Series Recap: Blue Jays @ Mariners, July 27-29.

The last series against the Mariners was about as disappointing as the last three. Seattle won the series 2-1. Both losses were by one run and one of the losses came in the bottom of the ninth; yet another blown save by Scott Downs in the past week. The Jays just couldn't put together a full game of baseball: When their bats were working in game one, pitching wasn't at it's greatest; when their pitching was somewhat decent in games two and three, the bats weren't there to provide any significant run support. This coupled with some good pitching for Seattle pretty much sealed the deal on any hopes of taking two or three games.

Game Recaps
Game 1: Toronto 11, Seattle 4

WP Romero (9-4), LP Hernandez (11-4)


The FanGraph win probability graph shows the game was fairly even until the 6th when the Jays started to poor it on. Alex Rios—of all people—tied the game at four with a liner to left that scored Wells. Amazing. Rios hit to score Wells. Somehow Rios and Wells combined to score a run. Barahas and Inglet had back to back singles to score a couple more. All this with two outs. Carlson came in in the 7th, Downs came in in the 8th and Hayhurst—yes Dirk got some action!—came in in the 9th to shut down the Mariners.

Wait a second? Downs came in in the 8th while the score was 11-4? Downs has been taking a serious read from the B.J. Ryan book of pitching since the All-Star break. I just don't think putting him into a game situation in the 8th when the game is all but done—yes, I'm trying not to think about the 8 run blown lead from last week—is worth anything. A closer is a closer; they work under high pressure situations.

Game 2: Seattle 4, Toronto 3

WP Aardsma (3-3), LP Downs (1-3)

What a fucking stinker of a game. I'm really getting sick and tired of these one run losses. Especially the slew of walk-off losses the Jays have endured this year (worst team in baseball in extra innings, what a joke).

Rzed is starting to come back down to earth. I've said this in every single one of my posts about his pitching: his control and efficiency is shit. It's starting to catch up with him. 41% of his pitches were balls. This number has to come down if he's going to be an effective starter. He's keeping the ball too high in the strike zone, which produced only 4GB out of 12 balls in play. He did record 8Ks, which keeps his K/9 very high, but he needs to be more consistent.

This game just plain sucked to watch. The top of the 8th brought on a good high: Scutaro gets on base with a lead off double, Hill doubles, and Rios double—Alex Rios with another clutch hit—to tie the game up at 3. Shaun Camp threw 2.2 great innings, facing 8 batters and giving up only one hit. He continues to be pretty rock solid when pitching under three innings of relief.

Then comes the bottom of the 9th, Scott Downs, and a gentleman simply known as Ichiro. He hit a good pitch to win the game—whatever. The PitchFX tool shows that it was a good pitch from Downs; Ichiro went way out of the strike-zone to get it and somehow muscled a blooper to win the game. I get it. It was a good pitch. The fact is that Downs is pitching like shit. He made a couple good pitches against Ichiro—okay. But, he started off the inning by giving up a single to Hannahan, he walked Johnson and he made an embarrassing attempt to field a bunt from Woodward—Chris fucking Woodward. Downs gave up that hit to Ichiro because he allowed Ichiro to come up to bat by not ending the game 2 batters before. Scott Downs is playing like shit.

Game 3: Seattle 3, Toronto 2

WP Rowland-Smith (1-1), S Aardsma (25), LP Halladay (11-4)


An uncharacteristic 11 hits over 7 innings by Halladay, a great pitching effort from Rowland-Smith—he had a no-no going into the 7thand a lack of any real offense from Jays and what can you say? Speculate all you want about trade rumours, but Halladay was gassed going into the 7th. He hadn't pitched a great game to that point. I have no idea why Cito kept him in. Camp did throw a bunch the game before, but Frasor, Accardo, Carlson and League were all easily available. I blame this loss on Cito.

The Jays now have a record of 49-53 and sit 13.5GB of the Yankees in the division.

Thumbs up goes to...

Alex Rios. He went 4 for 13, 1 2B, and 2RBI for the series. He also had a couple of clutch at bats in the first and second games of the series and had a 0.293 WPA, tops of all Jays hitters.

Marco Scutaro. He went 5 for 13 and had a wOBA of 0.346 for the series.

Joe Inglett. He went 3 for 6 in the series. He had a great first game of the series and game in as a pitch runner in the second game and got a key single in his at bat.

Aaron Hill. He made a couple very clutch hits and had the second best 0.239 WPA.

Shawn Camp. Great outing in game two.

Thumbs down goes to...

Scott Downs. Duh. Had an absolutely terrible game 2 and lost the game in the bottom of the 9th. During that outing, he gave up 3 hits, and a walk on 8 batters faced.

Kevin Millar. He went 0 for 4 in 6 plate appearances.

Jose Bautista. He went 0 for 5 in 7 plate appearances. It's hard to stay mad at him though; he did make a couple of great throws in the field.

Vernon Wells. He went 2 for 12 and couldn't put the bat to the ball when it counted. His -0.280 WPA was worst on the team over the series.

Next series starts tomorrow against the Athletics of Oakland. Probably pitchers are Richmond (6-5, 3.69) vs. Barden (7-9, 3.74), Romero (9-4, 3.59) vs. Cahill (6-9, 4.77) and TBA vs. Mazzaro (2-7, 5.16).

Richmond gets his first start back from rehab. The Jays are facing the bottom of the rotation. Hopefully they can pull out a couple of wins.

Player Watch: July 29, 2009

It's Wednesday: player watch day. Here are weekly and season stats for the notable young position players on the farm:

Travis Snider LF







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AAA) 7 10 1 0 3 9 0.345 0.387 0.690










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AAA) 30 27 3 0 7 19 0.257 0.355 0.486
Blue Jays 32 24 6 0 3 12 0.242 0.292 0.394




















J.P. Arencibia C







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AAA) 6 2 1 0 1 3 0.077 0.077 0.231










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AAA) 79 73 26 1 11 47 0.230 0.280 0.423




















Brian Jeroloman C







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 5 3 0 0 0 0 0.231 0.375 0.231










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 80 62 12 0 6 22 0.230 0.344 0.342




















Kyle Phillips C







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AAA) 1 1 0 0 1 1 0.250 0.400 1.000










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 12 7 0 0 1 1 0.175 0.233 0.250
Blue Jays (AAA) 52 64 12 0 5 15 0.335 0.400 0.476




















Brian Dopirak 1B







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AAA) 6 8 0 0 0 0 0.333 0.360 0.333










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 87 101 29 1 19 68 0.308 0.374 0.576
Blue Jays (AAA) 12 16 3 0 0 4 0.327 0.346 0.388




















Justin Jackson SS







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (A+) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000




















Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (A+) 78 53 12 1 0 17 0.213 0.321 0.269




















David Cooper 1B







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 7 3 2 0 0 3 0.115 0.115 0.192










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 89 83 21 0 4 42 0.251 0.325 0.350




















Kevin Ahrens 3B







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (A+) 6 2 1 0 0 0 0.095 0.174 0.143










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (A+) 80 60 12 1 2 25 0.206 0.280 0.275




















Brad Emaus 2B/3B







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 7 6 2 0 0 3 0.316 0.480 0.421










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 102 95 25 2 6 47 0.251 0.336 0.376




















Eric Thames OF







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (A+) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.000 0.000










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (A+) 42 48 11 2 2 30 0.308 0.391 0.442




















Scott Campbell 2B







Week









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 7 8 1 0 2 8 0.308 0.333 0.577










Totals









G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (A+) 5 10 1 0 0 3 0.500 0.522 0.550
Blue Jays (AA) 23 21 5 1 2 11 0.263 0.366 0.425
Blue Jays (AAA) 27 22 3 1 0 6 0.229 0.327 0.281

Snider had a pretty good week in Las Vegas. No doubt, we'll probably see him again when the roster increases to 40. It's nice to see him getting some power back as of late. Dopirak also had a good week, but all of his hits were singles. Down in New Hapshire, Brad Emus had a couple of doubles over the week and a very good .480 OPS. Scott Campbell also had a great week for the Fisher Cats and showed some great power with 2HR and a double; he also cashed in 8 runs.

Was a pretty horrible week for J.P. Arencibia. It's looking like he and Jeroloman will be fighting for a spot in the MLB over the next little while. Kevin Ahrens also had a terrible week in in HiA; he only had two hits all week.

Justin Jackson went on the 7-day DL after his game on the 24th. Eric Thames remains on the 7-day DLl he hasn't played since the June 28.

Now for the young arms:
(Note: this week, in the weekly stats, ERA is a change in ERA. I will make it a weekly ERA next week) This problem has been fixed and the stats have been updated

Marc Rzepczynski LHP







Week









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays 0 1 4.89 2 9.2 0 6 14 1.52










Totals









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays 1 2 3.25 5 27.2 1 17 30 1.32




















Ricky Romero LHP







Week









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays 2 0 6.49 2 11.1 1 6 5 1.98










Totals









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (A+) 0 1 13.50 1 4.0 2 1 5 1.75
Blue Jays (AA) 0 0 1.69 1 5.1 0 5 4 1.57
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 0 7.20 1 5.0 0 2 3 2.00
Blue Jays 9 4 3.59 16 102.2 13 41 82 1.39




















Brad Mills LHP







Week









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0 0 0.00
Blue Jays 0 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0 0 0.00










Totals









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA) 2 8 4.06 14 84.1 6 35 72 1.40
Blue Jays 0 1 14.09 2 7.2 4 6 9 2.78




















Brett Cecil LHP







Week









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays 1 0 1.29 1 7.0 1 3 7 1.00










Totals









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA) 1 5 5.69 9 49.0 2 19 32 1.47
Blue Jays 4 1 4.27 10 59.0 9 24 49 1.59




















Robert Ray RHP







Week









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0 0 0.00










Totals









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (A+) 0 1 4.91 1 3.2 0 0 1 2.19
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 0 0.00 1 4.1 0 3 3 1.22
Blue Jays 1 2 4.44 4 24.1 4 6 13 1.20


For the Jays doing rehab:

Shaun Marcum RHP







Week









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 0 4.50 1 2.0 0 1 0 1.50










Totals









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (A+) 0 1 3.00 2 6.0 0 0 5 1.17
Blue Jays (AA) 0 1 1.17 2 7.2 1 2 8 1.39
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 0 4.50 1 2.0 0 1 0 1.50




















Casey Jansen RHP







Week









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (AA) 0 0 27.00 0 1.0 0 1 1 4.00
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 0 30.00 0 1.2 0 1 1 3.33










Totals









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (R) 0 0 9.00 0 1.0 0 0 0 2.00
Blue Jays (A+) 0 0 0.69 3 13.0 0 2 10 0.62
Blue Jays (AA) 1 0 2.40 1 15.0 0 5 12 1.13
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 0 21.60 0 1.2 0 1 1 3.33
Blue Jays 2 3 6.23 5 26.0 4 7 11 1.81




















Scott Richmond RHP







Week









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 1 1.76 1 5.1 1 1 5 0.78










Totals









W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays (R) 0 0 8.10 1 3.1 1 1 5 3.23
Blue Jays (AAA) 0 1 1.69 1 5.1 1 1 5 0.78
Blue Jays 6 5 3.69 13 85.1 15 30 71 1.20

Scott Richmond is finished his rehab stint and is penciled in to start on Friday. Jansen is now doing bullpen work in Las Vegas. I would expect that he won't be starting any more games this season. I feel he works best from the pen anyway. Marcum is now pitching in Las Vegas. I'm interested to see him get a few more starts at that level.

What a stinky mess

The shit show Mets somehow created an even worse shit show at a press conference announcing the firing of the creator of the original shit show—that's a lot of shit.

Today the Mets fired former player personnel chief and future UFC competitor Tony Bernazard after an incident last week. Bernazard, in a heated rant to players on the AA MiLB affiliate, ripped off his shirt and challenged team members to fight him. This prompted an investigation by the Mets, which uncovered other past incidents: altercations with visiting scouts, an altercation with closer KRod and an altercation with other staff members.

In today's press conference announcing the firing, Mets' GM Omar Minaya singled out Adam Rubin, the reported who wrote the piece that prompted the investigation. Minaya accused Rubin of somehow having misplaced interest, as in the past he had inquired "about how to get into baseball."

A clip of the original press conference can be seen here. Minaya's comments prompted such turmoil and shit throwing that Rubin—a reporter himself—had to state a psudo press conference with his colleagues; that can be seen here.

This one makes absolutely no fucking sense to me. First off, he reported something that was 100% true. In no way did he make a malicious attempt at getting Bernazard fired. Read all the shit that is coming out about Bernazard now. Apparently, this is not a recent turn in his character. Second off, the guy made a general inquiry about how to get into baseball with baseball people. What the fuck is wrong with that? It would be the same as a student of journalism asking Rubin about how to get into sports writing. Would Rubin fear that the student wanted his job? Absolutely not. Ridiculous.

Well, all eyes are on Minaya now; he's made a stab at one of their own. You better believe this will be in the headlines for a while considering the Mets aren't doing anything on the feild that warrants being documented.

Update:

Jeff Blair's tweet on the fiasco is pretty damn funny. GloBlair posted,

This just in: Omar Minaya says he'll trade Adam Rubin to NY Times, but that there's a "premium" to being traded within the city.

Game Scores Update: July 27, 2009

It's Monday, meaning it's GSc update day. Here we go: It was an up and down week for Jays starting pitchers,


AGSc Chg GS Starts Week Avg
Roy Halladay 62.21 +1.98 19 2 79.00
Marc Rzepczynski 56.50 -3.00 4 2 53.50
Scott Richmond 55.00 +0.00 13 0
Ricky Romero 54.60 -2.48 15 2 38.50
Brett Cecil 48.60 +4.98 10 2 68.50
Robert Ray 48.50 +0.00 4 0
Brian Tallet 47.56 -0.50 18 1 39.00
David Purcey 41.00 +0.00 5 0
Jesse Litch 37.00 +0.00 2 0
Brad Mills 25.00 +0.00 2 0

Amongst all the trade diarrhea spewing from every crevasse of the baseball conglomerate, Roy "Pitching Machine SOK-7000" Halladay had a fabulous week; he went 9 innings in both starts and for the week his line was 10H, 2ER, 3BB, and 17K. Vintage Halladay. He recorded GSc of 78 and 80 respectively in those starts. Romero had a bit of a tough week; he didn't earn a QS in either of his outings. Cecil got the call form Las Vegas and was fabulous this week; over 14IP his line was 11H, 1ER, 7BB, and 16K. Rzep's first start of the week wasn't great and he was yanked after 4.1IP over which the Red Sox scored 4 runs (only two earned).

For notables in the MLB, this week's GSc stats are,

Pos Chg
AGSc Chg GS Starts Week Avg
1 +0 Dan Haren 66.75 -1.08 20 2 57.00
2 +0 Tim Lincecum 64.20 -0.69 20 2 58.00
3 +0 Zack Greinke 63.15 +0.37 20 2 66.50
4 +0 Chris Carpenter 62.47 +0.77 15 2 67.50
5 +2 Roy Halladay 62.21 +1.98 19 2 79.00
6 -1 Felix Hernandez 61.80 +0.86 20 2 69.50
7 -1 Javier Vazquez 60.40 -0.16 20 2 59.00
8 +1 Matt Cain 60.15 +0.93 20 2 68.50
9 -1 Josh Johnson 59.45 -0.02 20 1 59.00
10 +1 Justin Verlander 59.10 +0.78 21 2 66.50
11 -1 Yovani Gallardo 58.85 +0.18 20 2 60.50
12 +3 Adam Wainwright 57.52 +0.37 21 2 61.00
13 +5 Wandy Rodriguez 57.50 +1.17 20 2 68.00
14 +0 Josh Becket 57.26 +0.04 19 1 58.00
15 +2 Jake Peavy 56.69 +0.00 13 0
16 +6 Jair Jurrjens 56.52 +1.63 21 2 72.00
17 -1 Johan Santana 56.40 -0.71 20 2 50.00
18 -6 Jered Weaver 56.20 -1.97 20 2 38.50
19 +0 Matt Garza 56.05 +0.49 20 2 60.50
20 +10 Mark Buehrle 55.55 +2.44 20 2 77.50
21 -1 Jon Lester 55.50 +0.39 20 2 59.00
22 -1 CC Sabathia 55.48 +0.42 21 2 59.50
23 +1 Roy Oswalt 55.38 +1.22 21 2 67.00
24 +4 Cliff Lee 55.36 +2.05 22 3 68.33
25 -12 Chad Billingsley 55.19 -2.18 21 2 34.50
26 +3 Joel Pineiro 54.63 +1.34 19 2 66.00
27 +0 Kevin Millwood 53.95 +0.11 21 2 55.00
28 -3 A.J. Burnett 53.89 -0.22 19 2 52.00
29 -6 Carlos Zambrano 53.89 -0.55 18 2 49.50
30 +3 Jason Marquis 53.00 +1.00 19 1 71.00
31 +3 Ryan Dempster 51.76 +0.00 17 0
32 +0 Doug Davis 51.19 -1.34 21 2 38.50
33 -7 Dallas Braden 51.00 -3.00 21 3 33.00
34 +2 Barry Zito 49.75 +1.42 20 2 62.50
35 -4 Nick Blackburn 49.60 -3.46 20 2 18.50
36 -1 Tim Wakefield 49.53 +0.00 17 0
37 +0 Derek Lowe 48.77 +0.46 22 3 51.67
38 +1 Bronson Arroyo 48.16 +0.86 19 2 55.50
39 -1 Kevin Slowey 47.63 +0.00 16 0


Halladay led last week and moved up a couple of spots to now sit 5th on the list. On the heals of his perfect game—his GSc for that game was 93—Buehrle had the second best week. His other start was a QS agaist the Orioles: 7.1 IP, 8H, 1ER, 0BB, 7K. Jair Jurrjens had a great start against the Mets which he followed by another great start against the Giants; over the week he pitched 13.2IP, 5H, 1ER, 3BB, and 10K for the third best week.

Now for the bums: Blackburn had two horrible starts. The first was against the Athletics where he gave up 13H and 7ER over 5IP; the other was against the Angels where he gave up 6H and 6ER over 3.2IP. For the week we averaged a pathetic 18.50GSc. Billingsley's week was ruined by a horrible 1.2IP, 9H, 6ER, 0BB, and 0K against the Astros; he recorded a 13GSc for that outing. Braden's week was brought down by terrible starts against the Angels and the Yankees; he recorded GSc of 17 and 24 respectively in those starts.

Again, I'm open to adding any starting pitchers to the notables list. If you'd like to see someone included, let me know.