Random Blue Bird Droppings - The Silver Lining Edition
For such a shitty season, it's somewhat remarkable that two Blue Jays could win Silver Slugger awards, and be this deserving. Aaron Hill and Adam Lind were the recipients of the award, based on "batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, [and] the coaches and managers [also] consider a player's 'overall offensive value'" or as it should be referred to: imagined reputation.
That Hill and Lind, playing in Canada, were able to overcome that last qualifier is testament to their immense success this season.
For the record, Lind batted .305 with 35 homers, slugging .562 and getting on base at a rate of .370, while Hill hit .286 with 36 homers, slugging .499 and putting up an on-base percentage of .330.
From Fisher Cat To Eagle
Remember former Jays prospect Dave Shinske? With a name so close to the dreaded Shitske, he really had no chance of ever making the big club, and so after being released before the start of this season, he enrolled at Boston College, and is now the starting freshman quarterback, at the age of 25.
Word to the wise, Shinske, don't try to run an 18 year old. They'll totally turn their back just before you hit them, and they'll make you look like a big bully, and then the CHL will overreact and do what it can to ban you for life.
The New York Times Endorses Anthopoulos
David Waldstein has a nice companion piece in his blog to the story that ran in Friday's Times about Roy Halladay and the Jays new GM.
Has anyone had anything bad to say about Alex Anthopoulos?
Waldstein gives the rookie general manager glowing reviews, revealing that Anthopoulos temporarily took over the family business for two years when he was 21, before deciding to try this whole baseball thing.
I don't think I'm exaggerating when I suggest that there was a fear among some fans when Anthopoulos was first hired, that he'd be nothing more than a J.P. Jr. However, just over a month into his term, he's already completely revived the scouting department that Ricciardi dismantled. Anthopoulos is very clearly his own man.
Posts
80 rational and reasonable comments:
Well he hired a bunch of scouts. We don't know what that adds up to.
I'd be interested to see if i can find the amount of money spent on scouting by each team. How do you assess the value you get for the money you spend on scouting? Is it simply the number of mlb players it produces?
It's the entire scouting department not just amateur. You can only judge by wins. It's probably similar to figuiring out a marketing budget and comparing it to sales.
@ jerkstore
"Well he hired a bunch of scouts. We don't know what that adds up to."
Wow, I mean WOW.I can never tell whether people like you, make statements like this, to troll for arguments or you're really that uninformed.WOW.
Do not overlook AA's move picking up the guy from the Rockies . The guy played everywhere in Triple A last year and hits and steals bases. Something tells me AA is going to build team to park ....power in middle and speed at top and bottom
Wasn't it the OHL? I can't keep my hockey bush leagues straight... CHL, OHL, NHL... all run by idiots.
Anon @12:36 you mean mikey mac and his johnny mac line of zero?
He actually hit .307 with a .405 on-base, friend.
He's also SEXY!
And 40 stolen bases.
Though... I don't know why anyone who watched this year's playoffs would still think that traditional lineup construction counts for shit.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mccoymi01.shtml
Kanuck, the CHL is the blanket term for all the Canadian junior leagues-- the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL.
Anon who posted the BR link, are you doing so to suggest that he sucks?
No he trucks
Ah Shucks
He's also SEXY!
I wonder if he fucks?
Mike McCoy's carrer minor league line is .270/.369/.360. He is nothing more than a utility player. Stop putting expectations on guys like this, Randy Ruiz, Brian Dopriak, etc. This is something fans for teams like the Pirates do to have any sort of hope. In reality, if these guys are regulars for your team, it is a sign of a bigger problem.
They are nice minor league filler though, give your minor league teams nice win loss records.
Don't care about the CHL.
And it would be great if AA turned into a 2nd version of Ricciardi (without the propensity for being an asshole and signing closers to 5 year deals).
Actually, McCoy is solid and a very interesting player.
The only thing I am nervous about with AA is this reliance on scout talk. Just don't know what type of scouts he is talking about.
The Times article is great. He even gets an endorsement from John Gibbons which is solid in my books!
I don't know why people dismiss Ruiz so much. He has never failed when given the chance.
Sure, he is older but has produced at every level INCLUDING the big leagues. I think he is a better option at DH then signing a guy like Frank Thomas-Jim Thome-Jason Giambi-type for $5 million.
But Cito played Millar more often late last season just when I thought we should be taking a better look at Ruiz.
But look at his numbers. He has never failed, yet people dimiss him out of hand.
I'm not sure what "interesting player" means to you, but the odds are stacked against him for having any kind of success in the major leagues, and I am hoping like hell the Jays don't project him to be anything more than a position depth or a utility player.
Also, prior to last year, he really didn't have very good numbers. Therefore, my guess is that you shouldn't judge his future based on last seasons numbers.
@ JB
Ruiz has failed when he had his first taste of the show, with Chicago.That said it does make you wonder why he hasn't had more looks.With all the teams he has played for. He has won 3 MVP's in the minors.
Gibby, Gibby, I'm taken with the notion
To love you with the sweetest of devotion
Gibby, Gibby, my tender love will flow from
The bluest sky to the deepest ocean
Stop for a minute
Gibby, I'm so glad you're mine, yeah
You're mine
I'm not sure what delayed Randy Ruiz's development, maybe he lack of position? However he only had his first full season of triple A in 2008, and got a few AB's for the Twins that year, so it's not like he was languishing in triple A all these years.
Maybe there is a general dislike in baseball circles for players that look like Muhammad Ali?
Steroids delayed Randy Ruiz's development
@ Peter D
You make a valid point.The Jays need to fill the the farm system with something other than career minor leaguers.
WOW! I just looked up Ruiz's history, and he has been in the following organizations:
1. Cincinatti Reds
2. Baltimore Orioles
3. St. Louis Cardinals
4. Philadelphia Phillies (twice)
5. Kansas City Royals
6. New York Yankees
7. Pittsburgh Pirates
8. San Fransico Giants
9. Minnesota Twins
10. Toronto Blue Jays
Actually, Anonymous is right:
22-Jul-05 Suspended by the MLB for 30 games for violating the league's drug prevention program.
Peter: I don't think anyone is projecting McCoy to be a whole lot more than a depth guy or a utility player, but at the same time, how many people (before this year) ever looked at Marco Scutaro as anything more than a depth guy/utility player?
Has anyone had anything bad to say about Alex Anthopoulos?
everyone who shits on the Cito retention. sorry, but that falls squarely on the GM. If Beeston's calling the shots then this is no different than JP allowing Godfrey to dictate the Wells signing. A GM has to have the wisdom and the fortitude to dig in his heels when moves dictated by higher ups don't make good baseball sense. no one thinks that keeping Cito for another season makes any baseball sense.
Anthopoulos is very clearly his own man.
that's an open question so far. i highly doubt that not wanting to sign any free agents for the next two years is what he really wants.
Marco Scutaro was always considered a good ball player, and has made over $4 million over the last three years because so. You can't compare McCoy to Scutaro.
JP wasn't a shitshow, there's only so many things a GM can do. AA is only going to be just as effective/ineffective, but with class
@radar
Prior to this season, Ruiz had only 61 MLB at bats with the Twins. You can't judge a player on 61 MLB at bats but he did hit .274/.338/.355. Not great, but not bad enough to label him as a failure.
Meanwhile his minor league career he hit .304/.378/.531. The steriod pinches hurt him probably because most GMs falsely attribute his numbers to steriods.
I would be willing to take a chance on him this year and pencil him in as a starter.
@ Radar
Dude what exactly is so "uninformed" about asking whether just hiring more scouts actually makes your scouting department better? It still comes down to having people making the right calls. I'm not sure what you're reading into my statement. I'm just saying let's have some evidence before we say he has fixed the scouting department. On a side note let me add chill the fuck out.
Is it spring training yet?
C'mon AA, give us something to talk about other than guys who will battle for backup middle infielders.
Just on a whim, Mike McCoy and Ryan Theriot have pretty similar minor league numbers, but McCoy hasn't shown to make enough contact until recently.
Ruiz almost had more hr then wells in just 33 games, I'm all for anybody that makes Wells look like the junk that he is.
Peter D the jays paid as much to get scuturo as the did to get mccoy.......yes come back with the two no talents they gave up. Point is McCoy is an upgrade from what we have picked up prior years other than scuturo. He is as good or better than Inglett who got a lot of time last two years...he can be on bench with speed to pinch run
Mikey mac is the second coming of johnny crapdonald
Scutaro would have been non-tendered by the A's, that's why they didn't have to give up much to get him. But the the Jays thought Scutaro was good enough to give a 2 year contract at close to 3 million.
I just don't want you to get too excited about McCoy, he's just a depth guy and not the type of player you should expect much from. As well, he looked really overmatched in his brief appearances with the Rockies.
McCoy=Jays Savior
Playoffs!!!!
@ jerkstore
One of the reasons the Jays farm system has done so poorly is because the players they have aren't that good.Sort of an obvious statement, I know.
My reasoning the more scouts the better are:
-You get an evaluation of more players. A GM and his staff can only see so many players in action. This way a GM gets more reports, on more players, more often.Less chance of missing good players.
-Less chance of one or two advisors influencing the GM.If a scout is high on "player A" other scouts can see him play and either support or disagree with the evaluation.
-JP fired most of the scouts that the Jays had.They had to be replaced.
- Most of the scouts hired are young guns ( check their ages)totally in tune with the stats evaluation as needed.
- before trades are made the GM will have more info.
-The two older advisors hired, Mel Queen and Didier are well respected evaluators hired to give their opinion as a balance to the young guns.
- you can never have enough scouts looking at players in
your own system
other teams systems
other major league teams
other countries
high school teams
college and university teams
etc.
Deuces are wild!
McCoy> Halladay+Alomar+Stieb+Delgado
Remember when jesse barfield actually barfed on the field?
I wish his name was Mike McFly
Okay. Okay you guys. Ah-ha-ha-ha, very funny. You guys are being real mature.
Hey, McFly. I thought I told you never to come in here.
I don't know why you cats are even debating McCoy when clearly the Hoff is the answer to the infield question.
Since you're new here, I'm gonna cut you a break... today. So, why don't you make like a tree and get outta here?
Why don't you make like a banana and split!
I personally thought Jason Lane was going to hit 40 home runs for the Jays this past season, I'm not sure why that didn't happened?
What happend to Angel Sánchez? Fuck mike mcfly
Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain.
The Boggs Head just took a dump on me!!!!
The jays have gone from 27 to 68 scouts.
http://www.torontosun.com/sports/columnists/bob_elliott/2009/11/13/11732296-sun.html
Great. Less money to spend on actual players.
"Rather than statistical analysis, Anthopoulos and Tinnish are going the old-fashioned way. Tinnish said he did a "ton of research" at the Perfect Game showcase in Jupiter, Fla. polling cross-checkers for the best evaluators. The Jays compiled a list of over 100 names, narrowed it to 30 and brought in eight scouts for interviews. "
I just want AA to be judged on his accomplishments and not on his ability to not be JP. So the fact that he has hired a bunch of scouts is fine but let's see his drafts, trades and signings. By the same token the fact that he spouts a bunch of PR bullshit does not make him the puppet of managment. So far there is not enough data either way to make any opinion based on anything other than conjecture.
I get the common sense idea that more scouts means better information on the players you are looking at. But then shouldn't the yankees be far and away the best drafting team by just buying a billion scouts? I think there is an element of quality over quantity when talking about scouts. I don't buy that JP was bad at drafting. he was working under that low budget, college player, moneyball ethic for the first few years and then the yankees payroll went through the roof. I'm not here to debate JP vs. AA. I'm just saying that AA hired more scouts so the drafting will be better is flawed logic.
I personally would like to see them more active with latin american players and gamble on a few more high upside players.
Just imagine the logistics of trying to evaluate the thousands of players at hundreds of schools that the Jays are drafting out of.
More scouts have to be a better way than less.
I like what that article said about 1 pro scout will cover 2 pro teams and their entire farm system from top to bottom. Hopefully these scouts will identify some players that are undervalued and either sign them if they are released or trade for them. There are so many players who were just thrown away by other teams (cough cough Michael Young).
Would you like to buy a donkey?
JP didn't need a lot of scouts...why have twice the amount of scouts if JP is just gonna do whatever the fuck he wants anyway and not listen to anyone...who the fuck knows what AA is going to do but at least he says he wants to be surrounded by the best scouts and executives and be willing to take advice and listen to everyone...as much as I think JP was an okay GM, he pretty much seemed to be a control freak, whereas AA seems enthusiastic and willing to learn. Whether it translates into anything...who the fuck knows...
U-S-GAY! U-S-GAY! U-S-GAY!
Jerkstore is right! Why does Radar have to be such an ass?
"But then shouldn't the yankees be far and away the best drafting team by just buying a billion scouts?"
1) Since the Yankees frequently sign Type A free agents, they don't have as many picks as other teams. This year we had six picks in the Top 130, the Yankees had just two.
2) Since the Yankees typically win 94-103 games each year, their draft position is usually among the lowest of the 30 teams.
3) The Yankees don't allow their homegrown talent to properly develope. Look at the mess they've created with Chamberlain. Look at how they opted to sign both Sabathia and Burnett rather than allow Hughes to start this year. Look at how they rushed Kennedy to the big leagues last year.
As soon as as read that AA is turning away from statistical analysis, it made me have a shot of vodka. I can't believe that this is my team.
http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/3696/stoetenslostbike.jpg
Fuck off, JB.
Obviously we like to see management opening up to new ideas and innovations in the game such as sabremetric analysis, or in this case 'statistical analysis' which is a fairly ambiguous phrase anyways that could mean judging a player based on wins and losses or WARP.
Fans of course love to see management making a commitment towards stats since it helps them understand what is going on, and the right numbers don't lie, but AA isn't giving a giant middle finger to stats, he just sees value in spreading the scouting work out quite a bit. Schuerholz won pennants and made it known of his hatred for sabremetrics.
I would be more cautious if Anthopoulos wasn't making headlines with the depth of scouts he has put together and was negative on statistics. He clearly has a plan which is a lot more than the last 4 years of Jays baseball can say.
JB,
You're taking the part about statistical analysis in Bob Elliot's column out of context. The article implies that AMATEUR scouting will be done "the old-fashioned way." It says nothing about the front office abandoning statistical analysis out of hand. In fact, it sounds like AA is going to use multiple sources of informatiion to come to decisions, and I have no problem with that. From Waldstein's article:
“He’s a very smart guy, and he’s always extremely prepared,” Beattie said. “But there’s no way to prepare for a decision like that one.”
(referring to trading Halladay).
Give the guy some time. JP had eight years after all.
Jeff, you beat me to it...
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/6196/andrewforeman.jpg
FUCK OFF PARKES
Anyone see Miguel Cotto wearing a Blue Jays hat yesterday? I don't give a shit about boxing but I thought that was cool. A lot of these Hispanic guys' favorite team growing up was the Jays, including Manny Ramirez WHO WANTED TO PLAY HERE AND THEY DIDN'T JUMP AT THE OPPORTUNITY...sorry.
I used to wear one too but who gives a fuck? Now fuck off, small penis!
Hahaha, what's great is that I can see the real Alex saying something just like that. Well done.
This would have been the perfect city for Manny because few people in the GTA give a fuck about baseball therefore Manny would have been left alone which is exactly the way he likes it.
However, anybody who thinks Manny Ramirez would have signed here for even one dollar less than the highest offer from all other teams is seriously fucked in the head. He is all about the money.
^^^And as much as I love Manny, he wasn't really worth the money this year with the whole 50-game suspension thing.
And I would've still given him the 45 million over 2 years. It's not just about Manny, it's about making the most of Doc's last two seasons. They blew it by not going for it in a buyer's market when they were making kajillions in profits.
Manny wouldn't have been worth anywhere near the $45 million.
More importantly, they blew it by not signing Abreu. He had a huge impact on the Angels with a contract that cost only $5 million.
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