Happy Wednesday.
There isn’t much for Jays news—a continuing theme.
The Jays hired Justin Lehr to oversee their minor-league pitching. He used to work for the Giants. Shi Davidi tells us that the job title hasn’t been announced yet. This is one of those moves, and it is hard to argue whether it is good. We can save the complaining for later.
Kaitlyn McGrath, in the Athletic, tried to answer the question of how players do after a season in which their offensive numbers dropped big time—the Bo Bichette question.
Unfortunately, there weren’t many really good comparables. What it showed, for the most part, was that few players had such a huge decline in numbers. Very few of those were close comps with Bo.
And, well, some of those players bounced back, and some didn’t. But it is an interesting read.
Also, in the Athletic, Jim Bowden lists the top 45 MLB free agents.
Of course, at the top, is Juan Soto. He figures Soto to get 15 years and $622 million. He lists the Yankees, Mets and Jays as potential landing spots.
Anthony Santander is number 10 on the list. Bowden thinks he’ll get 7 years and $150.5 million (why put in the .5, this is an estimate). Jays are also listed as a possible for him.
Cody Bellinger is 14th. He thinks 4 years, $112 million and list the Jays.
Gleyber Torres is #28. He thinks 4 years, $44 million and he lists the Jays again. I don’t see it. We are deep in middle infielders.
He lists the Jays as potentials for Brandon Lowe #31 and Carlos Estevez #35 as well.
There is a study in the Guardian showing that Black and Latino players have a harder time making it to the major leagues. It is an interesting read.
It also shows that black players are far less likely to be catchers.
It is a very interesting read. I’ll just steal this one part:
Opposing white pitchers often targeted Allen, and some years he had a hit-by-pitch rate over four times as high as the average. “Sometimes a catcher would warn you,” Allen said. “He would tell you: ‘Hang loose’. So that meant you were gonna get plunked.” The increased HBP rates declined by 1970 and Black and white HBP rates have been much closer since then.Members of the Homestead Grays were recommended to the Pittsburgh Pirates but the club did not respond.
Allen wasn’t surprised that racial bias around positions and promotions hadn’t disappeared in recent years. “I remember when Hank said to me one time when the movie was out, 42, about Jackie Robinson.” Allen said. “[Hank] said, ‘Man, I can’t watch that.’ And I said, ‘How come, Hank?’ He said, ‘Because we lived it, I can’t go through that again.’ And I started laughing. He said, ‘Oh, there’s nothing to laugh about!’ I said, ‘But you know, that’s behind us now, you know.’ He said, ‘No, it ain’t behind us, it’s still there.’”
Our friends at FOCO are running a sale today for 50% on ‘select’ bobbleheads. IT is worth a look, they do good quality bobbleheads. There are a few of them looking down at me from the mantle of the fireplace right now.
