The Seattle Mariners say left-hander Cliff Lee is recovering from minor left foot surgery and will be limited when pitchers and catchers report to spring training this month. The team announced Monday that its biggest offseason acquisition had surgery Friday in his native Arkansas to remove a bone spur that broke loose and was floating in his left foot.

Second baseman Skip Schumaker and the St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to a $4.7 million, two-year contract, avoiding an arbitration hearing. Schumaker will earn $2 million this season and $2.7 million in 2011. The deal also contains performance bonuses that could bring the total value to $5 million over two years.

The Toronto Blue Jays have been for the most part dormant since their glory days in the 80s and early 90s. Since they won the World Series in 1993, the Jays have not made the playoffs. This is partly due to the fact they play in the toughest division in sports: the American League East.

However, I seriously believe that the Blue Jays will contend in 2014 and possibly make the playoffs as well in 2012 and 2013 for these five reasons.

1. The Blue Jays have serious young talent coming up in their organization, either in the farm system or at the major-league level.

Travis Snider was ranked in most experts’ list of the five best prospects in baseball last year, and through bouncing between AAA Las Vegas and the big-league club, he showed real potential. Snider should develop even more this season, enough to play as an every day left-fielder. He should enter his prime in 2014, a prime that includes 40 HR power potential to go along with a .290 or better average.

Brett Wallace, one of the players acquired in the blockbuster Roy Halladay deal, has great potential as a corner-infield slugger. His bat has been said to be already major league ready, the Jays are just trying to develop him into a first basemen, instead of third where they fear he will be an error machine. He has tremendous upside and isn’t just a power hitter, he has a great approach to hitting and should draw plenty of walks while hitting at a .300 clip.

The Jays have a ridiculous amount of starting pitching talent, Kyle Drabek simply adds to the long list of young pitchers the Jays are working hard to develop. While most of them were christened last year at the major league level and so aren’t “prospects” anymore, they have a bright staff of the future shaping up.

Brett Cecil, Mark Rzepczynski, Brad Mills, Robert Ray, Drabek, Zachary Stewart, Jesse Litsch, plus Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan (who are still developing). Out of that list of nine Jays hopefuls, plus Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow, it shouldn’t be too hard to at least turn one of them into the ace of the future, the face of the post-Halladay era in Toronto.

2. The Jays already have a top flight offense, contrary to popular believe they scored the eighth most runs in the Major Leagues last season.

That’s right. The Toronto Blue Jays scored more runs last year than the Texas Rangers’ perennial offensive machine. Heck, even more than the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers.

The Toronto Blue Jays already have a terrific framework to score as many runs as possible: Adam Lind and Aaron Hill are both young, talented, .300/30/100 threats, as they both performed at that level in 2009. Hill has basically hit his potential, but Lind could have even more improving to do, enough to bring up MVP whispers.

3. The Blue Jays are a big-market team, as Toronto has the fourth most populated metropolitan area in North America. They are capable of making free agent pickups and will when they believe they can contend for a pennant.

In recent years, the Blue Jays have been labelled as a small-market team simply because they haven’t made many notable free agent acquisitions recently. Torontonians have an excellent capacity to love baseball, and when the team was playing well last year (or Roy Halladay was pitching, the Jays must’ve made a fortune off of him) the Rogers Centre was usually pushed to capacity.

This is a ballclub that signed Roger Clemens to a $25,000,000 contract before the 1997 season and has previously signed other impact players such as Paul Molitor, Dave Stewart, and many others. I believe if the Jays win 88 or so games in 2011, management will go out and pursue a highly-touted free agent.

4. Am I the only one who remembers the Blue Jays’ torrid start last year? Everyone suggests it was a total outlier, a downright fluke, but it was the start of something good.

It is May 19th, 2009. The Toronto Blue Jays have the best record in the American League with a 27-14. There is a growing trend to rank them first or second in MLB power rankings. People are finally waking up to the fact that they are “for real,” and “should follow Tampa as consecutive non-NY/BOS AL East pennant winners.”

They then fall into a terrible downward spiral and finish with only 75 wins, good for fourth in the AL East. It seems baseball is about streaks. If you lose a few games in a row, it becomes a habit, a habit the Jays are particularly susceptible to since they’re terrible with pressure added in.

But the new Jays should change the culture. I sincerely believe that if the Jays wouldn’t have fallen into that terrible losing streak, they would have finished with over 90 wins. They fell back to .500, and the players looked at the season as a rebuilding year.

5. Alex Anthopoulos is a good GM, willing to make blockbuster trades and sign key free agents if it means strengthening his team.

People must remember that it was Anthopoulos, not Ricciardi, that dealt Roy Halladay. Ricciardi may have publicly announced that the America League’s best pitcher was up for grabs, which was a total failure, but it was Anthopoulos that ended up pulling the cord on the deal.

He succeeded in tearing Drabek away from the Phillies and Wallace from the A’s. He’s younger than most general managers, which is a good thing since we’re in the midst of a baseball revolution: new stats that older GMs don’t believe in or don’t care much about.

Anthopoulos is also willing to take risks. Taking risks is necessary when you play in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees. One of them is a mortal lock for 95 wins, you can’t just have a “good” season, the type of season Ricciardi was always happy with.

No, if you want to win the AL East pennant, you’re going to have to take calculated risks and have them pan out, which seems to be something the Blue Jays’ GM of the future is willing to do.

- – - – -

To conclude, I don’t see why the Jays can’t win it all in 2014, if they continue to make good decisions regarding their future and sign a few impact players after the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the fans will get behind them again and they can renew their dynasty.

Thanks for reading my article! Please leave a comment below, I’m interested in feedback and having a discussion about the Blue Jays, and if you enjoyed this article feel free to press the “like” button.

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Marcus Thames agreed Monday to a minor league contract with the New York Yankees, who also finalized a $1.1 million, one-year deal with Randy Winn to give themselves more left field options. Thames, who turns 33 next month, began his major league career with the Yankees in 2002 and homered on his first big league pitch that June 10 off Arizona's Randy Johnson.

Non-roster invitees are players that are not on the 40-man roster, but are invited to the big league camp at spring training. Typically, each team in the league brings about 20 of these players to camp and that’s the exact number the Yankees expect this spring.

There are different reasons the Yankees would invite these players. Some are young prospects who the Yankees want to get a look at like lefty pitcher Jeremy Bleich and catcher Jesus Montero. Some are guy who could help the team at some point down the road this season like outfielder Colin Curtis, and some are like Marcus Thames and actually have a shot at making the 25-man roster. Then there are also catchers who are just there to make sure that the pitchers get enough work like Mike Rivera and PJ Pilittere.

Here is the list:

OF Marcus Thames
LHP Wilkins Arias
LHP Jeremy Bleich
OF Colin Curtis
RHP Grant Duff
OF Reid Gorecki
C Kyle Higashioka
RHP Jason Hirsh
LHP Kei Igawa
RHP Zach McAllister
C Jesus Montero
C PJ Pilittere
LHP Royce Ring
C Mike Rivera
C Austin Romine
RHP Amaury Sanit
RHP Zack Segovia
OF Jon Weber
RHP Kevin Whelan
OF David Winfree

Out of that list, I’d say the only one with any real shot at making the Yankees out of spring training would be Thames. The rest would need a great spring and a rash of injuries to go along with a great spring.

Although there are probably a couple who can be called up to the Bronx at times during this season.

Out of the players on this list obviously I’m most excited to see Montero and Austin Romine. I also wouldn’t mind seeing Bleich as well.

Who are you looking forward to seeing this spring?

Most Commented Posts

• November 24, 2009—Yankees 2010 Lineup Projections (20)
• December 9, 2009—Dealing For Halladay Could Mean Bidding War for Mauer (12)
• December 10, 2009—Updated Lineup Projections (12)
• December 22, 2009—Yankees Returning to Unsuccessful Ways of Decade? (12)

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Found at Boston Sox Journalism

With Spring Training coming upon us, I will be adding one or two main discussion topics about the Boston Red Sox and their 2010 season daily. I will be analyzing the hottest topics and expressing my opinions about each. Today, I ask whether or not Victor Martinez will be able to handle the full time catcher position.

The heading may be confusing, so let me clarify. With Victor Martinez being the new full time catcher on the Red Sox, can he work well with the pitching staff and fill the shoes of the man who has caught four no hitters, Jason Varitek?

In my honest opinion, it was common sense to make Victor Martinez the full time catcher for the 2010 regular season. He is clearly a major step up from the captain and will no doubt provide at the plate, but will he work the same magic when it comes to chemistry with the staff like Varitek always did?

This Spring is where this question will really be put into perspective in my opinion. He has Jason Varitek to help him as well as the staff and there should be no real worries besides catching Tim Wakefield, which may not even be that much of a problem seeing as he’s the odd man out in the rotation, or his other problem being Josh Beckett.

Last season there seemed to be some communication problems between Beckett and Martinez that proved a lack of chemistry. Josh obviously worked far better with Varitek behind the plate and it’s up to V-Mart and Beckett to build a bond of sorts before Opening Day.

Can Martinez handle the roll?

Honestly, I do not think it will be much of a problem because like I said, he still has Varitek there to help him out and the rotation is arguably the best in baseball today.

The final answer is, yes, Martinez will learn how to handle the rotation and take over for the veteran captain, Jason Varitek, very well. There may be some miscommunications at the start of the process, but I have no doubt in my mind that V-Mart will be a  suitable replacement on the Red Sox

Found at Boston Sox Journalism

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The Minnesota Twins have been spending their way out of that small-budget image, mirroring the imminent increase in revenue from their new ballpark with a big spike in player salary commitments. Lead owner Jim Pohlad said it's a sustainable development. So even if the Twins sign Joe Mauer to a mammoth contract extension, they're not afraid it would cost too much to keep a contending-caliber…

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been looking back at how players performed in 2009 and have attempted to predict how they are going to do in the upcoming season as part of our Player Previews.

Here is a list of players already previewed:

Catchers
Jorge Posada

Infielders
Mark Teixeira
Robinson Cano
Derek Jeter

Outfielders
Nick Swisher

Pitchers
CC Sabathia
AJ Burnett
Andy Pettitte
Javier Vazquez

We’re not done yet, and over the next couple of weeks you’ll get a chance to see how our writers think these players will do in 2010:

Catchers
Francisco Cervelli

Infielders
Alex Rodriguez
Nick Johnson
Ramiro Pena

Outfielders
Brett Gardner
Curtis Granderson
Randy Winn
Marcus Thames

Pitchers
Joba Chamberlain
Phil Hughes
Mariano Rivera
Damaso Marte
David Robertson
Alfredo Aceves
Boone Logan
Chad Gaudin

So be sure to keep coming back to Bronx Baseball Daily everyday to see our input on these players and more.

Most Commented Posts

• November 24, 2009: Yankees 2010 Lineup Projections (20)
• December 9, 2009: Dealing For Halladay Could Mean Bidding War for Mauer (12)
• December 10, 2009: Updated Lineup Projections (12)
• December 22, 2009: Yankees Returning to Unsuccessful Ways of Decade? (12)

Read more New York Yankees news on BleacherReport.com

The Chicago White Sox are taking Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio's number 11 out of retirement for newly acquired 11-time Gold Glove winner Omar Vizquel. A Venezuelan like Aparicio, Vizquel will wear the number as a tribute to his countryman. "For me, it's like a huge celebration, trying to keep his name alive and trying to spread the word of Venezuelan shortstops," Vizquel said…

It’s all but official that Nick Johnson will be the number two hitter in the Yankees lineup, taking Johnny Damon’s place in that spot. There are many fans who aren’t sold on the idea of putting Johnson in the two-hole, and wanted the Yankees to re-sign Johnny Damon so he could be plugged back in there.

Their thinking is that while Nick Johnson has superior on-base skills, his speed (or lack thereof) will do the team damage in the two-hole. Last season, the Yankees switched Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter in the lineup and one of the reasons was that Jeter was hitting into too many double plays.

Johnny Damon, on the other hand, is one of the best players in the majors at avoiding double plays. On average, batters hit into double plays in around 11 percent of their double play opportunities. For his career, Johnny Damon has only hit into double plays in five percent of his chances.

The switch was definitely successful in this regard. Damon had a career-high 160 double play opportunities and hit into only nine double plays (5.6 percent). Jeter had only 106 opportunities and still hit into 18 double plays (17 percent).

Basically, if the Yankees didn’t switch them and they had faced the other’s double play opportunities instead, they would have combined for 33 double plays instead of 27. While this isn’t a huge number, it makes a difference. On average, a double play costs a team .35 runs. So, it seems that this switch netted the Yankees 2.1 runs, just based on double plays. This isn’t especially substantial, it’s important for teams to find runs wherever they can.

Now let’s bring the newly-acquired Nick Johnson into play. Johnson is the ideal number two hitter for statheads everywhere. Last season, he put together an absurd .426 OBP, good for third in the majors. It’s unlikely he’ll post such an impressive number again in 2010, but getting on base has always been Johnson’s specialty.

Damon is no slouch in that department either, as he got on base at a .365 clip last season. As we all know, just using last season’s numbers is not an effective way to project a player going forward.

CHONE projects that Johnson will put up a .392 OBP in 2010 while Damon will have a .357 OBP. While getting on base is extremely important, I wanted to see if Damon’s other prowess make up for the big OBP gap between the two players.

I prorated each of their CHONE batting lines to 600 plate appearances and got that Damon projects to be worth 10 runs above average and Johnson projects to be around 20 runs above average, so he has a nice  10-run advantage here.

Now, onto baserunning. Johnson is known as a very slow runner, and that’s an accurate description. Damon has always been quick, but he only stole 12 bases in 2009. I’m sure part of this is based on the fact that you don’t want to risk getting caught stealing when Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez are coming up behind you. In terms of total baserunning value, Damon gains some runs back.

Using a simple MARCEL-like 5-4-3 projection with some regression of the two players eqBRR, I get that Damon has around a four-run edge on the bases. Cut Nick Johnson’s advantage down to six runs now.

Getting back to where we started, Damon stands to make up some more ground because of his superb ability to avoid the double play. Looking at their career numbers on Baseball-Reference, I’d say it’s fair to make a rough estimate that Damon will hit into a double play in six percent of his opportunities and Johnson will in 12 percent of his.

The player hitting second in the Yankees’ lineup is sure to see a ton of double play opportunities, but there’s no real way of knowing how many. I’m just going to put the number at 150, slightly below the number Damon had last season.

Using that -.35 linear weight and the 11 percent average, we find that Damon projects to be around 2.5 runs above average and Johnson looks to be about a half a run below average. Put it all together and here’s what we get:

When the Yankees signed Johnson, I assumed he would be a huge upgrade over Damon batting second because of his 35 point edge in OBP, but it just isn’t that cut and dry. The numbers tell me it is way closer than I thought, but they still bear out the fact that Johnson is the better option for the Yankees.

There are still some people who would prefer Damon to Johnson in the two-spot, but the numbers suggest that’s the wrong move. As I said earlier, teams need to find ways to add runs in any little way they can. Just from an offense and lineup perspective, the Yankees did just that by signing Nick Johnson to be their number two hitter.

Thanks to Daniel  of Camden Crazies  and Matt K.  of FanGraphs  for some help with these numbers. Also, I feel like I may have just put some numbers in here without fully explaining them. I didn’t want to overwhelm the piece with numbers, so if you have any questions about my methodology just let me know and I’ll elaborate.

Be sure to check out Pending Pinstripes for more great content.

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