I guess the rationale for Inglett, an infielder, replacing Stairs, an outfielder, is that Coates, an outfielder, is replacing Rolen, an infielder. Some kind of zen balancing technique, I guess.

A bench of Inglett, McDonald, Coates and Barajas... Is sarcasm superfluous?

    And so the Adam Lind mystery deepens.   First the Jays choose to call up Coats instead of Lind.   Then Stairs goes down and the Jays disclose that they would prefer to call up Joe Inglett.  Two chances to call up Lind, two decisions to say no.

    According to the oracle of ZiPS, Lind should be able to slug .457 in the majors this year.  Is it possible that the Jays disagree?   Perhaps, rather than simply regressing to the mean this year as ZiPS would expect (which would mean that he would again be the Lind that we loved in 2006), it's possible that Lind might still be mired in some of the poor batting habits of last year, and the Jays want to make sure he has shaken those habits before they promote him.  Spring training is not enough to prove that he is the slugger we all loved in 2006.

I think the Jays just want Lind to play every day.  Stewart is fine offensively against both RHP and LHP (keeping him over Johnson is looking like the right move now).  Lind needs to prove he's back and hit in AAA for at least the first month or two before he'll be summoned to play fulltime in LF, in my opinion.  If Rios doesn't sign his name within the next two hours, Lind's chances of being the LF of the future for the Jays will likely improve, too.

Could Stairs' injury be a $10 million blessing in disguise?  It might facilitate the arrival of Lind, and hitting doesn't affect his hip, so could we see a platoon at DH if Thomas struggles against RHP early on? 

I though I read somewhere that the answer was (d) both are healthy and Hinske simply was chosen over Gomes.

Funny that a team with 9 outfielders in 2007 finds themselves with Hinske in the starting lineup in 2008.

Anyone know where I can listen to/watch games over the interweb without paying the outrageous mlb.tv prices? I moved to England a few months ago but would really like to enjoy baseball this summer. Radio stream would be just fine, I know fan590 doesn't do it :(

You can sign up for Gameday Audio at MLB.com.  It's $14.95 for the year.

   The Rios contract deadline has been extended by a few days, according to MacLeod on the Globe's baseball blog a few minutes ago.  Apparently they're too close to a deal to walk away from it now.  Sounds like the deal will get done, even if takes a few more days.

A bench of Inglett, McDonald, Coates and Barajas... Is sarcasm superfluous?

In baseball circa 2008, you can't have a promising bench with two starters on on the DL, unless you decide to platoon and both platoon partners are healthy.  In fact, it's a credit to JP's offseason that none of the above-mentioned four are starting today.

Still, yikes.  I would be delighted with a 3-3 start to the season.

Baseball, we’ve discovered once again, is always better as a sample of American business life than as a place for moral lessons. It’s still the national pastime. 

***** Rant Alert*****

I don't get how come everyone says the Jays have improved so much.

Who did they add? Eckstein, Scurtaro, Stewart and Barajas.
(did I miss someone, are you counting Randy Wells? BJ Ryan?)

Sure they added Rolen, and took away Glaus, everyone knows that's a wash, unless Rolen stays healthy!....
(HE'S NOT HEALTHY)

Lets get real, predicting that the Jays will do better this year, means predicting that everyone on the team that played badly last year, will play better and be healthier, and everyone that played fabulous gets no worse and that no one important gets hurt this year.

Not a good bet.
I'd like to see better, but I'm betting on the same old same old.

Here you go Dez:  One of them is bound to work.  Works for me all the time:

http://radiotime.com/Search.aspx?AffiliateId=37940&AffiliateType=station

Lots of needless hookey today. The game is washed out.

Meanwhile, Miguel Cabrera has smacked dinger #1 of his AL career.

60 Minutes did a piece on Bill James and Sabermetrics.

Just watched it over here at: http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/153/baseball_by_bill_james

 Rob Neyer: (2:05 PM ET ) I think the Blue Jays have a legitimate shot, because their rotation and their defense are outstanding, and Vernon Wells is poised for a nice big bounce. Rolen going down obviously doesn't help, though.

Joy in Marlins land? Mark Hendrickson is their opening day starter and Luis "first to third" Gonzalez is playing right field. I guess this will be one of the years that they don't win a World Series.

There's lots of talk about Thomas and his 376 plate appearances in Blair's blogs.  Blair thinks Thomas looked "awful" in spring training, but expects Thomas to be sensitive about his playing time since he wants to play until he's 41.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/baseball

With Stairs' hip injury, an injury he described as one that "might be a little bit more intense than the one last year", affecting his running but not his hitting, I can't see him making it through the 110+ games in LF against right-handed starters.  Thomas had an OPS of .796 against RHP last year and looked even worse in spring training this year, while Stairs has a career OPS of .867 against RHP.  A strong first month or two by Lind in AAA might muddy the water even further.  Personally I'd like to see the Jays play whoever gives them the best chance to WIN, regardless of money or feelings, but I am very interested to see how this plays out.

Thoughts?

As for Rios, I'm really glad to hear that this deal is likely to get done and I'm also happy that there isn't going to be an opt-out clause.  That's always a lose-lose situation for the team.

According to TSN's website, TSN is carrying the new opener tomorrow night.

And for those of you who want to waste an inordinate amount of time looking at gorgeous pictures of not-so-gorgeous uniforms, ballparks, etc. of the '70s...you've been warned.

It'll be on TSN if there's actually a game.  The forecast in New York looks even worse tomorrow though:
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/usny0996

I'm dying for baseball, but I'd rather the Jays play their games against New York with Stairs in the lineup, and if it's rescheduled for another series entirely, Rolen too.

Wilner made a good point on his "rain delay" show, and that was that the MLB opening series' should be played in stadiums with roofs or in warmer climates whenever possible.  (I.e., Seattle in Texas, New York in Toronto, Baltimore in Tampa Bay, Minnesota in LA, etc.  Not the other way around).  I hadn't thought of that before he mentioned it.

Injuries are part of the game, but sometimes things go better and guys like macdonald, stewart and stairs are injured instead of doc, wells and overbay.

Last year the Canadiens(my hockey team of choice) were devestated by injury.  This year they are under 100 man games.  I can't find the stats for last year but I'm pretty sure it was over 300. 

I choose to hope for a healthy great year, and I would rather be wrong in my thinking that we have a legitimate chance this year.  I don't expect no injuries, i just hope that they are limited to short stretches and to more easily replaced players.

From Goldman's chat today over at Prospectus....

Tony (Brooklyn, NY): Sheehan thinks that Toronto is more than a mockery of a contender. I don't, but I can see how Ricciardi could have been lulled into putting this team together, having Halladay, Rios, Wells come up together. What do you think?

Steven Goldman: Well, the problem is that Riccardi has made some poor drafting decisions that have set them back, and what they have drafted hasn't developed, at least on the hitting side. There is nothing wrong with the Jays that about 1.75 good hitters wouldn't cure, but over the last several years they just haven't been able to come up with that guy. And as good as Vernon Wells was at 24, I don't think there was a reasonable expectation of his having too many more seasons like that based on his plate judgment. Even if they had guessed right on him, by himself he wasn't enough. Since Delgado left they've really needed a big, pure, home run bat.

I'm with ChicagoJF.  Injuries will happen, but this team is much better equipped to handle them.  I also agree that injuries sometimes happen a lot worse some years than others, whether it's the caliber of player that goes down, the amount of time they're out or the number of players injured at once.  Boston had a bad year in 2006 (and the Jays finished ahead of them), then had a lucky year in 2007, where a lot of guys with a history of injuries stayed healthy for the entire year, more or less.  Other than Burnett, the Jays don't really have anybody on the roster who is chronically injured, except maybe Rolen, but his injuries are confined to the last three years and all stem from a single shoulder injury caused by a collision, which he looks to be over after the scar tissue was removed last fall.

"Manny and Ortiz hit 34 less homerun in 2007 than in 2006, so the pure homerun hitters aren't essential if the lineup doesn't have holes"

What? Are you saying that Ortiz and Manny aren't big bats because they hit fewer HRs last year than the year before? Ortiz slugged .621 last year. The Jays have NOT had a hitter like those two since Delgado and the big bat is something they are missing. They have no one scary in the lineup.

"Scutaro and Eckstein versus Clayton and Jason Smith is a pretty big upgrade on that front. 
Stewart, an older Lind, and Coates provide better outfield depth than Reed Johnson, a younger Lind, and John-Ford Griffin.
Barajas, an older Thigpen, and Diaz provide better depth than Philips, Fasano, and a younger Thigpen."

The problem here is that if you come out with it straight, adding Eckstein, Scutaro, Stewart, and Barajas, and Rolen for Johnson, Clayton, Thigpen, Glaus etc...is not much of an improvement. These are peripheral players. Teams don't vastly improve by adding a slightly better backup catcher.

"Injuries will happen, but this team is much better equipped to handle them."

The Jays opening day 3Bman will be Marco Scutoro and LFer will be Stewart. That's weak. The Jays do not have a good bench or a good system which is a problem when you are an injury-prone team with mediocre offense anyway.

But Lind, Clayton, Philips, Thigpen, Adams, and Smith totaled 836 at bats last year.  If we're expecting similar health to last year, that means that dramatically improving each of those spots (15 to 20 points of OPS+) is about the same as improving 1.5 starters.  If we're considering the case where we have improved health, then the Jays improvement is even more dramatic as it will be people in our starting 9 getting the at bats.

Don't forget the 201 innings pitched by Towers, Ohka, Chacin and Zambrano.

I'm not sure some here are acknowledging just how many at bats the jays were forced to waste on offensive black holes last season.

J.McDonald '07: 327ab, 1hr, 31rbi, .251avg, .279obp, .333lsg, .612ops
A.Lind '07: 290ab, 11hr, 46rbi, .238avg, .278obp, .400slg, .678ops
R.Johnson '07: 275ab, 2hr, 14rbi, .235avg, .305obp, .320slg, .625ops
R.Clayton '07: 189ab, 1hr, 12rbi, .254avg, .304obp, .344slg, .648ops
J.Phillips '07: 144ab, 1hr, 12rbi, .208avg, .269obp, .278slg, .547ops
C.Thigpen '07: 101ab, 0hr, 11rbi, .238avg, .294obp, .287slg, .581ops
R.Adams '07: 60ab, 2hr, 12rbi, .233avg, .313obp, .383slg, .697ops
J.Smith '07: 52ab, 0hr, 4rbi, .212avg, .267obp, .269slg, .537ops
R.Olmedo '07: 51ab, 0hr, 1rbi, .216avg, .245obp, .294slg, .539ops
H.Clark '07: 49ab, 0he, 2rbi, .204avg, .298obp, .245slg, .543ops
S.Fasano '07: 45ab, 1hr, 4rbi, .178avg, .229obp, .311slg, .540ops
H.Luna '07: 42ab, 1hr, 4rbi, .167avg, .217obp, .238slg, .455ops

Total At Bats For These Guys: 1625
Total At Bats For Whole Team: 5536


So that's 29.4% of our at bats last year that went to these guys, that's 29.4% of our offense there which posted an OPS of around .600 overall last year.

Of these players, only McDonald - whose at bats should drop drastically into the 100 range, and Lind - who won't be getting at bats unless he's hitting better than he did last year, are still with the team. 

This year, the vast majority of those at bats should be filled by these guys:


D.Eckstein 3-yr: 1564ab, .297avg, .357obp, .375slg, .732ops
S.Stewart 3-yr: 1301ab, .284avg, .336obp, .388slg, .724ops
R.Barajas 3-yr: 876ab, .251avg, .310obp, .434slg, .744ops
M.Scutaro 3-yr: 1084ab, .257avg, .331obp, .384slg, .715ops

That's almost 1/3 of our total offense that we should realistically expect a .100+ point improvement in OPS.

And that's not even considering that our starters may be healthier this year (likely, even), which means many of those at bats should be replaced by even better performances from starting players.

o even if our Starters are just as injured and have just as many off-years as occurred last year, the team should still see a significant bump offensively.