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The Toronto Blue Jays added to their outfield depth in November by acquiring Rajai Davis from Oakland for minor league pitchers Danny Farquhar and Canadian Trystan Magnuson.  The POTD looks at Davis during May 2nd action between the Jays and A's at the Dome.

Rajai Davis tries to catch up to a Shaun Marcum offering.



Davis looks like he gets a hold of one.

Or maybe not!

Davis takes a look behind him as he suspects the worst.

Davis begins to head back to the A's dugout as John Buck gets ready to throw the ball back to the plate.

According to MLB Gameday, Davis whiffed on an 84 MPH cutter from Shaun Marcum.

Davis did reach base twice with a single and a walk as he went 1-for-3 on the afternoon out of the number nine spot in the A's lineup.  However, the A's would fall to the Jays 9-3.

A 38th round pick out of the 2001 amateur draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates, the 30 year-old Davis joins his fourth team in six major league seasons.  After a career .305 batting average in the minors, Davis began his big league career with the Pirates in 2006 when he was called up in mid-August.  The right-handed hitter only got up to bat 17 times and collected just two hits and two walks.  He did not fare too well on the basepaths either as he was caught stealing three out of four times.

The 2007 season went better for Davis as he hit .271/.357/.354 in 24 games with the Bucs but he was dealt at the July 31st trade deadline to San Francisco for pitcher Matt Morris.  The 5-foot-10, 180 pound native of Connecticut batted .282/.363/.380 for the Giants and collected his first home run off Florida lefty Scott Olsen.  He also stole 22 bases in 26 attempts.  However, Davis could not last a second season in San Francisco as he moved across the Bay to Oakland on a waiver claim in late April.  He managed to hit three homers and steal 25 bases but his on-base-plus-slugging percentage was a less than stellar .660.

Davis did bounce back in 2009 by hitting .305 with 41 stolen bases with Oakland and followed up that with a .284 average and career highs with 50 steals, five homers and 52 RBI in 2010.  He is a career .281 hitter with 143 stolen bases to his credit.  If Davis can add 10 more stolen bases from his 2010 total next season with Toronto, he could match Dave Collins' club record 60 steals which he set during the 1984 campaign.  He'll get a chance to play against his former Oakland teammates April 5 to 7 when the A's come to the Dome for a three-game series.

7-11! - 7 Photos Of #11 Rajai Davis | 4 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Mike Green - Friday, December 24 2010 @ 11:58 AM EST (#228098) #
Great pictures, #2JB.  Merry Christmas to you and everyone else here.
CeeBee - Friday, December 24 2010 @ 02:59 PM EST (#228101) #
Awesome pics once again #2JB :) And I'd also like to say Merry Christmas to everyone :)
greenfrog - Friday, December 24 2010 @ 10:37 PM EST (#228105) #
Davis is sort of a mystery pickup. He doesn't fit the mold of a lot of other AA acquisitions (high upside, young, potential trade chip or conduit for draft picks). My guess is the reasoning behind the exchange was something like this:

- He's only 30, so he's still relatively close to his prime
- He has speed, which seems to be increasingly valued in baseball
- He's a buy-low candidate in a sense: he had a solid year in 2009, and would be a strong pickup if he can reach or exceed that level of performance
- He's hit LHP pretty well over the last two seasons, so he could be a valuable platoon OF/defensive sub/PH/PR
- He's mostly been a part-time player in the majors. He had 390 AB and 525 AB in 2009 and 2010, but his next-highest total is 196 AB. So his track record isn't all that long (sort of like Bautista before last year). He did have a 375 OBP in the minors, a good sign
- Maybe a change of scenery and/or coaches could help him put together a solid year
- Like pitching depth, having positional player depth is a good thing
- AA has a man-crush on Brett Gardner, and Davis is sort of a poor man's Gardner

That's about the best I can come up with...
92-93 - Saturday, December 25 2010 @ 04:02 AM EST (#228109) #
Of those the fact that he hits LHP well is probably the most important. I'll add some -

1. He's cheap.
2. He's controllable.
3. He's CF insurance if Vernon gets hurt or if the team wants to give him a day off once a week as the DH.

As of now they could go with Davis-Wells-Snider and Bautista at 3B, or they could acquire a FA or someone in trade. Either way it's unlikely the team would have had much of a backup for Wells, and they probably viewed Rajai as a better version of Lewis because of his speed and defensive capabilities.
7-11! - 7 Photos Of #11 Rajai Davis | 4 comments | Create New Account
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