Here's one from Rosenthal about last season, and it ain't pretty.

"Blue Jays righty A.J. Burnett was the easiest pitcher to run on in the American League — opposing base stealers were 31-for-31 against him."

I can't think of where I read it, but in line with the Spring Stats thing, I believe Jays catchers are 4-4 on gunning down base runners this year.  They could probably go 0-fer the rest of Spring and it'd still be an improvement over what's expected.

(I saw this recently and can't remember where)

I imagine a Padre pitcher might have been first (worst) in the NL - their catchers threw out 20 of 209 would be base stealers this past season - teams were successful 91% of the time (!!!!!). Josh Bard in particular was atrocious - he threw out ten runners and allowed 121 stolen bases. Maybe there's something up with the Padres staff/approach?

I doubt AJ even checked the runner over at first more than a handful of times too - a little strange you think?  A groundball pitcher who doesn't want to keep the double play intact? 

Anyways, this is pretty much about as much evidence as you need that our awful throwing out baserunners % has little to do at all with our catchers.

This "approach" of focusing on the hitter apparently works quite well - the Padres led baseball with a 3.70 ERA and the Blue Jays bronzed with a 4.00.

the Padres led baseball with a 3.70 ERA

Their home park had a lot to do with that. Their road R/G allowed was 4.73, almost exactly league average. Of course, many of those 81 road games were played in Colorado and none were played in SD, so that 4.73 needs a downward adjustment to be normalized.

"Their home park had a lot to do with that"

I would agree with you if the difference in 2006 wasn't .06 R/G.

Anders, you may be referring to this article at THT. The 2007 Padres were the worst team ever at catching base runners... by a large margin. Second worst was the 2006 Padres. Third? You guessed it, the 2007 Blue Jays.

I caught a very interesting note by Jason Frasor in yesteday's Star.

The was a blurb about who would play him in a movie, his favourite teammate... and then came his biggest baseball regret.

He said that his elbow surgery earlier in his career was performed by a lousy surgeon; he said he should have gotten a second opinion... hmm, that was very candid of him.

Did anyone hear about that before?

I can honestly say that today's game against the Pirates is one of the most exciting games I've ever continuously pressed "Refresh" on, in order to read about.  McGowan has had a not-so-great day, but he came out of a Jam in the second inning with two strikeouts.  

The thing I'm most excited about is Wells/Rolen pulling off a double steal.  I realize it's spring but it seems like the Jays are testing their legs a little more this year.  I really hope they start attempting a few more steals with guys like Rios, Eckstein, Hill and Wells.  I know they aren't the speediest guys in the world, but they aren't the slowest either.  With smart baserunning, it could really open up a game. 

Eckstein hit a Grandslam.  Pencil him down for 50+ home runs, 150 RBIs.  Screw the pencil, get out the chisel and put it in stone.

 

Eckstein's stat's will be shifting a bit after the grand slam he hit today.

Looks like plans have changed for BJ.  Nothing big - he's just not going to pitch in a game on Saturday but in a simulated game instead.  He's actually having two more simulated games before his first real action.  From what Gibbons said, they want to balance the adrenaline issue so he doesn't overpush himself.

I think this probably means he's not going to start the season with the big club though.  Not breaking camp with the Jays seemed to always be the most likely scenario and everything had to break right for things to work out otherwise, which is now not happening.  However, since he still seems to be progressing, his absence may not have an impact on the 5th starter role.  If he only misses two or three weeks from the big club, I wouldn't think you'd want to mess around with Janssen for that amount of time.  Who knows though?

As an aside, I'd just like to request that people use the little link button when posting articles instead of pasting the url (the button is a chain-link).  Having an entire url pasted in the article makes this site a pain to read on a blackberry or anything similar.  In general people do use the link button to embed links, but there was a comment a few days ago that was filled with full urls, so I just wanted to remind people and give an example why this format is preferred.

I've asked before, but recieved no response. How do I post links properly? I'll be happy to do so once I know how.

I've asked before, but recieved no response. How do I post links properly? I'll be happy to do so once I know how.z

In the Comment box, highlight the word in which you want to embed the link, then click on the "link" button - it looks like a chain link (it's two the left of the bold button).  Then paste the URL in the appropriate field in the pop-up screen and hit enter.

Or switch the post mode to plain text and insert the html tags manually. <a href="http://blahblah.com">LinkNameOfYourChoice</a>
I find that's better as the automatic formatting seems to halt my firefox for like 10seconds.

Just a test.

Anders, you may be referring to this article at THT. The 2007 Padres were the worst team ever at catching base runners... by a large margin. Second worst was the 2006 Padres. Third? You guessed it, the 2007 Blue Jays.

Verily it be so - I'm not clever enough by half to have discovered this by myself.

I know it is only spring training but the Jays are again on their way to being shut out.  It's time to start hitting boys!!

How's this for an unexpected stat ... Frank Thomas - 2nd most AB's on the team with 14.  High-fives to any and all that called that one in advance.

Spring Traing small sample stats? I'm glad you asked!

Barajas with 8 AB sports a 1.417 OPS. Rod, all is forgiven. I mean, was there ever any argument?  Welcome aboard!  Moving up the list to 11 AB is Adam Lind, batting .364 with a smooth 1 .0 OPS would look good in an outfield platoown with Buck Coats, 12 AB, slugging .750 with an OBP of .571. Finally, Joe Inglett  batting .313 with 16 AB is seeing the ball.

Now to crunch the numbers. Stewart and Johnson and Adams are gone. Thanks, guys. What to do with Thomas? A tough call for Ricciardi, but I would just release him.  Rotate the DH between Stairs, Lind, Coats and Barajas, whoever is not playing the field. If a spot on the roster opens up, Snider  waits in the wings.

 

I listened to today's game against the Tigers on the FAN, and was impressed with John Parrish's three innings: 7 Ks, 0 BB, 1 H (which happened to be a Placido Polanco solo homer).  I remember reading a JP quote earlier in Spring Training about how Brian Tallet's spot wasn't necessarily secure and he'd have to win his spot on the team, which surprised me at the time, considering how effective he was last year.  I know any deep relief spot is rarely certain, but a 3.47 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and .215 BAA would seem to me deserving of a guaranteed spot. 

So, with Parrish being a lefty like Tallet and having a decent spring (while Tallet hasn't been very effective thus far), what are the chances Parrish actually makes the Opening Day roster?

I think it has been stated that Parrish will be stretched out and become a starter at AAA.  Remember Randy Wells is a Rule 5 pick, and is pitching well, so he's likely to make the Opening Day roster at this pace.

Hmm, interesting.  I hadn't heard they were trying to make a starter out of Parrish, but it makes sense with him pitching three innings today.  I guess the spots of those end of the bullpen guys depends a lot on whether the Jays plan on having both Johnson and Stewart on the team come opening day.

I'm still hopeful that Chacin will earn the 5th spot. Litsch has looked pretty bad so far. I think the bullpen is deep enough to deal with a starter that can only go 5 innings. Especially a lefty.

Barajas is looking good. Wouldn't surprise me if he stills atbats from Zaun.

Gotta be patient with Thomas.

I saw something about Stairs spraining his ankle in the batting cage.

The only way Buck Coats get to play is if one of the regular outfielder goes down.

It's going to be irritating to see Wells hitting 3rd following a bad spring.

Vernon's 4 2-out RBIs are a welcome sign that this season he'll be firing on all 8 cylinders. Hope is a wonderful thing.

Litsch has looked pretty bad so far.

He helped his case today, striking out six over four innings while surrendering only one run on two hits to the Phillies. What of that one run, you ask? A solo blast from Ryan Howard - I think he has a few more of those in him this year.

I'm really looking forward to this years outfield... Rios in right, Wells in center and Buck Coats lighting up left. Johnson and Stewart? Who needs 'em.

That was a good one for Litsch. I thought he was going to need more time to find his groove. The Phillies had pretty much their opening day lineup too.

Kendrick was terrible today, so I'm not getting too exited with Wells 4 RBI game. At least, it proves that he can hit the bad ones. Thomas isn't there yet.

Let's see. Eckstein went 1-for-2, Stairs 1-for-3, Wells 2-for-3, Rollen 2-for-2, Overbay 2-for-2, Hill 2-for-3, Johnson 1-for-4, Zaun 0-for-2 and Thomas 0-for-3.

I hear Chacin might start Wednesday against the Yankees. (Blue Jays open the season in NY).

Rosario killed his old team today.

I hear Chacin might start Wednesday against the Yankees. (Blue Jays open the season in NY).
Interesting to see why.
I remember seeing Jeter "on deck" squatting back behind home plate for a couple of young starters, asking to be plunked with a "wild pitch" (insert Durham Bull here).

I rarely venture over there... like never, but some interesting Jay bits from this Ken Fidlin article in today's paper:

According to Fidlin, League may be ready to battle for the set-up role that was envisioned for him last season.

Watching him deal 96 m.p.h., sinkers the other afternoon, sawing off bats and making the young Twins hitters look sick, it seems clear he is now ready to assume one of the key roles in the bullpen.

Still I have to wonder what his 100mph sinker from '06 would be doing to spring bats.

As for Snider, he recently put on a show for teammates in Bradenton. While hitting in the final group of bp, Snider hit 20 of the 50 balls pitched to him over the fence. In fact, Snider impressed his veteran teammates so much that at the end,

[Frank] Thomas walked all the way in to home plate [from the outfield], threw his right arm over Snider's shoulder and walked him all the way back to the clubhouse, babbling in the kid's ear.

No other thread for this off topic commentary...

I was witness to yesterday's Houston vs. Toronto game (in the metropolitan Kissimmee area), and by Toronto I mean Halladay, Rios and a whole lot o' nuttin' (the downside of watching your team play road games in spring training). I was glad to see Travis Snider but sadly, on this day, he was a human whiff machine.

The linescore was a tad deceptive, showing Toronto's error count as 0 when a number, like, oh, 3, might have been more appropriate. With a stunning infield of Luna-Scutaro-Adams-Thigpen, Roy was not going to get much support (and this sorry quartet played about as well as one would imagine, costing Halladay at least 2 runs). Scutaro and Adams each bobbled gimmes that the generous hometown scorekeeper reckoned were singles. And Luna failed to hang onto Barajas's throw to third that would have otherwise nailed a would be base stealer (I concede that such instances are never called errors, but it's not like the ball was jarred loose on impact, Luna just failed to catch it).

From my far away perch, League did appear to be throwing well. Speed gun results were not posted, but the hitters' reactions seemed to suggest that League had some gas. So that was encouraging (at least if my observations were anywhere near accurate).

Not sure where to put this but its big news so I will put it here as well - sorry.

Jamie Cambell reports that the Jays have signed Armando Benitez to a minor league deal and Janssen has been hurt.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/2008/03/11/jays_benitez_janssen/