12-5! Friday! Life is good,
First, the tireless Marc Hulet has a great pre-oblique strain article on Ricky Romero and why he was always a good bet to become a quality pitcher over at Fangraphs. Get well soon, Ricky. As I mentioned earlier, if Romero keeps pitching well we will see the third first-round pitcher in three years break into the majors. that bodes pretty well for a team's fortunes going forward. Actually, Cecil could make it four later this season.
Ghostrunner on First is a little concerned about the mounting injuries and that the Jays' luck seems to be drying up a bit. They're also just as irritated as I am, and Southpaw is, about Brian Burres' impending start. Seriously, guys? Southpaw also has some harsh words for Alex Rios' detractors. I agree things were getting ridiculous on that front. The team was winning while one of its best hitters was slumping. Most might consider that a good thing.
Mike Wilner is starting to think that Scott Richmond is better than anyone has given him credit for. Mike, you must mean anyone other than us. Wilner does point out that Richmond continues to struggle against lefties while utterly dominating righties. As I've written, when our starters come back from injury, we could have a really fine late-inning righty reliever in Richmond.
Mop Up Duty tries to figure out why Marco Scutaro has never had a high batting average on balls in play despite always posting solid line drive rates. It's a riff on this Mockingbird post asking a similar question.
Also at Mockingbird, Jon Hale is taking requests. If you have a burning question we're too dumb to handle here, he's your guy. And to complete the trifecta, Hale has an interesting article at the Hardball Times that goes to a subject we were discussing in the game thread the other day - what pitches are most likely to be deposited in the seats.
Former Jays GM Bart Given, who's now at Sportsnet (interesting....) has a good post on MLB's disciplinary policy.
The Drunks don't understand why hitting Travis Snider ninth means less pressure for the youngster. A little obtuse, but they do make a very good point in reference to the Rangers bringing in a lefty to face Moonraker and then promptly leaving the game:
And so do the Rangers apparently, who brought in Eddie Guardado, a lefty, specifically to face Snider last night to lead off the seventh inning when the Rangers were up by two. After Snider's at bat, Guardado left the game. He was brought in only to face the ninth hitter on the club.The other team seems to have more respect for Travis Snider than his own manager does. But, no pressure, Travis.
And it's not just the Rangers, the Twins intentionally walked Travis last week.
At Hum and Chuck, Joanna's dad called the BJ injury. That is, if it is a real injury. If it's fake, you all get the credit for calling the fake injury.