With all the focus on the draft and the status of Brett Lawrie's third metacarpal the big boys continue their winning ways in Kansas City. It wasn't a pretty victory, the bullpen tried to give it back, but an ugly win is still a win.
Today it's a day game at 3pm Toronto time. Ricky Romero takes on Luke Hochever, the Jays have to be favourites in that match-up.
Here are some random notes:
It's hard to find a reliable arm in the bullpen. I know the Jays have a statistically decent bullpen but they are not doing it with confidence. Luis Perez is the most reliable guy right now. Marc Rzepczynski followed up Monday's shaky outing with another one, albeit less on the shaky scale. Octavio Dotel came on for his speciality, a right handed hitter, and promptly gave up a three run bomb. Finally Casey Janssen recorded a shaky save, when the last out came off Melky Cabrera's bat I thought it would bloop over Mike McCoy's head.
In case you didn't hear Jon Rauch had a slightly sore lat and was unavailable last night. If there is a save situation today will it be Fireman Frank, or "I'll throw this pitch when I am ready", Jason Frasor?
The Jays got picked twice last night trying to steal off a left hander. They need to re-assess that part of their running guidelines.
In case you didn't hear Jesse Litsch threw yesterday and could see game action in the next week. He won't be back in the majors until July.
AA was on the Fan on a few days ago and I finally listened to it this morning. In regard to the draft he said he told the scouting department to focus on players he couldn't easily trade for. That would explain why so many pitchers were taken in the first half of the draft. First basemen and left fielders are easier to trade for.
AA also said that the trade market is dormant during the draft. After the draft, i.e. today, GM's start assessing their clubs and trade talks start to develop. AA said he had a couple of things he was working on but that they had gone cool. The July deadline will increase the pressure on GM's.
I was surprised to see in the paper this morning that the Jays draft finished with almost as many college players as high schoolers. The first half of the draft the Jays selected high schoolers, the second half college players to fill out rosters. Some of those college players will hit really well against younger competition in Vancover and Bluefield. That won't make them a prospect.
Draft signings should start today and accelerate over the next week. The Vancouver Canadians season starts Friday next week, the team needs to be in place by the middle fo next week. The Bluefield and GCL teams start the week after. The Jays do have the equivalent of two teams in extended spring training and most of those players will head to Vancouver or Bluefield. The Jays have to sign another teams worth of players from this years draft to fill out their third team. Look for a lot of shuffling over the first few weeks of the season.
The Dunedin and Lansing teams have about a week or so left in the first half of their season. Lansing have a shot at a playoff spot. They lead their division but they are just 1.5 games ahead of the third place team. The top two make the playoffs. Dunedin are ten games back but they do have a winning record.
Chad Jenkins reportedly has been promoted to New Hampshire. Rey Gonzalez no longer shows on the future pitchers game notes for NH, so he is either hurting or being promoted to Las Vegas.
So, what else is going on?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20110609100010122