Alex Gonzalez numbers were also good before he was traded.
Defrnsively these departures hurt even more: Lind/Overbay Arencebia/Buck are, in my opinion a big drop in quality. Center field not so much defensively as Vernon is aging.
Toronto Blue Jays 2011
- Thread starter plyrs99
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Defrnsively these departures hurt even more: Lind/Overbay Arencebia/Buck are, in my opinion a big drop in quality. Center field not so much defensively as Vernon is aging.
Molina is also going to be doing significant amount of catching.
Bats working well this spring training. 20 hits with today's game, resulting in good numbers now for Hill and Lind.
It's the starting pitchers who aren't quite firing on all cylinders now, particularly Romero and Cecil.
Bats working well this spring training. 20 hits with today's game, resulting in good numbers now for Hill and Lind.
It's the starting pitchers who aren't quite firing on all cylinders now, particularly Romero and Cecil.
The media is suggesting that the Morrow injury is relatively minor and he will miss only a couple of starts.
Hopefully, Drabek steps into Marcum's shoes with no bumps along the way. Pitching appears solid. Overbay's average was poor. Buck might not repeat with anything close to his offence of last year. Vernon.... well, we all know THAT story.
Bautista back in right field; Encarnacion at third base
In a late spring training twist, the Toronto Blue Jays have decided Edwin Encarnacion will retain his position at third base whilst permanently moving slugger Jose Bautista to right field, according to BlueJays.com.
Bautista was originally slated to play third and Encarnacion to bat as the designated hitter while occasionally playing first base behind Adam Lind.
Juan Rivera, who was expected to play right field, has been moved to DH.
The move comes as a surprise. The Jays re-signed Encarnacion in the off-season for one year to be the team’s primary DH after leading the team with 18 errors in 2010.
Bautista has said in the past that he prefers playing right field.
Manager John Farrell believes Bautista’s strong throwing arm will serve the team better in a corner outfield spot, although he said Rivera will get occasional starts in left and right field.
Encarnacion back at third base
(Now, this move makes a lot more sense!)
In a late spring training twist, the Toronto Blue Jays have decided Edwin Encarnacion will retain his position at third base whilst permanently moving slugger Jose Bautista to right field, according to BlueJays.com.
Bautista was originally slated to play third and Encarnacion to bat as the designated hitter while occasionally playing first base behind Adam Lind.
Juan Rivera, who was expected to play right field, has been moved to DH.
The move comes as a surprise. The Jays re-signed Encarnacion in the off-season for one year to be the team’s primary DH after leading the team with 18 errors in 2010.
Bautista has said in the past that he prefers playing right field.
Manager John Farrell believes Bautista’s strong throwing arm will serve the team better in a corner outfield spot, although he said Rivera will get occasional starts in left and right field.
Encarnacion back at third base
(Now, this move makes a lot more sense!)
Greinke's also been shutdown & won't start the season with the Brewers. Tough!
Marcum does'nt appear to have a serious injury. Scheduled to pitch on Saturday against Cincinnatti Reds.
http://gazettextra.com/news/2011/mar/29/marcum-says-hes-ready-pitch/
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Encarnacion to 3rd seems to set up a move to bring Lawrie up from Triple A in June, assuming he plays well down there. That would also mean Encarnacion likely gets traded if Lawrie comes up. EE would be a lot easier to move this year since he's only getting paid about 2.5 M this year as opposed to about the 5.2 M he made last year.
Farrell probably dissapointed with Rivera's work in the outfield; but, at least his bat seems pretty good.
Wilner had a good post on this subject:
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Quote:
"My flight home touched down almost exactly 12 hours ago, and I was looking forward to a down day or two, but instead, intrepid reporters Gregor Chisholm of mlb.com and John E. Lott of The National Post spread the news that this morning, John Farrell announced that Jose Bautista was moving back out to right field, Edwin Encarnacion was returning to third base, and Juan Rivera was being pulled in from the outfield to serve as the designated hitter.
It’s a major change, and on the face of it, means simply that the Blue Jays feel they’re better defensively with Encarnacion at third and Bautista in right than with Bautista at third and Rivera in right. It means that the Blue Jays were so unimpressed by Rivera’s work in the outfield they figure they’re better off living with Encarnacion at third.
I can’t believe it’s that simple.
Yes, Edwin looks a lot better this spring. He’s lost weight, he’s faster and more agile. Thing is, he was always a great defensive third baseman. He got to a ton of balls and made terrific plays on tough grounders with regularity. He just couldn’t throw. I don’t see how losing weight and gaining agility is going to help him throw the ball where he wants it to go. His throwing certainly hadn’t improved significantly the times I saw him at third this spring.
To me, this is more about how unimpressed the Blue Jays were with Rivera in the outfield. He didn’t stand out to me as being especially awful, and he even threw out a couple of runners at the plate. Now that I think about it, though, I can recall three or four fly balls to right that should have been caught but weren’t. I don’t get a good view of right field from the broadcast booth, so I didn’t see every jump he got or every route he took, but I guess Rivera was a lot worse than they’d hoped - so bad, in fact, that they’d rather put a guy who made 18 errors in 95 games back at third base.
Don’t think Encarnacion is going to play all year at third, though. This move greases the skids for an even earlier than expected call-up for Brett Lawrie. Lawrie was in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse before the rain-shortened game with the Red Sox, and I didn’t think anything of it, because guys get called up from the minor-league complex all the time. But then he didn’t play in the game - maybe the adverse conditions had them keep him out - which would be unusual for a minor-leaguer, especially one of his stature.
I don’t think Lawrie is going to get called up to break camp with the Blue Jays as the DH, while learning to play third from Brian Butterfield, and eventually switch positions with Encarnacion a couple of months into the season, but it could happen.
That’s, of course, predicated on the Blue Jays being able to move Rivera - and with lots of teams trying to figure out a trade market for their players who are out-of-options over the course of the next three days, that could be a possibility.
As well, the fact that Adam Lind has shown that he can handle poor throws at first base is a big bonus. His hands are very good, he picks the ball very well on bad throws, so having Edwin over there isn’t going to kill him (though maybe Jon Rauch at first would be the best option). I’m more worried that Encarnacion is going to get Aaron Hill killed, which almost happened at least half a dozen times last season.
Maybe he has made great strides in his throwing, but it’s hard to believe that Encarnacion can now do something that he hasn’t been able to do for the first six years of his major-league career. Something that the Blue Jays were so convinced he wasn’t going to be able to fix that when they brought him back they swore up and down his days as a third baseman were over.
What changed their minds? Two things - just how well Lawrie took to third, and just how bad Rivera looked in right.
Still, I can’t shake the feeling that there might be something else coming."
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http://blog.rogersbroadcasting.com/mikewilner/2011/03/29/shuffling-the-deck/
http://gazettextra.com/news/2011/mar/29/marcum-says-hes-ready-pitch/
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Encarnacion to 3rd seems to set up a move to bring Lawrie up from Triple A in June, assuming he plays well down there. That would also mean Encarnacion likely gets traded if Lawrie comes up. EE would be a lot easier to move this year since he's only getting paid about 2.5 M this year as opposed to about the 5.2 M he made last year.
Farrell probably dissapointed with Rivera's work in the outfield; but, at least his bat seems pretty good.
Wilner had a good post on this subject:
---
Quote:
"My flight home touched down almost exactly 12 hours ago, and I was looking forward to a down day or two, but instead, intrepid reporters Gregor Chisholm of mlb.com and John E. Lott of The National Post spread the news that this morning, John Farrell announced that Jose Bautista was moving back out to right field, Edwin Encarnacion was returning to third base, and Juan Rivera was being pulled in from the outfield to serve as the designated hitter.
It’s a major change, and on the face of it, means simply that the Blue Jays feel they’re better defensively with Encarnacion at third and Bautista in right than with Bautista at third and Rivera in right. It means that the Blue Jays were so unimpressed by Rivera’s work in the outfield they figure they’re better off living with Encarnacion at third.
I can’t believe it’s that simple.
Yes, Edwin looks a lot better this spring. He’s lost weight, he’s faster and more agile. Thing is, he was always a great defensive third baseman. He got to a ton of balls and made terrific plays on tough grounders with regularity. He just couldn’t throw. I don’t see how losing weight and gaining agility is going to help him throw the ball where he wants it to go. His throwing certainly hadn’t improved significantly the times I saw him at third this spring.
To me, this is more about how unimpressed the Blue Jays were with Rivera in the outfield. He didn’t stand out to me as being especially awful, and he even threw out a couple of runners at the plate. Now that I think about it, though, I can recall three or four fly balls to right that should have been caught but weren’t. I don’t get a good view of right field from the broadcast booth, so I didn’t see every jump he got or every route he took, but I guess Rivera was a lot worse than they’d hoped - so bad, in fact, that they’d rather put a guy who made 18 errors in 95 games back at third base.
Don’t think Encarnacion is going to play all year at third, though. This move greases the skids for an even earlier than expected call-up for Brett Lawrie. Lawrie was in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse before the rain-shortened game with the Red Sox, and I didn’t think anything of it, because guys get called up from the minor-league complex all the time. But then he didn’t play in the game - maybe the adverse conditions had them keep him out - which would be unusual for a minor-leaguer, especially one of his stature.
I don’t think Lawrie is going to get called up to break camp with the Blue Jays as the DH, while learning to play third from Brian Butterfield, and eventually switch positions with Encarnacion a couple of months into the season, but it could happen.
That’s, of course, predicated on the Blue Jays being able to move Rivera - and with lots of teams trying to figure out a trade market for their players who are out-of-options over the course of the next three days, that could be a possibility.
As well, the fact that Adam Lind has shown that he can handle poor throws at first base is a big bonus. His hands are very good, he picks the ball very well on bad throws, so having Edwin over there isn’t going to kill him (though maybe Jon Rauch at first would be the best option). I’m more worried that Encarnacion is going to get Aaron Hill killed, which almost happened at least half a dozen times last season.
Maybe he has made great strides in his throwing, but it’s hard to believe that Encarnacion can now do something that he hasn’t been able to do for the first six years of his major-league career. Something that the Blue Jays were so convinced he wasn’t going to be able to fix that when they brought him back they swore up and down his days as a third baseman were over.
What changed their minds? Two things - just how well Lawrie took to third, and just how bad Rivera looked in right.
Still, I can’t shake the feeling that there might be something else coming."
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http://blog.rogersbroadcasting.com/mikewilner/2011/03/29/shuffling-the-deck/
Great post Kilgore....I totally agree with you and Wilner....but its scary to think of EE at 3rd w/out Overbay at 1st to bail him out....glad I'm sitting behind 3rd base on Sunday, not 1st....
I read somewhere that Lawrie needs to spend 3-4 weeks in the minors for the Jays to get another full year of service before he becomes a free agent. In that case, have Encarnacion start the season at third, then in 4-5 weeks bring Lawrie up, to take over.
Makes sense to me..
Makes sense to me..
This is a very common tactic.....delays arbitration and everything else....especially common amongst the small market teams - Giants did it last year with Buster Posey, I believe the Twins did it with Mauer, most teams do it....
Think I'll predict 82 wins for this team this year, maybe 12 short of what you'll need to get a wild card.
On the negative side, I'm feeling a little uneasy about the way Brett Cecil and Ricky Romero looked in spring training. If Morrow gets hurt it'll be a big set back because in spring he's looked like the best starter while Drabek has looked like the second best starter.
I think this team will be a pretty good run generator though. Maybe better than last year.
On the negative side, I'm feeling a little uneasy about the way Brett Cecil and Ricky Romero looked in spring training. If Morrow gets hurt it'll be a big set back because in spring he's looked like the best starter while Drabek has looked like the second best starter.
I think this team will be a pretty good run generator though. Maybe better than last year.
I don't think we saw the best of those two in these pre-season games. So I remain optimistic they will carry on as they left off with one proviso, that Cecil might need a few weeks to get to his best. Same thing last seasonm with him if I remember correctly.
Bullpen seems a lot stronger.
Batting numbers from these pre-season games look terrific. They have also come through late in several games which I don't recall they were good at last season?
No ones expecting great things this season so with all that pressure off they may well surprise a few of the experts. Much better season last year than almost everyone predicted. Why not the same again.
Ever the optimist, I'm hoping for 88 - 90 which would give them a shout at the wildcard.
(Got my raptors prediction horribly wrong so maybe too much of an optimist for my own good).
6 - 0 now. Speed was on display in the 1st inning, power with Arencibia hitting the homer in the 4th....and now Buatista and Lind in the 5th - 8 - 0 now....
The Jays should pay for Aaron Cibia's mother to fly to all his games. He plays really well when she's in the audience. There for his first game last year too.
