Blue Jays Discussion: Almost time for real baseball

Status
Not open for further replies.

Eyedea

The Legend Continues
Jan 29, 2012
27,407
3,234
Toronto, Ontario
If it's mostly just a placeholder move until Pompey is ready for action, then I'm ok with it. If Pearce is getting most of the playing time in LF, then I'm sort of ok with it since I think a Pearce/Smoak combination against RHP is the better option anyway.

Despite his horrible 2016, Coghlan is kind of an interest option, too.

There are reasonable alternatives, but I'm not sure how likely they are.

Had some pretty extreme BABIP issues in Oakland, and it seemed that corrected itself along with his plate discipline when he went back to Chicago. He might not be 2014/15 Cubs good but he's also a career 108 wRC+ against righties. He's a good buy low option that has experience all around the diamond and as a leadoff hitter.

Also this might not be the most attractive option, but Salty could potentially see time at first against righties depending on how him and Smoak are performing. At least until Tellez is ready.
 
Last edited:

Kurtz

Registered User
Jul 17, 2005
10,034
6,893
found this interesting. dont know how accurate but, Jays have the #6 payroll. With a lot of the bickering this offseason about spending, it appears they do spend

http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/

They are somewhat accurate, but your interpretation is incomplete.

If you're looking at 25-man payroll, the Jays are 6th at the moment, yes. But that's not the way to look at it, since plenty of teams below the Jays have way more money currently sitting on DL.

What you want to do, is look at Total Payroll, where the list has the Jays at #5. However, that is counting Upton at 16.5 mil, and we're only paying $1 mil of his salary. Remove that, and the Jays sit at #11 in Total Spend to start the season.


One further note...I believe that the qualms about our spending ended with the late signing of Joey Bats. That signing took us from #15 to #11 in team spend.
 

shaner8989

Registered User
Aug 6, 2005
22,841
4,771
Another disgraceful call ruins a game

Yanks game was over in the 1st after a pathetic call
 

Canada4Gold

Registered User
Dec 22, 2010
42,973
9,179
I've convinced there must have been some kind of behind the scenes issue this spring with Upton. He's been terrible every step of the way with us but this didn't seem like an option entering the spring.

I don't love Goins, but this makes it more likely that Dalton sees some time once he's healthy which is a good thing in my mind. Hopefully once Smoak proves once again to management he sucks that we might start seeing Dalton in LF and Pearce at 1st. IMO that's the ideal alighment until Rowdy is ready.

Osuna being hurt sucks. Our pen is really underwhelming without him. Don't know much about Leone as I hadn't really considered him an option until now. Prefered Barnes, but we'll see how this goes.

Our starting lineup and rotation is still really solid so hopefully we can get off to a good start this year.
 

Longshot

Registered User
Jul 2, 2008
11,161
312
Ontario, Canada
I've convinced there must have been some kind of behind the scenes issue this spring with Upton. He's been terrible every step of the way with us but this didn't seem like an option entering the spring.

I don't love Goins, but this makes it more likely that Dalton sees some time once he's healthy which is a good thing in my mind. Hopefully once Smoak proves once again to management he sucks that we might start seeing Dalton in LF and Pearce at 1st. IMO that's the ideal alighment until Rowdy is ready.

Osuna being hurt sucks. Our pen is really underwhelming without him. Don't know much about Leone as I hadn't really considered him an option until now. Prefered Barnes, but we'll see how this goes.

Our starting lineup and rotation is still really solid so hopefully we can get off to a good start this year.

I'm really baffled why everybody appears to be so surprised by this move.

Upton is a poor hitter. Goins is a poor hitter.

But the Jays have more OF depth than IF depth, so they kept the infielder.

A particularly good decision when you consider the injury history of Travis and Tulo.

With Pompey (assuming he can bounce back quickly), Carrerra and Ceciliani on the 40-man roster it's a lot easier to absorb the loss of an outfielder than the loss of a an infielder - since right now all they have is Tulo, Travis and Barney.
 

canucksfan

Registered User
Mar 16, 2002
43,788
9,433
British Columbia
Visit site
I'm really baffled why everybody appears to be so surprised by this move.

Upton is a poor hitter. Goins is a poor hitter.

But the Jays have more OF depth than IF depth, so they kept the infielder.

A particularly good decision when you consider the injury history of Travis and Tulo.

With Pompey (assuming he can bounce back quickly), Carrerra and Ceciliani on the 40-man roster it's a lot easier to absorb the loss of an outfielder than the loss of a an infielder - since right now all they have is Tulo, Travis and Barney.

Not to mention Tulo has a past of injuries. Travis and Tulo will need a few more days off I think.
 

Discoverer

Registered User
Apr 11, 2012
10,760
5,910
Upton is a poor hitter. Goins is a poor hitter.

You can call both "poor" if you want to oversimplify, but there's a big difference between "slightly below average" and "one of the worst in all of baseball".
 

hockeywiz542

Registered User
May 26, 2008
15,909
4,983

the blue jays were listening to trade offers on both upton and goins recently, trying to gauge the market for the two players they needed to choose from for the last roster spot. while the market for upton was non-existent, the market for goins was actually pretty decent, with multiple teams making offers for the 29-year-old utility man. One american league team was even intent on trading for goins and giving him a short term starting role before settling him into their utility role once their club returned to health. However, despite multiple names being tossed around, the two clubs were not able to come to agreement that the blue jays liked. So, the blue jays decided to release melvin upton, and hold on to goins, knowing that a lot of teams won’t even want to pick up upton for the remainder of his 2017 contract, and there is a good chance that he re-signs with the club and heads to the minors. For goins on the other hand, the interest in him is still viable, and even though he secured his spot on the blue jays opening day roster, he may still be traded.

The blue jays were targeting catchers in their trade talks, hoping to upgrade on jarrod saltalamacchia before purchasing his contract and making it guaranteed for the 2017 season. With that deadline officially gone, you can expect the club to stop their pursuit of a backup catcher, despite their internal concerns with his throwing ability.

With the current roster, the blue jays plan on handing the bulk of left field playing time to steve pearce. Although the coaches do really like ezequiel carrera, they like him a lot more off of the bench than they do as a starter. That leaves the blue jays with justin smoak playing at first base, steve pearce in left field, and zeke off of the bench. Although that doesn’t seem ideal, if the blue jays would have kept upton, it would have been the same thing but smoak would have been on the bench as well. The blue jays in effect chose justin smoak over melvin upton. That decision, although questionable, actually makes a lot more sense.


over the past three seasons, smoak has been the better hitter, slashing .216/.297/.403 to upton’s .229/.295/.377, and the blue jays like his defense at first base a lot more than they like upton’s in the corner outfield spots. they thought upton was much more comfortable in centre field, a position currently occupied by kevin pillar, who isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With darrell ceciliani available in buffalo to play left field or centre field, and the newly acquired chris coghlan also in buffalo, the blue jays felt comfortable enough with the outfield depth to let go of upton, especially given they believe they have a strong chance to retain him.

The danger of the blue jays decisions today is that they are relying on steve pearce, a player who has played over 100 games in a season just once in his career, to stay healthy. Obviously the club is the organization that knows his health the best, and if they feel comfortable making that decision, it seems like it could be a smart one.
pearce has praised the work of the high performance department, and has said he feels different because of them. Whether that carries into the regular season, and for how long, remains to be seen.

lastly, the question of angel pagan still remains. The blue jays have the money to spend on pagan because he represents a clear upgrade, but pagan wants a team where he can be guaranteed a starting spot. He’s still a free agent because of that, and despite the blue jays having tried to sign him, he refuses to agree to sign with them because they will not guarantee that starting left field job. If pagan moves off of these demands, pagan could still find his way to toronto, though the club source indicated he doesn’t view it as very likely at this point.
 

hockeywiz542

Registered User
May 26, 2008
15,909
4,983

having this new spirit in his life inspired mike to return to the game he had long abandoned. He started coaching the barstow community college team, and of course aaron came along whenever he could. “he would bawl and cry if he couldn’t be up there,†mike says. “he rode on the buses with me. He learned a lot of bad language on the buses. But he loved it. He would rather be with me than with the other kids. If that car started up, he was grabbing anything so he could he could hurry and get in. At practice, i would stick a college guy’s catching gear on him [so he wouldn’t get hurt] — the shin guards went up to his hips — and i would send him into left field and say, ‘don’t turn sideways.’ he would do that every night.â€

that kid, who would grow up tall and wiry, turned out to be an athletic prodigy. He played a bit of football and a lot of basketball, but baseball (of course) was his game. As he approached his teenaged years, it was clear that aaron’s talents were going to outstrip barstow, that he had a real shot at succeeding in the world beyond.

“mike probably saw more of aaron’s talent than i was capable of understanding,†lynn says. “i knew he was good. But i had no concept of the draft, professional ball. I think mike saw that long before i did and knew what he was capable of. I just trusted him. I trusted mike wouldn’t put my children in danger and that he was doing the right thing when he took him to play ball outside of barstow.â€

when aaron was 10, frank sanchez died of liver failure. He was 48 years old. When he’s asked about his biological father, aaron typically demurs, especially when it comes to the details of his death. “he knows it was because of his tortured lifestyle,†lynn says. “he knows that. I just think that he doesn’t want to talk about it.â€

“it did hurt a little bit,†aaron says, “but it didn’t feel like i lost a father figure in my life because i didn’t. I always knew who dad was in my heart. No offence to my real father. But i grew up with mike as someone who had raised me from day one.â€

at one point, aaron considered changing his last name to shipley, but mike and lynn told him that if he was going to do that, he’d have to talk to the sanchez family about it. Lynn and mike had made sure that aaron and andrew retained a connection with the extended sanchez clan, and aaron’s paternal grandmother, lydia, remained an extremely important figure in his life until her death during spring training last year.

Aaron thought long and hard about it, and then decided he didn’t want to have that conversation with his grandmother, that he would remain a sanchez. “does it hurt mike that it doesn’t say ‘shipley’ on the back of aaron’s jersey? No,†lynn says. “does it bother him that he’s sometimes calld mr. Sanchez? No. It’s just who we are. Everybody knows who got aaron where he is. Everyone knows where the credit goes.â€
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->