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The Blue Jays claimed Dirk Hayhurst off waivers from the San Diego Padres on Monday.


Hayhurst posted a 9.72 ERA in 10 September appearances for the Padres this year in his first big league action. The 27-year-old spent most of the year in Portland in the Pacific Coast League. In his first full year in Triple-A Hayhurst posted a 3.75 ERA and had 98 strikeouts in 84 innings. In 2007 he posted a 3.51 ERA, spending most of the year at Double-A San Antonio.

To make room on the 40-man roster the Jays placed infielder Kevin Melillo on waivers. Melillo was acquired earlier this year from the Athletics and posted a .797 OPS for Syracuse in 226 at-bats, playing a mixture of third, first and second base.

Normally a waiver claim may not merit its own thread, but this is also an opportunity to publicize the blog Hayhurst has been writing for Baseball America during the season. Hayhurst’s blog contains some of the best writing on baseball I’ve read this year from anyone. One of his best entries was posted on August 16 and was on a particular autograph request Hayhurst received.


Jays Claim Dirk Hayhurst | 9 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
TamRa - Tuesday, October 07 2008 @ 02:13 AM EDT (#193156) #
What a classic baseball name!


John Northey - Tuesday, October 07 2008 @ 06:52 AM EDT (#193160) #
Nice article in his blog. Like his blog says, he is a non-prospect but that type of story makes one hope for him to get his shot.

FYI: His ML Stats are here and minor league here. The minor league numbers suggest a bit of homer-itis is his biggest issue, ML numbers suggest control. Of course, his AAA numbers are in the PCL thus home runs would be high. Might be able to move into the RH reliever slot should Frasor be sent away. For a waiver fee and Kevin Melillo (entering his age 27 season, looks to be at best another Inglett and we already have tons of this type of player), why not?
Marc Hulet - Tuesday, October 07 2008 @ 08:18 AM EDT (#193161) #
I guess the Jays are desperate to finally get some positive coverage in BA...
rtcaino - Tuesday, October 07 2008 @ 10:50 AM EDT (#193164) #
I won't lie, I'm kind of sad this guy isn't a leftie.
Dave Rutt - Tuesday, October 07 2008 @ 10:59 AM EDT (#193165) #
Just to reinforce Thomas' point, this guy is a fantastic writer. He's not an athlete blogger, he's an athlete journalist. Read every entry in his "non-prospect diary", consecutively, immediately.
jerjapan - Tuesday, October 07 2008 @ 02:45 PM EDT (#193178) #

Agreed - that entry on the autograph seeker is quite moving. 

I love cheering for the non-propsects to get a break anyway (go Joe Inglett!) - glad to have one with an interesting sideline to cheer for now. 

Thomas - Tuesday, October 07 2008 @ 03:05 PM EDT (#193180) #
Again, i want to encourage people to read the entirety of Hayhurst's diary. The autograph seeker one is touching, but all of Hayhurst's pieces are well worth reading and cover such topics as daily life in the minors and trying to learn from Greg Maddux. As I said, his pieces put most of those in mainstream media to shame.

John Northey - Tuesday, October 07 2008 @ 03:39 PM EDT (#193182) #
Thomas, you say that like it is hard to put the mainstream media to shame :)

Still, Dirk did just 14 entries during the full summer vs a sportswriter who has to do one a day, or at least a few a week to keep their job.

I did like his one about the end of the regular season and thoughts about if it is worth it. The mentioning about someone who felt their child 'screwed it up' for them points out just how screwed up some people are (take it from someone pushing 40 who wants children badly).

I'm glad he made it into 10 games this year, even if he was hit hard in his 3 starts as well as in 3 of his 7 relief outings. Now he can answer if it was worth whatever it ended up costing him or not.
katman - Saturday, October 11 2008 @ 04:54 PM EDT (#193278) #
Obviously, they're hoping that a certain newspaper might pick him up in place of
Richard Griffin. An outcome that would make this pick-up a big win for us all.
Jays Claim Dirk Hayhurst | 9 comments | Create New Account
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