Adam Lind should play the field

Look, I know Lind’s a bit of butcher out in left field. I know it really seems like he’s destined to be a career DH or, possibly, a first baseman. I know his defensive stats are a little unimpressive — UZR/150 of -24.4 last year! — but they’re based on a pretty small sample size.

So yeah, it seems like Lind should be limited to an offensive role. But in response to that logic, I’m going to steal a line from Napoleon Rosenthal: “Come on!”

Lind’s only 26 and he’s only entering his second full season in the bigs. The Jays are expected to have an awful season this year, so why not give Lind a shot to improve on his defence out in left field? With Brian Butterfield still working his magic in terms of coaching the basics of fielding, what’s the worst that could happen? The worst I can think of is that Lind doesn’t develop at all in left and costs the teams a few runs and maybe a few wins. If that’s the case, yes it’ll be frustrating, but who cares? This season is about building.

Sticking Johnny Damon out in left is not building.

Writing off Lind’s defensive skills this early in his career is not building.

Another bonus of sticking Lind out in left is that it’ll give the Jays a chance to Free Randy Ruiz. Now that’s a guy who deserves a shot at being a full-time DH but has nothing to lose by sitting on the bench for the top of the first during home games.

The other position that keeps coming up as a defensive possibility for Lind is first base. What people who bring up this possibility seem to forget is that forgotten man Lyle Overbay is still on the team. I will not stand for Overbay bashing or doubting, so as long as he’s on the team, the position, in my mind at the very least, belongs to the Albino Warlord.

Nothing groundbreaking

Given that I like to hang out in my mom’s basement pounding away on a keyboard and given the fact that I sometimes use said keyboard to pound out statistics instead of words like “grit,” it may come as a surprise that I’m just now reading Billy Beane’s book about just how great computers really are. Yes, I’m reading Moneyball. No, I can’t believe how long it’s taken me, either.

I don’t want to play the part of the guy who walks into a 4-hour meeting 3.5 hours late and wants to rehash everything he’s missed, so I’ll spare you from a review of the book. If that’s what you want, Google’s your friend, not me. All I’m going to say is that the book did two things for me: It solidified a bunch of foggy thoughts floating around in my head and it gave me an even better appreciation of the importance of stats.

Now, as someone who’s newly enamoured with the idea of moneyball, you might think that I would disapprove of Anthopoulos’s scouting-heavy plan to rebuild the Jays. It would be easy to say, “scouts can’t be trusted. Just look at the numbers, AA! Oh and by the way, Wells IS an awful centrefielder, no matter what your eyes tell you.” Yes, that would be easy. And even though I may have said those things in the past, I’m not going to right now. What I’m going to say is this: As a new moneyball convert, I’m excited about the plan to rebuild the Jays through superior scouting.

I know scouting may not count as a market inefficiency, but can a team like the Jays really get ahead by exploiting market inefficiencies right now? With Billy Beane still running the A’s, and the New Yorks and Bostons of the world using moneyball ideals backed up with, you know, a lot of money, I’d say that no, the Jays can’t compete in that arena.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t inefficiencies left to be found, and maybe the Jays will find some, but the easier approach is to do what you know and to do it well.

Now, I’m not going to go digging up links to back this up (and please correct me if I’m wrong) but AA seems to be using his history in the Expos organization to the extreme and bringing in as many staffers and scouts as he can from that defunct team.

What were the Expos good at? Drafting and developing some pretty awesome baseball players.

What were the Expos bad at? Being able to keep those players around because the team was being run into the ground financially.

If AA can create and nurture the scouting and development in Toronto that the Expos had in Montreal, the Jays will be in a position to be a dominant (or least competitive) team for a long, long time. Because, despite what many seem to think, Toronto is a big-market team and the money’s there to keep the talent around.

It’s not Billy Beane’s moneyball, but it’ll have to do.

Lance (Loose Cannon) Broadway

Back on Dec. 16, in the midst of working out the Roy Halladay deal, the Toronto Blue Jays signed RHP Lance Broadway. The move was met with indifference by most Jays fans — mainly because of the whole Halladay situation, but partly because, really, who cares about Lance Broadway?

Career ERA over 5? Check.

Career WHIP of 1.600? Check.

Non-tendered by the god-awful Metropolitans? You betcha.

Clearly Broadway was meant to be a Las Vegas (or lower) bullpen bench warmer. But what most fans don’t realize is that the man has a damn powerful arm.

According to Hair Balls, an excellently named Houston Press blog, Broadway’s been charged with assault.

Basically, Broadway was partying with some United League Baseball scrub. Said scrub tried to pick up some girl, and the girl’s boyfriend’s friend (I know that sounds like urban myth territory, but what can I do) didn’t take too kindly to it. The friend who was offended talked to the scrub and thought everything was cool.

Broadway, however, did not think everything was cool. Here is how the girl’s boyfriend’s friend described the incident to the court:

“He’s taken his shirt off, he takes a running start from Ivan’s left-hand side, punching Ivan in the left side of the face, knocking him out. It broke his orbital socket, broke his cheekbone…shattered his nose, detached his retina….”

Reading up to this point, I thought to myself, “self, the Jays need a shit disturber. This cat is a loose cannon and sounds like he’s batshit insane, but remember how it was left to Jesse Carlson — JESSE CARLSON! — to deal with Pussada last year? This Broadway guy sounds like he could do some damage to the Yankees or whoever else decides to drill a million Jays hitters.”

Then I read about the brawl that ensued and how “Broadway punched several women, knocking one out.” And I’m not so keen on having him in the organization anymore.

Good thing he’s on a minor league deal and should be easy to cut ties with.

And now, for the first time, I’m going to use the break feature in one of my posts. If you want to see the damage that Broadway did to this dude, there’s a pic after the jump. Trust me, it’s pretty gruesome.

David Ortiz: Health-care provider

There is a man who sits outside the Shoppers Drug Mart in my neighbourhood. I would not call this man homeless. He has a relatively comfortable looking chair that to sit in, he has a small electric scooter, he never asks anyone for change and he never looks that disheveled.

Why he sits there all the time, I do not know. How he survives, I do not know. But sit there he does. Other than the fact that he sits there and occasionally looks after someone’s dog while they’re shopping, all I know about him is that the soccer-loving lads up the road have taken to calling him Winehouse Jim.

I walked past said Shoppers today. On my approach, I could see that ol’ Winehouse was involved in a heated conversation with an old lady.  I only heard a small bit of the conversation, and Jim was the only one talking as I walked by, but here’s what he had to say:

… Massachusetts voters!

Hey, everybody! Come listen to this stupid American!

The people in Massachusetts already have health care! You know why? You know who gave it to them?

BIG PAPI!

While he’s right that Massholes and others who happen to live in that state have a form of health care — unless I missed some huge news in the last few years — I really don’t think that a baseball-playing Dominican steroid user is responsible for it. But I’m happy that ol’ Winehouse Jim thinks he is. My daily walk past him just got more interesting.

Shaun Marcum signs, fan club rejoices

OK, so maybe the second part of the post title is a little bit of an exaggeration. The Shaun Marcum Fan Club is kind of quiet. But what can you expect when the dude’s missed an entire year?

Anyway, if there’s anybody left kicking around that group, you can bet they’re happy today. Shaun Marcum has signed! While it may be a little early to crown him as the Blue Jays’ new No. 1 pitcher, the move is one that fans should be happy with.

During his last full(ish) season with the Jays, North of Steeles was good for north of six innings per start and held opponents to a WHIP of 1.163 during those 25 starts.

While there seems to be a small movement to hand Marcum the opening day start, I don’t think he needs that kind of pressure this year. If I’m running the team, I slot Marcum into the middle of the rotation and let him work his back up to the top. He’s got the talent to do it.

Aroldis Chapman update: This time it’s really over.

Early last week, the Blue Jays somewhat surprisingly admitted to having some interest in Aroldis Chapman. A few days later, Toronto had reportedly made a $23-million offer to the Cuban defector and were, along with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California U.S.A., considering to be the front runners for his services.

Then, earlier today, the Cincinnati Reds came out of nowhere (or nowhere that I was paying attention to) and signed the fireballing lefty to a 5-year, $30-million contract.

While this should be a disappointment to Jays fans, we can take solace in the fact that management was even considering spending this much cash on a largely unproven talent. That can only mean good things for the team’s (re)building.

Cooperstown does not catch da taste

Just under a year ago, I made the first post on this blog. Roberto Alomar had just been hit with a lawsuit alleging he was infected with H.I.V. and was either knowingly or unknowingly but stupidly spreading the disease.

Steering clear of the whole legal debate, I bemoaned the fact that the controversy might cost Alomar a shot at being enshrined in the Hall of Fame. This would, of course, also cost the Blue Jays the chance to have their first player honoured in Cooperstown.

The complainant turned out to be a crank, but the BBWAA still didn’t elect Alomar to the Hall of Fame.

I doubt it did, but I really hope that the controversy didn’t take any votes from the real GBOAT. I suspect a few votes for Alomar were held back either because “he spit on an ump,” or “he just doesn’t deserve to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.” Neither argument really holds any water, but that’s all I can think of explain the lack of votes.

Normally I don’t care about the Hall of Fame inductions. I have trouble getting worked up about writers arguing with each other. But this year is different. This is one of my childhood heroes. Remembering all he did on the field — especially that ALCS home run off Eckersley — I can’t help but get a bit excited.

Next year, Robbie. Next year.

P.S. Congrats to Andre Dawson. Whether you think he deserves the honour or not, I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for the Expos, so I’m happy with that.

Aroldis Chapman update: It’s not over!

Hola, amigos. I know it’s been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I ain’t really been in any kind of shape to do up a decent post for a couple weeks now. Turning off your brain and turning on your drink to unacceptable levels may not sound good normally, but over the holidays it’s a wonderful thing.

But the holidays are over, and now I’m back. And I see the Jays have some good things in store.

On New Year’s Day, The Star ran an interview Cathal Kelly did with a psychic. Kelly was looking for predictions for the upcoming year in sports and, being the good man that he seems to be, asked said psychic about the Blue Jays. Surprisingly, the lady psychic (who had the balls to say the men’s hockey team will not win gold in Vancouver) was not negative about the Jays, saying:

“Whether or not they accomplish anything, there will be renewed interest. It’s going to be a feel-good story … and people are going to be pretty forgiving.”

Now, I have no faith whatsoever in any of the hocus pocus peddled by psychics, but I can’t help but get a little excited by what this one said about the Jays. I know it’s because it’s what I want to believe, but I don’t care. This team has the potential to be an exciting one to watch.

Hill! Lind! Snider! Ruiz! Wells! (Yes, Wells.) Chapman!

Yes, Aroldis Chapman! Or, more accurately, maybe Chapman. But, even with it only being a maybe, this is a pretty exciting development for me. If you’ve been following this blog at all, you know that I’ve been pretty fascinated with this Chapman character. And I’m glad to see that after initially squashing ideas of being involved with the flame-throwing lefty, Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos had his people arrange a private workout with the Cuban defector.

Of course, the chances that the Jays sign this guy are pretty slim, but it is encouraging to know that the team is not scared off by the player’s price tag, which is expected to be in  the $20-25 million range. That’s a lot of money, but if it’s going toward talent like this — talent that could be dominant in 2-3 years — then it’s a good investment and it’s a good sign that this building process is not meant to be a long, drawn out one.

Whether he signs Chapman or not, just showing an interest in Chapman is a pretty great Christmas present from the Jays to their fans.

The last post before embracing the building

So Brandon League has joined the ranks of the fallen along with Scott Rolen, Alex Rios, Rod Barajas, Marco (Stroodles) Scutaro and Roy Halladay.

I’m a bit out of the loop right now — not so much that I don’t know that the trade happened, but enough that I’ve got nothing useful to say about it. I guess spending 6+ hours on an airplane for what is supposed to be a two-hour flight will do that to you.

Ah, air travel during Canadian winters.

In honour of the fallen and in lieu of anything useful to say, I’ll give you an animated gif. I’m sure you’ve all seen it before, but it is definitely worth seeing again: The moment I called my favourite of the year, Stroodles stealing second on a walk…

And that’s that. We’ll probably be off until the new year. And when we’re back, we’re embracing building and we’re looking forward.

PLAYOFFS!!!1

A Babe Ruth Christmas

I wasn’t going to make a Christmas post, but then I came across a video of the greatest baseball player of all time acting as Santa for a bunch of sick kids. The Babe himself was very sick at this point — it would in fact be his last Christmas — but he still made the effort to do something special for the kids.

If that’s not enough for you to check the video out, watch for the old-time newsreel announcer and a dog getting poked in the eye.

Happy holidays, yo.