Jose reacts to Verlander's MVP

[dagger]

1. Shouldn't give it to a pitcher.
2. Sad, but not bitter, he didn't win it (and acknowledges he'd feel same if Ellsbury had won)
3. Blames second half slowdown on bad habits, not injury

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/2011/1 ... tista_mvp/

Bad habits, and not his ankle injury, were behind his second-half struggles.

"It affected me a little bit and then running into the wall, there were a couple of little lingering things," he explained. "I don't make those excuses and didn't do it last year when I had the hernia. It was nothing that prevented me from finishing as strong as I could. The only reason my second half wasn't as strong as my first was because I went away from my game plan and tried to chase pitches out the zone because at times it did become a bit frustrating because I kept getting walked."

And although he doesn't expect to be perfect, he's still going to try.

"I tried to make things happen in certain situations at times when I probably should have remained a bit more patient and maybe even taken a couple more walks," he said. "The only thing that I lacked in the second half was the consistency and being patient. I'm going to keep working on that. I don't expect to be perfect the whole year."

Jose is too much a company man to say this, so I will: Get a proper cleanup hitter to hit in front of Bautista, Alex!

[rarefind]

4. Adam Lind in the clean up spot

[flatjacket1]

We need David Cooper to replace Lind, and hit in front of Bautista.

[rarefind]

We need David Cooper to replace Lind, and hit in front of Bautista.

Bautista will never move out of that three spot, ever. Farell feels very strongly about ensuring that he gets a plate appearance every game in the first inning. If AA fails to replace Lind, I rather see Lawrie hit in the 4 spot than Lind. Unfortunately though, this will probably never happen.

[lilneige]

yes, AA get it done....

throw 7 yrs $200m at Fielder plz...
trade Lind, Snider, Thames for young SP

[flatjacket1]

We need David Cooper to replace Lind, and hit in front of Bautista.

Bautista will never move out of that three spot, ever. Farell feels very strongly about ensuring that he gets a plate appearance every game in the first inning. If AA fails to replace Lind, I rather see Lawrie hit in the 4 spot than Lind. Unfortunately though, this will probably never happen.

Have him bat 2nd then. His walk rate and average in AAA were unreal, people should be more hyped about him.

[rarefind]

I'm really hoping for Rasmus to regain form and hit in the two spot where i believe he could do very well. Lawrie is the kind of hitter that will make the skipper look like a genius wherever he hits. Hoping he doesn't come across a softmore jinx of any sort.

[Randle McMurphy]

We need David Cooper to replace Lind, and hit in front of Bautista.

Or a legitimate starting 1B that isn't David Cooper or Adam Lind.

[flatjacket1]

I'm really hoping for Rasmus to regain form and hit in the two spot where i believe he could do very well. Lawrie is the kind of hitter that will make the skipper look like a genius wherever he hits. Hoping he doesn't come across a softmore jinx of any sort.

In the meanwhile I think Cooper deserves a spot near the top of the order. He might be the 2nd best player in the organization as far as reaching base goes.

[flatjacket1]

We need David Cooper to replace Lind, and hit in front of Bautista.

Or how a legitimate starting 1B that isn't David Cooper or Adam Lind.

Nice to know you judge players off of 81 plate appearances. Why can Cooper not play 1st?

[Chevy Chase]

Jose is too much a company man to say this, so I will: Get a proper cleanup hitter to hit in front of Bautista, Alex!

Amen bother! AA cost him a MVP by not giving him any protection. Thames should pay him his MVP bonus for getting a major boost in his own numbers from being in the 3 spot.

[flatjacket1]

Thames should pay him his MVP bonus for getting a major boost in his own numbers from being in the 3 spot.

I remember reading an article somewhere which actually said the opposite. He got thrown more offspeed pitches in the 2 hole then any other spot where he batted. He also had better numbers batting 7th than 2nd.

I think improved numbers hitting in front of Bautista is a myth.

[Schad]

We need David Cooper to replace Lind, and hit in front of Bautista.

Or how a legitimate starting 1B that isn't David Cooper or Adam Lind.

Nice to know you judge players off of 81 plate appearances. Why can Cooper not play 1st?

There's the fact that his AAA numbers were inflated by an impossible-to-maintain BABIP, for one; it jumped by more than 100 points, and while his line drive rate went up, it certainly didn't go up by that much. Take that away and drop him in a major league lineup, and suddenly he isn't the same sort of OBP wizard...but he's still the guy who doesn't have the power to play first base.

[Michael Bradley]

If Lind, Cooper, or EE are the starting 1B in 2012, the Jays have no intention of winning. When the best option to hit behind Bautista is a 21-year old with 150 career at bats, that's not a good thing. Get Bautista some help, and 1B is the logical spot to do it.

[flatjacket1]

There's the fact that his AAA numbers were inflated by an impossible-to-maintain BABIP, for one; it jumped by more than 100 points, and while his line drive rate went up, it certainly didn't go up by that much. Take that away and drop him in a major league lineup, and suddenly he isn't the same sort of OBP wizard...but he's still the guy who doesn't have the power to play first base.

Lawrie's AAA numbers were also inflated and hes doing quite well. If you want to talk about jumps, Brett Lawrie's AA-AAA W/OBA jumped 111 points compared to 82 by Cooper, which means Lawrie actually had the bigger jump.

He hit 20 home runs in AA and 9 in AAA. Was that just him regressing? No, its simply that David Cooper hits the ball to center field and the center field in Vegas happens to be a hefty 433 feet. That is part of the reason his doubles nearly doubled (ignore the pun).

I'm not going to sit here and tell you Lawrie isn't the superior player, but they are comparable enough where Cooper deserves a chance to get 200+ PA in the majors.

[Randle McMurphy]

We need David Cooper to replace Lind, and hit in front of Bautista.

Or how a legitimate starting 1B that isn't David Cooper or Adam Lind.

Nice to know you judge players off of 81 plate appearances. Why can Cooper not play 1st?

He's a horrible defensive 1B. He has little-to-no power potential at the position. He has very underwhelming minor league numbers for a guy that's going to be 25 in the spring.

It all adds up to one thing...we're not wasting a season starting a player whose ceiling as a player is not even Lyle Overbay. We would be crazy to.

If you're not going to add a legitimate starting 1B to the team (as AA should obviously be trying to do), platooning Lind with a LHP masher would be the smartest thing to do.

[flatjacket1]

He's a horrible defensive 1B. He has little-to-no power potential at the position. He has very underwhelming minor league numbers for a guy that's going to be 25 in the spring.

It all adds up to one thing...we're not wasting a season starting a player whose ceiling as a player is not even Lyle Overbay. We would be crazy to.

If you're not going to add a legitimate starting 1B to the team (as AA should obviously be trying to do), platooning Lind with a LHP masher would be the smartest thing to do.

According to baseball reference he was +0.1 DWAR in his short stint in AAA.

He has power, 51 doubles in a 433 foot ballpark with 9 home runs.

Next season is a wash anyways, mind as well let the PCL MVP like 1B try his hand at the Majors. We let Lind play a whole season at under .300 OBP

[Randle McMurphy]

According to baseball reference he was +0.1 DWAR in his short stint in AAA.

Did you miss the games in September or something? He's a horrible defensive 1B in every way. He makes Lind look like Albert Pujols in comparison.

Next season is a wash anyways, mind as well let the PCL MVP like 1B try his hand at the Majors.

How exactly is next season "a wash?" They have the best player in baseball and a ton of young talent ready to breakout instead of players like Nix, Patterson, and Rivera comprising the roster. Even if they don't acquire anybody at all to improve 1B or SP (which they obviously should be doing), they're still going to be a very good team.

We let Lind play a whole season at under .300 OBP

We let Lind play a whole season because he's actually had major success at this level before in 2009. It was worth it to see whether he could repeat that success. David Cooper has shown absolutely nothing that would lead anybody to believe he has that kind of season in him.

[youreachiteach]

Lind is fast approaching Aaron Hill territory but the Jays are going to be loathe to give up on him.

He's our first baseman next year. The "we're hoping for bounce back years from certain players" speech AA gave sums up what the team thinks. They are not going for it this year, that much is true.
The annoying thing is, if Adam can keep that first half form of last year, he probably is good enough.

Is that likely to occur? No. But AA is about amassing value and Lind has none except for the fact that he could improve. Playing a 25 year old Overbay clone (he could hit doubles, too) isn't necessary for them to consider.

If they could get Bautista to shift to fourth and Lawrie to third, they could minimize the problem.

Something like:

Escobar (top OBP)
Rasmus (very natural in the hit and run--seems to respond better here)
Lawrie (has awesome skills--kind of like a big bodied Pedrioa)
Jbau
Lind (against righties)/Encarnacion (aganst lefties--our best option at the moment)
Johnson (still carries power and a decent eye)
Arencibia (mistake hitter)
Lind (against lefties/Encarnacion (righties) (some late pop)
Snider (who knows?)

Putting a guy like Ortiz in there would work too--subject to cost. Frankly, I'd rather they trade for pitching/get Yu darvish and leave the lineup as is (if cost prohibits them from making other additions). I don't think Ortiz will sign here though, mainly because he's not in the long term plan--and we aren't trying to win.

It seems so clear that they are targeting Votto, though. The keeping financial flexibility, the allowing for bounce back years, the non-signing of closers--the mid year trade rumblings from AA--they want votto when the reds will be forced to have their backs up against the wall to sign him.

We'll see. If he actually pulls that off--we are very close to a contender the following year after a few adds to the pitching core.

[rarefind]

No to Lind, big no to Cooper. Jays need a viable option at first, anything else would suggest that they are not serious about winning.

and again, Jose will not been seen in the 4 spot.