There are a tonne of links after the jump today. The 500 Level Fan posted an article titled Greinke to Brewers - Jays Fans Rejoice. He is certainly happy that the Jays didn't give up Kyle Drabek and Travis Snideras part of a Greinke package. That's not the part I wanted to write about though. At the bottom of the post, he compares Travis Snider's career numbers with other Jays top hitters before their 23rd birthday (Barfield, Bell and Delgado). How about from a fWAR perspective? The Blue Jays all-time fWAR leaderboard for players 22 and younger after the jump.
What's on everyone's mind today? I really have to get on finishing my Christmas shopping - any other last minute shoppers here?
| Rank | Player | WAR | Games |
|
1 |
Dave Steib |
6.4 |
52 |
|
2 |
John Olerud |
4.5 |
253 |
|
3 |
Junior Felix |
3.5 |
236 |
|
4 |
Jerry Garvin |
3.2 |
60 |
|
5 |
Kelvim Escobar |
2.9 |
49 |
|
6(t) |
Alfredo Griffin |
2.7 |
306 |
|
6(t) |
Jim Clancy |
2.7 |
44 |
|
8 |
Victor Cruz |
2.4 |
44 |
|
9 |
Jesse Barfield |
2.3 |
157 |
|
10 |
Travis Snider |
2.1 |
183 |
|
11 |
Lloyd Moseby |
1.5 |
355 |
Other notables: Roy Halladay, Chris Carpenter and Tony Fernandez (t 13th, 1.3 WAR), Adam Lind (t 19th, 0.6 WAR), Brett Cecil & Vernon Wells (t22, 0.4 WAR).
Notables that played at 22 years or younger, but accumulated less than 0 WAR: Pat Hentgen, Kelly Gruber, Fred McGriff, Derek Bell, Shawn Green, Shannon Stewart, Carlos Delgado.
Also of note, Snider is 6th in PA, 5th in Hits, 3rd in HR, and 4th in RBI among 22 and under Jays players.
So for those that are disappointed in Snider's development thus far, I think this reiterates how young he is. Obviously, he could be another Junior Felix or Alfredo Griffin, but there are a lot of very good baseball players behind him for his age group. Let's be patient.
Jays Links
Top 50 Jays Prospects, Jays Journal Edition: #43 Justin Nicolino | Jays Journal
Jays Journal is up to #43 in their awesome prospect list. Number 44 is here.
Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Jays Sign Corey Patterson To Minor League Deal
A review of Patterson's career (with pictures!)
The Southpaw: Making the Case for Adrian Beltre
Ties into yesterdays conversation nicely. The Southpaw thinks the price tag will be worth it. I think last year was an outlier and he's in line for a big regression this year, (maybe 3.5 WAR). With a decrease of 0.5 WAR / year he might still be worth a $15--$17/year deal, as long as you don't sign him for more than 5 years.
The Tao of Stieb: ...Or maybe your expectations
The Ack is also musing about Beltre.
Encarnacion Signing Looks Better And Better | Blog Archive | Getting Blanked
Parkes likes the Encarnacion signing, especially compared to the demands of Adam LaRoche and Derek Lee.
The 5th starter: A Toronto Blue Jays Blog: The 2011 Las Vegas 51s
The 5th Starter wonders if the Las Vegas 51s will have a better team than the Kansas City Royals next year. What do you think?
Ghostrunner on First: Grant this One Wish, Agios Vassilis
All we want for Christmas is...Ichiro. He'd look good at the top of the order, but what would the price be?
Around the League
Why I didn't cast a Hall of Fame vote for Bert Blyleven, again - Jon Heyman - SI.com
Heyman explains why he didn't vote for Blyleven. He makes his case - I disagree with it, however, by hisHall standards, Heyman makes his case. Dave Parker on the other hand?
Microeconomics And Offense (Part 1) | FanGraphs Baseball
Jesse Wolfersberger looks at a balanced team by using a On-Base Percentage vs. Strand Percentage graph. Interesting stuff here. I wonder if the plan is to have Davis bat 1st and hope is OBA goes back up to his 2009 numbers. Could be a nice set up with him and Escobar.
The Relief Pitcher "Would You Rather?" Game | Blog Archive | Getting Blanked | Blogs | TheScore.com
Drew Fairservice wonders if you would rather take a chance on a reliever with a good skill set, but no proven track record, or a reliever with proven numbers and questionable stuff.
Homer, Blue Jays and MLB : Fate 56
Joe DiMaggio's hit streak could have been 73 games if it wasn't for a man named Ken Keltner
Angels Pull Adrian Beltre Offer From Table but Remain Interested -- MLB FanHouse
The Angels are "playing a high-stakes game of chicken"
Instant replay for balls and strikes
A case for using new technology to call balls and strikes. If it could be real time (not actually replay), I'd have to think it would improve the league.
Pitcher makes relief appearance at cancer clinic - Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010
Nice Chris Carpenter story here.
Santa’s naughty and nice list | Hardball Times
3. Toronto Blue Jays: In the end it didn’t help much, but tying the record for most players (seven) having 20 or more home runs is nice enough, and on Aug. 2 they tied the major league record of six doubles in one inning. That's worth a bit of eggnog, eh?
Former Blue Jay Fred McGriff belongs in the Hall of Fame " Cooperstowners in Canada
Kevin Glew makes his case for Fred McGriff. Found this part interesting.
According to St. Petersburg Times columnist Gary Shelton, if you remove the players linked to steroids (Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro), McGriff was second in the big leagues in home runs, first in RBIs, third in hits and first in extra bases during a 15-year stretch from 1988 to 2002.