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What are the Blue Jays up to?

Mike Lavery at TheBaseballPage.com has an interesting take on what's up in The Mind of Anthopolous and even previews the 2012 Jay lineup. Give it a read and weigh in ... whatchathink, Bauxites?

It has happened, Aaron Hill is gone, along with John McDonald for Kelly Johnson via the Jays website.

The best thing about Da Box is its community. You guys are great! That community exists to an extent on Twitter, but it's somewhat fragmented, so I'd like to compile a list of Bauxites so we can all be a big happy Twamily. If you want to be on the list let me know here. Just a forewarning: by putting your info here, you're giving me permission to re-publish it in future updates to this thread or on something like a static page at the top of the site.

With all the attention focused on the draft recently, it occurred to me recently to go back to Michael Lewis's famous baseball book, Moneyball, and look at the chapters on that year's draft (2002). Lewis dissects the draft, highlighting the players Oakland was interested in and the others who figured in to their picks. You could put together a pretty interesting all-star team from the players mentioned by name in that part of the book, and here they are:

Sorry about the interruption.  We are running a customized, and old, version of geeklog software that does not appreciate a lot of volume.

The draft deadline is complete and in the next day or two the jury will render its opinion on the Jays draft, now that we know who is signing and who isn't.  The riskiest move of the day was Tyler Beede turning down $2.5m to go to college.  I hope it works out for the kid but unfortunately for him a lot has to go right to make it worthwhile financially.

A brouhaha has erupted in the wake of an ESPN report that seems to implicate the Toronto Blue Jays in using some sort of relay (a now infamous "man in white") to steal signs, which would be in contravention of the rules of baseball. You'll note I say "seems to implicate," because ESPN doesn't have any sort of actual proof that the Jays have stolen signs illegally, more like rumour and conjecture; the article by Amy K. Nelson and Peter Keating is at various points subtitled "The Blue Jays deny they're stealing signs - evidence may lead to another conclusions" and "Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays under suspicion again of stealing signs at Rogers Centre."

The evidence offered essentially breaks down to anonymous player reports (seemingly from a single bullpen), statistical cherrypicking, and the extreme unusualness of the Jay's 2010 offensive season. None of these on their own are convincing, but according to ESPN when put together they mean that "every pitch to a Blue Jay in Toronto is worth watching" which is of course meaningless pablum, but which again seems intended to implicate that the Jays are doing something illegal or unethical.

So are the Blue Jays stealing signs illegally? I have no honest idea. I'm sure they are relaying pitch location from second base with runners on; plenty of teams do that, and the Jays seems to be at the forefront of that. I'm willing to acknowledge that it's within the realm of possibility that the Jays are even going farther than that - not especially likely, but not completely improbably either. Mostly though, I think it's unfortunate that ESPN decided to run with what seems like at best a highly circumstantial set of allegations that are not backed up by it's own reporting. Let's review.

Bye, Juan.

In an odd, that''s-gonna-fail stab at  addressing a problematic hole in left field, earlier today the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired right-handed "hitting" outfielder Juan Rivera and cash from the Jays for a player to be named or cash. In a related move, to create roster space, LA OF Marcus Thames was designated for assignment.

In another thread, long-time Bauxite MatO captured this deal perfectly with the comment, "Who made the Rivera deal?  The bankruptcy judge? "

Now that we are at the '1/2 way point' (actually a bit past) I got to wondering if anyone is on pace for new records for a Blue Jay.

Bauxite ayjackson was wondering

When was the last time we were in that situation?  With a 3-4 hole in the lineup as strong as its been since (ever?).  Certainly since Green/Delgado.

Is Bautista-Lind indeed the best one-two punch the Jays have had in their lineup since then?

It was “even steven” on the farm Friday, but Pitchers were knocked around pretty hard and the bats were nothing to write home about.  So 3-3 on the night actually sounds a lot better than the performances turned in by the affiliates.

Perhaps it was seeing the name Sam Horn appear, not once but twice, in the list of players who had hit grand slams against the Blue Jays that gave me this idea. (Horn hit just 62 HRs in his career, and most of them as an Oriole, by the way.)

We all love AA around here, right? Okay, maybe not all of us love him enough to write a tribute song. But some of us do. Hope you enjoy!

And I won't let you choke
On the noose around your neck.

The Jays finish their 10 game road trip tonight in Dee-troit, a 6.05 start, making up for an earlier rain out. The Jays then get 6 at home (Pirates, Halladay's) and 7 on the road (Red Sox, Cleveland's) before the All-Star Break. Let's ruminate.

This = Pitching. That = Hitting.