FLASH! BULLETIN! URGENT NEWS!
The Blue Jays have optioned RHP Sam Dyson to New Hampshire and will recall C-INF Yan Gomes from Las Vegas (as reported by Barry Davis and others on The Twitter.)
That was yesterday. Today they sent seven bodies to Houston (including the much beloved Francisco Cordero and Ben Francisco) in exchange for pitchers J.A. Happ, David Carpenter, and (the Prodigal Returns) Brandon Lyon.
Also going to Houston (evidently) will be four prospects currently in A ball - pitchers Asher Wojciechowski, Joe Musgrove, and David Rollins and catcher Carlos Perez.
J.A. Happ is a 29 year-old LH starter - this year, he's gone 7-9, 4.83 in 18 starts - his best season was as a rookie in 2009 when he went 12-4, 2.93 for the Phillies, who traded him to Houston (along with Anthony Gose) a year later in the Roy Oswalt trade.
David Carpenter is a RH reliever who turned 27 this week. He pitched quite well last season (1-3, 2.93) after being called up in June to make his ML debut. He's struggled this season (0-2, 6.07). His K/BB figures haven't changed, it's entirely a matter of the balls in play going for hits.
Brandon Lyon is 32 years old now - he made his debut with the Jays back in August 2001. I was in the house, and he looked like a young Greg Maddux that day. He went 5-4, 4.21 over the last six weeks of 2001 and opened the next year in the rotation. He got off to a poor start, was farmed out, lost to Boston on waivers - and hasn't started a major league game since. He's had an extremely erratic career coming out of various bullpens since then: Boston, Arizona, Detroit, Houston) and his career arc has generally resembled the Flight of the Yo-Yo.
And in other news, two struggling pitchers that had been mentioned as people the Jays might, in their Hour of Desperation, take a flyer on - have been traded for each other. Coloroado sends Jeremy Guthrie to Kansas City for Jonathan Sanchez, which I think could be a Big Win for the Royals. Or not.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20120719121023326