Burnett looks leaner, perhaps he really is following Halliday's workout lead. I also like that he didn't throw as much in the offseason and his decision to focus only on locating the fastball early in the spring and mix in the curve and change later.
I'll tell you what, if he finally reaches his awesome potential, Doc stays healthy and they get anywhere near league average from 3-4-5, with that offense....ahhhh spring.
I'm going to set the over / under on Aaron Hill's homerun total at 10.
What do people think?
Regarding that lousy weather you are all dealing with. My GF is stuck in Pearson right now, severely delayed on her way back to Lotus Land.
Damn your freezing rain! Whatever that is?
I'm going to set the over / under on Aaron Hill's homerun total at 10.
I'm taking over, I'm thinking 15.
Over. Power comes from the core and the base, and Hill's got it. I'm predicting 12 homers this year for Aaron Hill and he'll peak at 19-22 later in his career.
I had the impression that Ashby had a deep voice but in fact it was much closer to Jerry's voice than Tom's. In fact I confused him and Jerry once but I was only half listening.
Jerry made an interesting comment which didn't sound like it was opinion but something he was told. He said that Adams would play 2nd at Syracuse and if all goes well he would move into the 2nd base spot and Hill would slide over to SS. He made the point a couple of times that Hill has a SS arm. I don't think I've heard Jays management talk about moving Hill to short recently.
Bought the audio pass from MLB.
What a treat to listen to the Jay game at the office while it was sneezing (snowing/freezing rain) outside.
What a nice surprise it was to hear such a well called game. Haven't enjoyed a Jays game like that since Tom and Cheek were calling the games.
his future now was at second base with Hill switching back to SS if Adams got his act together
The thing is, what else could Ricciardi say? While the statement may well be true, it could also be the case that Ricciardi believes Hill to be the second basemen for the next 5 years with Adams' only potential value to the organization as trade bait, predicated on success at AAA. And that's something I don't think you'd expect a GM to actually say out loud (gotta keep Adams motivated, you know?).
I think the likeliest scenario that would see Adams log playing time for the Jays were if Glaus were hurt (requiring Hill to slide to 3B) and a hot-hitting Adams in AAA sliding, temporarily, into Hill's 2B shoes. As has been speculated elsewhere at this site, maybe the glut of middle infielders is intended to indirectly back up third base. While my preference would be to see Hill play 150 games at second base with no shuffling around the infield, that may be a luxury the team can't oblige.
Regarding Adams...
I predict he will be an EXCELLENT utility player and if we cannot find a qualitatively better 2nd baseman or SS...and I fear we won't...then I predict Adams will be an OK slightly above major league average starting 2nd baseman with Hill being an OK slightly above average starting SS. Our SS and 2nd base situation will be taken care of for the next half decade.
I wasn't sure where to put this, but Jayson Stark at ESPN has an article about the Jays' inability to sign Lilly and/or Meche. He believes the Jays are probably better off, and I agree.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2007/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2784998
VBF, that's as nebulous as deciphering whether the buracracy of government foiled otherwise good policies by elected government. There's obvious value to the knowledge, but it's very, very hard and exhaustive to find it out definitively.
In retrospect, the Adams pick looks terrible. We could pillary every GM who ever drafted with this game. The only insight gained that way is hearing whom we do want to pillary.
At the time, many thought JP was going too safe, but most agreed that a year or two of conservative drafting was necessary to avoid Berg the 1B and such follies.
I wish he'd go best talent available for the first two rounds at least with some fliers and conservative drafting mixed together afterwards. I'd rather he pull a Clayton than draft another Adams in the first round, really.
Had Adams been drafted in the 3rd or 4th, we'd all be celebrating JP's foresight.
Jack Wilson may well be an excellent defensive shortstop (John Dewan has him ranked 2nd overall to Adam Everett for the period 2003-2005), but his career OPS+ is 75, and that includes his alien invasion, OPS+ of 107, three years ago. It's hard to believe his glove is good enough to offset his miserable hitting.
Would he be an improvement over Royce Clayton? Sure. But so would Youppi. Would the "better than Royce" argument justify absorbing Wilson's 3-year, $20M contract? I personally can't see it, though some might argue the merits of locking down the middle infield for the next few years (I argued this same thing this winter in my defense of pursuing Lugo over Meche).
On a related note, just how sad is life as a Pirates fan when Jack Wilson is what you are spending your spring talking about?
Dustin McGowan, Casey Janssen and Ty Taubenheim pitched in the B game this morning. McGowan was average, 49 pitches in 2 innings. Janssen and Taubenheim both pitched well. Russ Adams hit a two run home run off Freddy Garcia.
I am somewhat smitten by Brett Myers, I admit.
As was Mrs. Myers, last season.
If League is only going to be out for a few weeks, or maybe a month, I don't see the need to make a move: I'm fine with Frasor and Downs holding down the fort for a while.
I wonder what Ricciardi and Gillick are talking about. I hope it's not Lieber - anything more than Ismael Ramirez would be overpaying for a guy who's probably not much better than Marcum or Janssen. A Rios-Myers deal would be interesting, but it seems too big. And they really don't seem to have much in the way of ML relievers or middle-infield prospects (assuming that Utley & Rollins are going absolutely nowhere). I don't know what the Padres would bring to the equation, either.
I think San Diego might just go for a McGowan for Linebrink deal. It would absolutely break my heart to see McGowan leave but he would immediately perform in the most spacious park in the majors and with a Gold Glover in center field with a couple of slick fieldng middle-infielders....oooh-wee! I think we lose the trade immediately but if we really need a reliver(I just know I'm going to regret this post, yup there it is, I regret it already...)
And even if League can't start at the beginning of the season it's only going to be a week or two before he's ready. There'd be no need to trade for a reliever for that short of a period.
Plus, good relievers aren't cheap (in terms of talent given up in trade) and the Jays have more than enough candidates to fill in. That's why you sign Matt Roney & Jean Machi and keep Ryan Houston & Tracey Thorpe on the 40 man roster.
Either there's something more to it, or Gibbons is blowing smoke.
Or none of the above. I read it and figured it was Gibbons using a lot of words to say nothing, but not denying any possibility ... "going outside the organization" is more or less the GM's call, so he'd best not say "We won't do that." Saying "that's an option," which is essentially what he did, is both true and safe.
I thought the offseason was for drinking beer, going on cruises and playing in celebrity golf tournaments!!
If everyone has offseason workout schedules, why do we need 45 days of Spring Training??? Play Ball!!
