Once more, we assess the work of This Year's Crew, and as always we
salute the great Dave Till who used to provide this very service on a
monthly basis. Monthly!
I know I am not worthy to... dust his keyboard?
A great many players tried on the uniform briefly this season. I'm pretty sure that no one likes the small sample more than I do, but even I see little point in grading a pitcher on 5 innings or so. Although, speaking of small samples... Isn't it spooky that after treating the great Roy Halladay himself as his personal batting practise pitcher for ten years, Johnny Damon has now turned Ricky Romero into his new whipping boy? If Johnny does sneak into the Hall of Fame, he'll owe it to whoever was the Blue Jays best pitcher. "Thank you, Roy. Thank you, Ricky. I know I wouldn't be here without you..."
Anyway we're giving an INC for Incomplete to David Purcey, Rommie Lewis, Wil Ledezman, Brian Tallet, Trever Miller, Chad Beck, Scott Richmond, Danny Farquhar, and P.J. Walters. Likewise to Brian Jeroloman, Darin Mastroianni, and Chris Woodward. Everyone else is fair game.
Here's what the grades mean to me:
A - Outstanding
B - Good
C - Average
D - Below Average
E - Fail. (Replacement Level)
F - Epic Fail
We'll begin with the front office...
Alex Anthopoulos B
First of all, I'm not even going to think about the draft. It's going to be at least five years, and probably more like ten, before we can say whether he did a good job with his 2011 draft picks. Until then - it's just a waste of time, idle speculation, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Here, we care only about what he does with the major league team. Last season, his success was built mostly on the economical veteran talent he hauled in to plug holes while the kids developed. These were eventually converted into draft picks for the most part. (One of them was magically exchanged for one of the best shortstops in the AL, which was a very slick move.) That part of his strategy didn't work nearly as well this time around (two words - Corey Patterson. Two more - Jayson Nix.) I also didn't think much of the idea of quickly sending to the minors players who were supposed to be fairly central parts of the team - Litsch, Snider, Cecil, Janssen. Two rotation starters, the left fielder, a key setup guy - how did that work out, anyway? I guess Janssen at least came back and demonstrated that, yes, he should have been in the majors all the while. But to the heart of the matter - the central part of Anthopoulos' season was the three Very Big trades he was able to make, trades which impressed just about everyone in the game. The Vernon Wells deal was his version of Ricciardi dumping Raul Mondesi's contract, except it was an even more impressive feat (it was a much bigger contract!.) The Lawrie trade was his version of Ricciardi's deal for Eric Hinske - he gave up a key pitcher from his team for the third baseman of the future. But again, what Anthopoulos did was more impressive as Lawrie looks quite a bit - quite a bit - more promising than Hinske (of course, Shaun Marcum is a little better than Billy Koch.) Finally, he turned a whole bunch of relief pitchers into centre fielder Colby Ramus, who likewise has a chance to be really good. It certainly looks like the team is making progress, heading in the right direction. But I still need to see them win more than 85 games before the grades get better.
John Farrell B-
I want to give John Farrell some benefit of the doubt - he was a rookie manager, and he was following a very accomplished and successful veteran manager. I would want to give him much more time to grow into the position. There were things he did not do as well as Gaston. Heavens, what a shock. But he seems to have had no problem gaining and keeping the respect of his players, which is always Job One. Always - if a manager can't do that, nothing else matters - how shrewd a judge of talent he might be, how well he manages the bullpen, his game strategies. None of it will mean a thing. I think Farrell did just fine there, as far as I can tell. He was, many commented, much more willing than his predecessor to try small ball tactics. This seemed to drive some people crazy, which is pretty funny when you think about it. Gaston used to get criticized for not using these tactics enough. In fact, Farrell used these tactics just slightly more often than Gaston, and naturally people suddenly remembered just why it is they don't like the small ball game. Oh, to be a manager! Everybody thinks they can manage a team better than the guy who has the job, and everybody is always wrong. I do think it's generally pretty useful simply to show the other teams that those cards are available, and might get played - I also think encouraging young players to be aggressive on the bases helps them learn what they can and can not do. As it happens, Farrell's Blue Jays ran the bases rather well - at least compared to all the other teams in the league. My biggest concern, by far, with Farrell's first season was the stagnation of Morrow, the regression of Cecil, the failure of Drabek to develop. Turning young arms into major league pitchers is a tricky and chancy business, and Cito Gaston happened to be very, very good at it. A tough act to follow, but based on his resume and experience I expect Farrell to have some talent at this rather crucial part of the job. But talent isn't much use unless you turn it into results on the field, and there wasn't enough of that this year.
The Players
Jose Bautista A+
Over the entire season, he was the most powerful offensive force in the game. He was considerably better than he had been in his magnificent 2010 breakout season. That was the easiest grade to figure this year. So let's talk about his second half, which seems to have some people a little worried. Just as it was unreasonable to expect 54 HRs again, it was and is unreasonable to expect him to repeat the first two months of this season. But he did hit "just" .261/.420/.493, with 12 HR and 38 RBI in 61 games after the Break (which would be 30 HR, 100 RBI over a full season.) So while he was still a very good offensive player in the second half, it was also obvious that the league had made some fairly drastic adjustments in how they were approaching him. I'm not particularly worried. I think Bautista simply hasn't quite finished the process of adjusting in response. I'm also pretty damn sure that switching from third base (March) to right field (April) to third base (July) and back to right field (August) didn't help him very much. Neither did a couple of minor injuries, but I'd really like to see the team's best player spend an entire season, from training camp to the final game playing the same position. Can we please cut it out with this crap? Just because he can doesn't mean that he should. Incidentally, Bautista was one of the most aggressive baserunners on the team, and it generally worked for him. He took tons of extra bases, and really didn't run himself into very many outs. Now, he may have been one of the luckiest baserunners in the league as well, because he was getting away with some pretty goofy stuff, but all's well that ends well.
Brett Lawrie A
I'm not sure if this was the most exciting arrival on the scene ever by a young Blue Jays hitter. Carlos Delgado's jaw-dropping performance in April 1994 resonates pretty loudly for me - the 8 homers in 13 games, some of them hit so far they probably should have counted them twice. But, still, Brett Lawrie... whoa! Wow. That was impressive. What's especially exciting is the thought that we really don't know what kind of hitter Lawrie is going to become. He might hit 40 homers. He might hit .340. He might do both of those things (Delgado did both!) He might steal 40 bases! (Delgado never did that!) The future is ripe with possibilities, all of which are extremely delightful to contemplate. I also thought his performance at third base was very encouraging. It was a little raw, as you might expect from a 21 year old who hadn't played the position before this year. But he has the tools, as they say.
Ricky Romero A
Significantly improved his performance for the third year in a row. Hard to ask for more than that. Anyway, what he really needs to work on now is his run support. The team went 18-14 in his 32 starts, and they scored a measly 30 runs in the 14 games they didn't win. Romero pitched much better than the 15-11 record. He reduced his hits allowed very dramatically, and I'm not sure he can sustain that. But he gave up quite a few more home runs than he normally does, and I expect he will improve that. (Unless both of these changes were the direct result of some change in his approach.) He is one intense and driven individual, isn't he - he competes out there. He also does all the little things that support his game. He fields his position like a quick and hungry cat and he holds baserunnners very well. In the past, Romero has practically eliminated the other team's running game completely. Not so much this year, though - teams were much more successful running against him in 2011. There were 18 stolen bases against him this year, which is actually not all that many - but after just 13 steals in his first two years combined, it was more than a little startling. I'm going to lay much of that on his personal catcher - teams were willing to challenge Arencibia, and they were getting away with it.
Yunel Escobar A-
He made it all the way back to the level he performed at for most of his Atlanta career. That makes him one of the best shortstops in the game. He's one of those guys who's simply not as fast as he looks - he really has just average speed, but he's generally used in those offensive roles that call for speed. His defense is still quite good enough. I think he's lost a step in the field, but his positioning and reliability have improved. A year ago, I was commenting how strangely raw he seemed for a guy who'd already been in the majors for five years. This year, he was nowhere near as flashy - he was solid and dependable. He still doesn't run everything out, which is irritating sometimes - but really, running out a pop fly to Derek Jeter isn't competing - it's pretending to compete, it's putting on a show, it's slightly fake in its own way. I thought Escobar was a much more alert and reliable player this year, I thought there were not nearly as many Alex Rios ("Just what is he thinking about out there?") moments with him. Just wish he could stay in the lineup a little more - he missed 29 games, mostly with a series of fairly minor hurts.
Casey Janssen B+
The best relief pitcher on the team. Two years ago I was writing that "I don't believe in him. He's just too easy to hit." But he took a major step forward in 2010, as he found a way to strike batters out. He maintained those gains, and built on them in 2011, reducing both his hits and walks allowed. A lot of fun to watch.
Jose Molina B
Also fun to watch - his batting stance is the closest thing to Tony Batista you young ones are likely to see, and it's entertaining in a weird way to watch a man this slow running. If "running" is really the word we should be using to describe his method of locomotion. Completely out of the blue, he went and had the best hitting season of his long career, although he faded quite a bit at the end of the year. Just in time, as age is continuing to grind away at his defensive skills.
Henderson Alvarez B
I have to think that given more exposure, the league will catch up to this kid. It will happen soon, and it probably won't be pretty. He's mainly a two-pitch guy and to succeed as a starter with just two pitches, both of those pitches need to be awfully special. Otherwise you're someone like Jim Clancy, who was really good sometimes and really frustrating sometimes. Brandon Morrow also fits this description. So with that caveat , let's be happy that a) it hasn't happened yet, and b) he's reportedly working very hard on coming up with a reliable third pitch. I really don't like seeing 21 year olds in a major league rotation - I'd prefer to baby their arms for another year or two. But I really, really like pitchers who walk just 8 batters in 56.2 innings.
Mark Rzepczynski B
Now with St. Louis, and he's been so effective as a LOOGY that he may never start again in his life. Tony LaRussa's probably not the guy to try it, anyway.
Kelly Johnson B
Got off to a slow start in the AL, but soon settled in and demonstrated the broad range of skills that should make bringing him back one of the top priorities for Anthopoulos this off-season. He gets on base - he was born to be a number two hitter - and he provides a little left handed pop. He came to second base rather late in life, and he's only an adequate defender. At best. Maybe Butterfield can help him out, maybe he can't (Encarnacion!, people!). But if he doesn't come back, this team has a great big hole in the lineup, and at the very same position that two of their division rivals have filled with a certifiably great ball player. And Zobrist and Roberts aren't chopped liver, now that I think on it.
Jason Frasor B
Now with Chicago. There were good times, there were bad times. I made him my personal whipping boy for a while there, and I kind of regret that. He was a pretty good pitcher for this team. He always took the ball, and he always had that heater. It wasn't always enough, but that's true for everyone. But on the whole, it was a nice run. Good luck to him.
Joel Carreno B
One doesn't want to get too excited about 15.2 innings, which is why we're not going to grade him higher. But he was outstanding, and certainly looks like he should be expected to be a part of next year's pen.
Edwin Encarnacion B-
Not playing third base clearly agrees with him - heaven knows, him not playing third agrees with me. And everyone else, I'm sure. Encarnacion hit .220/.295/.398 as a third baseman, which severely dented his season stats. As a DH/1b, he hit .298/.355/.487 with 14 HRs in 93 games. Let's hope that they stop screwing around with him, let him DH and play a little first base, and be a hitter. I know I'd like to see what happens. So we make a wish - in the future may we only see Encarnacion (and Bautista) at third base in an utter emergency, when it's the fifteenth inning and there's no one else available.
Carlos Villanueva B-
He pitched very well out of the pen, so naturally they put him in the rotation until he stopped pitching well. Stop screwing around! Do not mess with something that's actually working. These people will just make you crazy sometimes. Well, now we know, anyway. I suppose it's useful to have discovered that. Going forward, he should be a very useful part of the bullpen, especially with his capacity to work multiple innings, but that's all. He should only be an emergency starter.
Octavio Dotel B-
Now with St. Louis. One of the game's foremost ROOGYs, of course. It's such a very odd thing for a pitcher to be - Scott Richmond is another - that managers often have trouble believing that this is what the guy really is. And so they just have to see it for themselves, with the generally dire results that inevitably ensue. Yes, that's what he is. He's quite good at it, but never forget what he is...
Eric Thames B-
An interesting player, a fun player. He's an adventure in the outfield, mixing up spectacular plays with bizarre screwups. But he never stops hustling, and you can actually see him improving his game. He's not a base stealer, but he's easily the most aggressive baserunner on the team - yes, even more than Davis - and he's really good at it. Just a terrific baserunner. Based on his rookie season, he doesn't have quite as much bat as you'd want from a left fielder. But he's got more than enough bat to be in the lineup. And because he's still just 24, and because injuries have set his development back, he may be capable of growing quite a bit from this point. I don't mind finding out, anyway. I would assume he's the incumbent in left, and that someone is going to have to wrestle the job away from him. I would hope so, anyway.
Frank Francisco B-
One wonders if the injury that cost him the first couple of weeks of the season lingered for a while. Because this is a tale of two quite different campaigns. As awful as he was before the All Star Break (5.92 ERA, 31 H and 14 BB in 24.1 IP), that's how brilliant he's been in the second half. Although, it would be more accurate to say that he alternates good months with bad ones - his monthly ERAs are 1.69, 8.68, 1.08, 5.59, 0.00 (!), 3.00. I'm not all that wild about him, but I still like him more than Kevin Gregg, at least.
Jesse Litsch C
He seems to get fatter every year, doesn't he? Well, he can get away with that as a relief pitcher. It wasn't going to fly as a starter. He really wasn't all that more effective working out of the pen - but he was more effective, and he can essentially give the team... well, exactly the same thing Villanueva gives them. A solid reliever, who can go more than one inning. With this group of starters, you probably need to have a couple of those guys around.
J.P. Arencibia C-
Played an awful lot like Rod Barajas did when he was here, which seems strange because they don't look remotely similar. That's not particularly good, but I don't mind cutting Arencibia some slack. He was a rookie, at the most demanding defensive position on the field, coping with the struggles of - what was it, thirty different pitchers - and did I mention he was a rookie? He hung in there, and he hit some home runs, and all credit to him. But I don't see how he can possibly hold off Travis d'Arnaud, who should be climbing all over his back by this time next year. Arencibia needs a good season with the bat - just adding 20 or 30 points to his BAVG will do it, not that such a thing is easy or anything - so he can be traded somewhere and continue being a regular.
Adam Lind D+
Who the hell knows? Lind's 2010 season was ruined by a two month slump. This year's slump lasted three months. Go figure. He just stopped hitting at the end of June. Was he hurt? We know he was hurt in the first half of the season - he missed 25 of the team's 82 games - but in the 57 games he'd played, he'd been just great. Really - because he's been so bad these last few months, it's easy to forget how good he was for the first three. But he was. It was 2009 all over again - through the end of June, he had 16 HRs and 49 RBI - in just 57 games. He was hitting .312/.361/.569. And then it just stopped, completely and totally. Over the final three months, he hit .210/.249/.349 with 10 HR and 37 RBI. You might take that if he was a really good defensive player at shortstop. But he isn't even a good defensive player at first base. His defense was not at all the disaster I had been fearing, but calling it "good" is setting the bar very, very low. Anyway, I've seen all I want to see. I would much, much rather see Encarnacion and Cooper splitting 1B and DH between them next season.
Brandon Morrow D+
Ted the Tease is gone, but the feeling lingers on. Morrow doesn't really throw as hard as... oh, let's say Brad Mills. Mills is throwing much harder, Morrow's ball just gets where it's going a lot quicker. That's why we say Morrow throws hard - he's got that kind of magical arm. I'm beginning to suspect that his ball is just too damn easy for the hitters to see. We can measure the velocity of the pitch, but we can't measure what the pitch looks like to the hitter (and it looks different to every individual hitter.) B.J. Ryan could blow his 89 mph fastball past major league hitters because they had trouble picking up the ball out of that funky delivery. Shaun Marcum can blow his 85 mph heater past major league hitters because he's so good as destroying the hitter's timing. Morrow doesn't seem to be doing either of those things. He just throws a ball hard. And at this level, as Ron Gardenhire noted, "hard, hard, harder just gets hit, hit, hit." Sometimes I think Morrow is pitching like Ted Lilly or A.J. Burnett - you know, like a knucklehead. Well, Burnett really is a knucklehead, and Lilly was kind of weird in his own way. But Brandon Morrow is not even remotely like that, not in the slightest. He's a really impressive young man, intelligent, hard-working, dedicated, coachable. And he knows what he needs to do, and he's trying to do it. He ought to be better than this. But he isn't.
John Rauch D+
Didn't have a particularly good year, even by his own fairly modest standards. You have to like the way he goes right after the hitters. It's hard to like the way the hitters go right after him, though. Too many balls over the fence.
Brett Cecil D
Despite the gruesome W-L record, he's been... well, actually he hasn't been all that good since returning from AAA (3-9, 4.30 with 72 K, 31 BB and 98 hits allowed in 102.2 IP.) Kind of mediocre, but on this team that still makes him one of the better starting pitchers. I thought yesterday's game demonstrated, in technicolor and stereo sound, Brett Cecil's two biggest problems, as a pitcher in general, and this season in particular. First, he can't keep the baseball in the damn park. He's now allowed 22 homers in 123.2 innings. He's done this before - he gave up 17 dingers in just 93 IP as a rookie in 2009, but he seemed to have licked the problem last season. It's come back, and there's no defense that works against it. And all the hits he allowed yesterday were to RH batters. Cecil has always been, and continues to be, extremely tough on LH batters, but the RH fellows generally have their way with him. They've accounted for every home run he's allowed this season. I assume Cecil will be competing for a starter's job next spring, but becoming a LOOGY may be his destiny.
John McDonald D
I think Johnny Mac really missed Cito Gaston. In his two full seasons playing for Gaston, he actually showed totally unexpected development as a hitter. (Last season, John McDonald had a higher slugging percentage than Lyle Overbay, Adam Lind, Aaron Hill, Travis Snider, and Edwin Encarnacion.) But with Gaston gone, he reverted to being John McDonald. He was still a better hitter than Mike McCoy or Jayson Nix, but that's setting the bar pretty low.
Shawn Camp D
Got off to a solid start, but pitched so badly in mid-season that it's a little surprise that he wasn't designated for assignment. It was pretty hideous - from May 29 through August 4, he allowed 39 hits in 22.1 innings, and posted a 8.87 ERA. Yikes. It certainly looked like his nice three year run here was coming to an end. But he started getting his game back together in August, and has been pitching just as well as ever these last few weeks. He'll probably have to prove himself one more time next spring.
David Cooper D
Look, I believe in David Cooper. I believe in him more than just about everyone else does, that's for sure. First of all ... I just love his swing. I believe in that stroke, I think it plays at this level, I like it more than that of any of the other LH batters knocking on the Blue Jay door (Snider, Thames, Loewen) I don't know that Cooper has as much "talent" as any of those guys. But I also think this is a kid who learns from what happens to him in the game, and adjusts and grows and builds upon what he has. So I think he is going to get absolutely everything that there is to get out of his talent. And by the way - he doesn't remind me of Lyle Overbay at all. Not in the slightest. Overbay is much bigger and stronger - but I think Cooper will hit for more power (and a better average) in the majors than Overbay, and also be nowhere near as smooth and polished around first base. His grade is docked because of that ugly 4 for33 performance he submitted during his first exposure to the majors. (The grade is kind of an F for his first tour, a C for his second...)
Zach Stewart D
Now with the White Sox. Didn't really make much of an impression on me, as I missed all three of his Jays starts - a good one, a bad one, and a decent one
Luis Perez D-
He was having himself a pretty decent rookie season, seemed to staking his claim to a bullpen job... so they had to try him as a starter, and shortly thereafter he was totally messed up. He's been really, really awful for the last few weeks. In September, he's allowed 22 hits and 17 ER in just 9.1 innings, which has ruined what had been a promising rookie year. Will be fighting for a job in the pen next spring, one assumes.
Juan Rivera D-
Now with the Dodgers. Played quite well for them, too. I had the feeling just about everyone actually resented him even being here, being part of the team. He was seen from day one as a punishment we had to endure, a cross we had to bear, in exchange for the heavenly reward of being liberated from The Wells Contract. What a situation for someone to try to play baseball in. No wonder it didn't work out for him here.
Dustin McGowan D-
I know I'd rather be lucky than good (being good was never as much fun, for one thing.) We know that Dustin McGowan has the arm and the determination and the character to be good. He needs to be lucky. Unfortunately, there's a large black cloud that hovers over his head, that follows him around wherever he goes. It's a harsh thing to say, but let's face it - sometimes the Deity is simply a spiteful, malevolent bitch. It actually amuses her to bless a young man with an electric pitching arm, and then subject that same young man to Tommy John surgery, diabetes, labrum surgery, knee surgery, rotator cuff surgery. Perhaps she thinks it builds character. Well, enough already - Dustin's built his character. Could you possibly give him a break? But until that black cloud actually disappears...
Adam Loewen D-
An interesting problem for Anthopoulos to solve. Loewen clearly has quite a bit of talent. But he's extremely raw and he still needs quite a bit more time to develop and polish his game. This is completely reasonable and should not be unexepected. As a position player, he's had just three professional seasons since high school. He should probably be at AA by now, maybe getting his first looks at AAA at this stage. If he's coming along really fast. But his unique story had placed him in an entirely different situation, which included rushing him through the minors with all possible haste - as fast as it could possibly be managed. The clock has always been ticking and now midnight is upon us. He's out of options, and he's just not ready to be an everyday player. He might be an okay fourth outfielder, if you wanted to cut Davis loose - except Loewen would really be better served by another year in the minors. He needs to play another full season, and then take over as the fourth outfielder in 2013. I don't know if Anthopoulos can thread this needle, but I think Loewen's worth the attempt.
Corey Patterson D-
Now with St. Louis. He doesn't seem like a head case, but has anyone ever done less with more? Oh, probably. All those classic tools, all that classic talent... I so much prefer Dustin Pedroia's type of tools and talent. They're better for baseball. He's not a completely awful player, but he will drive you crazy. I won't miss him, and neither will you.
Rajai Davis E
I liked watching him run the bases, but he left his bat in Oakland. Hard to be useful without a bat. If he remembers to bring it with him next year, he's a handy spare part. With two starting outfielders who hit left-handed, his RH bat and his speed would make him a good guy to bring off the bench. But only if he brings his bat with him this time.
Aaron Hill E
Now with Arizona. Just a mystery what happened to him. I've heard that he didn't get along all that well with Gaston, but things didn't improve under the new guy.
Mike McCoy E
It rather looked as if they were auditioning McCoy for the Johnny Mac utility role. I think he failed the audition. His speed is nice and he's versatile enough to play almost everywhere. However what's most important for this particular role is that he be able to play shortstop. Especially with Escobar's tendency to come down with minor hurts that knock him out of the lineup. McCoy's just not reliable enough defensively to play shortstop for more than an inning or two. And he's an even bigger zero with the bat than McDonald. He's supposed to have on-base skills, but when your OBPct. is .300, I'm not sure that "skills" is the word we should be using.
Travis Snider E
Now what? Let's suppose he really does have more talent than Thames, or Cooper, or Loewen. Who cares? Talent is useless, utterly useless, unless you can actually turn it into results on the field. Snider has talent all right, but he also holes in his swing you could drive a truck through, and there are pitches he has no idea what to do with. The time is now for Travis Snider to take charge of his talent. It's on him. No more blaming J.P. Ricciardi - this is for me - for rushing him to the majors way before his time. No more blaming Cito Gaston - this is for many of you! - for not playing him every single day. It's all on Travis now. Now or... somewhere else. As is probably well known, I've never bought the Snider kool-aid, I've always thought he was ridiculously overhyped by the previous regime and a very hungry fan base. That said, he also seems like a really good kid, who really wants to do well. I hope he does it here.
Kyle Drabek E
Never looked remotely like a pitcher to me, which is shocking to anyone who remembers his father. Doug Drabek was a pitcher. Kyle Drabek is a kid who stands out there and throws. Maybe it'll be a strike, maybe it won't. (Probably it won't.) Maybe they'll hit it, maybe they won't. It's not like I have a clue what's going on. I'm just throwing the ball.
Colby Rasmus E
He's got all the tools, as they say. He's played well at the major league level. He just turned 25, and I think he can become a player very comparable to Lloyd Moseby. Which would be swell. But his performance in Toronto? He stunk. He was just awful. The grade flatters him.
Jo-Jo Reyes E
Turned out to be exactly what he had always been. A guy with a good arm who can't pitch in the major leagues. Who knew?
Brad Mills E
Too bad he can't pitch against Baltimore all the time. Pitchers like this always need a sizeable adjustment period at the major league level, but they struggle so badly during that adjustment period that it's very difficult to live with them while they're... adjusting. I kind of like him, but he needs to spend a year or two as the seventh man in a major league bullpen before anyone gives him another chance to start at this level.
Jayson Nix F
Unspeakably awful. The fact that he made more than 150 plate appearances made it especially agonizing. I get the shakes just remembering...
Dwayne Wise F
Better than Teahen.
Mark Teahen F
Better than me.
I know I am not worthy to... dust his keyboard?
A great many players tried on the uniform briefly this season. I'm pretty sure that no one likes the small sample more than I do, but even I see little point in grading a pitcher on 5 innings or so. Although, speaking of small samples... Isn't it spooky that after treating the great Roy Halladay himself as his personal batting practise pitcher for ten years, Johnny Damon has now turned Ricky Romero into his new whipping boy? If Johnny does sneak into the Hall of Fame, he'll owe it to whoever was the Blue Jays best pitcher. "Thank you, Roy. Thank you, Ricky. I know I wouldn't be here without you..."
Anyway we're giving an INC for Incomplete to David Purcey, Rommie Lewis, Wil Ledezman, Brian Tallet, Trever Miller, Chad Beck, Scott Richmond, Danny Farquhar, and P.J. Walters. Likewise to Brian Jeroloman, Darin Mastroianni, and Chris Woodward. Everyone else is fair game.
Here's what the grades mean to me:
A - Outstanding
B - Good
C - Average
D - Below Average
E - Fail. (Replacement Level)
F - Epic Fail
We'll begin with the front office...
Alex Anthopoulos B
First of all, I'm not even going to think about the draft. It's going to be at least five years, and probably more like ten, before we can say whether he did a good job with his 2011 draft picks. Until then - it's just a waste of time, idle speculation, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Here, we care only about what he does with the major league team. Last season, his success was built mostly on the economical veteran talent he hauled in to plug holes while the kids developed. These were eventually converted into draft picks for the most part. (One of them was magically exchanged for one of the best shortstops in the AL, which was a very slick move.) That part of his strategy didn't work nearly as well this time around (two words - Corey Patterson. Two more - Jayson Nix.) I also didn't think much of the idea of quickly sending to the minors players who were supposed to be fairly central parts of the team - Litsch, Snider, Cecil, Janssen. Two rotation starters, the left fielder, a key setup guy - how did that work out, anyway? I guess Janssen at least came back and demonstrated that, yes, he should have been in the majors all the while. But to the heart of the matter - the central part of Anthopoulos' season was the three Very Big trades he was able to make, trades which impressed just about everyone in the game. The Vernon Wells deal was his version of Ricciardi dumping Raul Mondesi's contract, except it was an even more impressive feat (it was a much bigger contract!.) The Lawrie trade was his version of Ricciardi's deal for Eric Hinske - he gave up a key pitcher from his team for the third baseman of the future. But again, what Anthopoulos did was more impressive as Lawrie looks quite a bit - quite a bit - more promising than Hinske (of course, Shaun Marcum is a little better than Billy Koch.) Finally, he turned a whole bunch of relief pitchers into centre fielder Colby Ramus, who likewise has a chance to be really good. It certainly looks like the team is making progress, heading in the right direction. But I still need to see them win more than 85 games before the grades get better.
John Farrell B-
I want to give John Farrell some benefit of the doubt - he was a rookie manager, and he was following a very accomplished and successful veteran manager. I would want to give him much more time to grow into the position. There were things he did not do as well as Gaston. Heavens, what a shock. But he seems to have had no problem gaining and keeping the respect of his players, which is always Job One. Always - if a manager can't do that, nothing else matters - how shrewd a judge of talent he might be, how well he manages the bullpen, his game strategies. None of it will mean a thing. I think Farrell did just fine there, as far as I can tell. He was, many commented, much more willing than his predecessor to try small ball tactics. This seemed to drive some people crazy, which is pretty funny when you think about it. Gaston used to get criticized for not using these tactics enough. In fact, Farrell used these tactics just slightly more often than Gaston, and naturally people suddenly remembered just why it is they don't like the small ball game. Oh, to be a manager! Everybody thinks they can manage a team better than the guy who has the job, and everybody is always wrong. I do think it's generally pretty useful simply to show the other teams that those cards are available, and might get played - I also think encouraging young players to be aggressive on the bases helps them learn what they can and can not do. As it happens, Farrell's Blue Jays ran the bases rather well - at least compared to all the other teams in the league. My biggest concern, by far, with Farrell's first season was the stagnation of Morrow, the regression of Cecil, the failure of Drabek to develop. Turning young arms into major league pitchers is a tricky and chancy business, and Cito Gaston happened to be very, very good at it. A tough act to follow, but based on his resume and experience I expect Farrell to have some talent at this rather crucial part of the job. But talent isn't much use unless you turn it into results on the field, and there wasn't enough of that this year.
The Players
Jose Bautista A+
Over the entire season, he was the most powerful offensive force in the game. He was considerably better than he had been in his magnificent 2010 breakout season. That was the easiest grade to figure this year. So let's talk about his second half, which seems to have some people a little worried. Just as it was unreasonable to expect 54 HRs again, it was and is unreasonable to expect him to repeat the first two months of this season. But he did hit "just" .261/.420/.493, with 12 HR and 38 RBI in 61 games after the Break (which would be 30 HR, 100 RBI over a full season.) So while he was still a very good offensive player in the second half, it was also obvious that the league had made some fairly drastic adjustments in how they were approaching him. I'm not particularly worried. I think Bautista simply hasn't quite finished the process of adjusting in response. I'm also pretty damn sure that switching from third base (March) to right field (April) to third base (July) and back to right field (August) didn't help him very much. Neither did a couple of minor injuries, but I'd really like to see the team's best player spend an entire season, from training camp to the final game playing the same position. Can we please cut it out with this crap? Just because he can doesn't mean that he should. Incidentally, Bautista was one of the most aggressive baserunners on the team, and it generally worked for him. He took tons of extra bases, and really didn't run himself into very many outs. Now, he may have been one of the luckiest baserunners in the league as well, because he was getting away with some pretty goofy stuff, but all's well that ends well.
Brett Lawrie A
I'm not sure if this was the most exciting arrival on the scene ever by a young Blue Jays hitter. Carlos Delgado's jaw-dropping performance in April 1994 resonates pretty loudly for me - the 8 homers in 13 games, some of them hit so far they probably should have counted them twice. But, still, Brett Lawrie... whoa! Wow. That was impressive. What's especially exciting is the thought that we really don't know what kind of hitter Lawrie is going to become. He might hit 40 homers. He might hit .340. He might do both of those things (Delgado did both!) He might steal 40 bases! (Delgado never did that!) The future is ripe with possibilities, all of which are extremely delightful to contemplate. I also thought his performance at third base was very encouraging. It was a little raw, as you might expect from a 21 year old who hadn't played the position before this year. But he has the tools, as they say.
Ricky Romero A
Significantly improved his performance for the third year in a row. Hard to ask for more than that. Anyway, what he really needs to work on now is his run support. The team went 18-14 in his 32 starts, and they scored a measly 30 runs in the 14 games they didn't win. Romero pitched much better than the 15-11 record. He reduced his hits allowed very dramatically, and I'm not sure he can sustain that. But he gave up quite a few more home runs than he normally does, and I expect he will improve that. (Unless both of these changes were the direct result of some change in his approach.) He is one intense and driven individual, isn't he - he competes out there. He also does all the little things that support his game. He fields his position like a quick and hungry cat and he holds baserunnners very well. In the past, Romero has practically eliminated the other team's running game completely. Not so much this year, though - teams were much more successful running against him in 2011. There were 18 stolen bases against him this year, which is actually not all that many - but after just 13 steals in his first two years combined, it was more than a little startling. I'm going to lay much of that on his personal catcher - teams were willing to challenge Arencibia, and they were getting away with it.
Yunel Escobar A-
He made it all the way back to the level he performed at for most of his Atlanta career. That makes him one of the best shortstops in the game. He's one of those guys who's simply not as fast as he looks - he really has just average speed, but he's generally used in those offensive roles that call for speed. His defense is still quite good enough. I think he's lost a step in the field, but his positioning and reliability have improved. A year ago, I was commenting how strangely raw he seemed for a guy who'd already been in the majors for five years. This year, he was nowhere near as flashy - he was solid and dependable. He still doesn't run everything out, which is irritating sometimes - but really, running out a pop fly to Derek Jeter isn't competing - it's pretending to compete, it's putting on a show, it's slightly fake in its own way. I thought Escobar was a much more alert and reliable player this year, I thought there were not nearly as many Alex Rios ("Just what is he thinking about out there?") moments with him. Just wish he could stay in the lineup a little more - he missed 29 games, mostly with a series of fairly minor hurts.
Casey Janssen B+
The best relief pitcher on the team. Two years ago I was writing that "I don't believe in him. He's just too easy to hit." But he took a major step forward in 2010, as he found a way to strike batters out. He maintained those gains, and built on them in 2011, reducing both his hits and walks allowed. A lot of fun to watch.
Jose Molina B
Also fun to watch - his batting stance is the closest thing to Tony Batista you young ones are likely to see, and it's entertaining in a weird way to watch a man this slow running. If "running" is really the word we should be using to describe his method of locomotion. Completely out of the blue, he went and had the best hitting season of his long career, although he faded quite a bit at the end of the year. Just in time, as age is continuing to grind away at his defensive skills.
Henderson Alvarez B
I have to think that given more exposure, the league will catch up to this kid. It will happen soon, and it probably won't be pretty. He's mainly a two-pitch guy and to succeed as a starter with just two pitches, both of those pitches need to be awfully special. Otherwise you're someone like Jim Clancy, who was really good sometimes and really frustrating sometimes. Brandon Morrow also fits this description. So with that caveat , let's be happy that a) it hasn't happened yet, and b) he's reportedly working very hard on coming up with a reliable third pitch. I really don't like seeing 21 year olds in a major league rotation - I'd prefer to baby their arms for another year or two. But I really, really like pitchers who walk just 8 batters in 56.2 innings.
Mark Rzepczynski B
Now with St. Louis, and he's been so effective as a LOOGY that he may never start again in his life. Tony LaRussa's probably not the guy to try it, anyway.
Kelly Johnson B
Got off to a slow start in the AL, but soon settled in and demonstrated the broad range of skills that should make bringing him back one of the top priorities for Anthopoulos this off-season. He gets on base - he was born to be a number two hitter - and he provides a little left handed pop. He came to second base rather late in life, and he's only an adequate defender. At best. Maybe Butterfield can help him out, maybe he can't (Encarnacion!, people!). But if he doesn't come back, this team has a great big hole in the lineup, and at the very same position that two of their division rivals have filled with a certifiably great ball player. And Zobrist and Roberts aren't chopped liver, now that I think on it.
Jason Frasor B
Now with Chicago. There were good times, there were bad times. I made him my personal whipping boy for a while there, and I kind of regret that. He was a pretty good pitcher for this team. He always took the ball, and he always had that heater. It wasn't always enough, but that's true for everyone. But on the whole, it was a nice run. Good luck to him.
Joel Carreno B
One doesn't want to get too excited about 15.2 innings, which is why we're not going to grade him higher. But he was outstanding, and certainly looks like he should be expected to be a part of next year's pen.
Edwin Encarnacion B-
Not playing third base clearly agrees with him - heaven knows, him not playing third agrees with me. And everyone else, I'm sure. Encarnacion hit .220/.295/.398 as a third baseman, which severely dented his season stats. As a DH/1b, he hit .298/.355/.487 with 14 HRs in 93 games. Let's hope that they stop screwing around with him, let him DH and play a little first base, and be a hitter. I know I'd like to see what happens. So we make a wish - in the future may we only see Encarnacion (and Bautista) at third base in an utter emergency, when it's the fifteenth inning and there's no one else available.
Carlos Villanueva B-
He pitched very well out of the pen, so naturally they put him in the rotation until he stopped pitching well. Stop screwing around! Do not mess with something that's actually working. These people will just make you crazy sometimes. Well, now we know, anyway. I suppose it's useful to have discovered that. Going forward, he should be a very useful part of the bullpen, especially with his capacity to work multiple innings, but that's all. He should only be an emergency starter.
Octavio Dotel B-
Now with St. Louis. One of the game's foremost ROOGYs, of course. It's such a very odd thing for a pitcher to be - Scott Richmond is another - that managers often have trouble believing that this is what the guy really is. And so they just have to see it for themselves, with the generally dire results that inevitably ensue. Yes, that's what he is. He's quite good at it, but never forget what he is...
Eric Thames B-
An interesting player, a fun player. He's an adventure in the outfield, mixing up spectacular plays with bizarre screwups. But he never stops hustling, and you can actually see him improving his game. He's not a base stealer, but he's easily the most aggressive baserunner on the team - yes, even more than Davis - and he's really good at it. Just a terrific baserunner. Based on his rookie season, he doesn't have quite as much bat as you'd want from a left fielder. But he's got more than enough bat to be in the lineup. And because he's still just 24, and because injuries have set his development back, he may be capable of growing quite a bit from this point. I don't mind finding out, anyway. I would assume he's the incumbent in left, and that someone is going to have to wrestle the job away from him. I would hope so, anyway.
Frank Francisco B-
One wonders if the injury that cost him the first couple of weeks of the season lingered for a while. Because this is a tale of two quite different campaigns. As awful as he was before the All Star Break (5.92 ERA, 31 H and 14 BB in 24.1 IP), that's how brilliant he's been in the second half. Although, it would be more accurate to say that he alternates good months with bad ones - his monthly ERAs are 1.69, 8.68, 1.08, 5.59, 0.00 (!), 3.00. I'm not all that wild about him, but I still like him more than Kevin Gregg, at least.
Jesse Litsch C
He seems to get fatter every year, doesn't he? Well, he can get away with that as a relief pitcher. It wasn't going to fly as a starter. He really wasn't all that more effective working out of the pen - but he was more effective, and he can essentially give the team... well, exactly the same thing Villanueva gives them. A solid reliever, who can go more than one inning. With this group of starters, you probably need to have a couple of those guys around.
J.P. Arencibia C-
Played an awful lot like Rod Barajas did when he was here, which seems strange because they don't look remotely similar. That's not particularly good, but I don't mind cutting Arencibia some slack. He was a rookie, at the most demanding defensive position on the field, coping with the struggles of - what was it, thirty different pitchers - and did I mention he was a rookie? He hung in there, and he hit some home runs, and all credit to him. But I don't see how he can possibly hold off Travis d'Arnaud, who should be climbing all over his back by this time next year. Arencibia needs a good season with the bat - just adding 20 or 30 points to his BAVG will do it, not that such a thing is easy or anything - so he can be traded somewhere and continue being a regular.
Adam Lind D+
Who the hell knows? Lind's 2010 season was ruined by a two month slump. This year's slump lasted three months. Go figure. He just stopped hitting at the end of June. Was he hurt? We know he was hurt in the first half of the season - he missed 25 of the team's 82 games - but in the 57 games he'd played, he'd been just great. Really - because he's been so bad these last few months, it's easy to forget how good he was for the first three. But he was. It was 2009 all over again - through the end of June, he had 16 HRs and 49 RBI - in just 57 games. He was hitting .312/.361/.569. And then it just stopped, completely and totally. Over the final three months, he hit .210/.249/.349 with 10 HR and 37 RBI. You might take that if he was a really good defensive player at shortstop. But he isn't even a good defensive player at first base. His defense was not at all the disaster I had been fearing, but calling it "good" is setting the bar very, very low. Anyway, I've seen all I want to see. I would much, much rather see Encarnacion and Cooper splitting 1B and DH between them next season.
Brandon Morrow D+
Ted the Tease is gone, but the feeling lingers on. Morrow doesn't really throw as hard as... oh, let's say Brad Mills. Mills is throwing much harder, Morrow's ball just gets where it's going a lot quicker. That's why we say Morrow throws hard - he's got that kind of magical arm. I'm beginning to suspect that his ball is just too damn easy for the hitters to see. We can measure the velocity of the pitch, but we can't measure what the pitch looks like to the hitter (and it looks different to every individual hitter.) B.J. Ryan could blow his 89 mph fastball past major league hitters because they had trouble picking up the ball out of that funky delivery. Shaun Marcum can blow his 85 mph heater past major league hitters because he's so good as destroying the hitter's timing. Morrow doesn't seem to be doing either of those things. He just throws a ball hard. And at this level, as Ron Gardenhire noted, "hard, hard, harder just gets hit, hit, hit." Sometimes I think Morrow is pitching like Ted Lilly or A.J. Burnett - you know, like a knucklehead. Well, Burnett really is a knucklehead, and Lilly was kind of weird in his own way. But Brandon Morrow is not even remotely like that, not in the slightest. He's a really impressive young man, intelligent, hard-working, dedicated, coachable. And he knows what he needs to do, and he's trying to do it. He ought to be better than this. But he isn't.
John Rauch D+
Didn't have a particularly good year, even by his own fairly modest standards. You have to like the way he goes right after the hitters. It's hard to like the way the hitters go right after him, though. Too many balls over the fence.
Brett Cecil D
Despite the gruesome W-L record, he's been... well, actually he hasn't been all that good since returning from AAA (3-9, 4.30 with 72 K, 31 BB and 98 hits allowed in 102.2 IP.) Kind of mediocre, but on this team that still makes him one of the better starting pitchers. I thought yesterday's game demonstrated, in technicolor and stereo sound, Brett Cecil's two biggest problems, as a pitcher in general, and this season in particular. First, he can't keep the baseball in the damn park. He's now allowed 22 homers in 123.2 innings. He's done this before - he gave up 17 dingers in just 93 IP as a rookie in 2009, but he seemed to have licked the problem last season. It's come back, and there's no defense that works against it. And all the hits he allowed yesterday were to RH batters. Cecil has always been, and continues to be, extremely tough on LH batters, but the RH fellows generally have their way with him. They've accounted for every home run he's allowed this season. I assume Cecil will be competing for a starter's job next spring, but becoming a LOOGY may be his destiny.
John McDonald D
I think Johnny Mac really missed Cito Gaston. In his two full seasons playing for Gaston, he actually showed totally unexpected development as a hitter. (Last season, John McDonald had a higher slugging percentage than Lyle Overbay, Adam Lind, Aaron Hill, Travis Snider, and Edwin Encarnacion.) But with Gaston gone, he reverted to being John McDonald. He was still a better hitter than Mike McCoy or Jayson Nix, but that's setting the bar pretty low.
Shawn Camp D
Got off to a solid start, but pitched so badly in mid-season that it's a little surprise that he wasn't designated for assignment. It was pretty hideous - from May 29 through August 4, he allowed 39 hits in 22.1 innings, and posted a 8.87 ERA. Yikes. It certainly looked like his nice three year run here was coming to an end. But he started getting his game back together in August, and has been pitching just as well as ever these last few weeks. He'll probably have to prove himself one more time next spring.
David Cooper D
Look, I believe in David Cooper. I believe in him more than just about everyone else does, that's for sure. First of all ... I just love his swing. I believe in that stroke, I think it plays at this level, I like it more than that of any of the other LH batters knocking on the Blue Jay door (Snider, Thames, Loewen) I don't know that Cooper has as much "talent" as any of those guys. But I also think this is a kid who learns from what happens to him in the game, and adjusts and grows and builds upon what he has. So I think he is going to get absolutely everything that there is to get out of his talent. And by the way - he doesn't remind me of Lyle Overbay at all. Not in the slightest. Overbay is much bigger and stronger - but I think Cooper will hit for more power (and a better average) in the majors than Overbay, and also be nowhere near as smooth and polished around first base. His grade is docked because of that ugly 4 for33 performance he submitted during his first exposure to the majors. (The grade is kind of an F for his first tour, a C for his second...)
Zach Stewart D
Now with the White Sox. Didn't really make much of an impression on me, as I missed all three of his Jays starts - a good one, a bad one, and a decent one
Luis Perez D-
He was having himself a pretty decent rookie season, seemed to staking his claim to a bullpen job... so they had to try him as a starter, and shortly thereafter he was totally messed up. He's been really, really awful for the last few weeks. In September, he's allowed 22 hits and 17 ER in just 9.1 innings, which has ruined what had been a promising rookie year. Will be fighting for a job in the pen next spring, one assumes.
Juan Rivera D-
Now with the Dodgers. Played quite well for them, too. I had the feeling just about everyone actually resented him even being here, being part of the team. He was seen from day one as a punishment we had to endure, a cross we had to bear, in exchange for the heavenly reward of being liberated from The Wells Contract. What a situation for someone to try to play baseball in. No wonder it didn't work out for him here.
Dustin McGowan D-
I know I'd rather be lucky than good (being good was never as much fun, for one thing.) We know that Dustin McGowan has the arm and the determination and the character to be good. He needs to be lucky. Unfortunately, there's a large black cloud that hovers over his head, that follows him around wherever he goes. It's a harsh thing to say, but let's face it - sometimes the Deity is simply a spiteful, malevolent bitch. It actually amuses her to bless a young man with an electric pitching arm, and then subject that same young man to Tommy John surgery, diabetes, labrum surgery, knee surgery, rotator cuff surgery. Perhaps she thinks it builds character. Well, enough already - Dustin's built his character. Could you possibly give him a break? But until that black cloud actually disappears...
Adam Loewen D-
An interesting problem for Anthopoulos to solve. Loewen clearly has quite a bit of talent. But he's extremely raw and he still needs quite a bit more time to develop and polish his game. This is completely reasonable and should not be unexepected. As a position player, he's had just three professional seasons since high school. He should probably be at AA by now, maybe getting his first looks at AAA at this stage. If he's coming along really fast. But his unique story had placed him in an entirely different situation, which included rushing him through the minors with all possible haste - as fast as it could possibly be managed. The clock has always been ticking and now midnight is upon us. He's out of options, and he's just not ready to be an everyday player. He might be an okay fourth outfielder, if you wanted to cut Davis loose - except Loewen would really be better served by another year in the minors. He needs to play another full season, and then take over as the fourth outfielder in 2013. I don't know if Anthopoulos can thread this needle, but I think Loewen's worth the attempt.
Corey Patterson D-
Now with St. Louis. He doesn't seem like a head case, but has anyone ever done less with more? Oh, probably. All those classic tools, all that classic talent... I so much prefer Dustin Pedroia's type of tools and talent. They're better for baseball. He's not a completely awful player, but he will drive you crazy. I won't miss him, and neither will you.
Rajai Davis E
I liked watching him run the bases, but he left his bat in Oakland. Hard to be useful without a bat. If he remembers to bring it with him next year, he's a handy spare part. With two starting outfielders who hit left-handed, his RH bat and his speed would make him a good guy to bring off the bench. But only if he brings his bat with him this time.
Aaron Hill E
Now with Arizona. Just a mystery what happened to him. I've heard that he didn't get along all that well with Gaston, but things didn't improve under the new guy.
Mike McCoy E
It rather looked as if they were auditioning McCoy for the Johnny Mac utility role. I think he failed the audition. His speed is nice and he's versatile enough to play almost everywhere. However what's most important for this particular role is that he be able to play shortstop. Especially with Escobar's tendency to come down with minor hurts that knock him out of the lineup. McCoy's just not reliable enough defensively to play shortstop for more than an inning or two. And he's an even bigger zero with the bat than McDonald. He's supposed to have on-base skills, but when your OBPct. is .300, I'm not sure that "skills" is the word we should be using.
Travis Snider E
Now what? Let's suppose he really does have more talent than Thames, or Cooper, or Loewen. Who cares? Talent is useless, utterly useless, unless you can actually turn it into results on the field. Snider has talent all right, but he also holes in his swing you could drive a truck through, and there are pitches he has no idea what to do with. The time is now for Travis Snider to take charge of his talent. It's on him. No more blaming J.P. Ricciardi - this is for me - for rushing him to the majors way before his time. No more blaming Cito Gaston - this is for many of you! - for not playing him every single day. It's all on Travis now. Now or... somewhere else. As is probably well known, I've never bought the Snider kool-aid, I've always thought he was ridiculously overhyped by the previous regime and a very hungry fan base. That said, he also seems like a really good kid, who really wants to do well. I hope he does it here.
Kyle Drabek E
Never looked remotely like a pitcher to me, which is shocking to anyone who remembers his father. Doug Drabek was a pitcher. Kyle Drabek is a kid who stands out there and throws. Maybe it'll be a strike, maybe it won't. (Probably it won't.) Maybe they'll hit it, maybe they won't. It's not like I have a clue what's going on. I'm just throwing the ball.
Colby Rasmus E
He's got all the tools, as they say. He's played well at the major league level. He just turned 25, and I think he can become a player very comparable to Lloyd Moseby. Which would be swell. But his performance in Toronto? He stunk. He was just awful. The grade flatters him.
Jo-Jo Reyes E
Turned out to be exactly what he had always been. A guy with a good arm who can't pitch in the major leagues. Who knew?
Brad Mills E
Too bad he can't pitch against Baltimore all the time. Pitchers like this always need a sizeable adjustment period at the major league level, but they struggle so badly during that adjustment period that it's very difficult to live with them while they're... adjusting. I kind of like him, but he needs to spend a year or two as the seventh man in a major league bullpen before anyone gives him another chance to start at this level.
Jayson Nix F
Unspeakably awful. The fact that he made more than 150 plate appearances made it especially agonizing. I get the shakes just remembering...
Dwayne Wise F
Better than Teahen.
Mark Teahen F
Better than me.
