The Roundup JR

Well, that series couldn't have ended any worse. I didn't get a chance to see the game, but after reading the boxscore I'm thinking that was a blessing in disguise. The Jays tried my DH/C platoon idea with Barajas catching and Zaun dhing, and it kinda worked. Zaun at least had a nice game at the plate hitting a 2 run bomb.

Outside of that HR though, I'm wondering where all the power has gone. You know somethings not right when Rod Barajas, good as he's been, is third on the team with 5 HR, and the guy who missed a month, Vernon Wells, is second with 7. Rios obviously needs to pick it up, but the other player who's shown a somewhat surprising lack of power is Rolen.

Now I know, Rolen is the Greatest Jay ever and to speak ill of him is blasphemy. But over his last 17 at bats he's been really struggling, hitting 118/250/294. Even worse - over his past 93 at bats he's been primarily a singles hitter, posting a line of 269/376/387. I think Rolen has escaped most of the blame because we were all in awe about how amazing he was during his first couple of weeks. But lately, Rolen has been just as guilty of bringing down the offense, if not moreso, than Rios. At least Rios is showing some signs of life lately.

By now everyone knows that Thigpen was sent down to AAA to activate Zaun from the d/l. But that doesn't change the fact that the way they used him was downright shameful. He was terrific behind the plate for Marcum's start, and as a potentially useful prospect down the road to give him 6 at bats during a 15 day period is just unacceptable. I don't know if this was due to Barajas' hot streak (of which playing virtually every day but one in Zaun's 15+ day absence is batshit crazy). Maybe it was because Gibbons didn't trust Thigpen, although after his start with Marcum I don't see how this would be the case. Hell, maybe it was because of some unknown factor (orders from JP?). Regardless, the fact he got 6 AB over a 15 day period, is terrible development by the Jays, and once again shows a lack of foresight when dealing with prospects. I realize the Jays are trying to compete, and using Thigpen too often may not be the best way to do so. But you're telling me over 15 days they couldn't have found a way to get him some at bats every day or every other day?

AJ Burnett continues to show us why he's such a tool. He made some statements about how if he wasn't a Jay he'd love to be a Cub. AJ, here's a little tip for you - your first and only response to any question about "Would you like to play for team X" should be "I'm happy as a Toronto Blue Jay and I can't imagine playing anywhere else". No more, no less. We know you're lying, and you know you're lying if you say that, but at least it looks good to the media. Nobody gives a shit what team you actually want to play for (except for the one you're playing on now). If you just play dumb, and keep those those thoughts to yourself, than everybody's happy. It makes a world of difference saying "I like the team I'm on" vs "I like the team I'm on, but..."

What I found interesting from that link wasn't about AJ and the Cubs, but about his opt out:

"I have an opt out in my contract," Burnett said. "So people are going to have their own opinion on that. Everybody's talking about me opting out, but nobody's talking about me staying. There's a 100-percent chance of that as well."

If there's a 100% chance of you not opting out, than why was an opt out put into your contract? I don't even care if JP offered you an opt out - if you planned on staying, wouldn't it have made more sense to say "no thanks, I don't want an opt out because I plan on playing all 5 years with this team"?

And if there is a 100% chance of you staying, why don't you prove it by getting your lawyers with the Jays lawyers and removing the opt-out from your contract?

The Jays have an off day today, and they play the Brew Crew in Milwaukee on Tuesday. Oh boy, with the pitcher hitting, this team will have even less offense!

Elsewhere:

Eric Gagne is starting to throw off the mound in his attempt to rehab from injury. Despite his 1-2 record, a 6.98 ERA, and his 2.02 WHIP, I strongly believe some team will buy into the fact that Gagne was awesome 5 years ago and give him a ridiculous contract in 2009. He'll be 33 by then, and should classify as an aging veteran, so Gagne should be at the top of Brian Sabean's 2009 FA wish list.

Chris Carpenter had a set back in his return from TJ. He's gone to see Doc Andrews to find out if "he has a nerve condition common to recipients of the surgery". He'd be out till 2009 if he did have that nerve issue. It's really a shame how Carpenter has been injured for nearly his entire career, cause the past few years when he was healthy he was a monster.

Twitchy.

The Roundup Jr

There were a lot of negatives in last nights game, but I want to talk about the positive first. I think a lot of people missed it - Curtis Thigpen looked terrific behind the plate. I don't know if he's ever caught Marcum before, but he did a phenomenal job of game calling for Marcum. Yeah, Marcum's a pretty dominant pitcher, who threw a hell of a game, but Thigpen still did a great job behind the plate. He framed a lot of pitches that were outside the zone according to the Seattle pitch tracker for strikes. He blocked the plate extremely well, and he showed off a very nice arm on the double play failed bunt. I know it's one game, but I was very impressed with Thigpen.

He was clearly overmatched against Felix, but pretty much everybody in the majors is going to feel that way. I'll give a ton of credit to Felix for absolutely pwning young Thigpen with those filthy, filthy 2 seem fastballs. The fact that Thigpen hasn't started a game in 10-15 days also played a part in his rusty swing, but as far as I could tell I thought he did a terrific job as the catcher. I'm not quite sure why the Jays are so hesitant to use him as a C going forward, but I think he'd be a solid option.

As I discussed last night with eyebleaf, the Jays are a team that lacks in the fundamental abilities. This team doesn't need a new manager, it needs a little league coach! While some would blame last nights game on Ryan, and you'd have good reason too, I think last nights game was lost by the one and only Vernon Wells. He's been doing real well since he came back so I'm not too pissed off at him (especially after praising him so much in my last post), but it's the simple things that Wells and the rest of the offense aren't doing.

For example, the 6th innings - Eck & Inglett on, one out. All he needs is to put the ball into the OF, and boom, sac fly. A run scores, the Jays can move a runner up to third with 2 out, so that a base hit can score the third run (or a passed ball). Fundamental baseball at it's best. But he didn't do that, so instead of the game being 2-1, and theoretically 2-2 heading into the 10th, the Jays lost. If the Jays are going to lose this year, it won't be because of their inability to hit with RISP. It'll be the fact that the Jays simply cannot do the fundamental things in baseball that win you ballgames.

Couple of notes on the M's - how does McClaren (SP?) still have a job? What kind of retard bunts with Raul Ibanez? This is on a level of Dusty Baker trying to bunt with Adam Dunn kind of bad. How was he not fired mid-game for this?

And is anybody else pissed off about Miguel Cairo showing up the Jays? I get it, he's happy he laid down a bunt in the first game, and that he scored in the third, but he's acting like he was about to win the World Series every time he did something right. You're a 75 OPS+ utility player, Cairo. Get over yourself. I was actually more pissed about Cairo's little claps and jumping for joy than I was about losing.

Elsewhere:

Jays caught a bit of a break heading into their series with the Cubs, as LF Alfonso Soriano is going to be out of commission for a while. According to the report:

"Star leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano could miss six weeks with a broken bone in his left hand after he was hit by a pitch from Atlanta’s Jeff Bennett on Wednesday night."

The Cubs have a bit of OF depth, and I figure the Cubs could use Pie or Murton in his absence.

Ken Griffey's #600 HR ball is causing a lot of legal issues. Sorry bud, but in my book you get an E1, and you've lost possession of the ball. Or you could call it Fan Interference.

HGH wasn't the only thing Andy Pettitte learned how to do from Roger Clemens. Apparently he won't let the Yankees know if he's pitching next year or not till after the season. I can't wait to hear more stories about this all year. But I guess they have to talk about something else when Joba isn't pitching.

Big Papi has decided to change his name to Big Daddy, as David Ortiz was sworn in as a US citizen.

Looks like Elijah Dukes is starting to get back to his old ways. No, it's nothing criminal, he just had a 'heated argument' with Manny Acta. It seems pretty meaningless now, but that kid is a ticking time bomb. And at age 24, with a 207/324/322 batting line, teams are going to start being less likely to give him a second chance.

I'm not gonna be here from Friday through the weekend, so unless Will does the Roundup Lite this'll probably be the last one till Monday. Have a nice weekend everyone.

Twitchy.

The Roundup

Those of you who watched until the very end in the Wendy's hours of the morning know that it was a nail-biter in Oakland last night, one of those old-timey pitcher's duels that really doesn't need scoring to be exciting. On the unexpected side of the ledger, Doc didn't throw a complete game (coming out after 8 strong), Rich Harden didn't shatter into 1000 tiny shards of glass, and clutchtacularness from Alex Rios? BJ got 'er done in the bottom of the 9th, but did his top steppin'est best to make it dicey, walking 2 without allowing a run.

You will be glad note that today's game is on at the more civilized hour of 3:30 p.m. EST, but you will also be equally saddened to learn that it's not televised, not even on Extra Innings. Again, we are reduced to listening to Jesse Litsch take on Dana Eveland on the radio just as our caveman forebearers did.

We start the day 2.5 back in the Wild Card race with a soft June sched approaching. The Oracle was right to mock those of you who said the season was over and I hope you feel small, real small.

Really not that chuffed to hear that Curtis Thigpen has been recalled, well, and that Zaunner is on the DL for two weeks. My recollection of Thigpen is that he was little better than a right-handed Russ Adams clone: played a bunch of positions, but none particularly well, below average with the stick. He rose through the minors quickly enough, but hasn't really had a good season at the dish since low A ball in 2001 and his defence left something to be desired in the bigs last summer. (You may recall that Gibby lost confidence in him because he didn't cover his signing hand with his glove allowing opposing hitters to tip pitches). And he didn't hit for shit in Toronto, either, going .238/.294/.287 in 101 ABs. He's not a blue chipper like Travis Snider, or a solid A prospect like Adam Lind, so you don't sweep that under the rug so quickly.

Baseball America is somewhat kinder than my own recollections: He's a solid defensive catcher, but his build may not allow him to stay there for the long haul, and he's shown enough athleticism to play other positions. Thigpen has struggled at the plate so far in 2008, hitting .187/.216/.253. BA even goes so far as to call him the 8th best prospect in the organization, though it's likely he gets some added regard for being so close to the majors.

And according to these groupies, he's single and hung like a Shetland. Thanks internet, why did we need to know that? (You can hear the crickets chirping in the Rod Barajas forum...)

My beef with Thigpen was his sense of entitlement. He'd won big in college with Texas, risen through the ranks at a steady pace, and hit the bigs at 24. When he didn't win a spot on the ML roster in spring training this year he pouted to Richard Griffin rather than admit that he still had work to do before becoming a big leaguer. He skulked his way through the first month the season in Syracuse, playing some passive-aggressive mind game where he thought he could hurt the organization by playing shitacular baseball. Though he's hotted up of late, Thigpen has stunk it up this year and is totally undeserving of a promotion. This one comes by default as Robinzon Diaz simply cannot stay healthy this year.

Well, you get to wear the uni again, Big Boy. That doesn't mean we haven't forgotten that you're a bit of a whiner who doesn't have the skills to match the talk. I wouldn't expect to see him in more than a handful of games over the next fortnight; when you get in Gibby's bad books--and early indications are skip is not impressed with his foppish new hairdo--it's a long road back.

Ok, time to rock shit against the A's. Go Jays!

ELSEWHERE:

* Sick Bay: Tory Percival to the DL, Frank Thomas to the DL, Matsuzaka to the DL?

* For those you still following the Roger Clemens Saga, re-enter Mindy McCready.

* While tossers in Boston and New York stuff the All-Star Game ballot box with votes for their own players merit aside, fans in National League parks are actually voting for the best player at each position regardless of team affiliation. You guys are better than us, it's that simple.

-- Johnny Was