Continuing along with my accidental weekend theme of "the players aren't giving up on the season, so why should we?", I came across this little nugget concerning the much maligned Jason Frasor. And by "came across this little nugget", I mean "lifted from the Jays headlines on the DJF page." Thanks, fellas.It seems our guy Frasor has decided he's sick of being the 8th man out of a 7 man bullpen, and is working to improve his game this winter. The solution? Adding a change-up to compliment his straight-as-an-arrow fastball and inconsistent curve.
"I'd be cruising, and I'd walk somebody -- I'd walk Joe Schmo -- and then here comes another hitter, and then it's a two-run homer," he said. "It's like, how did that just happen? Two outs, nobody on, and then there's two runs in just like that.
Talk about self-awareness - that about sums it up for the life and times of Frasor these past few seasons. Still, it's good to see another Blue Jay take it upon himself to throw a nice little "fuck you" to the (numerous) critics and pessimists and actually, you know, work towards the season.
Refreshing, actually.
10 comments:
You can't be too upset. Joe Schmo is known for his patience.
Jason Frasor has a lot of talent and a lot of potential to be a very good bullpen arm, and he's shown it at times. He just has to avoid these little meltdowns that he seems to acknowledge and he could be a key cog.
The cynical person would ask: why is JP paying a guy, and Cito running him out there if he doesn't have a major league arsenal
I still can't believe that there was a brief period in time where Jason Frasor was the closer for the Jays.
Good on Frasor, but lets wait until he gets Joe Schmo out a few times with his fancy change.
I'm a little nervous with how Cito used the pen late in the season when it was obvious to the great unwashed masses that Scott Downs was toast and Cito still sent him out there every day. I still have memories of him sending Ward out in the 8th and Henke in the 9th every day, no matter the score and how they were pitching. Not like I'm wishing for the days of Roy Lee Jackson and Joey McLaughlin.
Did anyone read Steve Simmons' masterpiece today? What a massive knob that guy is.
Who's Steve Simmons?
Here are Steve Simmons' thoughts re: the Jays...
"Quietly, Blue Jays' waste Russ Adams was let go this week but his draft selection lingers. Because the Jays believed in the weak-armed Adams, they passed on sure-thing shortstop Troy Tulowitzki in a later draft , even when their own scouts were urging the selection"
"The Blue Jays' signing of 39-year-old career loser Ken Takahashi raised at least one question: Wasn't Tomo Ohka available? ... Why don't the Jays do the noble thing now, fire the detested GM Ricciardi and replace him with boy wonder Alex Anthopoulos, before Anthopoulos ends up running another big league club"
'best shape of my life...great new diet....reworked my swing...added a new pitch....' yadda yadda yadda.
Not satisfied with cruising through innings before watching two-out, belt-high fastballs and hanging curveballs soar over his head for two-run dingers, Jason has now decided he'd like to watch meatball change-ups receive the same treatment.
My thoughts on Frasor are that he can get it done with rest (2+ days preferable) and that he was actually very effective in his sporadic usage last year. It's when you start using him back to back or even on one day's rest that he runs out of gas and leaves straight as arrow 92mph fastballs over the heart of the plate.
I'd be curious to see stats on how the bullpen fared pre and post Cito's arrival, because I always thought that, despite some faults, Gibby's bullpen management was fantastic.
Ari,
Over on Battersbox, Magpie did a series examining managers bullpen usage over the past couple of seasons. It's pretty remarkable how good Gibbons was. The Jays would be much better off with Gibbons handling all pitching change decisions, and Cito to do everything else. The one thing Gibbons was great at, was manageing a bullpen.
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