Tuesday Morning Bantering: Spring Games, Adeninis Hechavarria and David Purcey
by Tom Dakers on Mar 16, 2010 11:41 AM EDT
in Toronto Blue Jays Analysis
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PrintThe Jays have no game today, Shawn Marcum is starting their Triple-A game to keep him on schedule for the season opener.
I know they are 'meaningless games' and all, but I enjoyed watching yesterday's game. I know, as a blogger, stuck in my mom's baseball basement, I'm not supposed to admit this, but I really like watching baseball. I don't care if someone thinks the games are meaningless, as much as I like baseball, all the games are meaningless. Even during the season, they aren't curing cancer out there or feeding the homeless or anything really great. If baseball wasn't there, we'd have something else to entertain ourselves. Instead of going to a little league coaches clinic tonight, I'd be going to a soccer coaches clinic. Instead of throwing a ball with my boy I'd be kicking a ball.
But I do like watching the games even in the spring. The spring games can be just as entertaining as the regular season games. One of my favorite things about watching baseball is seeing the younger players come up. Yesterday I saw Tyler Pastornicky play for the first time, after hearing about him for the past three years. I saw Brad Emaus and Brian Dopirak. The other fun part of spring is sometimes older players can surprise you. Jose Bautista is pounding the ball. Aaron Hill is taking walks. Vernon Wells is taking balls the other way. Maybe none of these things will last, we know Bautista won't hit .667 this season. Maybe Hill will go back to swinging at everything. Likely Vernon will get pull happy as the season wears on. But I like watching players try to improve themselves. It reminds me that I should try to improve.
Anyway....Ken Rosenthal twittenated that the Cubs had a scout watching Jason Frasor get shelled yesterday. He also said that Frasor was 'under the weather'. If he was sick, I don't know why none of the Toronto media mentioned it. Of course, having their pitches rocket back past them would make any pitcher sick.
He also said that the Cubs were interested in David Purcey. On Purcey, Richard Griffin quotes Cito:
"(Pitching coach) Bruce Walton has cut him back to just fastball and slider," Gaston said of the talented but eternally frustrating lefty. "He threw strikes, his arm slot was great. We're probably leaning (to the bullpen) and see what he can do. I was very impressed. It's the best I've seen him throw since I've been here."
If the idea is to make him a reliever, cutting him back to his two best pitches is a good plan, but then he didn't throw a lot of curves or changeups in the past. Do you get the feeling that the recent talking up of Purcey is an effort to grow him some trade value. I can't see anyone wanting to trade for him, but then I don't understand most things the Cubs do.
Remember how we said, when the rumours came out that the Jays were signing Adeninis Hechavarria, that we'd be told that he wasn't really that great a prospect, since the Yankees didn't sign him? Well, I figured it would be the New York media that would do it but no, it is the Toronto Sun's Bob Elliot leading the charge. He has scouts, he doesn't say whose scouts, comparing Hech to Alfredo Griffin and Eddie Zosky. Come on Bob, can't we wait to see him before you tell us the Jays were stupid to spend that much money on him. Of course scouts for teams that didn't sign him will play him down. Let us have a little joy.
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Purcey
Is he really out of options? I was under the impression that he was not. Also, where did someone suggest the Cubs were interested in Purcey? Rosenthal said :“Jays’ David Purcey also drawing attention from clubs.” So maybe/maybe not the Cubs.
I'm almost positive he has an option year left
"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
one other note
I think dropping him to 2 pitches is a good move. He was fairly balanced in the past between his 2/3/4 pitches with a heavy reliance on his fastball. I like the option of him going to the pen, maybe dialing that fastball up a bit (already decent velo for a LH) and sticking to 1 main secondary pitch.
it's probably as good a recipe for success for him as there is
sometimes you have to give up trying to make a guy what he’s not and just focus on a role where you think he can be successful
"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
Tallet is pretty much locked
Sadly for Tom, the computers here don’t like making fanposts. So I’ll just say this here.
For all you Tallet-should-be-in-the-bullpen people out there, it’s not going to happen. At least not right now. Gaston was asked if they’d consider moving Tallet or Rzepczynski into the bullpen in an emergency situation (if Carlson isn’t healthy or if something else happens related to the left-handed options), and he said that both pitchers are secure in their roles as starters.
“Those guys are pretty much rotation,” Gaston said of Tallet and Rzepczynski.
While it’s good that Rzep is locked, it’s not surprising. Not that Tallet getting the rotation slot is surprising either, but it’s kinda sad that it’ll be near impossible for anyone else to pitch their way into the rotation or that Tallet can’t pitch his way out of the rotation. Is it just me or does giving out handshakes despite all else seem like a small recurring theme…
Also “stuck in my mom’s baseball” Tom?
Ball.
Rosenthal didn't say "Cubs", He said "CLUBS"
“Jays David Purcey also drawing attention from clubs”
With his stuff
Can Purcey become our future closer, ala BJ before the surgery and loss of velocity? Assuming he cut down on walks of course..
why does the media have to compare every player we get/sign to an old one?
Let the guy play the game first. Hell we still dont know his true age do we? I’d like to find that out before anything else.
This report makes it sound like he could start at AA. It will be interesting to see where our three SS prospects start. I am guessing Jackson will go back down to Lansing, Pastornicky will be in Dunedin and Hecheverria will be in New Hampshire.
AA was my guess when they signed him
since he’s about right for there and Pastornicky and Jackson aren’t ready to start at AA
"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
where i come from
we spell that last name as Echeverria instead of Hechavarria or Hechevarria.
cuz as many as you know the H in spanish is silenced.
that's what I thought, too
being a DC United fan and our greatest player ever being Etcheverry and all. But eith Hechavarria, everyone seems to spell it with the ‘H,’ so I went along with it.
"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
Tallet's pitch count...
Seems to me that Tallet’s 7th inning ERA must be near the worst in the league. His first five innings were often really good last year. Sixth inning mostly iffy.
He seems to tire at about 75-80 pitches, then gets into a lot of trouble. Cito leaves him in too long to “save wear and tear on the bullpen”.
Does anyone know how to break out these stats. I haven’t the first clue.
Thanks.
It's in the baseball-reference splits
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=tallebr01&year=2009&t=p
Trouble with the “by inning” splits is that it includes his 7th innings as a reliever, so you can also go by his pitch count or look at how batters did depending on the number of times they faced him each game (first and second tended to be about the same, they seemed to really hit him the third time through the lineup).
The trouble with that split is that it is also skewed (and not just by relieving) because you are more likely to face the good hitters in a lineup an extra time the third time through than you are to face the first and second (you are more likely to be removed in the middle of the lineup your third way through than your first or second).
If you look at it by pitch count, he seemed to get hammered his third time through (though again, the relief appearances will skew these data a bit and, of course, small sample sizes abound).
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
isn't that true of most pitchers?
"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
Assuming you're referring to the trouble with the 1st/2nd/3rd time through lineup split,
the answer is, of course, yes. That’s the point I was trying to make, though . . . it’s easy for us to point at the 3rd time through the lineup and say, “he just seems to lose all his command the third time through” and that makes sense and many times it’s likely to be true, but backing it up with those raw numbers (even though they suggest what is likely actually happening) really doesn’t tell the whole story.
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
The only justification I can come up with for Tallet in the rotation is that he’s a placeholder.
For McGowan if he comes back strong….or for Cecil if he pushes the Jays to call him…or for some other call up….or ultimately for Drabek.
So if Tallet get 5,6, maybe 7 starts….fine. if he gets to 10 something has gone VERY wrong somewhere.
that's exactly what I think, too
"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
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