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Featuring: Larry Mahnken SG sjohnny TVerik Sean McNally Fabian McNally John Brattain  
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Disclaimer: If you think this is the official website of the New York Yankees, you're an idiot. Go away. Thursday, March 31, 2005
2005 RLYW Staff predictions by SG
Predictions
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Nation Eagerly Waits to Hear Curt Schilling’s Opinion on Terri Schiavo by sj
Sportspickle is hit or miss, but when it hits, it is very funny.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
#11 by Fabian
One Week to Go (SG) Coming off of a .260/.311/.414 season for the ’03 BC Yanks that landed him 3rd on BA’s list that year and 2nd on my list, Guillen only managed a .264/.313/.339 line in the FSL. I tried looking for some encouraging statistical trends based on his ’04 work to put in this report, but I couldn’t really find any. He began the season hitting “well”, and by well I mean he was hitting tons of singles, but not doing much else. Predictably, the singles started disappearing and so did his productivity. It was at this point he fell victim to a high ankle sprain. Once he returned from the sprain some months later, Guillen continued hitting for mediocre average with not much walking or power and he also made the permanent switch to RF as Melky Cabrera had taken over his CF position. The Yankees seem to have a similar faith in Guillen, as he will be starting the year as the AA RF despite not really “earning” that promotion. He will be in a better offensive environment so there should be superficial improvement to his numbers, in addition, I think he will genuinely play better now that he is over the ankle sprain and hopefully this means the power that he showed when hitting 11 homers in the ’01 DSL is back. At 21 and in AA it is a bit early to call this a make or break year, but considering all the soon-to-be expiring Yankee ML OF contracts, a big year could be crucial to Guillen’s future.
Monday, March 28, 2005
One week to go by SG
Make sure you scroll down and read Fabian's posts on Christian Garcia and Eric Abreu. Garcia in particular looks like a stud in the making.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
#12 by Fabian
One Season out of 1000 (SG) While I found the Yankees selection of Jon Poterson in the ’04 draft to be indefensible, I was both surprised and pleased with them picking up Garcia. I had not heard much about Garcia before draft day, but all I needed to know, and found out quickly, was that he threw hard and had very little mileage on his arm due to only pitching his senior year of high school. The Yankees were able to sign Garcia quickly and send him to the GCL for some work. Garcia’s inexperience was easy to locate as he struggled with walks, 4.0 per 9 innings during the GCL regular season, many of which stemmed from inconsistent curveball command. The other side of that is that when he did command his curveball, GCL hitters stood little to no chance. In addition, walking a lot of hitters did not stop Garcia from running up excellent strikeout totals, 11.1 per 9 innings to be exact. As the season went on, the GCL coaches gained enough confidence in the pitching newcomer to allow him to hold the role of number 1 starter for the postseason and it worked out for everyone since the GCL Yankees ended up as league champions. The lanky RHP’s success and ability to overcome being new to the pitching aspect of baseball can be credited entirely to a right arm with loads of natural talent. Though he is still lanky and has room for physical maturation, Garcia’s fastball already sits in the low 90s and he reportedly hit 97 in the playoffs, according to Pinstripes Plus. In addition, some scouts feel that he could eventually sit in the upper 90s as a relief pitcher or in the mid 90s as a starter, with the occasional 100 thrown in. As if that’s not impressive enough, some scouts see Garcia’s out pitch, the curveball, as major league average right now. His development with this pitch should only be aided by the Yankees recent decision to emphasize the development of a pitcher’s fastball, curveball, and changeup before anything else. With the rest of his arsenal being as effective/dominant as it was in the past calendar year, Garcia had little incentive to utilize the changeup. However, the progress he has made with this pitch during the offseason will determine whether his final line in ’05 makes him look like a future dominant reliever or a future front of the rotation starter. Garcia’s ’04 GCL performance was somewhat similar to what Abel Gomez did at the level in ’03, though Garcia did admittedly outperform Gomez, and they do at least hold the similarity of good fastballs. From what I’ve seen reported, Garcia probably has better control of his and has a much better breaking pitch as scouts already feel his curveball will be an outstanding out pitch. All this leads me to believe that Garcia should get the job done, with relative ease, for Charleston in ’05. My only concern is that more so than others his transition to full season ball could see him suffer through some dead arm towards season’s end due to his inexperience.
#13 by Fabian
One Season out of 1000 (SG) Eric Abreu, who had been briefly mentioned by BA in the past, finally logged significant innings in ’04 and did not disappoint. His summer began in the GCL where he was quickly promoted after 12.1 dominant innings as he limited opponents to 6 hits, 2 walks, and struck them out 14 times. Abreu then got better once promoted to the NYPL where he faced more age-appropriate competition. In 27.2 innings, opponents hit .238 with a .317 SLG and struck out in 46.5% of at bats while only managing 6 walks. It was clear Abreu needed another challenge, and the Yankees gave it to him with a promotion to the Florida State League. Once there Abreu continued to dominate his competition; 17 innings produced a BAA of .125 with a .232 SLG and strikeouts in 26.8% of at bats to go along with 6 walks. Judging by his ’04 numbers, Abreu is about neutral as far as groundball-fly ball tendencies. He also seems to be about equally tough on left and right-handed batters, perhaps more so to left-handed ones. Combined between the NYPL and FSL, LHB hit ~.160 while striking out ~42% of the time and managing 3 extra base hits. RHB hit ~.210 while striking out ~35% of the time and managing 6 extra base hits. He faced RHB just slightly more than he did LHB in ’04, but the reason I’m wary of making the distinction is that the difference in splits did not really develop until his FSL split and there may be a reason for that. While Abreu regularly sports a low 90s fastball that can reach the mid 90s, during his time in the FSL his fastball had lost a lot of zip due to fatigue. Without that to keep RHB completely honest, they may have been able to cheat a bit when hitting him. Despite this he was still able to pitch extremely well due to his command/control of his fastball and his curveball and change up combination. Fatigue in a season that only lasted about 57 innings is a concern for a prospect attempting to be a starter. When combined with that started being listed at 6’1’’ there is the looming concern that a move to the bullpen may come quickly and unnecessarily. Abreu should begin the ’05 season as a member of either the Tampa or Trenton rotation. I would look for him to experience a lot of early success and my only concern would be to keep an eye on how he holds up as the season progresses. Noting that his NYPL numbers are arguably equivalent to or lesser than those of Jesse Hoover, who has the better pitcher’s build, there is probably the question of what separates the two. The answer would be that I just have a better gut feeling about Abreu who also happens to be 17 months younger and possesses better control of his pitches.
Friday, March 25, 2005
One season out of 1000 by SG
A few days ago, I posted the results of 1000 Diamond Mind Sims with a couple of different projection disks. With what looks like another close race looming in the AL East, I figured I'd look in depth at one of the Diamond Mind simulations that had a nice tight divisional race to see what kind of story played out.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
#14 by Fabian
Jeff Marquez, 20, RHP Marquez was part of the Yankees ’04 draft, and despite being relatively unheralded made quick work of the GCL and held his own in the NYPL against older competition. Marquez had little to no hype coming out of high school, but was able to quickly develop as part of a JUCO program and is now considered one of the better prospects in a decent Yankee system. Marquez’s GCL performance was everything you could ask for in a pitching prospect’s statistical record. Limit HRs? 0 in 14.1 innings says that was accomplished. Limit BBs? 4 in 14.1 innings says that was accomplished. Miss bats? 18 in 14.1 innings says that was accomplished. Limit hits? 10 in 14.1 innings says that was accomplished. With the GCL clearly being no challenge for Marquez, he was quickly promoted to Staten Island where he found things a bit tougher. That increased difficulty was evident in the decline of his K rate from 11.3 per 9 GCL innings to 6.4 per 9 NYPL innings. His walks and hits per 9 also rose, from 2.5 to 3.6 and 6.3 to 9.1 respectively. Despite all this performance degradation I was very encouraged by Marquez’s performance. He has had a relatively unheralded amateur career and come very far in a short period of time. Marquez’s pitcher type also somewhat explains the high hit rate. As an extreme groundball pitcher Marquez relies a lot on his defense and his infield wasn’t the surest this past summer. In addition, despite allowing a relatively high amount of hits, Marquez limited extra base hits, resulting in an IsoP allowed of about .080, much better than the league average of .113. Marquez’s main weapons in his pitching arsenal are a low 90s sinking fastball, which he uses to generate a ton of groundouts. In addition, he throws a power changeup to help keep left-handed batters off balance. At this point, his repertoire is much more adept at handling right-handed hitters, as they stood little to no chance against him in ’04 (AVG around .250, SLG around .300). A wiry frame and good arm action should allow hopes for Marquez adding some more power to remain viable. At this point, Marquez looks set to begin the ’05 season somewhere near the top of the Tampa Yankees rotation. I would expect him to perform similarly to how Steven White did at the level, perhaps with more strikeouts and less home runs. Based on his repertoire and performance in the organization thus far, a late promotion to AA does not seem completely out of the question. Especially if he can develop his off speed repertoire and make lefties as useless against him as right-handed hitters have been.
#15 by Fabian
SG's Season Simulations Battle’s first exposure to professional pitching, in the ’03 GCL, was a forgettable one. He didn’t walk much, didn’t hit for any power, and struck out a ton. The one thing he had going for him was that he was able to steal 5 bases in 6 attempts. Overall it was a summer to forget, but remembering Battle was only 17 at the time should ease the pain of his poor performance. Furthermore, after the season it was found out that the reason Battle was feeling discomfort in his ribs during his swing was that he had cancer. Taking all this into account the Yankees gave Battle a GCL do-over in ’04. In 50 AB, Battle went .320/.364/.560 with 5 SB and 2 CS. Following that short stint of success, the Yankees promoted Battle to the NYPL, where he was amongst the league’s youngest players, because the team was pretty…not good and Battle was a likely overall improvement on what was already on that field. Above all else, Tim Battle’s defensive ability excites me. As a HS he threw 90 MPH off the mound, so the arm is there, in addition, there are no questions about his ability to stick in CF long-term as is the case with many CF prospect since his speed grades a 70 on the 80 point scouting scale (Only grounding into 2 double plays in 355 career at bats is also a testament to Battle’s wheels). In fact, the ’03 Baseball America Draft Preview noted, “some scouts feel he’s a better athlete than Florida high schooler Lastings Milledge” (Milledge is currently regarded as one of the game’s brightest prospects and plays in the Mets organization). The same draft preview noted that Battle had good power, but was “so raw that he might need two years in Rookie ball”. With his 2 years in Rookie ball complete I feel that Battle is ready to emerge. Had he been allowed to spend the entire summer of ’04 in the GCL I feel Battle would have maintained his hitting and been named the league’s top prospect so it should come as no surprise I have little doubt that he will have a respectable ’05 in Low-A. I don’t think he’s refined his offensive game to the point where he can be counted on to produce huge numbers, but the raw talent will carry him. And if you don’t believe that then we can at least agree that “speed never slumps” and this guy has an abundance of speed. It’ll be a couple years before the overall package is ready, but it should be worth it.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
#16 by Fabian
SG's Season Simulations Even if he currently had no merits as a prospect, I would still enjoy following Bronson Sardinha’s career because he brings me back to the point where the minor leagues first captured my full attention. It was around the 2001 draft when I decided to get a subscription and closely follow this minor league thing, outside of Nick Johnson. Since then, I’ve been hooked, so Sardinha will keep a warm place in my heart as far as that. As far as who he is as a prospect, Sardinha is currently a frustrating ‘tweener. Much of the frustration and ‘tweener-dom, yeah, ‘tweener-dom, stems from a simple fact of life: Bronson Sardinha cannot play defense. Bronson Sardinha began his defensive journey as a SS in the ’01 GCL. Numerous errors and missed balls led to Sardinha seeing some time as the team’s DH. The Yankee organization remained faithful and gave him the job as the opening day SS for the ’02 Greensboro Bats, numerous errors and missed balls later, the SS experiment was ended and Bronson Sardinha became a LF. He was not given much time in LF as the whole point of that seemed to be just to get him in the OF so he could more easily move over to CF. As a CF, Bronson Sardinha made errors and missed balls for both the ’02 Bats and the ’02 SI Yankees. In ’03 Bronson Sardinha was back to being a LF and he made errors and missed balls for the Tampa Yankees and then the Battle Creek Yankees and thus ended the Bronson Sardinha as an OF experiment, or so it would seem. The Yankees then decided that since his arm was decent enough, they would switch him to 3B for the ’04 season. As a 3B, Bronson Sardinha was horrendous. At no point did he develop consistency in the field as he continued to make errors and miss balls and by the end of the year he found himself missing games due to his defense and being a DH when he did play. Where this leaves us is that for the ’05 season Bronson Sardinha will once again be a LF/DH, his least bad defensive position, which leads to his offense. Bronson Sardinha does not hit many home runs. Unfortunately, he’s not a lanky guy who hits tons of doubles or triples either. As a result Bronson Sardinha’s power potential isn’t much to write home about, 10-15 home runs given a full season of playing time seems about right. This wouldn’t matter much if Sardinha hit for really high averages. Unfortunately, he’s only a solid hitter for average; .270-.280 seems accurate. This wouldn’t matter much if Sardinha drew ridiculous amounts of walks. Unfortunately, he’s only solid at drawing ball four. 55-70 walks seem accurate, if given a full season. Putting Sardinha’s offensive and defensive information together immediately makes me think John Vander Wal. A corner OF who can provide you with fringe average hitting and below average defense for stretches or a solid bat off the bench. He also has one up on Vander Wal in that he’s a pretty good baserunner. It’s not much of a future, but I feel pretty safe about Sardinha’s chances of making it. Next prospect: Position player
#17 by Fabian
SG's Season Simulations I had no clue about Jeff Karstens from a scouting or statistical point of view at the outset of the ’04 season. Even after the first month or so of play I still did not care for him. In fact, it was not until Jose Valdez’s fluky beginning began to come apart that I decided to pay attention to Karstens and came away mildly impressed. Karstens’ greatest asset, both statistically and based on what the scouts say, is that he has terrific control. He had a 2.0 BB/9 rate with Tampa last year and scouts speak of his ability to place his fastball. In addition to his 88-92 MPH fastball, Karstens’ arsenal includes a curveball, a change up, and a slider. None of these pitches is anything to write home about as Karstens success is mainly due to his ability to place his fastball and the rest of his repertoire when needed. Despite a respectable K rate of 7.5 K/9 in ’04, Karstens still gave up 9.8 H/9. The high hit rate was a product of his lacking a true out pitch amongst his secondary offerings. In addition, Karstens also gave up 0.7 HR/9, which while not excessive, is not very good either considering it is the FSL and it is the Tampa ballpark. Once again, his lacking in the “stuff” department can be blamed, especially on those occasions where he doesn’t get the ball down. If nothing else, Karstens was the most consistent pitcher amongst those that spent the entire year with Tampa. His ’04 performance has earned him a promotion to AA where it is said that pitchers of his ilk that can make it are separated from those who won’t. At the moment, I’m cautiously optimistic about Karstens chance to succeed. If he can pass the test he could be a potential middle to back of the rotation guy. Overall, I think of Karstens as being a guy similar to Brad Halsey. A pitching prospect who could be a solid contributor if called upon, but certainly not someone to build around. In other words, trade bait if he gets off to a hot start, especially considering the team will likely be needing a 2B or CF by midseason.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
#18 by Fabian
SG's Season Simulations For those who own Baseball America’s 2004 Prospect Handbook they may recall Made being named as THE sleeper prospect of the Yankee organization. At the time, I did not know what to make of Made. I felt he had displayed solid secondary skills in his ’03 GCL stint, but I doubted his ability to hit for average and did not think the Yankees would send him to full season ball to begin the year. I felt the lanky SS with supposedly solid all around tools would most likely repeat in the GCL or play in the NYPL to moderate success. When opening day rolled around and Made was the starting SS for the Battle Creek Yankees I was pleasantly surprised. I was even more surprised as the early portions of the season went along and I began to form an opinion of Made. He was as unsteady in the field as I expected, making a spectacular play one inning and botching a routine one the next, and he was hitting for a low average, another thing I suspected. However, I was disappointed to notice an apparent loss of the power that he displayed in the GCL and no signs of the plate patience or discipline he had formerly exhibited. Despite this, Made was allowed to troop on as an unproductive member of a solid team. With the demotion of Estee Harris and promotions of Melky Cabrera and Eric Duncan from the club, his offensive shortcomings became even more noticeable. Finally, in the second half of the season, things clicked. From July 1st to the end of the MWL season, a span of 242 ABs, Made hit .331 with a 19 walk to 23 strikeout ratio, both excellent numbers, however, the power was still mediocre as he only hit 14 doubles, 1 triple, and 2 home runs. Aside from the consistent lack of power, as compared to ’03, I am encouraged by Made’s year, mainly due to how he finished. Hopefully, Made’s second half was a result of his development as a player and he will begin to harness his physical talents. That said, I would not expect much out of Made this year. If he can maintain his strike zone patience and discipline from the second half of ’04, he might be able to do decent, but his recently mediocre power will not be helped at all by Tampa and the FSL. I would be very encouraged by final numbers similar to ’04, .289/.336/.381, but am expecting less. The expectations are low enough that Made could end up surprising and moving up the list, but I doubt that it could be enough for me to truly get excited about him, especially considering that he is a SS prospect in an organization with SS/3B covered by a plethora of superior players ahead and behind him. Next prospect: Pitcher
#19 by Fabian
Jesse Hoover is the first of a few Yankee ’04 draftees who will be appearing on this list. Something that I emphasize a lot in my ranking of players is age versus level of competition. The older a guy is compared to his peer groups the more he has to dominate to impress me. This, of course, is not set in stone as it may be augmented by the past experiences of the player in question. In the case of Hoover, coming from a lesser profile college program, relatively unheralded, and being sent to the NYPL which is about age-appropriate for your typical college draftee, a solid or good campaign would have been enough for me to take slight notice. Instead, I was forced to take huge notice. Over the span of 55.2 NYPL innings, Jesse Hoover went from draft-day afterthought to one of the most talked about prospects in the Yankees system, at least amongst Yankee minor league observers. Those who attended the games spoke of how hard the ball popped the catcher’s mitt on those occasional 97 MPH fastballs or how foolish he could make hitters look with his curveball. The 6’3’’ and 210 lb. Hoover also drew raves for his mound presence and general “look”. Those who keenly observed his stat sheet couldn’t help but smile at the 14.6 K/9, as each of his outings would produce a ridiculous strikeout total, or 4.5 H/9, as batters could barely safely put the ball in play when they did make contact, or 0 HR allowed, since both putting the ball in play safely and doing so with authority was nigh impossible. Aside from all that scouting and statistical positivity, I still have my reservations about Hoover as a prospect. Sure, he struck out a bunch of guys and did not give up many hits, but he did have strike zone troubles as he gave up 4.2 BB/9. This is not an overly troublesome walk rate, but still something to keep an eye on. In addition, it gives me reason to wonder whether the hit and strikeout rates will become more realistic once Hoover has a better idea of where the ball will be going. There is also the issue of his repertoire. Standard Yankee organizational procedure at the moment is to start new pitchers in the system off by only allowing them to work their fastball, curveball, and change-up, regardless of what they have been successful with in the past. Most of Hoover’s ’04 success was attributable to the fastball and curveball, but as he moves up the ladder he is going to have to quickly develop his changeup or another pitch to keep more experienced hitter’s balanced or else he will return to the place where he began his ’04 work, the bullpen. Lastly, Hoover’s accomplishments should be viewed in the light that the NYPL was the worst hitting league in minor league baseball last season and his SI home ballpark is about middle of the road for offense. It appears the Yankee organization, buoyed by Jesse’s performance, is going to give the right-hander a chance to establish himself as a starting pitching prospect with the Tampa affiliate. A performance similar to what Matt DeSalvo did at the level in ’04 is not out of the question, in fact, considering how much room he has to regress from his ’04 performance it is hard to envision Hoover having a bad ’05 and he should be expected to be up quite a few spots from his current ranking when next year’s list comes around. Next prospect: Position player
#20 by Fabian
SG's Season Simulations Similar to Estee Harris, Ramon Ramirez’s ranking has taken a big hit. He was at number 5 last year and is down 15 spots to 20 this year. Ramirez started the year off in AAA, a bold move considering he had only worked 21 AA innings in ’03, but more reasonable when factoring in his dominance of the ’03 AFL. His first 4 starts produced very poor results that resulted in a quick demotion to AA. The demotion did not stop the sucking and the Yankees finally found out that Ramirez was actually injured. Based on the premise that a month and a half of pitching injured is bound to skew one’s stats, Ramirez’s healthy 2004 line looks like this: 99 innings, 92 hits, 48 runs, 47 earned runs, 9 home runs, 25 walks, 116 strikeouts. The ERA is still nothing to write home about, but the peripherals continue to be exciting. In addition, just having had the shoulder injury is a memorable negative because Ramirez’s being a short right-handed pitcher attempting to make it as a starter is tough enough without an injury history. Despite the injury issue and his huge drop in the rankings, I’m still a big fan of Ramirez and was very disappointed when he was quickly cut from major league spring training. I still hold out hope that he can put it together as his mid 90s fastball and slider combination is very intriguing. It remains to be seen whether he can or will pick up an effective third pitch, which should serve to solve some of the long ball issues caused by a limited repertoire. And if that third pitch never comes along and Ramirez’s chance to be a solid starting pitcher remains unlikely as a result, I still have faith in him becoming a dominant reliever. I mean, he has Electric Stuff™ that I’m sure a sterling pitching coach like Mel Stottlemyre can work wonders with. And if you don’t believe that then you could simply place faith in his consistently good strikeout rates, consistently good walk rates, mediocre home run rate, and combine it with his scouting report and assume that at the least he has a nice bullpen future somewhere. Before that future is consummated, the Yankee organization will give him another shot in the Columbus rotation for ’05, if he does well he’ll likely be called up at some point this year since every member of the Yankee rotation is a decent enough injury risk. I would expect him to be successful in a short big league stint and in his Columbus season, but with a likely long term future as a set up man. Next prospect: Pitcher
Sunday, March 20, 2005
More Diamond Mind Sims - What do two different projection systems say? by SG
This post is bumping two of Fabian's prospect posts down, so make sure you scroll down and read his writeups on Sean Henn and Estee Harris.
#21 by Fabian
Estee Harris, 20, LF Harris began the season with the Battle Creek Yankees of the Low-A Midwest League and his at bats had a consistent feel. Harris would step to the plate, take a couple pitches outside the zone, swing and miss on the hitter’s pitches, rip a line shot foul, and then strikeout. 192 at bats and 81 strikeouts later, the Yankee organization decided that it was time to give the Harris in full season ball experiment a rest. Returning to the GCL where he dominated in ’03, Harris continued to do nothing statistically as 15 ABs produced 1 hit, a home run, and 6 strikeouts. The Yankees decided to give him a shot in the NYPL though and Harris had his best performance of the season. Harris was around league average in AVG and OBP and way above average in SLG, though his declined strikeout rate, 65 in 173, is still very worrisome. Entering ’05 I’m not nearly as optimistic about Harris, but feel he should be able to put together a solid season. He still has very good power, the sound of the ball leaving his bat (on those occasions where he did connect) was only approached or exceeded by Duncan and Andrus on the BC team, and the rest of his tools, outside of the arm, are still good. Perhaps aggressiveness earlier in the count or altering his swing will be necessary, but if some sort of successful change is possible Harris will become quite the prospect. Next prospect: Pitcher
Friday, March 18, 2005
#22 by Fabian
Sean Henn, 24, LHP Sean Henn’s ranking on this list could be seen as an affirmation of the old baseball saying that lefty pitchers get all the chances in the world. While Henn looked ready to set the baseball world on fire during the summer of ’01, he has not demonstrated the same level of dominance since. To be fair, he did have to make the recovery from Tommy John surgery, but I feel Henn has received sufficient leeway for this. After blowing his elbow out in that summer of ’01, when he went 3-1 with 49 strikeouts, 15 walks, and just 26 hits in 42 innings, I thought Henn would be back by the end of ’02. I was wrong about this, as Henn did not return until early summer ’03. In addition to returning early, Henn went from a left-hander with excellent mid 90s velocity having touched as high as 99 to a left-hander with low 90s velocity, occasionally touching the mid 90s. The loss of stuff combined with a lack of development as far as his secondary offerings saw Henn deliver an under whelming FSL campaign; 72.1 innings, 69 hits, 37 walks, 52 strikeouts, and 3 home runs allowed. While some gave him a complete pass for that since it was his first season back from TJ, I was leery of doing so considering how long he took to come back.
Friday, March 11, 2005
The Inexplicable Cult of "Anything but Moneyball" by Larry Mahnken
In last week's sophomorically written column, Toronto Star write Richard Griffin praised the Blue Jays for apparently moving away from the "Moneyball" philoposhy of the A's and towards the more traditional philosophy of the Twins. "It seems the Jays are finally headed in the right direction," Griffin wrote.
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