It's probably a pretty clear indicator of the extent to which we are so far gone in terms of our baseball obsession that we are completely geeked out over the Jays' acquisition of Fred Lewis.Lewis is a guy who struggled to find a full time spot in a big league lineup, and when things went well for him, he managed a little bit of power, a bit more speed and a pretty-good-but-not-otherworldly OPS. And on defense, don't even ask us because we have no idea how to parse through the factors that allow a man to have both a +29.3 and a -59.9 UZR/150, as though some days he's Willie Mays and some days he's Pete Incaviglia.
Maybe this is overly glib, but given the description above, there's a part of us that keeps thinking of Fred Lewis as the Black Reed Johnson. (Although without Johnson's JV girls field hockey running style, which is a big plus.)
Still, this is a pretty snazzy deal for the Jays, who give up pretty much nothing and get a decent player who profiles well as a leadoff guy (.355 career OBP) and who can step into any of the outfield positions in a pinch. His presence immediately send Jeremy Reed back to Vegas, and gives the Jays some additional strength off the bench.
Of course, that's as things stand today. Where this acquisition gets really interesting is in a week or so, when Aaron Hill comes back from the DL. When the music stops at that point, who is left scrambling to find themselves one of the 25 seats? Is it Randy Ruiz, who is getting no love from The Manager anyhow? Does Travis Snider return to Sin City? Does Jo-Bau slide to third, leaving EE without a spot? Does Lyle Overbay get paid to sit at home and explore further adventures in facial hair?
And maybe the most important question that this trade raises: Is Ghostrunner on First's Lloyd the Barber a Savant, a Soothsayer, a Witch or a Double-Agent, sent by Alex Anthopoulos to infiltrate the Jays blogosphere.
FredDotLew is a social media monster
Love the story, as recounted by Big League Stew, of how Lewis broke the news of his trade via his Facebook page. That's so 2007! Lewis is all over the interwebs, so he may end up wresting the mantle of Most Beloved Jay on the Internet from the rehabbing Dirk Hayhurst. The Pinch Runner's Gospels, anyone?
Travis Snider is a lovable dude
Speaking of the Rosy-Cheeked Phenom, his bat flip on his first homer of the year gave us a little jolt of happiness in the depth of our cockles. Pair that up with a beauty of a diving catch, and our belief in Snider grew exponentially last night.
(Although someone might want to teach that kid how to lay out for a ball. We want to pat Snider on the back and tell him: It's cool and all that you're hard as fuck and you're gonna catch that ball no matter what, but landing shoulder first to catch a ball in an April game scares the shit out of us. Land on your chest and belly if you want to hit the turf, mmkay?)
Friday Rock Out - Because you miss them, don't you?
Since we've stopped tossing up random music clips, we get tweets and emails all the time suggesting this band or those guys who should make the cut. But today's selection is just for us: Cracker's "Low". We've been getting nostalgic lately, and this is a hat tip to our angry white boy days, when we'd pull on our torn denim and plaid and our Doc Martens, groom our goatee and get ready to take on the world with an arsenal of sullen looks and post-adolescent sarcasm. Enjoy.
18 comments:
Snider looked good last night! Looks like the night off may have helped him, is there any chance that Clarence would consider giving the same treatment to Overbay?
That diving catch was a little scary, however it was also AWESOME. I'm not certain I have ever seen someone dive for the ball and still have to make the catch over their shoulder, almost behind his head. Will Snider's defensive critics please take a long walk off a short pier now?!
Good post, Must say I'm excited for the Fred Lewis era to begin in TO. I am thinking that this may end up being a precursor to an E5 trip to the DL. Hopefully playing everyday agrees with Lewis I am sure Cito will find a place for a toolsy black guy pretty quick.
Love the Cracker post as well. Brought me right back to the angst-filled days of my youth.
I don't think Mike McCoy is long for the bigs when Hill returns, though I wonder if Cito would be concerned about infield depth if they do farm him out. They can't send Snider down.....
And, I bought Kerosene Hat....twice (goddamned jackal roommates). I wasn't all that angry of a young man, though.
I just think that McCoy is too versatile to get sent down. Can play 2nd, short in a pinch, and anywhere in the outfield.
But I guess the more that I think about it, Fred covers off a good chunk of what McCoy did, so yeah, maybe.
I'm actually listening to Kerosene Hat at work. "Girl, you're a beautiful animal...I'll put a tag on your ear."
If Drew is the means by which the Jays run a pseudo-democratic enterprise, I'm all for it ... so long as they aren't fiddling with the graphics to misinform us.
Hmmm ... so why is Clarence still here?
I played the shit outta those discs. Low, Let's go for a ride, Get off this, etc.
Ya know, I think there might be something to your Ruiz musings here. In the preseason, the Manager always made a point to say "this guy could hit 20 HR if he could just get the at-bats....".
Well, he aint getting the at-bats. Perhaps they dump him to someone looking for a platoon DH bat, though I can't imagine who's looking so early in the season.
And it's not like he's the future 1B in waiting. When is the arb date for Wallace and his fucking awesome reverse platoon splits?
In the end I can't see them sending Ruiz down simply because they don't even have a spot to play him in LV. Though he does have a bobblehead night coming up down there.
McCoy could be the odd man out but you have to love his versatility.
I would like to see Overbay shipped anywhere to get rid of the logjam but hes definitely not helping his trade value right now.
Great post, Tao. Love a good Incaviglia reference. And "Black Reed Johnson" is certainly going to take off, I can feel it.
I believe I read last night that McCoy's got options, so it might be him.
AA really needs to get rid of Overbay. Blimey.
Am I stupid to think it wouldn't be hard to trade EE? It's not like he makes that much and he can be a potent bat.
I really hope DandyRandy is in the line up 2nite. Maybe if he showed more hustle rounding 3rd the other nite, Cito would play him more. His poor showing last year and dismal spring dont help things....F*****g PLAY RUIZ.
I miss Lyle's good ol' days, like April 10, 2010, when he was hitting a robust .105. Is Lyle in the middle of some sort of trade protest? He appears to be mailing it in. Overbay's continued stinky presence feels like a failure of the AA administration. But Teixeira is only hitting .091 in NY and nobody is running him out of Gotham, so what do I know?
Overbay is on a much shorter leash from the Jays fans than anyone else could be - including Teixeira. (Yanks also won the World Series, so there's a afterglow effect to that I suppose.)
Also, Tex is at the beginning of his stay in NY...Overbay is at the end. And some want him gone sooner rather than later.
Feel bad for Lylo.
Don't forget, Cracker's opening for the Rev. Horton Heat in a few weeks.
Cracker! David Lowery rocks!
Was Eurotrash girl on Kerosene Hat?
First and maybe only time I won tickets on CFNY was to see a free show by Cracker in an alley way in Toronto. I also saw what Allan Cross looked like, back in the old days before the interweb when you had no idea what radio people looked like.
Fred Lewis or Snider in RF?
Let the Freddy Lewis era begin! And that catch last night was pure Sniderman!
I don't feel too bad for Lyle. His contract for the last three plus seasons could be considered robbery. He's got 8 million friends to keep his mind off things at the office. I know, I know, he didn't hold a gun to J.P.'s head to get the money, but a little return on investment would be nice. I'm sorry people, witnessing his succession of pitiful plate appearances is making me crazy.
I want to believe that Snider was just mocking Quentin with that exaggerated bat flip
The problem is that living in the world is highly productive of ambiguity, so we run i nto danger as much as we run out of it. And what we dread also fills us with exhilaration, and vice versa. But even with our great need for a comforting stability, the entertainments we devise have constantly shaken uns with unthinkable possibilities. We often deliberately induce ambiguity on TV, in the movies, in the press, in stories and in pictures. We unbalance ourselves with horror. But because the object of our fears is on stage and in public, we can distance ourselves as a safe audience. We can dismiss our collective and private doubts even while experiencing them, feel a revolution of perception without running the risk of change.
http://www.free-blog.in/tao/146338/the+true+nature+of+the+world.html
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