Bullpen is a bit tired with only Storey and Wagner having more than 1 day off.  Lets hope Happ has it today.  Although a 10 pitch AB vs the leadoff hitter resulting in a home run isn't a promising start.

Clinton Hollon is ballin' right now. He just pitched 4 innings giving up 0 runs 1 hit and 2 walks.

Although a small sample, brings his totals to 12 IP  2 H  0 R  3 BB  0 SO

May have found some gold in the second round draft ; at a discounted rate no less.

Hollon has 10 strikeouts in 12 IP.  That is not great, but quite a bit better than none!

I was a little worried about that too when I first saw the line. I don't judge a pitching prospect until the second half of their first turn in AA.

That said, I would prefer Hollon's current line to a poor one.

Well that was depressing.  Just 1 run scored and Janssen having nothing. In July/August before today Janssen had thrown 10 2/3 IP allowing 9 hits and 5 walks vs 11 strikeouts. Those walks are a bad sign and helped lead to the 6 runs (4 earned) he allowed before today.  One wonders if something is wrong - the Jays seem to be treating him with kid gloves but maybe he is hitting a wall anyways.

Could hardly be overwork so maybe something isn't right with his arm. Not good, whatever the problem is. As for the wall, yeah he's hit something more than a bump in the road it appears.

He pitches so little. I don't know that any trend is statistically valid.

Happ was much better this time. Is it because he was pulled out early last time? Sure looks like he needed another week of rehab.

As long as prospects are on Short Season teams, it will be difficult to determine success. This just weeds out those who can't play and those who don't want to play. The obvious studs/rising stars move fast. It's those who don't rise fast or fail that are harder to read.

But this year's draft class might be the hardest to read. Some of the Seniors drafted are real finds. I can understand not signing Bickford. Apparently he comes from a wealthy family, so money not that important (says who), other fuzzy-type stuff is.

With possible late games to come, Toronto has a protected pick #11 (for Bickford) and the #12 pick in the draft of the Season ended today. It's interesting right now because .01 is all that's stands between the #12 pick and the #7 pick. Just 3 games in the win column are all that separates Toronto at #12 from Milwaukee at #4. So go big or go bad? It all still matters.

While 'tanking' is tempting I'd rather they didn't do it on purpose.  I like to see the Jays win, even at the point where it means little. 
Checking best/worst case draft pick situations... Remember, there have been 49 drafts all time...
#4 overall: 39 reached majors, average of 14 WAR (very nice), 3 with 50+ WAR (Barry Larkin, Kevin Brown, Dave Winfield all over 60), 2 in the 40's, 2 in the 30's (includes active Ryan Zimmerman).  Jays had one #4 pick, used it on Billy Koch.
#11 overall (which the Jays have locked in): 31 reached majors, average WAR of 4.7 with the highest WAR is Greg Luzinski at 26. The Jays only pick in this slot is Deck McGuire.
#12 overall (which the Jays are at now): 31 reached, 9.4 average WAR. Nomar Garciaparra the best (44 WAR). The Jays have never had the 12th overall pick.
#15 overall: 22 reached majors, average of 11.7 WAR, 1 with 50+ WAR (Chase Utley), one in the 40's (Jim Rice), top Jay is #3 for WAR Chris Carpenter.  The Jays also got Gabe Gross with a 15th pick.

Funny how the 11th overall picks have done poorly with no major stars/near HOF'ers.  It does seem clear that #4 would give the Jays a much better shot at a star, although #15 has its share with a HOF'er and a few major award winners.  Halladay was a 17th overall pick, Dave Stieb a 106th so one never knows.

Well John, tanking intentionally will not happen, because this Team could be so bad unintentionally as to put tanking to shame.

With how we have performed when winning was our goal to start the season I wouldn't want to overtly call it tanking- lest we go on a 25 game winning streak.

Griffin has a column today about John Farrell, and how he might win manager of the year. (Well it's about how Farrell's on top now, unlike the start of the season when the media was basically goading him to admit that he made the wrong choice to leave Toronto). Anyways, he suggests that it was always Boston's plan to send Farrell to Toronto for a few years, and then take over in Boston, and that Farrell has a good shot at manager of the year.

I have to say, Farrell as manager of the year would be the perfect caper to this terrible year for the Jays. At this point I'm just hoping that the Red Sox don't win the World Series - that would be a serious assault on my fandom.

perfect caper

It would be that, and also a perfect capper to the year.  Who gets to play Farrell in the movie?  In his Cleveland days, Jim Carrey would have been my choice and now his face is about halfway between Woody Harrelson and Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

With the woodchopper look being so popular with the Sox, I think I'd go with Harrelson. 

Ha. You know Mike, I originally spelled it capper, but the Firefox spell check told me that was wrong, so I went with caper, not realizing that I was suggesting Farrell and the Red Sox were part of Ocean's 26. Should have gone with my instinct.

Should we have capers for breakfast, mummy dear, mummy dear?

Ocean's 26.  Mike Napoli fouls off 20 3-2 pitches and Josh Johnson gets so angry that he tosses pitch #26 over the Green Monster onto a passing Mini Cooper with Clooney and Pitt in the front seat.  The ball stays on the roof through a variety of adventures until a sharp turn on a shoreline route leaves it in the Atlantic Ocean. 

I won't give up my day job. 

The Royals this year are a fascinating story.  They've gone 17-3 in their last 20 games, barely made up any ground on the Tigers but are in the wild card hunt.  Their pitching and defence are good, the offence has woken up and is passable.  They face the Tigers 11 times over the rest of the season and if they can hold their own with those, they have got a decent chance. 

No doubt Farrell is a better manager for having spent two seasons in Toronto. It's just unfortunate that the Jays effectively served as Boston's managerial training grounds - and that the Red Sox ultimately managed to get Butterfield as well.

I wouldn't be surprised to see AA eventually leave for a front office job with another organization, i.e., after paying his dues with the Jays.

Remember in the off-season when we all (pretty much) felt the Jays were better positioned than the Royals for a run after all the moves were done? Jays now 54-64 16 games out of first and 11 out of the wild card.  Royals are 62-54 and just 4 games out of the wild card (#2 team not in playoffs right now). 

Sigh. 2013 will go down as one of the biggest disappointments in Jays history except from an attendance POV.

I also remember the Royals getting hammered on this site for the James Shields deal.

Wil Myers has been excellent and there is no doubt that it was a good deal for the Rays who seemingly can replace quality starting pitching at will. But deals can be good for both sides, and now that the Royals have moved at least into late season contention it might be worth looking at the other side.

Shields is 5th in all of baseball in IP through 25 starts, He's 4th in baseball with 19 QS and has given up more that 4 runs only 3 times all year. That is some serious bullpen relief he provides on a young team with a number of other starters who came into the season as question marks. He's also a guy that you can have start game #1 and not feel overmatched. These things are extremely hard to find and he is a big... big reason why the Royals never cratered like we did in the early season.

If the Royals make the playoffs then I call the deal win-win. And remember, they have him for 2014 as well so they get two kicks at the can.

I don't want to downplay Shields' contributions, but the difference between Wil Myers and Jeff Francouer would almost have made up the difference between Shields and a replacement level starter and Dayton Moore would have had Shields' money to spend on a free agent pitcher. I mean, he may not have landed Anibal Sanchez and there's a risk he lands Edwin Jackson, but you can't look at Shields in isolation without considering the "contributions" of Wade Davis as a starter, the money owed to Shields and the difference between Francouer and Myers.

 

In my books, the Royals are contending more in spite of this move than because of it.

Sometimes, you add by subtracting.  Francoeur would be an example of that. 

It is something that AA might want to consider.

The Royals were very smart (or lucky) to have traded for Ervin Santana, which has added 155 IP of 125 ERA+ to their rotation. They traded Brandon Sisk for him. That makes the Myers trade somewhat more tolerable. Still, the Royals are by no means a lock to make the playoffs this year.

If the Royals and Pirates make the playoffs this year, the Jays will have the longest current playoff drought, correct?

Geez Paul, way to depress us.  Last trip to playoffs...
Royals: 1985
Pirates: 1992
Jays: 1993
Mariners: 2001

Ugh.  If the Pirates and Royals make it then the Jays are the only team not to make it this century.

If you think about it John, Toronto will be the only MLB Club in History to have never made the playoffs since 1993 if K.C. and Pitt. get in.

Or if you prefer, the Jays will be the last club to not make the playoffs in the wild-card era.  1993 was the last time there was no wild card.

The wording of this made me laugh... "Toronto will be the only MLB Club in History to have never made the playoffs since 1993".

I agree with you that the Santana trade was a good one for Kansas City Greenfrog, but I don't see how it would make the Myers trade more tolerable. If anything, it should illustrate how unnecessary the Myers trade was.

A good (or lucky) move doesn't make an obviously poor move anymore tolerable to me.

What is really funny is that Kansas City has seen a DROP in attendance this year despite all the moves and talk of being a contender.  362 fewer fans this year per game than last year, 21,706 fewer total.  Now, a few September games could shift that around but look at how the Jays are getting over 4k a game more than last year and is averaging nearly 10k a game more.  Phew.  Guess the Jays did a better job conning people into believing than KC did.

More tolerable in that without the Santana trade, the Royals likely wouldn't be in contention (and would have an inferior playoff rotation), and the Shields trade would have been a waste of assets (trading away a potential star for veterans that weren't enough to put them over the top). You can make the case that the Myers trade was a poor one in any case - hence the qualified phrase "somewhat more tolerable."

And, as previously noted, the Royals haven't won anything yet. It remains to be seen whether the risk will pay off even to the extent of garnering a WC spot (itself only a 50/50 ticket to the playoffs).

The funny thing is that AA always said, you can't force contention. Then he tried to force contention, and it didn't work.