Baseball Musings: Blue Jays Ways

October 30, 2006

Blue Jays Ways

Allan Ryan takes a comprehensive look at the needs of the Blue Jays in the off season. Here's one:

A 3-4-5 type of starter, maybe two, if they can't re-sign free agent Ted Lilly; a No. 4-5 type if they do.

In general, I don't want a rotation that actually has a 3-4-5 starter. I'd much rather own a rotation that consists of three or four #2 starters. Now, if all you can afford is a pitcher with a 4.20 ERA, I understand the targeting. But you really should be looking for a number 2 starter who for whatever reason looks to everyone else like a number three starter (bad defense behind him led to a high ERA, for example). Then you get a deal.

Posted by David Pinto at 11:06 AM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)

Comments

If it's hard to find one "number 2" starter what makes you think it would be easier to gather 3 or 4 of them?

It's a nice goal but it's not practical the way starting pitching is distributed through the majors.

Posted by: Basura at October 30, 2006 11:45 AM

David - Any chance you can link us readers to a list of all players currently filed for free agency??

Posted by: Cape Codder at October 30, 2006 11:54 AM

I was looking for one yesterday but didn't find it. I'll look again today.

Posted by: David Pinto at October 30, 2006 12:33 PM

Would be greatly appreciated. Surprising how hard that is to find...

Posted by: Cape Codder at October 30, 2006 01:14 PM

http://www.mlb4u.com/freeagency.php

I believe this is the site you guys are looking for. It has an up to date list of the free agents with their info and such. There's news and other things too.

Posted by: Andrew at October 30, 2006 01:49 PM

Yeah, it's unofficial, but mlb4u is a great resource. It's hard to find info on contracts, like player/team options and stuff like that, and that site usually has it.

A quick look at available SP's reveals a conspiculous lack of No. 2's...looks like a whole lot of 3's, 4's, and 5's are gonna be signed this offseason, with general managers everywhere saying "No, really...he's a No. 2. I promise. He'll be great, relax..."

Incidentally, I just wikipediad Adam Eaton, who appears to be one of those guys who'll get more then he deserves this offseason. Did you know that he missed time in 2001 after stabbing himself in the stomach while trying to open a DVD with a paring knife? Because I didn't...and that's hilarious.

Posted by: the other josh at October 30, 2006 02:17 PM

www.mlbtraderumors.com has some great articles about upcoming free agents, including position breakdowns and team-by-team payroll analysis.

Posted by: SleepyCA at October 30, 2006 02:27 PM

Whether or not there are any #2 starters out there, David has a point. When teams believe that all they need is a #4, that's when they overpay for the Eric Miltons and Kris Bensons of the world. The most successful teams are not the ones signing mediocre free agents, they are the ones developing their own starting pitchers -- Oakland, Minnesota, Detroit.

Okay, St. Louis got two good weeks out of Suppan and Weaver at just the right time -- but they barely made the playoffs at all, thanks to their mediocre rotation. All in all, signing #3 and #4 starters is a great way to get stuck on a treadmill and waste millions doing it.

Posted by: johnw at October 30, 2006 03:12 PM

re: 345 starter

I like the shades the Blue Jays GM is wearing in the photo on the toronto website.

Natty.

It's important to remember that the Philadelphia Phillies were once known as the Blue Jays.

--art kyriazis, philly

Posted by: art kyriazis at October 30, 2006 03:53 PM

Yeah, who goes out there and says, "What we need to find is a real mediocre, back-of-the-rotation kind of guy?" But of course there's demand, and then there's supply. There may be 30 teams in MLB, but I doubt there's 30 #1 guys and 30 #2 guys out there.

Posted by: Adam Villani at October 30, 2006 04:29 PM