Mop Up Duty Mop Up Duty A Baseball Blog dedicated to answering the questions rarely asked. Main topics include fantasy baseball, sabermatics, forgotten leagues & players, expansion, bios, etc. Updated almost everyday! 
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JP Anger, Roy Halladay to LAA & Free Randy Ruiz
2009-07-24 18:56:00 JP Anger , Roy Halladay to LAA & Free Randy Ruiz As we all know by now, yesterday Roy Halladay gave JP a list of teams that he’d be willing to move to. This promoted me to tweet my thoughts. Eyebeleaf over at the great Sports and the City tweeted back. And then things broke down MUD (mopupduty) Halladay ...
What about Marco Scutaro?
2009-07-22 20:48:00 What about Marco Scutaro? With all eyes firmly set on Roy Halladay, many in the mainstream media and even some in the ‘Jays Nation’ are seemingly forgetting about the upcoming free agency of Marco Scutaro. Scutaro, who is eligible for free agency in the off-season, will qualify as either a Type A or Type B free agent. ... More About: Toronto Blue Jays
Random Roy Halladay to Philly Thoughts
2009-07-20 19:39:00 Random Roy Halladay to Philly Thoughts Before we get going you might want to check out the fresh ESPN video from 11am this morning: Quote for Insider If the Jays know they won’t be able to re-sign Halladay after the 2010 season — and the guess here is that Halladay already has indicated to the Jays, respectfully and ... More About: Random , Trade , Toronto Blue Jays
Vernon Wells, MLB?s Worst Fielder
2009-07-17 16:35:00 Vernon Wells , MLB’s Worst Fielder I’ll be honest, Vernon’s fielding makes me laugh out-loud. His routes are comical and anything hit more than five steps away from his initial positioning is bound to drop. My eyes (and anyone else’s) can plainly see that. What do the numbers say? Vernon’s UZR/150 (zone rating over 150 games) is an ... More About: Sabermetrics , Vernon Wells
The Soul of Baseball
2009-07-15 13:50:00 The Soul of Baseball “I remember catching batting-practice home runs, she said. “That was when baseball was still baseball.” “I don’t mean to interrupt,” Buck O’Neil said, “but baseball is still baseball.” The above quote pretty much sums up legendary Negro Leagues player, manager, Major League coach & scout, and ambassador for the game, Buck O’Neil. Always meeting ... More About: Commentary , Book Reviews , Chicago Cubs
End the Dellucci Experiment Already
2009-07-13 01:28:00 At this time Dellucci is 1 for 20 At the plate he looks over-powered, with a questionable batting eye and a slow bat. I’m not going to crack out a bunch of his zone-swing, ld%, etc after a 20ish PA sample. Still, its clear via anyone’s eyes and basic numbers that Dellucci is not the answer ... More About: Experiment , Toronto Blue Jays
Doc Stats and Trade Thoughts
2009-07-10 23:37:00 Doc Stats The Jays team record is 10 - 7 when Roy takes the mound According to Baseball Prospectus Roy will be worth 3.9 wins above replacement level for the rest of the season (within top 10 in MLB) Halladay in 4th in AL IP, even after a DL stint 6.24 K/BB ratio Opponents are hitting .161 lifetime vs Halladay’s ... More About: Thoughts , Trade
Cutting BJ the Right Thing to Do
2009-07-09 03:59:00 Cutting BJ the Right Thing to Do For a differing viewpoint, see the posting below. In my opinion, cutting BJ Ryan was the right thing to do. Sure he had a 1.04 ERA with a .207 opponents batting average. He also didn’t give opponents anything to hit and Cito quick-hooked him at the first sign of ... More About: Commentary , Cutting
Toronto Blue Jays Release BJ Ryan. JP is an idiot
2009-07-09 02:21:00 Jays Release BJ Ryan. JP is an idiot God damn it J.P., you love pissing away money, don’t you? The Jays released BJ Ryan a few hours ago. From Bastian: Ryan is still on the books for roughly $5 million more this season and another $10 million in 2010 — paychecks that will continue to head his ... More About: Toronto , Blue Jays , Blue , Idiot
Trading Roy Halladay and Long-Term Plans
2009-07-08 19:49:00 Rumors are swirling all over the place regarding the Jays dealing Doc Halladay. The front page of ESPN Baseball is a Halladay watch zone, so I won’t go into rumors here. Instead, let’s look at some of the viable options going forward. I find it very difficult to imagine a world in which the Jays can ... More About: Trading , Trade , Plans , Long , Roy Halladay
Romanticised Vacation-Inspired Thoughts
2009-07-06 13:30:00 Romanticised Vacation -Inspired Thoughts “There is really no drinking half as enjoyable as daytime drinking, when the sun is out, the bars are empty of dilettantes, and the afternoon stretches ahead of you like summer vacation. The gleeful complicity you and your drinking buddies share in the excellent decision to have one more ill-advised round, knowing full ... More About: Commentary , London , Transactions
Searching for Positive Thoughts
2009-07-06 04:28:00 After a three game ass kicking I’m searching for positives… and I can’t seem to find any. Perhaps the only good thing I can think of is good guy Scott Richmond will continue to receive MLB service time while being on the DL. Doesn’t seem like much but for an older rookie that has to be ... More About: Thoughts , Searching , Positive
Jays vs Yankees 4th of July Weekend Series
2009-07-04 17:44:00 Positives from yesterday’s game Tallet manning up after a none out, bases loaded jam Rios’ linedrive, up the middle RBI single Vernon taking AJ deep on an 0-2 pitch Scutaro’s nice ranging CF fly catch in the 7th Chavez’s work behind the plate (unfortunately not in the batters box) The construction of the lineup itself Things I didn’t like I’m always of the ... More About: Series , Weekend , Toronto Blue Jays , Yankees , July
A Thing of Beauty
2009-07-03 19:19:00 Good things come to those who wait. Today’s lineup © Kman for Mop Up Duty | Baseball News Sabermetric | Baseball History Bio, 2009. | Permalink | | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: 2009 season, lineup, toronto blue jays $25+ of Free Baseball Media Files More About: Beauty , Thing
ESPN Insider gives a few Jays some love
2009-07-02 20:21:00 Today over at ESPN Insider , a couple of Jays received some all-star love. Firstly Aaron Hill was listed as the ‘best of the bubble’ type players by Jay Jaffe in the Baseball Prospectus article (BP Daily: Let them play!) nod for the third spot should go to Hill… A catalyst of Toronto’s surprising showing, he’s hitting ... More About: Love , Espn
Brandon League Best AL Reliever at?
2009-07-02 14:49:00 Brandon League Best AL Reliever at… Brandon League is one of those guys that always irks me. He has some nasty, nasty, stuff, yet at times he can be inconsistent. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to see that he’s tied as the AL’s best in Inherited Runners Scored Percentage This season Brandon has inherited 14 base runners. ... More About: Toronto Blue Jays
Jason Frasor, Two Months, One Run
2009-06-30 16:05:00 Jason Frasor 2009 Stud We all know how awesome Jason Frasor has been this season. But I didn’t realize that he’s been this good. While I was nerding it up inside Jays split stats I came across Jason’s month-to-month stats. April: 0 ER May: 5 ER June: 1 ER Two whole months with only one earned run allowed! Domination. May wasn’t ... More About: Toronto Blue Jays , Jason , Months
Barajas on DL. Offensivley who cares? Team ERA is the issue
2009-06-27 18:46:00 Barajas on DL. Offensivley who cares? Team ERA is the issue Rod Barajas landed on the DL after injuring his hammy friday night. (Note, Barajas actually isn’t on the DL yet. Many stories went out to that effect but the Jays are taking it day by day for now. Effectively he isn’t available for the time ... More About: Transactions , Toronto Blue Jays , Issue
Toronto Blue Jays vs Phillies Series Stat Preview
2009-06-26 23:48:00 We’re livebloggin the first two games on the Phillies vs Jays series for The Score. Come on by! Friday Night Liveblog Link: http://liveblogs.thescore.com/Event/MLB_- _Phillies_vs_Blue _Jays Here’s a bunch of interesting Philly stats I’ve collected before game 1 of the Series : Last night the Phillies gave up 10 consecutive runs to lose to the Tampa Rays 10-4. For the month ... More About: Preview , Toronto , Blue Jays
2009 AL East All-Star Team
2009-06-25 19:09:00 2009 American League East All-Star Team Our 2009 American League East All-Star team. This team is selected based upon performance from opening day until June 25th and does not take into account future player projections. 1st Base & DH Kevin Youkilis at 1st, Mark Teixeira at DH This is a tough call between Youkilis and Teixeira. The old fashion ... More About: All Star
Manny being Manny, Media being Media
2009-06-24 21:57:00 (This post/rant is regarding the minor league return of Manny Rameriz and the subsequent media coverage) Let’s pretend for one second that one of the claims of many within the MLB commissioners offices and the media itself is in-fact true: Steroids are unsafe, younger users shouldn’t be messing around with what they don’t understand, etc, etc From all ... More About: Media
Cito?s Historical Use of the Bullpen in Inter-League Play
2009-06-22 17:39:00 Cito didn’t look to comfortable working a bullpen this past week, did he? All told the Jays went 4 - 2. Still, the Jays pen was so depleted towards the end that Richmond had to man up (kudos BTW) and pitch two days after throwing eight innings. And Romero had to throw 118 pitches ... More About: Inter , Play , Season , Historical , League
Eight pitchers = one win and other random thoughts
2009-06-19 18:25:00 Eight pitchers = one win Can’t beat that. I’m usually against the Jays carrying this much organizational bullpen depth (trade for a bat is my logic) but it certainly came in handy yesterday. HR City A grand total of 11 combined HR by both teams in the past two games. That was fun Back on track I’ll admit, I ... More About: Random Thoughts , Random , Thoughts , Pitchers , Washington Nationals
Scott Richmond was Awesome Last Night
2009-06-18 19:06:00 What a great start by Richmond last night! I’ve been hard on the kid so far but he was dynamite last night. I went up and down his Pitch F/X data from last night and recent starts and outside of the curve weren’t any tangible differences with his other offerings (velocity and movement wise, although he’s toned down his change). Here are some Pitch F/X vertical charts lifted from Brooks Baseball. Below 0 represents sink, drop, etc. I’m using these charts because sometimes the Pitch F/X data incorrectly lists curveballs as sliders. What we’re after is looking at pitches that are below 0 on the vertical chart. These usually represent his curve. 6/6 Start 6/12 Relief (fill in for Doc) 6/17 Start (11 K Performance) As we can see he rarely cracked out his curve in the 6/6 and 6/12 games. Last night his curve was filthy. I’ll report back after his next start to see if he maintains a higher curveball percentage. Umm I don’t know how to put this w... More About: Awesome , Night , Scott
Janssen on DL. Jays bring up Brad Mills
2009-06-17 19:09:00 Via Bastain at MLB.com On Wedneday, right-hander Casey Janssen was placed on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation in his throwing shoulder — the same one that required surgery two springs ago and cost him all of last season. The Blue Jays have promoted lefty Brad Mills to take Janssen’s turn in the rotation on Thursday in Philadelphia. I’m not sure about calling up Mills over Cecil. Mills has allowed five or more runs in three of his past four starts. He’s also walked 11 over that span (24.1 IP). I guess the Jays are willing to give him a look. On the other hand Cecil has allowed only five runs once in five starts since being sent back down to AAA. During that time he has a 23/11 K/BB ratio. The injury to Janssen plus the Halladay question mark gives the Jays a Romero, Tallet, Richmond, Mills rotation. Depending on Doc’s status the Bluebirds may need to reach back down to AAA and bring up Cecil or promote Hayhurst to the rotation (five starts in ...
Jays undefeated when Rolen hits fourth
2009-06-17 17:46:00 Jays undefeated when Rolen hits fourth The headline is true, the Jays have a perfect record when Scott Rolen is hitting fourth in the order. Of course they’re only 1-0. After moving Rios down in the order the Jays now have a 1-3 record (Marlins Sweep + last nights win). Flip Rios and Wells in the order In the Jays version 2.0 batting order Vernon is in the three spot and Rios is back hitting sixth. This seems to have (at least in the short-term) woken Rios up. In four games Alex has collected 9 hits, 2 HR and a 1.611 OPS. Conversely Wells is hitting .111 over this stretch, with two hits in 18 AB. I’d flip these two if this trend continues, even in the short-term (ie one or two more games) Cito sticking up for his players? Cito said the following after last nights game (regarding Scott Downs limping after running down to first base and pitchers hitting as a whole) “That’s what happens,” said a disgusted Gaston. “My guys don’t take batting pr... More About: Hits , Jays , Undefeated
Jays in Danger of Falling Down to .500. Defending World Series Champ up nex
2009-06-15 17:26:00 The Jays are in danger of falling down to .500 on the season as they head to Philly for their series with the defending champs. Game 1: Romero vs Hamels Cole has been human this season, allowing 10 HR in 62.1 IP, along with an opponents .300 batting average. However he is only one start removed from ... More About: World , Series , Danger , World Series
Halladay out. For how long? + Castillo?s Muff
2009-06-13 17:33:00 As I’m sure most of you have heard, Doc Halladay had to leave last night’s game against the Marlins in the fourth due to a groin injury. ?Just out of nowhere I felt a pinch,? Halladay said. ?It wasn?t a lot of pain right after so I was just kind of hoping it was a twinge ... More About: Long , Castillo
How about Buck Coats?
2009-06-11 18:39:00 How about Buck Coats ? We’re up north anyways, let’s try a Coats on. Yeah!!! Awful joke aside, why the hell not? Dellucci is a bum, 35 years old, carrying a slow bat with no upside, the Jays seem to have no interest in Harper, Snider is still struggling, Cooper is struggling, so on and so forth. I’m a ... More About: Transactions , Toronto Blue Jays
I?m Sorry but Dellucci is a Bum
More articles from this author:2009-06-11 06:02:00 I’m Sorry but Dellucci is a Bum While we do cover the Jays I’m a long time Cleveland Indians fan. Every since my first live Cleveland game back in 1991 (Canadian at par won my father over) I’ve been following the Tribe. From 2007 to the present I’ve had an MLB.TV account. This has allowed me ... More About: Transactions , Toronto Blue Jays 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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