman's statistical track record in college wasn't all that impressive. Just as he seemed to make his breakthrough, Hoffman went down with his elbow injury, leaving his current ability somewhat in doubt.

Though he does not excite nearly as much with his upside, Max Pentecost may yet turn out to be the better pick at number eleven. Pentecost can really, really hit, and guys like that usually adapt to higher levels well, and sometimes add more power than you would expect. Just a few examples of pure hitters coming out of college: Matt Carpenter, Dustin Pedroia, Alex Gordon and Jonathan Lucroy. Pentecost is not nearly as highly regarded as Gordon, while being drafted much higher than those other three. In terms of draft position, comps would be Yasmani Grandal (hurt) and Jason Castro (over 4 WAR last season!), though Pentecost has less power than Grandal. In terms of winning Cape Cod league MVP honors as a catcher, Pentecost is like Matt Wieters. As a Cape Cod league MVP and low strikeout hitter, Pentecost is like Russ Adams. And before you "yuck, Russ Adams!", Adams' problem was his glove, not his bat. As a catcher who is also athletic and speedy enough to be a threat on the bases, Pentecost gets comped to Jason Kendall. In short, I really like Pentecost's offensive profile, but the worries are that he played against mediocre competition in college and we don't know with absolute certainty if his defense is going to be good enough.

As the 49th pick in the draft, Sean Reid-Foley might be the biggest steal in recent years of the draft, as a guy believed to be solid mid-first round pick who dropped all the way to the Blue Jays in the second round. And if you ask me how that could happen, I really, really, don't know. He's a Florida State commit, but should be signable, perhaps a million higher than the slot (1.1M) with money saved from the Hoffman (and possibly Pentecost) pick(s). The biggest red flag is Reid-Foley's delivery, which features a high elbow, and that's usually a warning sign for injuries. However, the risk of injury, which, let's be honest, is there to some degree for every pitcher picked, does not outweigh the potential benefit of getting an extra first-round quality arm. The great thing about Foley is that he already throws four solid pitches, and throws them all for strikes, so he's not the same kind of risky pick as the 2012 draft's Matt Smoral, who was ranked in the first round region at the time.

Still on the board

Starting at 1 PM EST, the draft will continue with rounds thee through then. Today, the draft should move quickly, and there should be no cringe worthy analysis from the likes of Harold Reynolds. With lots of intriguing options still available, let's divide them into different categories.

Hard Signs

There's plenty of guys who will need to be signed over slot value from this point on, and they include:

Jacob Bukauskas - UNC commit, probably unsignable, great stuff and youngest in the draft.

Mac Marshall - LSU commit, maybe signable if a lot is saved elswehere? Multiple plus pitches from the left side

Dylan Cease - Vanderbilt commitment in hand and injured. Hard throwing righty, and I mean upper nineties hard.

Jakson Reetz - Committed to Nebraska and probably wants to go there. I really like his swing and he's expected to stay at catcher.

Keith Weisenberg - Stanford commit, projectable with a really short stride delivery.

Cobi Johnson, Florida State commit, also a down season, but has father in Blue Jaus organization who is a pitching instructor.

Possibly signable High School kids

These guys have either committed to lower profile schools, or weren't projected to go higher than the second round and could therefore have lower dollar values in mind.

Carson Sands - smooth delivery with low-90s fastball from the left side. Florida State commitment in hand, won't be super cheap.

Matthew Railey - athletic outfielder, probably not a CF, with the ability to hit, teammate of Sands and also commited to Florida State.

J.J. Schwarz - like Reetz, he's a good defender at catcher and has power potential. Committed to University of Florida.

Milton Ramos - very good defender at shortstop, questionable bat, committed to Florida Atlantic.

Mitch Hart - committed to Southern California. One of the youngest players still available, both polished and projectable at the same time.

David Peterson - athletic 6'6 southpaw committed to Oregon. Colorado native, so will the Rockies pick him just in front of the Blue Jays?

Kevin Padlo - young third baseman who plays all out (insert Lawrie comp) and has good bat speed and power potential, committed to San Diego.

Trenton Kemp - great athlete who should stick in center field, committed to Fresno State.

College pitchers

There's still a lot of college pitching available, but with few standouts. Chris Oliver, James Norwood, Chris Ellis and Brett Graves all throw hard from the right side, but none of them gets a satisfactory number of Ks. Lots of (somewhat) soft-tossing lefties in there, too, which I'm not going to list.

Zech Lemond - Rice pitcher who got himself injured before he could truly prove himself as a starting pitcher.

Eric Skoglund - At 6'6 or 6'7 tall (MLB pipeline disagrees with itself here) and still projectable, Skoglund might be the most attractive option out of the low-90s college southpaws for the Jays.

Jeremy Rhoades - University of Illinois pitcher who's got one of the best K-rates left on the board. Pegged as reliever despite low-90s fastball, good slider and durable build.

Sam Howard - Best combination of velocity (90-93) and K-rate from a lefty available at this point. Pitches for Georgia Southern, which hasn't faced the best competition, same as with Rhoades.

Jake Cosart - Brother of Jarrod, hard throwing junior college guy with a curveball that could be good. Hard to tell what you're getting in Cosart.

Josh Prevost - Top college senior pitcher still on the board. Stands tall at 6'8 and throws a sinker. Talk about downward plane.

College hitters

The least exciting of the demographics in this class, there are nevertheless still some intrguing players available

Jordan Luplow - Good contact skills and decent power. Like Pentecost (pure hitter, good Cape Cod performance) but without the premium position, although Luplow could be a good defensive right fielder. Would be great value at this point.

Brian Anderson - After a down year with the bat, Anderson still has upside as a hitter who may or may not be able to man second or third base. It's not much but Anderson is one of the highest ranked college hitters still available.

Grayson Greiner - In a good class for catchers, Greiner, who is unusually tall for a catcher, is one of the solid options left on the board. Greiner's defense is his calling card, but the bat isn't that bad, either.

My pick

I would go with Luplow, before the Cardinals snag him up and turn him into another Matt Carpenter. Zech Lemond is the only other intiguing option out of the college class. If signable I'd prefer Jakson Reetz out of the high school class, followed by pitchers Carson Sands and Mitch Hart. That's assuming the Jays don't have the money for Mac Marshall.

The Jays continue to roll, and a bad week by the Yankees allow the Orioles to sneak back into second place.

1. Toronto Blue Jays

SBN Blog: Bluebird Banter
2014 record: 37-24
2014 RS/RA: 311/260 (+51)
5/30-6/5 RS/RA: 37/16 (+21)

Week in Review

It feels like the Blue Jays are just getting better, which is annoying. They've gone 5-1 since last Friday and scored an average of over six runs per game. The also allowed an average of just over 2.5 runs per game, so it's easy to see why they have such a good record.

The Jays actually split a four-game series with the Royals, losing on Thursday and Friday before coming back to take the next two with a combined score of 16-2. Edwin Encarnacion, not surprisingly, had a great series against KC with three homers, a double, and six walks. Jose Bautista didn't have such a good time, going just 3-for-19 with only one extra base hit. In their loss on Friday, starting pitcher J.A. Happ got knocked around for six runs, but the starting pitching in the next two games was superb. Marcus Stroman, making his first start of the year, and Mark Buehrle combined to pitch 14 innings with just one run allowed.

If you thought the Tigers might be able to stop the Jays, you were wrong. The Blue Jays swept them easily. Drew Hutchison out-dueled Anibal Sanchez with seven shutout innings, R.A. Dickey gave up just two runs despite having some troubles, and J.A. Happ was quite a bit better than Justin Verlander in the finale.

Upcoming Week

The Blue Jays are home for six games, three against the Cardinals followed by three against the Twins. They'll then begin a series on Thursday against the Orioles that I hope won't result it a bloodbath.

Injuries and News

Colby Rasmus (right hamstring tightness) is working out at extended spring training and could return this month. Edwin Encarnacion left yesterday's game with back tightness but is expected to be back in the lineup any time.

Encarnacion was named A.L. Player of the Month for May after hitting 16 home runs. He hit homers in three straight games three times in the month and five times he hit more than one in a game.

2. Baltimore Orioles

2014 record: 30-28
2014 RS/RA: 254/256 (-2)
5/30-6/5 RS/RA: 34/23 (+9)

Week in Review

The Orioles lost the first two games of their series with the Astros last week, giving them a four-game losing streak and driving the fans (and the announcers) to drink. But they won the next two and then took two out of three from the Rangers to go 4-2 over the last seven days.

Last Friday the Orioles wasted a good start by Miguel Gonzalez (6 2/3 IP, 2 R) by only managing one run against Brett Olberholtzer and the Astros bullpen. But they bounced back on Saturday with a 4-1 win thanks to a good game from Chris Tillman (6 2/3 IP, 1 R) and a three-RBI game by Nelson Cruz. And they smacked down the Astros pitching on Sunday with nine runs behind a home run and 3 RBI from David Lough and a grand slam by Manny Machado.

After an off day on Monday, the O's ran their win streak to four against the other team Rangers. The Orioles scored eight runs on Tuesday, including a three-run homer from former Ranger Nelson Cruz. In game two they survived two home runs by Adrian Beltre with a 6-5 win. In the finale they scored six runs but a terrible game by Tillman and an uncharacteristically bad defensive game by J.J. Hardy led to an 8-6 loss.

Upcoming Week

The Orioles kick off a ten-game home stand with a three-game series against the Athletics followed by three against the Red Sox, and finally a four-game series starting on Thursday against the Blue Jays. That's a pretty tough stretch.

Injuries and News

Miguel Gonzalez had an MRI on his side that showed a slight oblique pull, and he hopes he can be ready to pitch this weekend. Buck Showalter made it sound like he'll hit the DL, though. Matt Wieters continues to throw every few days without reports of pain in his elbow, but still no timetable on a possible return. Bud Norris has a right arm contusion from being hit by a ball on Wednesday, but isn't expect to miss too much time. Tommy Hunter is recovering from his groin strain and could return as early as Monday.

Johan Santana should be in Baltimore soon. He's currently getting ready for a few starts in the minors but mid-June seems like the target for him to join the Orioles. Imagine he joined them and was actually good? That would be awesome.

3. New York Yankees

SBN Blog: Pinstripe Alley
2014 record: 30-29
2014 RS/RA: 240/268 (-28)
5/30-6/5 RS/RA:16/37 (+21)

Week in Review

The Yankees played seven games at home over the last seven games and won just two of them, going 1-2 against both the Twins and the Athletics, and losing a make up game to the Mariners. Their offense just fell apart, scoring two runs or less in five of their games. Both of their wins came with Masahiro Tanaka on the mound, as Tanaka pitched 14 innings over two games with two runs allowed, three walks, and 13 strikeouts. In the series finale they took a 2-1 lead into the ninth inning (having been shut down by former Yankee Phil Hughes over eight innings), but the Twins scored six runs in the top of the ninth to come back and win.

A 2-1 victory over the A's yesterday saved the Yankees from being swept. A pitching duel between Scott Kazmir and Hiroki Kuroda went south in the tenth inning of the first game when Adam Warren gave up three runs in the tenth, and in game two they blew a 4-0 lead thanks in part to two homers hit by Yoenis Cespedes.

Upcoming Week

The Yankees are on the road this week with a four-game series against the Royals and then a trip to Seattle for three more.

Injuries and News

Carlos Beltran is back from the disabled list and was in the lineup yesterday. The Yankees could get back Francisco Cervelli (strained hamstring) and RHP Shawn Kelley (back stiffness) sometime this month. No news on CC Sabathia (bum knee) or Michael Pineda (strained shoulder), both of whom are still far away from returning.

There has been a shake up in the bullpen this week as the Yankees optioned Preston Claiborne to AAA and DFA'd Alfredo Aceves. Jose Ramirez was recalled to replace Claiborne and the Yankees claimed Wade LeBlanc off waivers from the Angels to fill Aceves' spot.

4. Boston Red Sox

SBN Blog: Over the Monster
2014 record: 27-32
2014 RS/RA: 240-252 (-12)
5/30-6/5 RS/RA: 23/18 (+5)

Week in Review

The Red Sox have been a streaky team of late, following a ten-game losing streak with a seven-game winning streak. They spent last weekend sweeping the Rays even further in to the basement of the A.L. East. After a walkoff victory in game one of the series, the Red Sox pitching didn't let the Rays into the game at all over the next two. Rubby De La Rosa's seven-inning gem with 8 strikeouts shut down the Rays on Saturday, and on Sunday Jon Lester struck out twelve as he demolished the Rays' lineup.

There were of course all kinds of ridiculous shenanigans during this series, with players getting hit and ejected and David Ortiz comparing baseball to war. Brandon Workman was suspended for six game for throwing at Evan Longoria, but David Price didn't get any penalty for hitting Ortiz. It was basically two unlikable teams making themselves more unlikable.

The Red Sox winning streak came to an end when they went to Cleveland for a three-game series. John Lackey pitched an eight-inning complete game loss in game one. His three runs allowed weren't many, but they were enough against Justin Masterson, who didn't give up a run in seven innings, strike out 10 Red Sox along the way. Jake Peavy was roughed up for five runs in the second game of the series, and the Indians completed the sweep on Wednesday thanks to a 12th-inning walk-off home run off of Edward Mujica.

Upcoming Week

This weekend the Red Sox are in Detroit for three against the Tigers, then they travel to Baltimore for three against the Orioles before starting a home series on Thursday vs the Indians.

Injuries and News

The Red Sox lost catcher Ryan Lavarnway (wrist surgery) and OF/1B Mike Carp (fractured foot) to the DL with no timetable on their return. Clay Buchholz (hyperextended knee) could return in mid-June and 1B Mike Napoli (finger sprain) is targeting this weekend to return. Starting pitcher Felix Doubront started a rehab assignment yesterday so could return in a week or two. No updates for Shane Victorino (strained hamstring) or Will Middlebrooks (fractured finger).

Daniel Nava was recalled to take Carp's place on the roster and Alex Hassan to replace Lavarnway. Hassan made his major league debut on June 1st. Shortstop Stephen Drew was recalled and made his first start this year on June 2nd.

5. Tampa Bay Rays

SBN Blog: DRays Bay
2014 record: 23-38
2014 RS/RA: 228/275 (-47)
May 23-29 RS/RA: 14/34 (-20)

Week in Review

The Rays finished up a week they'd just as soon forget, going 0-7 as they were swept by both the Red Sox and the Marlins. Their bats were completely miserable as they scored only 14 runs on the week, and six of them were in yesterday's loss to the Marlins.

They scored a grand total of three runs in three games in the series against the Red Sox. They wasted a good start by David Price, but neither of their other starters gave them much of a chance even if the bats had been able to do anything. Jake Odorizzi gave up five runs in just 3 1/3 innings, and Erik Bedard gave up just three runs but couldn't complete five innings thanks in part to four walks.

In the first two games against the Marlins the Rays wasted a serviceable start by Alex Cobb (6 IP, 3 R) and a great start by Chris Archer (7 IP, 1 R, 8 K) as they scored just one run over both games. They were dealt a complete game shut out by Henderson Alvarez. They lost the next two games thanks to poor pitching as David Price gave up a three-run homer after an error by Evan Longoria extended the inning. Jake Odorizzi put up another dud in the series finale.

The Rays have now lost 10 games in a row.

Upcoming Week

The Rays will try to stop their losing streak at home with four games vs the Mariners and two against the Cardinals.

Injuries and News

The Rays took a huge blow this week when OF Wil Myers went on the DL with a stress fracture in his wrist. He'll miss at least two months. Catcher Ryan Hanigan (strained hamstring) will begin a rehab assignment this weekend, so his return shouldn't be far off. Starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson will also being a rehab assignment this weekend, and could return to the Rays by the end of the month.

The 31-30 Cardinals visit the 37-24 Blue Jays and face off against all of Toronto's good starting pitchers and their many scary hitters.

I'm not the only Cardinalsfan at VEB who is a casual Blue Jays fan. Sure, some of it has to do with Colby Rasmus being traded to the Jays and more or less coming into his own. But there's more to this bandwagon than Corky Ramos. The Blue Jays are an exciting ball club that's fun to watch, and not just because Jose Reyes is their starting shortstop. A combination of talented young players, excellent power hitters, and wonderful uniforms is a mighty draw for even Cardinals fans.

Schedule

Tonight, Lance Lynn (3.48 ERA, 3.88 xFIP) and Marcus Stroman (7.30 ERA, 3.00 xFIP) take the hill at 6:07pm CT.

Shelby Miller (4.06 ERA, 4.69 xFIP) and the beguiling Mark Buerhle (2.10 ERA, 4.09 xFIP) pitch Saturday at 12:07pm CT.

Jaime Garcia (5.47 ERA, 2.59 xFIP) and Drew Hutchison (3.50 ERA, 3.80 xFIP) wrap up the series Sunday at 12:07pm CT.

Some Guys Who Hit Good

Jose Bautista (178 wRC+) is hitting for a significantly higher BABIP than his career average, and his HR/FB% is more in line with those from his most successful seasons. He's healthy, lucky, funny, and very dangerous. He can also throw you out at first base. From right field. (Why is he so good at that? Beyond the Boxscore has it covered.)

Edwin Encarnacion fixed his swing in 2012 and has since enjoyed a significant boost to all his offensive numbers. At 167 wRC+, 2014 is his most successful offensive campaign to-date. Back problems have cost Encarnacion a few games recently, so perhaps his power won't be up to snuff for this series. Of course, if he hits a HR off the Cardinals, we'll get to see this (or this, if you prefer).

Melky Cabrera (133 wRC+), a high-BABIP hitter, appears to be past his 2013 injury troubles. He's having his second best offensive season so far. It will be interesting to see where Cabrera lands in the off-season, or if the Blue Jays will try to keep the band together.

Until he landed on the DL with a hamstring, Colby Rasmus (105 wRC+) was having a typicallystreaky season this year. He showed good power (9 HRs, .267 ISO), a low walk rate and BABIP, and a 33% strikeout rate. A free agent after 2014, it will also be interesting to see where Rasmus ends up. (And which batting stance he'll use.)

Then there are the somewhat regular guys, like slugger and sometime third baseman Juan Francisco (158 wRC+), 1B/OF/DH Adam Lind (171 wRC+, .405 BABIP!), second baseman Steve Tolleson (152 wRC+), and catcher Josh Thole (112 wRC+). If nearly all these guys are in the lineup at once, any pitcher would have his work cut out for him. And since the Rogers Centre is a hitter's park, every pitcher already has a tall order.

Some Guys Who Don’t Hit So Good

Brett Lawrie (96 wRC+) is an exciting player to watch. Unfortunately, he isn't as good as people hoped. He doesn't walk much, strikes out a fair amount, and has BABIP drops every year. Despite massive drop-offs in almost every measure, Lawrie's wRC+ is 2 points ahead of last year's. Why? Look at this:

2011: .293/.373/.580 .318 BABIP 157 wRC+ 43 games 2.5 fWAR
2012: .273/.324/.405 .311 BABIP 98 wRC+ 125 games 2.5 fWAR
2013: .254/.315/.397 .280 BABIP 94 wRC+ 107 games 1.3 fWAR
2014: .240/.289/.428 .253 BABIP 96 wRC+  53 games 1.1 fWAR

Lawrie had 11 home runs in 107 games last year. This year he already has 10 home runs in 54 games. But with all his other numbers tanking... is Brett Lawrie going full Corey Patterson? Is that where he's headed? One should never go full Corey Patterson.

Dioner Navarro, the starting catcher, left his power at Wrigley Field. He's only got 3 HRs this year and, despite a .271 batting average, a 85 wRC+.

Kevin Pillar (52 wRC+) has taken Rasmus's low-walk ways to the extreme by walking exactly zero times so far in 20 games (33 PA). He strikes out a lot, doesn't hit for power, and doesn't steal bases. Pillar's sole skill appears to be an above average glove.

What is Happening With These Guys?

Anthony Gose (85 wRC+) is an excellent defender who doesn't hit for power (.055 ISO!) but has a 13.4% walk rate.

Jose Reyes (95 wRC+) is putting up the worst BABIP (.269) of his career, and has seen it drop off of 46 points since 2013. What gives? His GB% is ~10 points lower than 2013 while his FB% jumped up 10.5 points. Yikes. Reyes's LD% is stable and precisely his career average. To what do we attribute this? Reyes had a hamstring injury coming into the season, so perhaps he's still feeling the effects of that. Or, perhaps a rough March and April are still diminishing his overall line. As we saw with the boost in Matt Carpenter's batting line Wednesday night, we're still dealing with small samples.

Some Guys Who Pitch Good

The Blue Jays have two starters with xFIPs below 4.00: Drew Hutchison (3.80 xFIP) and the talented prospect Marcus Stroman (3.00 xFIP). The Cardinals are unlucky enough to draw games against both of them.

Hutchison has a solid 22.3% K-rate and a decent 7.4% BB-rate. He's as good as he looks.

Don't be fooled by Stroman's 7.30 ERA. He's pitched half his 12.1 innings out of the bullpen, and the other half in one start against the Royals. In that start, he gave up five hits and struck out six. I'll let Eric Hosmer describe Stroman's filth.

Out of the bullpen, Brett Cecil (2.74 xFIP) and Casey Janssen (3.39 xFIP) are solid, though Janssen has definitely benefited from BABIP and LOB% luck.

Some Guys Who Don’t Pitch So Good

All but those 5 Blue Jays pitchers have xFIPs above 4.00. Many of them are well above 4.00, including almost all of the bullpen. Many of them have significant ERA-xFIP gaps. It's too weird and early to predict what will happen with this pitching, but I think it's safe to say that Toronto's strength is really in their bats. Looking at Toronto's pitching numbers made my head hurt, guys.

What is Happening With These Guys?

Mark Buehrle has almost always had an ERA much lower than his FIP and xFIP, but this year is really something: 2.10 ERA, 3.07 FIP, 4.09 xFIP. Why didn't I put Buehrle in the Good section? His HR/FB rate is only 2.4% and his LOB% is 80%, 7.2 points higher than his career rate. All his other numbers are at his career norms. He will regress some, but he's still a solid starter who sometimes puts up really good starts. (Get ready to frequently hear from the FSMW crew that Buehrle's from the St. Louis area!)

R.A. Dickey (4.25 ERA, 4.27 FIP, 4.38 xFIP) has been pretty disappointing since he joined the Blue Jays in 2013. Or, maybe it was silly to expect him to pitch nearly as well as he did in New York. Regardless of how poorly he's been pitching, it's good we won't have to watch Cardinals hitters be baffled by nonstop knuckleballs.

What We Said Then and What We Say Now

Here’s what The Red Baron had to say in his two sentence preview of the Blue Jays:

The Blue Jays could be better this year, if they can avoid the same kind of injuries that killed them in 2013. Then again, I just don't think the pitching is all that good; they might be the best last-place team in baseball, but the words 'last place' are still in there.

The last time the Blue Jays won the World Series were back-to-back Series wins in 1992 and 1993. That was also the last time they made the playoffs. When a team plays in the same division as such big-spenders as the Red Sox and the Yankees, it's difficult to find ways to compete with a smaller budget. In order to make the playoffs, everything would need to break right—especially when a team is also competing with the shrewd Tampa Bay Rays.

In 2008, it looked for awhile like the Jays might end the drought. They didn't. Toronto had the second best run differential in the American League and finished fourth in the AL East. They under-performed their Pythag by 8 wins that year, and in the off-season sparked a debate here in the VEB comment section. I cannot find the debate, however, because SB Nation's search engine is under-performing its Pythag. Anyway, I said the Blue Jays weren't likely to make the playoffs as long as Boston and New York continued to outspend them to such a large degree. Some people strongly disagreed with my partly gut-based assessment, a hunch that has unfortunately been correct for the last several years. I hope 2014 is the year that the Blue Jays prove me wrong. Since everyone else in the AL East has been crappy, this is the year to do it.

If anything is going to stop Toronto, it'll be their pitching. The Blue Jays should make a trade or two before the deadline and really make a run at this thing. Yes, hopefully the Blue Jays continue their winning ways. That is, after the Cardinals leave town.

If you haven't had enough Blue Jays yet, swing on over to Bluebird Banter and check out The Blue Jays and the "Green Light". I was only slightly disappointed to learn it wasn't an homage to The Great Gatsby—where the green light represents the playoffs, of course—but is instead an interesting look at how often the 2014 Blue Jays are swinging with a 3-0 count.

Every Friday evening at 5 pm (Eastern), the broadcasters of every active Blue Jays minor league affiliate come together to record a live audio podcast about the state of the Blue Jays' minor league system. The show is hosted by the Lansing Lugnuts' radio guy Jesse Goldberg-Strassler.

Tune in right here!

This year, Bluebird Banter has partnered with them to provide Blue Jays fans with a chance to directly ask their questions to these broadcasters, who see their team play daily and have insight on players that cannot be found on boxscores. Leave your questions in the comments below and then listen to the podcast for your answer! Don't worry if you listen to it live at 5 pm, you can download the show afterwards.

I'll start it off with a few questions:

• For Ben Wagner (Buffalo Bisons): Your pitchers were dropping like flies this week, with Ricky Romero, Rob Rasmussen, Neil Wagner, and Sean Nolin getting hurt in one day. Nolin is starting tonight, but how are the other three doing? Has Tommy John been discussed with respect to Wagner?
• For Jesse as well as Tyler Murray and Al Hernandez (Dunedin Blue Jays): The Midwest League and Florida State League released their All-Star selections. Four Lugnuts and seven D-Jays were named, so can you talk a bit about how they've played this season and whether you expected them to be All-Stars coming into the season?

Here is the link for this afternoon

This week in 1999: Bobby Valentine's infamous costumed shenanigans!

The Mets snapped an eight-game losing streak by winning the final Subway Series game in the Bronx, but a cloud still hung over them. Just before the end of that losing skid, three coaches had been fired, with the clear subtext that Bobby Valentine's job hung by a thread. This inspired a daily Valentine Death Watch in the papers, as it seemed unlikely that the manager could win back the attention and respect of his players, let alone make good on his insane promise to win 40 of the next 55 games the Mets played.

Every at bat was now fraught with peril. The tiniest of outcomes could prove the difference between someone keeping their job and losing it, or turn the Mets (who had just climbed back to .500 with their lone win at Yankee Stadium) from buyers into sellers. It was only the beginning of June, but baseball already had three bona fide checkbook flops. The Orioles, Dodgers, and Angels attempted to spend their way into competition prior to the 1999 season. All three of them were below .500, and now the Mets were threatening to turn this trio into a quartet

The only thing that could call off the dogs was a hot streak, and the Mets did their best to start one when they returned to Shea for a pair of interleague matchups on June 7. They would play exceedingly well over this stretch, alternating blowouts with gutsy come-from-behind affairs. And yet, most of the media attention would continue to focus on Valentine and his issues. This, it seemed, was exactly how Valentine wanted it.

The Mets took the opener of their three-game set hosting Toronto in commanding fashion by lashing 11 hits and six runs against an overmatched rookie named Roy Halladay. Mike Piazza went deep and Benny Agbayani hit two homers, inspiring loud cheers of BEN-NY! BEN-NY! in the 8-2 victory. The next night, star-crossed starter Jason Isringhausen earned his first W in almost two years, and did it against the exact same team and pitcher (Pat Hentgen) he'd last defeated back in September of 1997. The score was close when Izzy exited after 5 2/3 innings, but his teammates went wild in the late innings and delivered him an 11-3 win.

The finale turned out to be one of the strangest nights in the history of Shea Stadium. First, Benny Agbayani hurt himself in a freak batting practice accident; a ball bounced off the cage and smacked him in the eye, forcing him to the sidelines. Then, rumors surfaced that Bobby Bonilla had been benched, rumors the outfielder and his team were curiously cagey about discussing.

On top of this, Valentine got into a screaming match with Newsday reporter Marty Noble over accusations the manager had lobbed at him on WFAN earlier in the week and called Noble in front of a crowd of fellow media members. Oh, and the first pitch was thrown out by Venezuela's new president Hugo Chavez, who took the mound in full uniform (including pants) and brought his own glove.

Adding to the circus atmosphere, Toronto's starter would be David Wells, making his first appearance in New York since being traded from the Yankees. More than a few in the sparse Shea crowd were on hand to cheer for Wells at the expense of the home team, and they cheered often as the bear-sized lefty shut down the Mets for eight innings, retiring 18 of 19 batters at one point. If Wells seemed like he was in a hurry to get the game over with, it might have been due to the a gala birthday celebration planned for him that evening at a hot downtown nightclub. The Times shared its eclectic guest list, which included Lorne Michaels, Penny Marshall, and Ione Skye.

The Blue Jays entered the bottom of the ninth with a 3-0 lead and a complete game in Wells's sights, but the Mets set about ruining his birthday plans when Edgardo Alfonzo and Piazza singled against Wells, and Ventura drove them both in with a two-out two-run hit. The Blue Jays turned to closer Billy Koch to shut the door, but Brian McRae defied him with a game-tying double.

When the Mets failed to bring in McRae from second, the game plodded on into extra innings. There had been plenty of weirdness to this point. No one could have guessed that the weirdness was just getting started

In the top of the twelfth inning, Piazza was called for catcher's interference, a rarely imposed penalty (and, replays showed, probably an incorrect one in this instance). Valentine burst from the dugout to protest the call and was ejected for his trouble. He returned to the dugout a short while later, which ejected managers were not supposed to do. This in itself would have been unremarkable. What was remarkable was that Valentine returned wearing a laughably transparent disguise: sunglasses, hat with indistinct logo, bootleg Mets t-shirt, mustache painted on with eye black.

The ridiculousness of the outfit made it clear that Valentine had no intention of going undetected. His was the disguise of someone who wanted to be noticed. He lingered in the dugout just long enough for him to be caught by TV cameras, immortalizing his absurd gambit for the ages.

As for the game, the Mets finally broke through on a Rey Ordoñez RBI single in the bottom of the fourteenth, giving them a 4-3 win and a sweep of Toronto. But the game was a paltry concern compared to Valentine's antics. At first, Valentine denied having re-entered the dugout, while Mets' brass remained silent on the subject, hoping in vain the story would disappear. But the evidence for Valentine's offense soon proved incontrovertible, and the press's desire to talk about it insatiable. At this point, the manager embraced the spotlight.

When the Mets began a series against the Red Sox at Shea on June 11, Valentine led reporters through the dugout tunnel for a step-by-step reenactment of his crimes. He insisted, yes, what he did might have been against the rules, but it was hardly unprecedented; he'd heard of managers sneaking back into games as part of the grounds crew or sending signals via a front-row seat. (He wouldn't name names, however.) He also asserted that he ventured no further than the top step of the stairs leading from the tunnel to the dugout, and since he hadn't really returned to the dugout, technically he hadn't broken the rules.

"One of the pictures, it looks like I was in the dugout, doesn’t it?" Valentine asked while giving his crime scene tour to reporters. "Have you guys seen that? Who else thought I was in the dugout?" Several of the reporters deigned to raise their hands. Valentine smiled and insisted, "You’re all wrong."

Dugout-Gate continued to rage as the Mets took two of three from Boston. In the first contest, a dramatic game-tying bomb by Piazza in the bottom of the ninth went to waste when John Franco put up an ugly twelfth inning that made the Mets 3-2 losers. They recovered the next night as Al Leiter turned in his second strong start in a row, and Benny Agbayani (recovered from his eye injury) went deep in a 4-2 win. Agbayni homered once more in the finale, his tenth longball since being called up, while Orel Hershiser did his best to give some rest to an overworked bullpen by pitching into the seventh. Valentine stitched together the rest by using Greg McMichael and Turk Wendell, and the Mets eked out a 5-4 win.

Not that anyone noticed, but the Mets had just completed a dominant 5-1 homestand despite Valentine's antics. Or perhaps because of them. The manager's costumery had done more than bring a note of levity to a stressed-out team. It had also put the media's focus squarely on him, leaving the players free to play.

Valentine never said he intended the disguise as a diversionary tactic, but he hinted at this as the Mets prepared for a road trip to Cincinnati and St. Louis. The National League gave him a parting gift of a fine and a two-game suspension, which he vowed to appeal, if only to "talk about it" with the league office. He did not expect to prevail, but that was beside the point.

"It's going to cost me a lot of money," he shrugged. "I don't regret the fact that it lightened the team."

I'm going to put the last four day two picks in this one post, updating each time.

Our 10th round pick, and our first Canadian (born in Markham Ontario), is Jordan Romano, a right-handed relief pitcher from Oral Roberts University. He is 6'6", 200 lb. I'd imagine they will trade to make him a starter. Perfect Game says this:

Jordan Romano is a 2011 RHP/ with a 6-4 190 lb. frame from Markham, ON who attends The Yorkland School. Tall, athletic, projectable build. Quick arm, up to 88 mph. Loose arm action, medium effort, throws on downhill plane. Good break on tight 11/5 curveball, needs to keep arm speed on changeup. High upside, bright future with minor tweaks and improved command. Raw at plate with good bat speed. Long swing that projects to produce power.

Our 9th round pick is Ryan Metzler a second baseman out of Univercity of South Carolina Aiken. He's 6'3", 190. 21 years old. Here is a few words about him from Pacersports.com. He hit .357 .423 .524 for South Carolina last year.

Named to the Daktronics NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region First-Team, the NCBWA All Southeast Region Second-Team and the ABCA All-Southeast Region Second-Team in his first year in a Pacer uniform … Was a First-Team Peach Belt Conference All-Conference selection … Started all 55 games for USC Aiken at second base… Hit .357 (75-for-210) with a team second-best seven home runs … Scored 48 runs and drove in another 46… Finished the season with 12 doubles and one triple … Had 24 multiple-hit games, and 13 multiple-RBI games on the season … Owned a 28-game streak of reaching base safely during the year … Went 7-for-9 in stolen base attempts on the year … 155 assists were top-10 in PBC.

Our 8th round pick is Justin Shafer a right-handed pitcher out of Florida. He is 6'2", 180, 21 years old. He also played short and outfield. He can hit 91 with his fastball.

Shafer wouldn’t necessarily make the TP list as either a hitter or pitcher but he’d be right on border as both and performed very well. He’s a hitter first on this list, but touched 91 mph off the mound as well. -- David Rawnsley

Our 7th round pick is Zack Zehner a big, 6'4", outfielder/first baseman from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. And, really, that's about all I can tell you about him. I'd imagine, at his size, they are hoping for some power. Here is a video.

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Second baseman Daniel Descalso starts a triple play to get the Cardinals out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the sixth.

The visiting St. Louis Cardinals managed to get out of a bases-loaded jam and keep themselves in contention against the Toronto Blue Jays with a triple play in the bottom of the sixth during Friday's game.

Daniel Descalso, the Cardinals second baseman, started the play off snagging a screaming line drive hit by Jose Bautista. He then tossed the ball to shortstop Jhonny Peralta on second base, who gunned it to Allen Craig on first base for the old fashioned 4-6-3 triple play, likely keeping the 2-1 game from being busted open.

The offense again was lethargic in making the best of opportunities, leaving 9 on base... but the Blue Jays were just as bad (1 for 12 with RISP) ...and still scored three times as many runs as the Redbirds.

Baseball is a fickle game, much like life. You can put forth as much effort as the opposition, and still come up short. Sometimes you luck into things, sometimes opportunity never arises. It is frustrating, and sometimes things don't make sense. The Cardinals are a good team on paper, but things are not working out for them.

Everyone loves the long ball, and that seems to be the most obvious way of differentiating the bluebirds from the redbirds tonight. The Blue Jays benefited from 2 solo home runs, which may not have been very opportune in an efficiency sense... but did put 2 more runs on the board, which was the difference in the game.

This was by no means a captivating game. And on a Friday night it was even more noticeable, as one could be out doing a plethora of different things. But as a diehard fan, I have no problem with this. Even if I were out I'd watch the game anyway when I got home.

What a goofy line this game had, a triple play but 2 errors by the Cardinals. The Blue Jays left even more men on base than the Cardinals, yet still won. Lance Lynn was not "on" tonight.... nor was he bad. His 2 seam fastball averaged 92.6 mph, and his 4 seam 93.7, which topped out at 96.1 mph. He relied heavily on that pitch tonight, throwing it 58 times.

Lance's main problem was the first inning, throwing only 46% of his pitches for strikes. As per Aaron's request, here is a look at Lynn's movement on his pitches... and here's the full page.

The problem tonight wasn't really with pitching though, it was with hitting. Only Allen Craig had more than one hit, and they did not piece together their 7 hits to score runs. Maybe it was bad luck, but whatever it was, it didn't work. Taveras, Craig, and Molina all could be culpable culprits in anti-clutchness.

The memorable highlight of this game was the triple play turned in the sixth inning with ground into double play specialist Seth Maness on the mound. I guess he has upped his game now! This was the first triple play the Cardinals have turned since 5/5/05. (video here)

Here is a list of all triple plays. What I learned from looking at that was that there seemed to be a drought of triple plays recently. Most years there is at least one... 2013 had none from what I can tell... and this was the first of 2014. You have to go back to 1974 to see another triple play drought.... and 1961 before that. Most years there's at least one. Only 3 years had no triple plays ('61, '74, '13).

The Cubs and Giants have turned the most triple plays in baseball history, and the Braves and Cardinals are not far behind. The NL seems to turn a lot more than the AL. The Reds are the unluckiest team, having the most triple plays against them vs turned (except for the Philadelphia Athletics, who were unusually snakebitten in this dept).

And here is a list of where all the triple plays have went down over the years.

WPA

Source: FanGraphs

There's our rather pedestrian WPA chart for the night. Blue Jays relief pitcher Dustin McGowan was the king of WPA tonight, throwing a blanket on any kind of fire the Cardinals were to muster... which is sort of funny because he is not very good at pitching. The pretty excellent performance of Blue Jays starting pitcher Marcus Stroman added the 2nd most win probability, and he is actually pretty good, probably (although his ERA sucks).

Jose Reyes and Brett Lawrie were most favored by WPA in tonight's game. In the end, the trifecta of Oscar Taveras, Yadier Molina, and Allen Craig's non-performance in key situations spelled DOOM for the Cards tonight.

The next game will occur 7 minutes after noon on Saturday June 7th, 2014. Shelby Miller will face off against the winning ways of Mark Buehrle. My diagnosis is this: the Cardinals better start hitting more home runs, and show Buerhle who's boss.

On a musical note, the announcers pointed out this guy who was in the audience tonight in wonderful Toronto. Which sparked interest in Rush in the gamethread: both LeeVing45 and I spun the masterpiece of prog rock known as 'Hemispheres'. I'm guessing if you were born in the 70's you might like that album.

This is one of the greatest pieces of music ever composed by anyone... and here are the lyrics to this 28+ minute opus if you care to read them. It's about balance...

A Saturday 1:07 start this afternoon sees Blue Jays ace Mark Buehrle go up against Shelby "how the mighty have fallen" Miller. The Texas right-hander was the 19th overall pick in the 2009 draft, one pick ahead of Chad Jenkins, and rocketed up prospect lists even landing in the top organizational spot in 2011, 2012, and #2 in 2013. As Ben Humphrey of Viva El Birdos mentioned in the "View from the Other Side" post yesterday, things took a bit of a turn:

The righty had a solid rookie campaign that saw him place third in the NL Rookie of the Year vote (behind Puig and Fernandez, who are no slouches). Then the club buried him in October and reports surfaced of shoulder issues toward the end of the year. In 2013, Miller threw his four-seamer about 75% of the time. The pitch had speed, movement, and indefinable deception. This year, the pitch has been nowhere near as good.... Watching him pitch is like watching a cornered animal. There's nowhere for him to run or hide.

So it sounds like all is not as good as it seems with the Cardinals young stud group of pitchers. This year, Miller has a 4.06 ERA with his strikeouts way down and his walks way up. His BABIP is around his career average, so these struggles are pretty real and it's up to the Cardinals to figure out what to do with the former ace of their minor leagues. No one is chasing his pitches any more (27.2 O-swing% last year vs. 20.5% this year) and when hitters do swing, they more often than not make contact.

As many people know, Miller basically just throws a fastball and curveball occasionally tossing in a cutter. He still throws mid-90's so his struggles can't be blamed too much on a loss of velocity. If the solution was easy then you can bet the Cardinals would have fixed Miller by now, but the answer to these sorts of problems is rarely an simple one. As Ben mentioned, the fastball has lost some of its filth and as you can see it also has lost some of it's arm-side movement (black dot on the left is 2013, while black dot to the right is 2014):

Hopeful Lineup

Left-handed hitters smash Shelby Miller, which is a little surprising because his curveball should be tougher on them.

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Melky Cabrera LF
3. Jose Bautista RF
4. Adam Lind DH
5. Edwin Encarnacion 1B
6. Juan Francisco 3B
7. Brett Lawrie 2B
8. Dioner Navarro C
9. Anthony Gose CF

Find The Link

Game In A Sentence

Cardinals 5 @ Blue Jays 0

A day after John Gibbons returned to a .500 career managerial winning percentage at 417-417, the record fell back below the even mark after the Blue Jays snapped their six-game winning streak on Sunday afternoon, losing 5-0 to the Cardinals. That must have disappointed the 42,981 fans who made it past traffic and a subway closure to attend the game, but a good number of them got to run the bases afterwards, so it's not too bad.

Just a reminder: the Blue Jays are still in first place and have a 38-25 record, which translates to a .603 winning percentage. No need to freak out.

This afternoon, Cardinals starter Shelby Miller wasn't the shaky starter he was billed as coming into this series. Miller was as perfect as the weather through the first four innings, inducing a lot of pop-ups from the Blue Jays' bats. There were a several of well-hit balls: Jose Bautista (in the first), Juan Francisco (in the fifth), and Brett Lawrie (in the seventh) all gave Acer some free screen time with blasts to the warning track that went for outs.

It wasn't until an Adam Lind walk in the fifth that Miller had to pitch from the stretch, and it was two outs into the sixth before Jose Reyes got Toronto's first hit of the game. Reyes eventually reached third on Melky Cabrera's funny turf bounce in front of Allen Craig, but they were both erased after Miller struck out Bautista to end the inning.

Miller authored his second complete game (and second shutout) of his young career, allowing just three hits and a walk to the powerhouse Blue Jays lineup. He wasn't as dominating as his almost-perfect game last May 10 against the Rockies, but he was good enough to snap Toronto's 47-game streak without being shut out.

On the home side, Mark Buehrle came out of the bullpen gates strong, getting through a 1-2-3 first on just eight pitches, but was not nearly as sharp as he has been in previous starts for the rest of the game. Buehrle struck out six (half looking) only gave up one run--a Randal Grichuk solo homer in the fifth--but allowed the Cardinals to reach in each inning after the first with five walks and five hits.

In the top of the seventh inning, with the score still 1-0, leadoff hitter Peter Bourjos singled, but the Cardinals called for a sacrifice bunt to advance the runner. After that gifted out, Matt Carpenter grounded out and Grichuk struck out to end the inning.

Aaron Loup, coming off of a majestic relief outing against the Tigers, started the eighth inning and allowed Allen Craig to double with one out. John Gibbons then called for an intentionally walk to Jhonny Peralta in order to set up a potential inning-ending double play. That didn't happen. Oscar Taveras singled to right to load the bases, and then Loup walked a run in. After a strike out, Tony Cruz made it 4-0 on a solid two-run single up the middle. Steve Delabar, with a freshly trimmed beard, found out that changing facial hair style does not immediately change one's fortunes. He walked Carpenter to load the bases, and then walked Grichuk to make it 5-0 Cards.

Todd Redmond struck out two in his inning of work after Jose Reyes booted a grounder to star the inning. Redmond did not walk any.

In total, Jays pitchers recorded nine walks. It's not often that a team wins after recording that many. Actually, I looked it up: the Blue Jays are now 12-59 in games where they have recorded nine walks.

Source: FanGraphs

Jays of the Day! Mark Buehrle (+.255 WPA) gets it for holding the Cardinals to just one run.

Suckage Jays are Aaron Loup (-.223), Jose Bautista (-.137), and Edwin Encarnacion (-.110). Loup had a +.471 WPA last time out so he has some cushion for a bad outing now and then.

The Blue Jays will be looking for a series win on Sunday at 1 pm in front of a packed house for Jose Reyes Bobblehead Day. We will have a GameThread up just before the game. If you're not at the park, join us, won't you?

RS Sophomore lefty was BC's top starter. He'll now face a decision to head to the Cape for the summer or sign with the Yanks and forego his final two years at The Heights.

With the 452nd pick in the MLB Entry Draft, the New York Yankees selected left-handed pitcher Andrew Chin in the 15th round. Chin, who was the arguably the best and most consistent pitcher for Boston College this past season, was the only Eagle starter to post a winning record.

Should Chin sign, he would likely be assigned to either the Rookie League or Short-Season Single-A League to start his professional career.

Chin was one of the most heralded and intriguing recruits brought into Chestnut Hill over the last couple of seasons.  He posted a perfect 7-0 record with a 0.69 ERA as a junior at the Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols school as he helped the team to a 20-0 overall season.  Named a TPX Preseason Second-Team High School All-American, he seemed a sure-fire bet for a top draft choice, possibly in the first round.  But his career was temporarily derailed when he tore his elbow five innings into his senior season.

The Toronto Blue Jays still drafted Chin with their fifth round selection after he graduated from BB&N, but he opted to come to Boston College instead of starting his pro career.  Redshirting his freshman year after Tommy John surgery, Chin began his road back last year, immediately making the starting rotation in his RS-Freshman year and starting 13 of his 14 games appeared in.

Despite a 1-8 record in '13, he led the Eagles with 45 strikeouts (20 of which were looking) and tied for the most starts with 13.  His 3.88 ERA was second-best on the team, holding hitters to a .255 batting average.  In what was perhaps his finest outing, he went 7.2 innings against Maryland on the season's final day, allowing two runs on four hits.

That led to a rocky summer in Chatham on the Cape, where he started seven of his nine appearances.  He went 2-2, but his ERA ballooned to 6.45.

This past season, Chin was fantastic, once again saving his best for last.  In his final start of the year against Clemson, he spun the first two hitter of the ACC era and the first complete game of the Mike Gambino era as he defeated the Tigers, 3-1.  Chin would retire 10 straight in that game and 14 of the final 16 batters he faced, allowing just five base runners over nine innings of work.

The scouting report on Chin centers on his command and a deceiving repertoire.  He has a fastball that can touch into the 80s and is rated out very well, but his game centers on a sinker with deceptive off-speed movement.  He has good movement inside and out against hitters, and he entered Boston College as one of the most complete pitchers Massachusetts had ever produced.  His smarts are also unmatched, and he can outfox hitters by setting them before blowing them away with any one of a number of dangerous out pitches.

Chin is scheduled to join the Chatham Anglers for a second season, starting on June 11th at Orleans.  Chin can play on the Cape for roughly a month, but he will be faced with signing a contract to begin his minor league career or return to Chestnut Hill.  He must sign by July 15th.

Congratulations to Andrew Chin on his drafting by the Yankees!

The Cardinals scored five runs while Shelby Miller allowed just three hits and one walk in his 105-pitch effort to shut out the Blue Jays.

There once was a man we call Miller

And today, his fastball was killer

He allowed just three hits

With the help of Cards mitts

And the Redbirds won in a thriller

The Game

Lots of good stuff to talk about today, folks.  The bats were working, the defense looked great, and Shelby Miller was the pitcher we've been hoping he could be for a long time.  The offense started out slow, though Miller was on from the beginning of the game.  His fastball velocity was up - hitting 93-96 consistently and even into the late innings.  He was hitting his spots - for the most part - and threw a handful of really good-looking breaking balls.  Perhaps most impressive, he had a no-hitter going against the first place, offensive powerhouse Blue Jays through 5 2/3 innings.  Stellar defense by Allen Craig and Peter Bourjos in the 5th inning kept the Jays hitless, but Jose Reyes ultimately broke up the no-no with a base hit in the bottom of the 6th.  Shelby also gave up a double to Cabrera that inning on a ball that bounced off Craig's outstretched glove.  Because Shelby was a different pitcher today, he came back to strike out Bautista to end the inning and stranded the runners at second and third.  Miller allowed only one more hit - by Cabrera - and finished the day with this lovely line: 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 Ks.

The offense was frustrating at the beginning, seemingly unable to capitalize on the FIVE walks Buehrle dealt over seven innings.  Despite several baserunners, the Cardinals did not score until the top of the 5th inning, when Randal Grichuk hit a huge home run to straightaway center field to give them a 1-0 lead.  It was his first career home run.  Congrats to Mr. Grichuk!

The Cardinals had baserunners in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th innings, but could not manage to get a run home, other than the solo shot from Grichuk.  Finally, FINALLY, they got things going in the 8th.  Craig started the rally with a double to right field over Bautista's head, who was playing awfully shallow (actually, it seems the whole Toronto OF has been playing shallow pretty regularly this series).  An intentional walk to Peralta and a base hit by Taveras loaded the bases with one out.  Ellis walked in a run, Tony Cruz had a two-run base hit, Carpenter walked, Grichuk walked to score Ellis, and the Cards finished the inning, and the game, up 5-0.

Additional Notes

1. Molina did not start today, and Matheny made it clear that Molina needed a mental break and would not be used at all in the game.  From Derrick Goold:

"I don't think it's a physical thing," Matheny said. "I think he's just beat down like a lot of guys are with the fact that we're not playing how we should play, how we want to play, and how he wants to play. It's more of a frustration that is overbearing and overwhelming. When you want to win so badly, you want to do your part so badly, and none of it is working."

I admit that I was initially annoyed not to see Yadi in the lineup.  He DH'd yesterday and Miller seems to be the pitcher on this staff most in need of Yadi's guidance.  And the Cardinals needed a win badly.  However, Yadi has looked really...distressed at the plate over the last few days.  He's 2 for his last 21 and has been visibly airing his frustrations on the field - slamming helmets and the like.  It's a long season, and we're only in the first week of June.  I believe that sometimes players do need a mental day to regroup, and I will give props to Matheny for recognizing that.  It's not an easy decision to sit your MVP-caliber catcher, and you know Yadi wasn't asking for a day off.  Let's hope the break rejuvenates him.

2. ALL OF TEH LOBSTERS.  The Cardinals drew nine walks today.  Nine.  While they did score on four of those in the 8th inning, it doesn't make the five before that any less frustrating.  Not only did they have baserunners in every inning but the first, but they also had the leadoff hitter on four times. Not a single one of those leadoff baserunners came around to score.  It was heartening, at least, to see the Cardinals draw walks and get on base, but stranding 11 runners is enough to drive you crazy.

3. Tomorrow's game starts at 12:07 CT.  Jaime Garcia will take the mound against RHP Drew Hutchison.  Expect to see Jon Jay back in the lineup, and, sadly, Daniel Descalso.  No news on Wong's shoulder, but Langosch tweeted yesterday that he is likely out for the series.

Kolten Wong out of the lineup today, possibly for entire series as he lets shoulder heal. Had antiinflammatory shot today. #stlcards

— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) June 6, 2014

I'm always happier when I get to recap a Cardinals victory.  Have a great weekend, VEB.

Aaron Miller hits two home runs in loss, Joc Pederson homers in win

Minor League Player of the Day– Aaron Miller (HiA) - 4 for 4, 2 HR, 4 RBI's, 2 Runs, i walk.  At 26, Miller isn't a true prospect but he has transitioned to a hitter in the Cal League.

AAA– The Isotopes bounced back from their doubleheader loss and defeated the Rainiers (Mariners) 7 - 2.  Red Patterson pitched 6 strong innings, allowing 1 run, 5 hits, 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.  A slew of relievers put the game to bed, Yimi Garcia, Paco Rodriguez, Josh Judy and Jose Dominguez.  Carlos Triunfel led the 11-hit attack going 3 for 4.  Trayvon Robinson and Mike Baxter each had 2 hits.  Joc Pederson and Alex Liddieach hit home runs.

AA – The Lookouts lost a tough one to the Mississippi (Braves) 1 - 0.  Chris Reedhad a solid game as he pitched 7 innings allowing 1 run, 5 hits, 2 walks and 3 strikeouts.  Jarret Martinpitched a scoreless inning in relief.  The Lookouts could not muster much of an attack as they only had 5 singles.  Scott Scheblerwent 1 for 3.

HiA – The Quakes got close but could not catch the Blaze (Reds) losing 8 - 7.  Geoff Brown gave up 7 runs (6 earned) in 3.1 innings.  Aaron Miller went 4 for 4 with 2 home runs, Corey Seager went 2 for 5 with a double and 2 RBI, Brandon Dixon was 2 for 4.

LoA– The Loons scored a run in the top of the 9th to tie the game and then went on to defeat the Lugnuts (Blue Jays) 12 - 10 in 11 innings.  Jonathan Martinez returned to action and gave up 4 runs, 8 hits and 1 walk, Ralston Cash pitched an inning, giving up 4 runs.  Victor Araujo pitched the final two innings to get the win.  Kyle Farmerand Jesmuel Valentin each had 4 hits.  Josmar Cordero was 3 for 5

DSL – The Dominican Dodgers took a 5 - 4 win over the Indians.  Hector Rodriguez pitched 5 innings of scoreless ball.  Samuel Ortiz was 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored.

Coming up– Jeff Bennett takes the mound for the Isotopes at 1:35 pm PST. Matt Shelton toes the rubber for the Lookouts at 3:00 pm, Chad Billingsleyand Fabio Martinezthrows for the Quakes at 2:05 pm, and Jordan Hershiser returns to start for the Loons at 11:05 am. The DominicanDodgers are off.

Minor League Transactions – AA: Blake Smithwas assigned to the Lookouts.  HiA:  Craig Stem was assigned to the Quakes.  LoA:  Jonathan Martinez was added to the Loons. Victor Arano was assigned to Ogden

Albuquerque Isotopes Box Score (AAA)

Chattanooga Lookouts Box Score (AA)

Rancho Cucamonga Quakes Box Score (HiA)

Great Lakes Loons Box Score (LoA)

Dominican Dodgers Box Score (DSL)

Minor League Central - Daily Dodger Recap

By the end of the year, Hernandez should be in the top 90 all-time in career strikeouts. He's 28.

Felix Hernandezrecorded his 1,800th career strikeout against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. At 28 years old, Hernandez already has more strikeouts than several active pitchers that are older than him, like Zack Greinke, Justin Verlander, Tim Lincecum and Cole Hamels. Only 12 pitchers in baseball history have struck out 2,000 hitters or more before turning 30 -- including Walter Johnson, Sam McDowelll, Bert Blyleven, Don Drysdale, Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax and Bob Feller.

Decent company.

Hernandez struck out 15 on the day in seven innings and the Seattle Mariners scored five runs in the ninth inning to win, 5-0.

Bonus points for Henderson Alvarez's throwback windup

Give us #RealBears or don't bother, San Diego

Sports (Photo: Denis Poroy) pic.twitter.com/SWEL1KPq6f

— Seth Rosenthal (@seth_rosenthal) June 8, 2014

Jose Reyes Bobblehead Night inspires Brett Lawrie

h/t SportsNet's Blue Jays Run Down

Sunday scores

Cardinals 5, Blue Jays 0

Reds 4, Phillies 1

Athletics 11, Orioles 1

Brewers 1,  Pirates 0

Mariners 5, Rays 0

Astros 14, Twins 5

Royals 2, Yankees 1

Marlins 4, Cubs 3

Indians 3, Rangers 2

Angels 4, White Sox 2

Giants 6, Mets 4

Dodgers 6 Rockies 1 (F/6)

Nationals 6, Padres 0

Diamondbacks 6, Braves 5

Red Sox 5, Tigers 3

Just to remind all of us that this Sunday is Father's Day, Sport Chek released this pretty touching video of Blue Jays hurlers Casey Janssen, Steve Delabar, and Brett Cecil talking about their fathers. You will feel all the feels when their dads surprise them by walking out on the field.

Of course we all remember another touching Father's Day video that was less planned and less commercial:

So do you plan on doing anything special with your dad this weekend or if you're a father, do you know if your kids are planning anything?

Who's hot and who's not from June 2 - 8

Pitchers
Brad Brach		Really solid in Texas with 3.1 scoreless innings of relief, but got hammered yesterday.  The 5 walks certainly didn't help.  Should continue to get his work, however, as he's been decent for the most part and fills a crucial long relief role.
Zach Britton		RHB have hit him better over the season, but he's still getting it done against RHB-heavy lineups.  Another solid week as the closer.  Can't imagine Hunter's return should jeopardize his role going forward - he's earned it.
Wei-Yin Chen		Two solo shots tarnished an otherwise solid start of 6.1 innings (5 hits, 2 ER).  Chen didn't issue a walk, but struck out 4 A's.
Kevin Gausman		A very fastball-heavy outing, but you can't argue with the results:  4 hits, 1 ER (a Coco Crisp solo homer), 1 BB, and 6 Ks.  Certainly earned a second start against the Blue Jays.
Preston Guilmet		Hunter is a better option at this point, as long as he's not allowing homers....
Tommy Hunter		He's been activated from the DL and returns to the bullpen.  What role he assumes will be anyone's guess.
Ubaldo Jimenez		Just couldn't find the plate.  Had a hard time throwing strikes (5 walks), then got tagged for a grand slam.
Brian Matusz		Ignoring the unearned runs against Texas, he's allowed runners to score in his last three outings.
T.J. McFarland		Actually proved to be a serviceable mop-up guy and pitched 4.2 innings yesterday, saving the bullpen from further overwork.
Bud Norris		A bruised forearm forced him from the game early, although he wasn't exactly tearing it up before that.
Darren O'Day		Allowed the tying run to score in Friday night's game, but rebounded well on Saturday.
Chris Tillman		Doesn't seem to be over his groin injury, but the O's don't have a lot of decent SP options right now with MiGo injured.
Ryan Webb		Limited use, but pitched just fine.
Catchers
Nick Hundley		Has just three hits since his trade to Baltimore - none of them occurred this week.
Caleb Joseph		Joseph has some upside and showed that this week - he reached base in every game that he started (hits in all but one).
Infielders
Chris Davis		Okay, he had a couple of homers, but he also had some awful at-bats.  Davis looks like he's swinging at way too many bad pitches.  There's nothing wrong with taking walks!
Ryan Flaherty		Hardly any playing time, but with a Machado suspension likely, he's probably your starting 3B.
J.J. Hardy		Still homer-less and had an uncharacteristically bad week in the field.
Manny Machado		Air traffic controllers in Baltimore are on high alert.....
Steve Pearce		Can't argue he doesn't make the most of his limited playing time (10 ABs, 4 hits - one double).
Jonathan Schoop		Just 4-20 at the plate.
Outfielders
Nelson Cruz		Didn't hit quite as well following the hand bruise and that helped lower his OPS to a mild 1.021
Adam Jones		Adam's up and down cycle continues with an up week (down last week).  11-25 including a double and a homer.
David Lough		I'm not sure whether to give him an up or down arrow for taking old friend Jim Johnson deep.  I'm also not sure why it is I love Jim Johnson so much.
Nick Markakis		Any multi-homer week is probably a good one for Markakis.  10-25 with two homers, 6 RBI, and 4 walks.  Now 4th among RF with a .367 OBP (top 20 overall among all outfielders).
Delmon Young		Just 7 AB, but he did have 3 hits.
Disabled List
Miguel Gonzalez		Likely to miss 1-2 starts with an oblique strain.  Will he continue his QS streak following the injury?
Nolan Reimold		Expected to begin a rehab assignment with AA Bowie.
Matt Wieters		Still not headed in the right direction....

Identifying risers and fallers in head-to-head points' leagues for Week 11, including Marcus Stroman and Corey Dickerson.

Risers

Marcus Stroman, Blue Jays

It's time to add Stroman. The 23-year-old is only two starts into his major-league career, but the results have been fantastic. Ignore his overall pitching line, which includes five bumpy relief appearances. I'm only interested in what the short-statured starter is going to give me every five days. In two starts since being recalled, Stroman is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and 13 strikeouts in 12 innings. This is not a bullpen arm -- if the final rotation spot comes down to Stroman or J.A. Happ, it shouldn't be a contest. Stroman's impressive repertoire includes five pitches: a see-you-later slider, a four-seamer that sits in the mid 90s, a cutter with late movement, and a major-league change and curve. Stroman absolutely embarrassed Triple-A batters this season, striking out 30.8 percent and walking 6.2. Stroman should be owned in all 12-teamers, with only the slightest coddling depending on the matchup; the AL East is no longer a juggernaut, with the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays ranking in the middle of the pack offensively. The 5-foot-9 righty should be a positive contributor in strikeouts, with the only caveat coming in terms of WHIP. There will be ups and downs, but this is one arm to add and hold on to.

Corey Dickerson, Rockies

I'm not sure what Dickerson has to do to get your attention. Now that Carlos Gonzalez is on the disabled list with a left index finger injury that will keep him on the shelf for about two weeks, Dickerson should be added in 12-14 team leagues. Drew Stubbs is another option worth considering left for deeper leagues, but the left-handed Dickerson should receive the majority of playing time against right-handers in the absences of CarGo. The Rockies outfielder carries a .324/.376/.600 slash line in 117 plate appearances, including seven long balls, 18 runs, 18 RBIs and three steals. He's a candidate for 15 home runs and 10 steals, with a ceiling of 20 and 10-15, respectively. Who knows if CarGo comes back and stays healthy, and Michael Cuddyer, who was recently activated from the DL, is having more trouble with a sore shoulder. My prediction: Dickerson puts up north of 400 plate appearances and 110 runs/RBI; invest now for the biggest bang.

Fallers

Aaron Hill, Diamondbacks

I drafted Hill for $6 in a 12-team auction league and thought I got a steal. The second baseman has a 36-home run season and two 26-home run seasons on his resume (as recently as 2012). Hill had a down year in 2013 thanks to injury, but had a very respectable .291/.356/.462 slash with 11 home runs in just over half a season. He's been healthy this season, playing in 61 of 65 games, but the production hasn't been there. Through 244 plate appearances, Hill is stuck on five home runs, 19 runs, 28 RBIs and one steal with a sluggish .253/.302/.393 batting line. His slump has sent him to the sixth spot in the batting order, and that's without slugger Mark Trumbo in the lineup. Hill's isolated power is down from .176 to .142, and it hasn't been this low since he was traded from the Blue Jays to the Diamondbacks in 2011. Hill's strikeout rate is up (13.3 percent in 2013, 18.0 in 2014), and he's only walking at a 5.7 percent clip. In addition, he's no longer a threat on the base paths, with only two thefts since the start of 2013 (he had 35 steals between 2011 and 2012). There have been 20 better second basemen, according to the ESPN Player Rater, including Mike Aviles and D.J. LeMahieu. Yeah, it's been that bad. Without 20-home run power, Hill simply isn't a second base option in standard leagues.

Jenrry Mejia, Mets

I recently traded away Mejia and Rajai Davis for Angel Pagan in my FSWA league. I really wanted the everyday player (Pagan), and I'm not 100 percent on board with Mejia holding onto the ninth-inning job in New York. Since I made the trade, Mejia has given up four runs on four hits and two walks, including a loss/blown save against the Giants on Saturday. Mejia couldn't cut it as a starter, and he's not exactly proving himself as a closer to manager Terry Collins, either. He definitely has the stuff to close, but the next step could be a relief role with lower leverage situations. His stats as a reliever are deceiving; he owns a 3.55 ERA (OK), but a 1.66 WHIP (not OK). Yes, it's a very small sample size (12 2/3 innings), but even the Mets can't stand by a closer who is allowing an opposing line of of .283/.362/.442 (as a reliever). I fear his time as closer will be up soon, with Jeurys Familia or Vic Black next in line.

The offense is struggling and the losses are mounting, so the Yankees need to go on a run. With visits to Seattle and Oakland looming, they will have their plates full, but two Tanaka starts should go a long way to making this a winning week.

Last week, the Yankees lost five of seven, including three in a row at one point, to fall to .500 at 31-31.  New York now sits in third in the AL East, six games back from the surprising Toronto Blue Jays.  This week, the Yankees will finish up their series against the Royals before three games in Seattle and then three games in Oakland against an A's team that got a bit lucky in their last series with the Yankees.  Hopefully New York can make them pay this week, although Oakland's terrific balance of solid pitching with a killer offense will make it difficult.  We'll just focus on the Mariners and A's below - the Yankees should be able to handle Jason Vargas and the Royals on Monday, but with Vidal Nuno on the mound and the way the offense has been sputtering lately (26th in runs scored over the past two weeks), I'm not nearly as confident as I'd like to be.

The Mariners and Athletics

Mariners: 3^rd in AL West (33-29), 16^th in runs scored, 27^th in OPS (.670), 26^th in wRC+ (85), 8^th in ERA (3.51), 15^th in FIP (3.88), 17^th in xFIP (3.84)

Athletics: 1^st in AL West (39-24), 1^st in runs scored, 4^th in OPS (.754), 2^nd in wRC+ (114), 1^st in ERA (2.95) 7^th in FIP (3.57), 11^th in xFIP (3.67)

Quick Hits

Gray gets his crack at the Yankees: The Yankees missed Sonny Gray last week when these teams played, but he will get his shot at the Bronx Bombers when the Yanks head to Oakland.  Gray is Oakland's ace, and he's certainly pitched like it this year, posting a 2.83 ERA and a 3.53 xFIP while striking out 7.53 hitters per nine innings and limiting opposing lineups to just 0.63 HR/9 and a .218 batting average against him.  While his walks are up a bit so far this season (3.24 BB/9 compared to 3.06 over his career), he's still one of the best pitchers on one of the best staffs in the league. 

Cano cruising in Seattle: Oh, Robby, how we miss you. While Robinson Cano was a bit slow out of the gates in 2014, he's righted the ship since then and is hitting .332/.370/.420 for a 119 wRC+ this season.  The one thing he isn't doing well is hit for power, as his .088 ISO is much lower than his career .191 number.  While some drop off was to be expected moving to Safeco Field, this is probably larger than anyone really thought, as Cano has hit only two homers on the season so far.  Luckily, he's gotten some help from Kyle Seager (124 wRC+) and Cole Gillespie, who's raked his way into the everyday lineup with a 137 wRC+ over the past 21 games.

Iwakuma strong since return: Ever since getting off of the DL in May, Hisashi Iwakuma has generally picked up where he left off last year, posting a 2.66 ERA and 2.88 xFIP.  He's demonstrated remarkable control this season, issuing just 0.71 BB/9, which is well below his career mark of 2.02 and has helped offset his lower K/9 numbers (6.39 in 2014 compared to 7.32 for his career).  While he had a couple bad games to end May (he gave up nine runs over 13 innings in two starts), he pitched seven scoreless his last time out against Atlanta.  Luckily the Yankees won't have to face King Felix this time around, but Iawkuma will prove a serious challenge in his own right.

Yankees notes for the week

Two episodes of Tanaka Time: The Yankees desperately need to bounce back this week and get a few games above .500, and having Tanaka pitch twice will certainly help.  Tanaka's been everything we could've hoped for and more, posting a 2.46 xFIP while striking out a ton of hitters (9.78 K/9), demonstrating great command (1.38 BB/9) and limiting opposing lineups to just a .215 batting average.  Over his past three starts, he's been practically unhittable, giving up just two earned runs in 20.2 innings while striking out almost 25% of opposing hitters and posting a 0.92 WHIP.  He's lived up to the (considerable) hype so far, and the Yankees really need him to keep it up this week.

Gardner struggling recently: While Gardner had a great May (116 wRC+), he's struggled mightily as of late.  Over the past two weeks, Gardner has hit just .232/.267/.321 for a 58 wRC+, and of course, he struck out to end Sunday's game with the tying run just ninety feet away.  Gardner will certainly bounce back, but combining his recent struggles with those of Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, and Carlos Beltran (who only has one hit in four games back), it's no wonder why the Yankees offense has been so dreadful lately.

Prediction: 3-4 (1-0 vs. Kansas City, 2-1 vs. Seattle, 1-2 vs. Oakland)

It looks to be another somewhat lackluster week for the Yankees, as playing at Seattle and Oakland will not do any wonders to spark the Yankee offense.  At least Tanaka is matched up against Iwakuma, or else the Yankees very well could be looking at losing the series against the Mariners.  If Tanaka can start the series off with a win, the Yankees should be able to get to Chris Young, who, while he possesses a pretty ERA and record, has gotten quite lucky this year, as his FIP (5.37) and xFIP (5.88) clearly show.  The Yankees should be capable of taking two of three from the Mariners, although I'm not confident they will.  The A's will once again be a problem, especially with their top three arms going this weekend.  I'm betting on Tanaka (because duh), but other than that, it's going to be tough in Oakland. 

Pitching matchups

Monday: Vidal Nuno (1-2, 5.33 ERA, 4.27 xFIP) vs. Jason Vargas (5-2, 3.28 ERA, 4.11 xFIP)

Tuesday: Masahiro Tanaka (9-1, 2.02 ERA, 2.46 xFIP) vs. Hisashi Iwakuma (4-2, 2.66 ERA, 2.88 xFIP)

Wednesday: Chase Whitley (1-0 2.42 ERA, 3.73 xFIP) vs. Chris Young (5-3, 3.42 ERA, 5.88 xFIP)

Thursday: David Phelps (1-4, 4.88 ERA, 4.28 xFIP) vs. Roenis Elias (5-4, 3.64 ERA, 3.80 xFIP)

Friday: Hiroki Kuroda (4-3, 4.27 ERA, 3.71 xFIP) vs. Sonny Gray (6-2, 2.83 ERA, 3.53 xFIP)

Saturday: Vidal Nuno vs. Scott Kazmir (6-2, 2.40 ERA, 3.45 xFIP)

Sunday: Masahiro Tanaka vs. Jesse Chavez (5-3, 3.04 ERA, 3.34 xFIP)

How do you think the Yankees will fare this week?  Vote in the poll and sound off in the comments below!