TheHurl

I'm watching Charlie's feed for the first time. Not bad...I can't believe that I can't get one game on TV in Northern PA.

I think that's the best hope No need to rush Stroman to the 40 man. Have him there for worst case scenario or if he blows them away in Spring. Get the f*** rid of Luis Perez, I don't care if he's lights out in winter league or anything else. Stop wasting 40 man spots on relievers that can't stay healthy enough to pitch. It's not a mess I'd like to have to fix. Even if they spend $165M plus...they are wasting assets to bring in new assets.

John, remove Sierra from your list. He's got to be done here...he's out of options and no way they can guarantee him a major league spot. I'd guess that his spot on the 40 man will go to Pillar.

who would have thought with those two on base that there might be a boneheaded running error

But you did use rWAR...it was your main point. I'm not going to deny that Reyes has been bad defensively and if there were better options it might make sense to consider a move of him, but Kawasaki isn't the answer at short.

As a reference point fWAR has Reyes at 1.3 and Kawasaki at 0.7. Simmons is at 2.4 fWAR. Range Factor is not the best defensive metric.

Calhoun is the Angels version of Pillar

I was really enjoying the Cards vs. Reds game...changed over to the Jays for about 30 seconds and thought why am I watching this and went back to a blowout game. On a side note the Reds are much tougher on their promotions, they don't give out pizza until they get 11 K's.

Guess you could include the Dodgers and Red Sox trade from last year too

I love August trades and some of these have been the best in history. Leave the deadline and let good GM's make their moves in August. Some August trades off hand: Bautista to Toronto Canseco to Texas for Sierra, Russell and Bobby Witt (making an August 31st trade when you have a 7 game lead still doesn't make sense and was ballsy for sure but they got three contributing players for one declining one) Walker to the Cards...they fell short in the WS, but it wasn't due to Walker's efforts. Cone to the Jays Bagwell for Larry Anderson

Gomes struck out 27% in 2010, 24% in 2011, 21.6% in AAA last year and 28.8% in Toronto. I do like it when guys show improvement in K's as they move through the minors, it's a telling sign that they can improve in the majors too...but he's currently at 18.8% in the majors...can't say I saw this coming at all. It's only a 160 PA sample size but it's certainly a promising sign and I'd love to here someone talk about what he's doing different so we can maybe look for it in other Jays org guys (I'm making wild assumptions that the Jays might have some systemic issues with K-Rates). The other crazy thing about Gomes is that he's throwing out runners in the majors at rates that he never got close to in the minors. Overall he's probably playing beyond his skill set but as I said in the around baseball thread today, he's currently the ultimate back up catcher.

In a better built team guys like Stroman, Stilson and even Pillar could be added much easier and the team would be able to see what they have. That's what lost seasons like this one should be by this point

Ryan Raburn with 2 HR's in this Indians win (sweep, 2nd 4 game sweep of the sox this season). I remember one of the Rotographs guys doing his outrageous predictions last season and he predicted Raburn would be a top 10 2B. I jumped in with both feet (things he wrote made sense) and picked up Raburn in almost every pool. Now this year in a part time role he's putting up the numbers that writer was expecting. I get amazed when I see part time guys putting up numbers like he has. Indians bench (Raburn, Gomes, Aviles and Giambi) putting up almost 5 WAR. Oakland is an extreme example of letting their bench succeed but Cleveland is doing it with guys that I just couldn't have seen succeeding.

doing it with guys with options is the hard part of that. You can't stockpile if you can't send them down if they aren't working out. This is a skill he needs, building a 40 man roster. It's been a mess for 2.5 years now.

Yan Gomes just threw out Danks stealing 2nd. Baserunners are now 9 for 21 against him. I'll admit I didn't see him being this well rounded...Hard to believe that he's not just a better catcher than JPA, well right now he's a far better hitter too. He's the ultimate back up catcher right now.

http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=29321285&partnerId=as_mlb_20130801_10349334

Jonny Gomes with a nice little play of his own to keep it tied. you don't see a lot of 7U DP http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5348/9411199943_037bc84856_o.gif

What a throw by Michael Saunders. That was impressive will have video or a gif up as soon as I find it.

I feel the same way about Luis Perez. Only way he should be back in Toronto is if he moves into ECJF's new place

Fake injury, the team asking McGowan to go on the DL...I mean a doctor wouldn't even investigate, he'd just see McGowan and sign the injury forms. So who comes off the 40 man?

I know it will be asked in the next few days so here is a review of the revocable waivers and August trading. I'd say that at least 10 of the Jays will be placed on Waivers. Teams have to pass players through revocable waivers to trade them after the July 31st deadline. Players acquired after August 31st can't play in the postseason. Teams will often put most of their players on waivers to determine interest, since they don't have to give up every player who's claimed. Unclaimed players can be traded to any club in August (or even September). Teams don't have to trade players who are claimed. They can hand the player and his salary over for nothing. If a team places a player on waivers after he is claimed, but not traded, the team loses the right to pull its player back. In other words, the waivers are revocable at first, but not revocable afterwards. Clubs have two days (48.5 hours) to deal claimed players, but they can only negotiate a trade with one team. Teams have two days to complete a deal regardless of which day of the week the claim takes place on. If only one team claims a player, he can only be dealt to that team. If more than one team claims a player, he can only be traded to the claiming team in his league with the worst record. If a player's only claimed by teams in the other league, he can only be dealt to the claiming team with the worst record. Teams cannot pass players on the disabled list through waivers.

outside of Juan Perez being DFA'd what is the option? Loup is the only pitcher with options. Just another reason not trading today makes little sense. I imagine they will place multiple players on waivers to see who bites but that isn't going to help for Santos tomorrow.

But this team isn't coming off of a record breaking attendance season, nor does it look like trading a Bautista for Profar on it's own would make the Jays a winning team. I can't see attendance going anywhere but down next season and I don't advocate making moves (or non moves) for PR purposes but I think for the Jays to continue with a larger payroll that's probably the way they have to think. Maybe you luck into becoming a winning team somewhere along the line. None of it is good baseball sense but I've given up on thinking that will happen.

Nope, I had discussions with both him and Cooler Heads in the same thread. I got them mixed up...this is what I get for talking to these guys like they are people.

In the JJ's agent thread. Sorry you are the one that annoyed me with my favourite phrase that he can't pitch in the AL East. It was Cooler Heads that said pitchers like Johnson don't get $14M contracts. I just pointed out to you that many AL East pitchers have got rocked and they came back and pitched well. I've never said that i think JJ will but I believe in peripherals so I'd say he's got a better chance of pitching better next year. I can't predict his health and yes sometimes peripherals are not indicators.