Congratulations to Jack Gillis, Jim Howard, Terry Reynolds and Mike Toomey on their induction into the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame! The four long-time scouts will be inducted individually during separate ceremonies through August.
Some news items…
- The Rockies and Rangers were close enough on a Michael Young trade package earlier this winter that a Colorado player who would've gone to Texas, Eric Young Jr., was asked to take a physical, reports Tracy Ringolsby of FOXSports.com. Texas was concerned by the stress fracture that sidelined Young Jr. for half of last season and the two sides couldn't settle on a deal.
- With Vladimir Guerrero struggling to find a contract, FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal wonders if a similar fate awaits David Ortiz in next winter's free agent market.
- The Blue Jays' decision to start John Buck over prospect J.P. Arencibia in August and September of last season was an organizational call, Alex Anthopoulos tells MLB.com's Gregor Chisholm. The Jays GM said he promised Buck an everyday job if he signed with Toronto, and Anthopoulos wanted to stand by his agreement. "When we give our word to someone … that's part of our brand," Anthopoulos said. "When I'm negotiating with an agent or I'm trying to recruit a player, and we have to tell them something, whether it's good or bad news, they know that we're going to honor our word and we're going to be straight shooters."
- Bruce Levine of ESPN Chicago discussed several Cubs and White Sox topics in a chat with fans.
- Mychael Urban of CSNBayArea.com gives his list of the offseason's biggest winners and losers. I'm not sure if I agree with Urban's designation of Manny Ramirez as the biggest individual "loser" this winter — he took a big pay cut, but the Rays should still be a contending team.
Wow.. so not everything was Cito’s fault?
No, it was Cito’s fault. This explanation sounds much better though. so let’s all just pretend it’s actually true.
AA is the best! lol what else does Prince Fielder want!! just come to toronto!
hes born in Ontario too… Ontario California that is.
You’re stupid… very stupid that is.
I think Tracy Ringolsby is on something.
No, he is an old senile man. Eric Young tweeted a few hours later that his physical was a routine off season thing unrelated to any trade.
That may be it too!
Maybe his cowboy hat is too tight and cutting blood circulation to his head
Maybe that’s it.
It’s hard to argue a 90% pay cut.
I have a feeling the Jays are going to make a couple splashes in the next couple years… First Feilder, Then papelbon… Run a line-up of:
C (Arencibia – Molina)
1B (Feilder – Lind[DH])
2B (Hill)
SS (Escobar)
3B (Lawrie)
LF (Snider)
CF (Davis)
RF (Bautista)
Morrow
Romero
Cecil
Drabek
McGowan/Litch/etc.
Re-constructed bull-pen with papelbon closing…
That is a pretty good line-up also considering we have a few up and coming rookies (Hechavaria, Gose, etc)
Jays are gonna be one of the best teams in 2013-2014!
Go Jays!
First off, I’d rather not touch Fielder. To quote The Simpsons “hey buddy, I got a movie for ya: A Fridge Too Far!” The dude’s body just won’t age well.
Second, I dunno what year this line-up is in, but I’m thinking yer 2013/2014 time table. Davis won’t be around then. I’d rather have Mastroianni in CF if Gose busts. Davis just can’t take a walk.
Third, you seem to have forgotten Stewart completely. Forget Papelbon and try McGowan in the pen to relieve his golden yet currently busted arm, and stick Stewart in the rotation.
Fourth, I’m having a hard time believing Bautista will be a Blue Jay by then. Don’t know what it is, just what I believe.
And finally, Molina won’t be a Jay by then, and the Jays would probably have d’Arnaud up if he pans out. If not, free agency is a wonderful place to find adequate back-up catchers – see: John Buck.
Papelbon would make sense for the Jays, but I know touted prospects are fun and exciting to watch there devlopment, but you may have your hopes set too high, they may not all devlop to their hype, this goes for all teams.
i also believe if we don’t see any of our prospects as a future closer we should go for paps. he pitches well vs the AL east so why not keep him here.
Because unless he pitches like it’s 2006 he is not worth $12M.
I don’t know how or why Jays fans keep bringing up Papelbon. He’s a closer making $12 million this year. Have we learned nothing from the BJ Ryan deal? Nothing?!
Agreed, i wouldnt go anywhere near papelbon.
fielder would require another wells like contract but he will be heading into his prime if we do sign him. plus we need not a good team but a great team to compete in this AL east and fielder would complete the jays well IF our pitching roster becomes what all jays fans believe they can become.
GO JAYS
We’d get him entering the season he turns 28. I see zero reason he’ll be useful beyond what his father was and Prince will NOT be signing a five year deal. So no to Fielder. Thanks.
I hope the Jays avoid both of those players. AA has yet to show an example of when he waits till a guy is going to get overpaid before he buys. If anything I would expect high impact players to come through trades since the jays are beginning to see a log jam in SP.
No to Fielder and no to Papelbon thanks. Also swapping Adam Lind with Prince Fielder won’t make us one of the best teams.
Im not a big Cito fan but i believe it is Arencibia’s fault in addition to Anthopoulos keeping his word.
Last season Arencibia went 5 for 37. He went 4 for 5 in his debut. In his final 32 at bats he hit a single. Arencibia gave Cito no reason to start him over Buck.
So what? It isn’t like they were in it. He should have been getting needed experience, especially considering Buck was hitting FA.
Yeah, because Arencibia’s struggles were relevant to the Jays favouring Buck over the final two weeks of the season when the team wasn’t even close to anything resembling a playoff race?
At that point, letting a catcher-of-the-future develop and get his at-bats at the major league level trumps your excuse/reason/idea. Sorry, but it does.
If the Jays had have still been in it, then what you said definitely would have applied.
Anthopoulos’s word was on the line, Buck needed to finish the season as the starter to ensure that he has enough games played to qualify as a Type B free agent. And AA needed to keep his word so that outside players knew that they were going to be straight shooters. It has nothing to do with contention.
Arencibia had at bats and showed he couldnt do much, he only had 5 hits in 37 at bats. If the GM, their manager and possibly the ENTIRE organization thought that not having Arencibia play out the rest of last season would completely hinder his development then i am sure they would have started him.
Arencibia is a top prospect. If anyone can tell me not having him start the majority of the games after his call up last season completely through his career out the window then please let Alex Anthopoulos know, you should be a scout. Just because he is young doesnt mean he should start, you have to earn it and going 5 for 37 isnt earning it. You cant just hand over the job to someone undeserving, thats not how you teach someone to improve.
“At that point, letting a catcher-of-the-future develop and get his at-bats at the major league level trumps your excuse/reason/idea. Sorry, but it does.”
This is ridiculous. Its not my ideas, its the ideas of the Toronto Blue Jays FRIGGIN General Manger Alex Anthopoulos. I trust his judgement over yours.
one could argue that he struggled BECAUSE he played sporadically, not played sporadically because he struggled
You could… But he started 4 games out of a possibly 7 during a week and hit a single in 15 at bats (this was a few days after his debut). If he strung together something respectable then he would have gotten more starts.
Everyone needs to calm down. His career isnt over, this kid has talent. Cito and AA did ruin him. AA loves his prospects and has been around the organization for a long time, he knows what he is doing. Arencibia will have an opportunity to start next season, everything will be ok. Now step off the ledge.
This is 100% correct. He was sitting for 8 days at one point. Anyone who believes this “my word is my bond” crap is just being silly. While I totally agree that it’s a great way to spin the situation, we all know Cito was the issue.
Mychael Urban, if anyone is twice the player Werth is, they’re the best in the game. That’s a bold prediction to put on Dominic Brown. And if losing Werth is no big deal for Philly, then why all the hate on the Rays for losing the other top OF out there and having a young stud waiting to take over in Desmond Jennings?
I don’t like this guy’s article.
He also said:
“Few had [Boston] pegged as major players in the trade market for Padres superstar Adrian Gonzalez,…”
Really? I thought he was joking at first but it seems he is serious. This kind of stuff is why I mainly stick to blogs and avoid newspaper baseball analysis – though the newspaper beatwriters are usually good at pure reporting.
I consider most sportswriters tiresome and often idiotic, but this one definitely started topping my list. Boston not a major player in the trade market for Gonzalez? Theo had been trying to get him ever since he was on the Rangers. Everyone thought the Sox would make a run, less thought they’d get Gonzalez. And how are the Pads offseason losers? Sure they lost their best bat… one they were likely to lose in a year so they sold high and got 3 prospects who could all be helpful in 2-3 years. As for Dominic Brown, whatever happened to the word “potential”? I could easily name 20 prospects who were supposed to be all stars who never got close to that status.
Really the article was just bad.
For some reason I see Paps being back. As for Ortiz I think if he does as well as last year he will be coming back for another year or two.
Ortiz’s argument earlier in the offseason that he deserves a multiyear deal, since Vlad totally deserves one too, is looking pretty weak about now, when Vlad is still struggling to find a “decent” one-year deal…
“I’m not sure if I agree with Urban’s designation of Manny Ramirez as the biggest individual “loser” this winter”
Exactly, a million dollars is a heck of a lot of money. Who, in this forum, will make that this year for 6 months work?
Why is it that people think AA is making an excuse for not playing Arencibia?
Buck at bats = draft picks = future prospects = AA’s “specialty” = something for nothing (except a couple million dollars from ROGERS! Aka pocket change…
AND!
AA wants to set an example for the organization. Loyalty goes a LONG way in signing players (Draftees, Free Agents, etc). He states one of the reasons buck came here was because he was promised playing time. If the GM is loyal, the player can believe that GM for what says and could be the difference between a signing or that player choosing a different team… Players looking for a turn around season will come here if given the chance and promise of playing time and end up possibly getting us draft picks when they leave…
Argument over. Good.
It’s just optics. I doubt AA really means this as it clearly isn’t in the best interest of the team. Buck worked out nicely because he had a solid year but the opposite could happen very easily. Would it make sense to keep running a stubborn player who is playing terribly out on the field because you told him you would. No chance! Especially if you have a better option available. Also this kind of thought only applies to fringe/rebound candidates who are looking to “play everyday”. And in the end fringe/rebound candidates do not a winning team make. It also does little to change the thought of a big time FA who is only looking for two things: 1) to win and 2) big money.
This lays out the truth very well. Clearly if Buck had been struggling, then the whole argument goes right out the window. It makes for a nice pull sound byte, but anyone who actually believes that was the reason is being a little silly.
you wouldn’t believe how many “silly” people there are out there
Pretty simple answer to that, had Buck not been performing he would not have been playing. It’s not like they blindly follow these promises and that playing time is guaranteed even if a player is struggling. AA is a smart guy, and these kind of contracts are the kind that net him draft picks at the end of the day. Free agents he can sign looking to build their value, and turn into picks at the end of the day. If AA can be loyal to them, he’ll be more likely to get the pick of who he wants.
It wasn’t a question. All I’m saying is that he is talking PR bullstuff. It sounds nice but he isn’t going to stick to it because “keeping your word” is of little value when it causes your team to perform poorly.
Agree
This was a win win win situation for Buck (got paid and got paid well), the Jays organization (gaining a pick and some much needed credibility) and for Arencibia to prove he belongs in the bigs and now has the opportunity.
One can slice and dice it what ever way you want too, but I wouldn’t put too much stock in 50-200 AB’s when starting a career.
Brett Wallace struggled this season
Adam Lind ripped it up back in ’06 when he got called up
At the end of the day, JP has potential, so don’t let last season’s lack of plate appearances hinder the long term outlook for the Jays
This guys a tool box theres no point in arguing with him
He’s just going to tell you to calm down, and ask you what the big deal is. lol
The real fans know what happened. Thats all that matters