Player Watch: August 5, 2009.

Here is today's prospect update. There's some good news for position players:

Travis Snider	LF
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	5	9	6	1	2	11	0.500	0.625	1.278
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	35	36	9	1	9	30	0.293	0.400	0.602
Blue Jays	32	24	6	0	3	12	0.242	0.292	0.394
Totals	67	60	15	1	12	42	0.270	0.355	0.509
J.P. Arencibia	C
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	4	2	0	0	0	1	0.143	0.235	0.143
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	83	75	26	1	11	48	0.227	0.278	0.411
Totals	83	75	26	1	11	48	0.227	0.278	0.411
Brian Dopirak	1B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	5	11	0	0	5	12	0.478	0.478	1.130
Season
	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)	17	27	3	0	5	16	0.375	0.387	0.625
Totals	104	128	32	1	24	84	0.320	0.376	0.585
Brian Jeroloman	C
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	4	4	0	1	0	0	0.333	0.385	0.500
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	84	66	12	1	6	22	0.235	0.345	0.349
Totals	84	66	12	1	6	22	0.235	0.345	0.349
Kyle Phillips	C
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	1	1	0	0	0	1	0.250	0.400	0.250
Season
	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)	53	65	12	0	5	16	0.333	0.400	0.472
Totals	65	72	12	0	6	17	0.306	0.373	0.434
Justin Jackson	SS
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	78	53	12	1	0	17	0.213	0.321	0.269
Totals	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)	5	5	2	0	1	4	0.263	0.263	0.526
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	94	88	23	0	5	46	0.251	0.322	0.360
Totals	94	88	23	0	5	46	0.251	0.322	0.360
Kevin Ahrens	3B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	4	5	2	0	0	1	0.313	0.333	0.438
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	84	65	14	1	2	26	0.212	0.283	0.283
Totals	84	65	14	1	2	26	0.212	0.283	0.283
Brad Emaus	2B/3B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	5	6	0	0	1	2	0.353	0.450	0.529
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	107	101	25	2	7	49	0.256	0.341	0.382
Totals	107	101	25	2	7	49	0.256	0.341	0.382
Eric Thames	OF
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	42	48	11	2	2	30	0.308	0.391	0.442
Totals	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)	4	1	0	0	0	2	0.071	0.188	0.071
Season
	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)	27	22	5	1	2	13	0.234	0.339	0.372
Blue Jays (AAA)	27	22	3	1	0	6	0.229	0.327	0.281
Totals	59	54	9	2	2	22	0.257	0.351	0.348

Travis Snider was an absolute monster at the dish last week. Over 18 at bats he was slugging 1.278 and had a monster .625 OBP. Not to be outdone, Brian Dopirak also had a great week at the plate; a whopping 1.130 slug with 12 RBIs. Hopefully we'll get to see Dopirak in Toronto as a September callup—I'm sure he'll hit better than Millar and probably better than Overbay. Jeroloman also had a good week in New Hampshire, and once again Arencibia continues to struggle this season. Jeroloman is making a case to be the future starting catcher over Arencibia. Justin Jackson and Eric Thames are both injured and on the 7-day DL.

On to the pitchers:

Ricky Romero	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays	1	0	2.57	1	7.0	0	1	5	1.29
Season
	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	10	4	3.53	17	109.2	13	42	87	1.38
Brett Cecil	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays	1	0	5.14	1	7.0	0	1	3	1.00
Season
	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	5	1	4.36	11	66.0	9	25	52	1.53
Marc Rzepczynski	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays	1	2	3.25	5	27.2	1	17	30	1.32
Zach Stewart	RHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Robert Ray	RHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Season
	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
Brad Mills	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Season
	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

Romero had a an excellent start in Oakland last week. Cecil's start last week wasn't as solid has his previous two with the Jays, but what he has show since being recalled has definitely been good. Rzed didn't get a start, but is on the mount tonight versus the Yankees. Both Mills and Ray are injured and not pitching.

Notice that I've added Zach Stewart (acquired in the Rolen deal). He has yet to make an appearance in Las Vegas.

On to the rehabbers:

Shaun Marcum	RHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Season
	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 (AAA)	0	0	0.00	0	2.0	0	0	2	0.50
Season
	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	9.82	0	3.2	0	1	3	1.56
Blue Jays	2	3	6.23	5	26.0	4	7	11	1.81

After making his way quickly to Class AAA during his rehab stint, Marcum did not pitch over the last week in Las Vegas. No news as to why. Hopefully he hasn't aggravated the injury; he was timelined to be back mid-late August, and I'm looking forward to seeing him pitch in the MLB again.

Casey Jansen also didn't see much action pitching from the pen in Class AAA. The two innings that he did pitch were solid.

The ultimate fantasy camp.

It's good to see MLB players taking time to give back to the fans. Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard took it upon themselves to start their very own baseball fantasy camp.

Could you imagine how much fun a Scott Downs/Brian Tallet fantasy experience would be?

(h/t to David Pinto of baseballmusings.com)

Downs undergoes surgery on toe

After reinjuring his toe during the ninth inning of the Jays game on Saturday, Blue Jays closer Scott "Snake Face" Downs was placed on the DL. Downs flew back to Toronto on Sunday to have his big toe—often dubbed the "Captain of the Toes" or "the one who went to the market"—by team podiatrist Dr. Glenn Copeland. Copeland acknowledged that Downs had injured ligaments in the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint of the toe. "This is a typical injury which usually results from a hyperflexion mechanism; the toe is bent too far upward," Copeland explained. "For a pitcher with this type of injury" he continued, "there might be slight discomfort when pushing off the mound."

Downs will undergo a procedure similar to Tommy John surgery whereby the ligaments in the toe will be replaced with tendons taken from elsewhere in his body. Much like Tommy John surgery, it will take Downs 10-12 months to recover and he shouldn't be expected to regain 100% power in his foot until sometime after.

When asked if the surgery was necessary, Copeland responded by saying "Absolutely not. His toe is sore. We told him to play through it as the soreness would last a few days at most. Scott refused to even pickup a baseball until 'his boo-boo toe wasn't bwoken.' That's exactly how he said it," Copeland stated in a mocking tone. "This is ridiculous. Arsnberg pretty much forced me to do it. He asked me if it was possible to do Tommy John surgery on a toe. I thought about it for a minute and jokingly responded by telling him that it was technically possible. His face lit up and that was that; the decision was made."

It's expected that Jason Frasor will take over closing duties with Brandon League filling in when Frasor is not available. The Jays might also experiment with the newly acquired Josh Roenicke who has experience closing in college ball and in the minor leagues.

Game Scores Update: August 3, 2009

It's time for this week's GSc update. Jays pitching this week was below average:

	AGSc	Chg	GS	Starts	Week Avg
Roy Halladay	61.55	-0.66	20	1	49.00
Marc Rzepczynski	55.60	-0.90	5	1	52.00
Ricky Romero	53.76	-0.84	17	2	47.50
Scott Richmond	52.79	-2.21	14	1	24.00
Brett Cecil	48.82	+0.22	11	1	51.00
Robert Ray	48.50	+0.00	4	0
Brian Tallet	47.56	+0.00	18	0
David Purcey	41.00	+0.00	5	0
Jesse Litch	37.00	+0.00	2	0
Brad Mills	25.00	+0.00	2	0

All five starters underperformed. Most notable was Richmond. On Friday, he made his first start since returning to the majors from a stint on the DL. In that game in Oakland, he only went 3+ innings and had to be replaced by Tallet after giving up 6 runs (4 earned) on 19 batters faced. Doc Halladay also had an uncharacteristic start where he gave up 11 hits over 7 innings.

For notables in the majors the GSc looks this:

Pos	Chg		AGSc	Chg	GS	Starts	Week Avg
1	+0	Dan Haren	66.00	-0.75	21	1	51.00
2	+0	Tim Lincecum	65.73	+1.53	22	2	81.00
3	+1	Chris Carpenter	62.59	+0.12	17	2	63.50
4	+1	Roy Halladay	61.55	-0.66	20	1	49.00
5	-2	Zack Greinke	61.45	-1.70	22	2	44.50
6	+2	Matt Cain	61.24	+1.09	21	1	83.00
7	+0	Javier Vazquez	60.52	+0.12	21	1	63.00
8	-2	Felix Hernandez	59.59	-2.21	22	2	37.50
9	+1	Justin Verlander	59.32	+0.22	22	1	64.00
10	+1	Yovani Gallardo	59.14	+0.29	21	1	65.00
11	-2	Josh Johnson	58.71	-0.74	21	1	44.00
12	+0	Adam Wainwright	58.09	+0.56	23	2	64.00
13	+0	Wandy Rodriguez	57.82	+0.32	22	2	61.00
14	+0	Josh Becket	57.81	+0.55	21	2	63.00
15	+2	Johan Santana	57.33	+0.93	21	1	76.00
16	-1	Jake Peavy	56.69	+0.00	13	0
17	+7	Cliff Lee	56.39	+1.03	23	1	79.00
18	+1	Matt Garza	55.81	-0.24	21	1	51.00
19	+7	Joel Pineiro	55.45	+0.82	20	1	71.00
20	-4	Jair Jurrjens	55.43	-1.09	23	2	44.00
21	+2	Roy Oswalt	55.36	-0.02	22	1	55.00
22	-4	Jered Weaver	55.32	-0.88	22	2	46.50
23	+2	Chad Billingsley	55.04	-0.15	23	2	53.50
24	-3	Jon Lester	54.67	-0.83	21	1	38.00
25	+4	Carlos Zambrano	54.15	+0.26	20	2	56.50
26	+1	Kevin Millwood	53.95	+0.00	21	0
27	-5	CC Sabathia	53.91	-1.56	23	2	37.50
28	+0	A.J. Burnett	53.14	-0.75	21	2	46.00
29	+1	Jason Marquis	53.14	+0.14	21	2	54.50
30	-10	Mark Buehrle	53.00	-2.55	22	2	27.50
31	+0	Ryan Dempster	51.37	-0.40	19	2	48.00
32	+0	Doug Davis	51.27	+0.08	22	1	53.00
33	+0	Dallas Braden	50.41	-0.59	22	1	38.00
34	+0	Barry Zito	50.05	+0.30	22	2	53.00
35	+1	Tim Wakefield	49.53	+0.00	17	0
36	-1	Nick Blackburn	49.05	-0.55	21	1	38.00
37	+0	Derek Lowe	48.83	+0.05	23	1	50.00
38	+0	Bronson Arroyo	48.14	-0.02	21	2	48.00
39	+0	Kevin Slowey	47.63	+0.00	16	0

The Aces...

Tim Lincecum had two very good starts last week. On July 27th he pitched a complete game gem against the Pirates. He allowed no earned runs on 4 hits, struck out 15, and earned a GSc of 87 (his second highest of the season). He followed that great outing with a GSc of 75 on August 1st against the Philadelphia. In that outing he pitched 8 shutout innings, struck out 8 and only gave up one walk.

Matt Cain—in his only start of the week—earned a 3 hit complete game shutout against the Pirates on July 29th (the Pirates seem to be padding pitcher stats for opposing teams); he earned a GSc of 83 in that effort.

Cliff Lee—in his first start with the Phillies—pitched a complete game one run affair against the Giants. He gave up only 4 hits, had 6Ks and 2BB.

The Bums...

Mark Buehrle—the week after going el perfecto—recorded game scores of 45 and 10 in his two starts of the week. In the latter outing against the Yankees, Buehrle gave up 7 earned runs and 12 hits in 4.1 innings. Buehrle's terrible week drops him 10 spots in the rankings and he lost 2.55 overall points on his season average.

King Felix Hernandez had a terrible start against the Jays on July 27th; he stayed in for 5.2 innings where he gave up 11 hits, and 7 earned runs. He earned a GSc of 20 in that outing. Hernandez dropped below 60.0 for the season.

Sabathia had a bad outing against the Rays (GSc 33) and a bad outing against the White Sox (GSc 42). Over 12.2 innings and 57 batters, he gave up 10 earned runs, 19 hits and 3 home runs.

Series Recap: Blue Jays @ Athletics, July 31-Aug 2.

The Jays continues their west coast swing with three against the Athletics of Oakland. A few notable events occured for the Jays going into this one: The big Scott "The Human Highlight Real" Rolen trade—if you haven't already, check out The Blue Jay Hunter's top 10 Rolen defensive gems as a Jay—which brought Edwin "E5" Encarnacion and Josh Roenicke to the lineup on Saturday; and on Friday Scott Richmond made his first start after coming off the DL.

Game Recaps
Game 1: Oakland 8, Toronto 5

Scott Downs Richmond made his first start since a month long stint on the DL and he stunk himself right out of the ball park. I was embarrassed to be a Jays fan watching this disgrace unfold. The entirety of the best fielding team in baseball was clearly murdered before the game and replaced with an inferior fielding group of cyborgs. Alex "I'm scared of a routine fly ball" cost Richmond a couple of runs in the first. The train was off the tracks and never quite got back on. Richmond went a pathetic 3+ having given up 7 hits, 6 runs—4 earned due to the Rios error—on only 19 batters. I'm not going to show the FanGraph win probability graph for this one; it looked like the heart-rate of a 400lb blob of a human chasing a twinkie.

What business did Kevin Millar have batting 4th? Jesus. His slash line was a joke going into this game: .227/.303/.370. Not cleanup hitter number. Those are teetering on Mendosa line numbers for Chirst sake. At least he made up for his pathetic batting with great defense. No wait. He bobbled a grounder routine that would have ended the 4th inning. Millar is useless and needs to be released. End of story.

My Cyborg speculation was proven to be true when Cyborg John McDonald committed an error on an innocently hit ground ball—the real Sir John A. would have made the play, clearly. The only bright spot of this one came from the one, two, three hitters—Scoots, Hill, Lind—who had 8 of the 10 hits. I'll be honest; this game was so bad that I passed out sometime during the top of the 4th and had to watch the rest of the game the next morning on mlb.tv

Game 2: Toronto 6, Oakland 5

Okay, game 1 had Millar in the 4 hole. This game had Overbay in the 4 hole? What the fuck is going on? I guess this begs the question, who else do they have to put in the cleanup slot? Fair enough. Personally I think Hill should be batting 3rd—I don't think he has the speed of a true number 2—and ideally Rios should be batting second. However, this year Rios's batting average doesn't warrant him a spot in the top 3 (I'm planning on writing a post on the 2010 Jays and a possible lineup soon). Anyway, Overbay as cleanup.


Cecil had a decent game. In fact, he only ran into real problems in the 2th. Taking away the 2th inning, Cecil had an excellent start. The Blue Jay bats were working in this one providing enough run support to squeak out a win. Wells AND Rios both had good days at the plate and Hill extended his hit streak, had 4 RBIs, and a home run that came at an absolute perfect time (look at the change in WP on the graph).

League continued his string of solid appearances going 3 up and three down relief of Cecil in the 8th. BJ Ryan Scott Downs had another rough outing which was saved by an apparent foot/leg/labia injury. Not sure if he took a dive so that he didn't blow another save, but in any case Frasor had to come on and clean up the mess. He did. We won. Yay.

After the game, Downs was placed on the DL and Accardo was bounced back up; he hadn't even left the hotel in San Fransisco yet...

Game 3:

Another game with Overbay in the 4 hole. Jose BAW-tista leading off? Oy vay. Anyway, this was a game to actually get a little excited about:


The Jays' hitters got to Athletics' starter right from the get go: Hill had a two run shot; Alex Rios hit a line drive double to left. It was 5-0 going into Romero's side of the first and the Jays never really looked back. Romero had a great game completing 7 innings, giving up 8H, 2ER, with 5K and 1BB. He also had a very impressive 50% GB% and recorded his 10th win of the season.

McDonald does his best Scott Rolen impression by starting a seemingly impossible double play. We also got a first look at the newly acquired Josh Roenicke. His 95 mph fastball was impressive; he struck out two of the four batters faced.

Finally a game where there offense and pitching were clicking at the same time. This was a great game to watch.

Thumbs up goes to...

Aaron Hill. Hill was an absolute monster this series. He went 6 for 14, had 2 2B, 2HR and cashed in 8 RBI. His wOBA for the series was a massive .545.

Rickey Romero. Recording his 10th win on a very good start on Sunday.

Jason Frasor. He continued his string of great relief—even in high pressure situations—when he cleaned up Scott Downs' mess on Saturday.

Josh Roenicke. Got a good first look in one inning pitched on Sunday.

Thumbs down goes to...

Scott Richmond. His first start back from the DL was brutal. Let's hope this was just an anomaly.

Scott Downs. Brutal. DL. Good riddance.

Alex Rios. His only hit of the series was his bases loaded double in game three. He didn't reach base in any of this other 11 plate appearances.

The next series is a short 2 gamer at home against the Yankees starting Tuesday. The probable pitchers are Pettitte (8-6, 4.51) vs. Halladay (11-4, 2.68) and Mitre (1-0, 7.90) vs. Rzepczynski (1-2, 3.25).

Looking forward to both pitching match-ups; it's always great to see The Doctor on the mount; and the battle of the youngsters should be great on Wednesday.

I'll have the Game Score Update done later tonight.