Links from the AL East, on a night that the Rays are taking on the Orioles and rooting hard for the Blue Jays to defeat the Red Sox. The latest links from their division…
- The Blue Jays and Orioles aren’t in the pennant race, but there’s lots of intrigue in Toronto and Baltimore as the season winds down, Tyler Kepner of the New York Times writes.
- Within the piece (which is well worth your time) Kepner notes that the Blue Jays plan to offer arbitration to Kelly Johnson after the season and hears that Jeremy Guthrie would like to pitch 1,000 more Major League innings.
- Johnson, who has a .210/.290/.408 line in 555 plate appearances with the D'Backs and Blue Jays, projects as a Type A free agent in the American League, according to our latest rankings. I won't be surprised if he accepts arbitration, but there are no guarantees for the Blue Jays since this year's class of free agent second basemen isn't strong.
- Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox will play out the 2011 season and will likely undergo offseason surgery for a hernia, as Alex Speier writes at WEEI.com.
It makes sense for Youk to just play out the year. He’s better than almost anything else we can put out there even injured.
he made a play today and looked like he was in a lot of pain
could have been his hip, back, or the bruise morrow gave him right out of the gate. he was so pissed about that but i lolled
ha ya me too, but you think he’d be used to the beanings by now
Well I think that the Dbaks won’t pick up Hill’s option so he’ll become a type B free agent and the jays will pick him up in off season
I honestly can’t see why Hill wouldn’t accept arbitration.
no chance he gets offered arbitration…
and i seriously don’t see him coming back either..
Not much intrigue in Baltimore right now. The feeling is fool me once, shame on you, fool me 15 times . . .
…draft dylan bundy
Oh Bundy was a great pick. I was talking more of the teams failures in free agency and front office signings. Plus I can claim he was a great pick but our player development is so bad that my point may fall on deaf ears.
man you’re a downer in september aren’t you. aren’t you gonna get a shiny new GM this offseason?
It would be really unfortunate if the Jays got stuck with Johnson for like 7 million. We need something better.
what do you recommend??
That really good FA second baseman, who’s dream is to play in toronto and doesn’t like money?
There will be several options on the trade market. Washington already have 3 MIF’s and are looking at Rollins/Reyes, just for example. Brandon Phillips is also disgruntled in Cincy, should be available for one year. AA could end up with 4 top 50 picks and a year of Phillips for some prospects, typical move from him. The main thing is not ending up with an overpaid, below average 2B.
i sincerely doubt we will get a pick out of Johnson if he ends up a type A, no team is going to sign him to a multi year deal and lose one of there first 2 picks.
I like Johnson and I’d like to see him rebound in a new setting.. The realistic truth is that there aren’t very many other options.
I didn’t really get Hill for Johnson in the first place. Seems like a wash. Maybe you can enlighten me?
AA lurves KJ, that’s the biggest thing. AA also lurves not wasting resources. AZ was sure to offer type B KJ arb, which meant AA would have to spend more money or an extra year on a risky investment in KJ to lure him away
unless!
he ships useless aaron hill for useless KJ, thus making the jays the ones able to simply offer KJ arb and either bring him back for a year or scoop a draft pick if he leaves
mcdonald and hill were dead-end pieces. he turned them into something he wanted for next year. that’s my read anyway
change of scenery scenario
Hearty congratulations to Wakefield on his 200th career win tonight.
good job tim you are a nice guy. now please never pitch again
A very strong feeling that Epstein will see if Wake is willing to stay in shape in one of those “break glass in case of emergency” type cases and join Boston next season if a regular (or 2) goes down.
However.. I also am finally ready to see the man retire. He got his goal. Let’s see what Weiand, or Wilson can do now since it looks like Wake has finally gotten far to inconsistent now.
Wakefield only needs 7 more wins to beat Clemens and Cy Young for most all-time as a Red Sox. One more year should take care of that.
Would have really liked to see him get that also, it’s just that the man really seems ( to me at least) not have that good knuckler consistent nearly as often as he once did and then couple that with the chronic back issues that he is known to have.
Not that it would break my heart or anything to see him on the roster when they break camp next spring. Would prefer to see him on the 25 man 100% moreso over Tek in fact if had the choice of the long time vets as at least Wake can be serviceable.
“Wakefield only needs 7 more wins to beat Clemens and Cy Young for most
all-time as a Red Sox. One more year should take care of that.”
if he gets 35 starts maybe
Geez Wakefield, took you long enough.
Aaron Hill became a major leaguer again after being traded. Guy can hit, field and get on base again plus the team is 17-3 since the trade. Whoodathunkit
kevin towers i assume
If Guthrie plays MLB The Show and pitches 200 innings with all 5 of his pitchers on his team does that count? Or are him and his 4.56 FIP going to get smacked around for another 5 years?
Smacked around? Do you ever watch baseball or just hit homers off of him on Rookie Difficulty in MLB the Show?
Believe it or not ive never seen a baseball game ever
Youkilis had better take care of that chronic bursitis problem in his hip, if he can. Likewise, the pain in his lower back, in addition to his hernia problem.
This is the second year in a row he hasn’t been able to make it though a 162 game season without lengthy stretches on the DL.
IMHO, he must come into camp next March, 25-30 lb. lighter and have his propensity to repeatedly show excessive anger, when events do not go his way, under total control. He has to chill out and lower his stress level, even if it takes some anger management training to learn how to do it.
Youk has to take pressure off of his hips by losing 10-15% of the body weight around his midriff and upper body or, at 33 years of age, he should begin to think seriously about a second career outside of baseball. Adding muscle is not the answer here either. Clearly, his body is breaking down and he seems to want to ignore that fact, much to his detriment.
Time to smell the coffee Kev..or prematurely say goodbye to your many fans in Beantown… Really!
gee, i wonder what the “ny” in your name stands for.
maybe youk should join arod’s rigorous program
Mike Lowell 2.0
Thank god for Middlebrooks
They need a lights out closer, to many games and leads have been blown. You might even see Morrow step back into that role, If they go after a starter. Don`t forget about Fielder, they might make a run at him as well. Sounds like Rogers will spend some money.
Scott Carson? Is that you!??
geeze, the idea of turning a high ceiling starter in to a reliever after a bad stretch is absolutely moronic.
Closer is the most overrated position in baseball.. The WHOLE bullpen has been terrible this year, outside of Jansen . If we had mariano rivera instead of francisco/raunch, we would only be better by about 6 blown saves.. wooopty doo.
I like the idea of making Carreno the closer. That slider has been filthy since he came up.
I get the whole bullpen has been bad. As of the end of August the Jays have had 22 blown saves, you need good late inning guys.
ya he hasn’t looked bad at all.. Chad Beck is someone who can grow in to the role as well…
I don’t see why Janssen isn’t recommended more, he throws strikes, gets easy outs and is fairly consistent.
There is a bunch of starters coming up, including Chad Jenkins who can be temporarily moved in to the role.
In terms of what? Budget? Certainly not attendance or roster. This is coming from a person that loves to see the Rays win.
The Sox are better than the Rays in almost every way. Do the Rays suck? Nope. I like the Rays. I like what they are doing. But they are not better than the Sox.
majority of those saves have been blown before the ninth, rauch and francisco have been pretty awful, but wont be back
Almost every way being what? Offense? Tampa has Boston beaten IN SPADES in terms of pitching and defense, it’s not even close and will surely be an even bigger gap next year.