In rehab news, Rajai Davis is in CF and leading off for New Hampshire tonight. In Dunedin, both Scott Podsednik and DeWayne Wise are in the lineup as well.

Shi Davidi implied that the jays got so little because they still owed the Rox on the Olivo deal.

another explanation (of my own devising) is that perhaps the PTBNL is a 2010 draftee.

Barring those two explanations, it seems AA has a far dimmer view of Emaus' value than I did.

I really don't understand why the Jays have a roster spot for Chris Woodward, but not Brad Emaus. I suppose Woodward is theoretically a shortstop, but he's also 35, and I thought this year was about putting together assets for the future.

I concur with Tam and Ryan. If AA holds a dimmer view on Emaus than the information available to us (bauxites) would justify the view, so be it. However, preferring Woodward to Emaus for 40-man roster is beyond me. So did the Jays retook Emaus for $25,000 and trade him for Malone and PTBNL ?

However, preferring Woodward to Emaus for 40-man roster is beyond me.

As was stated in the other thread, they don't have to put Emaus on the 40-man roster, so the 40-man roster is irrelevant. Woodward is on the 25-man roster, so they may prefer Woodward there, which would likely be due to his versatility in the field, as Ryan suggested. However, that hypothesis isn't necessarily true, as Woodward would not have fetched the return (or paid off the debt owed to Colorado, as is the case) that Emaus did, so maybe Emaus was preferred to Woodward, but this deal presented itself or was necessary to complete.

The larger point, which still seems accurate, was made by some back when the 40-man roster was set for the Rule 5 draft: it seems as if the front office does not value Emaus as highly as some posters on this site do.

So did the Jays retook Emaus for $25,000 and trade him for Malone and PTBNL ?

Sorry, I was in the process of editing my response in my other post (if it seemed abrupt, I was trying to correct that) and accidentally submitted it before finishing or answering this question.

Yes, that is what happened. The Jays would have to pay that fee to Mets, but there may be cash in the Emaus/Malone deal, so it's possible the Rockies will give the Jays the cash they paid New York.

We need an edit button, if solely for me...

Magpie, isn't LaRoche on the A's and Milledge on the White Sox?

isn't LaRoche on the A's and Milledge on the White Sox?

Yup. I think I deleted something. Anyway, same club, Wood and Tabata will form the Pittsburgh chapter. I wonder if Corey Patterson qualifies...

So I've been watching Reyes, who's had a decent game tonight, and I've been trying to get a sense of which old Jays pitcher he might remind me of (and what they were like at his age). Ted Lilly? Al Leiter? Nah - Reyes reminds me more of young David Wells. Just to watch, first of all - the same easy, simple delivery. And there's a similarity in body type (that's the young Wells, I hasten to point out, although Reyes isn't as tall.)

Anyway, I think it's led me to the heart of my concern about Reyes. I suspect it's easier to ask a player to make a improvement to one part of his game than several. As young pitchers, Lilly and Leiter had obvious strengths and equally obvious weaknesses. Like Reyes, Lilly was vulnerable to the home run, and he didn't strike out a whole lot of guys. But Lilly threw strikes and didn't let a lot of people get on base. Leiter, of course, walked a zillion guys - even more than Reyes (or Purcey) - but Leiter's stuff was so lively that it was very difficult to hit him hard and almost impossible to take him deep.

So here's the concern with Reyes: he's got a lively arm, but so far everything has been a weakness, nothing has been a positive. He needs to reduce his hits, reduce his walks, reduce his home runs, and it would be nice if he could increase his strikeouts. It seems like a lot to expect, and the only alternative is to make a big leap in one part of his game. By contrast, the path to progress was much simpler for Lilly and Leiter, who already had something they did extremely well. Lilly was already throwing strikes, Leiter was already very hard to hit.

Off Topic, but Crabbe, Stansberry and Diaz are on their way to Las Vegas, per a tweet by Kevin Gray of the Manchester Union Leader. 

An infielder invation... Looks like many of last year's Fisher Cats are now back together in LV. 

Ironically, LV is in Colorado Springs tomorrow and the league transactions note that Emaus will be going to Colorado Springs.

Budde is at 2b for the 51s tonight.  Whew...

Manny Mayorson left last nights game and is presumably injured.  Mike McCoy is either injured or on his way to Toronto to replace Jayson Nix.

According to Justin Jacksons twitter he got promoted to NH

How would you like to be the Jays organization's travel coordinator this week?   Whew... edin

If the Angels decided to lose Wood on waivers, does that mean nobody was offering them anything in trade? I'm a little confused why AA wouldn't take a chance.

If you're confused as to why AA wouldn't take a chance then you must also be confused as to why nobody else took a chance either.

Wood is getting older and has been mediocre at best - he doesn't appear to have the ability to hit breaking stuff....I'm happy to let the Pirates have him.

Indeed, I'm confused about the process. Why did LAA not wait 10 days before losing him on waivers? David Purcey had more value than Brandon Wood?

The waiver rules are somewhat arcane, and I've been trying to piece all of this together from the fine print in the media guide. And my eyes are not what they once were. But as best as I can figure...

Wood was placed on waivers on Tuesday. The claiming period is two business days, so someone had at least until the end of Thursday to put in a claim (it looks like the actual deadline was Friday morning - yesterday.)

If multiple teams put in a claim, the team with the worst record in the player's league gets priority. So it looks like no one in the AL put in a claim, as he was claimed by an NL team. (During this waiver period, which runs through the end of April, the 2010 final record is used to assign priority.)

Once someone had claimed Wood on waivers, the Angels would have had another two business days to decide how to proceed (which would extend the process to next Tuesday, I guess). They would have had the option of withdrawing the waiver claim, working out a deal with the claiming team, or simply letting it happen and taking the $25,000. The claiming team places the player on their active roster.

In this case, it does look like the Angels were simply cutting Wood loose, with no expectations (or even interest) in getting anything back.

Purcey was also DFA'd on a Tuesday, and the same claiming deadline would have applied (it looks like Friday morning.) The Jays apparently received multiple bites on Purcey, including a couple from within their own league, before the Friday deadline. So it looks they then requested a withdrawl of the Purcey waivers so they could work out a deal. They would have had two days to decide to do that, and then an additional two day period to work out the deal.

David Purcey had more value than Brandon Wood?

I suppose. Purcey does have some record of success at the major league level, whereas Wood has none whatsoever.

So here's the concern with Reyes: he's got a lively arm, but so far everything has been a weakness, nothing has been a positive. He needs to reduce his hits, reduce his walks, reduce his home runs, and it would be nice if he could increase his strikeouts.

Actually, his walks and strikeouts have been pretty good, if you throw out the horrible start against Boston: two of his starts were 7 inning outings in which he gave up 1 walk and struck out 6. And he's only given up one home run in his four starts - it's not as if he's doing the Full Tallet out there.

From what I've seen of him, the big question is whether he can keep the ball down consistently. But, after last night's start, I can see why the Jays are high on him - he's this close to being a really useful starter. Of course, so many pitchers are this close, and many never get there.

I'm more worried about how quickly players are being moved on and off the roster - I've always believed (as Thomas Boswell once wrote) that you should never judge a player on a unit of time less than a month. (Though if Cecil was starting to lose confidence, that might be a different issue.)

his walks and strikeouts have been pretty good

Yup, although I was actually thinking of his career numbers. In general, while I'm not optimistic about Reyes the one thing that does give me hope is a growing suspicion that the Atlanta Braves, in the post-Schuerholz era, have lost a vital part of their player development mojo.

Jojo had such great command in spring training, and his best start to date was in california i think, that perhaps the jays believe he'll be better when the weather warms up. I know I do.

....Why did LAA not wait 10 days before losing him on waivers?....

I could be wrong, but I think the DFA process is quite different from the waiver process.  Purcey was DFA'd, and therefore the Jays had 10 days to decide what to do with him:  trade him or release him or demote him (but to demote him the Jays would have to put him on waivers, which would trigger the waiver process.)   In the case of Wood, he was not DFA'd, he was placed on waivers, so it was a different process, with the rules that Magpie mentioned.

 

As I understand it, waivers are part of the DFA process, as teams seldom seem to issue an outright release these days. So the player being removed from the roster is "designated for assignment or release." The player goes through the waiver process prior to being assigned to another team. If he makes it through the waivers, he can be assigned to your minor league team. If the player is claimed, you have the option of letting him go (Wood), or withdrawing the waivers and cutting a deal, "assigning" him to another major league team (Purcey). It could also be a prelude to someone being giving an outright release - after all, you might as well see if anyone nibbles.

In the case of Wood, he was not DFA'd

Wood was indeed designated for assignment, on Tuesday night. The story on the Angels website said this meant the Angels had seven days to place him on waivers  and ten days to "waive, trade, or release" him. Apparently the Angels put Wood on waivers right away (I'm reading that the deadline for claiming him was Friday noon, so they would have had to put him on waivers by Wednesday noon.  Clearly, if the clock starts that quickly on the waiver process, it's unlikely to take the entire ten days. I do have the impression that the Angels did want to get the process over with as quickly as possible, and didn't care if they received anything - mainly for the benefit of Wood, who they regard very highly as a person.

I infer from all of this that it's possible that the Jays didn't ask waivers on Purcey - if they had seven days to play with, they could wait and see who was interested, rather than limit themselves to talking to whoever put in a claim.

Jayson Nix is on the DL, Mike McCoy is in Toronto.

If the Jays want Jesse Litsch to start on Tuesday then I thought they would have called him up in Nix's spot.  Even if they decide on Tuesday to send Woodward or McCoy down, they cannot recall Litsch unless Aaron Hill goes on the DL.

An infielder is obviously the more immediate need.

.....I infer from all of this that it's possible that the Jays didn't ask waivers on Purcey - if they had seven days to play with, they could wait and see who was interested, rather than limit themselves to talking to whoever put in a claim....

Yes, I agree.  And that's why I think the DFA process is different from the waiver process.  Purcey went through a different process from Brandon Wood.  But I think you're right that the DFA process often includes the waiver process.

Purcey went through a different process from Brandon Wood.

I now think it was the same process, different method! This we know - they were both designated for assignment. What appears to be different is that the Angels chose to put Wood on waivers right away. The Jays waited to see if they could make a trade first.

Angels dancing on the head of a pin... :-)