The David Dellucci experiment has ended. Finally.

According to a tweet from Bastian, Dellucci was DFA so the Jays could make room for "Big" Joe Inglett.

Thank fuck.

Over his cup of coffee tenure with the Jays, "The Looch" was 1-24 at the dish. Not sure why the Jays chose Inglett; their biggest concern right now seems to be the DH spot. Many have been asking for Ruiz to get the call. I'd been questioning that for the longest time: why is the man a career minor leaguer? Well, maybe now isn't a bad time to give him a spot. In Las Vegas this season, he's hitting a very respectable .321/.392/.594 with 22HR and 88RBI.

One might also be asking why Snider didn't get the call. Maybe he's still recovering from his knee/back/whatever injury(ies) he's suffered in AAA.

Game Recap: Indians-Jays, Game 3.

I just don't get it: how is it that both TSN and RSN don't show a Jays' home game? This makes not fucking sense to me at all. Anyway, luckily for mlb.tv, I got to watch the game, but I was forced to endure the Cleveland feed. To add a little insult to injury, somewhere during the begining of the game—through my rage, I can't remember the exact point—Pat Tabler was shown alone in the TSN broadcasting booth watching the game. Fucking Tabby Cat—put on the damn headset and let's do this! I just don't get it.

R-zep made his fourth start of the year yesterday against Cleveland's David Huff. Marc's line was 4.1IP, 4R, 2ER, 6K, 4BB; definitely the worst of his three outings. I could pretty much describe his start today by copying and pasting my descriptions of his last three starts: control was an issue. On 92 pitches, he threw 53 strikes; this is up slightly from his other outings, but still only 57.6%. Again—like all three of his other starts—walks got him into trouble. The top of the 4th started with a single by Cabrera. R-zep then hit Shin-Soo Choo with a pitch and walked Victor Martinez. Shawn Camp was warming up in the bullpen as all this was unfolding. Here we sat, no outs and the bases jacked. I felt this to be another situation where Cito leaves his starter in for one, two, or ten too many batters.

R-zep then struck out Peralta and then Gargo, both swinging; now it was two outs with the bases still full. I was thinking to myself that the kid found his arm again and would get a little pop-up or a ground out to end the inning. No. Like his first start, he gave up a walk to score a run. He then struck out Jamey Carroll swinging.

I just don't understand how R-zep can be so up and down in one inning of play. Whatever it is, he needs to control his walks a lot better than he has. They've been the problem in all of his starts. For the season, he's now averaging 8.87 K/9 but 6.04 BB/9. Over his outings, he's averaging 4.21 P/PA. If he could throw more strikes, he's sure to win more games.

FanGraph's win probability graph shows that the Jays were in it for most of the game. The spike in the 9th came when Rios stole second to put himself into scoring position with no outs. Unfortunately, Baw-tista—all Jay fans know that's how it's pronounced, not Ba-tista like the Indians' announcers kept saying all game—Barajas and Overbay couldn't bring in the equalizer.

Rios's play as of late has been a tiny bright spot in a sky of black. Over his last 10 games he has gone 11-34 at the plate, which has him batting .324/.415/.500, with 3 doubles and a home run. Rios has also stolen 5 bases on 5 attempts over that time as well.

Today is Halladay's second last scheduled start before the "Jays Line." Should be a good one; I bet the Dome will be full.

"What, you guys didn't know that"

-Cito Gaston, on Dustin McGowan's knee surgery

Yeah, that's right—McGowan had knee surgery on July 9th. Today, Jordan Bastian reported that when asked about recovery time-lines for injured starters Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan, Cito dropped that bomb. Apparently, it was common knowledge to Cito.

The story goes that McGowan had surgery to repair cartilage when he injured his knee while doing conditioning drills; Riccardi indicated that the injury will take around six weeks to recover from the operation. McGowan was doing light work in the farm after recovering from right shoulder surgery last July.
This pretty much puts the lid on any hope of McGowan coming back this season.

Hopefully the knee injury is as nonchalant as Gaston's response.

Buehrle is perfect; Wise deserves first born.

Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game tonight against the Rays. The perfect outing was saved in the top of the ninth by an absolutely amazing catch made by Dewayne Wise in CF. What a grab! He almost loses it on the way down, but manages to hold on.

Gotta love Wise's point over to Buehrle after the catch with the fans going absolutely nuts.

Definitely a must see.

What if "The Trade" happens?

Rather than talk about the Roy Halladay trade itself—that's been done to death—I'd like to give my thoughts on what might happen to the Jays assuming that the trade does happen.

Riccardi has set the "Jays Line" for July 28; if a trade doesn't happen by then, no trade will happen. Although, now JP is saying this is more of a soft line than a hard line. It's clear to me that JP wants to give himself a few days to get things done if Halladay leaves—I really think he'll be selling the farm. I'd love to see Wells go, but let's be honest here: no one is going to take that botched abortion. I still have have faith in Rios, his numbers are well below where they should be this year, but I'm not ready to call it quits on him just yet; Rios plays with heart, VDub doesn't. I just wish Rios wouldn't yell at little kids trying to get his autograph.

What scares me is that Rolen might also go if Halladay is traded. Rolen is making $11M this year, and he's set to make the same next year. Rolen is also a machine built in the future and sent back in time to completely dominate the game on the hot corner. Unfortunately, he just doesn't make sense on a post-Halladay. There are a few teams interested in Rolen (Red Sox, Dodgers, read somewhere the Phillies might be interested) but maybe few will be willing to pay his salary, and apparently Anthopoulos is saying that the Jays plan on keeping him through 2010.

Marco Scutaro is another big question. He's only making $1.1M this season, and set to be a free agent at the end of the year; you can expect he'll be getting a big raise. With the numbers he's been posting this year, it's looking more and more likely that Scutes could be classified as Type-A, and Riccardi damn well knows that; he knows he'll probably get a first round and sandwich pick if they don't resign him at the end of the season. However, in the days between the "Jays Line" and the deadline, if he's offered better compensation for Scutaro, he's likely to go.

Scutaro has been quite a pleasant surprise this year. He's posted great numbers, both offensively and defensively: Defensively, for all SS, Marco is tied for third in UZR/150, and is leading the position with a 0.993 fielding percentage; offensively, among SS, Marco sits in 7th with an of .378 OBP, 4th with wOBA of 0.357, 4th with a wRC of 66, and his BB/K of 1.36 puts him well ahead of second place Derek Jeter 0.88.

Game Recap: Indians-Jays, game 1.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't get a chance to watch much of the game live. I did take advantage of one of my favourite mlb.tv features, and I watched the condensed game this morning.

The starting pitchers certainly did their part in this one: Cecil line was 7.0IP, 7H, 0ER, 4BB, 9K and Lee pitched the complete game with, 7H, 1ER, 0BB, and 4K.

One this I did notice in this game was that Cecil gave up a lot of extra-base hits, but they were spread across the game, so they didn't result in any earned runs. Cecil also had a decent strike count, recording 67 strikes on 108 pitches. He also had a very good ground balls to fly balls ration at 10-4, which might explain why he gave up hard hits for extra bases, but no home runs. Brett also did a great job peppering the strike zone as shown in the PitchFx graph. He also showed great speed on his fastball which averaged 91.6mph, peaked at 93.4mph and he was able to keep excellent control

Yet another very good outing from a young arm. I'm looking forward to tonight's matching where Romero takes on Pavano in the Dome.

A heart to match his 7 gloves.

I was working last night, so I didn't get a chance to see much of last night's disappointment live—I did strategically position myself to catch the last few innings. One of the first plays that I did see was Rolen's solo shot to centre field. Take a look at the clip. Notice that Rolen sprints around the basebads; he doesn't take is precious time; he doesn't stand and watch his ball leave the park; from the moment that the ball leaves his bat, Scott Rolen hustles.

Scott Rolen has traits that many big leaguers don't have (Vernon Wells for example): integrity, heart, and is a true professional. I'd be more disappointed in a Scott Rolen trade at the deadline than a Halladay trade. With a Halladay trade—at least from what JP has been saying—we're going to get a spectacular package of youngster, or the trade doesn't happen. In a Scott Rolen trade, we might get a guy 1/2 as good on 3B and maybe a B-list prospect.

What agravates me even more is that the Red Sox are looking hard at Rolen. Could you imagine a trade to Boston where we get that useless piece-of-shit Mike Lowel and some other clown?

If Halladay does go by the "Jays Line" set for July 28th, it's probably likely that Rolen is a part of the deal, or that the Jays make a trade in the days that follow which could involve Rolen and/or Over-gay.

Player Watch; a new weekly feature.

Starting every Wednesday I'm going to be posting statistics on various prospects the Jays have in there system. Along with this, I will also be posting statistics on Big League players who are playing in rehab games in the minors to track their progress as well. I'll start of this weekly feature today by giving a brief description of all the players that I'll be tracking.

Prospects

The list of prospects that I've assembled was gathered threw various internet sources. I'll give a brief description of each.

Players
(clicking on a player will bring you to his summary)

Travis Snider
J.P Arencibia
Brian Jeroloman
Kyle Phillips
Brian Dopirak
Justin Jackson
David Cooper
Kevin Ahrens
Brad Emaus
Eric Thames
Scott Campbell

Pitchers

Ricky Romero
Brett Cecil
Brad Mills
Robert Ray
Marc Rzepczynski

Rehab Watch

Shaun Marcum
Scott Richmond
Casey Jansen

Summary

Travis Snider
Position LF, Bats/Throws L/L, Current Team: Las Vegas 51s (AAA)

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round (14th overall) of the 2006 amateur entry Draft out of Jackson HS (Mill Creek, Wash.). We've seen Travis play with the Jays at the beginning of the season until he was sent down to AAA to try to bring up is batting average.

Rated the number one prospect in the system by Baseball America.

Stats to date:


G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AAA) 22 17 2 0 4 10 0.224 0.344 0.408
Blue Jays 32 24 6 0 3 12 0.242 0.292 0.394

Snider is not having near as good of a year as last where he started in HiA and eventually played for the Jays at the end of the season.

J.P Arencibia
Position C, Bats/Throws R/R, Current Team: Las Vegas 51s (AAA)

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round (21st overall) of the 2007 amateur entry Draft. J.P has been seen as the catcher of the future of the Jays. He's rated the number two prospect in the system by BA. His stats to date are:


G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AAA) 72 70 24 1 10 44 0.244 0.295 0.439

Not too impressive, but as of lately, he's starting to heat up. If he continues on his current trend, we might get to see him in the Bigs at the end of the season.

Brian Jeroloman
Position C, Bats/Throws L/R, Current Team: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA)

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the sixth round (180th overall) of the 2006 amateur entry Draft. Jeroloman has opened a lot of eyes this season; he's starting to heat up, but still has a ways to go, but he's definitely worth keeping an eye on.

To date:


G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 74 58 12 0 6 22 0.228 0.337 0.346


Kyle Phillips
Position 3B, Bats/Throws L/R, Current Team: Las Vegas 51s (AAA)

Selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 10th round (302nd overall) of the 2002 amateur entry Draft. Signed by the Milwaukee Brewers in April 2006. Released by the Brewers on March 24, 2007. Signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as a Minor League free agent on March 30, 2007. Phillips is having a good season in AAA:


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) 51 63 12 0 4 14 0.337 0.400 0.465

If the Jays do deal Rolen before the deadline, we might see him get a call-up; maybe not to start, but as an extra bat/glove on the bench. His .337/.400/.465 line is not too shabby at all.

Brian Dopirak
Position 3B/1B, Bats/Throws R/R, Current Team: Las Vegas 51s (AAA)

After being released by the Cubs in Spring Training, was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays and assigned to Class A Advanced Dunedin. Since then, he's made his way to AAA. Over 2009 he's had a great year:


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) 5 7 3 0 0 4 0.333 0.318 0.476

He could eventually be a top 1B starter for the Jays.

Justin Jackson
Position SS, Bats/Throws R/R, Current Team: Dunedin Blue Jays (A+)

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round (45th overall) of the 2007 amateur entry Draft. Being a recent first round draft pick, Justin as impressed. It will still be a few years before we see him playing in the Majors.


G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (A+) 76 53 12 1 0 17 0.218 0.325 0.276


He's ranked as the Jays' number 4 prospect by BA

David Cooper
Position 1B, Bats/Throws L/L, Current Team: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA)

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round (17th overall) of the 2008 amateur entry Draft. For a young kid, David is doing relatively well in AA this season:


G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 81 77 19 0 4 39 0.257 0.337 0.360

He's rated as the number 5 prospect in the system by BA.

Kevin Ahrens
Position 3B, Bats/Throws S/R, Current Team: Dunedin Blue Jays (A+)

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round (16th overall) of the 2007 amateur entry Draft. Kevin is struggling this season in Dunedin:


G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (A+) 73 56 10 1 2 25 0.211 0.286 0.279

He's ranked as the number 6 prospects by BA.

Brad Emaus
Position 2B/3B, Bats/Throws R/R, Current Team: New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA)

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 11th round (355th overall) of the 2007 amateur entry Draft. He's posting decent numbers in AA this year:


G H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG OPB SLG
Blue Jays (AA) 94 88 22 2 6 44 0.248 0.326 0.372


Last year, he won post season all-star credits in the FSL. He's ranked as the number 10 prospect in the system by BA

Eric Thames
Position OF, Bats/Throws L/R, Current Team: Dunedin Blue Jays (A+)

Eric could be a great future outfielder for the Jays, but at 22y/o he's at least a few years from being MLB ready. He is having a great year in Dunedin:


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

Thames is definitely someone to keep an eye on. If, in the future, the Jays decide to cut some spending, outfielding at the Big League level could be an issue.

Scott Campbell
Position 3B/2B, Bats/Throws L/R, Current Team: Las Vegas 51s (AAA)

Selected by the Blue Jays in the 10th round (300th overall) in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft out of Gonzaga. Campbell has made a nice progression from A+ to AAA this year:


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) 16 13 4 1 0 3 0.241 0.379 0.352
Blue Jays (AAA) 27 22 3 1 0 6 0.229 0.327 0.281



Ricky Romero
LHP, Current Team: Toronto Blue Jays

Selected out of Cal State Fullerton by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round (6th overall) of the 2005 First Year Player Draft. Not much to say about Rickey; he's been a quality arm for the Jays all season:


W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays 7 4 3.25 14 91.1 12 35 77 1.32

He was ranked as the number 8 prospect in the system by BA.

Brett Cecil
LHP, Current Team: Las Vegas 51s

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round (38th overall) of the 2007 amateur entry Draft. He played a couple of games with the Jays this season, but at only 23, he still needs some time in the pressure cooker.


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 3 1 5.40 8 45.0 8 17 33 1.69

He was ranked as the number 3 prospect in the system by BA.

Brad Mills
LHP, Current Team: Las Vegas 51s

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the fourth round (145th overall) of the 2007 amateur entry Draft. Another young pitching arm that saw a little action in the Majors this 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


Mills is currently struggling; I wouldn't be surprised if he went down to AA to find his control again. He is ranked as the number 7 prospect in the Jays system.

Robert Ray
RHP, Current Team: Las Vegas 51s

Selected out of Texas A&M by the Toronto Blue Jays in the seventh round (206th overall) of the 2005 amateur entry Draft. Ray saw some actions in the Majors this year, but has been struggling on and off with an injury:


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


Marc Rzepczynski
LHP, Current Team: Toronto Blue Jays

Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the fifth round (175th overall) of the 2007 amateur entry Draft. Over his three Big League starts, Marc has been impressive:


W L ERA GS IP HR BB SO WHIP
Blue Jays 1 1 2.50 3 18.0 1 11 16 1.22


I'm looking forward to seeing him develop in years to come. He was ranked as the number 9 prospect by BA.

Game Scores Update: July 20, 2009


Here are the updated pitching game scores for this week.

For the Jays:


AGSc Chg GS Starts Wk Avg
Roy Halladay 61.22 +0.99 18 1 78.00
Marc Rzepczynski 59.67 +0.17 3 1 60.00
Ricky Romero 55.86 -1.22 14 1 40.00
Scott Richmond 55.00 +0.00 13 0
Robert Ray 48.50 +0.00 4 0
Brian Tallet 48.06 +0.00 17 0
Brett Cecil 43.63 +0.00 8 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


Coming off a great effort yesterday, Halladay increases his season average by almost a point. R-zep—who got his first win of the season on Saturday against the Red So—also continues to hover around the 60 point mark. His ability to go six plus inning in his starts has been very impressive. Romero got his around pretty hard during the Jays' first game of the second half on Friday; he only went 4.1 innings, gave up 5 ER, and had a game score of only 40 to bring is season average down by over a point.

For notable pitchers in the MLB:


Chg Player AGSc Chg GS Starts Wk Avg
1 +0 Dan Haren 68.26 +0.43 19 1 76.00
2 +0 Tim Lincecum 65.26 +0.37 19 1 72.00
3 +0 Zack Greinke 62.58 -0.20 19 1 59.00
4 +0 Chris Carpenter 62.57 +0.88 14 1 74.00
5 +0 Felix Hernandez 61.47 +0.53 19 1 71.00
6 +1 Roy Halladay 61.22 +0.99 18 1 78.00
7 -1 Javier Vazquez 60.79 +0.23 19 1 65.00
8 +1 Matt Cain 59.74 +0.51 19 1 69.00
9 -1 Josh Johnson 59.47 +0.00 19 0
10 +1 Justin Verlander 58.40 +0.08 20 1 60.00
11 -1 Yovani Gallardo 58.16 -0.51 19 1 49.00
12 +4 Johan Santana 57.79 +0.68 19 1 70.00
13 +2 Adam Wainwright 57.50 +0.34 20 1 64.00
14 +0 Josh Becket 57.22 +0.00 18 0
15 +3 Wandy Rodriguez 56.84 +0.51 19 1 66.00
16 +1 Jake Peavy 56.69 +0.00 13 0
17 -5 Jered Weaver 56.42 -1.75 19 1 25.00
18 +3 CC Sabathia 55.70 +0.65 20 1 68.00
19 +3 Jair Jurrjens 55.50 +0.61 20 1 67.00
20 +4 Roy Oswalt 55.45 +1.29 20 1 80.00
21 -1 Jon Lester 55.21 +0.10 19 1 57.00
22 -9 Chad Billingsley 55.15 -2.22 20 1 13.00
23 -4 Matt Garza 54.89 -0.66 19 1 43.00
24 -1 Carlos Zambrano 54.71 +0.27 17 1 59.00
25 +3 Cliff Lee 54.20 +0.88 20 1 71.00
26 +3 Joel Pineiro 54.00 +0.71 18 1 66.00
27 +0 Kevin Millwood 53.84 +0.00 19 0
28 +2 Mark Buehrle 53.58 +0.47 19 1 62.00
29 -4 A.J. Burnett 53.56 -0.56 18 1 44.00
30 +1 Nick Blackburn 53.06 +0.00 18 0
31 +2 Jason Marquis 53.00 +1.00 19 1 71.00
32 +0 Doug Davis 52.53 +0.00 19 0
33 -7 Dallas Braden 52.42 -1.58 19 1 24.00
34 +0 Ryan Dempster 51.76 +0.00 17 0
35 +0 Tim Wakefield 49.53 +0.00 17 0
36 +0 Barry Zito 48.79 +0.46 19 1 57.00
37 +2 Bronson Arroyo 48.50 +1.21 18 1 69.00
38 -1 Derek Lowe 48.35 +0.03 20 1 49.00
39 -1 Kevin Slowey 47.63 +0.00 16 0

I've highlighted the best (red) and worst (blue) position and AGSc changes in the table. Not much change at the top; positions 1-5 stay the same with Dan Haren continue his strangle hold on the lead. Halladay move up a stop to 6th. Bronson Arroyo moves out of the basement, which is now occupied by Kevin Slowey.

Update: I've added weekly AGSc columns to each table so that weekly performances can be tracked

Last week, Halladay, Harden and Oswalt both had terrific weeks, while Billingsley, Barden and Weaver were the stinkers.

Remember, game score updates will be posted every Monday.

For the love of the Jays

Alright, so this season has been a big fucking let down. I've come to that point in the season where I've lost hope for an interesting September and am thinking toward next year. This doesn't disappoint me at all; it happens ever goddamn year. Why on earth do we as fans get our hopes up in April?

The Jays are a small market team in a big market city. Toronto ranks in the top 5 for drawing numbers in the majors. In fact, the other cites in front of Toronto in this category all have two MLB ball clubs: NYY/NYM, CHC/CWS, LAD/LAA. Rogers is not interested in winning baseball games. Rogers is not interested acquiring high profile players. Rogers is interested in the bottom line—the Blue Jays are just another arm in their massive conglomerate.

Every fucking year, it's the same story: well, next year should be a lot better because... and the list of reasons always sounds good. When was the last time 'next year' was better? Next year is never any fucking better!

This year is just the same. Next year the Jays will be much better because they'll be healthy, their young arms will have another year of experience... Well, we thought that this season, didn't we?

Three Big League players are eligible for free agency after this season: Scutes, Johnny Mac, and The David Dellucci Experiment. Scutaro should get a significant raise, as he's only making $1.1M this season. However, base on his play this year, he could be classified as Class-A. In that case, I don't imagine they'll resign him, but rather take the two draft picks (seems to be par for the course over the last 8 years). Deluch is making $4M this season—I really don't have much to say about his right now. If they loose Sir John A, I don't know what I'll do.

Trade talks are swirling around Halladay, Rolen, Overbay, Wells and Rios. Certainly, it would be devastating if the Jays lost one or more of those guys (I fucking love Scott Rolen, probably more than that douche in the commercial). So what if we get a good prospect package in return. Prospects are fucking prospects; sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't.

All that said and done, I will continue to watch the Jays and cheer for the Jays and hope for the Jays and talk about the Jays and talk like we're going to be in the post-season sometime soon even if the team is sans Halladay, sans Rolen, sans Scutes Scutes Scutaro and even sans John fucking McDonald (gasp!). The Jays are the Jays. I was a little kid when they won in '92 and '93 and I'm now a fan for life. So fuck you Rogers.

Remember the glory days and don't stop believing.

TOUCH EM ALL JOE! YOU’LL NEVER HIT A BIGGER HOME RUN IN YOUR LIFE