Heads Up

Nice Article on The Franchise over at Baseball America. Thankfully, it's not one of those behind the pay wall.

An excerpt:

"But he's tremendously competitive. I've seen him stand up to a couple of his teammates for doing some stuff that you would expect a veteran guy to do. He understands what's right and what's wrong in this game even though he's only in his second full season. So he does have a lot of leadership qualities and the guys really feed off of him, the way he does his business. He's a clown in the afternoon when we're out stretching, taking BP and all that—he has a good time—but when it's time to play the game, when those lights go on, you're talking about a really competitive kid."

It's a good read and will make you more excited, if that were possible, about seeing him in T.O.

*****
In regards to last night's news on Brian Jeroloman getting bumped to AAA, my guess about journeyman Erik Kratz going to AA in his place is correct. Also, Robinson Diaz got the call back to Syracuse as well so apparently Jeroloman is still looking at splitting time, though we don't know yet if Diaz will be catching or playing DH on a regular basis. Also worth noting is that Chip Cannon is headed for the DL. Does that mean Curtis Thigpen will play regularly at 1B? It's too bad the way Thigpen has collapsed this year.

~WillRain

On the Road again...

Be thankful that's not a pic of Willie Nelson.

A couple of player movement issues of which to make note. The Ginger Flash takes his slumping abilities to Syracuse to see if he can work out the bugs that have led him to give up 15 runs in his last 12 2/3 IP and a 6.12 ERA since the first of June.

Promoted into his slot is the much anticipated David Purcey, who JP says they are going to take an "extended look at." It's a move that system watchers have been longing for and excitement 'round these parts is high.

Some may ask "Why not Parrish?"

Several reasons - First: to send down Parrish now is to put him through waivers, which is unwise until we know the status of McGowan and Burnett; Second, Litsch gets a pressure free environment to work out the kinks (maybe with the help of Mel Queen?) and third, we need to know if Parrish can pitch at this level too. Looking at the schedule, I hope that the Jays bump Parrish from Friday to Saturday, in so doing they can assure that he, not Purcey, falls on the off-day July 31.

In another bit of happy news, the Manchester correspondent over at Batters' Box reports that after tonight's game Brian Jeroloman got the word to pack his gear for a promotion to the "Trips". No word yet on the corresponding demotion, but my guess is that it's Eric Kratz. This is exceedingly good news because it lets JPA catch every day (which a guy with a middling defensive game needs) and it lets Jeroloman test his hot bat and marvelous batting eye against AAA pitching.

This effectively signals the end of the Thigpen era as a Jays catching prospect, he'll be traded, moved to another position, or become an organizational soldier until he's a six year minor league FA. It also is a clue that Robinson Diaz is probably not ready to go back behind the plate regularly and won't be for a while. Alternately, maybe JP knows he's got a deal cooking for a major league catcher and Diaz is going to come straight to the bigs when that happens.

In either case, Robby better recognize he's on the clock. His window of opportunity to establish himself before Jeroloman and Arencibia are ready for the majors grows increasingly more narrow.

Finally, not a player movement note but still of interest - Ricky Romero put his seventh consecutive good start and now has a sub 4 ERA in that span. Could it be he's turned the corner? We can certainly hope.

~WillRain