Toronto Blue Jays

I haven't done one of these yet this year, but I was curious to see how Dustin McGowan did, and then it grew from there. Buffalo Bisons (24-17) lost 11-6 to Charlotte Knights Dustin McGowan pitched a clean inning, 1 k. 11 pitches, 6 strikes. Maybe well see him sooner than I thought. He can come off the DL on the 27th. Claudio Vargas: 3.0, 7 hits, 6 earned, 1 walk, 0 k. took the loss. 4.70 ERA. Bobby Koercky: 2.1, 4 hits, 3 earned, 1 walk. 4.44. Jeremy Jeffress: 0.2, 1 walk, 1 k. 2.45. Michael Schwimer: 1.0, 1 k. Miguel Batista: 1.0, 1 hit, 1 earned, 1 walk, 1 k. 8.36. Anthony Gose: 1 for 3, walk, 2 k. .227/.341/.327. Moises Sierra: 0 for 3, walk, k. .316/.369/.493. Luis Jimenez: 1 for 3, 2 walks, 1 k. .365/.442/.635. Andy LaRoche: 2 for 5, double. .297/.357/.484. Jim Negrych: 0 for 3, 2 walk, k. .390/.457/.593 Eugenio Velez: 1 for 3, home run, walk. .276/.350/.495. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (21-23) beat New Britain Rock Cats 5-0 Sean Nolin: 6.0, 4 hits, 0 earned, 2 walks, 5 k. 1.17. Sean got the win. Scott Gracey: 2.0, 3 k. (he just moved up from Dunedin). Kevin Pillar: 2 for 5, k .341/.385/.484. Ryan Schimpf: 0 for 5, k. .211/.353/.479. Kevin Nolan: 0 for 4, 3 k. .277/.373/.416. Clint Robinson: 1 for 4, double, k. .286/.390/.429. Adam Loewen: 1 for 4, k. .200/.308/.333. Sean Ochinko: 2 for 4, double. .232/.342/.374. Kevin Ahrens: 1 for 3, double, walk: .213/.373/.277. John Tolisano: 1 for 4, home run, 2 k. .234/.300/.400. Dunedin Blue Jays (23-16) lost to Brevard County Manatees 6-3 Aaron Sanchez: 3.0, 2 hits, 2 earned, 2 walks, 2 k, 1 home run. 3.16. Tyler Ybarra: 1.0, 2 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk, 1 k. 6.30. Took the loss. Jon Berti: 1 for 3, double, 2 walks, k, steal. .264/.318/.325. Jonathan Jones: 0 for 5, 2 k. .203/.272/.270. Andy Burns: 1 for 4, 2 k, steal. ..338/.425/.556. 14 stolen bases, 6 caught. Marcus Knecht: 1 for 4, double, walk. .241/.288/.372. Mike Crouse: 0 for 2, 2 walks, steal. .313/.450/.500 in 5 game. K.C. Hobson: 1 for 4, double, k. .208/.235/.427. Derrick Chung: 2 for 4, double. .330/.385/.352. Lansing Lugnuts (16-23) beat Great Lake Loons 9-2 Daniel Norris: 4.0, 3 hits, 1 earned, 3 walks, 7 k. 7.71. Kramer Champlin: 2.0, 3 hits, 1 earned, 1 walk, 1 k. Win. 3.95. Griffin Murphy: 2.0, 1 k. 3.78. Justin Jackson: 1.0, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 k. 2.45. So far, in his first year as a pitcher he has pitched 6.1 innings, 4 hits, 5 walks, 4 k. Dalton Pompey: 0 for 4, walk, 2 k. .261/.340/.366. 13 stolen bases. Dwight Smith Jr: 2 for 4, home run. walk, steal. .274/.361/.411. Christian Lopes: 2 for 3, 2 walks. .305/.331/.384. Kevin Patterson: 2 for 5, double, home run, 6 RBI, 2 k. .263/.333/.553. Kellen Sweeney: 0 for 4, k. .200/.305/.355. Balbino Fuenmayor: 1 for 4, home run, 2 k. .182/.270/.375. Chris Hawkins: 0 for 4. .210/.252/.282. Aaron Munoz: 1 for 2, triple, 2 walks. .262/.389/.333. Emilio Guerrero: 2 for 4, k. .273/.375/.309.

Control was the story on Saturday. Aaron Sanchez didn't have much, Daniel Norris had a little more. Combined they pitched seven innings. Sean Nolin was excellent, Claudio Vargas was not. Dustin McGowan made his first AAA appearance of the season, Danny Barnes made his first appearance for Dunedin. Both went well.Kevin Patterson had 6 RBI's for Lansing. Lansing won, as did New Hampshire. The other two teams did not do that well. Charlotte 11 Buffalo 6John Danks started against Claudio Vargas, Vargas gave up seven runs and he was followed by Bobby Korecky who gave up 3. Dustin McGowan pitched a clean inning as did Michael Schwimer. The Bisons had just seven hits. Andy LaRoche had two, Anthony Gose had one. Moises Sierra and Jim Negrych had none.New Hampshire 5 New Britain 0Sean Nolin was pretty good, he went six shutout innings, throwing 97 pitches, 63 strikes. He gave up 4 hits and two walks with 5 K's. With all the movement in pitchers this week Scott Gracey was promoted to New Hampshire. He pitched two shutout innings.Offensively John Tolisano hit a two run home run and had 3 RBI's. Kevin Pillar and Sean Ochinko had two hits.Brevard County 6 Dunedin 2Aaron Sanchez battled control problems. Sanchez has an 80 pitch limit but still he was done after three innings. Sanchez gave up a two run home run in the first inning, one of two hits he allowed. He also had two walks and two K's. He was followed by Tyler Ybarra who gave up two runs and took the loss. Danny Barnes pitched the ninth, 2 K's.Dunedin had just 7 hits, four off prospect Jed Bradley and three off good-named pitcher Tommy Toledo in the ninth. Derrick Chung was the only hitter with two hits. Great Lakes 2 Lansing 9Daniel Norris pitched four innings and recorded 7 strikeouts, pretty good. He also gave up 3 hits and 3 walks and he threw 72 pitches, a little high for four innings. Per Lugnut fan and his trusty ipad scoring app, Norris threw 43 of his 72 pitches for strikes. Slavko Bekovic, one of the Lansing broadcasters, tweeted that Norris was hitting 97-98 on the radar gun. Lugnut fan was at the game, he may add his comments. But you can see from the velocity and the strikeouts that Norris has a lot of potential.Lansing took a 5-0 lead after two innings and never looked back. Kevin Patterson had a double and a home run and 6 RBI's. Dwight Smith had 3 hits, including a home run. Christian Lopes and Emilio Guerrero had two each.3 Stars#3 - Dwight Smith#2 - Kevin Patterson#1 - Sean NolinBoxes

With the draft less than three weeks away I've spent an... alarming(?) amount of time reading up on draft stuff, and wanting to get something productive out of it, I thought I'd put this together for those who haven't. In the first part, I'll go over what the group for the Jays looks like right now. In the second, I'll organize various links from the more credentialed sources for anyone wanting to do their own reading. The first part is essentially the cliff notes version of all the links in the second part as it relates to the Jays. Part 1: Jays Targets First, let's get some names out of the way. Barring something catastrophic, Appel, Gray, and Bryant are off the board before the Jays pick. Kohl Stewart and Colin Moran seem to have worked their way into that category and it sounds like Braden Shipley is on the fringes. That leaves an interesting group that might be available for the Jays at #10. Group One: Austin Meadows Trey Ball Reese McGuire Group Two: Clint Frazier Sean Manaea Ryne Stanek The first three are the prospects the Jays have been linked to the most in the early going (and almost exclusively). Shockingly enough, they all happen to be high-upside prep players. Yeah, I can't believe it either. Austin Meadows, OF (L/L), H.S., (6'3", 200) Big, athletic, potential five tool player who is probably going to induce Patgasms regardless of who drafts him. He was seen as a possible first overall candidate coming into the year, but a not-so-great performance this spring, along with concerns over his effort and energy on the field, are causing him to slide. On tools alone he might be the highest upside prep player in the draft, and I think most fans would love it if the Jays got him. Especially Pat. Trey Ball, LHP, H.S., (6'6", 180) Tall, athletic, left hander with tons of projection left. He's already hitting 94 (sat high 80s/low 90s in his last start where he struck out 12, sat low 90s most of the year) and shows a feel for his secondaries. He's also a highly rated outfield prospect, but right now it sounds like most teams are looking at him as a starter. Reese McGuire, C (L/R), H.S., (6'1", 190) Plus arm strength and a great transfer add up to an 80 grade arm; Keith Law called him the best catch-and-throw prospect he's seen in years. His receiving behind the plate lags behind, but it sounds like he's shown improvement. The biggest question mark is what he's going to do with the bat. That profile might remind you of Austin Hedges coming into the 2011 draft, but it sounds like McGuire isn't the all-around defender Hedges was. That can hardly be considered criticism though. The next three are essentially the top names not mentioned in the opening. College lefty Sean Manaea was a 1:1 candidate coming into the spring after he tore up the Cape Cod League and showed a plus-plus heater. Between injuries and a loss of stuff (the two obviously at least somewhat related) he's seen his stock fall considerably, culminating in an outing a couple weeks ago where he sat in the mid-80s. If Manaea convinces teams the guy they saw in the Cape last year was real, he's probably not around for the Jays at 10 with all the pitching starved teams ahead of them. If not, then the Jays probably aren't considering him too seriously. It's obviously a lot more complicated than that; the Jays could see it while other teams don't, but things don't sound great for Manaea right now. Ryne Stanek is in a similar boat, except the concern with him is consistency and his delivery. It sounds like he has a better chance than Manaea at going in the top 10 right now because there seem to be less questions about his stuff, but again, that means there's a good chance he isn't available for the Jays at 10. Then there's high school outfielder Clint Frazier. Going back to the KLaw well again, he called it the best bat speed he's ever seen on an amateur. You're swooning too, right? It sounds like the issue with Fra

THE BRONX, NY – The Blue Jays’ failures against the New York Yankees continued Saturday afternoon, and for the third time this season they’ll have to attempt to beat back the brooms of the Bronx Bombers. Blue Jays Talk Here are three things that stood out to me about the latest loss to the Yanks: PAY ATTENTION The Blue Jays are looking for any kind of spark to get them going against the Yankees, a team they’ve had a terrible time with this season having lost eight times in nine tries. With two out in the very first inning, they might have had one against a struggling David Phelps, who had walked a pair, thrown 24 pitches and was behind in the count 3-1 to Adam Lind. Phelps didn’t have to throw that critical pitch to Lind, though, because he spun around and picked Jose Bautista off at second to end the inning. At best, that’s a deflating mental mistake by the Blue Jays’ on-field leader. At worst, it’s an unforgivable lack of focus that came at a huge time, though very early in the game. Any way you slice it, though, the Jays had a chance to take the early lead against a team that is 9-16 this season when it doesn’t score first, and having a runner picked off at second base seems to be about the most avoidable way to end an inning. A MOMENT’S HESITATION Brandon Morrow, making his first start in almost two weeks because of back spasms, retired the first six Yankees he faced on just 22 pitches then gave up a leadoff single to Jayson Nix in the bottom of the third. The next batter was rookie David Adams, and he hit a comebacker to the mound that Morrow bobbled. The righty still had time to make a throw to second to start a double play, with shortstop Maicer Izturis waiting at the bag, but he eschewed the opportunity (perhaps needing to make sure he had a good grip and wasn’t going to throw the ball away) and took the sure out at first instead. Austin Romine then flied out, which would have ended the inning had the double play been turned, but the inning continued for Brett Gardner to open the scoring with an RBI single to centre. Robinson Cano followed with a Yankee Stadium Special two-run homer, the first of his two two-run bombs on the day. UGLINESS AT THE END Edwin Encarnacion had a Yankee Stadium Special of his own in the eighth inning to draw the Blue Jays back to within three, but the Bronx Bombers put the game away in the bottom of that frame with a lot of help from the visitors. Darren Oliver came out of the bullpen for his first appearance in exactly a week, and got started by striking out Cano and getting Vernon Wells to hit a grounder to shortstop. Izturis didn’t field the grounder cleanly, though, and then airmailed his throw over Lind’s head at first base for an error. The next hitter, Travis Hafner took Oliver deep. Following the Hafner homer, Lyle Overbay hit a weak dribbler up the first-base line and Lind went over to field it but went to tag Overbay before he had the ball in his glove and wound up leaving the ball on the ground. The next hitter was Curtis Granderson, who hit a grounder to Lind that was fielded cleanly and Lind made a good, strong throw to second in an attempt to start an inning-ending double play. Izturis made a return throw to first, but there was really no point because Oliver was late getting over to cover. Granderson would have been safe even had Oliver been standing there waiting for the throw, but that’s not the point. The point is that it had been a couple of weeks since "Yakety Sax" was the background music for the Blue Jays, but there was it was once again on Saturday afternoon. Just remember: baby steps. Long, slow climb. The post Wilner on MLB: Lack of focus hurts Blue Jays appeared first on Sportsnet.ca.

Blue Jays 2 Yankees 7 Sometimes, with baseball, one game or one inning encapsulates the entire season. Tonight it was the Jays half of the first inning. It started with Melky Cabrera striking out on a pitch that hit him in the foot. If the ball didn't hit him, he could have made it to first on the strikeout, as the ball bounced away or, if he didn't swing, he would have been on first on a hit by pitch. But, instead, he was out. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion walked. It looked like David Phelps couldn't find the strike zone with both hands and a compass. Up came our 'cleanup hitter'. J.P. Arencibia. He resembles a cleanup hitter like I resemble a model. Yeah, JP has a bunch of home runs and I've got the basic two arms, two legs and head. For both of us, that's where the resemblance ends. With JP, it doesn't matter that the pitcher can't find the strike zone, he's not going to take a walk unless the ball rolls up to the plate, and sometimes he'll still swing at it. He's a nice enough player to have near the back of the order, then you can be happy with the occasional home run, but cleanup? No, please no. Anyway, he struck out. But we still have two on and Adam Lind up, against a RHP having problems with his control. Lind is as locked in as anyone on the team at the moment. So what happens? Jose Bautista gets picked off of second base. I don't want to rag on Jose too much, he has been our best player for a long time now, but you can't get picked off there. It can't happen. Pay attention to the game going on around you! And that's been our season. Brandon Morrow wasn't as terrible as his line looks, he was cruising until the 3rd inning. Jayson Nix singled to start the inning. David Adam hit a ground ball to Morrow. Morrow dropped it but still looked to have time to get Nix at second, instead he went to first. Brett Gardner singled, driving home Nix. Robinson Cano followed with a Yankee Stadium home run. Man I hate that place. And we were down 3-0. Cano hit a 2 run shot in the 5th, this one not a Yankee Stadium special. Brett Cecil pitched a quick 6th, Steve Delabar a quick 7th. Darren Oliver had his infield commit 2 errors behind him and gave up a home run to Travis Hafner. Maicer Izturis airmailed a throw over Lind on a routine ground ball and Lind couldn't pick up a ball slowly rolling up the first base line. On offense, we had 8 hits, including a home run and 3 doubles, 3 walks and only scored 2 runs. Lind hit 2 doubles, everyone else had 1 hit except for Brett Lawrie (0 for 4, 1 k) and Jose Bautista, but he took 2 walks. Edwin hit his 12th home run, tying him with Cano for the league lead. We didn't get hits when we needed them. No Jays of the Day today. Colby Rasmus led with a .039 WPA and he also made a nice catch in the 8th, off a long fly to center from Gardner. Suckage goes to Morrow (-.230),. Lawrie (-.093, 0 for 4, k) and Melky (.092, 1 for 4 with a k). I thought Melky was running a little better today. R.A. Dickey goes against CC Sabathis tomorrow. Please be great, RA. 30 of us totaled 480 comments this afternoon: # Commenter # Comments 1 Tom Dakers 67 2 rob.magnificent 57 3 MjwW 52 4 shortofbrillant 48 5 Damaso's Burnt Shirt 44 6 ABsteve 42 7 domefan 23 8 Super Bass Hallways 21 9 fatpuppy 20 10 MapleMan 17 11 fishedin 15 12 REMO 11 13 Redonred 10 14 leafs71 10 15 expos&nordiques4ever 10 16 Qd6 8 17 gabrielsyme 4 18 Trensetta 4 19 JaysfanAtlanta 4 20 Diamond_D86 2 21 DavidLondon 2 22 jays182 1 23 jazzinTO 1 24 Belisarius 1 25 Maninwhite 1 26 KevinInCT 1 27 bankertuck 1 28 bluejays13 1 29 TwitchyJB 1 30 bryfryy 1 Toronto Blue Jay tickets.

Big Hirok happens. Dreams of climbing to four games below .500 fell by the wayside on account of the Blue Jays getting owned by Hiroki Kuroda last night, which isn’t all that surprising seeing how Big Hirok pretty much owns everyone. Thus, here we are putting our faith in the rested back of Brandon Morrow as he’s set to face David Phelps and the Yankees in game No. 2. I gotta say, Mark Buehrle wasn’t entirely shitty last night. I mean, we could be looking at a 4-0 loss as opposed to a 5-0 loss had Melky Cabrera not resembled a drunk bison roaming around the outfield while Brett Gardner stretched a maybe-double into a triple. Anyway, that’s enough about last night. Morrow is coming off some extra rest due to a nagging back injury, but his last start was rather promising considering he made into this thing they call the eighth inning. Rarely charted territory for the 2013 Blue Jays starting staff. The shitbags counter with Phelps. The right-hander has made three consecutive starts after beginning the season as a reliever. He’s nothing to scoff at, but he ain’t Hiroki fucking Kuroda either. How ’bout some bats today, ok? Scuttlebutt Shi Davidi updates Jose Reyes’ recovery, noting that he could begin to field grounders as early as next week. He’s nowhere near ready for a rehab assignment yet, though. Reyes tells Davidi that he will be ready for some game action once he’s able to run the bases without issue. The National Post has a great feature on Brett Lawrie’s swing via John Lott. John Gibbons plans to send Chad Jenkins out to start on Monday, with staff ace Ramon Ortiz throwing on Tuesday, as Barry Davis notes in a tweet. In a separate tweet, Barry Davis passes along a bit from Gibbons, who says that Melky will be in LF today but Bonifacio could be a late-innings replacement if it’s tight game. I suppose that’s an upgrade in the defensive speed department. The Yankees have won the Reid Brignac sweepstakes, Jon Heyman reports. Reid Brignac can play three positions, sadly none of them are “batter” — Drew FFF (@DrewGROF) May 18, 2013 TV: Sportsnet And now the lineups, by way of the live box score at theScore.com. And for those of you who’ll be out and about, be sure to follow all the action on your phone with theScore app… Toronto Blue Jays LF Melky Cabrera (S) RF Jose Bautista (R) 1B Edwin Encarnacion (R) C J.P. Arencibia (R) DH Adam Lind (L) 3B Brett Lawrie (R) CF Colby Rasmus (L) SS Maicer Izturis (S) 2B Emilio Bonifacio (S) Brandon Morrow RHP New York Yankees CF Brett Gardner (L) 2B Robinson Cano (L) LF Vernon Wells (R) DH Travis Hafner (L) 1B Lyle Overbay (L) RF Curtis Granderson (L) 3B Jayson Nix (R) SS David Adams (R) C Austin Romine (R) David Phelps RHP

(Reuters) – Japanese ace Hiroki Kuroda pulled out his best performance of the season as the New York Yankees cruised to a 5-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday. Kuroda (6-2) allowed just two hits in eight innings and lowered his ERA to 1.99 to keep the Yankees (26-16) on top of the American League East Division while ensuring the Blue Jays (17-25) remain rooted to the bottom. Boston (25-17) kept pace, just a game behind the Yankees, with a 3-2 win over Minnesota (18-20) in 10 innings. … View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Toronto Blue Jays News

Morrow's long-awaited return. What will he have? Who knows? I've trained myself to be pessimistic about Blue Jays who are fresh out of the infirmary. David Phelps has assumed his rightful place in the Yankees' rotation, and here's one chance for him to claim it for good.First pitch is 1:05.

The semi-annual-ish Bluebird Banter Toronto Meetup will be happening next Saturday, May 25 right after the Blue Jays game versus the Orioles at Elephant & Castle on King. The game is a 1 pm start, so we expect to be at the pub by around 4:30 or so. Ask for "Bluebird Banter" when you arrive. Elephant & Castle, at 212 King Street West, is a short 10-minute walk from the Rogers Centre: View Larger Map We are unable to get group tickets for the game, but just like last year, feel free to use the comments to coordinate which sections to sit in. The folks who came out for our last events (a screening of Knuckleball this January, and Draught Day last June) all had a good time. And hey--you get to meet me, Tom, Carm, and some of the folks who usually hide behind keyboards over some thirst-quenching beverages.

David Phelps kind of feels like he's been around forever, but this is only his second year in the big leagues. Normally used as a reliever, his past three appearances have been in the starters role where he's pitched quite well. The right handed pitcher picked up a loss last game against Cleveland going down 1-0, which shows how stupid pitcher wins and losses are. Overall this season he's pitched 35.1 innings allowing 17 earned runs and striking out 38 batters. Phelps faces the wonderful Brandon Morrow today. Phelps throws a four-seamer, sinker, cutter/slider, curveball, and changeup. The curveball is probably Phelps' best off-speed offering, while his changeup is still pretty effective against left handed batters. Here's a look at Phelp's nasty hook along with his fastball: via http://www.pinstripedbible.com/ Here's a look at where Phelps throws his cutter/slider against righties. The Blue Jays have had huge problems against pitchers with tough sliders on the outside half this season so hopefully they can actually lay off this pitch today. via www.fangraphs.com Another pitch the Blue Jays should try to lay off is Phelps' sinker as he likes to start it in the zone and run it in on the hands making it an almost impossible pitch to hit. via www.fangraphs.com Should Lind Play: YES David Phelps' splits haven't had enough time to stabilize yet but he's allowed a .337wOBA to left handers and .283wOBA to right handers. There's nothing saying Lind shouldn't play today and at this point in the season he almost always plays against right handed pitchers and sits against lefties so I might need a new idea for the daily feature instead of "Should Lind Play". I don't think getupikid can access the site yet so you guys still have time to catch up in "Find the Link": Find the link between David Phelps and the most gullible college football player of the past year. Let's even up this series Blue Jays!