Baseball seems incredibly trivial at the moment. I wish the best for the the police and military in Ottawa, and everyone one in Ottawa.
Here are a few links, if you want to take your eyes off the news for a moment or two.
Bob Elliot tells us that Adam Lind is 'attracting plenty of interest'. And as proof he tells us this:
"I hear the Blue Jays are getting a lot of interest on Lind and not just from American League teams. I've heard three or four clubs," one executive said.
I was tempted to try to stretch that into a full post (there really isn't anything for Blue Jays news lately), but to try to build a a 500 word post off one sentence from an unnamed executive was just too much for me. I am curious about the 'executive'. Obviously he isn't a GM or an assistant GM or Elliot would have said 'a GM told me'.
It is kind of several levels of hearsay isn't it, an unnamed person, from an unnamed club, whose job title is unknown, hear from someone, also unnamed, that 3 or 4 separate clubs are interested in Lind.
I mean, I have no doubt that Lind would be someone that teams would be interested in, but that line doesn't really give us any real information.
Jose Bautista told Ben Nicholson-Smith of SportsNet.ca that he thinks there is a 50-50 chance that Melky Cabrera will be back with the Blue Jays next year:
"I think he's going to allow the team a chance to come and match any offer that he might get out on the free agent market," Bautista said. "I think the Blue Jays are going to have a shot at bringing him back, so hopefully for our fan base and for my sake - making my job easier and having him on base a lot, because he does get on base a lot with his bat - hopefully the team does take that chance and re-sign him somehow."
We'll see. I think it's more like a 20% chance that he re-signs. I have a feeling someone is going to overpay for the guy.
Alexis Brudnicki reports, for the Canadian Baseball Network, that Dwight Smith, Jr may be moving from the outfield to second base. I like the idea. He would be a much better prospect at 2B (if he can learn to play the position) and he'd have a much clearer path to the majors, as we don't have much for prospects at the position (other than Franklin Barreto, who has played only shortstop so far in his minor league career).
With just over two weeks so far in the prospect-laden circuit, Smith has spent a significant amount of time every day working at the new position, learning mostly from Mike Mordecai, Smith Jr. (9)manager of the Mesa Solar Sox and also the Blue Jays minor league infield coordinator, though he hasn't played second base in a game as of yet.
I missed this on the weekend (I had a nice weekend visiting my son and parents in Edmonton, and pretty much ignored baseball), Alexis Brudnicki tweeted that Max Pentecost had surgery on a partial tear in his labrum. The Drunks had a longer post on the subject.
Pentecost was a first round pick in this years draft. We hoped that he would make a quick raise through the Jays minor league system, as we really could use a good catcher. He should be able to play next year, but it is likely to slow his ascent, at least a little.
Pentecost is 21, he'll be 22 in March, he hit .324/.330/.419 in 25 games, splitting time between the Gulf Coast League Jays and the Vancouver Canadians, but he only played 6 games at the catcher position, so the shoulder problem was obviously apparent during the season.
Jesse Spector has a post up at the Sporting News about the Giants and Royals 'bunt-happy' ways. Interesting story. I tend to think that managers understand that they are being watched closely and try to play 'safe' with all the eyes on them.
Dave Cameron reported on the 'worst at bat of the playoffs'. Not a post that Alcides Escobar will be printing off and taping to the wall in his den.
I'll add my thoughts and wishes for the family of the soldier who was killed at the National War Memorial. A reminder of how much our military does for us. It is just hard to believe. People that can even consider doing such a thing are beyond my understanding.