The Blue Jays have claimed Cole Gillespie off waivers from the Seattle Mariners. Gillespie is a right-handed hitting outfielder. This season he's hit .254/.312/.324 in 34 game as a Mariner. Career he has hit .233/.298/.333 in 112 games.

Of course, what matters is how he hit lefties....and I shouldn't have looked. He's hit LHP at at .221/.286/.271 rate, worse than he's hit right-handers. oh well. He has played all three outfield spots, but just a few games in CF.

To make room on the 40-man roster, Kenny Wilson gets the DFA treatment, yet again.

So take that Oakland, you may have traded for Jeff Smarties (hey, if we don't try for him, I'm not going to learn to spell his name) and Jason Hammel but we got an outfielder that couldn't keep a job with the Mariners. Woo-hoo.

They will make a 25-man roster move when Cole joins the team. No spoilers, but I'm pretty sure Brad Glenn has packed his bags already.

I'm sure there will be more moves before the deadline.

The Blue Jays slugger left Saturday night's game in Oakland after just a half-inning of play.

Blue Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion left Saturday night's game against the Athletics in the first inning, suffering a right quad strain while running out a ground ball.

Encarnacion grounded into a force play in the top of the first inning that allowed Jose Reyes to score, tying Encarnacion with Nelson Cruz of the Orioles for the major league lead with 70 RBI. But as Encarnacion was beating the relay throw to first base, he immediately grimaced upon reaching the bag, then hopped around for a moment before crumpling to the ground.

Toronto team trainers and manager John Gibbons immediately ran out to tend to Encarnacion, who remained laying on the ground for several minutes. Eventually, Encarnacion was helped off the field with the assistance of trainers George Poulis and Mike Frostad.

Adam Lind pinch ran for Encarnacion and replaced him at first base in the bottom of the inning.

Encarnacion has been one of the best hitters in the majors in 2014, hitting .277/.368/.591 with 26 home runs and 21 doubles. Toronto entered Saturday fourth in the American League in scoring at 4.59 runs per game and started the day in second place at 47-41, a half-game behind the Orioles in the AL East.

The Oakland Athletics defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 this Saturday in a brisk two hours, 37 minutes behind an outstanding pitching performance from Scott Kazmir ahead of tomorrow's All-Star team selection, a Josh Donaldson home run, and a hit parade up-and-down the lineup. Kazmir improves his record to 10-3, and his one run allowed in seven innings improves his ERA from 2.61 to 2.53.

Edwin Encarnacion injured on RBI fielder's choice

The sole run Kazmir allowed was on an Edwin Encarnacion fielder's choice. With runners on the corners and one out, Encarnacion grounded slowly to Jed Lowrie who went to Alberto Callaspo at second base for out number two but could not get Encarnacion. On the play, however, Encarnacion fell to the ground after hitting the bag, and we learned later that he left the game with right quad soreness. The extent of his injury is not currently known.

Second inning signs of life

With one out in the bottom of the second, Nate Freiman drove a high fly ball deep to center that came just short of a home run, ultimately caught by center fielder Colby Rasmus. After that, however, the Athletics matched their hit total of four for the first 11 innings of Friday's game by adding three singles to their initial lone hit in the first inning.  With two out, Jed Lowrie singled on a bloop over second baseman Munenori Kawasaki, Alberto Callaspo singled up the middle, and Stephen Vogt beat out a single when Mark Buehrle was slow to cover first base when Adam Lind (in for in the injured Encarnacion) ranged too far to his right. No runs scored, however, as Coco Crisp flew out on another deep fly ball to left fielder Melky Cabrera.

In honor of our new acquisition from Chicago, you can put it on the boa ... Oh the other league's Chicago

Mark Buehrle seemed to have things back under control after his interesting second inning. In the third, Craig Gentry struck out on three pitches without the bat leaving his shoulder, and Yoenis Cespedes flew a 1-0 pitch to right field.

And then Josh Donaldson tied the game on a solo home run.

Your hit parade

The Athletics continued to pile the hits onto Mark Buehrle, never letting him escape. In the fourth, Buehrle again got to two outs before allowing an Albert Callaspo double, a Stephen Vogt walk, an RBI single from Coco Crisp, and an RBI single from Craig Gentry to give the A's a 3-1 lead after four innings. The fourth killed any chance of a deep outing for Buehrle: 34 pitches put him at 83 total at that point.

The A's picked up single in each of the fifth and sixth innings against Buehrle, and he left after the sixth, only just continuing a Blue Jays streak of six-plus inning starts that started June 22. He left after 110 pitches.

Scott KKKKKKKKazmir dismantles the Jays

After the two singles to open the game, Scott Kazmir did not concede a hit until Brad Glenn singled to lead off the top of the fifth inning with his first career Major League hit, an infield single that pushed Alberto Callaspo far onto the grass in right field. Callaspo tossed the ball to Freiman, who in turn rolled it into the Jays dugout to save the ball for Glenn. Best of luck to Brad Glenn.

Otherwise for the Jays through seven, it was just two walks: one each in the second and seventh innings, and he struck out eight in the process. One of those strikeouts was a nifty catch of a foul tip strike three that initially bounced up a little off Norris' glove before he snowconed it just short of the dirt:

The play got a special mark on my scorecard:

Tiny exclamation mark for that tip catch. pic.twitter.com/PMwuZzcP8j

— Jeremy F. Koo (@jfkooAN) July 6, 2014

Josh Donaldson wins another meeting with the tarp

Deja vu all over again:

The A's still remember how to get an out at the plate on a relay

With Yoenis Cespedes patrolling left field, I feel like the A's haven't had to make a relay to home plate all season. Cespedes was the designated hitter tonight, however, and Craig Gentry was in left. In the eighth, with Melky Cabrera at first base and two out, Jose Bautista lined a 1-0 fastball from Luke Gregerson down the third base line just past a diving Josh Donaldson. From deep in the corner, Gentry fired the ball to Jed Lowrie as Cabrera lumbered around third base. Lowire in turn fired home to Derek Norris. Home plate umpire Bill Miller, in good position to see the play, called Cabrera out, and to the naked eye it appeared Norris tagged Cabera's helmet just as Norris received the ball in his mitt.

Cabrera, however, vehemently signaled safe and urged Toronto Blue Jays manager to come out and challenge the call. Gibbons popped out of the dugout to do so, and after review, the call was upheld. Judge for yourself:

Two more runs can save your Sean Doolittle from being used too often (but not up to 15% on your car insurance)

Sean Doolittle had been used for each of the last two days, and the A's were looking for a few more runs in the eighth inning to give the A's some space for a more rested pitcher. Against Sergio Santos, Nate Freiman singled to left and Jed Lowrie scored Freiman on a double to the right field wall. The Jays could not perform the mirror relay successfully, as the ball ended up the third base line to make it 4-1 A's.

With Brett Cecil entering in relief, Alberto Callaspo advanced Lowrie to third on a ground to second, opening up a sacrifice opportunity. They could not take advantage once Stephen Vogt grounded sharply to first base, but the A's did not need it. With Coco Crisp batting, Dioner Navarro muffed a high curve ball and Lowrie scored on the passed ball, making it 5-1 A's. Crisp grounded out to second to end the inning.

No Abad puns tonight

Fernando Abad finished off the Jays without a fight. Adam Lind popped out to Donaldson in foul territory, Dioner Navarro flew out to Craig Gentry in left, and Colby Rasmus watched strike three catch the upper part of the zone down the middle to end the game: A's 5, Blue Jays 1.

The Samardzija will come out, tomorrow, bet your bottom Brad Mills that tomorrow, there will be Samardzija!

Tomorrow, Jeff Samardzija (2-7, 2.83, 103 K) makes his American League debut, facing Toronto's Drew Hutchison (6-6, 3.81, 89 K). We'll have details tomorrow on the next roster move as the other half of the trade with the Chicago Cubs, Jason Hammel, joins the active roster at that time. The A's hope to sweep the home series as well as win the rubber match in the season series. First pitch will be at 1:05 pm.

Blue Jays 1 Athletics 5

The Blue Jays lost something much more than the game tonight as first baseman Edwin Encarnacion came out limping after running out a RBI fielder's choice in the first inning. The slugger looked to be in a large amount of pain as he was helped off the field. You can see video of the injury here, although it's not too pretty to watch. Hopefully it's as minor the team is trying to make it sound:

#BlueJays say EE left game with right quadriceps soreness.

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) July 6, 2014

In terms of the actual game, the Blue Jays were absolutely dominated by Scott Kazmir who allowed only three hits and one run while striking out eight hitters over seven innings. The run came on the aforementioned Encarnacion fielder choice which scored Jose Reyes.

On the pitching side of things Mark Buehrle got beat around pretty well by the Athletics allowing 10 hits in six innings, but the lefty somehow only surrendered three runs. He gave up a deep homer to centre field to third baseman Josh Donaldson in the third inning, which is where things kind of started to unravel. The star third baseman also made a fantastic running catch into the tarp in the eighth inning on Munenori Kawasaki.

Also in the eighth inning Melky Cabrera was called out on a play at the plate on a great relay from left field by Oakland, but Cabrera quickly encouraged John Gibbons to challenge thinking he got underneath the tag. The skipper obliged, but somehow the call was not overturned much to the shock of pretty much everyone with a pair of eyes.

It took about a decade to incorrectly review the play, which is especially frustrating in a West Coast game that started at 10pm. Around this time is when people that weren't writing a recap said:

BED TIME

— Minor Leaguer (@Minor_Leaguer) July 6, 2014

The bottom of the eighth made things even worse when the Athletics jumped all over Sergio Santos forcing him from the game after allowing a single and then a run scoring double on a fastball right down the middle of the plate. Brett Cecil relieved Santos and after a ground out moved the base runner to third, a high curveball scored him on a brutal passed ball.

Then Jose Bautista got angry at the team before the top of the ninth, which was not enjoyable to watch. He seemed to be just venting his frustration, but the majority of his words were directed at Jose Reyes who looked like a shell shocked child who wasn't sure how to react. The Blue Jays went down quietly in the final inning, which really put a crap cherry on the garbage sundae.

Source: FanGraphs

There's no Jays of the Day because this game was awful. Suckage Jays include Mark Buehrle (-.139 WPA), Bautista (-.123), and Juan Francisco (-.106). Jose got a lot of the poor WPA from the blown call in the eighth inning, so you can't be too angry at him.

This series finishes later today at 4pm EST as Drew Hutchison goes up against the newest Oakland addition Jeff Samardzija. The Blue Jays will try to salvage something from this forgettable four-game set with the best team in the major leagues. Just a reminder, the Blue Jays are 3-7 in their last 10 games and no longer in first place in the American League East.

The top sluggers rank very well, but the top spot is controlled by someone who isn't a household name.

Most of you probably expected an exciting superstar to head the list of the most powerful hitters in baseball. Number one is anything but a superstar, but don't worry though, the superstars aren't far behind. The man who hit this incredible 502 foot blast in 2011 is, by the following measurement, the most powerful hitter in baseball.

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That man is the unassuming Juan Francisco who makes up half of the Blue Jays' third base platoon and can flat out smash the ball. Well, against right handers he can flat out smash the ball. Francisco owns an excellent .908 OPS with 12 home runs in 157 at-bats versus right-handers. Conversely, his .356 OPS against left-handers warrants major concern, like why he was put into the box against a lefty at all. As long as Francisco gets a majority of his appearances versus righties then it looks like the Jays have a major asset on their hands, especially considering that Francisco did not even sign a major league contract when he signed with the Jays.

In order to first figure out who is the most powerful hitter, I combined a few different measurements. There are many ways to conceptualize power, but I began with fly ball distance. The more power a batter possesses, the farther a fly ball will travel on average. Fly balls are also a good data source because they have a larger sample size than home runs alone.

Next, I pulled in two methods of home run measurements. HitTracker Online defines true home run distance as "if the home run flew uninterrupted all the way back to field level." Combining that measurement with standard home run distance, which removes all weather and park related variables from home runs, allows for a more encompassing account of power. Because standard home run distance can variate from true home run distance by as much as 21 feet, using both of them ensures home run distance is being measured fairly.

Home run rates were found for each player and added to the equation. To do so, I wanted to see how many of a particular batter's batted balls ended up over the fences. I modified the BABIP equation ((H-HR)/(AB-K-HR+SF) to solve for this: (HR)/(AB-K+SF+SH). Plugging in the data to date created the number for measuring home run rates.

The last part of the equation was the most subjective. HitTracker Online assigns a value rating to each home run: "No Doubter," "Plenty," or "Just Enough." "No Doubters" must travel 50 feet past the fence and 20 feet above the fence. "Just Enough" home runs are home runs that just barely made it over the fence either ten feet above it or slightly beyond the fence. Everything else (besides inside-the-park home runs) are described as "Plenty." To quantify this, I found the percentage of each player's home runs for each type. For example, a batter may hit eight home runs, two are "No Doubters," four are "Just Enough" and two are "Plenty." That would equate to a 25% ND, 50% JE, and 25% PL line. When finding what I like to call the "Tracker Number," I multiplied the "Plenty" home runs by 2 and the "No Doubters" by 3. Therefore, the "Tracker Number" would be weighted so that farther blasts are worth more than shorter ones.

Eventually, all these measurements were be added together and normalized so that each factor would not have more of an effect on the final statistic than any other. This is meant to be a fun exercise, as there is no perfect way to capture the latent concept of "power." Without further ado, here are the results of the endeavor.

Take a look at the visualization of this data below. The few players near the top become exponentially more powerful than one another as it peaks. Same path applies to the bottom rung of hitters that lack power.

(To access the original data sheet with all the calculations, click here)

The first look at the results can be surprising. As I said before, Juan Francisco is not the person anyone was expecting. I'll provide some further interesting thoughts here.

• Sean Rodriguez is ranked #12 in a backup role with the Rays. At first I was suspicious of the newfound power, and frankly, I'm still suspicious.
• As expected, Ben Revere bottoms the list with (quantifiably) less than half the power someone like Evan Gattis has.
• This is not a predictive formula. In other words, don't use the Power# to try and predict how many home runs a player will hit for the remainder of the season. The data only accounts for the past and one good game can change a lot in terms of ranking.
• This formula only measures power in the form of fly balls. You'll notice that more conventional measures like SLG, ISO, and Batted Ball Distance are not a part of the equation. Additionally, this is not a measure of who is the best at hitting home runs. A lot more goes into the creation of a home run - batted ball angle accounts for half of the battle.
• Rookie George Springer already makes the top ten at age 24. Imagine what he will be able to do in his prime.
• Breakout star Devin Mesoraco ranks #3 on the list, in part, because of his record five straight games with a home run earlier this season.
• Another befuddling player near the top is Mike Olt. The tweet here demonstrates how poor of a batter Olt is when it comes to off-speed pitches. Luckily for him, when he does make contact, he makes a boom with the bat. Strikeouts were removed from the equation so that only batted balls are taken into account, thus giving Mike Olt a chance to shoot up the rankings

  #Cubs Mike Olt is batting .027 on off speed pitches this year... 2 for 73. Wow. http://t.co/c5sbFSn3Wd@BleacherNation

  — Daren Willman (@darenw) July 2, 2014

• It is hard to look at some of the once-great stars struggle. Derek Jeter ranks 253rd, Howie Kendrick ranks 255th, Dustin Pedroia ranks 250th Joe Mauer ranks 247th, and Jacoby Ellsbury ranks 239th.
• Three batters who qualified did not hit a single home run and would have been ranked last: Gregor Blanco, Eric Sogard, and Adeiny Hechavarria.
• Not all batters qualified. Only the batters that were originally listed on the fly ball data were tracked. Inside-the-park home runs were also completely removed from the equation.

Fly ball power has always been thought of subjectively. My goal was move toward more concrete measurement. Hopefully, others will try to quantify some of the arbitrary baseball terms we use everyday and make suggestions for how the power metric could be improved. Speed already has a few statistics of its own. I encourage you to play with the data by downloading the Google Doc spreadsheet and playing with your own variables.

*All data as of the morning of Friday, July 4th, 2014

. . .

All statistics courtesy of HitTracker Onlineand Baseball-Reference.

Justin Perline is a writer for Beyond the Box Score and The Wild Pitch. You can follow him on Twitter at @jperline.

Needless to say the game was a rough one in Oakland last night, with the game taking a turn for the worse when the replay review on an eighth inning Melky Cabrera play at the plate was incorrectly upheld. Afterwards, Sportsnet cameras caught Jose Bautista ranting in the dugout with no hints given to the subject of his anger. Most people assumed he was angry with the play of his team, but in fact he was solely ranting on the credibility of this shaky replay system. As he said in the media scrum after the game:

Jose Bautista blasts replay system, calling it a joke, saying it's not getting calls right.

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) July 6, 2014

Bautista: "I think they should just ban it, they should just get rid of it, I don't really understand the purpose of it... (1of2) #BlueJays

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 6, 2014

... but getting the right call on the field is not the purpose. That's pretty obvious and evident." #BlueJays (2of2)

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 6, 2014

He missed him by a good foot or two. I don’t really know which replay they were looking at but clearly they must have had a different video feed than the one we had....it all goes down the drain because somebody first, initially, made a bad call to begin with. And then it gets upheld by god knows who, in some room in New York supposedly.

Thankfully he confirmed that none of his anger was directed at his team:

It was over this. It’s not frustration over anything else, that situation, that moment. I feel like there was a chance for Adam Lind to tie the game in the eighth inning was taken away from us.

Quotes via Gregor Chisolm - North of the Border

The other part of the frustration from last night was the Edwin Encarnacion injury in the first inning that was detailed in the recap. It looked pretty bad on the field and not much positive news has been given to quell Blue Jays fans' fears:

EE says he felt a pop in his right leg two steps before hitting bag. DL sounds likely.

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) July 6, 2014

Gibbons on EE: “I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t a DL." #BlueJays

— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) July 6, 2014

If Encarnacion does hit the DL, the Blue Jays roster will be in quite a state and pressure will build on Alex Anthopoulos to make some sort of move in the coming weeks to help the infield depth of the team.

Watch former Wildcat Brad Glenn get his first big-league hit

Former Arizona Wildcat Brad Glenn picked up his first MLB hit Saturday night for the Toronto Blue Jays on this infield single to second base.

Glenn had been 0-for-13 with the Blue Jays since making his MLB debut on June 27th.

Since being selected in the 23rd round of the 2009 MLB Draft by Toronto, Glenn has slowly worked his way up the Blue Jays' system without particularly great numbers.

This year at Triple-A is what sealed the deal for Glenn, with that .377 batting average in 31 games with the Buffalo Bisons. He's been chosen as a Toronto organizational All-Star twice (2011 and '13), and made the All-Star teams in the league he was playing in both those seasons.

In four years at Arizona, Glenn hit .295, and blasted 43 balls out of Sancet Stadium. which is the second-most in program history behind new undergrad assistant coach Shelley Duncan. Glenn's 190 RBI our 5th-most in Arizona history, and he also holds the Wildcats record with 183 career strikeouts.

Glenn's been struggling with the Blue Jays, but hopefully he can hang on as Wildcats in the majors are few-and-far-between right now. Congrats on your first hit! Here's to a lot more in the future.

UPDATE (Sunday evening):

Brad Glenn was designated for assignment after the Blue Jays claimed Nolan Reimold off waivers, taking Glenn off the Toronto 40-man roster.

The @BlueJays have claimed NOLAN REIMOLD off waivers from the Orioles. BRAD GLENN has been designated for assignment.

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) July 6, 2014

The Blue Jays have claimed Nolan Reimold off waviers from the Orioles.

Nolan is a right-handed hitting outfielder, he has hit .252/.327/.439 in 286 MLB games. Against LHP he is .252/.323/.426 in his career. This year he was hitting .315/.420/.481 in Double-A  Bowie. He's played all 3 outfield spots as well as some 1B in the minors.

He's an upgrade over what we've had of late. No word on who is leaving the 40-man to make room for him.

Well, we know who's leaving the 40-man now:

Glenn DFA'd to make room for Reimold. He will join #bluejays within next couple days. EE still waiting MRI results but DL almost certain

— Barry Davis (@SNBarryDavis) July 6, 2014

Also no word on Edwin's injury yet but look who is playing first today: Interesting (but not exactly great) lineup.

Nolan Reimold's time with the Orioles is finally over. He's been claimed on waivers by the Blue Jays.

For the Orioles with Nolan Reimold, it's official. It's finally over. After designating the oft-injured Reimold for assignment last week because they had no room for him on the roster when he returned from his minor league rehab, they had ten days to trade, waive, or release him.

Since they didn't work out a trade, they tried to sneak him through waivers so they could outright him to Triple-A Norfolk. The Blue Jays scuttled that plan by claiming Reimold, so he will be off to the Toronto organization.

This is the second time the Blue Jays have tried to get their hands on an Orioles cast-off this season. Previously, they were looking for the services of Steve Pearce while he was in DFA limbo. Luckily for the Orioles, Pearce wanted to remain in Baltimore. Reimold, on the other hand, has no choice. Whoever claimed him, that's where he would be going.

If this proves to close the book on Reimold's tenure with the Orioles, he finishes having played 286 games over parts of five seasons, only playing anything close to a full season in his rookie year of 2009. Over that time, he's batted .252/.327/.439, respectable but not great. He's never managed to be both good and healthy for long and, though it seems impossible, he is 30. He is long past the prospect improvement days.

I'll miss Reimold, who I've always irrationally liked ever since his rookie year. He was this unexpected bright spot on a terrible team, especially when he hit a walk-off extra-innings home run against those same Blue Jays.

It's a better era for the Orioles now, where they don't have to wait around and hope for disappointing players. I'll miss Reimold, but it's better this way. Ordinarily, this is where I'd wish the former Oriole the best, but since he is going to the Orioles current closest competition for the division lead, well, I hope he shows the Jays why the Orioles DFA'd him.

It's looking more and more like a tandem leap: The Blue Jays are joining the San Francisco Giants in total free-fall. Two teams that started the season playing like baseball's best are crashing to earth with an epic thud, and in Toronto's case their defense has looked strikingly familiar to those of us with kids in little league. Now Edwin Encarnacion appears headed to the DL, as Toronto finds itself looking up at a 1 game deficit to the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East.

However, there is no time for sympathy in baseball. The A's have been like sharks, grabbing the first 3 games of this 4-game series, holding the Blue Jays to 2 runs in 30 innings so far. Speaking of sharks ... That is the nickname ascribed to wide receiver turned Cubs starting pitcher turned A's shiniest new toy, Jeff Samardzija. Not only does Samardzija give you quite the bounty if you can lay the 'z' across a triple-letter score, he also strikes a lot of people out.

Samardzija gets the ball today for his Oakland debut, matched up against fellow household name Drew Hutchison. At 6-6, 3.81 ERA, Hutchison does boast 3x as many wins as the 2-7 Samardzija, but that's about where the good news ends for Toronto. Hutchison has thrown just 6 "quality starts" out of 17, though interestingly in 5 of those Hutchison did not allow a run. So he appears to be somewhat "feast or famine" -- while the A's are banking on their Shark to be "feast and feaster!"

With Coco Crisp on an "on again, off again" schedule, this day game after a night game features John Jaso in the leadoff spot, with DP-specialist Alberto Callaspo carefully slotted in at #2. And with the A's roster compromised by Brandon Moss' day-to-day ankle injury, even against a RHP both Nate Freiman and Craig Gentry can be found.

The lineups:

1-0 A's after 3 innings, as Samardzija has settled in beautifully and a Kittenface has driven in a Meowrie.

3-1 A's after 6 innings, with Jeff Samardzija at 94 pitches and the A's having left 'em loaded in the bottom of the 6th...

Second Most Votes sees Trout in his Third All Star Game

Surprising nobody, Angels CF was just named to the American League All Star Team.

Heading into today's action, Trout led the American League with a 1.006 OPS and lead the majors with a 182 OPS+. He is batting .308, with 20 home runs a .401 On-Base Percentage, 96 hits, 57 runs and 189 total bases in 82 games played.

Trout is second to Jose Bautista in the fan voting. Coincidentally, Bautista will be visiting the Angels for a three game series with his Blue Jays beginning tomorrow night.

The All Star Game will be held at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins. Halos Heaven will be hosting our annual Vegas Meetup to watch the Monday Home Run derby, the Tuesday All Star Game and a few other events which have become traditions over the previous nine seasons of this site's existence. Stay tuned to our site to learn exactly where and when we will be meeting up at various points in Sin City form this coming Saturday thru next Wednesday! ITINERARY LINK HERE.

Should the Yankees start selling off everything that's not tied down or shoot for a playoff spot?

It's deja vu all over again, as the Yankees are fielding a middling team that is having trouble scoring runs as the trade deadline approaches.And just like in 2013, there are questions as to whether the Yankees should be buyers at the trade deadline or sellers. Sitting at 3.5 games out of first place with a ghastly run differential, I'm sure there are lots of folks who think the team should just trade off anything of value, but unless the team is sitting at ten games out of a playoff spot come July 31st, they're not going to. Personally, I think that's the right move. Baseball Prospectus has their playoff odds at 27.5% and Fangraphs has them sitting at 22.2%, odds not in their favor but certainly good enough that scrapping the season would be a very drastic decision.

There's really no reason to think the Yankees will change their direction when approaching this year's squad, which seems to be just as flawed as last year's with a decent (if outside) shot of making the playoffs. Teams that sell off their valuable pieces before the deadline usually fall into two categories: they're well out the race and/or storing assets via trades are their primary avenue for improving in the future. A team like the Yankees that can easily rebuild via free agency in a sport with no real salary cap just doesn't feel the same impetus to get back cheap, young players as smaller market teams do. I know it annoys many that the Yankees can and will do things that way, but it's not likely to soon change. Also, most of their tradable assets are either locked into long deals and would be part of the rebuilding process or are just not that good. None of the Yankees' players with soon expiring deals are getting a finished product like the Cubs got in Addison Russell. Their biggest expiring chip would probably be David Robertson, and they stand to have an opportunity to get a compensatory pick from him even if they choose only to hang on to him for the rest of the season.

A lot of the reason for why the Yankees won't and shouldn't sell doesn't actually come from the Yankees. The teams ahead of them, the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays, are two flawed teams that have had their own fair share of inconsistencies and streaky play. While I wouldn't pick the Yankees to leapfrog the other two, with a couple more tweaks to the roster I would give the Yankees odds that are good enough that make quitting on the season seems very illogical. I'm sure the fans of those teams are plenty confident themselves, as nothing thus far this season has altered the perception that the AL East would be a messy, hotly-contested division this year. Of course, there's also always the final Wild Card spot, of which the Yankees also sit 3.5 games out of.

I do think the Brandon McCarthy deal is a sign that the Yankees are going to be very careful with their younger assets come the trading deadline. Brian Cashman and the Yankees braintrust sees the same team we see: a middling team with a chance to make the playoffs, but not the sort of squad you push all your chips to the center for like the Oakland A's just did. You just try to punch your ticket into the postseason and let the randomness of a short series of games propel you to a positive playoff run. In the end, since for the exercise they're being classified as one of the other, the Yankees should and will be buyers instead of sellers. Just don't be surprised if they make moves more akin to patching up the holes in the boat rather than buying a brand new engine.

Now if they're ten games out in three weeks, get back to me on these thoughts.

Ray offers some starting pitcher options that you should consider streaming on Tuesday, including Tyler Skaggs and Jacob deGrom.

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.

Tuesday's Streamers

Jacob deGrom, Mets vs Braves

Tyler Skaggs, Angels vs Blue Jays

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.

The Angels (51-36) have the best home record in baseball heading into tonight's game against the Blue Jays (47-43), who carry a four game losing streak. The chase for the American League West title currently puts the Halos in second at 3.5 games behind.

July 7 7:05pm (73, clear) -- FOX Sports West, Sportsnet

July 8 7:05pm (79, clear) -- FOX Sports West, Sportsnet

July 9 12:35pm (81, clear) -- FOX Sports West, Sportsnet, MLB.TV Free Game of the Day

Injury Report

The stretch for the All-Star Game begins. Don't forget to vote Garrett Richards for Final Vote! Or tweet using #VoteGRich on Thursday, July 10 to help another Angel player get in! We can't send Mikey alone!

Desperate times call for desperate measures. With a growing list of injuries to key members of lineup (Brett Lawrie on the disabled list, Edwin Encarnacion probably going to be placed there, and Adam Lind not being able to run or field really) and a recent disappearance of any offensive power, the Blue Jays are looking to everyone and anyone for help even to those with a broken back.

On Sunday, Jon Morosi reported that the Blue Jays and the Padres have continued to chat about third baseman Chase Headley while this morning someone named Ollie Connolly (real name?) reported that a source told him that the two teams are actually "closing in" on a trade.

Blue Jays closing in on Chase Headley http://t.co/NDAN7UdMlK

— Ollie Connolly (@OllieUKEZ) July 7, 2014

Whether Connolly's report is credible or not I think we can use this chance to re-assess whether the hobbling Padre would be a good fit for the club.

Chase Headley is having a down year: through 263 plate appearances, he is batting .217/.297/.332 with a wRC+ (remember, that's park-adjusted) of 84--that's Matt Dominguez level. This is coming from someone who has been quite above-average at the plate for the past few seasons (including an incredible 145 wRC+ score in 2012).

What is promising is that his strikeout rate (23.6%) is not out of whack compared to his career rate (22.7%), and a close look at his plate discipline shows that it isn't what has been ailing him. His batted ball profile also looks pretty close to career norms (with his HR/FB ratio regressing back to the mean from the insane 21.4% of 2012).

What does look out of place is a fall off in infield hits (4.3% career to 2.8% this year) and FanGraphs' Speed Score (4.2 career to 2.9 this year). These factors (plus the good ol' Luck Dragons) are likely responsible for Headley's .268 BABIP this year (compared to his career mark of .330).

Headley was suffering from knee pain in 2013 and went for surgery to repair a torn meniscus immediately after the end of the season. After recovering from the surgery, he was sidelined with a strained calf and started spring training on crutches. And most recently--and perhaps most seriously--Headley received an epidural to calm down a herniated disk in his lower back.

These ailments (and whatever else hasn't been announced) aren't just signs of a risk that he could miss time going forward, but that we might not enjoy seeing his BABIP regress fully to his career mean. Now, in the 11 games since his epidural shot, Headley has bounced back to hit .300/.365/.325 (.387 BABIP) and had a 4-for-4 game on Independence Day, so maybe the he was injected with a vial of panacea mistakenly labelled as epidural. Now I'm not a doctor so I can't say whether that panacea wears off upon contact with artificial turf.

Over his career, the switch-hitting Headley is weaker hitting left-handed pitchers, but his .255/.320/.402 mark is an improvement over Juan Francisco's splits (go look for yourself if you want to). And on the other side of the game, Headley offers solid defense, which (at least by the numbers) have not fallen off this year. Despite that hitting line, his defense has given Headley 0.9 WAR.

Chase Headley, 30, is entering free agency for the first time after 2014, and is making $10,525,000 this season, of which the Padres have already paid for a little over half of. The other two options the Blue Jays have been linked to, Martin Prado and Aaron Hill, are both signed through 2016.

Looking at these points, I think Headley is a good match for the 2014 Blue Jays. The amount he's owed for the rest of the year, his struggles so far, and his injury risk, means that he can likely be picked up for a relative bargain. The Blue Jays just have to convince the Padres that they really don't want to offer him a qualifying offer at the end of the season. He can test out he waters (and turf) in Toronto for the rest of the season and both he and the team will have flexibility going forward, unlike with the Hill and Prado contracts. Of course, other teams are probably interested in Headley for the same reasons as the Blue Jays, so if Toronto is close, I think they should strike.

The first two midseason Top 50 prospect lists were released this morning at Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America with three Blue Jays landing on at least one of them. The players appearing on these 2014 lists may not have been the ones you would have expected to appear if you predicted them a year ago. The only player in both lists is a slight surprise, with lefty Daniel Norris getting the #33 ranking on the BP list and the #25 spot on the BA Top 50. Both places speak highly of the Tennessee native:

Norris took a developmental step forward in 2013 and has built upon that through the first half of this summer. He is now consistently tapping into the front-end stuff he’d always teased, and that growth in consistency has catapulted him up the prospect rankings. After stymying Florida State League bats over 13 starts, he has continued his dominance through his first three Double-A outings and is showing no signs of slowing. –Nick Faleris (Baseball Prospectus)

Nice combo: lefty with three potential plus pitches (fastball, slider, change) and an average curve.- Baseball America

As BP mentioned, Norris has made the step up to AA pretty seamlessly and currently has 25 strikeouts in 16.1 innings, including this one:

The other player who appeared on the BP Top 50 is longtime top prospect Aaron Sanchez who slotted in ahead of Norris at #29. It certainly seems that the guys at Baseball Prospectus are still high on the righty despite command and delivery issues:

It’s been a familiar tune for the right-handed starter this season: electric overall stuff clouded by concerns as to whether the fastball command is going to grow enough to lead to consistency at the highest level. Sanchez has moved a few spots, but given graduations to The Show his status has probably moved a bit backward. This arm tends to tease visions of a legit frontline arm with his stuff, but the clear-headed line of sight points to a mid-rotational starter. –Chris Mellen

This ranking puts him ahead of fellow right-handed pitchers like A.J. Cole, Mark Appel, and Jose Berrios, which is a little surprising. Sanchez has made five starts in AAA Buffalo this season and has a 12.8 BB%, which is a slight issue. You can witness the good curveball and fastball in the following video, but you can also see the poor command on the 2-2 pitch:

The Blue Jay that joins Norris on the BA Top 50 is Mississauga's own Dalton Pompey, who just cracks the list at #47. Everyone's favourite breakout prospect is beginning to get some serious attention in the minors and is now attempting to take his game to the next level with his promotion to AA New Hampshire.

Toolsy center fielder’s bat has caught up to rest of his tools in a breakout start in the Florida State League.

The switch hitter has struggled a bit in his first 9 games in the Eastern League, but the sample is still too small to get too worried about him. Before going up to New Hampshire he hit .319 and walked at an 11% clip, which is definitely exciting for an organization that lacks prospect depth on the position player side of things.

The lists both agreed on the #1 overall prospect, who is still Byron Buxton despite the fact that he's only played 6 games in Fort Myers this whole season. Soak in how athletic he looks though!

via an angry Scott C. who didn't get to see him play in Fort Myers.

Former Blue Jay Noah Syndergaard was placed highly on both lists, with BP putting him at #9 and BA slotting him in at #19, despite Las Vegas and the PCL giving him quite the rough time. Many of these players will be seen in the Futures Game this coming Sunday including both Blue Jays who were on the BA list in Dalton Pompey and Daniel Norris.

No surprise here, Edwin Encarnacion has been placed on the 15-day DL with a right quadriceps strain. Please get well quick Edwin. He seems to think the 15 days will be enough, I'm guessing 3 to 4 weeks but it is just a guess

Taking his place on the roster is Nolan Reimold. I hope you brought some bats with you Nolan, because the batch the Jays took to California are defective. Reimold was hitting .315 for the Orioles Double-A team in Bowie,before we snatched him off waivers. I don't have high hopes for Nolan, but I'd take him over Brad Glenn too.

As well, Kenny Wilson was picked off waivers by the Oakland A's. I think this is Wilson's third time to be claimed off waivers this season, which must be close to some sort of record. Wilson was hitting .239/.333/.338 for Buffalo in 21 games with 5 steals, 4 times caught. He's 24, not really a prospect, could be a defensive replacement/pinch runner type, on a team that doesn't carry 8 relievers.

Brad Mills has been designated for assignment to make room for Jason Hammel on the Athletics' active roster, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports:

#Athletics designate LHP Brad Mills for assignment. Went six innings in two of his three starts, 4.41 ERA in 16 1/3 IP overall.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 7, 2014

Jim Johnson remains on the active roster, presumably as long reliever, and perhaps to avoid him landing with another team (like the Angels) and suddenly pitching well against the Athletics with a change of scenery.

#Athletics hope that Mills clears waivers, they'd love to have him at Sacramento. He might have been too useful with A's to clear tho.

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) July 7, 2014

Minor transactions and suspensions

Earlier today, Nick Buss cleared waivers and was outrighted to the Sacramento River Cats. Buss was removed from the 40-man roster on Saturday to clear 40-man space for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel.

The decision to designate Mills for assignment allowed the A's to claim outfielder Kenny Wilson off waivers today from the Toronto Blue Jays and option him to Sacramento. His bat is horrible but his glove is supposedly good.

Herschel Powell, better known as "Boog," received a "50-game suspension without pay after testing positive for an Amphetamine in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program." The outfielder had recently been promoted to the Class-A Advanced Stockton Ports, where he was batting .396/.463/.500 in 54 plate appearances.

Finally, the Athletics traded international slot 57 (valued at $339,000) to the Milwaukee Brewers for Rodolfo Fernandez. Google tells me that Fernandez is a shooting guard/small forward for the Spanish professional basketball team Real Madrid Baloncesto. Further research informs that Fernandez is actually a 24-year-old Cuban right handed pitcher in his second American professional season. With the Class-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers of the Midwest League, Fernandez sports a 2.53 ERA with 75 strikeouts and 25 walks in 92⅔ innings.