Spring photos: Volume 4
With or without Vernon Wells, the show must go on. It’s moving day tomorrow for the Jays, who will pack up camp after their morning workout and move shop to Dunedin Stadium. As for today, I spent some time snapping some more photos. Enjoy.
~JB
Third baseman Scott Rolen during Monday’s workout
Infielder Kevin Millar during Monday’s workout
Catcher Rod Barajas during Monday’s workout
Third baseman Scott Rolen moving to another practice field
Ace Roy Halladay winding up during a live BP session
Second baseman Aaron Hill during batting practice
Center fielder Vernon Wells (10) talks with Aaron Hill during BP
Ace Roy Halladay delivering a pitch during batting practice
Third baseman Scott Rolen gloves a ground ball during fielding drills
Third baseman Scott Rolen fielding a grounder
Right-hander Jesse Litsch during his live batting practice session
Catcher Michael Barrett during batting practice
Catcher Michael Barrett talking with reporters by the batting cage
Manager Cito Gaston behind the batting cage
Shortstop Marco Scutaro during batting practice
Outfielder Adam Lind during batting practice
Outfielder Adam Lind during batting practice
Third baseman Scott Rolen during batting practice
Major League Bastian 
Congrats on being #11 on the Latest Pro Bloggers Leader’s List!
Julia
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com/
Hey, on the MLB blogs, JB is numero uno, by a long shot, so I’m not sure about this 11th place stuff. Where is this list posted?
By the way is anyone else struggling to get on here sometimes, or is it just me? The log in page hangs almost each time I log on. Did MLB downgrade their servers again? lol
Thanks go to the loyal readers for helping MLBastian rise to 11th. Let’s work on getting this blog in the Top 10. I think that says something about the Jays’ fan base. Out of 30 beat writer blogs, I believe I currently rank 7th (Of course, it helps that MLBastian has been around since the 06 season). I was hovering between 16-20 among all pro blogs until this latest boost. Maybe being on twitter and taking photos is helping create some traffic. Whatever the case, keep it up guys and gals.
~JB
Congrats JB on #11! I’m a new reader, and i’ve really enjoyed your postings this spring. I look forward to reading this blog as the season goes on!
GS, i’ve had a hard time logging in as well, but being a new poster, I thought that is how the log-in always was!
I was looking up Michael Barretts stats, and not too long ago this guy was a pretty solid hitter. 2006 he hit .307/.368/.507. I know Rod Barajas is slated to have the starting job, but if Barrett is healthy and can return the offensive threat he used to be, he could take that job from Barajas. Barrett has much better disipline and on a team full of predominatly free swingers I think he would be a welcome addition. Could turn out to be a saavy pick up for all you JP haters out there.
i was pondering jp and cito’s recent use of double negatives, in the past few days I’ve heard “I don’t see him not making the team” several times. Thats such a strange way of putting it sounds like a JPism if I ever heard one.
Jorden, can you remind us of the mailbag email address? I couldn’t seem to get into the archives to find it. Either that or follow me on Twitter and I can message you.
hey jorden, i was wondering if any of the players ever read your blog? it would be fun to know they do or to get one to post or to come on some night. that might get you some more people, move you into the top 5, which should be our goal.
JB, is the ranking based on number of posts or how do they base it?
If it’s on number of posts then come on guys and gals, lets get JB to number one which is where he belongs.
Denoti.
Hard to tell with Barrett. I assume he will be a reasonable back up, but my preference is still to bring up Arrencibia instead. Although, Arrencibia is only 23, he’s the first guy and only one of two in the entire Jays organization to drive in 100+ rbi’s last year along with 27 hr’s.
The reason I want him here is I think he’d learn faster under Cito/Tennace than any coaching we have in AAA-no offense to them, but Cito is one of the best batting coaches in the MLB as far as I’m concerned and he brings young players along better and faster than anyone in the game.
If we’re going to try to content in 2010, I think we need to get guys like him up here and accimatized and ready to go for next year. It also would put us into a positon to trade Barajas at the deadline.
A federal investigation into the skimming of signing bonuses given to baseball prospects from Latin America is looking at Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden as far back as 1994, when he was GM of the Cincinnati Reds, according to a baseball executive familiar with the investigation.
Two sources inside baseball say that a long-time scout in Latin America, Jorge Oquendo, 47, is the man who links the FBI’s investigations of Bowden and his special assistant Jose Rijo to that of former Chicago White Sox senior director of player personnel David Wilder.
Last May the White Sox fired Wilder and two Dominican-based scouts after allegations surfaced that they had pocketed money earmarked for player signing bonuses. Oquendo worked for Wilder in 2006 and 2007, as well as for Bowden with the Reds in 1994 and again with the Reds from 2000 through 2003. Oquendo left Cincinnati in 2005, two years after Bowden was fired. (Bowden became Nationals GM in 2004.)
SI.com
If the feds lay charges here, I’d expect a full blown investigation into each and every club’s Latin and other offshore operations and signings. Combined with all the drug scandals hitting now and over time, MLB is going to have a serious credibility problem if they don’t start cleaning this muck up. They are risking killing the golden egg if this crap continues.
I don’t think the plan for Arencibia is to start the year in the Majors. He has only reached AA and sure he put up good numbers but throwing him at Major League quality arms without proper development could actually slow him down. The best AAA pitchers are comparable to the worst Major League guys. Not disagreeing that this guy will need some time in the show to get ready for next year. But when he finally does get called up they will work him in gradually. Therefore the Jays need a quality catcher to probably catch around 90-100 games this year. I think Barrett has a chance to surprise. I don’t know how well Cito and Tenace work with the young guys compared to other teams around the league but saying that they are the best is a pretty bold statement. I think there are alot of other teams out there who have the numbers to back it up might be a bit better. The coaching in the minors is in place to develop players, and get them ready for the big leagues and if the coaching so inadequate that you must call up players before they are ready then you have a major problem on your hands.
Arrencibia has been tested against the very best minor league arms in the AFL this last fall. He was named to the AFL rising star team and the AFL All-prospect team.
I’m not disagreeing Barrett could do an adequate job as back up, I’m just saying why do it when we want to acclimatize Arrencibia for next year anyway. Barrett won’t make the difference as to whether we contend or not, but Arrencibia could be here for the next ten years.
Starting him off as back up now is working him in slowly for next year-that’s my whole point. Bringing him up in September and having him start one or two games isn’t.
I do tend to agree that pitchers shouldn’t be called up early, I disagree on position players. I also disagree with your slowing them down comment. Fact is there’s an adjustment to be made for the show, regardless of what happens in the minors. In this case, he’s already had 7-800 minor league at bats, plus a ton more at the college level, and hes generally hit better at each level. Most guys claim they can see the ball better here than the minors because lighting is better. So who knows.
This is the current rankings for MLB and fan blogs. Note Major League Bastien is # 11 , Brownies Points ( Redsox) is # 21 and Bomber’s Beat # 4 . Great job Jordan , we need to get you into the top 10 then to Number 1 , though we believe you are already number 1 .
http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com/
You can check it weekly at this site
Mailbag is either bluejaysmailbag@gmail.com or jordan.bastian@mlb.com. I’m due to due an Inbox soon for the site. Probably later this week. Stay tuned. … And the blog rankings are based on page views, I believe.
~JB