2012 Toronto Blue Jays Season Thread

[Tyler]

Alvarez back from FLA. MRI negative. Will pitch in his regular spot next game.

[Gozer]

Alvarez is scheduled to make his next start, no major injury.

AA on 590 said maybe 12 weeks for D'Arnaud.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Good news regarding Alvarez. That's too bad about D'arnaud but happy to hear he doesn't need surgery.

[Caged Great]

Jays sign De Jong.

Only guy left is Stroman of their top picks and have 300K over the 1.8 mil slot to work with, or re-allocate if Stroman doesn't sign.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Franklin Barreto, the top international prospect available for July 2, has signed with the Blue Jays.

A 16-year-old from Miranda, Barreto has two standout tools in his hitting and his speed. Some scouts project Barreto as a future plus hitter. He has quick hands, a short swing, recognizes pitches well and hits the ball to all fields. With his hitting acumen and plus-plus speed, he could become a potential .300 hitter. Barreto is small and is already a strong, physically mature player, so there are questions about projection, but he hits hard line drives and has shown he can hit the ball out of the park in games, with 15-20 homer potential.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/...nklin-barreto/

Toronto has signed Venezuelan shortstop Luis Castro, the No. 9 international prospect for July 2.

Castro, a 16-year-old righthanded hitter, is an instinctive player who has hit well during international competition. He’s 6-foot-1, 190 pounds and trained with Jose Aguiar.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/...t-luis-castro/

[Caged Great]

Signed (Bold are the more important guys, Italicized and underlined are new signings)

DJ Davis - OF (1st), Marcus Stroman - RHP (1st), Matt Smoral - LHP (1st), Mitch Nay - 3B (1st), Tyler Gonzalez - RHP (1st),
Chase DeJong - RHP (2nd), Anthony Alford - CF (3rd), Tucker Donahue - RHP (4th), Brad Delatte - LHP (5th), Eric Phillips - 3B (6th),
Ian Parmley - OF (7th), Harrison Frawley - C (8th), Jordan Leyland - 1B (9th), Alex Azor - CF (10th), John Silviano - C (13th),
Zakery Wasilewski - LHP (14th), Ryan Borucki - LHP (15th), Will Dupont - 2B (16th), Shane Dawson - LHP (17th), Alonzo Gonzalez - LHP (18th),
Jorge Flores - SS (19th), Dennis Jones - CF (20th), Colton Turner - LHP (21st), Trey Pascazi - SS (23rd), Jason Leblebijian - SS (25th),
Nathan Desouza - RF (26th), Dan Klein - C (28th), Derek Chung - SS (31st), Jorge Saez - C (32nd), Devyn Rivera - RHP (35th),
Daniel Devonshire - 1B (37th), Shaun Valeriote - 3B (39th), Kyle Anderson - LHP (UFA), Brandon Dorsett - RHP (UFA),
Wil Browning - RHP (UFA), Joe Spano - LHP (UFA), Bobby Brosnahan - LHP (UFA), Justin James - RHP (UFA),
Justin D’Alessandro - RHP (UFA), Charles Ghysels - RHP (UFA), Tim Nicolas Brechbuehler - RHP (UFA),

Not going to be signed

Grant Heyman - OF (11th), Ryan Kellogg - LHP (12th), Cole Irvin - RHP (29th), Devin Pearson - CF (30th), Jose Cuas - SS (40th)

No confirmation yet (Bold guys are the important ones as far as I know)

Joshua Almonte - OF (22nd), Matt Rose - RHP (24th), Daniel Zamora - LHP (27th),
Jonathan Harris - RHP (33rd), Brandon Lopes - SS (34th), Brian Cruz - SS (36th), Nick Lovullo - SS (38th),

[nik-]

I really wish we had landed Yu Darvish

[KelVarnsen]

Marcus Stroman ‏@MStrooo7 Officially a member of THE Toronto Blue Jays! Signed my contract. Beyond excited and blessed. Ready to work! #BlueJays #HDMH #CANADA

[flames_1987]

Since the start of the 2010 season, Bautista has hit 33 more home runs then ANYBODY ELSE in baseball.

[Flickered Flame]

AA looking to add players for now:

"Every dialogue I’m trying to have now, it’s all about trying to improve the 2012 product, that isn’t going to change," he said. "I’m active in having talks, that doesn’t mean anything is going to get done, but definitely all the trade dialogue I’m handling right now is all about making the 2012 team better."

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

[KelVarnsen]

So Moyer got lit up tonight. Hopefully this means no Moyer as Blue Jay.

[Caged Great]

Got to love AA

Selig puts in a cap for international free agents with penalties for going over.

Anthopoulos tells Selig to shove his cap and signs

Richard Urena SS - Ranked 13th on Baseball America's list
Luis Castro LHP - Ranked 9th on BA's List
Franklin Barretto SS - Ranked #1 on BA's List

All for over the cap. Apparently AA is not finished there and will go well over the maximum overage 15% over 2.9 mil (those 3 signed for 3.6 mil)

The only thing it will cost is a bit higher of a tax, and that next year they won't be able to sign guys over 250K.

So AA will likely alternate approaches between signing a bunch of good guys one year, then sign a bunch of filler the next, then sign a bunch of good ones after repeating the process.

Basically it'll net us more good players than signing one guy per year.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Stroman reports to the Vancouver Canadians. Hopefully I can catch a couple of games and watch him pitch. Something tells me he won't be in A ball for that long.

[zukes]

I woke up with a feeling today that before the end of the all-star break a significant deal will get done for pitching help for the Jays. Let's hope I am right.

[flames_1987]

Originally Posted by zukes

I woke up with a feeling today that before the end of the all-star break a significant deal will get done for pitching help for the Jays. Let's hope I am right.

I'm hoping they don't trade anyone of young value to. I'm fine with this team the way they are for the rest of the season without losing any young talent. Way to many buyers out there right now.

[Caged Great]

Jays sign Nathan Desousa for 100K.

He was one of the more important guys from the later rounds, so it's huge that we got him without going over the max allowed without eating some of the excess 300K we have.

[KelVarnsen]

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...412089619-1046

[flames_1987]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...412089619-1046

And he was 1 for 1 with a walk. Up and up that trade value goes. I really think he will be the biggest trade chip in any Jays trade

[BEANZ]

I sure hope they do not trade him, they have other chips that I would sooner see them trade first.

[flames_1987]

Originally Posted by BEANZ

I sure hope they do not trade him, they have other chips that I would sooner see them trade first.

Jays have depth at CF in the organization though and it really comes down to how much they value that first half by Rasmus. Personally, I feel like Colby is going to continue to be one of the best Center Fielders in the game for quite some time. It still remains to be seen if Gose is even going to be good enough to hit Major League pitching and his value is never going to be higher.