ST: Wild Card Prospectors @ Wild Card Pipedreamers | August 14-17

[Skin Blues]

The walks are a new thing with him. He went from not pitching at all to handling A+, AA, and AAA with ease in a short amount of time, all with BB-rates of 6.6% or below. And he's actually missed a decent amount of bats despite his lack of velocity. He's at a 14.6% SwStr rate so far in his 2 MLB starts which is unsustainably high (Kershaw territory) and will no doubt drop once he starts throwing more strikes. But it's a good sign, because we know he's capable of good control.

[dagger]

The Jays seem to be getting the pitching staff ready for next season. Rowley and Biagini could be cheap adds for the bottom of the rotation. Mayza and Dermody are auditioning for left hander roles in the pen (probably pre-empting Loup). I suspect Carlos Ramirez is going to get a shot. Barring trades, the bullpen next season could be the cheapest in the majors: Osuna, Barnes, Tepera, Leone and whoever makes it from the rest, none of whom would cost more than the minimum for their experience level. Osuna is arb-1 this winter, but everyone else is pre-arb.

[Schad]

Does demonstrate how one builds a bullpen. Without ours, we'd be challenging for the worst records in the AL, methinks, yet the highest-paid member of the current group is Aaron Loup, at $1.1m. Beyond Osuna, who received a fairly decent bonus as an IFA, Loup is also the one we expended the greatest asset to receive: the 9th rounder used to select him. Otherwise, they came from a Rule 5 pick, the waiver wire, and unheralded later-round draft picks.

[Lateral Quicks]

Rizzo blew it. With Morales running, that was a guaranteed double play.

[Lateral Quicks]

The Jays seem to be getting the pitching staff ready for next season. Rowley and Biagini could be cheap adds for the bottom of the rotation. Mayza and Dermody are auditioning for left hander roles in the pen (probably pre-empting Loup). I suspect Carlos Ramirez is going to get a shot. Barring trades, the bullpen next season could be the cheapest in the majors: Osuna, Barnes, Tepera, Leone and whoever makes it from the rest, none of whom would cost more than the minimum for their experience level. Osuna is arb-1 this winter, but everyone else is pre-arb.

Please no Dermody.

[Tanner]

Shapiro has said before that he wants no part of the middle relief free agent market so I'd expect the Jays pen to consistently be either homegrown guys from the minors, waiver pick-ups, or cheap one year signings like Joe Smith/JP Howell.

I think what the Jays should do next year is re-sign Estrada to a one year deal, trade Morales for an equally overpaid starter (Ian Kennedy from the Royals, maybe?), go cheapo on the bullpen, and make the AAA rotation Biagini, Rowley, Borucki, and maybe Pannone if they think he's ready to move up, to start with. Gives them inning eaters in the big league rotation and some cheap depth in the minors in case of injury, rather than the **** ballers we have seen this year like Latos, Tepesch, Valdez, and Bolsinger.