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Spring Training – What We’ve Learned So Far
Posted on 12 Mar 2012 by Ben Fisher.
Spring training is really a no-lose proposition. If you win the games, then great. If you lose, well, the games don't matter anyway. Even for pitchers, you either pitch well in short stints, or you don't pitch well because, clearly, you didn't get a chance to find any kind of groove. Still, amidst the usual haul of “Team X looks good” and “Player Y appears ready to break throu...
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The Battles This Spring
Posted on 21 Feb 2012 by Ben Fisher.
Blue Jays’ training camp opens tomorrow, although that hardly changes much down in Dunedin, where all coaches and nearly all players have long-since arrived and are holding informal daily workouts. It is to be lauded that so many players have shown up early when, in reality, there isn’t a ton on the line. You can essentially boil down the training camp battles to two significant ones – th...
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Where the Jays Stand – Relief Corps
Posted on 14 Feb 2012 by Ben Fisher.
The comments lauding the quality and depth of the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen heading into the 2012 season (‘three closers!’, ‘experience!’ ‘late-inning shutdown guys!’) seem all-too-familiar. It was just last season that the very same things were being said about a unit headlined by Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch and Octavio Dotel, none of whom are back for the coming season and all o...
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Where the Jays Stand – Starting Rotation
Posted on 7 Feb 2012 by Ben Fisher.
Remember back in the fall when I was doing a weekly positional breakdown of the Jays as baseball traipsed through its eventful off-season and into the spring? Well, I went across to diamond to every fielding position off the mound – and little has changed since then. At catcher, former Angel Jeff Mathis will take over the role as J.P. Arencibia’s back-up that was vacated by Tampa-bound Jose...
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Jays’ Off-Season Shopping Wraps with Vintage Buys
Posted on 25 Jan 2012 by Ben Fisher.
As if managing the day-to-day operations of a baseball club and facing questions about his (lack of) off-season activity aren't stressful enough, Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is growing self-conscious about his age as he approaches the big 3-5 this year. Okay, I don't know that to be true whatsoever, but how else do you explain the sudden stockpiling of greybeards to fill holes in the roster? Each...
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Jays Bullpen Nearly Set with Oliver Signing
Posted on 10 Jan 2012 by Ben Fisher.
On Monday, the Jays spent $4 million on a 41-year old reliever whose rookie season coincided with the club’s last World Series championship. In the same transaction, they also picked up a reliable late inning guy who has reached the postseason in each of the last five years and has seen his ERA drop in each of those previous five. How you feel about the signing of Darren Oliver depends highly...
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Moving Past Yu (Last Darvish Pun, I Promise)
Posted on 21 Dec 2011 by Ben Fisher.
First thing’s first: this sudden criticism of Alex Anthopoulos, Rogers and the Blue Jays for the handling of the Yu Darvish bid process is majorly overblown. If reports and speculation are to be believed, the club made a bid in the neighbourhood of $50 million for the Darvish negotiation rights, coming up just short of the Texas Rangers’ $51.7 million bid in what was a closed process. Falli...
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Moving Past the Winter Meetings
Posted on 12 Dec 2011 by Ben Fisher.
One significant deal, a salary arbitration acceptance, Rule 5 minor league selection binge and bout with a flu virus later and Alex Anthopoulos’ Winter Meetings experience wrapped up as of last Friday. It was certainly a productive week of work, even if it didn’t mean inking Prince Fielder or lavishing $254 million on Albert Pujols. Of Anthopoulos’ three stated areas of need, he was able ...
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Jays Pay Big for Their Closer
Posted on 6 Dec 2011 by Ben Fisher.
Upon hearing of today’s Nestor Molina-for-Sergio Santos swap with the White Sox (a trade of pitchers who spent time in the Toronto system as infielders, ironically enough), the words of New Hampshire Fisher Cats’ beat reporter Kevin Gray echoed in my head. Referring to the 22-year old’s 2011 half-season at the AA level as “Verlander-like”, Gray recently identified Molina as the best p...
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Where the Jays Stand – Right Field
Posted on 5 Dec 2011 by Ben Fisher.
As the Winter meetings get going in Dallas, our weekly look at how the Jays are set up around the diamond zones in on one of the team’s central selling points to free agents: the opportunity to play alongside Jose Bautista. Before we get to that, I’ll try to separate myth from fact and look at what is real amidst all the speculation coming out of Dallas: What Would Make the Winter Meetings ...
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Jays Swap Mills for Mathis
Posted on 3 Dec 2011 by Ben Fisher.
Today’s trade of Brad Mills to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for back-up catcher Jeff Mathis comes down to one simple question: does Mathis hold greater value than any of the position’s available free agents? There is little question that Mathis is a solid addition and immediately becomes one of the most reliable and defensively consistent back-ups in the league. The arbitration-eligib...
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Where the Jays Stand – Centre Field
Posted on 28 Nov 2011 by Ben Fisher.
Centre field is clearly Colby Rasmus’ position to lose as of now, but what happens if his game is still stuck in St. Louis, as it appeared last season? But first, some “this week in Jays’ news” business: 1 – Johnson/Francisco/Molina/Rauch Arbitrated; Camp Not The only surprising move out of the group is Jon Rauch, but I guess Alex Anthopoulos felt that the reward of a draft pick betwe...
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Michael Tavallaei DDS said: read it again. good article
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Michael Tavallaei said: bye bye lamar!
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Michael Tavallaei said: too wild!!
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Michael Tavallaei said: you're right! very close to perfection
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Michael Tavallaei said: good analysis. Interesting about Kobe
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