Another week, another Friday, another episode of Around The Nest! And as with every week, we invite you, the readers and commenters of Bluebird Banter, to submit your questions about the Blue Jays' minor league system to the folks who see every single game down on the farm. You can catch last week's show here.

Click here for today's show link.

Every Friday afternoon at 5 pm, the Voice of the Lansing Lugnuts, Jesse Goldberg-Strassler phones up the radio broadcasters of each level of the minors to ask them how their team has been doing in the past week. Today, the lineup is as follows:

5:00 – Kevin Fitzgerald, Bluefield
5:10 – Al Hernandez, Dunedin
5:20 – Trey Wilson and Jesse, Lansing (with Al asking questions)
5:30 – Tom Gauthier and Bob Lipman, New Hampshire
5:40 – Ben Wagner, Buffalo

At one point in the show, Jesse will be joined by someone from the Vancouver Canadians too.

What's your question this week?

This morning, Dalton Pompey tweeted this:

On my way to AA New Hampshire! Definitely going to miss my teammates here. Incredible group of guys. Looking forward to this new opportunity

— Dalton Pompey (@DaltonPompey) June 27, 2014

It has been a pretty good week for Dalton, he was selected to the Futures Game and now he's moving up to Double-A.

In Dunedin Dalton was hitting .319/.397/.471 in 70 games, with 6 homers, 6 triples, 29 stolen bases (caught just twice), 35 walks and 56 strikeouts. He turned 21 back in December, so he's young for AA ball.

Dalton was our 16th round pick in 2010 and, since then, has spent his time proving  that he should have gone much earlier. Now that he's in Double-A we can start dreaming on when we could see him in Toronto. It would be nice to have a home town hero, or at least a nearly home town hero, since he's from Mississauga.

The Yankees avoided the sweep on Wednesday partially thanks to a hot Mark Teixeira. Tonight they take on the Red Sox for the first time since April. Let's start a win streak.

After winning the last game in the series against the Blue Jays, and getting an off day yesterday, the Yankees should at least be well-rested to face the Red Sox.

6/25/14 Daily Prediction Answers

So, so many of you tied for Wednesday's predictions. Long time listener, goyanks69, Lilly, designatedquitter, Valentin Matos, and Blanky all ended up with 2,000 points. Ties don't count in the realm of things, but good effort. Hopefully Greg is keeping track of this somewhere. Speaking of Greg, he should be back by the beginning of the week.

6/27/14 Daily Predictions & Fun Questions

Do you have any pets? What are their names?

Pick two Yankees to go head-to-head in a cook-off competition and tell us who you think would win.

Now that the group play is over, who do you think will win the World Cup?

Do you usually show up on time to meet someone, or do you tend to run late or early?

Vidal Nuno is pitching tonight. I challenge him to be the best Yankee of the night. If that doesn't work, offense, be prepared to pick him up.

The Blue Jays look to continue rolling against the lowly White Sox tonight as R.A. Dickey takes the mound against lefty John Danks. The 29-year-old southpaw is in his eighth season with the South Siders and is his usual middle of the rotation self. He had shoulder surgery in 2012 and just hasn't been as successful as he used to be, which is a shame for the Chicago fans. His 4.34 ERA this season is probably as good as it's going to get for Danks and likely is fair value to the White Sox for a $14.2 million/year pitcher.

The Texas native actually hasn't faced the Blue Jays since his shoulder surgery in 2012, with his last start against Toronto coming on May 29, 2011 in a blow out win for the Jays. That doesn't mean there isn't any history between Danks and the Blue Jays though, with Jose Bautista and the lefty exchanging some heated words during that rout three years ago. Here's the incident with some great unbiased announcing:

Danks is pretty simple in his repertoire, mainly just throwing a fastball, cutter, and changeup. The cutter used to be his favourite secondary pitch pre-surgery, but that distinction is now saved for his changeup:
Danks also lost velocity in the past few years (his fastball is now about 89 mph), which has increased his struggle to get hitters out even more. That being said, if the Texan can hone in on his command and perfect his pitchability, there's doesn't seem to be anything stopping him from becoming the next Mark Buehrle for the White Sox.

Hopeful Lineup

Will the Blue Jays bow to The Danks Theory or not? Oh the intrigue!

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Melky Cabrera LF
3. Edwin Encarnacion 1B
4. Juan Francisco 3B
5. Colby Rasmus CF
6. Dioner Navarro DH
7. Anthony Gose RF
8. Josh Thole C
9. Munenori Kawasaki 2B

Find The Link

Gut Feelings

The San Diego Union-Tribune tells us that the Blue Jays have been inquiring about Chase Headley.

At least one team - the Toronto Blue Jays - has discussed acquiring the Padres' third baseman, multiple baseball sources have confirmed. Of particular interest this weekend to the Blue Jays and several teams that have checked on Headley's availability - many of whom will watch him closely this weekend - is the herniated disc that required an epidural injection last week.

This herniated disc thing worries me, but, when he's healthy, he's pretty good. He hit .286/.376/.498 with 31 home runs in 2012. This year hasn't been going as well, he's hitting .198/.286/.328, in 58 games, but then it would be tough to play with a herniated disc. I would think the Jays would like to watch him, for a couple of weeks, to see if his neck is better, if he can hit.

His defense is pretty good, FanGraphs has him at a 7.9 UZR/150 for his career.

Picking him up would mean that Brett Lawrie would be our second baseman, when he returns from injury, which would be ok by me for the rest of this season. I'd like to move him back to third next year.

Headley is being paid $10.5 million this year so we'd have to pick up $5 million in salary, but the good part is that he wouldn't cost us much in prospects. The Padres would be happy just to get rid of his salary.

This bit interested me:

At the very least, a healthy Headley presents a defensive upgrade over switch-hitter Juan Francisco, who has hit 12 homers but is batting just .164 in June. For Headley, Toronto's home park, the Rogers Centre, would provide a considerably safer landing spot than pitcher-friendly Petco Park.

I'm pretty sure Francisco isn't a switch-hitter, but Headley would be a huge upgrade on defense.

We've played 81 games now, half a season, and I thought that we should take a look at what the major story lines have been for the Blue Jays.

Blue Jays are in first place. Of course this is the major story. i didn't pick them for first, my hope was that they would stay in the race until the trade deadline, and make a couple of improvements and maybe get a wild card spot at the end. After all the folks on Twitter that think they have to be the 'first' to tell me that the Jays season is over, I'm loving every moment we are in first.

Edwin Encarnacion's May. Edwin was just a wow for the month of May. 16 home runs. 33 RBI. A .763 slugging average. Edwin's always been one of my favorites, so it is so much fun to see him doing well and see him happy. His June hasn't been bad, .306/.385/.588 slash line, but in May, every time up you just knew he was going to hit the ball hard.

Jose Bautista. Edwin may have hit more home runs in May than Jose has hit all season, but Jose seems to have almost reinvented himself. He's batting .305. He's hitting to the opposite field. He's taking what pitchers and defenses are giving him and he's making it look easy. I was honestly worried about the effect the Seitzer might have on Jose, but he seems to have been a positive influence. And, on defense, he has 8 outfield assists, including 2 9-3 putouts, coming on consecutive days and he's looking good in the outfield. Now, I don't need to see him play CF ever again, but he's been a pretty good right fielder. Add in that he's getting good marks for being a leader. Last year, when we were losing, he wasn't a leader, this year, we are a winner and he's a leader. Such is life.

Mark Buehrle terrific start: I wonder what odds you could have got, say a year ago, if you said that Buehrle would be 10-4 with a 2.52 ERA at the mid-point of this season. Last year, early in the season, it looked like he was finished or, at best,  that he couldn't compete in the AL East. This year he's an All-Star. Yeah, he's 0-3 in his last 4 starts, but they weren't really bad starts. 2 of them would rank as Quality Starts, the other two, he allowed just one run too many in each for them to be quality starts.

The revolving door at second base. We've used seven different second basemen. Seven. All off-season, we were hoping the team would make a move to pick up a second baseman. The good news is that even with a second base being a black hole, we are in first place. The guys that have played the position:

• Ryan Goins: Started the season as our second baseman, or at least the one that would get the lion's share of the playing time in a second base platoon. He played 16 game there before the Jays tired of waiting for the Seitzer effect to take hold. We knew he wasn't going to hit much, but his glove would make up for it. We didn't expect him to hit just .150/.203/.217. There is no glove that can make up for a slash line like that. He's hitting .272/.317/.324 in Buffalo, which really doesn't give you the warm feeling that he could be a major league batter.
• Maicer Izturis: He played 11 games, 10 of them at second base and then fell down some stairs and he's done for the season. He was hitting .284/.324/.314 which might not seem great, but comparing him to the others that have played the position, it's Pete Rose. If he wasn't injured, he'd have the full time job.
• Jonathan Diaz: He came up to play shortstop when Jose Reyes was hurt at the start of the season, so he only played one game at second. If he had been half ways decent, we would have kept him around to play second. He hit .158/.256/.184 in 23 games. In Buffalo he was hitting .163/.337/.275, until we DFAed him to make room for Brad Glenn.
• Chris Getz: He came up, played 10 games at second, starting 6. I figured, hoped, he might be ok. He really wasn't, he hit .160/.222/.200 in 25 at bats. He's retired now.
• Brett Lawrie: He played 32 games at second, starting 26 of them. He looked pretty good there, I thought. He made a couple of errors, but errors happen. He what it is worth, FanGraphs has him at a -2.0 UZR/150. The problem with him at second, for me, is that Francisco has to play third, I'm not a fan of that.
• Steve Tolleson: He's played 35 games at second, starting 16. He had a great May, like most everyone else on the team, hitting .300/.375/.580 for the month. June has been a totally different story, he's hitting just .100/.182/.100. I wonder how much of that is due to the vision troubles he's been having? His defense has looked fine to me, but he's going to have to hit better than .100.
• Munenori Kawasaki: He's played 12 games at second, starting 11 of them. He's hitting .244/.320/.311, not as awful as some. He sees a lot of pitches. He's made 3 errors in his handful of games since coming up. He's entertaining, so unless we can have someone good, I'll take entertaining.

There are other stories:

• Casey Janssen's brilliance (I'm pretty sure the is isn't a coincidence that we started winning when he returned from the DL)..
• The injuries, we've had a lot of them, but, this year, we've been able to survive them. I've seen lots of complaints about the team's lack of depth, but we've had guys step up when someone was injured.
• Steve Delabar's fall from All-Star to Bison.
• Adam Lind's bat. Lind is hitting .342/.433/.526. We owe a huge thank you to Gibby for keeping him away from lefties (at least for the most part).
• The lack of patience the team has shown with players at the back end of the bullpen and the last spots on the bench. We have fallen back to the roster move a day stuff. There have been so many roster moves that I can never remember if Chad Jenkins (he is) or Erik Kratz (he isn't) is on the roster at any given moment.

What do you think are the Blue Jays big stories of the first half of the season?

The Padres third baseman is likely to be moved this summer, and the Blue Jays figure to be in play for the impending free agent.

Earlier today, it was reported that the Toronto Blue Jaysare exploring the market for infielders, and it now appears that Chase Headley is among their targets. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune's Jeff Sanders, the trade market for Headley "is beginning to take shape," and the AL East leading Blue Jays are one of the clubs showing interest in the 30-year-old Padres third baseman.

Adding Headley would make quite a bit of sense for the Blue Jays, who are currently shorthanded because of injuries to outfielder Jose Bautista and regular third baseman Brett Lawrie. In the event of Headley's addition, Lawrie (assuming he's healthy) would likely move to second base full-time (or at least for the remainder of the season), which would solve Toronto's keystone issues. The Blue Jays have been using Juan Francisco at third base quite a bit this season (with Lawrie playing second), and he has hit well, posting a 124 OPS+ with 12 home runs in 191 plate appearances. However, Francisco has a .422 career OPS against lefties and is a negative asset on defense. He's also struggled over the last month, hitting just .164/.215/.377 in June.

Headley's performance has been in a downward spiral since breaking out with a 145 wRC+, 7.2 WAR season in 2012. After putting up a respectable 113 wRC+ and 3.5 WAR last season, he has been absolutely horrible this year, hitting .199/.286/.328 with a 79 wRC+ and .280 wOBA, though his defense has been good enough to put up a 0.7 WAR. Any team acquiring Headley is obviously hoping he rebounds (he is suffering from a .239 BABIP), and it's unlikely that he costs much more than a mid-level prospect due to his performance and roughly $6 million salary the rest of the way.

Headley has been dealing with a herniated disc that required an epidural last week and cost him four game, which may ultimately delay any trade as teams look to see how he recovers over the next couple weeks. He has also missed time due to a variety of other health issues this season, including a sore left knee, strained biceps, and two calf strains.

With Headley's stock near rock-bottom, the Padres may decide against selling low on the former MVP candidate and impending free agent. Instead, they could retain him for the rest of the season and offer a qualifying offer following the season. This would be a win-win for San Diego, as they would receive a draft pick if he signs elsewhere, and if he accepts the offer, it gives the Padres the opportunity to allow Headley to boost his stock on a low-risk, high-reward one-year deal. Of course, this is purely speculation on my part.

While the Padres are currently without a general manager after Josh Byrnes' recent firing, that doesn't appear to be an obstacle, as the club is reportedly open for business on everyone except right-hander Andrew Cashner.

White Sox 5 Blue Jays 4

It seems like we leave R.A. Dickey out there 2 or 3 batters too long every start. I wish Gibby would start being a little more proactive about getting him out of there when things start going downhill, or go with a strict 90 pitch ceiling for the guy, because it, at very least, seems like we don't pull him quick enough.

Anyway, tonight, Dickey had a no-hitter through 4 innings, then gave up a couple of solo homers in the 5th, one to Jose Abreu and one to Dayan Viciedo. He pitched a perfect 6th. Then came the 7th. Abreu started it off with a home run. Ok, he hits a bunch of them. Adam Dunn followed with a walk. And then Alexei Ramirez hit the White Sox 4th home run of the day. That prompted Gibby to pull him.

Of course, that 3-run 7th inning came right after the Jays had hit two solo homer of their own in the 6th. Edwin Encarnacion and Dioner Navarro went back-to-back. It seems to hurt more to give back the lead right after tying things.

We tried, in the 8th and 9th, to come back:

• In the 8th Melky Cabrera had a one out single and Edwin hit one to the wall in right. I was cheering for Lind to pinch hit here, if he got on base, Colby Rasmus, who was going to pinch hit for Brad Glenn, could have been the tying run. Well, they didn't pinch hit an Navarro struck out.
• In the 9th, Colby led off with a solo homer (just why I wanted Lind to pinch hit). Then, after Juan Francisco ground out, we loaded the bases on singles by Munenori Kawasaki and Anthony Gose, and, pinch hitter Lind (against a lefty) ground to third baseman Conor Gillaspie, who booted it. Tying run to second. Jose Reyes ground out, scoring one. Tying run at third. But Melky ground out and the game was over. No walk off.

Jays of the Day: Navarro gets it for a .113 WPA. Lind also had the number, .132, but that was because of the error.

Suckage goes to Dickey (-.336), Melky (-.207), and Reyes (-.180).

Source: FanGraphs

We had a very nice 1200 comments in the GameThread. Spor led the way again. Good job

Jose Abreu leads four-homer assault, but treacherous ninth inning will likely cost Ronald Belisario the closer job

Two homers by Jose Abreu and one apiece from Dayan Viciedo and Alexei Ramirez gave the White Sox a 5-2 lead.

Javy Guerra and Zach Putnam took it into the ninth.

Ronald Belisario and Conor Gillaspie almost took it into the 10th.

Good thing Cuba Cubed went off. Otherwise Robin Ventura might've joined them by now.

Staked to a 5-2 lead, Belisario started the inning by giving up a solo shot to pinch hitter Colby Rasmus. Ventura came out for a brief conversation -- maybe a pick-me-up, maybe an ultimatum -- but it did nothing for Belisario. He did get Juan Francisco to ground out, but back-to-back singles by the Jays' speediest hitters put the tying runs on base, and forced Ventura to go to the bullpen.

In came Eric Surkamp to face Adam Lind. Surkamp did his job by getting a firm grounder right to Gillaspie. Gillaspie didn't do his job by booting it, then looking at second after recovering when he still had a shot to get Lind at first. Surkamp could've escaped with his first save, but instead, the Jays had the bases loaded and one out, and Ventura went to the bullpen for Jake Petricka.

Jose Reyes hit a chopper to short, and Ramirez did what he could -- probably too much -- to try to start a 6-4-3 double play. He fielded the chopper with his bare hand and flipped to second, but Gordon Beckham's throw wasn't nearly in time. One run crossed the plate, and the tying run stood 90 feet away as Sox-killing Melky Cabrera came to the plate. Petricka. Petricka forced Tyler Flowers to block a first-pitch changeup in the dirt, but he got the second pitch over for a strike, and Cabrera pounded the third pitch in the ground to second, where Beckham converted the out to keep Ventura from assaulting somebody.

It should've been easier ... but then again, given the way the game started, five runs by the White Sox offense didn't look likely. R.A. Dickey was virtually perfect through the first four innings, as he erased an error with a double play to keep the Sox hitless, walkless and scoreless heading into the fifth.

Abreu changed that in the fifth. He fouled back a few high knuckleballs during a battle with Dickey that put the count full, but he didn't miss on his fourth swing, sending a rocket out of the park to left to give the Sox a 1-0 lead.

With the knuckler starting to flatten out, Dickey started throwing more fastballs. That didn't faze Viciedo, because three batters later, he took Dickey out the other way for a 2-0 lead.

It remained 2-0 until the bottom of the sixth, when John Danks -- who survived a couple early scares -- gave up a quick pair of solo shots to Edwin Encarnacion and Dioner Navarro, tying the game.

But wouldn't you know it -- Abreu had an answer for that one, too. He tied Encarnacion for the league lead in homers with his first blast, and he did it again to lead off the seventh, as his fly to center carried, and carried, and carried over the glove of a leaping Anthony Gose for another solo shot, giving the Sox a 3-2 lead.

Dickey put himself on the ropes by walking Adam Dunn, and Alexei Ramirez knocked him out with a homer off the foul screen in left, giving the Sox a 5-2 lead.

They had a golden opportunity to tack on at least one more in the eighth, as they loaded the bases with two singles and intentional walk with one out. But Santos has been much better since coming off the DL for the second time, and he showed it with some wipeout-slider work to fan both Ramirez and Viciedo to strand three.

Still, the White Sox offense scored enough runs to allow Danks to take home his seventh win of the season. He deserved it, as he allowed just five hits over six innings, with zero walks and two strikeouts. He had to pitch around a Ramirez error to start the game, but Ramirez atoned for it in the second.

Steve Tolleson doubled off Danks with one out, and Munenori Kawasaki followed with a single through the right side. Tolleson received a late stop sign, and Viciedo made a nice, low, on-line throw to warrant the caution. Kawasaki didn't know that Tolleson was held, and so his attempt to draw the cut-off man worked against him. Abreu started the pickle, flipping the ball to Ramirez. Ramirez ran Kawasaki back to first while keeping one eye on a drifting Tolleson. Once Tolleson strayed too far, Ramirez wheeled and fired to third, and Gillaspie slapped the tag down in time to save Danks a jam.

Bullet points:

*Abreu now has six homers off four Cy Young winners this year, and four multi-homer games.

*Ramirez's homer was his first since May 23, and the RBIs his first since May 26.

Record: 37-44 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights

The Bisons bounced back after a brutal loss at the hands of the Columbus Clippers a night ago. The Herd scored seven unanswered runs to earn the 7-1 victory in the series finale. I would love to avoid cliché, but they really played a great team game dominating all three phases.

P.J. Walters was on the mound for his second start of the season with Buffalo. He looked strong in his first outing, but he looked brilliant in this one. Things started poorly with a leadoff home run by Tyler Holt on a pitch that was begging to be smashed, but after this mistake Walters was nearly flawless. Using a similar game plan to Liam Hendriks and Deck McGuire, Walters was able to pound the zone low getting a lot of easy outs. He kept himself out of trouble walking just two in his seven innings of work and manager Gary Allenson said afterwards he probably could have gone eight. Overall a strong night from Walters who seemed to be lost at the beginning of the year.

Going into the last couple innings of the game the story was clearly going to be not only the great work from Walters, but also the great work defensively behind him. Ryan Goins was the best of the best tonight making two outstanding plays at shortstop. The first of which was a beautiful diving play he made ranging behind second base. He quickly bounced up to one knee after the stop and fired a strike to first beating the speedy Holt to the bag. Later on Goins struck again this time saving an errant throw from first basemen Jared Goedert, who was trying to start a double play. Goins dug the throw out while gliding across the bag and again fired a strike to first to complete the inning ending double play. On top of these great plays Adron Chambers, Kevin Pillar, and Andy LaRoche all made web gem caliber plays.

A great offensive performance was required to top all of these great plays, and that is exactly what the Bisons got. It did not look like they would for the first seven innings as crafty veteran Kyle Davies was in control. The journey man threw six strong innings for Columbus, but the bullpen could not hold up their end of the bargain. The Bisons exploded in the eighth inning for five runs off of reliever Mark Lowe batting around in the process. A.J. Jimenez and Andy LaRoche got back-to-back two RBI singles which was followed by an RBI single from Ryan Goins to finish the scoring.

Steve Delabar did look much better in his one inning of relief work then he did the other night. He was throwing strikes and was able to work a 1-2-3 inning striking out two in the process. Allenson liked what he saw from Delabar and also mentioned that he will continue to get innings as he tries to work through his struggles.

This was the last game of the Bisons home stand, but they will back soon for the annual July 3^rd game. The team is now on the way to play red hot Syracuse and hopefully bridge the gap in the IL north.

The Blue Jays added another right-handed bat the to the roster this morning with the call-up of outfielder Darin Mastroianni. Going the other way is lefty Rob Rasmussen after a hitless inning pitched last night. Darin has played eight games in the big leagues this year (seven with the Twins and one with the Blue Jays) collecting zero hits and one walk. Rasmussen on the other hand has appeared out of the bullpen seven times for Toronto, allowing four earned runs over six innings as well as seven strikeouts. As you'll recall, the lefty came to the Blue Jays from the Phillies in the Brad Lincoln trade this offseason.

If you're keeping score at home, this brings the Blue Jays roster to 11 pitchers, two catchers, six infielders, and six outfielders. This move obviously isn't going to be a long-term one as they just need another right-handed bat to go up against Chris Sale today and Jose Quintana tomorrow as they wait for Jose Bautista to be healthy enough to play.

Once Bautsita is healthy enough to return, one of Brad Glenn or Mastroianni (or both) can be returned to Buffalo and another well-rested reliever can join the big league squad. This roster has really seen some stuff these first three months of the season.

Here's the Blue Jays roster today, with just two lefties to go up against Sale:

7 RHB in today's #bluejays lineup pic.twitter.com/5e2uhplDU1

— Barry Davis (@SNBarryDavis) June 28, 2014

Three-run homer by Dayan Viciedo, pinch-hit single by Alexei Ramirez enough for first Saturday victory in 13 tries

For the first time in 13 tries this season, the White Sox won a game on a Saturday, and they used Friday's formula in order to make it happen:

Step 1: Get a good start.

Chris Sale walked a season-high five guys, but it wasn't due to a lack of stuff. It was partially because he was being careful around a top-heavy Toronto lineup. He walked Edwin Encarnacion twice, which was part of the plan. He also walked Colby Rasmus twice, which wasn't. But it was clear that he'd rather take his chances with the bottom four spots in the order, and that strategy almost backfired when Darin Mastroianni took a third straight Sale changeup over the wall in left center for a two-run homer.

(Pissed Sale ramped it up to 97 after that homer, so he wasn't missing anything from his arsenal.)

But ultimately, the strategy worked. That homer accounted for the only two runs Sale allowed over seven innings. He allowed four hits on top of those five walks, but he struck out six and looked more composed than the BB column indicates. And it was good enough to run up his record to 7-1, although for a while it looked like Marcus Stroman might outpitch him.

No. 2: Wait for Cuba Cubed to show up.

Stroman retired 20 of the first 22 batters he faced, using his 95-mph fastball and power curve to subdue the Sox offense the first two times through the lineup. With two outs in the seventh, he had Jose Abreu down 0-2. You'd think he could bounce a breaking ball or two in the dirt, and it'd be on to the eighth inning.

But Abreu took a slider in the dirt and a fastball away to even the count, then roped the next fastball to the left-center gap for a double to keep the inning alive. Adam Dunn followed with a walk, and with the diminutive rookie nearing 100 pitches, John Gibbons went to the bullpen for Dustin McGowan against Dayan Viciedo.

That idea failed as fast as it could, because McGowan hung a breaking ball, and Viciedo crushed it to the second deck in left. With one pitch, the Sox went from trailing 2-0 to leading 3-2.

Likewise, the Sox tacked on their fourth and final run in the eighth after two on and nobody out. Encarnacion could only block Adam Eaton's hard grounder for an infield single, and Gordon Beckham smacked one up the middle. With Conor Gillaspie coming to the plate, Gibbons called for sidewinding lefty Aaron Loup. Robin Ventura answered with Alexei Ramirez -- who didn't start for the first time all season -- and Ramirez dropped a single to left to give the Sox a 4-2 lead. The Sox bullpen made the insurance run necessary.

No. 3: Hang on for dear life.

Zach Putnam could've easily had more breathing room, because the Sox loaded the bases to start the ninth, but didn't score because Dunn was the lead runner, and Paul Konerko takes up a spot on the bench that could be used for a pinch-runner or defensive replacement.

At least Putnam had a two-run lead, and that came in handy after Anthony Gose started the inning with a double and scored on a Munenori Kawasaki bloop single, which turned the lineup over. But Putnam didn't let the Blue Jays' good hitters faze him. He retired Jose Reyes on a 3-6 fielder's choice, induced a routine flyout from Melky Cabrera, and, after a mound visit, set down Encarnacion on a bouncer to short to record his first save and finally get the Sox off the Saturday schneid.

Bullet points:

*Dunn had a terrific game, going 2-for-2 with a double and two walks. It's not his fault he's not fast, but perhaps the Sox should figure out which one of their pitchers can run the fastest without hurting himself if Ventura ever has to choose between a defensive replacement, a pinch runner or losing the DH.

*Ventura managed the game well, although I questioned his replacing Eric Surkamp in the eighth inning. Surkamp struck out Adam Lind for the second out of the inning, and with a runner on first and Steve Tolleson coming to the plate, I probably would've left him in and saved the pitcher. Using Putnam for the last four outs ended up negating that concern, though.

Record: 38-44 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights

Ray offers some starting pitcher options that you should consider streaming on Saturday, including Marcus Stroman and Roenis Elias.

The Streamer Report provides you with daily startng pitcher streaming selections for owners who prefer to stream starting pitchers on a daily basis. This report identifies starting pitchers who are owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues, and who either has a decent track record vs their opponent, has pitched well of late, or has a decent matchup.

Saturday's Streamers

Marcus Stroman, Blue Jays vs White Sox

Roenis Elias, Mariners vs Indians

Weekly Streamer Performance

I will be providing a status of how my picks have performed over the course of the season, and below you can find how my picks fared this week.

Fantasy Rundown

If you are looking for more fantasy advice, make sure you check out Fantasy Rundown for all your fantasy baseball and football needs.

Jose Quintana outduels Mark Buehrle with seven strong innings to take series in Toronto

Do the White Sox have to come home?

It's strange to say that after the way this 11-game journey started, but they saved their most professional-looking game for last, subduing the Blue Jays to take the four-game series at Rogers Centre. Considering they came into Toronto losing six of the first seven, a 4-7 road trip is merely unfortunate, rather than an abject disaster.

Mark Buehrle fans enjoyed a 2014 Mark Buehrle start, but Jose Quintana fans saw his best outing of the year, engineering the White Sox' first shutout of the season. A homer, a couple timely hits, fuss-free bullpen work, good defense ... it was the kind of all-around competence that had been lacking this season.

Quintana looked unflappable during his seven innings, allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out seven. One could make the argument that he should've had eight strikeouts and two hits, as home plate umpire Brian Knight didn't give him a clear strike three to Jose Reyes, and Reyes singled with his second life.

That single led off the fourth inning, and with the White Sox leading 1-0, that could've spelled trouble. Reyes didn't advance, though, as Moises Sierra pulled a ball back from foul territory down the right-field line for the first out, and Quintana retired Edwin Encarnacion (routine flyout) and Dioner Navarro (strikeout) to end the inning.

Reyes tried to start another rally in the sixth, lining a one-out double to left to put Quintana in his biggest bind yet. He got Darin Mastroianni to ground out and walked Encarnacion. With the potential tying run at the plate, John Gibbons pulled Navarro for Jose Bautista, who hadn't appeared in a game during the series. Despite a wild pitch to move Reyes to third, there would be no Kirk Gibson moment. Bautista grounded out to short to end the threat.

Eric Surkamp -- who appeared in all four games -- pitched an easy 1-2-3 eighth, and Jake Petricka worked around a one-out turf single for a relaxing ninth to close out the game.

Buehrle was almost as good as Quintana -- and for an inning longer -- but that wasn't enough. The Sox cracked him for single runs early in the game, and that was plenty for Sox pitching.

The two-out offense that sparked Saturday's victory made a cameo appearance in the third inning. After Buehrle got two quick outs, Gordon Beckham extended the inning with a ground-rule double to right center, and Jose Abreu cashed him in by lining a first-pitch changeup to left for an RBI single.

In the fourth, Sierra jumped on a flat, hanging 80-mph changeup (though Gameday calls it his fastball, and might not be wrong) and hammered it to left for a solo shot. Buehrle settled in after that, but it was already too late, and a two-run single by Tyler Flowers eliminated a save situation for a bullpen that doesn't have a closer right now.

Bullet points:

*Flowers also started a 2-4 double play, thanks to a bizarre TOOTBLAN by Mastroianni. Encarnacion popped up a pitch behind the plate, and Flowers caught it toward the edge of Rogers Centre's considerable foul territory. It looked like Mastroianni thought he could draw a throw to second, but Flowers threw to first instead, and Beckham slapped a tag on him for a confusing, delightful end to the first inning.

*Paul Konerko went 1-for-3 against Buehrle, with a single, strikeout and flyout.

*Buerhle is now 0-4 over his last five decisions, albeit with a 3.44 ERA over that stretch, which happens to be Quintana's ERA for the season.

Record: 39-44 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights

After a terrific May, June wasn't great. We went 12-15 in June (same record as April), but any month that we finish in first place is a good month, in my humble opinion.

Our pitchers put up a 3.93 ERA, not quite the 3.74 they had in May, but better than 4.64 in April. Our starters were 8-14 with a 3.89 ERA. They averaged 5.91 innings per game.

Mark Buehrle: 1-4 with a 2.79 ERA. In 6 starts he pitched 42 innings (7 innings per start). He allowed 39 hits, 6 home runs, 11 walks with 24 strikeouts. Batters hit .244/.292/.431 against him. Going 1-4 with a 2.79 ERA is a pretty glaring indictment of our offense.  Mark's luck on home runs ran out, he allowed 2 homer in the first two months of the season, but 6 in June. We knew it wouldn't last, but he's still pitching great.. He is great to watch. Does he get the start in the All-Star game?

R.A. Dickey: 1-3 with a 4.11 ERA. In 5 starts he pitched 30.2 innings (6.1 innings per start). He allowed 32 hits, 10 home runs, 11 walks, 27 strikeouts. Batters hit .262/.331/.549 against him. Again, the luck on the home runs ran out on him, he gave up 6 home runs the first two months of the season (not exactly terrific), then gave up 10 in June. I really think Gibby is going to have to go to a hard ceiling of 90 pitches for the guy. It seems like he does pretty good for 90 pitches and then it falls apart. After his 100th pitch, batters hit .407/.529/.815 against him. We have to stop letting that happen. He is 39, we might like to think knuckleball pitchers can go forever, but maybe we should think of these things in a case by case way. I understand wanting him to pitch late into games, but it isn't working, let's stop hoping it will.

Drew Hutchison: 1-3, 4.28 ERA. In 5 starts he pitched 27.1 inning (5.5 innings per start). He allowed 28 hits, 3 home runs, 7 walks and struck out 20. Batters hit .269/.310/.423 against him. For a guy that seems to alternate good and bad starts, his monthly numbers are very consistent. He's OPS against by month has been .732, 740, 733. Game to game he isn't consistent, this month he's had Game Scores of 78, 27, 68, 34 and 46. Considering he's 23 and just off missing a year after Tommy John, that he isn't consistent shouldn't surprise us, but I hope he improves as the season goes on.

J.A. Happ: 3-2, with a 4.55 ERA. In 5 starts he pitched 27.2 innings (5.5 innings per start). He allowed 31 hits, 2 home runs, 11 walks with 24 strikeouts. Batters hit .290/.350/.439 against him. He had 2 terrible starts, one ok start and 2 good starts. I guess I can live with that ratio from a fifth starter, but I wouldn't mind moving him to the bullpen if Alex can find us another starter. His last start was great, 7.2 shutout innings. I guess hoping that he can continue like that is a bit much.

Marcus Stroman: 2-2, with a 2.67 ERA. In 5 starts he pitched 30.1 innings (6.1 innings per start). He allowed 25 hits, 3 home runs, 8 walks with 26 strikeouts. Batters hit .223/.279/.366 against him. 4 of his 5 starts were 'Quality Starts', the one that wasn't was the game in Yankees Stadium, where the home plate umpire might as well have worn pinstripes. It is easy to say that Marcus is going to have to learn to deal with terrible umpiring, but no starter could have put up a good showing with an umpire that bad The most he's walked in a start is 3 (the Yankee Stadium game). Really have to like a rookie that throws strikes.

Liam Hendriks: 0-0, 32.40 ERA. Called up for 1 spot start, went 1.2 innings, allowed 6 hits, 1 home run, 1 walk, no strikeouts. I doubt we'll see him again.

Off topic, but I talked to Phil Naessens last night, here is a link:

Bob Elliot, late last night, posted more on rumors that the Blue Jays are looking at David Price and Jeff Samardzija.

Elliot tells us that the Jays have sent 10 scouts to look at Samardzija, over the past month. So they are serious about him. Elliot also talked to a National League GM about him:

"I like Samardzija a lot," said a National League general manager. "But his make-up reminds me of Brett Lawrie. He's wound, he will take that Notre Dame football attitude to the mound. That can be good as long as he's under control. That can be bad as a pitcher if he humps up at Yankee Stadium and goes ball four, ball four, ball four.

"You don't know what he's going to do in the stretch run. At least I don't."

About Price, Elliot talked to an AL scout if he would do Aaron Sanchez, Daniel Norris and Dalton Pompey for Price, if he made decisions for the Jays.

"I would do it," said an AL scout, "without hesitation."

Personally I would only give up that much if I was sure Price would stay around for a few years.

Let's make it a poll.

This Canada Day edition features updates on the injuries of Brett Cecil, Kevin Pillar, and Sean Nolin.

Monday night in Syracuse saw a great performance by Bisons starter Aaron Sanchez. He completed seven innings, giving up just three runs on seven hits, striking out two while walking just one. He was dominant at he beginning of the game.The most trouble he had was in the seventh when he looked a bit tired; he hit Brandon Laird, then a wild pitch allowed Laird to advance to second and a balk sent him to go to third.

It led to a 11-inning game that had the Chiefs win 5-4 on a Sandy Leon walk off homer against Luis Ayala.

Injury Updates

Sean Nolin has been bothered by a groin strain since mid-May and has been off-and-on the disabled list since then. He came back briefly for three short outings in June before he went back on the DL. He told Bluebird Banter that he was "definitely a lot better", his flexibility is returning, and he is pain-free. Right now he is long tossing, on flat ground, and the next step is to throw some side sessions. There is no definite timeline for return, but he certainly wants to "take it slower than last time" as he felt he rushed himself to return from his previous stint on the DL.

Kevin Pillar returned to the field tonight after not playing since Friday and had a RBI single. His absence from the lineup was not because of punishment, but due to a wrist injury. He spent most of Sunday's game as the Bisons first base coach. He said that his wrist is feeling better and better, but he still has it wrapped up.

Brett Cecil started his rehab assignment with the Bisons Monday night in Syracuse against the Chiefs. He threw nine pitches, eight for strikes. However he did give up a game-tying home run to Tyler Moore on a cutter that caught too much of the plate.

Aaron Sanchez probably done for the night. Brett Cecil (#59) gets ready for his rehab outing with the Bisons. https://t.co/2D82LIQkTd

— Minor Leaguer (@Minor_Leaguer) July 1, 2014

"I'm feeling good. I'm not worried about results, just how I feel," Cecil said in front of his teammates who just lost on a walkoff home run.

It seems like Cecil's groin injury is behind him. He said that he will be back with the Jays when they head to Oakland to face the A's on Thursday (even though he will be activated Friday). He is due for one more rehab outing this Wednesday, and will be out there for one inning or 25 pitches.

Chat with Randy St. Claire

Bisons pitching coach Randy St. Claire re-joined the Blue Jays organization this season after spending 2013 as the pitching coach of the Las Vegas 51s. Previously, St. Claire was the major league pitching coach for the  Expos / Nationals from 2003 to 2009, and was the Marlins pitching coach from 2010 to 2012. He was nice enough to chat for a bit about being a pitching coach in the triple-A level.

What are the differences between being a major league and a minor league pitching coach?

You do more work for the front office than you do for the players [here]. All your work at the big league level, for me, is for the player. Here we do game reports, you’re constantly doing stuff to keep [the front office] informed—which is part of the game, it’s got to be done, game reports on your players, mid-season reports, all that kind of stuff. [Here] I do my own location charts, all of the defensive charts, other charts, stats, that I do on my players where in the big league level you get all that, so the work you do is just work for the players.

Besides that there is no difference. The same things you do to be successful here you have to do to be successful up there. Pitch down in the zone, you gotta be able to command your breaking ball, your fastball to different parts of the plate, up, down, in, out you gotta work ahead you can’t work behind, you can’t walk guys. Basically it’s the same exact game, just it’s in triple-A.

How is it with Steve Delabar (and other players) being sent down to the minors?

Sometimes they come down and they’ll be a little pissed off for a game or two, so we just kind of let it go. Then they usually understand it. Whether it’s right, or whether it’s wrong, sometimes they come down pissed off and they have no right to be pissed off. Other times they have a right to be pissed off. But you kind of let it go because usually it’s gone real quick. Their goal is to get back, so usually it’s not that big of a deal. I will have the conversation with him and say "let’s get back to workin’ and back to where you were and they’ll let you back up."

What do you do to communicate with the other pitching coaches in the Blue Jays system?

We’re on the same page with guys and Pete [Walker] would call me and I would call Pete so we’re all on the same page and we communicate.

Upon [Aaron Sanchez’s] first arrival, we did [talk with the double-A pitching coach] then it’s more communications with me, Rick Langford, Dane Johnson and that type of stuff. They have the video on him they’re watching it too. So it’s talk between all of us and then we hit that area we’re trying to focus on.

What he needs to work on at this level is fastball command. Fastball command. If you’ve got fastball command, you’re working ahead, then you can expand with your breaking ball. The breaking ball is supposed to look like a strike then it breaks out of the strikezone. If you’re behind the count with the fastball, you can’t use your breaking ball because they usually aren’t in the strike zone. The ones that stay in the strike zone usually are hangers. But when you’re ahead you get chase swings on borderline pitches that may be a ball. You can also throw a first pitch breaking ball for a strike and then they’ll go "oh now what is he gonna do". So to me, fastball command is the most important thing that every guy has to have when they go to the big leagues.

[Sanchez’s] command is getting better from his first game [here]. He tends to get inside the ball a little bit where he’ll lose an armside. He’s got such great action when the ball comes out of his hand. We’re working on staying on top of the ball so the ball stays true through the zone. First game was so-so, a couple things happened, some infield hits happened. His last game was much better, and he had a couple of infield hits there too. But when he gets that fastball in the zone they just don’t have good swings at it, they get weak ground balls. We had a number of groundballs with a guy on base that we couldn’t turn two because it was hit so slow they couldn’t get the out at first base. I was very impressed and really liked it. He seem to have so much confidence. It seems to come out so easy—not forced. He’s not a guy that’s max effort, it just comes out so nice and clean.

The Blue Jays currently sit atop the AL East, but they have failed to separate themselves from the pack to this point. As a result, heading toward the trade deadline, Toronto looks like one of the top buyers on the market.

It may be happening a season late, but the Blue Jays aggressive dealing during the 2012-2013 offseason is finally paying off. Toronto currently sits atop the AL East one game ahead of the Orioles with a record of 45-39. While the turnaround is unexpected, it isn't all smoke and mirrors. Their current record matches their Pythagorean record and is just between one and two games above their second and third-order winning percentages as calculated by Baseball Prospectus. In the shockingly mediocre AL East, Toronto's offense, which sits behind only the Athletics and Rockies in runs scored this season, could be the separating factor in the division. The Blue Jays' big bats could carry them a long way, but with just a few games separating them from the Yankees and Orioles and their three top run producers all on the wrong side of 30, GM Alex Anthopolous has every reason to go big at this upcoming trade deadline. Recent injuries to key players like Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie have slowed them down heading into July and that only adds to the sense of urgency surrounding this team.

Are the Blue Jays Buyers or Sellers?

Buyers

Toronto's division lead is far too small for the team to simply stand pat and there is no shortage of ways for the Blue Jays to improve. This team's spot at the top of the AL East doesn't appear to be just some early season fluke, but their struggles over the last two weeks are noteworthy. Since going 18-3 from May 15 to June 6, the Blue Jays have gone 7-15, allowing the Yankees and Orioles to remain well within striking distance as the trade talk begins to heat up. Thanks to the second Wild Card spot, even the Red Sox could end up buying at the deadline, leaving the second half competition even tougher for Toronto.

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Most importantly, the Blue Jays need to take advantage of the window to win that is open now as much as any other playoff contender, if not more so. Jose Bautista is 33 and coming off a hamstring injury and Edwin Encarnacion is 31. Neither is showing any signs of slowing down, but time is certainly not on their side. Jose Reyes is still a valuable role player but age and injuries appear to be catching up to him. Colby Rasmus, Melky Cabrera and Casey Janssen are all headed to free agency after this season and ace Mark Buehrle and catcher Dioner Navarro will hit the market after the 2015 season. This is an old team that is only going to get older and while the Blue Jays farm system has a lot of intriguing talent, there are no few offensive stars sitting on the cusp of the majors. The Blue Jays will be buying and it would not be surprising to see them end as the most aggressive buyer out there as July 31 draws near.

Needs

Second Base

After Toronto watched rookie Ryan Goins and zombie Chris Getz struggle miserably, Toronto experimented with moving Brett Lawrie from third over to second as well as handing over the majority of at bats at the position to career minor leaguer Steve Tolleson. With Lawrie injured Toronto is stuck with fringe major leaguers as options. The lovable but inept Munenori Kawasaki is currently at the top of the depth chart, but it is hard to imagine him staying there for very long. Tolleson posted some impressive numbers early on, but he has come back to earth lately and he possesses so many obvious flaws that it is hard to imagine that the Blue Jays would comfortable leaving him in the role on a daily basis from here on. His splits are extreme enough to be taken as a misprint. Against lefties he has hit 64 percent better than league average (by wRC+) and against righties he is 108 percent worse than average. Again, that is not a typo. His 27.6 percent strikeout rate is alarming for a player with little power. Tolleson is useful on the short side of a platoon,  so a left-handed hitting second man like Chase Utley or Daniel Murphy would be an ideal fit here,  Eyeing Lawrie's return, the Blue Jays have also been connected to third baseman Chase Headley of the Padres, so the solution at second could come in the form of a player at third as well.

Trade Liklihood: High

Starting Pitching

Starting pitching was the major question mark for Toronto at the start of the season, but so far it has been better than expected. Mark Buerhle has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this season by ERA. R.A. Dickey has not been great, but he has been the kind of inning-eater the Blue Jays hoped he would be when they got him from the Mets.  Drew Hutchinson has stepped up to give the Blue Jays a formidable number three starter and rookie Marcus Stroman has looked excellent through his first six major league starts.  All in all, Toronto's rotation is eighth in the American league in ERA. Unfortunately, even this middling performance is not likely to hold up. The Blue Jay rotation is 13^th in the league in FIP and 10th in xFIP. Internal options Aaron Sanchez could help, but Toronto shouldn't hang their chances at a division title on top prospects and continued over-performance alone. Landing one of the top arms on the market is probably going to be priority number one for the Blue Jays this July.

Trade Likelihood: High

Relievers

One year ago, the bullpen was one of the Blue Jays' only redeeming qualities. Toronto relievers posted a 3.37 ERA in 2013, good for the fourth best mark in the American League. This season the same cast of characters has provided extremely different results. Casey Janssen has once again been excellent in the closer, but an oblique injury cost him the month of April and he has thrown just 17 innings so far this season. Sergio Santos has also battled injuries and when he has been on the mound, he has had serious issues with his control, leading to an ugly 6.9 BB/9 rate and a gaudy 20 percent HR/FB rate. Getting healthy should help this group tremendously, but adding another late-inning reliever to help bridge the gap from the rotation to Janssen makes sense as well. This bullpen's true talent probably lies between the extremes of the last two seasons and boosting that talent level could be the difference-maker in a tight pennant race.

Trade Likelihood: High

Pieces to Deal

Pitching Prospects

It is unlikely that the Blue Jays will part with either Marcus Stroman or Aaron Sanchez for a short-term rental and that might mean the Blue Jays can't land a top pitcher like Jeff Samardzija or David Price. At this point, there appears to be "zero chance" that they will pony up the type of package teams are asking for top talent, but they could certainly make it happen if they wanted to. Even if they end up targeting guys like Jason Hammels and Justin Masterson, who will be free agents at the end of the season, it will be their young arms that teams want in return.  Baseball America's Prospect Handbook had the Jays system ranked 15^th prior to the start of the 2014 seasons, but noted that they have taken the high risk, high reward strategy and "turned it up to eleven," noting that this system "could be number one if it all comes together or No. 30 if high-ceiling, high risk prospects crash and burn." Apart from Stroman and Sanchez, some of the best arms on the Toronto farm are players like Alberto Tirado and Chase DeJong who are currently learning to find the plate in the lower levels, but the Blue Jays can also offers teams a guy with a more modest ceiling like Sean Nolin to deliver a lower, near MLB-ready arm to the mix. One name to watch in Blue Jays trade talks is Daniel Norris. The 21-year-old lefty recently moved up to Double-A after dominating High-A with a 10.3 K/9 and a 2.4 BB/9 rate in 13 starts. Norris strikes a good balance between risk and reward and should be the type of arm that teams are looking for at the top of a big deal this July. Toronto will be loathe to move him, but if they want to land a big piece without dealing Sanchez or Stroman, something will have to give. If teams on the other side drop their prices as time runs down, the Blue Jays probably won't pass on a key addition. Even if they only make a minor upgrade, they will probably need to include at east one young arm to get the deal done.

Trade Likelihood: High

Anthony Gose

.233/.347/.291, 0 HR, 4 RBI, 85 wRC+, 1.0 fWAR

Gose may well be the Blue Jays center fielder of the future, but Gose is also an excellent trade chip right now. He has an impact glove in center and he has a patient approach at the plate that could help him evolve into a plus-hitter if he ever manages to add some pop. With Rasmus heading to free agency at the end of the year, the Blue Jays might not want to move him, but he is exactly what many teams will want in return- a cost-controlled player with some major league experience and upside. Given the deals that Anthopolous made when trading for Dickey, Buehrle, and Reyes, it likely that he will send teams prospect-heavy packages that don't include any players that he is counting on in the near future, but Gose should draw enough interest to make the Jays front office think hard about his future in Toronto.

Trade Likelihood: Low

The Brewers come into town for a quick two-game set today and tomorrow with both games getting underway in the afternoon. Today is of course Canada Day so hopefully you're enjoying the day off and the Blue Jays can make the holiday a little sweeter for us up north. The Brewers have had a similar season to Toronto in the sense that they weren't favourites to win their divisions but they both currently sit atop them, with Milwaukee currently sporting a 51-33 record that puts them a fair number of games up on anybody else in the National Central.

The Brewers have gotten great performances from their obvious stars like Jonathan Lucroy and Ryan Braun (BOO), but they've also gotten massive contributions from relative unknowns such as Scooter Gennett and Khris Davis. Gennett has pretty much wrestled the starting second baseman job away from Rickie Weeks with a .351 OBP this season and has quietly become a top 2B in the game (he currently has more WAR than Robinson Cano).

The pitching matchup today sees Drew Hutchison going up  gainst Marco Estrada this afternoon. Estrada is a Mexican righty who will turn 31 on Saturday. He's pitched horribly this year and has had horrible luck to boot so he'll be looking to try and get his season going in the right direction today. The problems of Estrada's season can be summarized in one little graph:

via www.fangraphs.com

That's a 2.25 HR/9 rate (17.3% HR/FB) to go along with a 34.8% GB%, which has caused all sorts of problems for the Brewers starter. His repertoire is extremely simple with 55% of his pitches being fastballs, while changeups and curveballs make up the difference. No one is whiffing on his pitches and his fastball and changeup are being launched into orbit at an alarming rate.

Hopeful Lineup

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Melky Cabrera LF
3. Jose Bautista RF
4. Edwin Encarnacion 1B
5. Adam Lind DH
6. Colby Rasmus CF
7. Dioner Navarro C
8. Juan Francisco 3B
9. Munenori Kawasaki 2B

Find The Link

Find the link between Marco Estrada and the former 2014 Blue Jay on the Nashville Sounds PCL team.

Gut Feelings

1. Marco Estrada is going to get crushed today.
2. Belgium is advancing over USA this afternoon.

The Yankees have been scouting the struggling third baseman.

The New York Yankees have been regularly scouting San Diego Padres' third baseman and impending free agent Chase Headley, per Jon Morosi of FOX Sports.

The Yankees, who are 2.5 games back in the AL East, are currently running out a third base platoon of Yangervis Solarte and Kelly Johnson. While Solarte still has a 108 OPS+ on the season, he has been dreadful since his blistering start. Since May 15th, the 26-year-old is hitting just .190/.271/.276. Over the past month alone, his OPS has dropped 88 points to a a season-low .746 mark. Johnson's performance has also dipped, as he is currently batting just .224/.300/.398 with a 92 wRC+ after posting a 101 wRC+ last season. Overall, the Yankees' offense has struggled, ranking 17th in the majors with a 93 wRC+ and 23rd with a 7.2 WAR. They've also hit just 69 home runs (22nd), which is surprising considering their offensively favorable home ballpark.

After posting MVP-like numbers in 2012 (7.2 WAR, 145 wRC+) and having another solid season last year (3.5 WAR, 113 wRC+), Headley has been awful this season. The 30-year-old has hit just .201/.289/.322 for a 79 wRC+ and .279 wOBA, though he has still been adequate defensively with a 5.1 UZR and three defensive runs saved.

While he has certainly struggled, Headley is a good bet to get better over the second half of the year as his .243 BABIP indicates some rather poor luck, and he has been hampered by injuries for much of the season. He also carries minimal risk for any acquiring team, as he is owed just about $6 million over the remainder of the season and probably won't require much more than a mid-level prospect to bring in.

The Yankees appear to not be alone among AL East squads looking at acquiring Headley, as the Toronto Blue Jayswere linked to him over the weekend. As Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported, Headley's market is "beginning to take shape", and there should be a substantial amount of interest in the Padres' star.