The Blue Jay Killer

Everybody can blame the Jays not contending for the playoffs on any stat they want, but I'm in the mood to blame it on the "Blown Save". The Blue Jays had 25 blown saves this season, in only 58 opportunities, that's 43%, a sad number. Imagine being a manager and thinking, there is almost a 1 in 2 chance that my team's lead is not safe.If the Jays only had 15 blown saves this season, and they won the 10 games that they didn't blow the save in, they're tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL Wild Card, and who knows what could have happened. I'm not saying that the alternate reality would have the Jays in the playoffs, but they would be so much closer then 10 games out if they didn't blow as many saves as they did.Now lets take a look at the blown save number for the 8 playoff teams,and the Red Sox, because they deserved to be in the playoffs for 4 months of the seasson

NYY: 16 BS
TB: 12 BS
DET: 10 BS
TEX: 19 BS
PHI: 8 BS
MIL: 19 BS
STL: 26 BS
ARI: 13 BS
BOS: 16 BS

Of those 9 teams, only one, the NL Champion Cardinals have more blown saves than the Jays. It comes to prove one thing, Blown Saves will kill you, or get you into the World Series.

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Game 162: Blue Jays 3 White Sox 2, Time for a Recap

The last game of the season has been played, and the Blue Jays season is officially over. The young and energetic team pulled off a come from behind win to beat the White Sox, and to finish the seasona t .500, going 81-81. The team's record this season defines there season, average. There were the good moments, like the production they got from three key rookies, and the bad ones, like the inconsistent starters, and the consistintley horrible bullpen. Henderson Alvarez, Eric Thames, and JP Arencibia highlighted the season by showing off there talents at such young ages, and made Canadians hopeful that the Jays have a strong young nucleus that will compete for a championship in coming years. But to go along with all the amazing rookies, there was the one bad one. SP Kyle Drabek pitched a wonderful first game of the season when he improved the Jays to 2-0 on April 2nd, but after that is was like he was just throwing balls at the catcher, and was hoping they would land somewhere in the strike zone. Drabek walked 55 batters this season in just 78.2 innings pitched, and had a WHIP of 1.805. The only good thing about Kyle Drabek's season was that his WHIP and his ERA were much better than those of Roy Halladay when he was still young.

Before the season AA signed Jose Bautista to a 5 year contract extension, base on the fact that he had one great season. Most fans and writers said that the Jays just blew 65 million dollars because Bautista's season was a fluke, and that he would never be able to come close to the season he had. Jose didnt put up the same numbers he put up last year, he put up better. He had a .304 batting average, he was walked 131 times, hit 43 home runs, had an OPS of 1.060, an OPS+ of 184, and a WAR of 8.6. Once again, AA came out on top of a deal, cand proved the whole world wrong.

What would a season recap be without mentioning the return of pitcher Dustin McGowan. McGowan last pitched on July 7th 2008, before having two surgeries on his shoulder, and one on his knee. McGowan came back to the majors this month, and was firing the ball to home plate. Dustin will likely contend for a spot in the Blue Jays 2012 rotation, but could end up in the bullpen if other pitchers have better spring training's then him.

In December of last off-season AA made a move that nobody saw coming. He traded Jays ace Shaun Marcum to the Brewers for Canadian prospect Brett Lawrie. Lawrie was on the eve of his call up to the bigs after ripping apart AAA on May 31st when he was hit by a pitch and broke his hand. Brett would finally be called up to the Jays in August, and he was terrific. He hit 9 home runs, drove in 25 rbi's and had a war of 2.8 in just 43 games. Lawrie single handedly increased Blue Jays attendance, and will be one of the jays best player in years to come.

Ricky Romero came into the season as the Jays 3rd opening day starter in as many years, and not alot of people expected him to play as good as he did. Romero was an all-star, had an ERA of 2.92 and a WHIP of 1.138 in his unbelievable season. Romero will likely finish in the top 10 vote getters for the 2011 AL Cy Young award.

2011 was witness to a lot of memories for the Jays, from being no-hit by Justin Verlander, to welcoming Roy Halladay back with a home run off of the bat by Jose Bautista, it was truly an exciting season. The Blue Jays look to start a playoff run next year, and will have a new logo next season as well, so it is good-bye to the scripted Jays Logo, and hello to a mystery logo still not revealed by the club, although there was a picture leaked.My next post, which should be up soon will be about the one stat that caused the Jays to not be playoff contenders this season.

Feel free to leave comments on here, or by tweeting me on @bluejaysplus

Week in Review- Vancouver Canadians (A)

Week of August 15th-21st

2nd Half Record: 10-17 4th and last place in the West division of the Northwest league, 8.0 games back

Overall Record: 34-31

Statistical Summary: The same player just keeps on producing for the Canadians, and he doesn’t look like he is going to let up in the near future. Jonathan Berti, the 559th overall pick in the 2011 rule 4 draft, or first-year player draft is ripping up the Northwest league, and he is doing it in every facet of the game. Berti is batting .310, while driving in 20 and stealing 20 bases in 206 plate appearances this season. To go along with his remarkable offence is his marvellous defence. Berti has 5.02 RF/G (putouts+ assists /GP) this season, to compare that to a Gold Glover’s numbers, Robinson Cano had a RF/G of 4.89 last season when he won a gold glove. With Aaron Hill being traded today, and Kelly Johnson struggling, Berti might be with the Jays in the near future, not next year, but maybe in 2013 or mid 2014.

Games Summary: The Vancouver Canadians’ elimination number is down to 4 games after they went 4-3 this past week, and fell 1 more game out of the division race to eight games back. The Canadians took two out of three from the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, outscoring them by only 1 run, 13-12. The Canadians’ playoff hopes are over, but it’s a good time to be a fan of the Canadians as they always play exciting ball.

Player of the Week: Jonathan Jones,OF: 10-31, .322 AVG, 3 RBI’s, 2 BB’s, 2 SB’s

Pitcher of the Week: Phillip Brua, #6, P: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 0 BB, 1.00 WHIP, 0.00 ERA, 3 GP

Oddity: On Saturday night Vancouver Canadians’ pitcher, Alex Pepe, threw 1 no hit inning, but gave up 3 earned runs. Pepe walked 4, threw 2 wild pitches, and made an error when he completed this oddity.

"I'll Be Back"

The Toronto Blue Jays have traded 2B Aaron Hill and INF John McDonald to the Arizona Diamondbacks for 2B Kelly Johnson,who is a free agent after this season.Jays Gm AA said that Johnny Mac approached him asking to be traded into a contending team, so he can witness the postseason, and bring back that experience next season in Toronto. Johnson is having an off-year this season batting only .211 with 49 home runs in 114 games this season for the D-backs. McDonald is a superb defender who is the city of Toronto's favorite sports player, and is batting .250 in 168 at bats this season for the Jays. Hill has had two straight disappointing seasons since winning the silver slugger for second basemen in 2009. He is batting .225 with an OPS of .585 in the final year of his contract. To fill the extra spot on the roster Brian Jeroloman has been called up from AAA Las Vegas, and will not be a starter.

Week in Review- Vancouver Canadians (A)

Week of August 8th-14th

2nd Half Record: 7-14 4th and last place in the West Division, 7.0 games back of first

Overall Record: 31-28

Statistical Summary: The definition of a bad week to start “week in reviews” for any team was displayed this week by the Canadians. The C’s went 1-6 while only scoring 20 runs compared to their opponents 43, more than double the Canadians’ output. The pitchers combined ERA this week was 6.86, an amazing ERA, for a 5 year old, not for pitchers that are supposed to be future Major League Ballplayers.

Games Summary: On Sunday night the C’s won by a score of 7-3 to complete their 8 game road trip which took place in two cities, a three game set in Everett versus the Aquasox, and a five gamer in Yakima against the Bears. With that road stand in which they went 1-7 in over, the C’s dropped their overall road record to 12-18, compared to their 20-10 home record. If The Canadians want to make one final playoffs push then they need to do a better job winning games on the road, and there pitching and defense needs to improve, as those two things are the key components of winning and the C’s have been struggling with that.

Player of the Week- Nicholas Baligod #12 OF: 8-25, .320 AVG, 3 R, 1 2B, 5 BB, .433 OBP

Pitchers of the Week- Blake Mcfarland #26 RHP: 2 GS, 10 IP, 1-1, 11 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 0 HR, 1.30 WHIP, 4.50 ERA

Called Up: Noah Syndergard was called up to the Canadians from the Bluefield Blue Jays 3 weeks ago and has continued to pitch well so far in A ball. Syndergard has a 2.77 ERA in 3 starts so far with the Canadians, and will look to lower that tomorrow in Vancouver versus the Everett Aquasox.

Who is the Jays Catcher of the Future?

One thing that doesn’t bother general managers is having too much depth. But when a team has three prospects that all play the same position, and all have different qualities, it becomes a tough decision on who to keep, and who to trade away. For the Jays, the problem is having three top notch catching prospects.

The first prospect is J.P Arencibia, who is tied for the lead in home runs in the MLB with 18 by a catcher with Mike Napoli and Brian McCann, but has an abysmal .214 average. The second is Travis d’Arnaud, who is amazing at everything offensively, but he is a below average fielder, throwing out only almost a quarter of the runners that try to steal a base off of him for his career. The last catching prospect, who is currently playing for the Dunedin Blue Jays is A.J Jimenez. Jimenez is a well above average defender, throwing out 41% of base runners in his career, and has a very solid average of .302 this year.

Arencibia is in the MLB now, d’Arnaud will likely be the starter in AAA next season, and Jimenez will likely be the starter in AA next season, so this issue doesn’t need to be addressed until at least 2013 because that is when there will be two players ready for the MLB. Now let’s compare the players 2011 stats to see if the problem occurred now, who should get the Jays starting job at catcher.

J.P Arencibia: 88 GP, 313 AB, 343 PA, 23% CS% (Defensive)
.214 AVG, .280 OBP, .447 SLG, .727 OPS
13 2B, 3 3B, 18 HR, 52 RBI, 26 BB, 98 K

Travis d’Arnaud: 92 GP, 333 AB, 375 PA, 27% CS% (Defensive)
.324 AVG, .394 OBP, .550 SLG, .943 OPS
30 2B, 0 3B, 15 HR, 58 RBI, 30 BB, 74 K

A.J Jimenez: 86 GP, 321 AB, 354 PA, 42% CS% (Defensive)
.302 AVG, .349 OBP, .402 SLG, .751 OPS
21 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR, 36 RBI, 23 BB, 52 K

If I was faced with this problem I would likely have d’Arnaud as my starting catcher, because he gets on base the most out of all three, and that is what I care about the most. As my backup I would want Arencibia because he has the most power, and he would be able to generate offense when he comes in to a game as a pinch hitter, and still produce when he gets the start as DH or C when d’Arnaud. But remember that all three players are young and there is really no way to predict what they are going to do in the future. I see Jimenez getting traded next year at the trading deadline to fill whatever gap they need to fill in order to contend.

Comments are welcomed on who you would want as your starting catcher and backup catcher if you had to choose between the three.

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Alvarez Officially Called Up, Will Start Wednesday

The Jays have made the move to call up RHP Henderson Alvarez from AAA Las Vegas to make the start Wednesday night vs. the Oakland A's.Going back down to AAA is Wil Ledezma, who has 9.00 ERA with a 2.33 WHIP in 3.0 innings pitched this year with the Jays. Ledezma has a 4.63 ERA and a 1.39 WHIP this season in 46.2 innings pitched for the 51's. Alvarez is the second 21 year old prospect to be called up by the Jays in the past week, the first is the one and only 3B Brett Lawrie.

Henderson Alvarez to be Called up to Make Start on Friday?

Rumors have been circulating today that 21 year old pitching prospect Henderson Alvarez is going to be called up to be the Jays new 5th starter after Carlos Villanueva was placed on the 15-day DL. It has been posted by a newspaper in Venezuela, and the rumours have been floating around the twitter atmosphere the entire afternoon.Alvarez is 8-4 this season in AA New Hampshire, with a 2.86 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP.Alvarez has touched 100 MPH a couple of times this season on the radar gun. Although Alvarez has a very fast fastball, he doesn't sacrifice control because of it, as he only has walked 17 this season in 88.0 innings pitched.

Update: Jays beat reporter Gregor Chisholm has confirmed that Alvarez will be called up to make Friday's start in place of Carlos Villanueva

Week in Review- Dunedin Blue Jays (A+)

August 1st to 7th

Record: 3-3

2nd Half Record: 22-21 T-2nd place, 2.0 games back of first

Overall Record: 61-52

Statistical Summary:
In the three wins that the Jays had this week, they outscored their opponents 29-5, yes a margin of 24 runs. But the best news from the week isn’t how amazing their offence performed, scoring 47 runs during the 6 games that they played, it was the pitchers only allowing 5 runs in the Jays 3 wins, an era of 1.85. If it was three weeks ago, the number wouldn’t surprise me because the Jays lost there two best pitchers, Deck McGuire and Chad Jenkins when they were called up to New Hampshire, but instead of having 4 aces, they only have 2 now. Although they lost two great pitchers, the “Baby Jays” still have Nestor Molina, and Drew Hutchison to help them make one last push for the playoffs in August.

Games Summary:
The Jays split 6 games this week going 3-3, but two of those losses came with walk-off victories for their opponents, so overall you have to say it was a good week because if a little bit more luck was on the Jays’ side, then we are looking at a 5-1 week, and the Jays would have been a lot closer to the playoffs.

Player of the Week:
Brian Van Kirk: 8-23 (.347) 6 R’s,1 2B,2 HR’s,10 RBI’s,3 BB’s

Pitcher of the Week:
Ryan Tepera: 7 I.P, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER,1 BB, 7K, HR 0.00 ERA, 0.71 WHIP

Rehab News:
RHP Dustin McGowan pitched his final game in Dunedin on Friday night, and he was terrific. McGowan threw 3 shutout innings, giving up 2 hits. The 29 year old pitcher is recovering from multiple surgeries to his shoulder, and will be making his next rehab start in New Hampshire this week. The flamethrower McGowan is regaining his velocity, which seemed to be returning as he struck out 4 while only walking 1 in what might be one of his final starts before coming back to Toronto. McGowan hasn’t pitched in the MLB since 2008.

Anthony Gose:Future 5 Tool Player?

Last year, when the Toronto Blue Jays traded first-baseman, Brett Wallace, to the Houston Astros for outfielder, Anthony Gose, many wondered what the Blue Jays received. While Gose was described as a solid outfielder with a high-quality arm, excellent range, and ridiculous speed, many questioned if he could hit for average and if he could hit for power.
In his first full season in Toronto’s system he has answered the power question, by increasing his home run total for the third straight year; in fact, this season he has already hit 11 home runs, the latest coming last night. To go along with his 11 homers he has also hit 17 doubles and 6 triples for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Unfortunately, his average, however, has remained around the .250 mark, comparable to the rest of his career in the minor leagues.
Making up for his inconsistency at the plate, is his consistency in the field. His fielding has been phenomenal in 2011, committing only 2 errors in 258 chances, giving him a .992 fielding percentage. 9-time gold glove award winner Torii Hunter has a .993 career fielding percentage, only one thousandth of a percent better than the 20 year old prospect.
While Anthony Gose takes a lot of walks (55 so far), he strikes out more than double that amount by doing so 113 times, which is almost 25% of his plate appearances. When Gose doesn’t strike out and he puts the ball in play, he is batting .335, nearly 80 points higher than his regular average. This average is much higher due to his incredible speed, as he is able to beat out plenty of grounders, and reach base via infield hits.
Another stat that makes him such a useful player is his on base percentage which currently stands at .355. What makes him an even bigger threat is that when he does get on base, his speed becomes one of his greatest assets. Gose has already surpassed all expectations by stealing 50 bases in 65 attempts this season. To make this even more impressive, he has stolen 50 bases, yet has only had the opportunity to steal152 times, thus indicating that he is stealing a base almost a third of the time.
While his speed is a huge advantage for Gose, the young player still needs to focus on when to run and when not to. Members from the Blue Jays’ organization have announced that if he does not improve his base running IQ, he will not be in the majors anytime soon. That being said, if he does improve in that category then there is no doubt that he will be able to lead the league in the future in stolen bases. In fact, he is currently on pace to lead his league in stolen bases for the third straight year.
If Gose does improve his wild swinging ways, and continues his growth in power numbers, and works on learning the right opportunity to steal, then there is no question that by the time he makes it to the Majors, people will be mentioning 5-tools next to Anthony Gose’s name.

Lawrie gets Called up, Snider Demoted

The long awaited arrival of the 13th best prospect in the MLB has come,but it comes at a price. Brett Lawrie, the third baseman from Langley,British Columbia who was ripping up AAA when he was on the eve of his call-up on May 31st before he was hit by a pitch on his hand and broke it, was batting .353 with a 1.076 ops in AAA Las Vegas. Too make room on the 25 man roster Travis Snider was sent back down to Vegas, not to work on his swing, but because he was not producing. Jays GM Alex Anthopoulous said that because Edwin Encarnacion is starting to heat up, it was between Snider and OF Eric Thames to be sent down, but Snider was chosen.He also said it could have gone either way. Lawrie will make his MLB debut on Friday night in Baltimore. The pitcher he will face is righty Tommy Hunter, who is 1-1 with a 3.31 era in 16.1 innings this season with Texas and Baltimore.

RHP Carlos Villanueva was placed on the 15 day DL today with a right forearm strain. Villanueva is 6-3 with a 4.24 era in 26 games, 13 starts for the Jays this season. Luis Perez was recalled from AAA to take his place.Perez is 1-2 with a 3.57 era in 24 games with the Jays this year.

When Alex Wants, Alex Gets

Since last off-season Alex Anthopoulos had been targeting CF Colby Rasmus from the St. Louis Cardinals. He tried in the off-season, he tried in June, but both times he failed. Today, on July 27th he finally got what he wanted. But in order to do that he had to pull off a trade with the Chicago White Sox first. AA traded Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart to the White Sox for Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen. AA then flipped Jackson,Mark Zep,Corey Patterson, Octavio Dotel and 3 players to be named later or cash considerations for Colby Rasmus, Brian Tallet, Trevor Miller, and P.J Walters. The Cardinals wanted Rasmus off there team because he wasn't listening to there coaches, but if I were him, I wouldn't want to listen to their coaches either. They don't have good coaches too develop a young player like Rasmus, so in my opinion Rasmus was right to be listening to his father instead of the Cardinals coaches.
Rasmus is going to be a 5-tool player in the near future, and that is why the Jays are the clear winner of this three way trade. The Jays gave up relievers that wouldn't be on this team next year, and got the only player in the 12 player deal that has a good future. AA got rid of a horrible outfielder,and has pulled off another trade in which he is the winner.

With this trade finally giving the Jays a CF after Vernon Wells was traded in January, the lineup for 2012 and beyond comes into picture now. Maybe a few tweaks will come in 2013 with the arrivals of speedster Anthony Gose, Catcher Travis D'arnaud and defensive wizard Adeiny Hech. Aaron Hill also might not be in the lineup in 2012, but my guess is that he signs a new contract in the off-season after AA doesn't pick up his options. This is how i see the lineup being in 2012, and if the Jays have decent pitching next season, I see them making the playoffs 100%.

C-J.P Arencibia
1B-Adam Lind
2B-Aaron Hill
3B-Brett Lawrie
SS-Yunel Escobar
LF-Travis Snider
CF-Colby Rasmus
RF-Jose Bautista
DH-Eric Thames

Ricky Romero threw 8.1 beautiful shutout innings as the Jays beat the Orioles 3-0 to even the series at 1. The rubber match goes tomorrow at 7:07 PM, Carlos Villanueva takes the mound when Colby Rasmus makes his Blue Jays debut.

Welcome Back Brett!

RHP Brett Cecil has been recalled from AAA Las Vegas today while the Jays have optioned RHP Zach Stewart back to AA. I believe Stewart knew he wasn't going to be here a long time because his stuff never came from AA when he was called up, it just stayed in New Hampshire. Cecil went 8-2 with a 5.26 ERA, but his ERA doesn't matter because he was pitching in the insane hitting league in the Pacific Coast League. Cecil was in the minors to get his velocity back, which dropped significantly during spring training. As a result of his low velocity he was not able to get any hitters out, so he was sent down. Stewart pitched one good game out of his three in the majors, but the other two were not worthy of him being here. Stewart will go back to AA because it is a much better league for pitchers to develop in than the PCL. Cecil will pitch on Thursday vs. the Pirates, taking Carlos Villanueva's spot in the rotation. Villanueva will pitch Saturday vs. the Phillies when Roy Halladay steps on the mound in Toronto for the first time since being traded.

This will be my last post until late July or early August because I will be away.Jose Bautista faces his old team the Pirates for the first time since he was traded to Toronto, so this will be an interesting game to watch tonight.

Patterns in the Blue Jays Play?

Over the past week the Blue Jays have had many pattern in the way they play, although it has really stretched through out the entire season. From June 14th, when the Jays opened up a series against Baltimore until yesterday the pitching has been spectacular, while the offense was struggling.The Pitchers have allowed 25 runs in 79 innings pitched, which comes out to an ERA of 3.16, a very good mark for an entire pitching staff. The offense on the other hand has scored just 23 runs in those same 9 games which is an average of 2.60 runs per game, or 23 runs in 74 innings which comes out as the opponents ERA as 3.10, which is slightly better than the Jays pitchers. This trend goes back the enitre season when the pitching would be dominant and the hitters wouldn't even take the bats off there shoulders. The best example of that would be Ricky Romero. When Romero Loses, the Jays have scored 8 runs, that's 1.14 per game, which means in those losses, if Romero wanted to win he would need an ERA of 1.13 or lower, that is ridiculous. Romero did call out the offence after he took his seventh loss of the season on Monday night after only allowing two runs in a beautifully pitched game by both him and his Atlanta counterpart Tim Hudson.

The Jays are off today and a move could be made to bring a player up because John Farrell said that the Jays need a spark in there lineup to get there offence going.
For those wondering Dustin McGowan is going to start his rehab assignment soon, and could be back with the Jays in less than two months.

Drabek Sent Down, Stewart Recalled from AA

Kyle Drabek has been sent down to AAA, even though Manager John Farrell said he wouldn't be. The last player in the Scott Rolen trade will finally get his chance to play for the Jays as Zach Stewart will be taking Drabek's spot in the rotation. Stewart is 4-3 with a 4.39 era in New Hampshire, while Drabek has allwoed 22 earned runs in his last 22 and 1/3 innings. This move comes as a shock to me because of Brett Cecil's stellar performance in Las Vegas, but clearly the club still wants to see an improvement from the PCL wins leader.

Realignment?

With the current CBA set to expire in December, many rules and other things will likely be changed. There has been a rumour that the MLBPA, and the MLB have been talking about realigning the leagues, to have two 15-team leagues, instead of the NL having 16 teams, and the AL having 14. The obvious question is, will there be interleague everyday, if this does get thrown into the CBA next year. The answer of course is yes, but is that good for the league. Of course it isn't, the AL teams would be furious, why should the AL have to have a pitcher bat, when there rule is to have a DH? So if the 15-15 leagues does happen, could this mean the NL is going to start to use the DH,or could it mean that the AL is reverting back to the old system, and having a pitcher bAT. The team that is rumoured to be the front runner to move if this actually happens is the Houston Astros. The two reasons why they are the front runner are that they are in the 6-team NL Central, and they would be able to move to the 4-team AL West, and because they would create a rivalry with the Texas Rangers, which would bring in a lot more money for the teams.

2011 MLB Draft Preview

With the 2011 first year player draft less than 24 hours away it is time to talk about it. This is going to be a special draft because it is likely to be the last one with the "Type A, Type B" compensation rule. This rule makes no sense for both the players, and the MLB so it is one of the rules most destined to be changed in the next CBA. The players take a huge pay cut because teams with low draft picks are resilient to sign a player if that takes away the teams first round draft pick. When the bottom feeding teams cant add from the free agent pool, it means that the only teams improving are the ones with high draft picks, from around pick 15 and above, because they can sign players, and not care what happens to there pick. It makes no sense for the league because of the sandwich round in between the first and second rounds of the draft.This creates a huge number of draft picks to teams who lose players in the off-season, but makes the teams that don't get barely any talent from the draft. The premier example is the Pittsburgh Pirates this season. The pirates have the first pick in the draft, but there next pick is the 63rd, which means they only get one high ceiling player, and the rest are high risk players. In between those two picks, teams such as our Toronto Blue Jays, and the Tampa Bay Rays have a plethora of picks, and will improve drastically more from the draft then a team like Pittsburgh. The Pirates haven't had a winning season in 18 years, and this system is partially the reason.
This is also anticipated to be the last draft without draft pick trading, a rule in the other big three North American sports, yet to come to the MLB. This rule would fix the compensation rule, because it would allow teams like Pittsburgh to move up into the compensation round, from the second and third rounds of the draft.
2011 MLB First Round Draft Order
1 Pittsburgh Pirates
2 Seattle Mariners
3 Arizona D-backs
4 Baltimore Orioles
5 Kansas City Royals
6 Washington Nationals
7 Arizona D-backs
8 Cleveland Indians
9 Chicago Cubs
10 San Diego Padres
11 Houston Astros
12 Milwaukee Brewers
13 New York Mets
14 Florida Marlins
15 Milwaukee Brewers
16 Los Angeles Dodgers
17 Los Angels Angels
18 Oakland A's
19 Boston Red Sox
20 Colorado Rockies
21 Toronto Blue Jays
22 St Louis Cardinals
23 Washington Nationals
24 Tampa Bay Rays
25 San Diego Padres
26 Boston Red Sox
27 Cincinnati Reds
28 Atlanta Braves
29 San Fransisco Giants
30 Minnesota Twins
31 New York Yankees
32 Tampa Bay Rays
33 Texas Rangers

Brett Lawrie was placed on the 7-day DL in Las Vegas today, but it is retroactive to June 1st, meaning he could play again on June 8th. He likely wont be on the Jays until June 17th in Cincinnati, because AA likes to start prospects away from the Rogers Centre.

Rumors are circulating that the Jays are switching uniforms next season, i personally like the newer ones, and i think the Jays have to stop trying to change everything back to the glory years, because that doesn't win championships, winning teams do.

The Best Laid Schemes of Mice and Men Go Often Awry

On Tuesday afternoon Alex Anthopoulos hinted that superstar prospect Brett Lawrie will be making his major league debut on Friday night at Camden Yards in Baltimore. About five hours later Lawrie stepped into the batters box in AAA to face newly called up pitcher Anthony Bass of the Tucson Padres. On the second pitch of the at-bat, Lawrie was hit by a mid-90's fastball, and was taken to the hospital for x-rays. The twitter world was going crazy, and every single Jays fan was holding there breath, praying that Lawrie would be okay. After 3 hours of sitting and waiting to hear what had happened to his hand, Lawrie posted on twitter that it was just a bruise, and nothing was broken. Lawrie, who is batting .354 with an ops of 1.092, a very good mark. The stat that was holding the Jays front office back from calling him up was BB/K, but he has raised the mark significantly since he was told to only swing at pitches in the strike zone , even if it means less hits. Lawrie has hit more home runs since the discussion as the result of only swinging at pitches he knows he can hit. He is likely to join the Jays on the upcoming road tip, but will not be ready to play in Friday's game because of bruising. Fantasy owners should pick him up immediately because he will be playing against a weak pitching staff in Kansas City next week when he gets called up to "The Show".

The Jays Gm also announced that Dustin McGowan might come back to the bigs as a starter, not as a reliever like the team suspected. McGowan will begin a rehab assignment when extended spring training ends, and will then need to be called up to the Jays, or put on waivers.

4 Dunedin Blue Jays were named to the FSL All-star game today. Among them is 2010 first round draft pick Deck McGuire, who has a 2.70 era, and a 1.20 whip in A+ so far this season.

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Does Anybody Have a Closer the Jays Could Borrow??

Imagine what life could be, if the Jays had a reliable closer. Imagine the shape our hearts would be in because they wouldn't be pounding every minute that we have a lead in the 9th inning. Imagine how many wins the Jays could get if they can develop a closer, that saves games.
We all hope that Dustin McGowan will be back in the next 3 or 4 months, but will be he ready to take on that role. Dustin has lost a significant amount of velocity because of all 4,789,584 of his shoulder surgeries he had this past two years( he really only had two). I would like to see him develop his curve ball, it used to get .455 percent of the time, compared to the league average of .241. His other two pitches, slider and splitter, were also hit over 40% of the time last night. He was clearly a fastbal;l pitcher, as t=hitters only hit the ball 13% of the time, and he averaged the third best speed in the league behind Justin Verlander and AJ Burnett. He needs to be recalled and on the 25 man roster within 60 days of starting to rehab.

Frank Fransisco did blow the game last night, but he induced two ground balls, so he really pitched well, but the defense behind him wasn't the best. The "Closers" are struggling right now, but the rest of the bullpen is pitching amazingly.

For its 1,2,3 Bautista Bombs at the Old Ball Game!!!!

After hitting home runs in the past two games, Jose Bautista was 1 ahead of Curtis Granderson for the MLB lead coming into Sunday's game. But poor Bautista didn't feel comfortable with just a 1 home run lead, so he decided to join Roy Halladay in the non-human club. He went up to bat 3 straight times on Sunday, and all three times hit home runs. Bautista is now on pace to hit 64.8 if he plays every single game until the end of the regular season. With Jose's help The Jays wrapped up the sweep of the ailing Twins by giving them a nice thumping by a score of 11-3. Aaron Hill looked as he finally found his swing after a year and a half of just waving at the ball. Hill went 2-5 with 2 rbi's, and Jose Molina went 3-4 but did a lot of running. Molina scored from first on a double by Yunel Escobar, and also tagged up from second to third on a pop up to center field again off of the bat of Yunel Escobar. Brandon Morrow looked good when he was good, but looked awful when he was bad. Morrow walked in a run in the 4th, but also struck out 8 in just 5 innings of work. Morrow just couldn't find the strike zone most of the time, and that was the reason behind his high pitch count, which tallied 106 when Shawn Camp came into the game to work the 6th inning. The Jays are now back to .500 for the first time since April 30th, and are 4-3 when Alan Ashby calls the game on Sportsnet.

After Winning the game for the Jays on Tuesday night, David Cooper thought he would stay in Toronto for a while, presuming they would go back to a 7 man bullpen when Jayson Nix is ready to return from the disabled list. That prediction was wrong as Cooper was sent back down to the Las Vegas 51's today to make room for the healthy Nix. Cooper was batting .121 for the Jays, but also drew 5 walks.

Tomorrow's game in Detroit is scheduled for 7:05 PM, and Adam Lind is scheduled to be back in the line up for the first time since last Saturday.