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Overflow Thread 2: Cubs vs. Blue Jays, Tuesday 9/9, 6:07 CT


Overflow Thread 3: Cubs vs. Blue Jays, Tuesday 9/9, 6:07 CT

Blue Jays 9, Cubs 2: The Wheels Fell Off

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Canadians are friendly and welcoming. The Blue Jays, however, aren't being very nice to the Cubs.

TORONTO -- For six innings Tuesday night, the Cubs and Blue Jays played a nice, tight, closely-contested game, and it actually appeared the Cubs might win.

Then Neil Ramirez, who's been so good this year, faced Jose Bautista with the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the seventh, nursing a 2-1 Cubs lead. Unfortunately, the reason the bases were loaded in the first place was that Ramirez had given up a hit and a walk to the first two batters he faced. The walk was issued to Munenori Kawasaki, a fan favorite in Toronto even though he's not really that good a player. Further, he's very difficult to walk -- just 15 walks in 234 plate appearances coming into this game.

But walk he did, and Ramirez looked like he might get out of the inning. He struck out Jose Reyes and had Bautista with a 1-2 count before missing with a pair of pitches, running the count full.

That's when Bautista ripped a double down the left-field line, clearing the bases.

Even good pitchers have bad days, and this one was particularly bad for Ramirez. Give credit to a very good hitter, Bautista, for winning that battle. Ramirez threw a couple of fastballs by Bautista at 96, and Bautista then hit another 96 mile-per-hour heater for the double.

The proverbial wheels on the bus continued to fly off when Brian Schlitter entered the game in the eighth inning. Schlitter gave up hits to the first three hitters he faced. That included a leadoff triple by Adam Lind, which really shouldn't have been a triple, but was because Matt Szczur missed a diving catch attempt. Lind is not fast; had he been fast, that play would likely have been an inside-the-park home run, because it wound up going all the way to the wall. The inning turned ugly after that, with more hits and an error by Chris Valaika at first base that allowed a run to score, but that mattered little, since that was already the fourth run of the inning and the Jays were just piling on.

Have I mentioned that I don't ever want to see Chris Valaika play first base anymore? If not, there, I've mentioned it. I had even stated in the game preview:

I don't usually make a big deal about complaining about lineups, but consider this: IF you are going to have Mike Olt and Chris Valaika in the same lineup, why is the worse defensive player of the two playing the field?

Like I said: By that time it didn't really matter, but Chris Valaika is not part of the future of this team. Mike Olt might be, and it could be useful to find out whether he can play first base, as a possible backup to Anthony Rizzo. Why would you bother even playing Valaika at all? He's Cody Ransom or Donnie Murphy or Joe Mather, a disposable part who won't be back in 2015. Enough already.

I'm sure you've noticed I've avoided posting the final score of this game. Fair enough, here it is: Blue Jays 9, Cubs 2. It was the Cubs' fifth straight loss, and that despite some pretty good starting-pitching work from Jake Arrieta, who left the game with one out in that disastrous seventh inning and a 2-1 lead. I suspect Rick Renteria was going to leave him in to pitch that inning until he allowed a baserunner, and with one out, Kevin Pillar singled, and at 99 pitches, Arrieta was done. Can't really argue with that; it was just a bad night for the Cubs' bullpen.

Offensively, the Cubs certainly had enough chances; they had 11 hits, leaving 11 men on base. Javier Baez had two of the hits and only struck out once (progress!); Welington Castillo had hits in his first three at-bats and drove in one of the runs, with Jorge Soler picking up the other RBI.

The Blue Jays are still marginally in contention for the second wild-card spot in the American League. After losing 15 of 21 starting August 1, they are now on an 8-3 run and have moved to within 4½ games of that spot with 18 games remaining. Tuesday, they moved ahead of a pair of teams with the win (the Yankees and Indians). It's still a long shot for Toronto, but they haven't yet been eliminated. Despite that, not very many people showed up at Tuesday's game:

20140909_190745_medium

That was taken during the first inning. A few more people showed up, but not many. The total announced was 17,903, which appeared to be pretty close to the in-house count. I realize schools are in session and most of the people crowding Toronto are here for the film festival; you'd still figure more would come to see a pretty good team. The Jays are averaging over 30,000 per date (their rank in average-per-date is just three spots below the Cubs). Between innings they advertised several upcoming giveaways, most of which are on weekends, which would probably draw better anyway. You'd think they might want to do some of these on weeknights, when they might bring a few more people out to the stadium.

I met up with BCB's Danny Rockett, who's in town and was at the game. He'll have his own take on visiting Toronto after the series is over (as well as the continuation of his previous article, his trip to Denver last month). We agreed that people in Toronto have been helpful and accommodating to the visiting Americans seeing baseball at this giant stadium that's one of the few remaining vestiges of the 1970s-1980s multipurpose stadium building boom. It's just too bad we couldn't see the Cubs win. Perhaps tonight, they can salvage one game of this series when Kyle Hendricks takes the mound against Drew Hutchison.

Jays Care Foundation wins Steve Patterson Award

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Congratulations to Jays Care.

You might remember, back in July, we told you that Jays Care Foundation was a finalist for the Steve Patterson Award, given out by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for "Excellence in Sports Philanthropy" in the "Professional Sports Team Foundation and Community Relations Category". This morning we find out that they are the winner of the award.

Congratulations Jays Care, it is well deserved. From the press release:

The Jays Care Foundation is the charitable arm of Canada's only MLB team, the Toronto Blue Jays. Established in 1992, the foundation has grown exponentially from a regional focus in Toronto to investing in children and communities from coast-to-coast. Their mission is to create equal opportunities for kids in need across Canada by removing barriers to sport and education. Foundation programs such as Field of Dreams and Grand Slam Grant provide funds to children and their communities to learn and play in a safe environment as well lead happy and healthy lives. Other foundation programs include Rookie League, Home Run Scholars and Jays Care Community Clubhouse.

"The Toronto Blue Jays are honored to be recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, an organization that truly understands the power of sport," Stephen Brooks, Senior Vice President of Business Operations for the Toronto Blue Jays, said. "As Canada's only MLB team, the Blue Jays, through Jays Care Foundation, have made a lasting commitment to invest in Canadian children and communities from coast to coast. We are devoted to breaking barriers to sport and education and to building safe, dedicated spaces for recreational and educational youth programming in communities across Canada. The Blue Jays are delighted to be named as a recipient of the Steve Patterson Award for our work in communities throughout Canada and proud to be listed beside recipients of the past."

You can read more about the Robert Wood Foundation here.

Past winners:

A_decade_of_patterson_award_winners_medium

Wednesday Bantering: Notes on Blue Jays in September

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Little bits and pieces:

  • The Blue Jays have scored 47 runs to this point in September, in 8 games. 5.9 runs per game, a big jump from the 3.3 per game they scored in August.
  • Jose Bautista has driven in 13 runs this month, 28% of the runs we've scored. In August he drove in 23% of our runs. I think we can stop the debate on whether he is a leader or not.
  • The reaction from the bench on Jose's double was great to see.
  • Dioner Navarro is on a hot streak of his own, hitting .452/500/.774 over his last 10 games.
  • Since being benched, Colby Rasmus has had 7 plate appearances, had 3 hits, 2 home runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts and 3 RBI. Maybe sitting has focused him some.
  • We've been having a good run of good pitching this month too. The pitchers have put up a 2.74 ERA, the starters are at 2.25 and are averaging 7 innings a start.
  • I thought the fifth inning of last night's game was going to be the inning the cost us the game. We were down by two and Kevin Pillar started the inning off with a single and then got caught stealing. He is 0 for 3 on stolen base attempts in the majors. I'm sure he'll be above break even before his career is over, but, it seemed like a bad time for an attempt. Then Ryan Goins doubles (nice to see him hit a ball hard). Anthony Gose followed with a strikeouts, fouling off a bunt a attempt for strike three. I dislike bunt attempts on the third strike, especially when you are bunting for a hit. Jose Reyes singled, driving in Goins, but I thought that we gave away our chance at a big inning. Fortunately we had big innings in the 7th and 8th.
  • I'm glad that Daniel Norris get a full inning in.
  • Adam Lind hit his first triple since August 21, 2011.

Here is last night's GameThread leader board, Spor led us to victory again:

#Commenter# Comments
1Spor131
2Belisarius79
3StreakyJays73
4carpe.nocti64
5junior_felix_jr58
6MjwW57
7Tom Dakers52
8bluejays1345
9NFLDjaysfan42
10jmarples42
11fishedin32
12REMO29
13The Gardiner Expressway28
14MartsB27
15radivel25
16fatpuppy24
17Thom Nelligan23
18madrush21
19hansdampf15
20Lutherie11
21Goldenhawk9910

Overflow Thread 1: Cubs vs. Blue Jays, Wednesday 9/10, 6:07 CT

Overflow Thread 2: Cubs vs. Blue Jays, Wednesday 9/10, 6:07 CT

Overflow Thread 3: Cubs vs. Blue Jays, Wednesday 9/10, 6:07 CT


Blue Jays sweep the Cubs

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Good pitch, good hitting and some nice defense, a great series for the Blue Jays.

Cubs 1 Blue Jays 11

And here I thought this was going to be a tough series. The Cubs came in on a good streak, I thought they were the type of team that might great against us. Boy, was I wrong.

It seems like it was just a few days ago that we were thinking Drew Hutchison was overworked and tiring. Wrong again. He looked great tonight. 6.1 innings, allowed just 4 hits, 1 earned, 1 walk with 10 strikeouts. He was hitting his spots and looked in control all the way. The Jays had him sitting for a long time, in the bottom of the 6th and he may have tightened up before he went out for the 7th. He gave up a home run and a double in the 7th and Gibby pulled him. With the deep bullpen, there's no reason to push his pitch count.

Brett Cecil, Aaron Loup and Brandon Morrow finished out the last 2.2 innings, each getting some needed work in. Morrow looked great, smooth and easy and he hit 100 mph on the radar gun.

Actually, he got to 101 mph:

Morrow_medium

I wonder if we could talk him into closing for us next year?

Once again we had tons of offense. 13 hits and 5 walks added up to 11 runs. Not much for extra base hits, just 3 doubles, once again we scored a bunch without hitting any homers. And, once again, we got our runs late, 10 runs scored over the 6th, 7th and 8th innings.

Just about everyone got into the offensive fun. Dioner Navarro, Danny Valencia and Anthony Gose had 2 hits each. All the other starters had a hit except for Jose Bautista (who had 2 walks, so I won't complain) and Ryan Goins (0 for 4, but some nice defense). Edwin, Dioner and Danny had 2 RBI each. Adam Lind, Gose, Steve Tolleson and Dalton Pompey each had an RBI.

Dalton Pompey got his first MLB at bat, hitting a ground ball to first to bring in our 10th run. Nice that he had his first at bat in Toronto and in front of his parents.

Jay of the Day is Hutchison (.297 WPA). The offense was spread out enough that no one got to the .100 WPA mark.

No Suckage Jays. The low mark was Edwin at -.076 and he drove in 2 runs.


Source: FanGraphs

We had a lively pair of GameThreads, 1384 comments. Spor led the way again, good job young man.

#Commenter# Comments
1Spor189
2MjwW95
3junior_felix_jr76
4carpe.nocti72
5Pikachu71
6Kraemer_1765
7Strik3r62
8DaaaBearz58
9Tom Dakers58
10jmarples53
11StreakyJays46
12MartsB42
13The Gardiner Expressway41
14ABsteve37
15madrush33
16Damaso's Burnt Shirt31
17Belisarius29
18Thom Nelligan28
19radivel27
20NFLDjaysfan26
21Gerse25
22fishedin25
23gammaDraconis21
24REMO21
25stressed20
26Goldenhawk9918
27Moffdiver16
28bluejays1315
29red hot blues15
30Nadia14

Cub Tracks Makes A Splash

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Writers are turning their focus to offseason possibilities. That includes an oft-discussed LHP, the possible return of a Shark, and what to do at catcher. The compliments for and from Toronto are also flying while the young Cougars look to a mentor in their chase of a title.

I'm excited about next year, but it really feels like playing out the string right now.

From Comcast SportsNet

From Cubs Den

From Cubs.com

From ESPNChicago.com

From the Chicago Tribune

From the Chicago Sun-Times 

From the Daily Herald

Miscellaneous

Today's food for thought

Blue Jays 11, Cubs 1: Oh (For) Canada

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The Cubs apparently left their late-inning baseball skills in the United States on this trip north of the border.

TORONTO -- Didn't we see this game Tuesday night?

I'm thinking we did. Close game early? Check. Good pitching, for the most part, from the Cubs' starter? Check. A bullpen meltdown? Check.

The Cubs' 11-1 loss to the Blue Jays Wednesday night obviously wasn't a clone of Tuesday's, but it sure felt the same. The team's sixth consecutive defeat, which tied a season-high losing streak and, as it was loss number 82 of 2014, clinched the Cubs' fifth straight losing season, didn't have much to recommend it to anyone except Blue Jays fans. And those fans, even though their team sneaked a bit closer to the American League's second wild-card spot, began streaming out of the Rogers Centre after Toronto's five-run seventh.

No accounting for tastes, apparently, even though they wound up going outside into a driving rainstorm which would have, if there had been no roof on the stadium, delayed the game at least three hours, if not postponed it completely.

Instead, dry inside, the Cubs performed reasonably well for six innings, then were awful.

The tone was set for this one in the first inning. Javier Baez walked and Luis Valbuena sent a double into the right-field gap, but Jays right fielder Jose Bautista was quick to the ball. Third-base coach Gary Jones decided to send Baez, which is about the worst send I've seen from Jones all year. The ball one-hopped to the plate; Baez put on the brakes and tried to scurry back to third base, where Dioner Navarro threw him out.

Why would you do that, Gary? With the Cubs having trouble scoring runs, you wouldn't want runners on second and third with one out and Jorge Soler coming to bat?

Soler wound up striking out to end the inning, but who knows how different his approach and the approach of Jays starter Drew Hutchison would have been if the Cubs had two runners in scoring position?

Hutchison then dominated, striking out nine more Cubs to tie his career high with 10 K's. And for the first five innings, it looked as if we were going to have an old-fashioned pitchers' duel and get the game in under two hours, too. Kyle Hendricks set the Jays down with just one hit through five, though that hit, a double by Kevin Pillar, led to a run after an infield out and a sacrifice fly. The teams hit the sixth inning only an hour and 10 minutes into the game, and then...

Hendricks ran out of gas in the sixth. Two singles and an error by Soler produced Toronto's second run; Hendricks managed to retire the next two hitters, but then gave up three straight hits, and the third, a double by Danny Valencia, finished Hendricks' evening. It was just the second time in his 11 starts that he'd allowed more than two runs and the first time since his big-league debut July 10.

Even then, it seemed as if the Cubs might make this game competitive. Soler's fourth home run -- the first Cubs homer in a week, and the only one so far during this losing streak -- made it 4-1, and a double by Welington Castillo chased Hutchison.

Alas, the Cubs had just two more baserunners the rest of the way; Ryan Kalish walked in the seventh and Valbuena doubled again in the ninth, but by the time the latter happened, the game was far out of hand. I can't really explain this one at all. Wesley Wright and Kyuji Fujikawa have both been reasonably effective this year, Wright for most of the year and Fujikawa since his recall last month, but both got pounded, as did Arodys Vizcaino. All of that wasn't just by Jays regulars, but by reserves and September callups, as John Gibbons cleared his bench in the seventh and eighth innings in what appeared to be an attempt to have mercy on the Cubs. It didn't work, as those players produced 10 runs on 11 hits in the last three innings. I'll stop the description there, as it was ugly; several people had told me earlier they thought Tuesday's was the worst loss of the year, but Wednesday's has to top it, I think. The sweep completes the Cubs' interleague schedule for 2014 with a 9-11 record.

The loss also mathematically eliminated the Cubs from the N.L. Central race.

The Blue Jays ought to give a big fat "Thank you!" to their visitors from the North Side of Chicago, who come to Canada only once every six years with the new interleague schedule. The Jays, who held first place in the A.L. East for much of the summer, had fallen out of contention but now, on a 10-3 run, trail the second wild-card leader (the Tigers, as of Thursday morning) by 3½ games with 17 remaining. Larger deficits have been overcome, and truth be told, it'd be nice to see some new teams in the postseason. The Jays haven't been there since their last World Series win in 1993, and the Kansas City Royals, who currently lead the A.L. Central, not since their last title in 1985. Serious baseball fans would love that. Fox-TV executives... not so much.

I can't say enough about how nice this trip has been despite the baseball results. Torontonians are unfailingly polite, always stopping to help out Americans who are trying to find their way around a foreign city (the Cubs gear gives it away). The subway stop closest to Rogers Centre is a bit of a hike, and the station, which shares space with a commuter rail and national rail station, is a maze of construction right now. Nevertheless, there was never any problem finding a friendly face to point me in the right direction. Thanks, Canada, for being so cordial and accommodating, and you're welcome for the three wins.

A BCB tip o' the cap to our own ballhawk, who sent me the suggested headline for this recap.

I'm sticking around Toronto Thursday to see some of the sights other than baseball games and to attend this baseball discussion session tonight before heading back to the States. We'll have plenty more here today and during the day Friday here at BCB, since the next Cubs game isn't until Friday night at Pittsburgh, where Tsuyoshi Wada will face Gerrit Cole.

John Gibbons may have discovered a method to set the Blue Jays lineup to ensure victory

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Nick's usual sabermetrics post won't appear here until Friday morning, so Minor Leaguer stepped in with his own "sabermagic" post.

A meme that has been floating around Bluebird Banter in recent days involves calling September "May 2.0", referring to how the Blue Jays have been winning games at a rate similar to how they did in May--so far in this month the Blue Jays are 7-2 (.778), while the were 21-9 (.700) in May. What has been the Blue Jays' secret to success? The answer may be in the lineups set up by manager John Gibbons.

Let's take a look at the lineups since the beginning of September using the fine lineup card photos taken by Barry Davis, Scott MacArthur, and Shi Davidi:

September 2: Win
September 3: Win
September 4: Win
September 5: Loss
September 6: Loss
September 7: Win
September 8: Win
September 9: Win
September 10: Win

See the pattern?

Since September 2 (the 1st was an off day), the Blue Jays have won every single time that Gibbons uses lower case letters to write out "dh" for the designated hitter on the lineup card that all the beat writers take a picture of; while they have lost every game but one when he uses upper case letters for the "DH". To summarize:

DateOpponentLineup CardResult
Sep. 2Rays"DH"Win
Sep. 3Rays"dh"Win
Sep. 4Rays"dh"Win
Sep. 5Red Sox"DH"Loss
Sep. 6Red Sox"DH"Loss
Sep. 7Red Sox"dh"Win
Sep. 8Cubs"dh"Win
Sep. 9Cubs"dh"Win
Sep. 10Cubs"dh"Win

The use of the lower case "dh" on the lineup card was not prevalent before September 3, but has sinced appeared with high frequency. The only time this season that "dh" was used before September was on April 23, in a game against the Orioles. Unfortunately the Blue Jays lost that game despite getting a 6-1 lead--I wonder if this magic only works in September (or if you prefer, May 2.0).

The takeaway is that John Gibbons may have discovered a flawless way to help the Blue Jays win simply by setting--well, typesetting--the lineup a particular way. I just hope that he has realized what he has discovered and stops using the Caps Lock key for he rest of the season and into the playoffs.

And I hope that I didn't jinx it by writing about it.

Poll
Does Minor Leaguer understand the problem with small sample sizes and that correlation is not necessarily causation?

  124 votes |Results

Caption This!

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The recently-concluded series against the Blue Jays in Toronto was a tough one for the Cubs.

That must have caused manager Rick Renteria to think all kinds of crazy thoughts. In the comments, tell us what he's thinking here.

Pitch Talks: Talking Baseball In Toronto

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Spending an extra day in Canada after the Cubs series proved to be very enlightening and entertaining.

TORONTO -- I'm heading back to Chicago (by way of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I'm attending a wedding this weekend), but after I posted that I was going to be spending an extra day north of the border, I received an email from Minor Leaguer, one of the writers at Bluebird Banter, the SB Nation Blue Jays site, suggesting I attend Pitch: Talks On Baseball, a new series of discussions for baseball fans in Toronto with various baseball people, ranging from writers to broadcasters to fans.

As it turned out, the location of the talk Thursday night was only a few blocks from my hotel, so I spent an evening full of informative and entertaining discussions about baseball with about 100 other fans. The talks, naturally, are centered around the Blue Jays and Canadian baseball, but there were plenty of other baseball-related topics in an evening that lasted four hours but was always full of laughter.

The speakers Thursday night were:

Ruhee Dewji, a Blue Jays fan from Calgary who discovered baseball in her 20s, talking about what it's like being a woman of color falling in love with baseball in adulthood. She talked about growing up as a hockey fan and, as someone who knew nothing about baseball, learning even the basics such as why it's different for a baseball team using multiple pitchers in a game as opposed to a hockey team pulling a goalie. She was engaging and funny and the organizers of these talks say they try to get an ordinary fan to give a talk each time.

Two broadcasters from the Blue Jays system, Ben Wagner, voice of the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, and Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, voice of the Low-A Lansing Lugnuts (who I met when I was in Lansing in July and who had an absolutely stunned look on his face when I surprised him by saying hello), spoke about Jays prospsects, the day-to-day life of a minor league broadcaster and how difficult it is to get into the industry. They also told stories about the biggest "promotion fails" they had witnessed. One involved someone called "Rubberboy". You can see what Rubberboy does here; suffice to say that the story involved the day he got stuck in the tennis racket.

Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star and Arturo Marcano of ESPN Deportes spoke about winter ball and the issues and prejudices Hispanic players face when they come to English America, and also noted that many American players (including Ryne Sandberg and Greg Maddux, and they showed baseball cards from the winter leagues depicting those two players when they couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 years old) who used to play in the Caribbean over the winter don't do this any more, primarily due to major-league teams worried about injuries and the multimillion-dollar investments they have in many players.

The last panelists were from the two competing Canadian TV sports networks, TSN and Sportsnet, with broadcasters Jamie Campbell, Stephen Brunt, and Dave Naylor telling stories and taking questions, some of which were quite pointed. They asked that the discussion be "off the record" so I can't, unfortunately, tell you much other than these three had great insight into not only Blue Jays baseball, but baseball in general. They've had Dan Shulman from ESPN and national baseball writer Jonah Keri at previous Pitch sessions. This one was the last one for 2014, but they hope to expand in the future and also have things like this in other cities. I had a great time and would love to see something like this in Chicago.

Game #146 Preview: Blue Jays vs. Rays

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The Blue Jays start a weekend series with Tampa Bay tonight that has a special feel about it this late in the season because it's relevant (for the first time in forever). While the Rays couldn't complete their epic midseason comeback and now sit at 70-77, the Blue Jays are just 3.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot with only the Mariners, Tigers, and Athletics in front of them for either Wild Card place. The pitching matchup tonight is a little underwhelming with J.A. Happ facing off against righty Nate KarnsAfter the Rays shut down Drew Smyly this week, Karns was recalled to take his place and tonight will be his first start with Tampa Bay. The 26-year-old came to the Rays in a trade with Washington this winter that included catcher Jose Lobaton,

Karns was drafted in the 12th round of the 2009 draft but shoulder surgery delayed his professional debut until 2011, after which he became one of the Nationals top prospects. Command issues slowed his ascent slightly, but he made his MLB debut last season and pitched not so well in three starts. In 27 starts with Triple-A Durham this year Karns has a 5.08 ERA, thanks in no small part to a BB-rate of 9.9%. There's no doubt Karns has the stuff to succeed at the major league level (including a mid-90's fastball), but he just hasn't been able to put it all together yet.

He mainly throws a fastball, curveball, and changeup, although his curveball has a hard break coming in at 85 mph. Obviously there isn't a ton of information on Karns yet, but here's how the movement of his pitches looks:

Brooksbaseball-chart__21__medium

Hopeful Lineup

  1. Jose Reyes SS
  2. Jose Bautista RF
  3. Edwin Encarnacion 1B
  4. Adam Lind dh!
  5. Dioner Navarro C
  6. Danny Valencia 3B
  7. Kevin Pillar LF
  8. Ryan Goins 2B
  9. Dalton Pompey CF

Bullpen Usage

Looks like a full assortment for John Gibbons tonight, while Joe Maddon can probably call on all of his relievers as well.
Blue Jays
Rays

Find The Link

Find the link between Nate Karns and the actress who played the only female Cartwright member in the Bonanza movie in the 90's.

Rays sign Neil Wagner to rare two-year minor league deal

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The right-hander is recovering from Tommy John surgery, which will force him to miss the entirety of the 2015 season.

The Tampa Bay Rays have made a rather intriguing minor move, signing free agent right-hander Neil Wagner to a two-year minor league contract, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. The deal also includes an invitation to major league Spring Training in 2016.

While nearly all minor league contracts are for a single year, there is just cause to giving Wagner a two-year deal. The 30-year-old underwent Tommy John surgery on August 19th, and is expected to sit out the 2015 season as he recovers. That gives him a timetable to return at the start of the 2016 season.

Wagner was having a rough season with the Toronto Blue Jays prior to his injury. In 10 appearances this season, he allowed nine earned runs. Wagner, who debuted with the Oakland Athletics in 2011, played a large role in Toronto's bullpen last season, throwing 38 innings and posting a 3.79 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 7.8 K/9, and 3.1 BB/9. Wagner was released by the Blue Jays last month after having been designated for assignment.

Per Nicholson-Smith, the Rays were not alone in their pursuit of Wagner, but their track record of resurrecting the careers of relievers likely pushed them over the top

Blue Jays waste a great start from J.A. Happ, lose to Rays

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A sad effort from our offense costs Happ a chance at his 10th win of the season.

Rays 1 Blue Jays 0

After scoring roughly 120 runs in three games against the Cubbies, we couldn't push 1 run across against the Rays and a pitcher that none of us had heard of before

That was a waste of a really good start from J.A. Happ. Happ went 7 innings, allowed just 2 hits (unfortunately one of them was a Ryan Hanigan home run that just barely cleared the wall in left), 1 walk, with 7 strikeouts. Happ was great, you couldn't ask for more from him.

Aaron Sanchez pitched 2 good innings, allowing just 1 walk. He does seem to have put away the curve, he threw just one that I noticed. I wonder if that means he's lost the spin on it. He was terrific, throwing high 90's.

Unfortunately, we didn't do anything with the bats. Someone named Nate Karns held us to just 2 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 8 in 7 innings. Nor could we do anything against Jake McGee or Grant Baufour in the 8th and 9th.

We really should have scored in the first. Karns had trouble finding the strike zone in the inning. Jose Reyes walked, Jose Bautista was hit by pitch and Adam Lind was walked. Sadly, in between Bautista and Lind, Edwin Encarnacion bounced one to third baseman Evan Longoria, who stepped on third and threw to first for the double play. Dioner Navarro ground out to end the inning. And that would be the only time the home side would threaten.

The only Jays to hit were Lind (1 for 3, with a walk) and Danny Valencia (1 for 3, double). On the "were they using the right end of the bat" side of the ledger, Navarro had 3 strikeouts and Kevin Pillar and Anthony Gose had 2 each.

Colby Rasmus pinch hit, but didn't homer. Munenori Kawasaki pinch hit for Ryan Goins (if Munenori is pinch hitting for you, you shouldn't be writing your Hall of Fame speech).

I didn't understand why Gibby didn't pinch hit for Gose, leading off the 8th, against lefty McGee. Mayberry should have come in to hit there, but then who knows if he would have made a difference.

Jays of the Day are Happ (.265 WPA) and Sanchez (.097).

Suckage goes to Edwin (-.253), Navarro (-.156) and Gose (-.117). You could really give one to all the batters. The lineup added up to a -.862 WPA.

We had 1130 comments in a pleasant GameThread. Spor led the way, but then he posts each comment several times so I should discount his score by 66%.

#Commenter# Comments
1Spor188
2Tom Dakers100
3Alan F.85
4Bowling_Guy2575
5MjwW66
6K93162
7The Gardiner Expressway52
8Awayce42
9carpe.nocti41
10StreakyJays39
11Strik3r35
12Nadia29
13REMO28
14erik.t27
15ABsteve25
16stressed25
17jmarples25
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Game #148 Preview: Blue Jays vs. Rays

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The final game of the series with the Rays goes today at 1:07 from the Rogers Centre. If you get there early enough you can grab yourself a nice Blue Jays satchel! Chris Archer goes for Tampa Bay and it will be his sixth start against Toronto this year, although it seems I haven't previewed one of his games yet which is pretty strange. After 29 starts this year the righty has a 3.63 ERA and a 3.31 FIP, which is beginning to look like a pretty fair yearly expectation of the North Carolina native.

To be honest, I'm a pretty big fan of Chris Archer even though he plays for a divisional rival and usually dominates the Blue Jays. He takes no crap even though he's a relative newcomer to the league and is mighty fun to watch when he's got his pitches working. Unfortunately the Rays locked him up to a wicked extension, which all but guarantees that he'll be facing the Blue Jays multiple times each season for years and years to come:

Screen_shot_2014-09-12_at_2.07.04_pm_medium

via Baseball Reference

At this point in his career Archer has pretty much settled into his repertoire as a fastball and slider pitcher, but the movement on his pitches allows him to still be successful. The sinker darts inside on right-handed hitters, while the slider tails away with nasty movement. Observe:

Brooksbaseball-chart__22__medium

Archersliderlind_medium

via gamereax.com

Edwinp1_medium

via TheScore.com

Hopeful Lineup

  1. Jose Reyes SS
  2. Jose Bautista RF
  3. Edwin Encarnacion 1B
  4. Adam Lind dh
  5. Dioner Navarro C
  6. Danny Valencia 3B
  7. Kevin Pillar LF
  8. Ryan Goins 2B
  9. Anthony Gose CF
There's no bullpen usage for today because I'm actually in Toronto for the weekend (might even be at this game!) without a computer to update the post.

Find The Link

Find the link between Chris Archer and the man in this photo.

Melky Cabrera's avulsion fracture

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We look at the simple, yet complex, anatomy behind Melky Cabrera's injury.

Hand injuries are common in baseball, and can not only result in impaired function and performance, but often create a significant amount of lost playing time in any given season. Given the location of the hands at the end of the kinetic chain, they are important in directing and stabilizing the power transferred by the lower half, core, and upper extremities into proper and accurate throws and swings. The hands and the numerous bones, ligament, tendons, and muscles therein are always at increased risk of insult due to their constant exposure to and importance in even the most trivial baseball tasks; thankfully, hand injuries heal in a more predictable fashion than other injury types, whether treated with surgery or non-invasive approaches.

For Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera, it was a hand injury that ended his season prematurely — in particular, an avulsion fracture of his right pinky finger with involvement of an extensor tendon, suffered on a play that saw Boston Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez pick Cabrera off first base. Lunging back to the bag with his right hand, Cabrera appeared to sustain blunt trauma to the pinky finger, with an eccentric mechanism causing the fracture. It also saw a small chunk of bone attached to the extensor tendon being pulled away from the main part of the bone. The extent of the avulsion led Cabrera to have surgery performed to repair the fracture, which was recently completed successfully.

While we don't have the exact tendon identified, given that it is Cabrera's pinky finger and it is a tendon of an extensor muscle, we have two options as to which muscle's tendon was inevitably injured: the extensor digitorum (ED) or the extensor digiti minimi (EDM). Having only two tendons to be concerned with can give a false sense of anatomical simplicity, but as we will see, when discussing the hands, this isn't necessarily the truth.

Each hand has twelve extensor muscles that comprise an extensor system that moves the wrist, thumb, and all fingers in the dorsal plane. Extensor tendons can also assist in radial and ulnar deviation of the wrist and contribute to the supination and pronation of the wrist and thumb. These muscles are extrinsic in nature, in that they do not originate from inside the hand, with our pinky finger muscles and tendons of interest originating from the lateral epicondyle of the humerus. As the tendons course toward the hand, they arrange themselves into a deep and superficial group, with the pinky tendons a part of it. Upon crossing the wrist, they course under a thickened band of tissue called the extensor retinaculum, which prevents displacement of the tendons via six compartments (or tunnels) of the retinaculum. As these extensors travel over the hand, bands of tissue called juncturae tendineae create an interconnecting web between tendons; this helps space the tendons, redistribute forces, coordination extension, and further stabilize the joints of the finger. This delicate anatomy is made even more complex through the interplay of these tendons and the incorporation of the intrinsic muscle system, and numerous interconnecting ligaments between the tendons and the volar plates of the phalanges, which are ligaments attaching two bones together. The splitting of extrinsic and interosseus muscle tendons into bands and slips also provide a large amount of anatomical variability and complexity to the hand. In terms of final attachment of the two pinky tendons of interest, they both insert on the middle, and distal phalanges, with the EDM also inserting onto the distal phalanx.

The aforementioned is not exhaustive, but provides a glimpse of the convoluted and tortuous details of anatomy of the hand and is enough to move forward and discuss the potential particulars of Cabrera's injury. Given the mechanisms involved, what he more than likely suffered was a mallet finger, which is a forced flexion of the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint while the terminal extensor tendon — likely the ED — is actively contracting. For Cabrera's situation, his hand was fully extended in an effort to touch the base before a tag was applied and banged his fingertips into the side of the base, creating the unexpected flexion of the DIP joint. This can cause an acute 'drop finger' deformity, where a loss of function and congruency of the DIP joint causes the distal phalanx to be hyperflexed.

Mallet injuries can be further divided into soft and bony injuries; considering the avulsion sustained also required surgery, Cabrera's probably suffered a bony mallet fracture and one that included a large avulsed fragment. A large avulsed fragment typically is one that sees 40% or more of the articular surface of the tendon removed due to the insult. Displacement of the fracture can also add complexity to the situation, as it requires manipulation of the joint and an open reduction to completely repair the fracture. Surgical reconstruction of the tendon can also introduce postoperative complications as well as an increased potential for loss of joint congruency and degenerative changes of the pinky and the joint.

As far as baseball activities, Cabrera should be fine to resume them soon and be back for Spring Training; of course, the severity of his injury and the surgical procedure undertaken will complicate matters. Surgical pinning of the joint can be temporary or permanent, with permanent fixation of the DIP joint in a neutral position a small but real possibility, thereby preventing Cabrera from flexing the DIP joint. While this wouldn't have a tremendous effect on his throwing, the return of his hitting wares would be the skill at most risk for sustaining any detrimental effects from the injury. The pinky finger is a significant contributor to grip strength and the ability to fully wrap his pinky around the bat (or lack thereof) could pose problems not only with finding a general level of comfort holding the bat, but also potentially with power, as the affected hand—his top hand—is responsible for providing much of the power of the swing and for maintaining a direct path to the ball.

A return to play in time for Spring Training next season are all but guaranteed for Cabrera. However, the extent of the injury sustained and the complexity of the surgical procedure will ultimately determine how well he bounces back and how much, if at all, the unfortunate break will affect his hitting and power.

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Stuart Wallace is an editor and writer at Beyond The Box Score. You can follow him on Twitter at @TClippardsSpecs.

References:

Dines, J. S. (2012). Sports medicine of baseball. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Henry, G.I., & Molnar, J.A.. Extensor Tendon Lacerations. Retrieved September 14, 2014, from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1286225

MLB Prospect Review: Jeff Hoffman, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays

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Jeff Hoffman went in the top 10 overall in this year's draft despite having Tommy John surgery a month before the draft. Could he be an undervalued prospect in dynasty drafts this year, and when could we see him in the major leagues?

The first thing that comes up when you plug Jeff Hoffman's name into Baseball Reference doesn't link you to the 9th overall pick in this year's draft, but if you've worked with BR much, you'll know that isn't much of a surprise. With Hoffman just a month removed from Tommy John surgery when he was drafted, he has yet to pitch in a game professionally. Yet the surgery didn't scare off the Blue Jays, who took him at #9 overall and gave him a bonus over $3 million dollars. Could the Jays have acquired an undervalued asset there, despite it being such a high draft pick?

Undrafted out of high school, Hoffman attended East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, had a decent, but not spectacular freshman season, and became a starting pitcher full time during his sophomore season. The performance that year was not bad either, but he firmly established himself as a potential top draft pick with his performance in the Cape Cod League last summer, and was named the top prospect in the league. He was named by Baseball America as the #2 college prospect eligible for this year's draft last offseason, and was widely expected to be at worst a top five overall pick.

His numbers looked good by the end of the college season in 2014, but with a string of up-and-down starts at times and an extremely dominant start against Middle Tennessee State where he struck out 16 over 8 shutout innings. Unfortunately, that was the end of his season in April, and within a month Hoffman had already undergone Tommy John surgery. It wasn't clear where exactly he would go in the draft at that point, as he had been considered a top five pick before the surgery.

Hoffman may have fallen to #9 overall, but may still be a top 5 fantasy option from this draft. He features three offerings which all could end up as above-average to plus in the major leagues (fastball, curveball, changeup), as well as a fourth that should be usable as well (slider). The pre-injury reports gushed about his long-term potential, ranking him in the same breath as White Sox' top pick Carlos Rodon and giving him a potential top-of-the-rotation ceiling. The injury concerns make it more difficult to determine his true long-term value, but you may be able to pick him up later in your dynasty drafts than you could have at the start of the year.

If everything clicks for Hoffman, you'll have at least a mid-rotation starting pitcher who is capable of providing a couple seasons where he is a top 15-20 fantasy starting pitcher and even more where he falls in the top 30-35. There are concerns about his control, and honestly we won't really know how large those concerns should be until he starts throwing again. With surgery in May 2014, we are probably looking at Hoffman returning to minor league games sometime between May and July of 2015, depending on how his rehab progresses.

Hoffman would probably be in the 5-7 range for me from this year's draft right now, as his potential upside is to be the best pitcher from this draft class. He likely won't see the majors until the 2017 season at the soonest, but if you're drafting outside the top five this year and/or are in the process of a rebuild, I would be targeting him as a high upside pick in that range. As always, the usual caveats remain regarding the potential for the surgery to be considered unsuccessful, but the organizations are getting very good at bringing players who have had the surgery back, and I would still rank Hoffman at about 90% of his original potential.

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