Blake Murphy Sports Writing

Title: Blue Jays Ramblings
Date: April 22, 2008
Original Source: The On Deck Circle
Synopsis: In place of some “series reviews,” I instead just did a rundown of my thoughts on the team through three weeks of the season.

Can I even call this a series review? Yeah, the series review idea started off pretty hot but then they had two two-game series and I went to Montreal, so the ball has been temporarily dropped. I’m hungover right now, so this one probably won’t be awesome either. Also, I’m just going to ramble about different Jays stuff from the last week instead of doing three small series wraps. To make it up to you, there is a lot of extra stuff in this one, just for you.

Series Reviews
April 14-15 at Baltimore Orioles
A 4-3 loss to the O’s, and then an 11-3 win. Such is the story of the season so far, it seems.

April 16-17 v. Texas Rangers
Returned home to drop two to an even-worse-than-they-seem Texas team, falling 7-5 and 4-1, dropping a 14-inning affair and then spoiling a mammoth Halladay complete game.

April 18-21 v. Detroit Tigers
Hey, if this was last season, everyone would be happy with a split with Detroit. Instead, it seems a bit disappointing, especially since the Tigers are still missing line-up spark-plug Curtis Granderson (who, by the way, I have an article about coming sometime soon…I owe him an apology). Monday’s 5-1 loss was ugly, but the pair of wins over the weekend and the Friday loss were all acceptable efforts. This series was shrouded more with team turmoil than actual performance evaluation.

The Team Thus Far
10-10 isn’t really where we fans expected the Jays to be at this point. The schedule has been relatively easy, especially if you consider that the good teams they faced were all struggling at the time. The Jays’ Achilles heel of old of not being able to hit young pitchers, beat bad teams, or hit with runners in scoring position all seem to be manifesting themselves again. That said, there are a lot of bright spots so far, too.

Positives: Wells is absolutely destroying the baseball; Hill and Rios have been exactly what we expected; the running game has continued (24 steal attempts in 20 games); the Jays have the 4th highest OBP in the league; the starters, for the most part, have been fantastic; the bullpen has been even better; BJ Ryan looks to be back in good form; the team continues to pull players who perform out of AAA (Carlson, Inglett)

Negatives: Fram Thomas (see below); Scutaro, Stewart, and both catchers have all been somewhat disappointing; Burnett has been shaky; Rios and Overbay have each struck out 18 times; Accardo has struggled with his out pitch; Brandon League (’nuff said)

Infield Singles/Quick Hits/The Squeeze (you pick the name of this segment)
• I’m glad Hill is hitting out of the 2-hole. That’s where he belongs, and he needs to stay there, regardless of lefty-righty balance or anything like that. I’ve also come around on Eckstein in the leadoff spot (it’s not ideal, but he’s better than our other options)
• The bullpen is just sick. If you take out League (who is now struggling at Syracuse, too) and can get over Accardo’s struggles with his split-finger fastball, everyone else has been great, including the surprising Brian Tallet (though there’s a time limit on his success, I’m sure)
• Poor David Purcey. Finally makes it to the Majors, only gets a quick shot, and his great game is hidden by too many walks. His final line was decent enough so hopefully the control problem was nerves only (his K:BB ratio at AAA was 21:6, so I’m not worried)
• The Frank Thomas situation. I covered it quickly on Sunday, but here’s how the Jays have handled it: for the time being, Barajas and Stairs will split time at DH while Stewart and Stairs continue to split time in LF. This will result in more at-bats for all three, and possibly Joe Inglett in the field, too. To replace Thomas, the team called up Robinson Diaz, a fantastic catching prospect with loads of potential. I question having a young player up in limited action, but he can catch, spell Scutaro at third, and DH, so he should get his at-bats. I would assume he’ll be optioned back down either when Rolen returns or when Lind’s sore neck is healed, but it’s exciting to see him get a shot. More on him individually in a second, but there’s a chance he performs well and creates a 25th-roster-spot controversy, leaving the team unsure if the final spot should go to Inglett, Diaz, or Lind when Rolen returns. Also, Bonds makes sense…people don’t seem to like it, but Bonds makes sense. To quote Lil’ Wayne, though, “don’t be surprised if he asks where the cash at.”
• The Jays’ future is very bright. Cascone and I had a good chat about it today, and people fail to look beyond the Lind/Rios/Wells/Snider/Hill five-some and look at the rest of the franchise’s depth. Robinson Diaz and Curtis Thigpen are going to be a great catching duo for years to come (Diaz’ ceiling is an all-star catcher, Thigpen projects as a back-up probably), and they both play additional positions and have hit consistently in the minors. This leaves holes at 1B/3B/SS for the future, sure, but when you consider that the team won’t have to spend much more than what is currently tied up, it’s not unreasonable to think those holes can be plugged. Burnett may leave, but Halladay/Marcum/McGowan/Litsch are here for a while, and Purcey, Kane Davis, both Romeros, and a few other prospects littering the minors have potential. And I think the team has shown it can pull bullpen success out of its ass. The future is bright, and not in the 2006 “we have money to spend!” way…more in the “we’ve developed some serious home grown talent and have been financially intelligent beyond 2010” way. It’s exciting.

Down on the Farm
• Syracuse has won 6 straight games to catapult to 12-7, good for second place in the division. Encouragingly, it wasn’t carried by Diaz and Lind, neither of whom played much in that span. Instead, it’s been team efforts and great pitching. But mostly…
• It’s been because Russ Adams is the man. Yes, everyone’s favorite whipping boy was named the International League’s batter of the week, hitting .417 with 8 runs scored and 7 extra-base hits over those six games. For the season, he’s now hitting .271 with 3 homers. He’s also learned to play right field. Can you say trade bait? Don’t believe me? This is a 27-year old lefty who can play SS/3B/2B/RF, can run, hit for a bit of power, bunt, etc. He has enough tools and the versatility to be a great 25th man, especially in the NL. If the team were to make a deadline deal, there’s no reason Adams couldn’t be a throw-in to sweeten the pot.
• The rotation at Syracuse has been even better than in Toronto, with four of the five starters sporting sub-3.00 ERAs through three or four starts. Purcey, Kane Davis, Davis Romero, and Bill Murphy have all been great.
• Elsewhere in the minors, 2B prospect Scott Campbell is destroying everything in sight at New Hampshire, hitting .444 through 15 games. Prized prospect Ricky Romero has continued to struggle at Double-A, posting a 5.19 ERA.
• At Single-A Dunedin, I’ll remind you of 21-year old Cuban defector Kenny Rodriguez’ complete game, one-hit shutout from the first week of the year. He’s followed it up with decent numbers, and he and Brett Cecil make a great 1-2 punch that could both see Double-A this year. Super-prospect Travis Snider has started to hit here, too, hitting 4 home runs in 17 games with a .279 average.

Looking Forward
The Jays are playing a three-game set against Tampa Bay at Disney Land, spanning Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. The pitching match-ups are Litsch-Halladay-McGowan against Shields-Hammel-Sonnanstine so, umm, advantage Toronto. Other than that, everything you need to know about this series can be found here.