Blue Jays Morning Brew: Technical Difficulties, Trade Partners, and Bullpen Depth

Jul 12, 2013; Baltimore, MD, USA; Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Neil Wagner (45) throws in the eighth inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Orioles defeated the Blue Jays 8-5. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY SportsGood Morning Blue Jays fans and loyal readers. Jays Journal is back on line after some technical difficulties and we think we are finally in the clear. Our tech gurus worked all through the night to finally catch the little gremlin that was ripping wires out of the servers and shutting us down.

The culprit in our server issues.

Anyway, on to better things, like the Blue Jays Morning Brew.

David Laurila at FanGraphs has a great article up, where he interviews Blue Jays reliever Neil Wagner and his utilization of both statistics and video while on the mound. Wagner admits that there is a fine line between being a thinking-man’s pitcher and an overthinker, but he seems to have a solid routine down and an interesting approach.

Over at Drunk Jays Fans, Andrew Stoeten takes a look at the Blue Jays bullpen depth and what we can expect Alex Anthopoulos turn that into. Last week we talked about how the flooded pitching market could affect the Blue Jays on the trade market, but Stoeten takes the conversation a step further. He details past examples where bullpen pieces became key points to bigger trades, including a pair that directly affected the Blue Jays.

Did anyone know that Wilson also presented fielding awards? Not to be outdone by Rawlings, Wilson presented their own this winter, but this time to the best defensive player on each team. As detailed by Gregor Chisholm, the winner in Toronto was without a doubt Colby Rasmus.

Brian Crawford at Jays Prospects has an in-depth look at Lansing Lugnuts reliever Tucker Donahue and his struggles leading up to getting drafted and the continued changes he is making on the mound.

Finally, Gideon Turk over at Blue Jays Plus has a look at the trade front, specifically whether the Blue Jays and Tigers would make good bedfellows. The obvious notion here is that the Tigers, having struggled with late inning relief and have jettisoned their incumbents, will be looking to swing a deal for a closer. The Jays, as it is, have a pair of them in Casey Janssen and Sergio Santos, and a solid option for the role in Steve Delabar. That said, I’m not big on the return of Alex Avila, especially after getting a good look at him during the postseason.