Olympic Baseball Update: Brace Yourselves For The Shit Storm

Team Canada fell 7-6 to the Cubans in an exciting, dinger-filled see-saw affair this morning that will produce a torrent of criticism of JP Ricciardi from local haters Richard Griffin, Bob Elliot and Bob McCown because, sad to say it, this was a game the Canadians might have won had they trotted Scott Richmond out as originally planned.

(A bit of a warning, the box scores at CBC are pretty shitty. There's no record of who had extra base hits, walked, stole bases, errors, etc., not to mention who scored the runs. BUT the game recap article goes into great depth if you're not averse to actually reading instead of looking at numbers. If you want a proper box score, go to the official site.)

Canada started Brooks McNiven, a 27-year-old career minor leaguer with shitty peripherals out of Terrace, BC who was originally selected by Gord Ash in the very late rounds of the 1999 amateur draft, and he gave up two ER in 2 IP of work. He was followed by Jon Lockwood, a 26-year-old Torontonian who never advanced beyond A+ ball and now appears to be out of the game professionally, and he gave up 3 ER through 3. Former major leaguer Chris Reitsma gave up one earned in his inning of work, but otherwise the bullpen was solid.

It's pretty hard to argue that Richmond wouldn't have put up a much stronger effort than the 5 IP cobbled together from McNiven and Lockwood, though I mention this without malice. There's no question that a big league team has to put its own interests, not to mention use of players that it's paying, above those of a national team, even if you're talking about the only ML club in the country. I'm still kind of disappointed about the way that all played out, but I won't shit on JP for it. Still, don't expect Team Canada Manager Terry Puhl to do JP any favours by smuggling Cuban shortstop Eduardo Paret out of the country in a duffle bag at the conclusion of the tournament.

On the offensive side, promising Indians prospect Nick Weglarz of Stevensville, ON stole the show, socking a pair of dingers and going 4 for 4 with 3 runs and 3 RBI. Mariners farmhand Mike Saunders of Victoria, who homered in Canada's opener against China, launched another 2-run dinger. Stubby Clapp, who actually did get a 25-AB cup of coffee with the Cards in 2001, got a pair of hits and drew a walk, while my personal favourite Londoner (after Rachel McAdams) Adam Stern went 0 for 5 out of the leadoff spot.

Elsewhere, the US shut the Neederlanders out 7-0, China surprisingly held Korea to a 0-0 tie through 6 when the game was called due to rain, and Japan took it to Taiwan 6-1.

Canada continues onward and upward with two games tomorrow (EST), Korea (6 a.m.) in the morning and USA (10:30 p.m.) in the evening. Full sched here, though mind the 12-hour time difference.

Jeff Blair has kind of been forgotten since he went over to Red China a few weeks back, but he did sneak in time for a (long) commentary piece on baseball at the Olypmics the other day. Short version, he doesn't think it's ever coming back because (Eurotrash) IOC members don't appreciate the game and the MLB has nothing to gain financially by releasing players for the Olympics, especially when it has it's own potential money-maker in the World Baseball Classic.

You can respond to this either one of two ways. A) I never really cared about Olympic baseball, so I'm going to continue to ignore it; or B) This is the last crack, I'm going to start following Team Canada now even though I had little or no interest in the past. Since a good portion of my shit is in boxes and I've got precious few diversions to keep me occupied until the move at the end of the month, I'm going to go with B. If you're not feeling it I've got absolutely nothing against you or your point of view.

Live blog tomorrow night against Team USA, all are welcome to chug PBRs, swear, and carry on in an inappropriate manner.

JAYS SHIT:

* Our highly esteemed colleagues over at The Mockingbird and Ghostrunner on First have joined us on the Dave Purcey Express. Welcome aboard fellas, there's room for everyone! If there is one Eternal Truth about Big D, it's that the Detroit Tigers cannot put bat on ball when he's on the mound. Through 10.1 innings over 2 starts they've only managed 4 hits against him (drawing 10 walks which I will now conveniently overlook) and scored only 1 run. Give 'em shit, buddy!

Purcey still needs a nickname and I'm really unsatisfied with "Bigfoot" as suggested at Batter's Box the other day. Did you know that Dave Winfield's (6' 6") nickname when he played in Mexico was "El Gigante Negro"? I don't speak Spanish, but I'm going to guess that means "the big negro" anyway. "Big Whitey" for Purcey? No? Something better?

* In unsurprising news, Scott Downs "is likely headed to the disabled list after spraining his ankle on Wednesday night" according to Rotoworld.

* MLB to introduce instant replay at the end of August? Why not 5 years ago?

-- Johnny Was

Down and out for the count

I'm sure most of you saw last night, Scott Downs sprained his ankle - the Jays have no idea how long he'll be out for. My guess, is that he's probably done for the year if it's a bad sprain. Even if it's just a small sprain, it might not be a bad idea to just shut him down for the year since we're pretty much out of it.

As I pointed out a couple of days ago, Downs was only one of the best relievers in all of baseball. So this is a pretty big loss for a team, even one with as much depth as the Jays. Parrish is likely going to be the guy called back up, although it would be interesting if Brian Wolfe or Davis Romero was recalled.

My big question though, is why was Downs coming into the game with a 4 run lead? It's not a "save situation" (which I think is stupid to use your best relievers, anyways, but thats for another time), so you don't need to use your closer. Ryan apparently couldn't pitch, so with a 4 run lead Cito opts to go to his best reliever.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but due up that inning was Placido Polanco (Right handed hitter), Magglio Ordonez (right handed batter) and Miguel Cabrera (right handed batter). I get that Downs is capable of getting out right handed hitters, but Downs shouldn't have been in the game to begin with. You know why?

BECAUSE THE JAYS HAD A 4 RUN LEAD!

I'm sorry, but there's absolutely no reason to use Downs with a 4 run lead heading into the 9th with 3 right handed batters up when you have Shawn Camp (hadn't been used since the 10th) and Brandon League available in the bullpen. You can give Downs a day off, and save him for a situation he's actually needed in. Hell, use Carlson if you want. But don't waste Downs with a 4 run lead. If you can't trust another reliever to get 3 out without giving up 4 runs, then the bullpen is in a lot more trouble than we thought.

While I'm not directly blaming Cito for the Downs injury, he shouldn't have been out there last night for that situation.

Twitchy.

How awesome has Scott Downs been?

2008 Scott Downs: 325 ERA+ (55 IP)
2008 Mariano Rivera: 294 ERA+ (50 IP)

I can't say enough about the job Downs' has done this year. A 1.29 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, a ridiculous 325 ERA+. And nobody outside of Toronto fans really know that he's been one of, if not the best RP in the game.

This was one of the better moves made in the offseason by JP. Could you imagine if Downs was heading into FA with no contract extension? We'd be paying him BJ Ryan type $ just to keep him. And yet the Jays got him signed for 3.75 and 4 million for the next 2 years. What a steal.

Twitchy.

Wow

The title really says it all about Carlson. I know Johnny touched on him last night, but damn. That was extremely impressive what he did getting out of that bases loaded jam. Isn't that the second, or third time he's gotten out of a bases loaded situation without giving up a run? I know it's a small sample size and all, and he could implode and prove why he's been a minor leaguer for so long, but I'm very intrigued by Carlson's peformance to date. If he can keep this up, it can pretty much negate the injury to Janssen.

The biggest thing to me that validates Carlson's performance was getting guys out in the 13th, after they'd seen him already once in the game. They knew what to expect, and he still got guys out. To me, that seems to imply that he could be for real, and could be somewhere between Tallet & Downs long term. Or he'll prove why I shouldn't blog about minor leaguers after a ridiculously impressive outting against a poor hitting team. Either way...

Should I be worried about Scott Downs? 5 BB in 7 innings, giving him a 1:1 K:BB rate. I'm a huge supporter of Downs, and I know it's a small sample size. But I'm worried that if he doesn't get his control at least back to 07 levels, the set-up situation will go from terrific to bad in a hurry. Sure doesn't help that Accardo's doing horrible either. Good thing we got Carlson here pretending to be BJ Ryan of 06...

Eckstein is performing around career levels, and so far I have to say I'm unimpressed. His lack of ability to get the ball out of the infield is really pissing me off. That being said - could part of his problem be due to the fact he isn't used to seeing these pitchers? He's been in the NL for a while, so it's possible the reason he hasn't been very successful is the fact he isn't used to seeing these AL pitchers. Even I think Eck's slugging should be higher than it is, which leads me to believe that when he sees these pitchers a second time around he should be more like the leadoff guy we expected. Right now, he just seems to get on base by taking pitches or getting hit by them.

Switching Gears

Rotowire has some very cool news about how some of the Jays did in the minors the last few days:

Low Single-A Lansing's Justin Jackson went 4-for-5 with a triple and a double on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old Jackson is batting .311/.446/.511 with five steals in six tries. This after the 2007 supplemental first-round hit just .187 in Rookie ball last year. A toolsy shortstop, he went into the season as one of the Jays' most intriguing prospects anyway.

This is great news considering the revolving door the Jays have had at SS for what seems like forever. I loved the Jackson pick, thought it was an absolute steal. He's supposedly a stud defensively and the question's always been his bat. I think he can be an above average SS, and it's nice to see he's successful in stealing (5/6 successful SB). The batting line is impressive, but what I like the most is the 130 point difference between OBP and BA. Not only does it suggest he's got good bat speed, and makes good contact, but he has a good eye and can work a walk.

Kyle Ginley fanned 10 in 6 2/3 scoreless innings Tuesday for low Single-A Lansing.

Ginley wasn't quite as impressive as hoped at Lansing in his first full season last year, but with a 1.53 ERA and a 21/3 K/BB in 17 2/3 innings so far this year, he's off to a great start as a repeater. The Jays could push him up to high-A ball within a month or two. He might have a future as a fourth or fifth starter.

I don't know much about Ginley, but that's a pretty dominant performance. Add in a 21:3 K:BB ratio and I'm sold.

Twitchy.