".....If he keeps this up he could be the Jays next starter....."

Agreed. Carpenter can't be any worse than Chavez or Carreno over the past two games. The Jays are getting desperate for a starter -- almost any starter.

The other possibility is to put Villanueva or Perez into the rotation. But the bullpen is so weak that those two guys are pillars of the relief corps. It's not clear if the bullpen could give up Villanueva or Perez without imploding.

Is it me, or everytime I read this Alford has a hit or a home run.  He looks like someone to watch out for.

Chavez, Carreno, and Laffey can handle the low-leverage, end of the bullpen innings. Move Perez & Villanueva into the rotation.

Perez has been much better since moving to the bullpen.. I'd rather keep him there. Villaneuva should go into the rotation.

Simmer down, it's been three games at rookie ball.

Marcus Walden has been promoted to Dunedin.  I think I predicted that last week.

The July 2 IFA signing period is coming up. Expect to start seeing some mainstream coverage, perhaps a Shi Davidi write-up. The Jays of course have a new Director of Latin Operations in Ismael Cruz, formerly of the Mets in a similar role. The IFA world is murky to say the least, but the Mets were one of the better teams in acquiring IFA talent in the past. And hey, Cruz has twitter!

http://twitter.com/#!/cruzish

Primer on the rules:
- $2.9 million pool each year (July 2, 2012-June 15, 2013)
- Applies to anyone outside of Canada, the U.S., and Puerto Rico
- Applies to kids who turn 16 this year

Penalties are similar to overspending on the draft:
- Teams that go 0-5 percent over will pay a 75 percent tax on the overage.
- Teams that go 5-10 percent over will pay the 75 percent tax on the overage and won't be able to sign any player for a bonus of more than $500,000 in the 2013-14 signing period.
- Teams that go 10-15 percent over will pay a 100 percent tax on the overage and won't be able to sign any player for a bonus of more than $500,000 in the 2013-14 signing period.
- Teams that go 15 percent or more over will pay a 100 percent tax on the overage and won't be able to sign any player for a bonus of more than $250,000 in the 2013-14 signing period.

Ben Badler at BA is their point-man on the IFA scene. If you thought that the Jays "gamed" the new draft rules, Badler has done a write-up on how teams pursuing international talent can similarly subvert the new rules. Many involve under the table deals with the trainer, my favorite has got to be the "group of Columbians" who bought a defunct Mexican team and is now funnelling prospects there to avoid the spending restrictions. Check it out!

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/international-affairs/2012/2613346.html

Under AA, former director of the international market Marco Paddy had gone wild spending on IFA's. The evidence is the GCL roster, which features several IFA "bonus babies." Provided the new rules are followed, spending on IFA's will be curtailed. The chatter is that the elite prospects will command anywhere from $1.5-2 million of the bonus pool. It's unlikely that with this year's crop, a team would be willing to give up the opportunity to spend next year or pay a tax. Under Paddy, the Jays really mined the Venezuelan market. Look for that to continue. There appears to be a very strong relationship with Ciro Barrios, an academy of sorts for young ball players in Venezuela. Good for the Jays as one of the top IFA's this year Franklin Barreto a diminutive middle of the field type with a good overall package of tools hails from that academy.

Badler has write-ups and "links" between players and clubs at BA behind a paywall so I would suggest people head over there if they're interested. MLB.com, however, has their own list of prospects. Here's the link:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/y2012/#list=int

A word on some of the prospects listed. Jairo Beras has reportedly signed with the Texas Rangers already. His signing, however, has been under review for some time now as most teams and the league were under the assumption he was 16 and therefore not available to sign until July 2. Beras apparently is 17, which the Rangers were the only club to figure out and signed him in advance of the deadline for something like $4 million. Beras apparently had travelled to the U.S. under a passport listing his birthdate in December 1995 last year with a DR travel team, making his ineligible to sign until July 2. Beras is a legit talent with a ton of projection, but cross him off Blue Jay wish lists as this age thing is likely to drag on and also result in some sort of suspension or reprimand. Also, if he has signed with Texas, and if MLB rules the deal illegal and unless they ban Texas from re-signing him, expect him to sign again for a smaller bonus.

The Lin fella from Taiwan was free to sign in advance of the July 2 deadline and did with the Red Sox.

I would expect the Jays to come away with at least one of the kids on the MLB.com list on July 2. Again it will be fascinating to follow how teams navigate the new rules. As Badler alludes to, be weary of teams signing multiple players from the same trainers.

In recent years the DR kids have got a lot more exposure. Check out this site.

http://dplbaseball.com/

Don't forget that teams can make trades to increase their limit by as much as 50%. I'd put the odds of AA doing that around 99%.

John, doesn't begin until 2013.

Here are some more stipulations as per Badler:

"The $2.9 million bonus pool does have a few exemptions that will allow a team to spend a little bit more. A team's six highest signing bonuses of $50,000 or less will not count toward its total. For 2012-13, players signed for $7,500 or less also won't count (in 2013-14 that number goes up to $10,000). So there's enough wiggle room to spend up to $3.2 million without facing any penalties. All players must sign a standard minor league contract, so no major league deals are allowed."

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/international-affairs/2012/2613345.html

See Part F:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111122&content_id=26025138&vkey=pr_mlb&c_id=mlb

Didn't catch that the trade for cash wasn't available this year. Thanks for the info.

I think the way forward is to spend big on 1 guy and then just hand out smaller contracts like candy and hope to hit on something. How much did Alvarez, Perez or Carreno cost to sign?

smcs, that certainly seems like an option, and one teams will likely pursue. The players you mentioned were not the marquee players of their class and were somewhat under the radar signings. Again, these kids are signing as sixteen year olds mostly and I think most scouts of the IFA scene would tell you that projecting the success of these guys historically has been next to impossible with the past age and drug concerns to go along with the standard baseball concerns.

It will be interesting to see when these guys sign and whether there's more bargaining now than in the past. Do teams blow all their cash early on and then when a prospect develops over his age 16 season and becomes legit and you want to sign him, you get trumped by another team by a hundred thousand. In the past couple years the Jays, for example, have made a number of signings well after July 2 of guys who they've followed. Think Jairo Labourt or Ronnie Demorizi. So it's very different than the draft. It's also about when you spend your money and not necessarily exclusively about how you spend it.

Weird: Anthony Gose has not stolen a single base in June (over 18 games).

The IFA spending limit wouldn't apply to Japanese FA's such as the Oriole's signing of Wei-Yin Chen?

Which, by the way, is looking like one of the smartest FA signings of this past off-season. 26 yr old putting up an ERA+ of 121 so far, signed for 3 yrs/$11.09 million plus a $4.75 million team option for his age 29 season.

Iirc, the Japanese posting system was not impacted by the new CBA.

I could be wrong, however.

Chen wasn't posted, he was a FA.

MLBTR could be in a bit of trouble as their recent write-up on the IFA scene includes a significant amount of material behind BA's paywall. I'll attach the MLBTR link here for those interested.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/06/international-prospect-notes-blue-jays-red-sox-twins.html

Barreto indeed is heavily linked to the Jays as is another Venezuelan prospect in pitcher Jose Mujica. Mujica looks a good pitching prospect with a very live looking arm for a 15-year old.

Kevin Gray has a feature on John Stilson in the Union-Leader.

I just noticed that Jose Bautista is the scheduled starting pitcher for Bristol against Bluefield tonight.  Other starters tonight per milb are Scott Richmond; John Stilson; Egan Smith; Kevin Comer; and Tom Robson.  The Vancouver starter is not listed and Lansing are on the last day of their all-star break.

Another home run for Travis Snider tonight in the third inning.

For all the talk about the Jays potential moves to fix he MLB rotation, it is time for the Free Travis Snider movement to gain some steam. He has picked up right where he left off before getting hurt and can't possibly do any more to show it is time, can he? I mean, he as a 19:20 BB/K mark to go along with 8 home runs in 110+ AB and is controlling the zone against lhp and rhp alike. I for one would like to see a Snider, Rasmus and Bautista outfield for the rest of the season. If they can't beat them with pitching they can always try to bludgeon the rest of the AL.

Snider belongs in the major leagues if his wrist is healthy. It's the only place he'll learn how to hit MLB pitching.