As you might have heard, defense is the new big thing. It's not a revolutionary idea to suggest that having good defense can help you win baseball games, but the improvement the Rays made from 2007 to 2008 was quite a wake-up call around the majors. They had essentially the same pitchers, and they actually scored fewer runs, but they won 31 more games with good defense.
Which brings us to the Seattle Mariners.
The Mariners were a train-wreck of a team last year, despite what we all thought was supposed to be pretty good pitching. Now, the Mariners are riding high in the AL West, with the best ERA in the league. Most of their pitchers are the same (granted, Erik Bedard has been healthy).
FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Toronto Blue Jays.
There's no team in baseball in a worse spot than the Blue Jays. They've had to contend with the megapowers in New York and Boston for years, watching their competitive payroll and over-.500 seasons amount to nothing more than third-place finish after-third place finish. No matter how much they have spent and how much they have won, it has never been enough to catch the Red Sox or the Yankees.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
We're coming up on that crossroads season for the Blue Jays. For years they've had a team that, in the prism of the AL East, was merely OK. And each year they were also the team that was expected to break that Red Sox/Yankees stronghold on the division. But those two teams were also the built-in excuse for the Jays when they didn't break through. They have been pretty consistent with their win total over the last 10 seasons (in the 80s every season except for two), but it was never good enough to approach the upper echelon. "Well, the Red Sox and Yankees are in the pantheon of baseball ... who's going to beat them?"
Umm, it was the Rays. And now that the Rays have busted through, the pressure is on the Jays to finally kick this franchise into another gear and make their move. There's no reason to think they can't do it, as the club went 51-37 after replacing John Gibbons with Cito Gaston as manager ... a pace that would have placed them just a hair short of the Sox for the wild card. That's a significant stride, but not enough to be a playoff team quite yet. And with the imminent departure of A.J. Burnett, there will be some work to do to get there.
As Mr. Watson told you yesterday, the Seattle Mariners finally went ahead and did what we'd all been waiting for them to do for a few weeks now: they fired general managerBill Bavasi. In other words, Monday was probably the best day that Seattle sports fans have had in a while, and a cause for celebration.
With the pending move of the Sonics, and the Mariners struggles this season, there hasn't been much to cheer about in the Emerald City lately. Still, while there's some debate in New York about the Mets firing Willie Randolph (was it deserved? did they go about it the right way? etc.), I don't think there's much debate amongst Mariners fans about how they feel for this move. If they're upset about anything, it's probably that Bavasi was the only one to go and that the team can't fire Richie Sexson.
As Watson mentioned in his post yesterday, Bavasi's tenure in Seattle is not one littered with success. He gave questionable contracts to Sexson, Carlos Silva, and Adrian Beltre (though I think Beltre has been a good addition to the club), actually gave Jeff Weaver $8 million to suck for a season, and made trades like sending Carlos Guillen to Detroit for Ramon Santiago. Those are some devastating moves, and yet, that's only part of what Bavasi did to help bring this organization down.
The Jays will attempt to fill Wells' spot in the lineup by sliding Alex Rios to center and using Wilkerson in right field. Jeremy Accardo also went on the DL, and the Jays filled his spot in the bullpen with a familiar name, purchasing the contract of Armando Benitez from Triple-A Syracuse.
Yes, in case you lost track, Benitez signed a minor league deal with the Jays back in March and has down on the farm ever since. He only pitched a total of one inning for Syracuse after straining a hamstring and spending most of his time (seven whole innings) with Single-A Dunedin, but he's back in the big show, where he hopes to avoid picking up where he left off last year, which was pitching horribly for the Marlins down the stretch.
Can Benitez provide the Jays another weapon in their bullpen? My first reaction was that the guy was toast, but upon further reflection, he did strike out better than a batter per inning last year, even while getting shelled with the Marlins. So long as he's not put into a high pressure situation, there's no real reason to think he can't stick around a while with the Jays, perhaps providing inspiration for another failed closer trying to work his way back to the majors.
Big changes went down with the Seattle Mariner starting lineup on Wednesday evening, as the M's cut Brad Wilkerson and Dan Norton (no, no seriously, this is important) while calling up Jeff Clement and Wladimir Balentien. This seems like totally irrelevant news, but with the Mariners already 4.5 games behind the Angels, it shows some sense of desperation, but also a notion to trust the farm system that the team has built up. Although it's mostly desperation.
Following Tuesday night's 7-2 win over Cleveland, Mariners manager John McLaren suggested changes were imminent.
'It was time,' he said before Wednesday night's game. 'We haven't had much going. We felt it was time to bring new blood in. I'm anxious to see these kids play.'
Clement and Balentien are both top prospects -- Baseball America ranks Clement first and Balentien fifth overall in the Mariners system -- and Wilkerson and Norton are nothing but possibly-possessing-of-upside journeymen at this point.
But before dogging this as a win-now at all costs strategy, it's worth pointing out that both guys are ready for the Show. Clement was posting .397/.535/.692 with five home runs and a 22:12 BB:K ratio in the Pacific Coast League, while Balentien, a Curacao native, was hitting .254/.329/.619 with six homers, three of which came in one game on Monday. He's also already homered in the big leagues.
Fantasy Spin: Clement is going to get full time work, combining to play DH and catcher every day. Balentien is going to start full time in right field. Both guys are fantasy worthy, especially in deep and keeper leagues. Clement is actually the more valuable prospect, simply because of his C eligibility and because Balentien might be a little closer to fellow Curacao native Andruw Jones. That's a good or bad thing depending on whether you're looking for power or average.
Where's My Tater? tracks the slow starts of notable sluggers who are taking their sweet, sweet time leaving the yard.
The Cardinals were supposed to be a train wreck this year, but someone forgot to tell them: they're sitting pretty right now, second in the Central with the third-best record in the National League.
Troy Glaus has been a big factor, getting on base, smacking extra-base hits and driving in runs. Any sane fan of the game would be happy with his production ... but if you look at his stats, something just seems wrong: he's homer-less. He may be on pace for 72 doubles, but there's something comical about a projected stat line of .268-0-97.
As if the Tigers weren't having a tough enough time trying to catch the Cleveland Indians, now they're going to have to do it without their designated hitter. Gary Sheffield's sore shoulder has gotten him placed on the disabled list.
The move was made retroactive to Wednesday, meaning Sheffield will be eligible to return Sept. 6. President and general manager Dave Dombrowski said he hopes Sheffield will be ready to return by then.
Sheffield had said he wasn't going to accompany the team to Kansas City because of the shoulder, and if it's bad enough that he has to miss road trips, he might as well be given the two weeks to rest it up. The problem, of course, is that when you're fighting to win your division in late August, you don't want to lose one of your most dangerous hitters.
Right now if the Tigers want to beat anybody, it seems as if they have to outscore them to do it. That's a lot harder to do without Sheff in the lineup, so you have to wonder if the Tigers won't try and make a move before Friday's waiver deadline.
Dave Dombrowski says the chances of the Tigers making a deal are "probably not strong" but there are some players out there who have cleared waivers. Mike Piazza, Sammy Sosa, and Brad Wilkerson are three of them, and Piazza could be a nice stopgap for the Tigers.
Not that teams will stop calling the Rangers and asking about him, it's just you don't generally want to trade for a guy while he's on the disabled list. That's where Teixeira ended up yesterday for the first time in his career, ending his club record streak of 507 consecutive games played.
"It's disappointing, but it's part of the game," Teixeira said. "I've been completely healthy my whole career, but every once in a while you are going to strain something. ... This streak was going to end eventually. I had no delusions that I was going to come close to Cal Ripken Jr.'s record. In the last three years, I've just never felt like I needed a day off. There is a difference between a day off and being hurt."
Tex had a bad week. Before leaving Friday's game with the strained left quad, he had to leave two other Rangers games this week due to an injury. Once because of a mild concussion, and the second time because of a stiff neck. Neither injury was bad enough to warrant a trip to the disabled list, so his quad was extra determined to get the job done.
Though he's only being placed on the 15-day DL, the Rangers aren't too sure that Teixeira will be ready to return after only 15 games. He'll be replaced by Brad Wilkerson, who just came off of a three-week stint on the disabled list himself.
What this means for any trade possibilities surround Teixeira, I'm not entirely sure. I don't think that this injury is going to cause any long term problems, but I'm sure a lot of teams are going to be more cautious before making a deal for him. They'll want to see that he's totally healthy first, so it's likely he won't be moved until closer to the deadline. Well, if he's moved at all. General Manager Jon Daniels has said he's not going to actively shop Teixeira, but is willing to listen to phone calls. Nevermind the fact that by stating that publicly, Daniels technically is shopping Teixeira.
As you might have heard, defense is the new big thing. It's not a revolutionary idea to suggest that having good defense can help you win baseball games, but the improvement the Rays made from 2007 to 2008 was quite a wake-up call around the majors. They had essentially the same pitchers, and they actually scored fewer runs, but they won 31 more games with good defense.
As 
The Blue Jays 
Big changes went down with the Seattle Mariner starting lineup on Wednesday evening, as the M's cut 
As if the Tigers weren't having a tough enough time trying to catch the Cleveland Indians, now they're going to have to do it without their designated hitter. 
Not that teams will stop calling the Rangers and asking about him, it's just you don't generally want to trade for a guy while he's on the 
