But then tonight’s Game 5 happened, and it centered on Mike Napoli — the catcher who everybody knows that the Jays acquired this offseason but shipped to Texas before he ever put on a Toronto uniform.

After Adrian Beltre tied the game on an epic, knee-down solo home run off Chris Carpenter, Napoli stepped into a two-out, runners on the corners situation. Just getting under a pitch, Napoli flew out again to center field to end the inning, narrowly missing out on a go-ahead three-run home run. Carpenter escaped the jam with the game still tied, and proceeded to shout expletives at Napoli as the inning ended.

The very next inning, Napoli threw out Allen Craig trying to steal before he clobbered the game’s decisive hit in the eighth, a two-run double to the gap in right center. Then, as Albert Pujols struck out swinging, Napoli fired a perfect throw to the right side of second base to retire Craig trying to steal again. Plus, after Lance Berkman swung well in front of the final pitch of the game, Napoli chased down the ball that had skipped away from him to record the final out of the game. Is it Wednesday yet? Game 6 is definitely going to be interesting.

There was, however, another interesting baseball game tonight, as Canada defeated Mexico 5-3 in the semi-final of the Pan American Games. They’ll now play the U.S. in tomorrow’s gold medal game, and there are some Blue Jays roots on the team worth mentioning.

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You may wonder why I point him out of the crowd. Well, here’s how I break it down.

Jose Bautista had a career year, no question, but is already hitting his 30s and undergoing surgery, which means that his production may go down some. His underproduction from 2010 levels should be covered by what I hope is a resurgence of Aaron Hill and Adam Lind. Their 2010 performances did not do their talents justice and I fully expect them to hit at a much higher level in 2011. Aaron will be playing for a contract since his 2012-14 contracts are club options, while Adam has no contract issues to worry about. All 3 players will undoubtedly amount to a good level of production that should match or even surpass their collaborative output from 2010, which bodes well for the core of the lineup.

I think that we can all agree that Vernon Wells proved that his wrist issues really were the issue in 2009. His 2010 numbers bounced back to expectations, and there is no reason to believe that his production should falter in 2011. The Jays seem to be settled behind the plate, with Alex Anthopolous putting all of his support behind J.P. Arencibia and it being very likely that the Jays will pick up Jose Molina‘s $1 million club option. What better teacher for J.P. behind the plate than the crafty defensive specialist?

That leaves Yunel Escobar, Edwin Encarnacion and Fred Lewis as the only regulars not named Snider to be covered here. Yunel will undoubtedly have his ups and downs in 2011, but overall I expect he will do his job and get on base often with a .280 or above average and 15+ HRs. Edwin may not be back and will most likely be replaced by either a FA, such as Adrian Beltre, or through trade. The Jays do have internal options at 3B in Brad Emaus and Shawn Bowman who both played in AAA and AA respectively last season, but I think we can all agree neither will be the starting 3B in 2011. As for Fred Lewis, unless he’ll accept a lesser role – which is doubtful – he will most likely be non-tendered and become a FA. With Darin Mastroianni, Anthony Gose, and Eric Thames making noise in the minors as outfielders, the Jays do not need to spend much money on someone like Lewis to be successful.

That leaves us with one big question mark in the lineup, or namely, will 2011 be Travis Snider’s big coming out year?

My answer is a big fat yes, and here’s why. (more…)

• Art Charles, who was drafted in the 20th rd by the Jays as a LHP and signed July 6th, has been converted into a 1B for the GCL Blue Jays;
• Noah Syndergaard made his debut for the Jays in the GCL, throwing 2 shutout innings where he did not allow a walk or a hit. So far so good! If looking for more information about Noah, look up the interview I conducted with him after he signed with the Jays.
• J.P. Arencibia is a man on fire in AAA and may be spelling the end of John Buck in Toronto with his performance. Not only is John’s value about as high as it can be in trades right now, but JP is tearing up the ball in AAA at a pace that can’t be ignored much longer. He’s hitting .390 with 7 HRs over his last 10 games, with a .444 OPB and ridiculous 1.396 OPS. He should be in Toronto by the end of July, once Alex starts dealing.
• Zach Stewart is beginning to heat up in AA, holding a 5-1 record and 3.19 ERA over his last 10 games. He still doesn’t have stellar numbers, 59 hits and 26 walks to 49 Ks in those 62 IP, but he is learning to come through when needed and get the job done with guys on base. A promotion to AAA may be in order by August.
• Adeiny Hechavarria is beginning to warm up in AA, but is still showing cracks to his offensive skills. While his average is much better at .279 over his last 10 games (43 ABs), he still only had 4 extra base hits in that span and was caught stealing twice (no stolen bases). That amounts to few big knocks and no speed….not exactly stellar for a SS. He can still break out soon, but hasn’t wowed anyone yet. (more…)

Here’s a revision of the in-season moves that have added to the ever-changing Jays depth and bench:

1. 4/13/10: Every single Jays fan was aware that the Jays had no in-house SS option at any level in the minors that seemed to be on the rise or able to handle SS duties in MLB within the next 3-4 years. So what does AA do? Well, he steals what most believe was the best international SS prospect from under their hated rivals nose when he acquires Adeiny Hechavarria. Sure, the kid is rough around the edges and will take some time to develop, but a 1-2 year time-line is better than anything that was going to be available on the FA market or in the draft, so this was by far the most important and best acquisition made by AA.
2. 4/15/10: The second acquisition was Fred Lewis from the Giants for peanuts and a bobble head of Alex Anthopolous that says “gotcha” continuously. We all know the impact he’s had in settling the top of the lineup and he’s learning to hit the inside pitches….oh oh…. (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).

• Brandon Morrow still hasn’t found his groove. His outing Wednesday showed a lack of movement in all of his pitches and it seemed to me that he was pacing himself. I could be wrong, but those are my observations of his outing. He gave up 7 runs in 4 innings mostly due to 8 hits. He threw strikes (51 of 87), as also evident from only giving up 1 walk. I’m still waiting for Brandon to show start type stuff, but if he doesn’t do so soon the Jays may end up putting him back in the pen or sending him to AAA to sharpen his stuff.
• Whatever Morrow did Wednesday didn’t really matter because the offensive side of the Jays was non-existent. They only managed 2 hits and 3 walks….not pretty!
• Travis Snider got the day off. Hopefully that is enough to get him going, because both Jeremy Reed and Randy Ruiz could start pushing for playing time if he doesn’t wake up.
• Kevin Gregg came in a took the closer’s job away from Jason Frasor. I remember lots of people criticizing the Jays for grabbing Gregg when they signed him, saying he couldn’t be effective in the AL. I wonder what they’re thinking now?
• Reidier Gonzalez, now going by the name Rey for some reason, got the win for AAA Las Vegas despite giving up 5 ER in 5 IP, beating Fresno’s Madison Bumgarner. He got 7 Ks and now has a 5.73 ERA over 2 starts.
• In AA, Kyle Drabek would have had a better outing if he had received good defensive support. He gave up 7 runs over 5.2 IP, but only 3 of those were earned. He walked 2, struck out 2, and gave up 1 HR in the outing. CF Darin Mastroianni (1 for 4, 1 SB), SS Jonathan Diaz (1 for 2, 2 BB), and C Brian Jeroloman (2 for 4) had the best days for New Hampshire.
• HiA Dunedin’s Andrew Liebel got his 1st win of the year by providing 5 innings of 3 run ball over Daytona. Dunedin beat Daytona 11 to 6 mainly due to the red hot Travis d’Arnaud who went 4 for 6 with a double, a SB, and 3 RBI. 3B John Tolisano also had a great day, going 2 for 4 with a walk and a double, and also by scoring 4 runs. Travis is now hitting .423 on the season and shouldn’t be too far off from a promotion to AA New Hampshire.
• Matt Fields was hit or miss for LoA Lansing as he struck out 7 in only 4 innings, but also gave up 10 hits, resulting 2 ER. Since Lansing couldn’t produce any offense (Bradley Glenn produced 3 of the 6 hits Lansing had in the game), Fields also took the loss. Of note in this game was the fact that Oliver Dominguez was playing at 3B. With his speed and potential, he could come up the ranks as a Chone Figgins type 2B/3B/CF combination, making a very useful utility player.
• The newly acquired Shawn Bowman will in fact be reporting to AAA Las Vegas and will take over 3B duties there. Brad Emaus, meanwhile, continues to play in AA despite a good spring.

Dana Eveland takes to the mound today, hoping he gets more offensive support than Morrow got last night!

Shawn is from New Westminster British Columbia, stands 6’2″ 190 lbs, and was selected 357th overall (12th rd) of the 2002 draft.

I’ll only look at his most recent stats in AA from 2009:

347 ABs, had 102 hits for a .294 average, 24 doubles, 3 triples, 9 HRs, 44 RBI, 25 walks and 101 SO. He sported a .346 OBP and .458 SLG, all of which is fairly average overall.

If he had received 500 ABs, his stats would have been:

500 AB, 146 hits, 35 doubles, 4 triples, 13 HRs, 63 RBI.

Nothing stands out to be above average with Bowman, but he could always hit his stride as a 25 year old. He had been projected to be a much better power hitter when he was drafted, but for whatevre reasons he was never able to get more than 400 ABs in any one season throughout his development. It could be that with more ABs and the extra motivation of playing for a Canadian team Bowman could turn the corner and become a serviceable 3B. I’m more interested to see at which level they play him, AA or AAA, since they only have Christian Colonel filling that hole in AAA while Brad Emaus has been taking that position on in AA. With Brad Emaus starting off so hot (great spring and a .333 average and .455 OBP  with 2 doubles and 1 HR thus far in AA), he could get a shot at 3B in AAA.

More to come on this subject, but a nice and cheap grab that could turn out ok for the Jays and provides some depth at a very weak position for them.