March 2010
Blue Jays Observations: March 24th
- Shaun Marcum has been named the Blue Jays opening day start… essentially being named the staff ace of the club. While never pitching 200 innings in a season, Marcum had promising campaigns in both 2007 and 2008, going a combined 21-13 with a sub-4 ERA in 310 1/3 innings.
At the age of 28, Marcum can easily improve on those statistics, I think he should put up solid 15-10, 3.60 ERA numbers this seasons, usable numbers as an ace.
- Randy Ruiz is looking GREAT this spring, he should easily make the major league rosters, and get some starts at DH or maybe spot start at first a bit.
- Jose Bautista is also playing great, should start the season as leadoff batter.
Fantasy Baseball 2010: My Top 150
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It’s March 18th and we’re in the middle of Spring Training. I have compiled a list of my
1. Hanley Ramirez, FLA 5-category stud, plays at scarce position, so gets nod over Pujols. 2. Albert Pujols, STL 3. Alex Rodriguez, NYY 4. Ryan Braun, MIL 5. Matt Kemp, LAD 6. Prince Fielder, MIL 7. Chase Utley, PHI 8. Miguel Cabrera, DET 9. Mark Teixeira, NYY 10. Evan Longoria, TB 11. Roy Halladay, PHI Should dominate the National League, earning him Top Pitcher honours. 12. Joe Mauer, MIN 13. Troy Tulowitzki, COL Underrated 5-category gem, read my article on him at Bleacher Report. 14. Tim Lincecum, SF 15. Carl Crawford, TB 15. Ryan Howard, PHI 16. David Wright, NYM 17. Felix Hernandez, SEA 18. Matt Holliday, STL 19. CC Sabathia, NYY 20. Justin Upton, ARI Don’t take him earlier, I’d be happy with his numbers from last year, don’t expect a .300/40/100/30 SB season quite yet. 21. Ichiro Suzuki, SEA 22. Zach Greinke, KC 23. Robinson Cano, NYY He should put up a great average with other solid numbers across the board, a great asset to have. 24. Grady Sizemore, CLE 25. Jacoby Ellsbury, BOS 26. Adrian Gonzalez, SD 27. Ian Kinsler, TEX 28. Ryan Zimmerman, WAS 29. Derek Jeter, NYY 30. Dustin Pedroia, BOS 31. Pablo Sandoval, SF 32. Brandon Phillips, CIN 33. Dan Haren, ARI 34. Jimmy Rollins, PHI 35. Joey Votto, CIN 36. Cliff Lee, SEA He should play great with Seattle’s superb defense and cavernous park, a similar campaign to 2008 isn’t out of the question. 37. Brian McCann, ATL 38. Adam Lind, TOR 39. Jayson Werth, PHI 40. Jon Lester, BOS 41. Kevin Youkilis, BOS 42. Justin Verlander, DET 43. Carlos Lee, HOU 44. Andre Ethier, LAD 45. Victor Martinez, BOS 46. Brian Roberts, BAL 47. Aramis Ramirez, CHC 48. Kendry Morales, LAA 49. Jason Bay, NYM 50. Adam Wainwright, STL 51. Johan Santana, NYM 52. Chris Carpenter, STL 53. Nick Markakis, BAL 54. Mark Reynolds, ARI 55. Justin Morneau, MIN 56. Curtis Granderson, NYY 57. Bobby Abreu, LAA 58. Aaron Hill, TOR 59. Yovani Gallardo, MIL 60. Mariano Rivera, NYY 61. Ben Zobrist, TB 62. Bill Butler, KC If you don’t have a first baseman yet, don’t worry, take the underrated Butler who should put up a great average with good power numbers. 63. Josh Johnson, FLA 64. Jonathan Broxton, LAD 65. Adam Jones, BAL 66. Shin-Soo Choo, CLE 67. Josh Beckett, BOS I rank him higher than most because he’s a sure thing. You need a dependable pitcher than will put up solid numbers. 68. Adam Dunn, WAS 69. B.J. Upton, TB 70. Chone Figgins, SEA 71. Torii Hunter, LAA 72. Shane Victorino, PHI 73. Jonathan Papelbon, BOS 74. Jose Reyes, NYM 75. Lance Berkman, HOU 76. Manny Ramirez, LAD Manny is certainly capable of one last .300/30/100 season and if he plays 160 games, you should expect that out of him. 77. Cole Hamels, PHI After being a minor disappointment last year, everyone’s raving about him this spring. Any improvement would warrant reward for taking him this high and really, he should improve mightily. 78. Gordon Beckham, CWS 79. Tommy Hanson, ATL 80. Derrek Lee, CHC 81. Javier Vazquez, NYY 82. Nelson Cruz, TEX 83. Matt Cain, SF 84. Josh Hamilton, TEX 85. Hunter Pence, HOU 86. Joakim Soria, KC 87. Matt Wieters, BAL 88. Francisco Rodriguez, NYM 89. Raul Ibanez, PHI 90. Carlos Beltran, NYM 91. Elvis Andrus, TEX 92. Ricky Nolasco, FLA 93. Johnny Damon, DET 94. Michael Young, TEX 95. Jake Peavy, CWS 96. Jay Bruce, CIN 97. Ubaldo Jimenez, COL 98. Jason Bartlett, TB 99. Howie Kendrick, LAA 100. Denard Span, MIN He hits for a .300+ average and will put up solid numbers everywhere else. Great value. 101. Andrew McCutchen 102. Wandy Rodriguez, HOU 103. Brandon Webb, ARI 104. Jose Lopez, SEA The last of the second basemen that will benefit your fantasy team. If you don’t have anyone so far, take Lopez, a given .280/25/90 player. 105. Andrew Bailey, OAK 106. Huston Street, COL 107. Carlos Quentin, CWS 108. Clayton Kershaw, LAD A superb ERA last season, just got unlucky with his run support. People say he’s overrated, but if he puts up the same ratios as last season, he certainly should win 15+ games. 109. Carlos Pena, TB 110. Scott Baker, MIN 111. Nate McLouth, ATL 112. Chad Billingsley, LAD 113. John Lackey, BOS 114. Francisco Cordero, CIN 115. Alex Rios, CWS 116. Brad Hawpe, COL An uber-consistent outfielder that has put up at least .283/22/84 each of the last 4 seasons. Just take him and cross out your 3rd outfield spot, he’s a constant. 117. Heath Bell, SD 118. Adrian Beltre, BOS 119. Carlos Gonzalez, COL 120. Jose Valverde, DET 121. Asdrubal Cabrera, CLE Thanks for reading! Please share your insight by leaving comments. |
Spring Training Notes: March 12
Shaun Marcum: Opening Day Starter?
It’s certainly looking as if Shaun Marcum may get the opening day nod, as he has a 0.00 ERA in Grapefruit League play through five innings of work. He has allowed only one hit in his two outings. Although this is a very small sample size, I think it proves that Shaun Marcum is back and ready to headline the staff as he was before he got injured. Look for him to get the start if he continues his excellence.
Kyle Drabek improves on previous start with a two-inning shutout against Phillies
Kyle Drabek, seen by many as the team’s #1 prospect, had a good second outing, blanking the Philadelphia Phillies. He was traded from the Phillies in the Roy Halladay blockbuster, so payback may have been on Drabek’s mind. An encouraging start to say the least.
Jose Bautista continues sizzling Spring Training
It’s going to be hard to demote Jose Bautista from the lead-off spot in the lineup, as he has been tearing it up this March. With 3 homers in 14 at-bats and a .643 average, he seems really motivated to start this year.
Roy Halladay: Best Blue Jay. Ever.
Harry Leroy Halladay III (or simply Roy) will
always have a special place in the hearts of Toronto Blue Jays fans.
Despite being born and raised in Denver and bearing a nickname derived
from a gunfighter of the western United States (Doc Holliday), Roy
Halladay has become synonymous with baseball in Canada’s largest city.
If
he wins enough games to get into baseball’s Hall of Fame, he will
almost surely wear a Blue Jays cap and go down as a Blue Jay eternally.
Although currently playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, whose
nickname ‘Phillies’ means simply people from Philadelphia, Roy Halladay
isn’t a Philadelphian, he’s a Torontonian.
But is he the best player in Toronto baseball history? My short answer is “yes.”
When
bringing up this argument, one refers to Dave Stieb and Carlos Delgado
as his main competitors in the all-history franchise player race. But I
don’t think it’s close. At all.
Comparing Halladay with Stieb
Stieb
may have 175 career wins as a Blue Jays, but Halladay isn’t far behind
with 148 and Halladay has far fewer losses: 76 compared with Stieb’s
134. That’s a .661 win percentage for Halladay and a terrible (for a
seven-time all-star) .565 record for Stieb.
They have
practically identical ERAs (3.44 for Halladay, 3.43 for Stieb), but the
thing with Stieb is that he never put together a truly dominant year.
Sure, he had his no-hitter, but his best season was probably 1984 when
he went 16-8 with a 2.83 ERA and 198 strikeouts. He never struck out
200 batters in a season. He never won more than 18 games. Only thrice
did he put together a sub-3.00 ERA. As a result, he was never engrossed
in Cy Young races, your average staff ace and could have easily fit in
as a second starter on another team.
But with Halladay, he had
his Cy Young Award, in 2003 and was a full-fledged contender for the
accolade in both 2008 and 2009 with decent years in between. He’s fully
capable of striking out 200 batters in a season, doing it three times.
He allows a startlingly few amount of walks, 2.00/9 innings for his
career. Dave Stieb regularly allowed 80+ walks and 3.21/9 innings for
his career, certainly not a favourable statistic.
Both of them
pitch(ed) an alarming number of complete games and were
uber-consistent. With Stieb, people play the “He played for the Blue
Jays longer, he was more dedicated to his club,” card. While he did
play 1.4x more games than Halladay (really not that much more),
Halladay still played for the Toronto Blue Jays for 12 seasons and
signed multiple extensions. He was just as serious about bringing
baseball goodness to Toronto as Stieb was.
When browsing a list of Blue Jays team records, the casual observer
may infer that Dave Stieb is the best pitcher in team history, but
really, it’s Halladay. End of discussion, onto Delgado.
Comparing Halladay with Carlos Delgado
Carlos Delgado is unquestionably the best batter in Toronto Blue
Jays history. He hit the most home runs. He slugged .556, highest in
team history. He scored the most runs, drove in the most runs,
collected the most walks, hit the most doubles, the most total bases…
need we go on?
But, is he closely comparable to Roy Halladay,
now established as the best pitcher in Blue Jays history. Once again, I
don’t think he’s up to par with the Doc. Playing only 9 seasons with
Toronto, the records he set are obviously due to lack of
long-team-history-inflation. Had he continued to play for Toronto for 4
or 5 more years and hit 500 home runs as a Jay, then sure, start the
worshiping, but without it, he’s stuck in transition a bit.
Carlos
Delgado had MVP numbers in 2000 (.344 with 41 homers and 137 Runs
Batted In, I don’t have a clue as to how he lost to Jason Giambi, who
mainly put up inferior stats across the board) as well as being MVP
runner-up to A-Rod in 2003. He lost to two steroid users, ick. But
nonetheless he proved that like Roy Halladay and unlike Dave Stieb, he
could put together big years and had big stuff.
But Halladay
played longer and had just as dominant years with the Blue Jays. You
can’t blame Delgado for leaving Toronto and while Delgado maintains a
very positive image in Blue Jays fans’ minds, I don’t think he was near
as much as a city-wide icon as Halladay was. Fans in Toronto were proud
that we had Halladay on our team. Plus, he’s a Yankees killer, 18-6
lifetime against the Evil Empire, a key reason Philadelphia wanted him.
So
I don’t think that Delgado is at Halladay’s level, Delgado was good but
not as synonymous with Toronto as Halladay has been since his arrival
in 1998. Roy Halladay will easily be inducted into the Blue Jays Level
of Excellence and will go down as the best Blue Jay ever.
Spring Training Starts: My Thoughts on My Team
With today being Sunday March 7th, the Blue Jays have played four games on their Grapefruit League schedule. They lost their debut against the Tigers 7-6 in a dramatic late finish, but won their next three games rather handily. Here are some of my observations so far:
1. J.P. Arencibia, the prospect everyone revered, then forgot about when the Jays acquired Travis D’Arnaud, seems close to arriving at the Major League level.
Arencibia has been Toronto’s top catching prospect soon after he was drafted in the first round of the 2005 Amateur Entry Draft. He has smacked two homers so far in only four at bats. A slugging percentage of 2.000! Sure, it’s a small sample size and he’s still a long shot from making the team out of Spring Training this year, but still, you have to see it as a bright sign for one of the best young players in the Blue Jays organization.
2. The pitching staff is looking great, notably Brandon Morrow, Shaun Marcum and Mark Rzepczynski.
Morrow and Marcum have pitching two-inning no-hit stints, while Rzepczynski registered two innings with only a single hit, great first performances by some of our developing pitchers. Future top-of-the-rotation stud Kyle Drabek pitched a subpar outing, but it was mainly characterized as encouraging by Drabek himself and Jays management.
3. The Blue Jays 1-2-3 hitters (Jose Bautista, Aaron Hill, Adam Lind) are playing great.
Bautista has six hits in only eight at-bats, scoring four runs and stealing one base in the process. These are great statistics for any lead-off hitter and look for him to lock up the job if he continues to play like such.
Aaron Hill has stayed off the extra-base-hit scoresheet so far, but that’s mainly because of his plate discipline: 5 walks in only 8 plate appearances and hitting singles in two other of the plate appearances while stealing a base. He hasn’t been exciting, but he’s doing a good job so far.
Adam Lind has homered once, singled once and driven in four runs along the way. Sure, his average is .286, not up to par with the other starters, but it’s not because of strikeouts, striking out only once.
Bleachers to the North
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