I’m a big Farq fan and think that he adds readily available depth to the pen. I’m not sure that he’ll ever be a closer long-term, but at a minimum, he’s a setup man in the same form as Jason Frasor.

Farquhar has 40 minor league saves to his credit, including 1 this season in Sacramento (AAA). He’s been used by the A’s in multiple inning outings in 2011, going 8 innings in only 4 appearances. I don’t know if they were testing him in terms of long-relief potential, but he did well enough, giving up 7 hits, 3 BB and getting 9 Ks over those 8 innings. (more…)

Davis, whose only knock would be his age (30), is a career .281/.330/.383 hitter in stints with the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, and Oakland Athletics. He is entering his 2nd year of arbitration eligibility and will surely receive a raise from the $1.35M he made in 2010, but he is under team control until the end of the 2013 season. Rajai Davis isn’t the type of name that screams blockbuster trade, but after a more in depth look, he should help the Jays in 2011 and beyond. (more…)

Image Courtesy of BC's Sports Weekly

(1:23pm EST) It’s now common knowledge that Dan Uggla has been traded to the Atlanta Braves for IF/OF Omar Infante (.321/.359/.416 in 134 games across 5 positions in 2010) and RP Michael Dunn (1.89 ERA in 25 games in 2010). I wouldn’t normally devote an article to a player that got traded to another team, even if the Jays were rumored to have had heavy interest, but the amount of chatter that was sparked in Jays land over Dan Uggla, combined with the Marlins return for him makes it worth taking a look.

The Marlins managed to receive a super utility man who primarily hits singles in Infante, but there’s a chance he could only be with the Marlins for his club option year and then walk after 2011 when he becomes a free agent. Even after his career year, he qualified only as a Type-B free agent, so the best case scenario for the Fish would likely be that they would receive a sandwich pick next offseason should Infante sign elsewhere. Obviously there’s still the scenario of the Marlins attempting to re-sign Infante as well.

Dunn is a reliever that is pre-arbitration eligible and controllable, but has constantly battled control issues throughout his career. He has a career 4.1 BB/9 in parts of 5 minor league seasons, and has walked 22 batters in 23 Major League innings. He always seems to bail himself out of trouble though, always posting a respectable ERA and has 486 strikeouts in 445.2 career innings across all levels.

What am I getting at? (more…)

If the Jays are really going to bring a new swagger to the team and claim to compete in the AL East, they’re going to need to make Toronto a place where players clamour to come to. What better way to do this than to secure players such as Romero who help the team compete year after year. Also, remember that earlier this year the Jays also secured Adam Lind’s services through 2016, giving the team control over another of its core players through that time. (more…)

• Adeiny Hechavarria is really beginning to get hot at the plate. The Cuban SS is hitting .349 with 4 doubles and 2 stolen bases during his 10 game hitting streak and now has a .295 average in AA this season. That’s a huge improvement over his sub Mendoza period in HiA.
• Eric Thames hammered his 19th HR of the season in AA and has a .432 OBP over his last 10 games.  The 23 year old outfielder will surely get a shot at AAA very soon.
• Adam Loewen hit his 11th HR of the year and joins Thames in terms of great OBP over his last 10 games with a .425 OBP.
• Merkin Valdez got the start last night for AAA Las Vegas and allowed 12 ER in 2 IP…..I’m fairly certain that this experiment is over and that Merkin will head back to the pen. The squad wound up losing that game to a football score of 21-4. Forget about it, move on. (more…)

Alex Gonzalez is joined by SS Tyler Pastornicky who will take his place in the Braves system. Pastornicky will provide the Braves with another option at SS once Alex Gonzalez‘s salary expires after 2011, assuming the Braves pick up his option for that season at a cost of $2.5 million. The Braves get one of the best defensive SS in MLB in Gonzalez and more pop, something they are dearly lacking. This should help both their pitchers and their runs driven in numbers, and makes them better contenders in the NL East as a result. A solid deal for them that looks after both the present and the future at the SS position. (more…)

The most interesting part of the New Hampshire game yesterday was the fact that Ronald Uviedo, recently acquired from the Pirates, was the starter! It was the first start of his 2010 season as he was expected by most to remain in the pen, where he has been more than effective. Ronald did well as a starter in 2009 with 21 GS for a season total of 110 IP, 89 Ks, 30 BB, and a 3.35 ERA. It’ll be interesting to see if he continues to start and how well he does as he stretches himself out. Yesterday’s game had his struggling with control, but also mostly unhittable as he walked 3 and allowed only 1 hit over 3 IP. He allowed 3 ERs in the game and was relieved by Bubbie Bzachero who threw 4 stellar shut out innings. Daniel Farquhar picked up his 14th save of the season in this one, a 5-4 win over Altoona. (more…)

The win didn’t go to Zach Stewart, but just like Chad Jenkins in LoA Lansing he was very dominant on the day.

5 IP/ 1 Hit/ 0 BB/ 5 Ks

His line above lowered his ERA to 5.02 on the year, a clear indication of just how badly Zach needed this kind of start. Bubbie Buzachero tried to throw his hard work away by committing an error and allowing 3 runs to score (if the pitcher commits the error, shouldn’t it still count as an earned run for him? Because it didn’t in this case). Thankfully, Adrian Martin (2.1 shutout innings), Tim Collins (winner), and Daniel Farquhar (5th save), all shut the door and earned NH the win.

New Hampshire leads their division with an 11-7 record, 1 game ahead of Portland (BOS).

Top Batting Averages

1. Bradley Glenn – LoA Lansing – .389
2. Raul Barron – HiA Dunedin – .366
3. Brian Jeroloman – AA New Hampshire – .348
4. Mark Sobolewski – LoA Lansing – .333
5. Travis d’Arnaud – HiA Dunedin – .328

To have 2 catchers in the top 5 AVG players in the minors for the Jays is yet another indication of just how strong they are at the position all the way through the minors. the one name most people probably don’t recognize much is Raul Barron, a 24-year old 2nd baseman who is a little over age at his level, but is having an impressive year nonetheless.

(more…)