Ichiro, best hitter? Ahead of Pujols, A-Rod, and a number of other better hitters? Interesting.

Ichiro, best hitter? Ahead of Pujols, A-Rod, and a number of other better hitters? Interesting.

I think it's the old 5-tool thing where hitter implies hitting for average and there is a separate category for hitting for power.  At least that's the only justification I can see and since they have best hitter, and best power hitter, without a best average hitter I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that.

You certainly are correct: that is at least their intention. But then why bother with a seperate category for bat control? What the hell is bat control anyways? Avoiding strikeouts? May as well give bat control to Pujols too with his miniscule SO numbers. In fact, if Pujols can swing for power and still put up lower SO totals than a guy like Ichiro, bat control should easily be his.

This is the last time that baseball will be a part of the Olympics so it is good to be there for the final time.  What team will Canada send?  Will minor leaguers be released to play?  AJ Wideman is pitching for Canada and if he was named to the Olympic team he would have to leave his Blue Jay team for most of the month of August.

BP has the Jays' team health report, and it's not looking good - as you might expect. Only Aaron Hill, Jeremy Accardo, and Reed Johnson (despte the back injury) are green. The big surprise for me is Alex Rios, who gets a Red based on his late season swoon and the staph infection from two years ago.

Well, for the last Olympics most minor league players were able to secure their release to play.  The only exceptions were players that the MLB teams thought might get called up during that two week stretch.  Basically anybody in AA or lower should be available and some from AAA.  I look forward to more sleepless nights watching Canada play (or is it early mornings? - I forget which it is for games from Asia).  I still remember staying up to watch the bronze medal game against Japan in the last Olympics (it was a 2:30 AM start where I live).

I watched the game Canada against Taiwan on TV. It is the most dramatic game in this Olympic qualify.

Tremendous achievement by Baseball Canada and the players.  Unfortunately this terrific  story has been essentially ignored by our mainstream media types.  The team overcame several obstacles to get to  the Olympics.  The tournament timing, two weeks after MLB training camp started, placed Canada in a very difficult position given that unlike other countries most of our best players are employed by MLB organizations. National team director Greg Hamilton deserves a lot of credit for convincing several MLB clubs to release their players to Canada at this time of the year.

Beating World Classic semi finalist Korea in itself is outstanding, but the real achievement was beating Taiwan, at home ( the geo-political ramifications for Taiwan making the Olympics in Beijing are massive)  in a riot filled , partisan atmosphere. Well done.

In terms of players, I think you'll see essentially the same core group playing. The Olympic tourney is scheduled essentially  in the same time frame as in Athens , mid to late August. In the last Olympics most MLB teams released their players ( Jeff Francis being a notable exception) for this event. You may see a few AAA vets added, such as Danny Klassen, Peter Orr and Pete Laforest, also I wouldn't rule out some recently retired guys like Paul Quantrill, Rheal Cormier, and if healthy Cory Koskie,   making a come-back.

Why is it always Team Canada.  It's Canada!  It's never Team Taiwan or Team Cuba!  There, that feels better.

You have to love the internet and this stat site in particular. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, Fan Graphs adds what type of pitches a hurler actually throws (scroll to the bottom), and  at what velocity ,for the past 3 years, amazing stuff.

Also nice to see that Dustin's velocity has improved across the board for the past 3 years.

This tool is going to be a very effective time passer.  I need to check Halladay now...

And non-roster invitee "Game Over Gronk" gets sent down to the Red Sox minor league camp.

FYI: the mighty Crystal struck out on a 3-2 slider.  He did foul off a pitch though on a 1-0 count.

The Jays have sent down Lind, Thigpen, Diaz, Bucky Coats and Joe Inglett to the minor league camp.    Coats was hitting .409, Lind .350 and Inglett was hitting .304.    Any chance at winning the Grapefruit League title this year have been squashed. 

Oh yeah, and the link to said story... is available here.

I will look for a link and post when I find it, but I read yesterday that Lind paid a visit to an old coach of his, who pointed out an error in his swing which Lind said he's now corrected.  Maybe this bodes well for his development... because honestly, as much as we all love Reed and it's even nice to have Shannon potentially available, if Lind could become the player we want it would solve (potentially, at least) a lot of issues.

 

Here is the link on the Lind swing fix:

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080313&content_id=2424864&vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=tor 

As much as some people don't particularly like Bob Elliott's coverage of the Jays, he does a great job of covering international baseball. Excellent story on Canada's Olympic team.
 

On the 20-minute ride to the hotel following the Korea game, the bus and police escort stopped so the victors could celebrate in a Canadian way -- with beer.

Richmond said: "We cleaned the place out of Taiwan beer."

Eric Hinske is 1 for 2 with a walk so far against the Jays, bringing his spring average to .476. I really wish we had signed this guy instead of Stewart: they should hit equally well and Hinske can cover RF, LF, or 3B. Right now our backup for Rolen is Scutaro, and we dont really have anyone after him.

Longoria is mashing this spring, so he should be in line for a 3B job. If the Rays don't want Hinske (he's signed to a minor league deal) and the Jays deal Reed Johnson, Hinske would be well worth exploring once more.

I really wish we had signed this guy instead of Stewart: they should hit equally well and Hinske can cover RF, LF, or 3B. Right now our backup for Rolen is Scutaro, and we dont really have anyone after him.

I'm not sure those are fair statements.

On the hitting side, Stewart has never had a season as bad as Hinske's last year and Hinske has never been able to hit lefties at all (.225/.295/.377 for his career).  They may handle righties similarly, but overall, Stewart is a significantly better hitter.

Also, I don't think Hinske is effective at 3rd anymore - as he's only played a total of 64 innings there in the last 3 years.  Towards the end of his time in Toronto, he wasn't that great there and I'd imagine the lack of game experience hasn't helped anything.

The only advantage Hinske may offer versus Stewart is his ability to play in RF - but if that's your criteria, you have Reed Johnson who I would consider a better option than Hinske.

I don't see how Hinske would help this team.  He'd never see the field against RHP.  He can't hit lefties better than Johnson and he can't hit righties better than Stairs.  And he ceratinly isn't the everyday player that Stewart still has at least a chance to be.  Are you basing your statement that Hinske is as good a hitter as Stewart on his rookie season or on his Spring Training?

Sending down Coats? What the Buck were they thinking? In all seriousness though, he really impressed me. He seems to be able to hit well and play an above average centerfield aswell as past experience as an infielder. If Reed Johnson or Stewart is let go than I seriously think Coats should be called up first.

His spring training is a complete non-factor. It's such a small sample size that I'm not considering it, no.

I'm not considering his performance last year, either: 186 at bats in 86 games is such irregular play that it doesn't count for much in my eyes. I'm looking more at 2005 and 2006, where Hinske was posting numbers that would be extremely solid for a backup: 100 and 114 OPS+. He will be 30 this year.

Over the last three years, Shanon Stewart posted an OPS+ of 87, 88, and 101. He will be 34 and can only play LF.

I'd rather have the 30 year old who can play LF, RF, and backup at 3B than the 34 year old who can only play LF.

His spring training is a complete non-factor. It's such a small sample size that I'm not considering it, no.

I'm not considering his performance last year, either: 186 at bats in 86 games is such irregular play that it doesn't count for much in my eyes. I'm looking more at 2005 and 2006, where Hinske was posting numbers that would be extremely solid for a backup: 100 and 114 OPS+. He will be 30 this year.

Over the last three years, Shanon Stewart posted an OPS+ of 87, 88, and 101. He will be 34 and can only play LF.

I'd rather have the 30 year old who can play LF, RF, and backup at 3B than the 34 year old who can only play LF.

Hinske only has a higher OPS+ because he only hit against righties in those years.  If you were to ever give him a full-time role, he'd kill you against lefties.  Admittedly, we need help against righties, but comparing by OPS+ really inflates Hinske's value.  Basically, he's right around an average hitter against righties and hardly even AAA level against lefties now.

Also - saying that Hinske can backup 3B is not talking of the 30 year-old Hinske, but the 26 year-old one.

I do think I'm being generous when saying Hinske is average against righties - it completely ignores his performance last year which I don't think is far.

I'm fairly certain there are a number of options better than Hinske should we see Rolen go down.

Scutaro can play a far better third than Hinske and backs up 2B and SS in an emergency while being able to play LF & RF as well. An OPS+ of 86 lifetime, going for 96/89 the past two seasons with over 300 AB's both years. Of note: when play by play is used (factoring in lots of variables) he ends up with a 100 tOPS+ lifetime.

Hinske can sort of play third, LF, RF, 1B. His defense was so bad at third that he was moved to 1B full time in '05 to allow Hillenbrand to play at third along with converted SS Aaron Hill. Plus the Jays signed Koskie to a big deal. Lifetime OPS+ of 99 but has had a couple of ugly years (76 and 83) mixed in with a so-so 100 and a 114 and a 119 his rookie season. For a guy with no defensive value or speed that is not good. His splits are extreme - 108 tOPS+ vs RHP and a 75 vs LHP lifetime. Ugh. Stewart is a 100-101 split while Scutaro is a 99-102. Hinske's career tOPS+ is just 100, the same as Scutaro.

So, for potentially 8 points of OPS+ vs RHP you get a guy who is viewed as a liability at all positions and who is a sinkhole if the other team brings in a left hander. He wouldn't be competing with Johnson/Stewart in LF, he would've been fighting for that last infield slot with Scutaro.

Hinske might be a nice guy but he really doesn't belong here anymore.

If it was a question of signing Hinske to a reasonable minor league deal, I'd definitely be for it.  While Rolen seems healthy thus far, his history of injuries and the lack of long-term replacement 3B options in AAA (Luna, Adams, Santos: collective ugh) would make that a decent idea.

But I don't see how he fits on the major league Jays squad.  We've already got two infield back-ups in Scutaro and McDonald.  In the OF, if one of Johnson or Stewart is traded, that will almost certainly result in a seventh pitcher being kept in the pen.  Even with Janssen down for the year, in the pen right now you've got to figure Accardo, Downs, Wolfe, League and Ryan (barring no setbacks) are locks for the opening day squad.  That means that if we go with a five-player bench (which we will have to if we keep both Johnson and Stewart), you're looking at two out of Tallet, Frasor and Randy Wells getting left out in the cold.  I think keeping an extra one of those three is more valuable to this team right now than Eric Hinske would be.

I remain a fan of Eric Hinske and hope that he finds a spot somewhere, but I doubt it will be with the Jays.