Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Jays Hoffpauir, Off Murphy

The second waiver claim of the Alex Anthopoulos era is second baseman Jarrett Hoffpauir from the St. Louis Cardinals. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Jays have designated left-handed reliever Bill Murphy for assignment.

A sixth round pick by St. Louis in the 2004 amateur draft, the 26 year-old Hoffpauir made his big league debut with the Cardinals this season. After being named the Cardinals minor league player of the month in June, the 5-9, 165 pound right-handed hitter was called up on Canada Day to fill in for an injured Mark DeRosa. He played his first game on July 3rd in Cincinnati where he went 1-for-1 with a walk and two RBI. In total, Hoffpauir went 3-for-12 with four walks to give him a batting line of .250/.438/.417 before being sent back down to Triple-A.

The distant cousin of Cubs first baseman Micah Hoffpauir spent the better part of three seasons with the AAA Memphis Redbirds. He was rated St. Louis' number 21 prospect by Baseball America in 2008 after hitting .345 with AA Springfield and .300 with Memphis along with a combined on-base percentage of over .400 in 2007. However, Hoffpauir's average fell to .271 in 2008 and his OBP fell by more than 50 points which caused his stock to drop in the St. Louis organization. He was left off BA's Top 30 prospects heading into 2009 but he did earn recognition as having the best strike zone discipline in the Cardinals system. However, Hoffpauir bounced back this season by hitting .291/.357/.486 in Memphis and recorded career highs in homers (14), RBI (53), doubles (22) and triples (3) along with four stolen bases in five tries. He was among the toughest hitters to strike out in the Pacific Coast League this season as he whiffed just once every 14.3 at-bats to put him in the top 10 in that category.

Hoffpauir's calling card is his batting eye as his .365 OBP in his minor league career would attest to. However, there's not a lot of thunder in his bat as he has slugged just .417 lifetime in the minors. Hoffpauir's biggest career homer to date came in Game 5 of the 2005 Florida State League championship as his blast was the decisive blow to give Palm Beach the title.

Defensively, Hoffpauir has played short and third with the Redbirds but his best position is second base. However, his defence is said to be lacking and his best bet for future employment in the bigs may be as a utility player.

Meantime, Bill Murphy got in eight appearances in a Blue Jays uniform after he was called up from AAA Las Vegas to fill in for an injured Jesse Litsch in mid-April. The 28 year-old lefty recorded an ERA of 3.18 with Toronto along with a WHIP of 1.06 and an opponents batting average of .111. However, his K-BB mark was an unsightly 6-8 in 11 1/3 innings. Murphy joined the Jays organization in 2008 after being claimed off waivers from Arizona. The 5-11, 214 pound hurler spent the year with Syracuse where he went 8-10 with a 5.32 ERA. Murphy didn't find Las Vegas to his liking this season as he went 0-6 out of the 51's bullpen to go along with a horrid 7.59 ERA. He did strike out nearly a batter an inning by recording 51 K's in 53 1/3 innings and the fact that's he left-handed should help him find employment elsewhere in 2010.

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In my humble opinion, the following nugget of information is pure gold.

As mentioned before, this is the second waiver claim made by new general manager Alex Anthopoulos. It should be noted that the players claimed (Sean Henn & Jarrett Hoffpauir) have last names beginning with the letter "H" while the players designated for assignment have the initials "B.M." (Bill Murphy) or "M.B." (Michael Barrett). This could be a key piece of information as we move forward in deciphering or analyzing the future transactions of this team going forward.

Some sites charge good money for this type of information but I gave this away free of charge. That's my early Christmas gift to you, Bauxites. Enjoy!

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Other stories of note.....

* Tampa Bay trades 2B Akinori Iwamura to Pittsburgh for right-hand reliever Jesse Chavez.

* Don Mattingly says no to the Nationals managing gig while Clint Hurdle is expected to become the Rangers new hitting coach.

* Joba Chamberlain's mom is in trouble with the law.

* Shane Victorino says his sore finger won't keep him from playing Game 6 of the World Series tonight and Cole Hamels says he doesn't want the season to end yet after all.

* ESPN tests Phillies fans with World Series trivia.

It'll be Pedro Martinez and Andy Pettitte taking to the hill at Yankee Stadium. First pitch is set for 7:57 p.m. ET.

Posted by #2JBrumfield on Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 02:12 AM EST.

Jays Hoffpauir, Off Murphy | 24 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Dave Rutt - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 10:06 AM EST (#208014) #

After a morning of 3 straight hours of trying to entertain a bunch of 7th and 8th graders, I was understandably a little unfocused when reading this, and was confused when I discovered that "Joba Chamberlain's finger is in trouble with the law."

Richard S.S. - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 10:44 AM EST (#208016) #

Is it surprising that a 26 year-old 2B is now our #1 second base prospect? AA knew. If Aaron Hill is hurt, we have who to take over - full time - over a long period? Jarrett Hoffpauir (26) 5-9-190 http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/team/roster_40man.jsp?c_id=tor may not be the answer, but neither is Joe Inglett (31) 5-9-185.

John Northey - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 10:49 AM EST (#208017) #

Inglett did OK in 2008, but to count on him to do it again would be a mistake. I see Hoffpauir (RH) as a good matchup with Inglett (LH) to cover should Hill go down for any period of time.

Cheap insurance.

Mike Green - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 11:09 AM EST (#208019) #

Hoffpauir seems to have put on a fair bit of muscle in the lower body since 2007, judging by the pictures, and the statistics from Memphis in 2009 back that up. He'll be 27 in June.

I like this acquisition.

Marc Hulet - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 11:56 AM EST (#208022) #

It's an excellent low-risk move that improves the team's depth. I have no problem with a "trade" of Bill Murphy for Jarrett Hoffpauir, given the pitching depth that the club has... Although Murphy has chronic command/control issues, it's been said that he is a very smart pitcher and that he should make an excellent pitching coach when his playing days are over.

Small moves so far, but the new GM has so far resisted the immediate urge to purge the roster in an effort to put his stamp on the team.

Mylegacy - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 12:52 PM EST (#208024) #

Marc - good to see you at the site.

Can't wait to see your prospect's comments this off-season. 'Specially interested to see your updates on Mutt & Jeff - Collins and Bell.

TamRa - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 01:46 PM EST (#208026) #

Is it surprising that a 26 year-old 2B is now our #1 second base prospect? AA knew. If Aaron Hill is hurt, we have who to take over - full time - over a long period?

Being the CLOSEST guy - i.e. the one who's able to step into the majors in case of an injury - doesn't necessarily translate into being the #1 prospect at the position.

Unless you think Buck Coats is our #1 outfield prospect?

#2JBrumfield - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 02:38 PM EST (#208029) #

In other news today, Dodgers pitcher Vicente Padilla pulls a Plaxico Burress of sorts.

Geoff - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 03:22 PM EST (#208030) #

Sounds to me more like maybe Padilla got Dick Cheney'd and this is his cover story. The story raises some questions, like what was he hunting with his pistol in Nicaragua (Toucan Sam?) and what was his technique for clearing a round from the chamber?

Chuck - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 04:24 PM EST (#208033) #

Sounds to me more like maybe Padilla got Dick Cheney'd

More like Plaxico Burress'd. Dick Cheney shot a friend, not himself.

Chuck - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 04:26 PM EST (#208034) #

Oops, didn't see #2JB's post just a mere handful of inches to the north.

If in fact Padilla's story is a cover, the Cheney analogy still doesn't hold because Cheney didn't get shot.

Mick Doherty - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 04:27 PM EST (#208035) #

Clint Hurdle is expected to become the Rangers new hitting coach.
The Rangers have denied this is accurate, but I suspect they are just trying to appease the commish's office and not get fined for an "announcement" during the World Series. Too bad -- I thought they'd go with Rusty Greer, one of the other finalists. Would've liked to see him back in Ranger blue.

JB, per your "nugget" -- will we see an even-up trade of Brad Mills for Shawn Hill? Is Shea Hillenbrand coming back? Will Steve Howe, of all people fill the post-Arnsberg coaching staff vacancy?

Mike Green - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 04:37 PM EST (#208036) #

Mick, you are probably not aware that Steve Howe the pitcher died in April, 2006. Steve Howe, the Yes guitarist, is 62 and very much alive. I don't know if he would be interested in the bullpen coach position. If not, Shigetoshi Hasegawa should definitely be asked.

brent - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 06:53 PM EST (#208037) #

I'm not sold on releasing Barrett, but at least the team is getting younger. A younger team at least has some promise.

VBF - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 08:03 PM EST (#208038) #

Is it surprising that a 26 year-old 2B is now our #1 second base prospect? AA knew. If Aaron Hill is hurt, we have who to take over - full time - over a long period?

I think it would be silly to have Hoffpauier play second base at Las Vegas. It would make a lot more sense to get him to work on his third base defense. At 26 years old, his window is getting smaller and some extra competition at third makes sense given Encarnacion's wrist and possible terribleness. Hopefully the transition isn't as bad and allows him to focus on his hitting more.

While I'm on the topic, I thought it was pointless having Inglett play second base at Vegas. He presented himself as a passable hitter in 2008 and should have been learning third base at least to increase his overall versatility. Especially since Rolen couldn't play everyday and Bautista was more or less blah.

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I had been wondering why the Pirates would trade Jesse Chavez, an mediocre relief pitcher but someone controllable for five years for one year of Akinori Iwamura. Talent wise the trade seemed like a win for the Pirates but had no real long-term benefits if Iwamura walked. It reminded me of the short-sightedness of many Pirates signings over the years. But then I figured that Iwamura stood a good chance of getting Type B free agent status and that they'd be eligible for a sandwich pick for the 2011 draft.

Which made me wonder that maybe this is an OK method for prospect depleted teams to stock up farm systems with higher ceiling players. Obviously most of the time Type A free agents require multi-year contracts which makes it not worth the time or money, but in a buyers market, it might make sense to sign a likely Type A player just to get the picks the following year. The Angels, for 5 million will get themselves one amazing year of Bobby Abreu and two sandwich picks at least.

And when you look at the type of deals that went down, Dunn, Abreu, Ramirez, a team with some short term cash last year could have potentially had an amazing 2011 draft and a very replenished farm system.

brent - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 10:53 PM EST (#208039) #

Bastian tweeted that the Jays are going to watch John Halama throw. Is the team in that much trouble for pitching, or are they just trying to put together a competitive team in AAA to look good for Vegas?

Mike Forbes - Wednesday, November 04 2009 @ 11:51 PM EST (#208041) #

There. Yankees win. That's over. Now, it's time for the Blue Jays to rebuild. Anyone who thinks signing Jason Bay will help us beat the Yankees is delusional. Take all the picks in this draft, use them well. Make some smart trades and maybe we can be celebrating sometime in the next 5-6 years. Sounds bad now, but it'll be worth it.

Schad - Thursday, November 05 2009 @ 12:07 AM EST (#208042) #

Re: Halama, I don't know that he'd do much to improve the 51s, either. Last year (at 37) he posted a 4.48 ERA and 1.38 WHIP in AAA Gwinnett, where he was their sixth-best starter. Unless they want to give him a year to get accustomed to the organization with a future coaching position in mind, I have no idea what value he has left.

Geoff - Thursday, November 05 2009 @ 09:29 AM EST (#208052) #

If in fact Padilla's story is a cover, the Cheney analogy still doesn't hold because Cheney didn't get shot.

That's why I said he got Cheney'd, rather than he pulled a Cheney. As in he had a Cheney move done to him by someone else. My business on the analogy: it was a hunting accident.

That he shot himself in the thigh by clearing a round from his pistol screams cover story. Maybe it was pure Plaxico Burress and Vicente doesnt know how to handle a weapon; I like to think someone mistook Padilla for a deer.

Hodgie - Thursday, November 05 2009 @ 10:13 AM EST (#208056) #

" I like to think someone mistook Padilla for a deer."

That would at least explain the "deer in the headlights" look he commonly unveiled as yet another run would cross home plate.

Chuck - Thursday, November 05 2009 @ 10:41 AM EST (#208057) #

That's why I said he got Cheney'd, rather than he pulled a Cheney.

Ah, makes sense. One imagines that the angle of the bullet's wound would clear matters up.

Mike Green - Thursday, November 05 2009 @ 11:24 AM EST (#208059) #

Powder burns would tell a story too, if my Rebus mysteries are right.

Geoff - Thursday, November 05 2009 @ 02:57 PM EST (#208067) #

Geoff - Thursday, November 05 2009 @ 02:58 PM EST (#208068) #

Ah, makes sense. One imagines that the angle of the bullet's wound would clear matters up.

I'm looking forward to the CSI:Nicaragua report.

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