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Taking advantage of the off day on Monday, the Blue Jays are tapping R.A. Dickey--instead of a spot starter--to pitch in Thursday's matinee against the Athletics in place of Drew Hutchison, who is feeling sick. As of the time of publishing, the probable pitchers page on BlueJays.com does not state who the starters will be for the Friday and Saturday games against the Mariners.
John Gibbons says RA Dickey will start for #BlueJays on Thursday in place of the ill Drew Hutchison
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) July 23, 2015
Dickey has fared well against the Athletics in O.co Coliseum as a Blue Jay. In 14 innings over two starts, he has given up just two earned runs on 12 hits, striking out nine and walking four.
The Blue Jays will not face not lefty Scott Kazmir as scheduled, because as first reported by Ken Rosenthal, the impending free agent is headed to the Houston Astros in exchange for Daniel Mengden and Jacob Nottingham, whoever they are. Hopefully this trade sets a market price for other rental starters and we will start to see other deals fall into place.
#Athletics trade LHP Scott Kazmir to Houston for RHP Daniel Mengden and C Jacob Nottingham; recall RHP Arnold Leon
— Oakland Athletics (@Athletics) July 23, 2015
Knowing nothing about the two players who are going to the A's, other than the fact they were recent highish draft picks, it would seem like the Blue Jays would've had the pieces to acquire Kazmir, but they didn't end up succeeding. I wonder if the recent reports of Max Pentecost not being able to throw from 120 feet affected negotiations at all. But according to Jeff Passan, they are still pushing hard to get another starter, possibly Johnny Cueto, if we still believe what Ralph says.
The Blue Jays tried to make a deal for Kazmir.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 23, 2015
Sources: Toronto in serious pursuit of starting pitcher. Suppose that's obvious at this point, but team pushing really hard to acquire one.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 23, 2015
Royals&Blue Jays are all "in" on Cueto willing to move top prospect for rental, realizing value much higher than Kazmir..both need Game 1 P
— Jim Bowden (@JimBowden_ESPN) July 23, 2015
Lineup
Here's the #bluejays lineup who'll be facing Pomeranz today pic.twitter.com/bNOT635KMr
— Barry Davis (@SNBarryDavis) July 23, 2015
Come to think of it, it is good timing for the A's to ship off the lefty starter before the Blue Jays' right-handed bats get a chance to mash against him. But the good news for the Jays is that Oakland will be sending a worse lefty this afternoon in Drew Pomeranz.
Other News
Aaron Sanchez will look to rebound from a bad relief outing at some point today down in Buffalo, who will send Scott Copeland to face A.J. Cole at 1 pm Eastern.
Aaron Sanchez will throw at some point from the #Bisons bullpen today. Threw an inning Tuesday night. #BlueJays
— Ben Wagner (@benwag247) July 23, 2015
Speaking of Sanchez, his bobbling likeness will be given away tonight in Vancouver.
The day is here! @A_Sanch41 Bobblehead Night presented by @TheKeg! Tickets going quickly: http://t.co/Zj32F0jM3D pic.twitter.com/auGul2JAIQ
— Vancouver Canadians (@vancanadians) July 23, 2015
Here is the original source of that widely-shared video of a Japanese high school baseball player showing off some impressive moves at the plate. But look at the entire video: it appears that he is all show and has a pretty bad approach and poorer mechanics while at bat. Which is perfectly fine
NASA has discovered Kepler-452b, the first Earth-like planet that is orbiting in an Earth-like orbit around a Sun-like star. Perhaps there are starting pitchers over there. Alex Anthopoulos should take a bold stance and break baseball's species barrier.