Player Watch: August 12, 2009

I won't say too much about today's player watch, as I don't have much time today to put up the post. I also want to put up a post about the Rios debacle at some point very soon, but haven't had the chance over the past few days for a few reasons: depression, anxiety, and just being busy overall—also wanted to let the dust settle a bit. But look for that either later today or tomorrow morning.

Okay, player watch (I'll post players, pitcher and rehabs then comment at the very end):

Players

Travis Snider	LF
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	9	15	3	0	4	7	0.405	0.463	0.811
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	44	51	12	1	13	37	0.319	0.414	0.650
Blue Jays	32	24	6	0	3	12	0.242	0.292	0.394
Totals	76	75	18	1	16	49	0.290	0.370	0.552
J.P. Arencibia	C
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	7	6	2	0	1	1	0.214	0.267	0.393
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	90	81	28	1	12	49	0.226	0.277	0.409
Totals	90	81	28	1	12	49	0.226	0.277	0.409
Brian Dopirak	1B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	9	11	2	0	1	4	0.297	0.366	0.432
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)	26	38	5	0	6	20	0.349	0.379	0.560
Totals	113	139	34	1	25	88	0.318	0.376	0.572
Brian Jeroloman	C
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	6	3	1	0	0	1	0.150	0.346	0.200
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	90	69	13	1	6	23	0.229	0.346	0.339
Totals	90	69	13	1	6	23	0.229	0.346	0.339
Kyle Phillips	C
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AAA)	3	2	0	0	0	0	0.182	0.308	0.182
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)	56	67	12	0	5	16	0.325	0.395	0.456
Totals	68	74	12	0	6	17	0.301	0.370	0.423
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)	7	8	2	0	1	3	0.348	0.484	0.565
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	101	96	25	0	6	49	0.257	0.334	0.373
Totals	101	96	25	0	6	49	0.257	0.334	0.373
Kevin Ahrens	3B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	6	4	0	0	0	5	0.211	0.261	0.211
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (A+)	90	69	14	1	2	31	0.212	0.281	0.279
Totals	90	69	14	1	2	31	0.212	0.281	0.279
Brad Emaus	2B/3B
Week
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	7	7	1	0	2	7	0.250	0.323	0.500
Season
	G	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG	OPB	SLG
Blue Jays (AA)	114	108	26	2	9	56	0.255	0.340	0.390
Totals	114	108	26	2	9	56	0.255	0.340	0.390
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)	6	8	1	0	1	2	0.333	0.407	0.500
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)	33	30	6	1	3	15	0.254	0.353	0.398
Blue Jays (AAA)	27	22	3	1	0	6	0.229	0.327	0.281
Totals	65	62	10	2	3	24	0.265	0.357	0.363

Pitchers

Ricky Romero	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays	0	1	6.00	1	6.0	0	2	3	1.17
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	5	3.66	18	115.2	13	44	90	1.37
Brett Cecil	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays	0	0	4.39	1	4.1	0	3	2	1.95
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	4.35	12	70.1	9	28	54	1.55
Marc Rzepczynski	LHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays	0	1	7.35	2	9.8	4	2	7	1.43
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (AA)	7	5	2.93	14	76.2	1	36	88	1.52
Blue Jays (AAA)	2	0	0.79	2	11.1	0	4	16	0.99
Blue Jays	1	3	4.38	7	37.0	5	19	37	1.35
Zach Stewart	RHP
Week
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA)	0	0	0.00	0	2.2	0	0	2	0.91
Season
	W	L	ERA	GS	IP	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
Blue Jays (AAA)	0	0	0.00	0	2.2	0	0	2	0.91
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

Rehabs

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	3	0.00
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	6.35	0	5.2	0	1	6	0.96
Blue Jays	2	3	6.23	5	26.0	4	7	11	1.81

Snider has become a monster in Class AAA and will be called up soon and now given the lack of a day-to-day right fielder the need for both his bat and glove in the Blue Jay lineup are further exemplified. But don't expect it to be before the 20th of August. Snider is teetering toward Super Two status, and keeping him in Las Vegas until at least the 20th will ensure the he doesn't receive the extra year of arbitration. Given that the Jays are no where near competing for a post-season spot, I can understand the move in financial terms. It must be a horrible feeling to know that you deserve a spot in Toronto, but future financial precautionary measures are keeping you on the bus touring cities in the PCL.

Arencibia continues with a down season in Las Vegas and although having a good week, Dopirak cooled off slightly from his previous week's performance. I'm still hoping that Dopirak gets the call in September so we can see his bat and defense in Toronto.

With Ruiz being called up the play DH, the Snider callup is given, and I expect Dopirak will see some playing time in the Major Leagues as well. Where does that leave Kevin Millar? Nowhere. Millar met with Gaston and JP this week; I anticipate this was concerning an ensuing drop—to nothing—of his playing time. It is unlikely that Millar would accept a demotion to the minors—or that the Jays would even ponder such a move—but I have a feeling that even when the roster expands to 40 men, there still isn't room for Kevin Millar.

Zach Stewart saw relief action in three games and put up some very nice numbers. It's looking like Marcum won't see any action in the majors this year says JP:

"We're leaning more toward that, probably [stay in the minors], at this point. He's healthy. There's nothing wrong with him, but there's no reason to rush him. He's going to pitch next year for us. He'll be like 17 months post-op at that time. He feels good. We'll probably just keep throwing him, but there's really probably no need to get him to the big leagues at this point. We'll just back off that way and give him all of Spring Training to simulate the intensity of what it is to pitch in a big league game."

As for Jansen, it looks like he might stay in the minors for the rest of the season as well. It has also been indicated that he'll go to the pen when he does make it back to Toronto:

"Eventually, he'll be back up here, but he just needed to pitch. Maybe this year is just going to be a year where all the kids get healthy and, at the end of the day, we check off September and we say, 'They're healthy. They feel good and, coming into Spring Training, we're not worried about Casey's arm and we're not worried about Marcum's arm.' "

Victorino tossed for arguing balls and strikes—from center field!

This one is ridiculous. Phillies centerfielder Shane Victorino was ejected from last night's game against the Marlins by home plate ump Ed Rapuano in the 7th for arguing balls and strikes. At the time, the Phillies were on defense and Victorino was playing in centerfield. Apparently, the threw his arms up at a call and was then rung up by Rapuano.

Here's a video of the ejection.

Can you believe that? Victorino was about 300 ft. away from home plate! Now that's awful umping.

Game Scores Update: August 10, 2009

Here is today's GSc update.

Jays pitching:

	AGSc	Chg	GS	Starts	Week Avg
Roy Halladay	61.00	-0.55	22	2	55.50
Marc Rzepczynski	55.00	-0.60	6	1	52.00
Ricky Romero	53.39	-0.38	18	1	47.00
Scott Richmond	52.79	+0.00	14	0
Robert Ray	48.50	+0.00	4	0
Brett Cecil	48.42	-0.40	12	1	44.00
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

Jays pitching was below average for the week. Halladay gave up a total of 8 R (6ER) and 19 hits over his two starts and was 1-1 for the week. Cecil's numbers are low due to his short start (left the game due to a knee injury in the 5th).

For notables in the league:

Pos	Chg		AGSc	Chg	GS	Starts	Week Avg
1	+1	Tim Lincecum	65.52	-0.21	23	1	61.00
2	-1	Dan Haren	63.96	-2.04	23	2	42.50
3	+0	Chris Carpenter	61.94	-0.64	18	1	51.00
4	+3	Javier Vazquez	61.26	+0.74	23	2	69.00
5	+0	Zack Greinke	61.13	-0.32	23	1	54.00
6	-2	Roy Halladay	61.00	-0.55	22	2	55.50
7	-1	Matt Cain	60.39	-0.85	23	2	51.50
8	+0	Felix Hernandez	59.04	-0.55	23	1	47.00
9	+2	Josh Johnson	58.96	+0.24	23	2	61.50
10	+4	Josh Becket	58.55	+0.74	22	1	74.00
11	+2	Wandy Rodriguez	58.26	+0.44	23	1	68.00
12	-3	Justin Verlander	58.25	-1.07	24	2	46.50
13	-1	Adam Wainwright	58.25	+0.16	24	1	62.00
14	+1	Johan Santana	57.57	+0.23	23	2	60.00
15	-5	Yovani Gallardo	57.22	-1.93	23	2	37.00
16	+1	Cliff Lee	56.92	+0.53	24	1	69.00
17	-1	Jake Peavy	56.69	+0.00	13	0
18	+0	Matt Garza	56.32	+0.51	22	1	67.00
19	+5	Jon Lester	56.00	+1.33	23	2	70.00
20	+2	Jered Weaver	55.96	+0.64	23	1	70.00
21	+0	Roy Oswalt	55.36	+0.00	22	0
22	+1	Chad Billingsley	55.17	+0.12	24	1	58.00
23	+4	CC Sabathia	55.08	+1.17	24	1	82.00
24	-4	Jair Jurrjens	54.50	-0.93	24	1	33.00
25	+3	A.J. Burnett	54.23	+1.08	22	1	77.00
26	-1	Carlos Zambrano	54.15	+0.00	20	0
27	-1	Kevin Millwood	53.77	-0.18	22	1	50.00
28	-9	Joel Pineiro	53.59	-1.86	22	2	35.00
29	+0	Jason Marquis	52.32	-0.82	22	1	35.00
30	+0	Mark Buehrle	52.22	-0.78	23	1	35.00
31	+1	Doug Davis	51.83	+0.55	23	1	64.00
32	-1	Ryan Dempster	50.95	-0.42	20	1	43.00
33	+1	Barry Zito	50.48	+0.43	23	1	60.00
34	-1	Dallas Braden	50.41	+0.00	22	0
35	+0	Tim Wakefield	49.53	+0.00	17	0
36	+0	Nick Blackburn	49.14	+0.09	22	1	51.00
37	+0	Derek Lowe	48.83	+0.01	24	1	49.00
38	+0	Bronson Arroyo	48.36	+0.22	22	1	53.00
39	+0	Kevin Slowey	47.63	+0.00	16	0

CC Sabathia recorded the best week with a GSc of 82 in a game against the Red Sox. He went 7.2 and gave up only 2 hits with 9 Ks and 2 BB. A. J. Burnett continued the Red Sox domination with a 77 GSc outing in which he also went 7.2, gave up 1 hit with 6 Ks and 6 BB. Not to be outdone by Burnett, in the same game Josh Becket recorded a GSc of 74 in 7 IP, with 4H, 7 Ks, and 2 BB. Jon Lester also had a great week, recording 70 GSc. games in both his starts.

All of the above pitchers pitched in the same 4 game series.

The worst pitchers of the week were Joel Pineiro, Jair Jurrjens and Jason Marquis. Pineiro recorded a GSc. of 17 in a game against the Mets. His line was 5 IP, 11 H, 7 ER, 0 K, and 0 BB in that game. Jurrjens' bad start was agaist the Dodgers. His line was 4.1 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 3BB, and 5 K. Marquis had a bad outing against the Cubs. His line was 6 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 4 K, and 5 BB in that game.

Series Recap: Orioles @ Blue Jays, Aug. 7 - 9

Joe Carter and co. decided to pick a lonely weekend in mid-August to celebrate the 16th and 17th anniversaries of the good old days: '92 and '93 back-to-back world series victories. It was a time when the Blue Jays were a force not to be reckoned with; a time when ownership had one thing on their minds: winning. Kudos has to be given to Pat Gillick who was the architect of the championship teams. While talking to Sam Cosentino, I heard Gillick mention something completely fascinating: Between the '92 and '93, 13 players were different on the roster. Amazing. Lose Winfield, go out and get Molitor, and so on.

Those were the days; it was a time when August, September and October meant something to Jays fans. In spite of all the nostalgia of the weekend, there was also a baseball series taking place.

Game 1:
Baltimore 7, Toronto 5

Romero was pretty solid on the mound through 5; he had a no-no going until Melvin Mora hit a liner up the middle with two outs in the 5th inning. You could definitely tell he had the no-hitter on his mind. Once Mora's liner squeaked between Scoots and Hill into the outfield for a hit, Romero looked pretty frustrated. Really Rickey? In the 5th inning? This showed his youthful inexperience: A veteran pitcher would have simply moved on.

Things started to fall apart in the 6th for the kid. The inning started with a walk to Wieters the number 8 batter. Izturis then singled, which brought about the top of the order. Bing, bang boom, he gave up 4 runs and the Jays were down 4-3. Taking a close look at Romero's pitching, we see that he had trouble commanding the strike-zone:

Romero Pitch Location

Let's look at his pitching in the 6th inning, when things started to fall apart:


The last plot separates his pitches for the first 5 innings of work and those in his 6th inning of work. There are a lot of red dots out of the zone, and more importantly a lot up in the zone. In this inning, he gave up a few hard hit balls to the outfield; players were able to get on top of the ball and drive it.

Romero Pitch Movement

Rickey had good velocity on his 4-seamer. I think what pitch/fx labels as a slider is actually a sinker of some sort, judging by its lack of horizontal movement and relative sink compared to the straighter 4-seam fastball.

Carlson came out in relief followed by League. This season, League has show zero consistency; when he's on, he's really on, but when he's off, God help us. Brandon League was off and it took three runs before Cito gave him the hook. Accardo saw a little action to finish off the 8th and Camp camp out to stop the bleeding in the 9th; Camp continued to pitch well.

The shock of the season came in the second inning when Wells and Rios had back-to-back jacks. Might as well start hitting when the team is well out of the post-season hunt. "Big" Joe Inglett also had a good day at the plate, going 2 for 4 with a run and a double.

In the end, the team couldn't pull one out for Cito who was playing in front of a lot of old time friends and greats.

Game 2:
Toronto 3, Baltimore 2 - 10 innings

Cecil started the game, but left in the 4th inning after trying to make a fancy play on a ball hit toward first base. The initial prognosis was a strained MCL. Apparently, this had been bothering Cecil for a while and he aggravated the sore ligament on the play at first; he had soreness pushing off the mound—should he have been playing? My first reaction to the strained MCL was "uh oh, not good." Apparently he had an MRI and everything seems to be okay; he should only miss one start in the rotation. We'll just have to wait and see.

Has Cecil had Tommy John yet?

Until the injury, Cecil was having a satisfactory outing: he gave up 5 hits on 19 total batters faced, with 4 Ks, 2 BB and gave up 2 ER. Brain Tallet came in in long relief, pitching 5 scoreless innings. Good to have a guy like him in the pen. Edwin "E5" Encarnacion tried to do his best Scott Rolen impression, barehanding a softly hit grounder which he then threw wildly to first base.

The offense wasn't stacked at the top of the order like it had been in many recent games. Everyone was in the party: everyone in the lineup had a hit—expect Vdub, of course. Rios hit a home run in back-to-back games—maybe he should be perpetually placed on waivers?—in the second inning to put the Jays up 2-0. Adam Lind finally gave the Jays an extra inning victory with a one out double to left scoring Scoots.

The Jays have their first walk-off victory in 83 games.

Game 3:
Toronto 7, Baltimore 3

This game featured the battle of veteran vs. rookie on the mound: Halladay against Matusz. Veteran prevailed. In his 7 starts since coming back from a groin injury on June 29, Halladay has gone 1-4. Over these games, the Jays have only given him an average of 2.43 runs—pathetic offensive numbers. Halladay pitched a good one, and the Jays backed this effect with solid offensive play. 70% of balls hit in play against Halladay were on the ground and he threw only 26% of his pitched for balls. The Jays got to Matusz early and he was given the hook in the bottom of the third. Frasor came in to shut the Orioles down in the 9th. Frasor has been the Jays most effective reliever and has shown intestinal fortitude when being put into closer situations.

Kevin Millar; clean up hitter. FUCK. And he hits a home run. What an asshole. And he went 3 for 3. What a dick. Who the hell does Millar think he is? VDub continued with a good series at the plate with another home run; this one with men on base. The last time he hit one with runners on was in May. Scoots was a monster at the plate; he went 4 for 5 with a home run.

The highlight of the broadcast for me was in the top of the 4th when Kevin Weekes joined Campbell and the Tabby Cat from the TD Canada Trust Comfort Zone. You could just tell that Campbell was praying for a quick close to top of 4th which seems to drag on and on. Kevin Keekes?

Thumbs up goes to...

Vernon Wells. He went 4 for 11 in the series with 2 HR, 5 RBI and a wOBA of .475. He also lead the team with a WPA of .298.

Alex Rios. He was 4 for 10 at the plate with 2 HR, 4 RBI and a .535 wOBA.

Marco Scutaro. He went 5 for 13 for the series.

Brian Tallet. Accepting of his spot back in the pen, Tallet came out in an emergency situation and pitched 5 solid innings.

Jason Frasor. Frasor saw action in game 2 and 3. He faced a total of 6 batters and gave up no hits.

Thumbs down goes to...

Kevin Millar. I don't care that he was 3 for 3 with a home run and a wOBA of 1.000 in his only game played. Fuck Kevin Millar.

Rod Barajas. He was 0 for 8.

Adam Lind. He was 1 for 12

Brandon League. On 7 batters faced he gave up 4 hits and 3 runs.

The Blue Jays (53-57) take on the Yankees (69-42) starting today in New York. The probables are Marc Rzepczynski(1-3, 3.74) vs. Sergio Mitre (1-0, 7.50), Scott Richmond (6-6, 3.97) vs. Joba Chamberlain, (8-2, 3.73) and Ricky Romero (10-5, 3.66) vs. A.J. Burnett (10-5, 3.67).

Who would have thought Romero and Burnett would have the same record at this point in the season? Go Jays Go.