International Women's Day Post

A friggin’ sidearm knuckler! That’s from the pages of evil…

Eri Yoshida is an 18-year old pitcher from Japan who became the first woman to crack the Japanese professional baseball leagues at the age of 16. Pitching for the Kobe 9 Cruise of Kansai Independent Baseball League, Yoshida hasn’t racked up a terribly outstanding record (the knuckleball is notoriously hard to learn to control and use effectively) but was considered a good enough prospect for a cup of coffee with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp before coming over to the Arizona Winter League to play for the Yuma Scorpions. The AWL is a major stepping stone for a lot of prospects to the MLB and higher levels of the minors. Again, she suffered from control issues, but pitched decently enough, including four innings of shutout ball against Team Canada. With a 6.16 ERA in 19 innings and only 4 strike outs to 6 walks, Yoshida isn’t tearing up the league, but she’s posted better numbers than quite a few of the other male relievers in the league.

At 5ft 1in, with a fastball that tops out in the mid 60s, Yoshida is certainly a long shot to make the major leagues. However, she’s already stepped through some of the most significant blocks between a professional career, even if it is the minor leagues in North America or the Nippon Professional League, advancing further faster than any other female prospect since Jackie Mitchell in the last fifty years. A self-taught pitcher, Yoshida enjoyed a workout with her idol, famed Red Sox knuckler Tim Wakefield, who was her idol growing up. Wakefield, the most effective knuckler since Phil Niekro, said of Yoshida:

"I'm impressed," Wakefield said. "She spun a couple, but for the most part, it was very good. She was able to take the spin out of a lot of them and they had quite a lot of movement on them."

…and the Fat Mon

Randy Ruiz came chugging into camp today, according to the ever industrious Jordan Bastian at his excellent blog here. Ruiz had a towering run in the PWL, posting a line of .344/.423/.594 for a ridiculous 1.017 OPS with 7HR and 27RBI in 26 games. According to reports, the minor league veteran was seen playing left field and first base, and while not inviting Ganderson-like comparisons, apparently was solid enough in the field. If Ruiz can be trusted with a glove at the MLB level, he’s vastly improved his chances to play, especially in potential platoons with Bautista and Overbay.

Drew at Ghostrunner on First wrote a fantastic analysis of Ruiz’ ability to mash, well, everything and Ian H at the Blue Jay Hunter had an impassioned plea for his regular use during the season.

According to Bastian’s reports, Ruiz has dropped a lot of weight, obviously sensing that if he’s going to make the majors to stick, this has to be the year. For a guy who did nothing but produce when asked, you have to think that he’s got to deserve a real shot if he performs in the spring, and if not, someone from the organization needs to finally explain just what they think is wrong with him.

Right now, the only complaint I can see is the insurance going up on the Windows restaurant’s glass.

By the way, despite an unfortunate jack o’ lantern grin, faux hipster glasses, in general a dork by way of the frat look and a gig as the virtual cheerleader for the team, Bastian is one of the better writers in baseball, and his work in his blog manages to convey a comfortable casual interaction with the players without needing to smarm his insider status to make himself look cool. His Spring Training coverage is a must read for any fan.

Captain Ashore

With the acquisition of Rod ‘The Captain’ Barajas by the Mets, the Jays have now picked up their last possible draft pick, getting a sandwich pick from the Mets for signing a Class B free agent. Barajas, who was the odd man out this year in the free agent market for catchers, probably due to his unbelievably poor OBP of .253, actually represents a significant upgrade for the Mets, considering the weak pool of Riggans, Coste and Santos vying for a role behind the dish at Citifield. Thanks to that signing, the Jays will have 5 picks in the first round and sandwich round to restock the minor league farm system.

While many commentators are claiming that Anthopoulos’ signing of Jose Molina was a strategic decision to force the Mets to increase their offer to a major league deal, it seems remarkably unlikely for a number of reasons. While the Jays are not cash adverse, half million dollar gambles for a sandwich pick make very little economic sense. As well, Molina provides a lot of value in his own right, as a no-bat, all glove and cannon armed veteran coming into a system loaded from the top down with young pitching talent. He arguably has more value in the minor league system working with Arencibia’s defensive development and whatever rotation of starters lands in AAA Las Vegas.

The Grand Branyan

The Jays are reportedly looking into Russell Branyan as a possible signing for 2010. Branyan, who ranks with the elite sluggers in the game for home runs per at bats, is a typical power hitter with high strike out rates along with a terrific slugging and OBP. He walks a lot, hits a ton of home runs, and would make a perfect platoon partner for Bautista as he crushes right handed pitching to the line of .267/.363/.542.

Branyan is doubly valuable as he plays a decent left/right field, first base, and an acceptable third. His defensive flexibility would make him a useful roleplayer as he can provide both power and depth from the bench if necessary. Assuming the Jays end up going into 2010 with a bench of Chavez, McDonald, Ruiz and a platoon of Bautista/Branyan, they would have a power option for pinch hitting from both sides of the plate.

Branyan is holding out for a multi-year deal, something clubs have been reluctant to offer with the belief that the back injury that hampered him in 2009 is not a thing of the past. If the Jays believe him to be healthy, Branyan could be signed for an affordable multiyear deal, even if he ends up a full time bench player by the end of it.

Pitching Wholesale

Alex Anthopoulos shops for pitchers like a woman at the checkout counter ends up being shitty magazines and soap opera digests. Does it look like it might be interesting? Fuck it, you’ve got room in the car, it’s only three bucks, and if it sucks, you give it to your kids to cut up for that collage project they have to do for Easter. Looking past the allegory that I’ve just waterboarded into oblivion, the Jays current signings have all involved pretty marginal arms from the disused corners of the minor leagues and the rank ends of other teams’ depth charts to see if they can be made to work.

The interesting thing about the strategy though, is that most of these guys were first round prospects at one point. Highly touted for whatever reason as young players and have hit a snag (or in a few cases, severe tire damage) in their development and are on the skids. The most obvious case of this is Brandon Morrow, who we’ve looked at before as being the textbook case of how not to develop a starter. The signings are mostly depth or a shot in the dark, but if there is one key strength the Blue Jays have displayed as an organization, it has been the ability to develop underlooked starters who can go toe to toe against the monstrous and expensive offensives of the AL East.



There’s no parallel existence in which Kevin Gregg is an excellent pitcher. At best, he’s had stretches of being a decent reliever who has closing experience and walks too many batters. His numbers in 2008 and 2007 were fairly solid, and according to reports, suffered through knee problems in 2009, which limited his effectiveness. In other words, his ability to find the strike zone without rucking it straight down the pipe. Gregg’s key value to the organization, oddly enough, is not necessarily as a pitcher per say. With Gregg, the Jays gain flexibility to move either Frasor or Downs without hurting their relief depth, and if Gregg has a half-decent year and decides to use that to dangle himself on the market, he’s worth a draft pick. With Frasor and Downs entering free agency after 2010, Gregg’s option is a very low cost price for a closer, even if he’s a marginal one.



Dana Eveland is kind of the new Josh Towers; a not very good pitcher who has the makeup to have pretty good stuff. Unfortunately, he’s struggled with his control, and last year, was rumoured to be pitching through an injury of some type. He was also spectacularly unlucky last year, with a BABIP of .400. All those excuses aside, he’s still not a good pitcher. However, he throws a lot of groundballs, and was establishing himself as an acceptable back of the rotation starter in 2010. What he has is experience, and if he can limit his ridiculous walk rate and keep the ball down, he could be a serviceable anchor for the back end of a very young rotation.



Yes, yes, he’s already been nicknamed ‘oily pussy wig’ by people. We get it. Merkin Valdez is a Daniel Cabrera type; electric stuff, lots of power, and couldn’t hit the town bike much less the strike zone. Merkin throws hard, really hard; 95mph through nine hard. He’s got a good change and basically nothing else. He has been handled almost as well as Morrow, with the Giants being patient enough to give him a whole inning in the minors rehabbing an injury before bringing him back up. Valdez’ talent is unquestioned. The big wonder is whether or not the Jays can get him to control it at the big league level.