The Play I Forgot to Mention From Yesterday

by Tom Dakers on Jun 19, 2009 12:00 PM EDT in Analysis Comment 20 comments

I meant to talk about this in the recap but then Cito didn't do the double switch and I spent 300 words on that, and everything else kind of got skipped. Leading off the 3rd inning, Marco Scutaro took a walk but when he got to first, he just continued to second. I don't think I've ever seen that in major league ball. Kids ball, yeah, it is a normal play, there is a runner on third and player walks some team automatically went to second because it they tried to get you at second, the runner on third would score.

But in the majors? I'm sure it's happened before, but Scoot watched the pitcher as he got to first, saw he wasn't paying attention and just took off for second. He got to second before the middle infielders did. It was the definition of 'heads up' baseball, stretching a walk into a double. Gameday listed it as a stolen base, I guess that's likely as good a way of accounting for it as anything.

Scoot has been amazing this year, it seems funny to think how this winter everyone wanted us to sign a different shortstop. How many times did we hear 'he's just a utility player?' I think the utility player label is just a fan thing, I think baseball people know that players are players and limiting your view of what they can do by what role they had in the past is just silly. Anyway let's compare Scoot to the two guys people were wanting to replace him with:

Games Bat OPS+

Marco Scutaro 68 .302/.404/.440 124

Orlando Cabrera 65 .234/.285/.295 58

Rafael Furcal 59 .244/.314/.321 69

Add in that Orlando's defense has been awful, while Scoot has been as good as almost anyone's and we can be happy that Richard Griffin isn't our GM. Well, for that and 500 other reasons. But then, I was all for signing Furcal. At least his defense has been good. Obviously sticking with Scutaro was the best non move we could have made.

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I was one of the ones

Saying Scoot wasn’t good enough. Never been so happy to be wrong.

Keep it up Scoot!

'But I don't want to go among mad people' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that' said the Cat 'we're all mad here'.

by JohnnyG on Jun 19, 2009 12:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Its funny

Since Carlos left, I’ve been trying to convince myself I was a “Vernon and Rios guy”…After watching 90% of of the Bluejay plays this year, I am beginning to turn into a “Marco and Scott” guy. I love how Rolen and Scoot play Defence…(I’ll take the left side of the infield against anyone) and do the “little things”.

It saddens me that our infield is getting no respect in baseball. Rolen is 5th in voting, Scoot is 4th (behind Elvis freaking Andrus) and Hill is 4th in voting for the AL Allstar team. When Dustin Pedroia makes the allstar team ahead of Aaron Hill, it shows what a joke this game is.

Happiness is a long walk with a putter in your hand.

by craig in calgary on Jun 19, 2009 12:12 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

In fact

Chris “Fu-man-chu” Davis has more votes than Lyle Overbay at 1st. I sure wish Toronto fans were more passionate about their team and would get out and support them.

Happiness is a long walk with a putter in your hand.

by craig in calgary on Jun 19, 2009 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

great points

our defense is a big reason our pitching has been able to hold it together this year, which is a big reason we’re in this thing right now (1 game out of the wild card, baby!). Not that the pitchers don’t deserve the credit too, but they haven’t been doing it all on their own.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Jun 19, 2009 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's unfortunate

but the truth is that we’ll never be able to compete with Yankees, Red Sox or even Rangers fans in terms of sheer numbers that they get to vote, unless we get a player having a ridiculous, Pujols-like season that will sway other more neutral voters…it seems the best we can hope for every year is the AL manager to recognize a few of our guys and add them to the reserves…in that respect, I think Hill and Doc are shoo-ins, while Scoot and Lind have good shots at being there as well…I’m crazy about Rolen and think he has been one of the most valuable guys on the team this year, but I think his low HR/RBI numbers will keep him out of the All-Star game.

by snaptoit on Jun 19, 2009 12:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

we just need to get to the world series

and then have Cito stack the team with Jays next season!

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Jun 19, 2009 12:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Cito is a Jay Homer

Remember in 1993 when he had the entire roster on the allstar team?
His argument is he had Paul Molitor and 8 world champions!

Happiness is a long walk with a putter in your hand.

by craig in calgary on Jun 19, 2009 1:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And then...

When the O’s fans booed him for not bringing Mussina into the game.

That was good stuff! Four of the Jays were all-star starters that year though, Cito only named 3 others to the team (Hentgen, Ward and White). Hentgen and Ward were definitly deserving of it too.

by masterkembo on Jun 19, 2009 1:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

haha that was amazing

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Jun 19, 2009 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

These are the types of players we need...

Guys like Scutaro and Rolen are the players this team should be built around. They aren’t afraid to get dirty and they do the little things that manufacture extra runs. Rolen, despite being a bit slow, is one of the smartest baserunners I’ve seen on the Jays in a long time. Scutaro seems to make something happen every single time he’s at the plate, even if it’s just working a long at-bat and driving up the pitch count. I don’t care much for one-dimensional home run hitters (though I have no problem at all with this team’s HR totals so far!!), and highly paid guys like Vernon and Rios just seem to lose a little fire. I know it’s unreasonable to think you can build a team full of “super-subs” and have them turn out like Scoots but those are the guys I respect the most!

by CorGal on Jun 19, 2009 1:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well

I think guys like Scutaro are the ones that you are building around the superstars, but that doesn’t necessarily make them less valuable. Particularly in Scoot’s case, where he not only leads the league in plate appearances, but also plays an important defensive position to boot.

It could be argued that the toughest part of building a team is not signing the superstars, but signing the other players. It doesn’t take a perceptive GM to write a blank cheque when a stud free agent comes onto the market.

"The NY Mets are my favorite squadron" -- Apu Nahasapeemapetilon

by jessef on Jun 19, 2009 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

so is marco’s season an outlier or is this what he’s capable of with a starting job?
i’m not sure if the jays will pony up the cash to sign him considering he’ll command a multi year deal north of 5 million per.

by torontocoltsfan on Jun 19, 2009 3:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs