Rangers 6 Blue Jays 9

Early in the season, Mark Buehrle was pitching great and we were scoring for him. Then we went through a period when he was pitching good and we couldn't score. Finally, we score for him, again, and he has a poor day on the mound. We get him a 3-0 lead in the second, and he gives back 2 runs in the top of the third. We get a couple more runs, give him a 3 run lead again, and he gives it all back in the 6th. Fortunately we kept scoring.

Buehrle went 6 innings, allowed 8 hits, 5 earned, 3 walks with 5 strikeouts. And also had a rather strange balk, coming at a bad time, catching his cleats in the mound. I thought Gibby should have pulled him quicker. Mark helped himself out by picking two Rangers off first base.

Todd Redmond pitched a good 7th, then gave up a lead off double in the 8th. Gibby brought in Brett Cecil to pitch with the tying run at second, the Rangers moved him up to third but Cecil stranded him there. Casey Janssen pitched the 9th, in a non-save spot , after not pitching yesterday because of 'flu like symptoms'. He wasn't exactly sharp, but then he hasn't pitched for a while. The Rangers got the tying run to the plate against him, but Aaron Loup picked him up, getting pinch hitter J.P. Arencibia to pop out to end the game.

It was a terrific day for the offense, I'm hoping this is a sign of good things to come. We had 15 hits, including home runs from Melky Cabrera and Dioner Navarro. Melky had 3 hits, and 3 RBI. Jose Reyes, Munenori Kawasaki, Navarro, Dan Johnson and Anthony Gose each had 2 . The only Jay not to hit was Steve Tolleson.

We scored:

• 3 runs in the second. Navarro lead off with a homer. Then we got a double from Johnson, Steve Tolleson was hit by pitch, Gose singled to load the bases and Reyes singled home two. We could have, should have scored more, but Reyes got too far off second when Kawasaki lined one to second base, and was doubled up. Bad base running.
• 1 in the third. Jose Bautista walked, Navarro hit a ground rule double and Colby singled home Jose. Again we should have scored more, runners on the corners 1-out, but Johnson popped out and Tolleson ground.
• 1 in the fifth. Cabrera singled, Bautista doubled (to the opposite field, a nice bit of hitting), Colby walked and Johnson hit a sac fly.
• 1 in the 7th. Cabrera homered.
• 3 in the eighth. Johnson, Gose. Reyes, Kawasaki  and Melky all singled. We really needed those runs.

Bring on the Red Sox.

Jays of the Day are Cecil (.269 WPA), Melky (.197), Navarro (.131) and Reyes (.099).

Suckage goes to Buehrle (-.183). That balk was very unlucky.

Source: FanGraphs

We had a very nice GameThread, 965 comments. Spor led us to victory again.

Jon Morosi has this:

Jays have interest in Padres outfielder Chris Denorfia, sources say. His numbers are down this year, but career .809 OPS vs. LHP.

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 20, 2014

Denorfia really hasn't been good this year, hitting .243/.293/.327 in 81 games. He has 1 home runs, 7 steals (caught once), 16 walks and 45 strikeouts. He's played all 3 outfield spots, mostly right this year. Fangraphs has him at a 14.7 UZR/150 in the outfield this season. Maybe the Jays can get both him and Chase Headley in one deal.

Demorfia has a $2.25 million contract this year, so he's have about $1 million left on it and is a free agent after the season. I don't know if this interest means that Nolan Reimold will be out longer that we were led to believe. It does kind of suggest to me that Kevin Pillar isn't in the team's plans for the season.

Lots of little bits of Blue Jays news this morning:

Jim Salisbury, at CSNPhilly.com, tell us the Blue Jays, among others, scouted Cliff Lee at his last rehab start and will likely be watching his first post injury Phillies start tonight.  Lee is making $25 million this year, will get $25 million next year, and has a vest option for $27.5 million for 2016 (based on reaching 200 innings next year) with a $12.5 million buyout. If the Phillies want to move him, they will have to send a bunch of money along with him, but I really can't see the Jays being in on him.

Jeff Blair says that Anthopoulos said the Jays have 'payroll flexibility' in 2015. Blair says:

More to the point, he has flexibility in 2015: refusing club options held on Brandon Morrow, J.A. Happ, Adam Lind and Sergio Santos would save $28.5 million

Course any 'flexibility' is figuring that the Jays will have the same payroll they have this year. i think it is as likely that is an open question yet. Who knows what  Rogers will do . And, who knows if Alex and Beeston will still be around next year.

And Alex talked to the press yesterday. They wanted to know if Bob Elliot's tweet saying the Jays couldn't add salary was correct and Alex, as is is way, managed to talk a bunch without really giving us a clue if they can or can't add to the payroll. But we did gets some hints as to the status of some of the guys on the DL:

• Edwin Encarnacion has been hitting off a tee and could be playing in rehab games soon. I wouldn't expect him to have to rehab long, I'd be surprise if his rehab assignment lasted longer than two games.
• Adam Lind has been taking batting practice and 'has no pain'. He should rehab soon too.
• Brett Lawrie, well, we have seen him on the bench and the splint is off. He's taking ground balls, but can't swing a bat yet. They hope he'll start rehab by the weekend.
• Nolan Reimold also should be back 'soon', although defining 'soon' is something Alex didn't do.

Brandon Morrow wasn't mentioned, but he is throwing and might start rehab by the end of the month. His rehab will last longer than the other guys. Cole Gillespie wasn't mentioned, I have my doubts we'll see him back with the Blue Jays.

Tweet of the morning:

AL teams that have the easiest remaining schedules, based off opponents’ winning %: 1. Blue Jays 2. Yankees 3. Royals 4. A’s 5. Tigers

— Beyond the Box Score (@BtBScore) July 16, 2014

Let's have a couple of minor league updates from last night:

The Bisons lost to the Pawtucket Red Sox 3-2. The Bisons only had 4 hits, 3 of them off Kevin Pillar's bat, including a home run and a double. And Aaron Sanchez pitched of the bullpen for the second time. He went 1 inning, allowing a single. I'd feel better if he struck someone out, but can't have everything.

New Hampshire beat Portland 3-2. Dalton Pompey was 3 for 5 and stole a base, raising his Fisher Cat average to .221.

Dunedin lost 11-5 to Bradenton. Frank Viola had a rough time, 4.2 innings, 9 hits, 10 earned, 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. Dwight Smith, Jr had his 7th home runs

Lansing won 4-3 over Clinton. Jeremy Gabryszwski went 7, allowed 6 hits, 3 earned, 1 walk with 5 k. Dickie Thon went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles, he's hitting.282/.329/.390. Mitch Nay was 2 for 5. D.J. Davis had the game winning homer in the 10th, his 7th of the year.

Vancouver won 9-0 over Tri-City. Chase Mallard started, going 5.1, allowing 5 hits, with 5 strikeouts. His ERA in 0.61 in 4 games, 2 starts. Ryan McBroom was the offensive hero, going 3 for 4 with a homer and double and 4 RBI. He is hitting .314/.353/.545.

Editor's Note: SB Nation partner FanDuel is hostling a $18,000 one-day Fantasy Baseball league today. It is $2 to join and first prize is $2000. Deadline to enter is 7:05 Eastern. Here is the link.

I don't think it is a huge surprise but then, the timing seems strange. Just three days ago the Jays sent Chad Jenkins down to Buffalo. I thought at the time that Sergio Santos had been so ineffective that he should have been the one leaving, to make room for Brad Mills. And today they DFA Santos. Rob Rasmussen gets the call up. So really they sent Jenkins down to call up Rasmussen.

I don't understand the decision making process of the Blue Jays. It just doesn't make sense. What has changed in 3 days? For 3 days of Santos in the pen, we DFAed Deck McGuire and sent down Jenkins.  Now McGuire isn't someone to worry about losing, but then why get rid of him just before getting rid of Santos. It seems strange Anthopoulos, who is usually worried about hording assets. I'd love to have an explanation.

Santos has been nothing less than awful this year. He's 0-2 with 5 saves, has a 7.78 ERA (5.07 FIP). In 19.2 innings he's allowed 24 hits, 3 home runs, 17 walks with 26 strikeouts. Almost a walk an inning. I don't think his FIP really has caught on to how bad he's been.

Last year he was great, 1.75 ERA. In 25.2 innings he allowed 11 hits, 1 home runs, 4 walks, with 28 strikeouts. How you go from 1.4 walks/9 innings to 7.8, I don't know.

Minor Leaguer tells me:

The Blue Jays last designated the then-infielder Sergio Santos for assignment on May 9, 2008 when they acquired Kevin Mench and Brad Wilkerson.

I could have done without being reminded about the Mencherson monster. That was a sad chapter in our history.

Rob Rasmussen has pitched in 7 Blue Jays games, has a 6.00 ERA, allowed 5 hits, 1 home run, 4 walks with 7 strikeouts in 6 innings of work. At Buffalo he was 1-1, with a 2.61 ERA. In 31 innings, he allowed 22 hits, 0 home runs, 14 walks with 35 strikeouts.

Bye Sergio, sorry it didn't work out. Hello again Rob, hope your stay is long and successful.

Update: Alex is saying that he hopes Santos clears waivers....I imagine he will, who would want to pay him, and Alex hopes he figures things out in Buffalo.

The Padres are looking to sell, and their impending free agent hitters appear to be the ones most likely to go next.

Soon-to-be free agents Chase Headley and Chris Denorfia might not be Padres teammates for long. The Toronto Blue Jays are reportedly showing interest in both players, according to FOX Sports' Jon Morosi, and that isn't the only potential destination for the two Padres hitters.

The Blue Jays, who have been plagued by injuries but are still in the playoff hunt while playing in the unusually weak AL East, have holes at third base and in the outfield, which makes Headley and Denorfia logical fits.

Headley has struggled through a tough season, but he's rebounding just in time for trade season, with a .323 batting average in July. And yet, some warning signs still surround the Padres third baseman. Despite his improved performance, he has 16 strikeouts in 65 at-bats this month—with no walks. He's also homered once since June 14, and his season OBP still sits below .300.

But that likely won't dissuade the Jays. 27-year-old corner infielder Juan Francisco is currently manning the hot corner, and though he has been serviceable this season, with a .234/.309/.502 line across 230 plate appearances, the Jays would likely prefer the presence of a veteran hitter with a history of success. Plus, just as Headley is trending upward, Francisco is slumping majorly, with a .286 OBP in July that is a carryover from his .169/.217/.369 line in June.

If the Jays don't choose to pursue Headley, other teams certainly will. The Yankees have been an oft-mentioned suitor for the third baseman, and the team's lack of an established player at his position, combined with a ballpark that would be a welcome switch from the expansive Petco Park, might make Headley a prime choice to move to New York. Given the Blue Jays' and Yankees' nearly identical records, each team could make a bigger push than usual to acquire Headley's services—for the sake of bringing him on as much as keeping him away from the other.

In addition to Headley, the Jays are pursuing Denorfia, a .275 career hitter who can play all three outfield positions. Though his numbers have dipped this year, Denorfia would likely still be a favorable upgrade from Anthony Gose, who has registered five extra-base hits and driven in six runs in 140 plate appearances.

Red Sox 14 @ Blue Jays 1

The Blue Jays were successful in scoring one run against the Red Sox In the third, Erik Kratz and Juan Francisco hit back-to-back doubles to start the inning against John Lackey. And the Blue Jays got three times as many hits as they had runs!

Meanwhile, the Red Sox were just able to score two touchdowns, getting seven fewer points than they needed to reach Blackjack. And starting pitcher John Lackey threw 18 balls! 18! The Blue Jays chased Lackey after seven innings pitched. Relievers Rob Rasmussen and Todd Redmond threw a combined 4.1 scoreless innings and gave up just two hits and struck out four, walking none. Darin Mastroianni ended the Red Sox's last inning with a pretty fine sliding catch.

Some kids forced a few smiles in the ninth when the Sportsnet cameras were pointed at them.

The Rogers Centre remained structurally sound.

The weather was really nice.

I didn't watch the game.

We're still alive.

Yay positivity!

Game Highlights Video

TOM: Adding the leader board. Amazingly you guys racked up 1209 comments. Pikachu wins. Great job in a losing effort.

Shi Davidi tells us that the Blue Jays are going to call up both Aaron Sanchez and Ryan Goins today. No word on who is making the trip to Buffalo to make room for the pair.

I don't understand bringing up Goins, Munenori Kawasaki has been one of the few bright spots in the batting order, so I don't see Goins taking his spot at second, unless it is Juan Francisco that is leaving, and they are planing to move Kawasaki over to third. I don't think Munenori has the arm to play third. He'd need to use the pitcher as a cut off man to get the ball to first. I guess it would be more likely that Francisco would move to the bench and someone else get optioned, though, I'm not understanding the Blue Jay moves lately, so I wouldn't bet on anything.

Goins has been hitting lately. He is .319/.372/.389 in his 19 game in July for the Bisons. Whether that nice line can make the trip with him to Toronto is another question.

The team had been planing to bring up Sanchez at some point to add an arm to the bullpen, we are short on RHP back there. Not sure who will be the unlucky guy leaving. Brad Mills had an awful game yesterday, but he doesn't have options. They just brought up Rob Rasmussen yesterday, seems mean to send him back today, but I think that is the most likely move. Sanchez will have to be added to the 40-man, as well has the active roster, but there is an open spot with yesterday's DFA of Sergio Santos.

Sanchez has made 2 appearances out of the bullpen for the Bisons. His first didn't go well, but he only allowed 1 hit in his 1 inning Sunday. After watching Drew Hutchison, I was wondering if the Jays wouldn't rather put Sanchez into the rotation and give Drew time to work on his delivery in Buffalo. Drew does need to figure out whats going wrong.

No pressure Aaron, Ryan, just everything is going to hell in a hand basket lately, and we need someone to turn things around, but no pressure.

Update: Jamie Campbell lets us in on why Goins is coming up:

Goins stay could be brief. Steve Tolleson expected to take three-day paternity leave.

— Jamie Campbell (@SNETCampbell) July 22, 2014

Congratulations Steve. If you are looking for a name, no one ever went wrong with Tom.

Update 2: Jeff Blair is saying that Esmil Rogers is being called up  tonight too. I have no idea what role he'll play, maybe both Mills and Rasmussen are going away. Or, perhaps Rogers is going to take Hutchison's spot in the rotation for a couple of weeks and like Drew figure things out in Buffalo. Sounds like he's long relief, at least for now.

Update 3: Shi Davidi tweeted that Erik Kratz is one of the ones being sent out to Buffalo, someone else will be going too. Bye again Erik.

Editor's Note: SB Nation partner FanDuel is hostling a $18,000 one-day Fantasy Baseball league today. It is $2 to join and first prize is $2000. Deadline to enter is 7:05 Eastern. Here is the link.

A memorable Blue Jays moment happened 8 years ago today.

It was 8 years ago today (time really does fly) that the Toronto Blue Jays traded Shea Hillenbrand and Vinnie Chulk to the San Francisco Giants, getting Jeremy Accardo in return.

Jeremy was our closer for the 2007 season, picking up 30 saves (and people wonder why folks say the save stat overrated). After that there were some injury problems and some crappy pitching troubles. In all he spent parts of 5 seasons with the Jays, putting up a 3.67 ERA, with 35 saves in 72 games, 139.2 innings, 57 walks and 97 strikeouts. Since then 4 different teams have tried to see if he could regain ability that allowed him to rack up 30 saves.

Hillenbrand finished out the 2006 season with the Giants, hitting .251/.270/.330 for them and then went on to play for the Angels and the Dodgers, the next season, hitting much the same. It turned out to be the right time to trade him, his play went downhill in a hurry. Chulk was ok for the Giants for parts of the next 3 seasons, having a 4.29 ERA in 112 games, 107 innings, 37 walks, 82 strikeouts. He went on to Cleveland and pitched in a handful of games for the Brewers in 2012.

But the trade wasn't the real story.

As you all likely remember, a couple of days before the trade, someone wrote on the clubhouse bulletin board "play for yourself" and the "ship is sinking". That someone turned out to be our friend Shea. Shea wasn't happy. After being a full time player in 2005, splitting time between first, third and DH. He was playing less in 2006, and mostly at DH. The team had picked up Troy Glaus and Lyle Overbay in the previous off-season. Shea wasn't the greatest of guys and a drop in playing time didn't help his personality. His teammate Gregg Zaun called him a cancer in the clubhouse. Zaun said that he told the team:

"In our players' meeting I did tell the entire group, 'Do not let your personality be dictated by whether or not you're in the lineup every day,'"

So, Shea writes that on the board and once-and-future manager John Gibbons was a little less than pleased. He challenged Shea to a fight. Now there is leadership for you. He really did put up with way too much crap from Hillenbrand, but perhaps wanting to fight him wasn't the most managerial way to handle things.

Clearly, Shea had to go and, considering he had to be traded, J.P. Ricciardi got a pretty decent return. The Jays would go on to finish with a 87-75 record (wouldn't we love this season to 'sink' to that record), good for 2nd place in the AL East, 10 games behind the Yankees. We haven't made it to 87 wins since.

Gibbons would continue to manage the Blue Jays until about the mid-point of the 2008 season, but that moment was the memorable moment of his first tour with the team.

Also, today in Blue Jays history, it was one year ago that J.P. Arencibia went on 'Inside Pitch' on MLB Radio to complain about how mean Gregg Zaun and Dirk Hayhurst were being towards him. And he told the story of how he went to Paul Beeston to complain that "certain members of the media "that we employ" are too negative". We didn't have much sympathy for the guy.

We have just a bit more than a week of this stuff still ahead of us. Jon Heyman gives us our latest rumor.

In an interesting twist, the Blue Jays are showing interest in their former player Alex Rios, according to sources.

I would have bet dollars to doughnuts that Rios had burnt all the bridges between him and the Blue Jays, but he would be a handy bat to have around. His contract doesn't look as bad as it did, back when he was last in a Jays jersey. He's making $12.5 million this year and has a team option for $13.5 million for next year. Pretty cheap really.

And, surprisingly, the Jays aren't on his 'no-trade' list. I figured there would be no way he would want to come back. I'm still of the opinion that there isn't any trade that would help enough, until our injured come back and guys start hitting again, but Rios wouldn't hurt.

I'd put the odds of picking him up are very slim, but he would be good to have around. Alex talks to everyone and about everyone, but maybe he'll match up on one of these. I'm sure the Rangers wouldn't mind moving him, but I'm not sure what they would ask for in return.

Update: The Yankees have traded for Chase Headley, it kind of pisses me off, he would have fit in great with us. The Yankees sent Yangervis Solarte and pitching prospect Rafael DePaul to San Diego. The Padres are sending $1 million to the Yankees.

The Toronto Blue Jays are expected to promote top pitching prospect Aaron Sanchezto the major league roster today. Here's a report on what to expect.

Sanchez was drafted by the Blue Jays in the supplemental first round in 2010, from high school in Barstow, California. Very athletic but raw when drafted, he spent two years in rookie ball before emerging in the Low-A Midwest League in 2012, posting a 2.49 ERA with a 97/51 K/BB in 90 innings for Lansing. He moved up to High-A Dunedin in 2013, posting a 3.34 ERA with a 75/40 K/BB in 86 innings.

The Jays have bumped up his workload this year: he pitched 66 innings over 14 starts for Double-A New Hampshire, posting a 3.82 ERA with a 57/40 K/BB. Promoted to Triple-A Buffalo in June, he has a 4.19 ERA in 34 innings with a 27/17 K/BB.

As you can see from his numbers, Sanchez does not post particularly impressive component ratios. His strikeout rate is nothing special and he will give up some walks. However, he is one of the most extreme ground ball pitchers in the minor leagues, posting a 3.13 GO/AO ratio this year and a 2.34 GO/AO in 2013. His fastball has been clocked as high as 98 MPH, works consistently at 94-95, and has vicious sinking action. He will mix in a curveball and changeup, Both secondary pitches are inconsistent, varying between plus and below average depending on what day you see him.

Born July 1, 1992, Sanchez is well-built at 6-4, 200. Although the Blue Jays have been careful with him, he does have a history of shoulder tenderness. He's been healthy this year, although they've backed off his workload recently and his last two outings for Buffalo were in the bullpen.

Sanchez has the ceiling of a number two starter, although in order to reach that projection he needs to add polish to the secondary pitches and refine his command. He wasn't lights-out at Buffalo and I wouldn't expect any game-changing contributions right away, but he remains a very intriguing long-term investment due to that killer sinker.

Editor's Note: SB Nation's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $18,000 Fantasy Baseball league for tonight's MLB games. It's $2 to join and first prize is $2,000. Jump in now. Here's the FanDuel link.

With the news that top prospect Aaron Sanchez is on his way to Toronto today, it seems like a good time to take a look back at how promoting the top organizational prospect has worked out in recent history. To say that the past decade hasn't been kind to Blue Jays #1 prospects would be an understatement. Toronto hasn't had a top prospect come up and make a major contribution to the team for about five years and it took another three years for that player to break 1 WAR.

2004 - Alex Rios

People may have a sour taste in their mouth about how the relationship ended with Alex Rios, but he's one of the best top prospects to come through the Blue Jays system and succeed at the major league level. He came up to the big league squad in May of 2004 and received Rookie of the Year votes after posting 2.0 fWAR in 111 games. He went on to stay with the Blue Jays for nearly five more years before having his contract dumped on the White Sox through an interesting waiver claim. He had his share of off-field problems and wasn't exactly loved in Toronto so his last few years don't seem to be remembered too fondly, but he had some massive seasons in '06, '07, and '08.

2005 - Brandon League

League took Rios' spot at the top of the Jays top prospect list after the outfielder exceeded his rookie status, but never really lived up to expectations. He came up to Toronto as a September call-up in 2004 as a reliever and was never switched back to his original role, lowering his value to the team right out of the shoot. He never really put it together with the Blue Jays and was traded to Seattle for Brandon Morrow, which would be quite the steal if Morrow could ever stay healthy. League's career took off after the trade and he's been a pretty solid reliever ever since for both the Mariners and then the Dodgers.

2006 - Dustin McGowan

One of the few bright spots on this list is the righty McGowan who is miraculously still on the Blue Jays roster. After being thrown into the Blue Jays rotation in late July of 2005, the righty had a string of bad starts and was put into the bullpen where he was much more successful. He flip-flopped between the rotation and bullpen for a few years before all of the injuries came and McGowan disappeared for a few years before reappearing in 2013 as a (surprise!) dependable reliever. As everyone knows, McGowan was put in the rotation to start this season and it didn't go so well, so he's back to being (shocking!) an excellent releiver again. KEEP MCGOWAN IN THE BULLPEN.

2007 - Adam Lind

Adam Lind was a September call-up in 2006 and tore it up in his 65 plate appearances to the tune of a .415 OBP. For the next few years he excelled as a left-fielder and even won a Silver Slugger in 2009 with 35 home runes. He's still a dependable DH against righties but unfortunately he could never learn to hit left-handed pitching, which has essentially ruined his chance at ever being more than a 2.0 WAR player (which by no means makes him a bust).

2008 and 2009 - Travis Snider

The Blue Jays called up Snider in late 2008 with a bucketload of expectations on his shoulders after mashing at every level of the minors. His cup of coffee in 2008 was impressive, but he never took much of a step forward and was just 'okay' in his four and a half year Blue Jays career. Of course, the Blue Jays and Cito Gaston did their part to mess up Snider and his stubborn personality caused his career to go into an ugly tailspin. In a trade deadline deal in 2012, the lefty from Washington was sent to the Pirates in exchange for Brad Lincoln with the Blue Jays just trying to salvage something for the damaged goods in Snider. His career hasn't gotten much better in Pittsburgh and he looks destined to end up as a fourth outfielder at best.

2010 - Zack Stewart

This is big time BUST territory, with the first Blue Jays top prospect on the list who never even came close to making a contribution for the big league squad. The right-handed pitcher came up to Toronto in the summer of 2011 after coming over from Cincinnati in the Edwin Encarnacion trade. A successful starter in the minor leagues, Stewart made three starts with the Blue Jays before quickly being shipped to the White Sox with Jason Fraser in the Colby Rasmus trade. Stewart had just as bad a time in Chicago before being traded to Boston where he was also demolished. After going back to the White Sox, he's now pitching okay in the Braves minor league system. Thank goodness the Blue Jays sold extremely high on him when they had the chance.

2011 - Kyle Drabek

A first round pick in the 2008 draft, Drabek came over to the Blue Jays in the Roy Halladay deal and was expected to be a stud in Toronto. After being a September call-up in 2010, the Texan struggled with throwing strikes, composure on the mound, and arm problems. He's still only 26-years-old, so this story definitely doesn't have an ending yet, but it hasn't been the smoothest start to Drabek's time with the Jays. He has a 4.15 ERA in 20 games with the Buffalo Bisons this year after having Tommy John surgery last season, so there's a chance we'll see him before the 2014 campaign is done.

2012 - Travis d'Arnaud

The consensus "Catcher of the Future™" for Toronto never made it through the Rogers Centre doors before being dealt to the New York Mets in the R.A. Dickey deal. Along with pitcher Noah Syndergaard, d'Arnaud will always be linked to the offseason where Alex Anthopoulos went all-in on the big league squad to (so far) horrible results. Thankfully for Blue Jays fans, d'Arnaud has not been good at the major league level and is currently hitting .228 with the Mets in 59 games.

2013 and 2014 - Aaron Sanchez

With the call-up of Sanchez today, there isn't a ton of minor league depth behind him in the Blue Jays system so Alex Anthopoulos will be hoping that this is finally a top prospect that comes through for the team. If not, the Blue Jays will be pretty thin at the higher levels of the minor leagues and will be in some serious trouble. I guess all we can do is sit back and enjoy the opportunity to finally see one of the famed "Lansing Three" step foot on a Rogers Centre mound.

The Blue Jays made it official.

They have purchased the contracts of Esmil Rogers and Aaron Sanchez, adding them to the 40-man roster, as well as the active roster. In the case of Rogers, he's out of options, so he's here to stay, or he'd have to be designated again. I hope, this time, the Jays know what they are doing. And Ryan Goins was recalled. I recall him too, good glove, almost no bat.

On the flip side. Darin Mastroianni is sent down to Buffalo.. He was having a pretty tough time of it in Toronto, hitting 156/.156/.250 in 32 at bats. Erik Kratz goes down as well. Kratz has been up and down a few times, he's hit .198/.226/.346, with 3 home runs, in 81 at bats with the Jays. Being fair to both, it is tough to play and sit and play and sit, I liked Kratz behind the plate.

Brad Mills gets the DFA treatment for the second time in a week. The Jays will be hoping he clears waivers, so they can send him down to Buffalo. Poor guy, he gets one appearance, it is awful and he's sent off again. Sometimes the Jays piss me off with their inability to make a decision and stick with it. I don't think Mills is of much value, but we dumped McGuire for him, so someone must have thought he was ok, why let one extremely bad game change your mind? I thought we had great scouts that have been watching everyone and knew who could help us and who couldn't.

We had thought that Steve Tolleson would be going on the Paternity List, but babies come when babies come. Could happen today or in a couple of weeks (side note, never ever tell an expectant mom that the baby could come today or in two weeks, it won't go over well).

Esmil gets the long relief role. He was doing pretty good in Buffalo, he was 2-2, with a 3.14 ERA in 12 games, 7 starts. In 48.2 innings, he allowed 42 hits, 2 home runs, 18 walks and struck out 41. I was thinking he could come in and take Hutchison's spot in the rotation for a couple of weeks.

Aaron is coming up to join the bullpen, Gibby really doesn't have much for right-handers that he trusts out in the pen. No pressure though Aaron.

Ryan, I really don't know what the plan is for him. I had thought that he was just going to come up for the 3 days that Tolleson was going to miss while on the Paternity List but I guess not. I hope they have a plan for Goins. And I'm hoping it doesn't mean that Munenori Kawasaki is going to the bench. Munenori has been one of the very few of our players that is actually hitting. Maybe Goins or Kawasaki will play third and the other will play second and Francisco will go to the bench? I don't know and I'm not sure the Jays have any clear idea either. I do like watching Ryan play defense.

With out Mastroianni, it looks like the idea of platooning Colby Rasmus has come to a sudden halt. It does seem like Colby is swinging the bat better. I hope he continues it.

I guess, if we aren't going to make a trade, we might as well move around the pieces that we already have. I remember the days when we were doing just one roster move a day. Back in simpler times.\

Here is tonight's line, I had to stare at it for 5 minutes before I had it all figured out. Program sales should go through the roof tonight:

Reyes, SS

Cabrera, LF

Bautista, RF

Navarro, C

Rasmus, DH

Francisco, 1B

Kawasaki, 3B

Goins, 2B

Gose, CF

My favorite words in the world: Jays beat Red Sox.

Red Sox 3 Blue Jays 7

That feels so much better.

We got a terrific start out of J.A. Happ. Who thought he could be this good? He gave us 6 shutout innings, allowed 7 hits, just 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. He was firing strikes. I really like this Happ. Special mention should be made of his 6th inning. He gave up back to back singles to Mike Napoli and Jonny Gomes and I really thought he was tiring. Two on, no outs and just a 1 run lead. But he got Shane Victorino to hit into a double play and struck out Stephen Drew. That was a big moment.

And we had a good day with the bats. 13 hits. 2 home runs (Jose Reyes and Dioner Navarro). A bunch of hard hit balls. Reyes (with a double to go along with the homer) and Melky Cabrera had 3 hits each. Jose Bautista, Navarro and Anthony Gose had 2 hits each. One of Anthony's was a very nice bunt single. The only ones in the starting lineup not to get a hit were Colby Rasmus, Juan Francisco and Munenori Kawasaki, and they each took a walk.

It took as a bit to get some runs. We got:

• 1 in the 3rd, Anthony Gose walked and stole second, Melky drove him in.
• 3 in the 6th. Reyes lead off with a home run. Melky followed with a ground rule double and then Navarro homered.
• 1 in the 7th. Gose put down a very nice bunt single. Reyes followed with a infield single and then they pulled off a double steal. Melky drove Gose in with an infield single. Bautista followed with a single to load the bases but Navarro hit into a double play.
• 2 in the 8th. Rasmus led off with a walk and stole second  (his third of the season) and Ryan Goins drove him in. Gose followed with a single and Reyes hit a line drive double to score Goins.

I didn't think we were going to need all the runs. Dustin McGowan gave up a solo homer to David Ortiz, in the 8th, but all seemed good

Gibby brought Casey Janssen in in the 9th, even though it wasn't a save, and Casey had no end of troubles. Casey gave up a 2-run homer to Stephen Drew and then gave up two more base runners. I'm glad Gibby brought Brett Cecil in to face Ortiz with 2-out, 2 on. Cecil got him to hit a soft ground ball to third to end the game.

It was nice to see our offense work in so many different ways. Homers, doubles, infield hits, walks, bunt single and stolen bases.

We had some nice defense too. 2 double plays. Francisco started one on a nice play, grabbing a hard hit grounder, touching the bag at first and making a great throw to second. He looked very good first base. Kawasaki made a great, over-the-shoulder running catch on a popup down the right field line. He also made a couple of nice plays on ground balls, and was able to throw it across the infield. I wasn't sure he had enough arm.

Jays of the Day are Happ (.374 WPA) and Cabrera (.110). I'm giving an honorable mention to Navarro and Reyes. Gibby deserves an honorable mention too, he did a really nice job with the bullpen.

No Suckage Jays. I'm tempted to give one to Casey, because he had me considering taking up drinking as a full time job,  but I'll give him a pass, figuring he is still getting over that 'flu like symptoms' thingy.

Source: FanGraphs

We had 1597 comments in the GameThread. Great job guys. Spor wins, but it was a tight one.

Jays Care Foundation earns a spot among the best charitable organizations in sports.

The Blue Jays might not be at the top of the MLB for win-loss record, but there is a way that we are tops. Jays Care Foundation is one of three finalists for one of  the Steve Patterson Awards for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy, by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The winners will be announced on September 18th at the event in Princeton, New Jersey. For more information on the award, click on the link above.

Jays Care Foundation, along with the Portland Timbers (Major League Soccer) and the Chicago Fire Foundation (also MLS), are finalists for the Steve Patterson Award, in the category of professional sports team foundations and community relations. Since almost all professional sports teams have charitable foundations, making it to the final three is a great accomplishment.

In the category for individual athletes and professional coaches, Tiger Woods Foundation and the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism are the finalists. In the professional sports league, players associations and sports philanthropy organizations category, Playworks and Harlem RBI are the finalists.

This is the 10th anniversary of the Steve Patterson Awards, given to celebrate and promote "the selfless effort of those within the world of sports who make a difference in the lives of others around them".

I'm very proud that our Blue Jays have done such a great job of giving back the community and are making such a difference in the lives of so many across the country. I want to wish the Jays Care Foundation the best of luck, they really do deserve this honour. We'll follow-up in September to see if they win.

Wanting to learn more about this award we sent off some questions to Alisha Greenberg, the director of the Steve Patterson Award, and Danielle Bedasse, the executive director of the Jays Care Foundation.

First for Alisha Greenberg:

Who was Steve Patterson and why is this award named after him?

Steve is best known for playing under Coach Wooden at UCLA when they won three championships in 1969, 1970, 1971. He went on to become an NBA player, head coach at Arizona State and also chairman of the 1996 Super Bowl committee in Arizona. Beyond all of that, he worked to give back to his community and teach others to do the same. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation named this award in honor of Steve because of his legacy of making a difference in his community.

With pretty much every sports team having a charity group, picking the top 3 to be finalists for this award must be tough. What is the process?

Yes, it has been exciting to watch the field grow and to see more and more teams having a deeper impact in their communities. We go through a rather extensive selection process. Our committee is made up of industry experts, academic researchers, RWJF senior staff and past winners. The entire process spans two rounds over 12 weeks which includes calls with references and a thorough internal vetting.

What made Jays Care stand out?

What makes Jays Care so unique is the fact that they are serving all of Canada. It isn't just one city or one region but an entire country. Once we learned even more about the strategic approach and notable financial investments being made, it became clear they are a leader and deserving of this recognition.

And for Danielle Bedasse:

When did Jays Care get its start and what was its original mission?

Jays Care actually first got its start in 1992 after the Club's first World Series win, and the original mission was to provide programs and financial support for children's charities across the city of Toronto.

When did it start being funding projects Canada wide?

In 2007, the Club, ownership and the foundation's board of directors saw the opportunity to begin to grow our community investment platform through Jays Care Foundation. As Canada's only Major League team at the time, the goal was to ultimately have a marked impact for children and youth across the entire nation. In 2010, we officially began to fund programs and projects outside of the province and build our network of partner organizations to drive forward our mission of providing opportunities in sport, physical activity and education, and creating safe places to play, learn and grow for children and youth across Canada.

The Steve Patterson award is a huge honour. What does it mean to you?

Sport has the power to do so much good; it unites, it motivates, it excites, it provides an outlet, it builds community, it is fun at its core, and Steve Patterson truly believed and lived its virtues in using sport to bring awareness to social causes and all of his endeavours to improve the lives of so many. It is tremendous that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has created this area of recognition, and invested so much in organizations using sport for social impact. Because we know the heart, and the investment behind all of the teams, leagues and athletes working so hard to improve their communities, the Steve Patterson award is so special because of the recognition among our peers. Professional sport has such an important place in delivering on social good. It is tremendous to be recognized for our efforts off the field to use the team, our sport, our brand, our resources and assets to provide opportunities in sport and education with the goal of improving the lives of the tens of thousands of children we have set out to serve.

How much money does Jays Care raise in a year?

We raised close to $3 million in 2013 (net, before disbursements) and have a goal close to $3.6 million this year. We are on track to invest $3.2 million in 2014 in programs, grants and capital projects across Canada bringing us to 52 capital projects creating safe space for youth, national partnerships with Boys & Girls Clubs and the Y providing Rookie League programs in 140 communities across the country, $1 million partnership with Pathways to Education to provide support for kids to graduate High School and go on to post-secondary education, and a national partnership with KidSport to provide subsidized registration fees for children who otherwise can't afford to play organized baseball. And here at home, the Jays Care Community Clubhouse hosts more 2,800 children, youth and families annually from charitable organizations around the province for Blue Jays home games, not to mention, we have invested in hundreds of charitable organizations serving children through our Grand Slam Grants program.

Which are your favourite fundraisers?

Tough question! All of them! The Curve Ball and The Charity Golf Classic are our biggest (and fanciest), and the Charity Home Run Challenges are favorites because we get to do them across the country - the Sportsnet Charity Broadcast Auction presented by TD has been tremendous for not only giving our fans access to unique opportunities, but we have had so many terrific stories come from the fans that have purchased and participated in the experiences--it makes it really fun for us to get to make some of these once in a lifetime experiences come to life for fans that have supported the charity.

Also, last year, we started a Young Professionals Committee. We crossed our fingers and hoped to get a few interested people on board to help us with a fan fundraiser - well we had over 100 people apply and an amazing group of 25 individuals put together a CHANGE UP Campaign that raised $117,000 for Jays Care! This year they are at it again, they have expanded the network and in addition to the 20+ YP committee, we now have a Young Professionals Network of more than 150 people regularly engaged in our community efforts and fundraising on behalf of Jays Care. It is so exciting to see this passionate group of people so committed to helping us serve kids across Canada.

Can you tell us about a couple of your favourite Jays Care fund recipients?

Rookie League is one of my personal favorites for several reasons;

1) It's our program, in partnership with Toronto Community Housing (TCH), the Boys & Girls Clubs (BGC) of Canada and the Y...I know it reaches the kids that need the support, and we get to mold it and add to it, and edit as we go to make sure it meets the needs of the communities we serve. In 2009, when TCH came to us and said they needed to ensure that Rookie League had some type of focus or offering for youth (the program is geared to 6-12-year-olds--they were looking for something for 14+), we were able to work with our partner to develop a Rookie League Champions youth employment program. Now, we hire close to 200 youth each summer to help support Rookie League in their communities. Not only do they get practical experience, a paycheck, and something for their CV, they get training in conflict resolution, building a resume, coaching certification, etc. And they are ambassadors for the Rookie League kids in their own communities. I think it has made the program that much stronger and more relevant and I know that the employment opportunities are also working to give many youth alternatives to negative influences in their neighborhoods.

2) We have been able to build Rookie League into something very powerful across the country, we have a "community" of 8,000+ Rookie Leaguers in 140 communities now, and growing. And we get to experience different parts of Canada through them. Just last week we sent our Rookie League team from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to MLB's Jr. RBI Classic just before the MLB All-Star Game in Minnesota. These kids from the BGC came together through the Rookie League program this past year, from a variety of different backgrounds, nationalities (newcomers to Canada and first nations), and they became a team. Then, they rallied an entire community behind their experience and from the feedback we have received from kids, parents and the Club, it was a life-changing opportunity and experience. That means more than I can properly express.

3) It's a true partnership, we work together, we collaborate, we bring in new partners when needed and we share the ideas and the progress and the opportunities with others. When one of our other local professional teams was looking for a community outreach program, they modeled their investment (a soccer program) on what we have done with Rookie League. Because we have put so much emphasis on the partnership, TCH was able to easily replicate the experience in a different sport and different season, and we were in full support because it built on our efforts providing additional opportunities for the kids we know really benefit.

OK...since you asked for a couple...here is another one of "ours"--the Jays Care Community Clubhouse--the genesis of this amazing space in our stadium was born out of the Roy Halladay's "Doc's Box". When Roy pitched for Toronto, he would host kids from SickKids hospital in his suite 6-10 times year. It was a terrific program and "Doc" did such a great job making these kids feel special. When he left for Philly, I knew we just couldn't lose that opportunity for kids so we asked the club for a suite and they generously offered us a double suite that we could use - the premise being to have a place where we could create a very special in-game experience for kids and community groups at every Blue Jays home game.

One of our Board members stepped up and helped to fund the renovations costs through his construction company, Urbacon, and the environmental design firm of Shikatani Lacroix donated the design of the space - keeping in mind all of the details we had asked them to consider. Now, and over the past 4 years, for every home game, we are able to provide a fantastic experience for kids, families and charitable groups - game tickets, food and beverages are included, guests get a visit from our mascot ACE, and a live hit on the videoboard...and sometimes even a visit from a Blue Jays player! R.A. Dickey hosted a group of kids one evening from BOOST, a charity serving kids who have been sexually abused. He spoke candidly about his own experience, and out of that evening, one of the girls said that she was able to tell her friends what had happened and felt so relieved to be "free".

Sergio Santos visited the Down Syndrome Association of Hamilton one evening, not realizing that his number (21) was such a significant number to people with down syndrome--the families were overwhelmed by the experience and the kids were over the moon with his visit. It is a very special place and we have had so many tremendous stories come out of there on any given night. It also gives us an opportunity to showcase a charity or a cause in game, giving it a presence and a voice - our fans look for our "community clubhouse" minute in game and connect with us through all of the charities and groups we support.

Next year, for the TV auction, could you stop taking bids on the ‘lot' I want after I make a bid? Every year I lose out in near the end. How much has been raised in those auctions?

You could always give us a pre-emptive bid of say...$25,000 or so!! The largest auction item we've sold to date was $23,000 for a trip on a private jet to Cooperstown, NY with Robbie Alomar and a private tour of the Hall of Fame with the Hall of Famer, so we have to outdo ourselves next year. This year was our most successful auction to date raising just over $250,000. We started the auction in 2009 and to date we have raised $737,220 cumulatively over the past 6 seasons. (Tom: I'm pretty sure my wife wouldn't go along with that plan, she's great and all, but there are limits, especially to my bank account).

Is there anything else you' like to tell us about Jays Care?

Just that it is a team effort, it is a Club effort, and as we grow it belongs more and more to our fans, our Young Professionals, our crew of volunteers, the charities and partnerships we have forged, and the tens of thousands of kids that see us over the course of their childhoods whether it be through programs we deliver, places we make safe, experiences we offer, or support we provide. That makes me proud.

With the Blue Jays seemingly being a team that currently has holes all over the field, Ken Rosenthal reiterated today that the front office is mainly focused on acquiring more arms ahead of next week's trade deadline. Although the infield situation is currently in a state of disarray, it sounds like Alex Anthopoulos is hoping that the team's injured players return relatively soon and pick up where they left off. Toronto has only scored the 24th most runs in the league during the month of July while also allowing the 24th most, so it seems like it's going to take more than just an arm or two to jump the Yankees and Orioles in the AL East race.

#BlueJays again focused on pitching - starting or relief. Believe Lind, Encarnacion, Reimold could be back next week, Lawrie in two weeks.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 23, 2014

As Rosenthal states, the key injured players (I don't mean Nolan Reimold) are on the verge of returning and should plug all the defensive holes other than second base by the end of the month. That leaves the bullpen with the third-highest ERA in the league and the rotation with the 18th-highest ERA in the league as the problem areas.

A specific arm that is drawing Blue Jays interest is Phillies left-handed reliever Antonio Bastardoaccording to Jim Salisbury of CSN Philadelphia. The 28-year-old has a 3.27 ERA and 3.09 FIP this season with a 28.8 K%, although the 13 BB% is a bit frightening for a high leverage reliever. On the flip side, he's only allowed two home runs all year in a relative homer-friendly park down in Philadelphia, which would be a big plus in Toronto as well.

Bastardo is extremely cost-effective as well with the southpaw currently in his second year of arbitration on a $2 million deal. This means that he will have one more year of arbitration in 2015 before becoming a free agent where he will almost certainly sign for much higher than he is currently being paid. (h/t to 'carpe.nocti' for reminding me that I forgot to add this in the original post)

The current Blue Jays bullpen features three lefties and five righties, but Bastardo is fairly split neutral and can be used against right-handed batters without much worry. If he was acquired by the Blue Jays, he would probably slot in alongside Brett Cecil, Aaron Loup, and Dustin McGowan as key setup guys, giving the bullpen some much needed depth.

On Monday, Sergio Santos was designated for assignment and placed on outright waivers and today, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reported that the reliever had been successfully outrighted to triple-A Buffalo. Why couldn’t Santos be simply sent down to the minors without being exposed to waivers? Is he out of options? What does "designated for assignment" mean?

The answers to these questions can be found in the Bluebird Banter Library. You don’t have to go anywhere to visit this library—you don’t even need to have a library card—it’s conveniently accessible through the navigation bar above (or by clicking the icon with the three horizontal bars on a mobile browser) or by bookmarking the links below.

Primer on Transactions: Options and Outrights by MjwW

Major League Baseball’s transaction rules are a complex lot to understand, but we have tried to boil down a selection the most common rules down to an easy-to-digest primer. In there you can find out what it means to get "DFAed", how many "options" a player gets in his career, and how some veterans can simply refuse to be sent down to the minors, even after being DFAed.

Blue Jays Option and Outright Status by MjwW

When looking at the Blue Jays and thinking about which players can be sent down to the minors and which cannot, the this is a great resource. The table there shows whether a player has options remaining, and whether he can be outrighted to the minors without his consent. The list includes everyone currently on the 40-man roster as well as a list of most of the other players in the organization that had previously been on the 40-man roster at some point in their career.

Blue Jays Roster Tree Route Map by Minor Leaguer

This is a graphical representation of how each member of the current 40-man roster arrived on the team. Players who came over via a trade, or were drafted as a compensation pick for a departing free agent (or unsigned draft pick from a previous draft), are linked to the players they were traded for or the player that gave the Blue Jays the supplementary round pick.

A guide to the theory and practice of creating park factors, using ISO as an example.

Park factors are really just the worst.

I don’t mean in principle; the concept of adjusting player stats, either retrospectively for the sake of comparison or prospectively for the sake of projection, to account for the ballpark in which they play is a good idea. The problem lies in the math behind them. I’ve spent the better part of my free time for the last two or three weeks reading everything I could find written about park factors and adjustments, all the way from a post at Patriot’s old Tripod site to an article in an academic journal, and I’ve come to a few conclusions. First, it’s impossible to get park factors exactly correct. Second, it’s important to consider the tradeoffs you have to make if and when you decide to use a particular version. Third, there might be something wrong with me for spending so much time on this.

The basic idea behind calculating a park factor is easy enough, right? Usually in the context of runs per game (though sometimes by components like singles, HRs, etc), it’s a team’s production at home over production away. Boom. done.

Well, no, not really. That’s affected pretty heavily by the skill level of the team. Better include the opponents, too. So, for a given team, it’s that team’s production at home PLUS its opponents production in those games divided by that team’s production on the road PLUS its opponents productions in *those* games. There. That makes sense. Done.

Well, no, wait. What about interleague games? Adding/removing the DH from lineups will change the hitting skill level. We should probably exclude those. And what about pitchers batting? Given their lack of skill, will they be affected by a park the same way? Maybe we should leave their PAs out. And what about right- versus left-handers? It’s not like parks are symmetric across a line in center field, that probably makes a difference. And what about ground ball hitters versus fly ball hitters? They’ll be affected differently, too… but also, maybe the GB/FB ratio is affected by parks, too… You see my point, hopefully. This gets very complicated, very quickly, and all of the above is focused mostly on sample issues, not even really getting into problems with the formulas people use.

Still, for whatever foolish reasons drive any of us to dive headfirst into inconsequential things, I’ve decided on a method that I think makes sense, and will report on that here (and walk you through the creating of park factors for isolated power (ISO), the creation of which spurred this whole thing). As any thorough researcher would, I relied heavily on the works of those that came before me to teach me how to do this, and to give me a starting point from which to branch out. If you want to read more than I discuss here about the theories and calculations behind all this stuff, please see the following sites:

Patriot’s Park Factors
Baseball Reference Park Adjustments
FanGraphs Library - Park Factors
Park Factor Thoughts by TangoTiger
High Boskage - Baseball Data Normalization
Park Effects by Jim Furtado
The Philosophy of Park Factors by Colin Wyers:

Okay. Bearing all that in mind, and probably also some resources I forgot to mention, here's what I did to create park factors for isolated power. There's a LOT of methodological detail ahead, which I think some of you might want to see, but if you don't, I respect that - just skip to the results.

Using MySQL to query the Events table of my Retrosheet database (complete years only, so 1974-2013), I created a spreadsheet of year, home team, away team, batting team, league, at bats, handedness, and ISO. Using that information, for each home team I found the ISO (separated by batter handedness) of that team and that team's opponents. To each of these I applied a regression term, which I'll explain in the next paragraph. After making an adjustment to the opponents' number (that will be described later) I combined the two, proportionally weighting the opponents figure by how many opponents there were - so, say for Atlanta in 1974, the number is 1/12th Atlanta ISO, 11/12ths opponent ISO.

Regression, both in the above procedure and anywhere else I mention it, was based on the idea of reliability of statistics measured by Cronbach's alpha, which I was introduced to via Russell Carleton. He helped me out a bit when I was trying to figure it out, which I'm very grateful for. His articles on the subject can explain it much better than I ever could, so I direct you that way if you'd like to know more about it. I measured alpha separately for home and away ISO, using each season as an individual test subject while excluding the two strike years in the sample (as well as interleague and pitcher ABs). I truncated the seasonal data where necessary in order to make all years data lines equal length, and used the 'psy' package in R to actually calculate the alpha. For home teams, it came out to 0.668 in 1092 at bats for righties and 0.642 in 721 at bats for lefties; for away teams, it was 0.486 in 696 at bats and 0.467 in 405 at bats, respectively.

Since Cronbach's alpha is effectively a split-half correlation coefficient, I was able to use the value I found to determine how much regression should be included in my calculations based on the formula R = AB/(AB + X), where R is the alpha I found, AB is the number of at bats (per season) corresponding to the alpha, and X is the amount of at bats to use in regression. Note that AB is half of the actual number of at-bats used because of the split-half nature of Cronbach's alpha; I could have used the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula to get a predicted alpha for the entire set of at bats, but the math works out identically either way. Bottom line, for home right handers 271 ABs of league average ISO was added, for home lefties 200 ABs, for away righties 368 ABs, and for away lefties 231 ABs.

The adjustment to opponents' ISO I'd mentioned attempts to account for a sample difference across the different home teams. Weighting by quantity of opponents means that the batters contributing to the measured ISO will be evenly distributed across all league teams (or close to it, though not exactly even because of the unbalanced schedule); pitchers’ contributions, however, will then be coming disproportionately highly from the home team’s pitchers. To fix this problem, I decided to multiply the opponents’ ISO term by a term defined as the league average ISO allowed divided by the team’s pitchers’ regressed ISO allowed. There might be better ways to do this/solve this, and I’d love to hear them if there are, but this is what I went with for the results below.

That just about wraps up the home team term; now, on to the denominator of the equation. While many if not most park factors compare home production to away production, unless you have a very specific and more obscure goal for your park factors, this isn’t the correct way to do things. If a park factor is meant to remove any park effects and place a player in a theoretical league-average context, the point of comparison needs to be league average production, not away production. Now, the closer a park factor is to neutral the less this matters, since the distance of the road production from league average production must be 1/n the distance of the home production from average (because park factors must average out to neutral). If it were difficult to get the league average version, you could justify using away figures instead, but since it's very much *not* difficult, I used the league average. No further adjustments were needed; since regression is towards league average, none was included here, and using league average eliminated any over-representation from a single team in the sample.

All of that gives you a raw park factor number. In theory, if you do this for all teams in a given year, they should average to 1. I found that this generally doesn't happen; I assume it's due to the regression and adjustments, but I can't say for sure. As the last step in the process I artificially and linearly adjust each factor to force the average in each league to be 1. The final equation comes out to the following (which looks even worse in Excel, trust me), where TOI is team of interest, OPP is that team’s opponents, and POI is park of interest:

At this linked spreadsheet, you can find single-year, three-year average, and five-year average park factors, both halved and unhalved, split by handedness for all teams and years since 1974. The averages are "surrounding"-year averages; that is to say, the year in question is the central point of the time period being averaged. Averages are interrupted by teams moving to new parks, but not by any configuration changes to existing parks.

I personally find the most value in the single year numbers, but there are good arguments to be made for using averages. Single-year averages certainly appear to be noisier, but this is to be expected, and it's closer to being a feature than a bug. Part of that noise is due to a park "feature" that absolutely has an impact on the game, but gets lost if averaged factors are used: weather.Over the long term, the *climate* of a given city will be relatively stable, with changes happening over the course of many years; the *weather*, however, is much more variable season-to-season, and has a huge impact on batted balls, pitch movement, etc. Any park factor that's going to be applied to past data should account for that; hence, a single-year factor is best. Further, since the baseline is league average (and is hence affected by changes, in weather or anything else, in all league parks), it's to be expected that yearly numbers vary a bit.

Multi-years numbers definitely have their place as well, though. Anything forward-looking - say, a projection system - that wants to account for park effects would be better served in using multi-year park factors to estimate the adjustment that should be used. I didn't have the time to get the data on that, but it can be inferred from the following graphs, which show single-year, three-year, and five-year average park factors for Wrigley Field.

Throughout the above, ISO was my example; this is because wanting to create ISO+ (that is, league- and park-adjusted ISO) drove me to all of this in the first place. Not wanting to leave that idea hanging, below you can find both ISO and ISO+ for qualified batters in 2013. A quick glance through the data shows that the Pirates are helped out a lot, in terms of overall rank, by this method, with Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker each jumping 17 spots. The Blue Jays are hurt (again, by ranking) a bit, with Jose Bautista and Adam Lind falling 7 and 8 spots, respectively. This is the most superficial of analyses, but maybe someone can find something more interesting.

Anyway, I hope someone out there found this all useful. I’d love any feedback or questions you might have, since I’m planning on doing this same process to establish (better) park factors for a bunch of different stats as prep work for a series of cross-era comparison articles coming somewhere down the line. For example, I thought about trying to account for schedule imbalance when I weighted opponents' ISO in the numerator, but it was difficult to accomplish in my spreadsheet and I guessed that the increase in accuracy wasn't worth the effort. If there's anything you notice, please let me know.

. . .

The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at www.retrosheet.org. Some other statistics courtesy of FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference.

John Choiniere is a researcher and featured (occasional) writer at Beyond the Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter at @johnchoiniere.

Tiny bits of Blue Jays news this afternoon:

• Gibby has said that Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind will, likely, not be sent out on rehab assignments. The will, most likely, go straight into the line ups, when deemed to have recovered enough. I'm all for that, guys out for short periods of time shouldn't need rehab time. Rehab is mostly so that players can get their timing back, I'd expect that Adam and Edwin could get their timing back quicker with the major league team. I'm going to show my Zaun side, but, when I was young, players didn't need to go on rehab assignments. I really don't see the point in sending them out.
• Brett Lawrie, on the other hand, will be going out on rehab. He's been out longer and he hasn't been able to swing at bat. He'll need 3 or 4 games. Of course, timing is always an issue with Brett's swing. And, Gibby says, that when he comes back, he's the full time third baseman. We'll see. I don't trust the Jays to make a decision and stick to it.
• In news that won't surprise anyone, Sergio Santos cleared waivers and he's headed to Buffalo, to find his delivery. I'm sure it is in Buffalo.
• Have I mentioned I'd like the Jays to make up their frigging minds:

#BlueJays again focused on pitching - starting or relief. Believe Lind, Encarnacion, Reimold could be back next week, Lawrie in two weeks.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 23, 2014

They have a few good starts and it's "we don't need pitching, we need hitting", then a terrible start from Drew Hutchison and "we don't need hitting, we need pitching". If we make an error tonight, we'll be looking for glove men.

• Gibby told MLB Radio that the Jays were 'in on" Chase Headley. I don't know, if they were in on him, it wouldn't have been hard to beat the Yankees' offer.

Ray offers a few starting pitcher options for Thursday's MLB action, including Rubby De La Rosa, Marcus Stroman and Henderson Alvarez.

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.

Thursday's Streamers

Rubby De La Rosa, Red Sox vs Blue Jays

Marcus Stroman, Blue Jays vs Red Sox

Henderson Alvarez, Marlins vs Braves

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.

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Fantasy Rundown

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Jays Beat Red Sox!

Red Sox 4 Blue Jays 6

The important part: Aaron Sanchez looked great. His first MLB inning and he faces Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and Mike Napoli and he gets all three out. Then, surprising me, Gibby puts him out for a second inning and he gets 2 strikeouts in his clean inning. 2 perfect innings, a great way to start a career. You couldn't ask for a better major league debut.

R.A. Dickey was ok. He gave up 3 runs in the first inning, a 3-run homer by Ortiz (he crushed it), before getting his first out. But he settled down after that. He allowed 1 more run in the 5th. His best inning was the 4th: after a lead off walk and a Munenori Kawasaki throwing error put runners on 2nd and 3rd, with no outs, he got Jackie Bradley and Shane Victorino to strikeout and Dustin Pedroia to ground out. A nifty bit of work to get himself out of trouble.

I'll admit I was worried when Casey Janssen came into the game in the 9th, considering his last two outings, but he got 3 quick outs and his 15th save. He looked like the Casey we know and love.

Our offense is looking so much better of late.

We scored 3 in the bottom of the first, to match the Red Sox.  Jose Reyes singled, Melky Cabrera walked and Jose Bautista doubled in Reyes. After Navarro hit into a force at the plate (Melky really shouldn't have been running), Bautista scored from third on a Colby Rasmus ground out to first. Mike Napoli caught the ground ball basically standing on first, and threw home, but Jose was half way between first and the plate and scored pretty easy, great aggressive running. Kawasaki singled, a ground ball off Clay Buchholz head. Then Josh Thole hit a ball to the opposite field, over the left fielder's head, unfortunately for a ground rule double, scoring Navarro. If it hadn't bounced over the fence, Kawasaki would have scored.

We got 2 more in the 6th. Thole led off with a walk. Ryan Goins tripled him in. Great swing from Goins. I'd love to see that more from him.  Jose Reyes singled home Goins.

Bautista homered in the 7th, his first home run since July 2nd. Very nice to see.

We had 8 hits. Bautista (double an homer) and Thole (single and double) each had 2 hits.

Nice to see Thole and Goins help out on offense.

Anthony Gose was hit twice by pitch. It's great to have him on base. He stole second twice. Unfortunately, in the 4th inning, after he stole 2nd, he decided to try to steal 3rd and he was out easy. There was no reason to go for third.

We did get some good defense. Jose Bautista started a nice double play, in the 2nd inning, getting a ground ball at first, moving to get a good angle to second base and making a great throw. Unfortunately, he also had a ground ball go through him, later in the game, and he couldn't corral Kawasaki's wild throw from third, in the 4th inning.

Jays of the Day are Sanchez (.176 WPA), Reyes (.176), Bautista (.154,I hope he's back to his usual self, we need him) and Thole (.182).

Suckage goes to Navarro (-.158) for his 0 for 4.

Source: FanGraphs

We had a really nice pair of GameThreads. 1510 comments. It was a close battle, but Pikachu won out, but he also called me old, so I'm not complementing his win. So there.