http://economics.about.com
I hope the shirt is a Medium. It will be too baggy for me otherwise :)

Fish Candy... Allt í Lagi!

http://economics.about.com
I just read through your re-caps. Great work Mike.. it's always interesting to get a first hand perspective from someone who isn't a jaded journalist.

Very, very nice work on getting the T-shirt. Do you have one of the teams in the league?

Mike

Spencer Fordin presented an update on the 3-catcher situation (and Huckaby's cemented #1 job) today. Here's a highlight:

The good people at Baseball Prospectus get in the best line about Huckaby's hitting skills: "Huckaby couldn't scare a cat burglar with a bat in his hands."

Still, when Roy Halladay likes to throw to you every five days, that carries a lot of weight. The Jays talk about Huckaby playing other positions, but the bottom line is that his catching skills justify his roster spot.

The fact that Huck is rooming in Florida with Rob (son of Paul) Godfrey couldn't hurt either!

(Looking forward to Lidle v. Oswalt tomorrow, 1:05)

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/mjhansen/baseball.htm
Thanks Mike. Please let me know once I start writing like a jaded journalist, so I can go ahead and get paid for watching baseball.

I do have a team in the league, the Springfield Isotopes. You can be sure that I'll make plenty of references to Brain and Nerve Tonic that causes giganticism and to scowering the American, National and Negro Leagues to find players for my team. You can see the episode guide for that here. Too bad I can't draft Honus Wagner, Cap Anson and "Three Finger" Brown for my team. Oh well.

But the shirt is an X-Large, after taking into consideration that owners come in many shapes or sizes. I'd say it shrinks, but washing it wouldn't be a great idea.

One for the suggestion box...

Instead of "20 Hot Topics" being sorted by most comments could you have it sort by last post? (like Primer Clutch Hits, etc.)

I'm never sure when a thread is dead or when there is a new contribution at the end of it. This will be of particular convenience as this site grows (as I'm sure it will).

Thanks for all of the lineups contributions.

benum, I've been wanting to do exactly that, but BB has technical limitations -- mine. I've envied that little trick on the Primer blogs, but it's way beyond what Greymatter can do. Primer guru Sean Forman (a math professor) gave us permission to use the "cron job" he whipped up, but I don't have enough skill to implement it -- we need someone who can modify the script and help me make the necessary server-side changes.

I'm a techie, but my expertise is in LAN and WAN connectivity --Novell and NT servers, Cisco routers, etc.; any BB reader who is a UNIX admin, please help!

A couple of other thoughts about yesterday's game: Hinske pulled a LEFTY (Guardado) out of the park; that's a very good sign. Doug Linton finally showed up -- three perfect innings with 3 K -- and both Tam and Politte pitched very well. You may recall that last year, several Toronto players and personnel mentioned the Twins as a role model; they saw a young, cohesive group having fun. Having made great strides in that direction, the Jays may now be thinking of themselves as peers, and they are aware of the need to play well against Minnesota in six games over the first two weekends of the regular season. An exhibition win never means much, but it appears the Jays took it seriously yesterday. Though the Twins will shrug off the loss, it was a confidence builder for our favourite nine. It was also nice to see Mike Moriarty (still ticketed for AAA) return so soon from that scary beaning.

Steve, thanks for the link about the C situation, but the usually astute Fordin is wrong this time. Maybe Huckaby and Rob Godfrey are making plans for Kenny's career after his playing days. I don't have a memo from J.P. or anything, but I am convinced, and will repeat it until I get to say "I told you so" -- it's a Wilson/Myers platoon. They will carry 12 pitchers. The bench will be Bordick, Berg and one of Werth, Ryan, Colangelo, Aven and Wise; that last spot will be decided over the next couple of weeks.

Today, Cory Lidle faces Roy Oswalt and the Astros in Dunedin -- go to MLB.com for the Houston radio call.

I believe that the Toronto broadcasters are also doing today's game, so everyone will be able to listen to Tom, Jerry and Mike (doing the middle innings).

From Mike Ganter's notes in the Sun: looks like LH Trever Miller has made the club -- Jason Kershner was reassigned to the minor-league camp yesterday. Alexis Rios, Guillermo Quiroz and Dominic Rich are AA-bound, and Vinny Chulk is headed to Syracuse, where he -- like Mike Smith -- may be tried in the bullpen. Also reassigned, after leaving a lasting impression on everyone, was SS Russ Adams, who does not look far away from the Show, but will benefit from his first full season as a pro. He still hasn't "proved himself" in high-A, but I expect he'll be promoted to New Haven before long, may see some action in Syracuse, and is a candidate for a September callup.

http://economics.about.com
Isotopes, eh? I suppose you don't want to make a million dollar bet, do you? :)

If I won the shirt, it would hang proudly in my office. However, my goal this year for the Fish Candy is not to finish in last. It's a rebuilding year for us.

Mike

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam030310/mlb_tor1-sun.html
Click above

Coach, you are adamant the Jays are going to carry 12 pitchers. Why do you yhink they will do that? They only play 7 games outdoors in April, they won't need a fifth starter until the 14th.

It seems like a waste to carry an extra pitcher just to hold onto a 28 year old Rule 5 pick (A. Lopez) with no major league experience.

What am I missing?

Mike:

IMO at this point in the development of the next Championship Jays team, roster decisions are more important than tactical (win games) decisions. If the Rule 5ers check out (the decision shouldn't be based on their ST stats though) it's better to have less options on the bench than to give up on a keeper. They can always engineer some 'shoulder stiffness' or 'blister' problems with one or more guys and hide them on the DL when they need another stick on the bench (or cut a deal with the original team to put them down to the minors). FWIW Lopez has had impressive stats the last couple of years (in the minors).

Lopez is durable -- combining his stats in the hitter-friendly PCL and winter ball, he pitched 157.2 innings last year. He allowed a mere 125 hits and walked only 39 while striking out 157; those numbers suggest great stuff and excellent control. Seeing the movement on his slider convinced me. He'd be in the Mariners bullpen this year if they hadn't got mad at him about the age thing.

This isn't a longshot Rule 5 pick, or someone three years away like Dewayne Wise, or two years away like Corey Thurman. Aquilino is going to help, early and often. In April, starters are on tighter pitch counts, it can be cold, you get rain delays, or knocked out early. The extra man in the 'pen isn't for late-inning lead situations, he's for extra-inning games and unusual circumstances. I simply think that's more important than a 5th OF or 3rd C, especially if they keep Werth.

Thanks to the Trever Miller article for posting itself.

Operation Shutdown (the link is an Excel spreadsheet you can download, with the team names removed)

My guess at what you're missing is that Lopez is not an 'ordinary' Rule 5 pick... the fact that he's 28 makes me think he'll make the adjustment to the big leagues more smoothly, and the fact that he has no major league experience means he'll still be cheap in 2004 and 2005 when the Jays aim to step it up a notch. Can he be worse than Scott "Gas Can" Cassidy was last year? My range of predictions for him go from 2002 Corey Thurman at the bottom to 2002 Cliff Politte at the top, with something like 2001 Bob File in the middle.

That said, the bench could use a little more pop... Let's see, we've got Escobar, Politte, Tam, Creek, Lopez, T.Miller and Walker/J.Miller. My top candidates to drop would be Creek, but that leaves only 1 lefty, or Walker/J.Miller, but that leaves no swingman.

It's a rebuilding year for us.

Can you rebuild before you've built? My goal for the BBFL is to discover if the combo of "baseball fan" and "spreadsheet junkie" adds up to "amateur stathead"... I'm outsourcing my scouting as much as possible, boiling it all down to numerical terms. If works I'll replace myself with a keyboard-enabled monkey next year.

Regarding the earlier posts on the Catching situation...here's my take:

1. JP and Tosca feel that pitching to Huck is a positive for the development and performance of the staff (game calling, pitch framing, etc.) Development of their pitching is what is going to make or break this team in the next 2-3 years.

2. Wilson is being looked at this spring as the 3rd catcher/lefty masher/1B backup/6th infielder (3B)/5th outfielder (LF/RF)

3. Huck is seen as a positive clubhouse influence

4. They're not crazy about Wilsons defense at Catcher

5. They just plain like the guy (Huck)

Bench: Bordick (IF), Berg (IF), 4th Outfielder (OF), Wilson (C/1B/3B/OF), Myers/Huck (C)

Personally, I'd rather put Huck in AAA to mentor Cash and go with 2 catchers.

If Lopez is good enough to stick he should stick as part of the 11 man staff. When you play 20 of 27 April games indoors rainouts and rain delays should not be a big factor in deciding on the number of pitchers to carry.

My point was that he is 28 years old and hasn't pitched in the Majors yet; what is there to get excited about?

His age would be a bigger deal if he was a position player.
Below is a quote from THE leading expert, er, i mean A leading expert on Baseball prospects ;-)

John Sickels, ESPN, on Aquilino Lopez TOR :

" ... has an excellent track record, with strong pitching at every level, including Triple-A in 2002 where he posted a 2.39 ERA and a 103/27 K/BB ratio in 109 innings, being used as both a starter and reliever. He would have received more attention, but was caught up in the AgeGate scandal last spring. It turned out he was 27, not 22, so the Mariners (and most other teams) soured on him. That doesn't mean he isn't a good pitcher; he is. He throws fairly hard, throws strikes, and has done well at every level."

My goal for the BBFL is to discover if the combo of "baseball fan" and "spreadsheet junkie" adds up to "amateur stathead"... I'm outsourcing my scouting as much as possible, boiling it all down to numerical terms.

Jonny, as a saavy fantasy veteran, I feel it's my duty to tell you that you need less spreadsheet and more junkie in you. A combination of Sportscentre junkie, caffeine junkie and Magic 8-Ball junkie should suffice.

On the catcher front, I was very anti-carrying-3-catchers only a short time ago. Learning that Wilson is getting time at 3B and maybe even the outfield slightly lowers my Catching Scenario Terror Alert from orange to yellow. But it's still not pretty. If Cash were to be called up in July or August, what does the club do then? They can't carry 4 and the reasons for retaining any of the 3 original catchers will still be valid then...Myers will still be a lefty, the pitchers will still like throwing to Huck (probably even more so then since they've established a comfort level) and Wilson is still going to be the team's best hitter against LHP. If Cash absolutely mashes in AAA the first part of the year, the Jays are then potentially inhibiting his development and for what payoff?

I still say ditch Myers. The benefit to his being on the roster is absolutely marginal. I doubt it will happen but it's the right thing to do in my mind.

If the Jays are looking for another bat off the bench, the Royals released Mark Quinn today......

does anyone have a scouting report on trever miller and aquilino lopez