Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
For his role in almost blowing Saturday's eventual 11-9 win by the Blue Jays over Cleveland at the Dome Saturday afternoon, right-handed reliever Jesse Chavez has been sent back to AAA Las Vegas according to Gregor Chisholm of BlueJays.com. Chad Beck has been beamed up from the 51s to take Chavez's place.



Jesse Chavez
posted an 0-1 record with an 8.85 earned run average over 8 appearances, including a pair of starts, with Toronto this season.




Chavez posted a decent 26-8 K/BB ratio over 20.1 innings but his WHIP was 1.57 and his batting average against was .282.  The 28 year-old native of Victorville, California has fared much better with Las Vegas this season, going 7-2 with a 3.84 ERA over a dozen starts with a 65-15 K/BB ratio over 70.1 innings.Before the Cleveland disaster, Chavez put together a couple of scoreless outings against the White Sox in Chicago before the All-Star break spanning 2.2 innings.  He was entrusted to preserve an 11-4 lead when he relieved lefty Aaron Loup, whose impressive debut saw him set down all six hitters he faced - five of them by groundout.   However, Chavez did not retire any of the four hitters he faced, resulting in a pair of two-run homers by Michael Brantley and Casey Kotchman to make the score 11-8.  Drew Carpenter got the first two outs of the inning but needed help from Casey Janssen to clean up the mess for the four-out save.  Janssen saved the game for Aaron Laffey, who managed to scrape together five innings to qualify for the win.

At least the offence got the job done, spearheaded by Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind.  Encarnacion went deep twice and drove home three while Lind had a four-hit, four-RBI afternoon.  Brett Lawrie was on base thrice with two hits, a walk and a stolen base and Kelly Johnson stole a pair of bags to go along with a double.  Everyone except for Colby Rasmus and Rajai Davis were in on the hit parade that totalled 13 on the day.

The Jays will face Derek Lowe (8-6, 4.43) against Carlos Villanueva (3-0, 3.05) in the series finale at the Dome Sunday at 1:07 pm ET.  Lowe handed the Jays their first loss of 2012 when they averted a season opening sweep by the Jays in Cleveland.  Over the last five years, Omar Vizquel is 4-for-9 lifetime against Lowe while Rasmus and Jose Bautista are each 1-for-4.

On the minor league front, BlueJays.com says Las Vegas catcher Travis d'Arnaud is expected to be out for the rest of 2012 after suffering a knee injury last month.

Plus, Twins scouts are checking out Lansing Lugnuts games according to a tweet from Jon Paul Morosi of FoxSports.
Chavez To Revisit Cosmo & The Boys | 19 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Richard S.S. - Saturday, July 14 2012 @ 09:30 PM EDT (#260355) #
I guess we will have to check out the Twins Roster to determine A.A.'s target.   Will it be a direct trade or a "flip"?   This will be fascinating.
scottt - Saturday, July 14 2012 @ 09:43 PM EDT (#260356) #
Liriano and the injured Pavano are on the block, but there are no untouchable on that team.
TamRa - Saturday, July 14 2012 @ 11:01 PM EDT (#260359) #
I don't see why we can't let them have Chris Hawkins and some change for Liriano...

:)
TamRa - Saturday, July 14 2012 @ 11:17 PM EDT (#260360) #
as for Chavez, one would have to assume that's the end of his major-league career. Nothing else he does in the minors will warrant another chance.

Can we PLEASE have some Snider now?????
ComebyDeanChance - Saturday, July 14 2012 @ 11:35 PM EDT (#260362) #
I see Noah Syndergaard left the game after three excellent innings. Wonder what's up"
ComebyDeanChance - Saturday, July 14 2012 @ 11:43 PM EDT (#260363) #
It was a rain delay.
dan gordon - Saturday, July 14 2012 @ 11:47 PM EDT (#260364) #

If there's a deal with the Twins, maybe Morneau and Liriano, although Lind seems to have gotten back into the organization's good books again.  I'd like to get Morneau.  His home park is killing his numbers.  Away from home, he's got an OPS of .856, and of course, he's capable of more than that when/if he's fully healthy.

On the last minor league update thread, it was mentioned that Snider has done little since the injury.  He's hitting .250 since the end of April.  Until he starts hitting again, he's not coming back up.  Here's hoping he gets hot for 2-3 weeks and gets the call.

TamRa - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 01:47 AM EDT (#260368) #
speaking of Lind, he's now reached 50 at bats since the recall.

.340 / .389 / .640 / 1.029

SSS caveat applies (obviously)
Oceanbound - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 05:53 AM EDT (#260369) #
I don't get it. Why wait for Snider to get hot in the minors. Hot or cold, you're just not going to learn anything new about him while he's down there now. Time for Snider to show what he's got, and the only place for him to do that is in the majors. Rajai has no business blocking anyone. Just get Snider up here and let him sink or swim.
Sano - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 07:21 AM EDT (#260370) #
To be honest Oceanbound, I would say that a 2 or 3 month period won't really teach us anything about Snider either. Or at least it won't teach us anything definitive. We already know that he can be hot and cold for 3 or 4 week stretches.

I've got to be honest, at this point I really don't know how you solve the Snider problem. I think I agree with you that he should be in the majors solely for the reason that for him to finally "click" in some way, it's going to have to happen at this level. But unless I see that "click" happen, I won't feel comfortable giving him the LF job for next season on the basis of an average (i.e. hot and cold streaks) rest of the season.
lexomatic - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 07:31 AM EDT (#260371) #
"I don't get it. Why wait for Snider to get hot in the minors. Hot or cold, you're just not going to learn anything new about him while he's down there now. Time for Snider to show what he's got, and the only place for him to do that is in the majors. Rajai has no business blocking anyone. Just get Snider up here and let him sink or swim."

Oceanbound, I can think of a few reasons to leave him down. I do agree that he probably can't learn anything new at AAA, but I wouldn't call him up yet. Here's why.

1) my understanding of the option system is that if Snider were called up mid-season, and had to be sent down again, that would use up an option, his last one, I believe. If you still see a player as a potential contributor and asset going forward, you would be using up team control. If you're not sure of Snider's readiness to contribute due to recovery from injury, then it would be throwing away team control. This woulnd't happen if he gets called-up in September. Someone please correct any mistakes.
2) Snider has already been jerked around a ton in his career. His next call-up will probably be his last chance with the Jays. You want to ensure he's in the best position to succeed (unless there's a need b/c injuries). If his timing is still off, calling him up now might only mess with his head, and then you have that to deal with already. I don't know the guy, but with the short lease he's had, he's probably pretty fragile confidence-wise.
3) The whole contention thing. The Jays still aren't REALLY out of it yet, despite all the injuries. I think Snider presents the best option in LF if he's healthy and he's not pressing or messed up mechanically. If you call him up not 100% he might end up being a worse option than Davis.

I think in most work situations, managers and employers have a poor grasp of proper asset (employee) management.

James W - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 09:14 AM EDT (#260372) #
The Jays already used an option on Snider this season to send him to AAA at the beginning of the season.
bpoz - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 10:22 AM EDT (#260376) #
Correct James W. When Snider spent 20 healthy days in the minors, either in 1 stretch or broken up the option was used up. He can now go up and down like McCoy until the end of the year. But next year he cannot be sent down unless he is DL'd.

Hutch has burned no options since he was DL'd. When he is healthy he gets a 30 day rehab. I can actually see him doing his rehab during the Dunedin playoffs. He may also be able to go to the AFL, I don't know how that affects options if healthy or rehabbing.
85bluejay - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 11:40 AM EDT (#260381) #
Kenny Williams does it again - Sergio Santos headed for season-ending labrum surgery - I was expecting this, wish it was done earlier -Yankees/Red Sox/Jays all traded for pitchers who will spend most/all of 2012 on DL - I will not be surprised if the Jays make a play for Matt Capps.
joeblow - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 11:40 AM EDT (#260382) #
Sadly and frustratingly, Snider's maximum value to this organization is probably at AAA. The risk of him coming back to the big leagues and not succeeding is still high at this point. He would have to outstanding at the major league level to increase his value and to under-perform would basically reduce his value to nil.
JB21 - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 11:47 AM EDT (#260383) #
Nestor Molina hasn't exactly been tearing it up (link below), so assuming the surgery goes well and Santos is back next year for Spring Training, it's not a huge blow to the Jays.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=molina001nes
TamRa - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 06:03 PM EDT (#260398) #
Snider's value, good or bad, is not in how "hot" or "cold" he is statistically, it's the quality of his play. One of the things Alex has said over and over is that they look for things other than statistical totals to tell them when a player is having quality at-bats and they feel good about his outcomes.

If they call up Snider and he has quality at bats the rest of the way, then it will tell them TONS about whether they want him in LF next year. If they call him up and he doesn't, that will too.

I don't see any point in trying to finesse his trade value because it's not going to get significantly better OR worse. Snider is essentially our Alex Gordon, or whatever. Either we work it out and he is something like what we thought we were going to get, or he's going to be traded for much less than we would have thought he was worth say 2 years ago. What he does the rest of this season isn't going to affect the trade value much.

John Northey - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 06:14 PM EDT (#260400) #
With Snider odds are they haven't seen what they are waiting to see in AAA - the quality AB's or pitch recognition. If he doesn't get it then odds are he would not succeed here so why bother calling him up unless he shows what they need to see?

Its a shame - Snider seems like a good kid, has tons of talent but just cannot stop the K's or get the power high enough to compensate.
uglyone - Sunday, July 15 2012 @ 09:08 PM EDT (#260407) #
he's actually got his K-rate well under control at the AAA level at least - 16.7% this year, 15.9% last year. That's very good, especially for a power hitter.
Chavez To Revisit Cosmo & The Boys | 19 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.