1:18 PM Eastern
Last day of school here, kids, so there’s a bunch of stuff to do. Therefore, the live bloggage is going to suffer. Some news off the top, as I spent most of this morning either getting about half the Jays to do their radio reads (”You’re listening to Blue Jays Baseball……..how do you like me now!”) or waiting for Scott Rolen, who showed up at about 11:45, but an hour later still hadn’t finished doing whatever he had to do before talking to us. We’re still waiting, but up in the press box now.
Matt Stairs hasn’t played in a game since Sunday against the Phillies, when he came in late and finished the game in left field. Turns out, says John Gibbons, that Stairs has a wonky hip, and he’s going to test it in a minor-league game today. He’s not playing in this one against the Astros because if he appears in a real fake game, the Jays won’t be able to backdate him as far on the disabled list, though Gibby said that wasn’t a consideration (it is).
By the way, the first inning is in the books, and it’s 0-0. McGowan walked Michael Bourn to lead things off, but he was erased on a fielder’s choice grounder by Hunter Pence. Pence tried to steal second, but he was nailed, and pretty easily, by Rod Barajas. Darin Erstad then doubled down the right-field line, a ground ball just inside the bag past a diving Overbay, but Ty Wigginton flied to centre on the next pitch.
In the bottom of the inning, after a groundout by Eckstein and a flyout by Stewart, Rios hung out a clothesline to left for a single and Vernon followed with a four-pitch walk before Thomas fouled off a couple of two-strike pitches, then went down swinging.
Rolen’s ready, gotta go!
1:55 PM Eastern
Just got back from talking to Rolen, so forgive the lack of bloggageness while I cut up the tape. Rolen said that he’s been given a window of 4-6 weeks from the surgery, which was this past Monday, which would put him out for 3-5 weeks of the regular season. The pin in his finger is actually holding his finger together - it wasn’t his nail that was ripped off, the bottom of his finger was torn apart, and was dangling at a 45 degree angle.
Rolen said that the surgeon wants him to hit before he tries to throw, and that he will be able to try to hit four of five days after the pin comes out, assuming his finger stays together without the pin. The pin comes out April 7th, I can’t imagine he’ll be able to be back in the line-up anytime before the series at Kansas City that starts April 25th.
By the way, we’re in the top of the 4th, and it’s still 0-0. The Astros don’t have a hit since that Erstad ground-ball double in the 1st, though McGowan has walked a pair in this inning. The Jays have added a Scutaro single to the Rios liner in the 1st, and Scoot stole second, but that’s it.
More when something happens, otherwise, it’s Rolen-cutting time.
haha ‘Rolen Cutting’ time.
I’m surprised that the jays practice with baseballs that had razorblades inserted in them!
Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery from Rolen, What’s the deal with Stairs though??? Will be be ready to go for home opener, and does his ailments have something to do with the Buck Coats callup as well?
MW: Stairs played in a minor-league game today, had four at-bats, played an inning of defense and felt “good” as we were told. There’s a chance his ailments have something to do with Coats making the team, but it’s more likely that they’d rather have Coats than, say, Hector Luna - despite today’s heroics.
- MarkThis injury keeps getting worse and worse. I half expect to hear that what really happened was the fingertip was bitten off by a raccoon, and Rolen now has rabies.
- TorgenHey Mike,
Did the jays lose any draft picks for signing Stewart?
MW: Nope.
- SteveMike re Rolen. is there any nerve damage? That would affect his feel & throwing accuracy??
John from G-town
MW: Could be, since the flesh on the tip of his finger was almost torn off. Rolen did say that the surgeon wanted to make sure that he had feeling in the tip of his finger when the pin comes out.
- john sheppardMike - question about the Rule 5 Draft rules and R Wells.
Considering he’s a Rule 5 guy… does that mean he has to stay with the big league club all year to remain with the organization? Or did he simply have to make the 25 man roster to start the season.
If he has to stay up… what happens when BJ comes back from injury? Does another pitcher get demoted - or does Wells go back to the Cubs?
MW: Wells would have to stay up the entire season or be offered back to the Cubs for half the Rule Five cost. When B.J. comes back, Wells may stay if he has pitched well (or at all) or the Jays may try to make a deal with the Cubs to allow them to send him down.
- DanielWhy did Frasor only pitch 1/3 today? Please say it’s not another injury.
Unrelated, why don’t the starters for the Jays stay in more than 2 Abs? On other teams they seem to. With guys like Thomas needing to find his timing, wouldn’t it be beneficial to take a few more swings? He can’t get that tired as a DH that he’s going to wear out.
MW: Yep, unreported by every other source down here, Frasor was carted off the field on a stretcher after collapsing in pain in mid-pitch. Actually, no. The Jays wanted to get Jeremy Accardo some work as well, so I guess they figured Frasor would get two hitters and Accardo would get two hitters, they didn’t know Accardo would only need one pitch to end the game.
Also, the regulars were mostly getting at least three plate appearances as far back as the March 12th game. Sometimes, if their 3rd AB hadn’t come by the 7th inning, they’d get yanked, but not always.
- GrantOk so Rolen is out for a while _ the question has to be asked.. How is Troy Glaus??
MW: It does?
- john sheppardHow the hell do you lose a chunk of finger fielding grounders!?
MW: It doesn’t seem to be all that difficult, from the way Rolen described it. And he didn’t lose a chunk of finger, it ALMOST got torn off.
- NateMichael:
You mentioned something about if Thomas struggles out of the gate, the Jays will do everything they can to prevent him from hitting his guaranteed ‘09 option plateau.
Is there precedent for these types of issues (ie that course of action) becoming extremely political and creating a lot of clubhouse tension? It seems to me that if they did that to a guy like Frank, well, both himself and others may not react too kindly to it.
As well… since we udnerstand Frank is a perennial late bloomer (albeit a perennial bloomer) and the number he needs for the guaranteed year is only something like 365 & change, wouldn’t pursuing that coruse of action based on a shaky, say, first 100-150 bats preclude the possibility of him making any sort of meaningful contribution to the offense over the course of the season?
MW: I’ll answer the “as well” first: Yes. As far as those types of issues becoming political and creating distractions in the clubhouse, that’s a maybe. But the decision to release Reed Johnson would have that affect a lot more than benching Thomas against righties if he’s not hitting well out of the gate.
- JCLIn reference to the question about how Troy Glaus is, I’m sure when he grounds out there is a strong hint of a limp in his gait, but when he bangs a round tripper, he will make the jog around the bases with not even a sniff of a sore anything…he was always able to make amazing recoveries based on his hitting performance…..limps for outs, smooth trots for home-runs….curious…he was a medical debacle. (just cause it rhymed…sorry!!)
- DJJAYWell since John asked about Troy, La Russa says that they may rest him once a series. That would mean he’d only play around 110 games. That’s even without a major injury.
- Eric HBut what you wrote suggested they wouldn’t be benching him against righties until he works through his slump; you said something like they’d find ‘every way possible’ to prevent him from hitting the automatic ‘09 option plateau. To me, that is much more drama-inducing than simply sitting a guy against righties.
And what would it accomplish to bench him after a shaky start if doing so would preclude a significant contriubtion of his being made to the offense? A premise to any possible BJ’s success this year would have to be a strong offensive performance from him and that can’t happen if they’re benching him after a slow start and not giving him a chance to come around.
MW: I’m pretty sure I didn’t say “every way possible”, but if you can find it in the archives, let me know. I think that Thomas will always play against left-handers, he crushes them whether he’s slumping or not, but I disagree that he has to get off to a good start for the Jays to have any kind of success. As hard as this seems to accept, a team’s success or failure NEVER rests on the shoulders of one individual. If Thomas slumps, it’ll make things a lot more difficult, for sure, because you’d have a black hole in the middle of the line-up. But even in a slump, that black hole will be on base at least 25% of the time, and that can be worked with. If he slumps, his teammates will need to pick him up, just as he’ll pick up some of his teammates when they slump.
- JCLHi Mike,
Who’s playing better, fragile Zaun or Barajas? Who had a better spring training? Who won the job? But MW, you know the Jays. Thats one of the reasons why The Jays have been hanging there hats on 3rd place, that mind set. You know alot about baseball but you thought Reed Johnson for Randy Wells trade was a steel for the Cubs. Randy Wells made the team, Reed Johnson is on the Cubs MW. Also you have Lind over Coates another one of your mistakes. Coates runs better, Fields Better and can hit and has proven it in AAA. All round player. Lind below average runner, below average fielder, hasn’t proven he can hit yet in the majors, consistantly whenever he’s been up. His AAA record isn’t better than Lind. Sounds like a DH or trade bait. Why do think JP has wanted Coates for years. Sometimes I feel insulted with you prodictions.
MW: Well, I don’t make a lot of prodictions, as it were. But you’re going to have to explain to me where you heard that the Jays traded Reed Johnson for Randy Wells. See, Johnson was released, and then the Cubs signed him for $2 million less than the Jays were going to have to pay him, and didn’t have to give Toronto an asset. I wouldn’t trade Reed for Randy Wells, but Wells being here has less than nothing to do with Reed being in Chicago.
It’s interesting that you would think that basing the evaluation of a player on one month of meaningless games is better than basing the evaluation on what the player has done over the course of his entire career. Zaun is a better offensive player than Barajas. It doesn’t matter that Barajas had a better Spring Training.
I think, long term, that Lind will be a better hitter than Coats. I like how you mention that Lind “hasn’t proven he can hit yet in the majors”, though. You’re right, he hasn’t. Not like Coats and that career .192/.232/.346 major-league line. Coats definitely runs better than Lind, though I don’t know that he’s a better fielder. Coats has had some rough moments in the outfield this spring, along with making some spectacular plays.
But there’s quite a difference in their minor league numbers. Lind’s minor-league batting average is 35 points higher than Coats’, his minor-league obp is 36 points higher, and Lind has the edge in career slugging, as well, but only by 120 points. You don’t have to tear down one guy to build up another, but other than wheels, there’s no facet of the game at which Buck Coats is clearly better than Lind, and there are plenty at which Lind is the better player.
- brunoMike:
I didn’t say Thomas has to get off to a good start for the Jays to have a chance — I said that over the course of the season he has to contribute. If they follow your course of action and bench him after a slow start, he won’t have a chance to contribute anything later in the season, as he did last year.
I got the exact wording of what you said wrong, but I paraphrased the idea fine:
http://blog.rogersbroadcasting.com/mikewilner/2008/03/25/rays-10-jays-0/
“If Thomas starts slow, the Jays will do all they can to make sure he doesn’t reach that vesting plate appearance total, so that might help Lind out.”
Thomas needs something like 375 AB’s for that option to kick in. So, a decision would need to be made after, say, 150 MAX AB’s that they’re going to hold him back. I put the 150 figure out there because anything more and they’d be playing him like every third game for the last half of the season.
Anyways, I think we’ve strayed away from a focal point of this discussion. The thrust of what I wanted to know was whether or not deliberately sabotaging Thomas’s efforts to reach his 375 or whatever it is PA’s would cause unrest in the locker room. I’d say it’s quite a bit different than the Johnson situation on several levels, but that’s neither here nor there.
And my other (original) point was, wouldn’t following your course of action doom the Jays to receiving zero offensive output from Thomas over the season? That’s (as you predicted) an absent 30 + homers and I don’t think we need to argue over the significance of that.
I’m not disputing what you said — that the Jays would probably pursue that course of action if Thomas sucked out of the gate. I’m just asking about the obvious problems that could stem from that decision, both on and off the field.
MW: OK, let’s stay on point, then (376 PA, by the way), though I’m glad you went back to get what I actually wrote. The thing is this - I believe that if Thomas were producing at, let’s say, slightly below his normal level, something like .265/.370/.460, the club was winning and the Jays tried to bench him, there would be unrest. It would be seen, and rightly so, as a team making a move that was detrimental to winning in order to save money, and the players wouldn’t be happy.
If however, Thomas hit May 15th and was hitting .189 with three homers, I don’t think anyone on the team would have a problem if he sat against righties for a while.
In the overall, though, I don’t think it matters all that much what the players think about the moves the front office or the manager make, because they still have to go out there every day and try to either win or earn future paychecks. And with regards to comparing that situation to Johnson getting released, I firmly believe that what happened to Johnson caused far more unrest in the Jays’ clubhouse than any benching of Thomas ever could.
As to the “benching Thomas means the Jays lose whatever he might give them in the second half” argument, you’re right. But like I said, never does an entire team’s offense depend hugely on one player. The Jays got (relatively) nothing from Vernon Wells last year, but if Thomas had had a good start, Overbay a good anything, if Glaus had stayed healthy and the Jays had gotten some sort of offensive contribution from Lind/Johnson, they might still have been able to rattle some chains. If Thomas loses his job by merit, one would think that Stairs and Stewart are playing well enough to merit them taking it away from him. Or, if Thomas staggers out of the gate and the Jays feel he needs to be replaced, there’s always a Mr. B. Lamar Bonds sitting by the phone.
- JCL