Reflections on a Series of Calamities
The on-field performance can only almost certainly get better-- though it might have to get a bit worse before it does, depending on what happens with Adam Lind and his wonky back-- and I get that. But there are still negatives to take from tonight's game that I think can be separated out from the reasonable expectation that team hitting this badly was always going to have a tough time finding the win column.
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I don't think this [pulling Morrow] was nearly the worst thing that Farrell has done this season, or even in this game. I probably wouldn't have liked it any better, but I certainly could have accepted it if John Farrell admitted my first suspicion-- that the decision was a flourish of over-management; a win-at-all-costs move made in the hope of preventing his team's fortunes from continuing a demoralizing slide, especially in the wake of being no-hit on Saturday.
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We could nitpick it to death, but to me that overlooks the bigger stuff, which... I mean... it will hardly surprise you to see me bring this up, but... really? Octavio Dotel getting tagged for four earned runs after being sent in there to face lefties? Who the **** could have seen that coming?
We're far beyond the point where Alex Anthopoulos should have stepped in on this and corrected his manager, and to me that's the most worrying aspect-- as it also is with the Corey Patterson "experiment" in both centre field and the two-hole in the lineup.
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Rivera or Arencibia would be better options, based solely on OBP. Perhaps even Molina, on the days in which he's inexplicably run out there to take away at-bats and experience catching some of the guys expected to be here long-term from JP Arencibia-- another ridiculous decision from a manager who has, bluntly, been shockingly bad so far. And yet another thing that is screaming for attention from the General Manager... unless... y'know... he actually approves of this ****.
I mean, maybe all the back to the old ways, scout-heavy, hustle and heart bull spewing forth from the front office over the last twenty months hasn't simply been marketing department platitudes designed to appease the unwashed, anti-intellectual masses. Maybe Anthopoulos really believes OBP in the two-spot isn't as important as speed, maybe he really believes in catcher ERA, maybe he really believes in letting his manager run the team his own way and staying out of the way. Maybe he really believes that what Farrell has been doing has been OK.
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And maybe I'm wrong, and maybe it's unfair, but the only conclusion I can reasonably draw here-- and strangely enough, the most hopeful conclusion I can come to-- is that, much as we felt last year, Alex just really needs to grow some **** balls.
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And I tell you, if I had any sort of access, it'd be the first thing I'd ask him about-- "if you don't agree with something your manager is regularly doing, if, for example, you don't like the situations he's bringing a certain reliever into games in, how do you handle it?"
That, to me, is the key to whatever the **** is going on here. The possible answer, however-- even though I can assure you I genuinely do grasp that as long as Anthopoulos puts together a good enough collection of players they'll be able to win in spite of their manager-- kinda scares the **** out of me.
The Star
Farrell tested as Jays aim to turn season around
Earlier in the game, Rajai Davis had been caught stealing home on a missed squeeze sign by Yunel Escobar. So in the 10th inning, after reaching on a single to centre against Matt Albers, he stole second and third, allowing David Cooper to drive him home with a walk off sacrifice fly for a 7-6 win over the Red Sox in front of 17,820 at the Rogers Centre.
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An overlooked hero of the night was catcher J.P. Arencibia, making his second straight start behind the plate. He was handling the temperamental rookie Drabek, taking over from his usual, personal catcher, Jose Molina. Arencibia made a great short-hop catch and tag from Corey Patterson to end the fourth, then homered to lead off the sixth and give the Jays another temporary lead.
“I can be an everyday guy both offensively and defensively,” Arencibia said. “I’ve been maturing and making adjustments on different things. Still, it’s a work in progress on both offence and defence. I’ve always had pride in the (defensive) side of my game.”
The win came as a welcome relief for the Jays, as it’s been a tough stretch for rookie manager John Farrell. Since April 30, his team has lost seven of 10 and for the first time in his brief career, it seems Farrell’s ability to handle the stress and frustration of his new job has been tested
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How Farrell emerges on the other side of this mini trial by fire will shape him in the job going forward. While the rest of the A.L. East finds its rhythm, the Jays’ ship is taking on water.
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There is a difference of opinion on the circumstances of his removal.
“I didn’t really see much loss of velocity,” Morrow said quietly prior to Tuesday’s game. “I mean, I was throwing an 88-89 mile-per-hour slider, but I didn’t hit 98 (with the fastball). I hit 96. I was at 93 most of the time. It was cold last night. Changeup I threw was 85 miles per hour. I don’t think (Farrell’s) watching the radar gun, taking me out when the radar gun starts to dip.”
It’s one thing for Farrell to have your bullpen squander a 7-1 lead in Seattle and then designate the architect of that disaster, David Purcey, for assignment within 24 hours. But during this, the Jays’ most character-testing streak of the season, when your future ace is yanked as much due to the manager’s own frustration as anything else, when he seems shocked as you stride to the hill, visibly upset both leaving the mound and in the dugout, that’s different and more serious.
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Farrell showed he could handle the trappings of the role in good times. We’re in the process of finding out how he will handle the same duties when times are not so good.
Do the Jays prefer the dome open or closed?
Minutes before Blue Jays batting practice, rookie catcher J.P. Arencibia trotted to his locker, rummaged through an equipment bag and asked a question that had crossed more than one player’s mind on a cloudy, chilly Tuesday afternoon.
“Is the roof open or closed?” he asked.
Across the room, slugger Jose Bautista didn’t know the answer, but last year’s major league home run champ knew what he preferred.
“Close the rooooof!” he bellowed.
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Last week, the Associated Press published a report examining how weather effects baseball performance which concluded that while sunny days hinder hitters, cloudy days can boost performance at the plate.
The study, which tracked thousands of games between 1987 and 2002, found that home teams batted an average of seven points higher (.266 to .259) on cloudy days compared to sunny ones. For visiting teams, cloud cover added five points (.256 to .251) to batting averages.
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“We also like the roof open — but when it’s a little bit warmer,” said Bautista, who leads the Jays with 12 home runs. “(When you’re warming up) you feel like you’re in the groove of things. Your body gets hot. If they open the roof it gets kind of chilly in here.”
Once the game starts, the roof’s status doesn’t matter to him as long as fans are present, comfortable and enjoying themselves.
Bautista’s stats, however, flourish in climate-controlled conditions.
In 1,982 career at-bats in open-air stadiums (including the Rogers Centre) he’s batting .245 with 94 homers, a rate of one home run every 21.1 at-bats.
But in domes, Bautista’s average career average jumps to .261, and his home run rate jumps to one in every 16 at-bats (27 homers in 433 at-bats).
The Globe and Mail
John Farrell’s previous job guides his hand with Brandon Morrow
After all, Blue Jays manager John Farrell was such a breath of fresh air, coming in as he did after Cito Redux and at a time when the Maple Leafs and Raptors were pretty much abject, that to borrow a phrase from the late, great Joe Strummer: we were diggin’ the new. Then came spring training, Jose Bautista, a little bit of small-ball and, well, love was in the air. Or, at least, on the basepaths.
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Farrell eventually tired of the path of questioning in his pre-game media session. Morrow had a forearm strain in spring training, and as Farrell said, “it’s just natural that if a pitcher gets his arm in a different position it can cause stress on the shoulder.” The consideration in making the move was, in Farrell’s words, “Brandon Morrow, first and foremost.”
Later, Farrell was asked whether it was the old pitching coach or first-year manager that made the call. “Oh sure, I look at him as if I was a pitching coach,” Farrell said. “I would be foolish not to. When you start making decisions on replacing a guy, you have first-hand reference.”
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So was Anthopoulos, who said that when he talks to his manager, “We talk about positional things … advancing base runners. It never seems,” he added, “to revert back to discussions about somebody’s mechanics.”
Only consistency for Jays is inconsistent health
It was as if they had a collective brain cramp, to the point where the Detroit Tigers radio crew of Dan Dickerson and Jim Price kept pointing out that, in addition to Brad Penny throwing fastball after fastball, catcher Victor Martinez was setting up on the outside against right-handed batters pitch after pitch without any of the Toronto Blue Jays figuring it out. And later, after he’d finished carving up the Blue Jays on a Sunday afternoon, Penny remarked that he really didn’t have a chance to dust off his off-speed pitches because the Blue Jays were swinging at early fastballs.
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You can call them the go-go Blue Jays if you want – we all have – but then you’d better be able to explain why they are among the worst teams in the American League in extra-bases taken at 34 per cent, below the league average of 40 per cent.
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“I really believe we’re better offensively then we’ve shown, but it’s hard to develop any consistency when you’re not out there day after day,” Jose Bautista said.
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Their lineup Monday was the 31st different lineup in 35 games for manager John Farrell, and it can be argued that even the Blue Jays have never been 100-per-cent healthy since the first inning of their season opener, when Rajai Davis mucked up his ankle getting caught in a run-down.
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Predictably, the 2011 season has fallen into the normal rhythms of a rebuilding year – some good games, some bad games, some flat-out stinkers, a couple of core players unexpectedly in the minor leagues and the sense that, offensively, we still don’t know what this Blue Jays team is really all about.
David Cooper makes quite an impact
To say that rookie David Cooper had had a rather inauspicious start to his major-league career with the Toronto Blue Jays would be bit of an understatement.
With a couple swings of the bat against the Boston Red Sox at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night, the 24-year-old was able to savour the sweet smell of success for the first time during a 7-6 Toronto victory.
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Cooper wasn’t even in the starting lineup but had to be subbed into the game in the sixth inning after Yunel Escobar had to leave after taking a pitch off the ankle.
He certainly made the most of his opportunity.
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“Cooper’s got a flair for the dramatic it seems like tonight,” said Toronto manager John Farrell, whose team snapped a three-game losing skid with the victory. “It’s good to see him get the bat started, put some good swings on some good fastballs.”
After the game Cooper was a popular man in the Toronto clubhouse, as evidenced by the raucous cheers that could be heard from outside in the hallway.
“You always want to be that guy,” Cooper said afterward. “I think that’s why we all play this game, it’s for those kinds of situations. Against a great team like that it makes it pretty fun.”
Toronto Sun
Lind might visit DL
“(Monday) I could walk but it wasn’t pretty. Today I can and I think I’m almost symmetric; straight up and down. I’m getting better,” Lind said Tuesday, prior to the Jays’ series opener against Boston.
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“It’s hard to answer,” said Lind, when asked how long he would be out. “Maybe after Thursday I’ll be good to go.”
He doesn’t want to go on the disabled list because that would mean missing another 12 days. He doesn’t believe he’ll need that long. Farrell evidently isn’t as certain — and, he has to think not only of Lind but the team’s ability to field a lineup.
“Given where we are with the roster,” Farrell said, “(and to) give him ample time to take care of this without daily pressures,” the club may yet have to consider the DL.
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Toronto was outscored 28-14 in the four games against Detroit and the offence missed Lind, who leads the AL with 27 RBI. They could try to find help by recalling Travis Snider from triple-A Las Vegas. He is hitting .425 (17 for 40) in 12 games there. Then there is 2010 R. Howard Webster Award winner, Eric Thames. The right fielder is hitting .349 with six homers in 31 games.
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David Eckstein is but a blip on the club’s all-time’ roster but he may yet prove more valuable in absence then he was actually being a Blue Jay. Right-hander Chad Beck, acquired for Eckstein in 2008, is 3-0 with a 1.91 ERA in his first season at double-A New Hampshire.
Sunshine Girl
RGM Girl
Random thoughts
I went to the game on Monday. It pretty much sucked. The highlight was heckling a guy wearing a Travis Fryman jersey.
I know I posted a lot of the DJF article, it was because it's the best piece I've read in a while and I definitely recommend following the link and reading the whole thing. I don't necessarily agree with everything in there, but I do think that Stoeten asks some important questions about Antopoulos's relationship with Farrel, and/or his relationship with the media. Highly recommended.
The roof article isn't earth shattering but pretty interesting nonetheless. It's fascinating how such peripheries can affect the game.
It's nice to see Cooper make a big contribution. Obviously we still don't really know what, if anything, he'll be at the big league level, but at least he helped out last night.
Finally, it's awesome that the Jays got a half-decent prospect for Eckstein. At least the team got something out of that signing.
Alright that's it for now, I'm very tired. Have a good one guys.
