A question for J.P.:

One frequently hears how Pitcher X is a hot young prospect who just needs to develop a third pitch (usually a changeup to go along with his fastball + breaking ball) to be successful as a starter at the next level. Why isn't more time and effort spent in the minor leagues strictly developing a player's weaknesses as opposed to being successful? In other words, why doesn't Pitcher X go into a game and throw changeup after changeup, regardless of whether he's getting pounded? Or for a pitcher who can't seem to get his curve over, why aren't they instructed to throw curve after curve, even if hitters know it's coming, until they can find the plate with it?

For example, I've read Mariners execs talk about getting Clint Nageotte to be less reliant on his excellent slider so he can develop his fastball and changeup more. Well, why don't they just tell him he can't throw his slider? That he has to get through 5 innings w/o it before he can throw it in a game again? Something like that?

Okay, that's a tremendously long and unfocused question, but hopefully you get the gist. I guess the basic question is, how much of the parent club's efforts with regard to the minor league affiliates goes toward ensuring you maintain a good relationship with them by letting the players be successful, and how much goes toward having players do things you KNOW they won't be successful at for a while, in an attempt to make them more successful for the Blue Jays down the road?

For anyone who has Rogers cable, the Syracuse-Ottawa game is on channel 10 in the GTA (hopefully in your area too).

It's good to actually see Arnold and Gross after all this time. Arnold's really leaving the ball up...and he just got smoked to the tune of a home run over the right-center fence.

Quick...who's the better commentating team? These Lynx guys or Faulds/Cerutti?

Brian Patrick is up with Syracuse? He was drafted this year in the 25th round, hit a bit in Auburn, had 14 games in New Haven and is now with the AAA club. Now that's good organizational filler!

These Lynx guys are actually really good. They brought on the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, and they filled the air with some insightful, interesting conversation about regular baseball musings. I can't really think of a more obscure guest to have on, but they did I pretty good job with it. Hell, Faulds/Cerutti can't even structure a good interview with J.P.

Gross had a fine plate appearance as well. He fouled off a bunch of mediocre pitches before drawing a walk. Hooray for Gross!

What an ugly game. I saw a Junior tournament this weekend and those guys were playing more fundamentally sound baseball than Syracuse and Ottawa are tonight.

Here is a letter from Keith Law to the NY times.

Hey, as the commentators in the Lynx/Skychiefs game said, sometimes you just have to win ugly, and this game is about as ugly as they come. Three errors for each team? Yeesh! Syracuse had only three hits, yet four runs - you know it's ugly baseball when.... None of Syracuse's runs were 'earned.'

Regardless, Gross looked good with a hit and a pair of walks. Pitching for the Skychiefs, Arnold looked actually decent. Three of the earned runs he gave up were off a Luis Lopez homerun. But it was a 3-0 pitch!! Really, who swings on a 3-0 pitch? Forgiveable, but a pretty good lesson...it's probably better to walk a guy then huck a couple down the middle to get from a 3-0 to a 3-2 count. Although Lopez isn't really known for his power. Arnold had 4 K's over 4.1 innings too - farily respectable. Cassidy and Tam both pitched well, 2.2 and 1 inning(s) of scoreless baseball respectably.

Also of note, Huckaby played 3B with Howie Clark fielding at 2nd. Huckaby struckout 3 times, while Tim Raines continued his hitting streak for Ottawa with a hit, and a RBI.

All the Lynx relievers pitched well: Pulsipher pitched 1.2 innings of hitless ball with 2 Ks, and Garcia and Cubillan both tossed an inning of hitless baseball with 2 Ks apiece. Hmmm...Baltimore's future pitchers aren't looking too shabby, are they?

Mike Drumright, Ottawa's starting pitcher, went 5.1 innings giving up 3 hits, ZERO earned runs (although 4 runs were scored, but 3 errors on the Lynx's part contributed to these), 3 walks, and 6 Ks! He has a ridiculous curveball, and he seemed to mix up the break on the ball...sometimes it would drop ridiculously, while other times the break would be less severe. Anyway, it was really entertaining to watch the Syracuse hitters hack away and come up with air repeatedly. Hey JP, take a look at this kid...probably would come cheap considering his stats aren't the best.

Alrighty, well that's all I picked up on. Only have two more hours to kill until lunch...Kicking myself that I don't work in Ottawa (I work just over the border, in Hull, Quebec for the government). All those civil servants in Ottawa got yesterday off, are getting today off (perfect considering the Lynx have an afternoon game today), and will probably get the next couple days off as well, if not the rest of the week. Curses!

Hey, as the commentators in the Lynx/Skychiefs game said, sometimes you just have to win ugly,

Sure, if winning is the most important thing. But in AAA, for the Skychiefs anyway, it's not. Playing solid, mistake-free baseball, should be the ultimate objective. I admit, it's only one game, but the point is that you don't want your minor league teams to win ugly. I'd rather have the Jays farm teams play well and lose than to win ugly.

Besides, while Ottawa won ugly, the Skychiefs lost ugly, which is the worst possible outcome.

Arnold looked actually decent.

He had a couple of good innings, efficient and effective. But he also looked very pedestrian at times. Not much movement on his fastball.

Spicol: Yeah, for the Skychiefs the most important thing NOW is playing good, clean ball. However, I was looking at the game from more of a Lynx standpoint, being an Ottawa-ite an all. So winning ugly for the Lynx is definitely more important than losing and playing well, because they're in the playoff race, whereas the Skychiefs don't have a hope.

The Skychiefs tossed in a couple errors on Sunday too, meaning that they've had five errors total from their past two games - not very impressive at all. Oh, and the Skychiefs got down early this afternoon; the score's 2-0 Ottawa as of the 3rd inning. Don't know who's doing what, as I'm stuck in a TV-free office.

On the subject of Arnold, he had a couple small roughspots, but I was just pointing out that his performance wasn't quite as bad as the numbers would dictate. Certainly there's room for improvement.

I just got back from the Lynx - Skychiefs game this afternoon. Great weather, so-so ball game. Syracuse came back to win 6-4.

Quick Observations:

Mike Smith is definitely more suspect than prospect. He falls behind hitters constantly and has little control. He definitely won't be kept on the 40 man roster this winter.

Simon Pond is a ML calibre hitter, but there is no way he can play 3rd in the majors. His arm is weak, weak, weak. He was unable to throw out the catcher from deep behind third base on a fairly routine grounder.

Gross has a great batting eye. In his first at-bat, he worked the count until he got a favourable pitch, and then whacked it for a opposite field fly out to the warning track. He also walked 3 times, one being intentional.