A final thought on The Bullpen Gospels

Editor's Note: This is the third and in all likelihood last in a series of posts, in which we just post random stuff on Jays reliever Dirk Hayhurst's book, The Bullpen Gospels. It's available tomorrow at a fine bookseller near you and all over the internets...and seriously, if you come to this blog on a regular basis, then there's precious little that I could tell you that is going to do anything more to encourage you to go by the book. At this point, buy it or don't. It's your deal. I really don't have any skin in this particular game.

When I got my review copy of The Bullpen Gospels in the mail this winter, I immediately tore into it. Maybe it was because I was excited at the prospect of having been included amongst those who were being given a sneak peek at the book: Costas! Olbermann! Neyer! Tao! (And that slow-footed ambler Bastian!)

Or it could be because I felt vaguely duty-bound to help promote the book. I respect that Dirk Hayhurst has taken the time and energy to share his particular and peculiar story with us, and I want him to succeed as much at this new endeavor as I want him to succeed on the mound. This became all the more urgent when Hayhurst went down with what is ostensibly a season-ending injury.

And maybe it is because I harbour my own literary ambitions, and want to make sure that I have a successful baseball author in my corner to whom I can send my own galleys for his review and maybe even a blurb. (Someday, someway...)

Whatever the case, I'll confess to be a bit of a cheerleader for this book. You can take my review of the tome with as many grains of salt as you wish. The book is, after all, written by a member of my favorite sports team, and I have a limited ability to detach myself critically from anything to do with the Blue Jays. I don't particularly believe in objectivity, so let me say that I've done my best to demonstrate some enlightened subjectivity.

So with all that as prologue, maybe the best compliment that I can give Hayhurst's book is this: With the book still freezing cold from its time in my mailbox, I laughed heartily three times in the first four pages.

(And yeah, one of those laughs was generated by the thought of someone getting hit in the nuts. But don't go pretending that you're not as likely to enjoy such a passage.)

More on The Bullpen Gospels - The Book Review Saga Continues

Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of posts, in which we stretch out our review of Jays reliever Dirk Hayhurst's narrative non-fiction tome, The Bullpen Gospels until its release date. (Available at a fine bookseller near you on March 30. Pre-order this fine book - kitty not included - at Amazon.ca, or whichever Amazon store you like. Or another online bookseller. Or an independent bookseller, supposing that they may carry it. Which they won't, because they're usually too cool to stock sports books. Pricks.)

We haven't played baseball in a competitive, organized setting in more than 20 years. In fact, aside from a lost summer as an obnoxious softball guy and a few years of chasing tail around ultimate frisbee fields, our sporting life has generally been limited to the role of an observer. And yet, there was a lot in Dirk Hayhurst's The Bullpen Gospels to which we could relate.

Sure, Gospels is a baseball book, and most of us will be drawn to it as such. We'll dig in to uncover what happens behind the scenes, and in the clubhouse. (Which, so far as we can tell, involves a lot of video games and naked tomfoolery.) But what really draws the reader into Hayhurst's account of his whirlwind 2007 season through three levels of minor league ball is the author's honesty about himself. There are many athletes who would gloss over anything resembling weakness, or frame their own emergence as a player in the rote, glorified clichés that are plentiful in the sports world: That they triumphed over adversity by being so goddamned gifted and awesome, and that God shone his special light down upon them so that they might offer their great gift to all. (The sort of story we saw repeated throughout the Olympics.)

But Hayhurst's story is so much more complex - and ultimately, rewarding - than that. While there are aspects of his life that seem anything but ordinary (Grandma and her firearms, for instance), the underlying story of Bullpen Gospels is really about two very universal things: Hayhurst's struggles with self-doubt, and his difficult transition from an extended adolescence into manhood.

The period covered in the book starts as Hayhurst is about to turn 26. It's a point in the life of many young men where, if they're at all sentient (and in spite of his out-there Garfoose tweets, Hayhurst does seem to be that), he starts to get a little more serious about who he is and what his place in the world might be. For Hayhurst, this transition and the uncertainty that goes with it are magnified by his chosen profession: If he's not about to make it, or to take a step forward, then he has to find another path.

The struggle, which is implied but never entirely stated outright, is that given the undeniable draw of a life as a professional athlete, how could anyone ever let that dream go? Especially after they've already made it past the point where so many others drop off? And yet, faced with a fourth consecutive season in High-A ball, Hayhurst spells out vividly the thought processes - both rational and irrationally emotional - that played into his decision to stick with the game. (Given his spot on the Jays' roster, we're probably not giving much away there.)

While it would seem that someone as clever and young and bright as Hayhurst would have no problem integrating himself back into civilian life, the real surprise of the book is how much the game has served as an escape. Without going to far into his motivations and background, suffice to say that Hayhurst did not have the comfortable fall back alternatives that one might expect.

(It's a narrative that, if we're being honest about how we understand race and sports, we might have expected if Hayhurst were African-American. It was an uncomfortable thought for us that we've so internalized the idea of "playing to get out of the poverty/strife" that we had a hard time rationalizing the same narrative about a blue-eyed blondish player. But that's our problem to resolve.)

Following Hayhurst's progress through that crucial 2007 season is a rich experience, and is truly the strongest element of The Bullpen Gospels. Certainly, there is lots of fun to be had as well (what with the "SpiderMan-ings" and the unwanted animal visitors in the bullpen), but the heart of this book is walking alongside Dirk as he conquers his internal demons, and subsequently seeing his life and career take a crucial turn for the better.

We sports fans and amateur analysts often reduce those positive changes in a player's career path rather glibly ("he flipped a switch", "he made an adjustment", "the player's development"). But beneath the player (and the counting stats and the rate metrics) is a human, who has to understand their weaknesses and evolve themselves beyond them. That whole idea of transcendence is, as Steve Earle once said, a painful thing. The reader of The Bullpen Gospels is privileged to share that moment with a player who has the self-awareness to understand the process, and the humility to work through it.

You'll find yourself rooting for him all the more by the book's end. (Speaking of which: Get well soon, Dirk.)

In our next episode: We'll focus on the monkeyshines. There are scooters, dramatic cases of the scoots, pressed hams and pleas for nudity made from moving vehicles. Good times.

The Bullpen Gospels - A Book Review in Many, Many Parts

Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of posts, in which we meander our way through a review of Jays reliever Dirk Hayhurst's narrative non-fiction tome, The Bullpen Gospels. We're going to review the book bit by bit, and piece by piece, because we're just not the sort of cat who can sum up our thoughts neatly in 600 words. And because we'd like to stretch this out to continue pimping Mr. Hayhurst's book between now and the time that it is released on March 30. (So much for critical detachment, right?) By the way, you can pre-order this puppy at Amazon.ca, or whichever Amazon store is most geographically correct for you.

It's hard to resist the temptation to turn this review into a series of blurb-o-matic statements, meant to sum up the book in a glib and snappy manner. We've probably written about a dozen one-liners meant to make their way onto the dust jacket (which, we realize, has already been printed, and already features zippy blurbs from Keith Olbermann, Bob Costas, Rob Neyer and Cy Young's ghost. So much for that.)

We want to say things that sound really cool, like: "The Bullpen Gospels is a work of remarkable honesty and insight." (Because it totally is.)

Or we want to say: "Dirk Hayhurst demonstrates a self-awareness rarely encountered in professional athletes. The Bullpen Gospels is a funny, frank and revelatory look into the uncertain life of a young player on the cusp of losing the last remnants of his prospect status." (And the book is certainly all of that.)

We might even be tempted to offer up a notable quote, like: "The Bullpen Gospels goes places that you simply don't expect from an baseball bio. It offers up painful and unvarnished looks into the psyche of a young athlete which vividly portray the fragility of a pitcher's confidence, and the hard road traveled to develop the poise necessary to succeed in the game."

(We also really wanted to work the word "perspicacious" into the review, both because it is a really fun word, and because it truly sums up Dirk Hayhurst as an author. And given that this is part one of a multi-part series, there's still time.)

But, if we're dropping the sheen of quotatiousness and being really real with you, we'd say this: Beyond being a really great baseball book, The Bullpen Gospels is a book that speaks as eloquently as any that we've read on the gripping power of doubt, and the arduous process of transcendence. And on that level, it's far more than just a baseball book.

Quick thoughts on the 'pen

Eerily quiet day around Blue Jays camp after word broke on the Gregg signing, I suppose pending completion of a physical and such. I've been thinking more about the ramifications of the signing (and yes, I realize the absurdity of spending even more time pondering the merits and fallout of a $2.75M contract handed out to a reliever, but that's how I roll), and I'm no longer convinced another trade is necessarily imminent.

Perhaps Wilner's take has influenced my thoughts here, but it really is quite conceivable that the Jays head to spring with all the arms currently on the roster in tow, and let camp dictate the next course of action. I'll disagree slightly with Wilner in that it feels to me like Shawn Camp is far more entrenched than "being up against it", but what do I know? He gave the Jays 80 innings of serviceable relief in '09 - admittedly mostly low-leverage innings - but he pitched fairly well, posting a 3.50 ERA and 1.28 WHIP.

That's my way of saying I don't get the Shawn Camp Hate.

Think good thoughts for the 'Foose
The relief situation became a little less cloudy (unfortunately), as the Jays (and Hayhurst himself) announced the reliever will go under the knife for exploratory surgery on a troublesome shoulder.

Say what you will about Hayhurst's pitching ability, but Dirk seems to be good people, and you have to feel for a guy who has spent a career bouncing around baseball's minor leagues finding himself on the precipice of a major league job....only to face the uncertainty of shoulder surgery two weeks before camp.

The Garfoose's tweets admitting worry about his career (and mortgage payments, etc...) pull the covers back just enough to make you realize that the players we incessantly (obsessively?) discuss and analyze aren't all that different from you and I. Except for maybe a tad more athletic ability, of course.

Here's hoping all Hayhurst needs is a little nip & tuck.

That funky four-hole

If there was one Jay that we felt pretty good about going into next season, it was Adam Lind. There's something about the ease with which he hits the ball hard that makes us think that his performance is the most likely to be repeated.

Some of that easy-breezy feeling just left our being with a big sigh when we read this article from Jordan Bastian on MLB.com, wherein Lind indicates that he'd rather not hit in the cleanup because "There's just something funky about that four-hole." Oh, dear.

What's worse still is that The Manager has also gotten into Lind's head on this. Rather than reassuring Lind that such thoughts are irrational, negative and unconstructive, and assuring the Jays' best hitter that he can do any goddamned thing he wants up there because he's an awesome hitting machine, The Manager has taken to reinforcing the notion:

"If that's in his head, then it's not a good place to put him. We have to find somewhere else to put him."

Would it kill The Manager just to let a little sun shine into his players' worlds? Does he have to feed into their own inherent negativity?

Although his math was askew, Yogi Berra had it right when he said that "ninety percent of this game is half mental." In the early chapters of Dirk Hayhurst's The Bullpen Gospels (which can be pre-ordered right here at Amazon.ca, and will be well worth your while, but more on that later), the Garfoose speaks at length about the debilitating power of his own negative thoughts, and the work that he had to do to battle back against his own self-doubt in order to progress and transcend into a better pitcher. It's a very revealing part of the book, and one that makes us worry a bit about Lind, the guy that we were so sure of.

(Mind you, if we we were making up the lineup, we'd hit Lind third anyhow. But there's probably no good for our own sense of well-being that can come from trying to make sense of The Manager's lineups.)

Friday Rock Out - The Hold Steady
To be honest, we haven't totally figured out what we think of the Hold Steady. But this is as good a rock'n'roll song as we can think of at the moment, so enjoy. Happy Friday, and congrats on making it through your first week of the new decade.

Double misery

We probably spent about five hours yesterday listening to portions of the Jays doubleheader against the Rangers. And somewhere in the middle innings of the second game, we tore the ear buds out, turned off the radio and took the rest of the night off.

We needed to find something more cheerful to do with our life, so we flipped through the PVR and found an episode of Intervention to watch, because observing teenagers destroy their lives before the cameras is really a pick-me-up after that much time spent with the Blue Jays.

We keep telling ourselves that we're going to miss baseball in a month's time, and that we're going to be sad once the season is over. But at this rate, with 75 wins turning into a lofty target, we just want to get to the off season and see this organization make some sort of effort to right itself.

They just need to sort everything out: Sort out the presidency. Sort out the front office. Sort out the on-field staff. Sort out the roster.

Sort all that out, and give us a reason to believe that 2010 isn't going to be a season-long march towards mediocrity.

A second thought or two on September callups
It might have been a bit unfair to rip on yesterday's callups in the manner that we did. We didn't realize that the minor league season had another full week to it, so it is possible that the Jays will eventually find room for a few more bodies on the active roster after this weekend.

Let's hope so.

Also, we should note that we're happy to see Dirk Hayhurst get the call. He pitched well while he was here, even though Cito generally used him only sporadically and in blowouts. We'd like to see him back as a bullpen arm next year. Our frustration comes from seeing the return of the marginal pitching stylings of Brian Wolfe, and the insistence that this team has in believing in magical voodoo of Joe Inglett.

We've grown incredibly tired of Inglett and his spunkiness, and we don't believe as many do that he's some sort of José Oquendo Utility Dude. In our view, Inglett's a second baseman and nothing else. He is more than willing to grab a mitt and play anywhere on the diamond, but he's not suited to play anywhere but second. And we've already got a perfectly capable second sacker.

Pitching Bonanza! The Summer of Tallet, injured pitchers, and drafted pitchers

Are you all on board with the Summer of Tallet yet? Because after last night's seven innings of two-hit shutout ball against the Swingin' Rangers of Arlington, you really should be.

Since getting blowed up real good against the Royals back in April (and sucking up that shit kicking for the good of the team and the overworked bullpen), Tallet has been solid and has given more than anyone would have guessed. In his last eight starts, Tallet has posted a 3.12 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP, with opposing hitters posting a measley .551 OPS against him in 52 innings.

And to think that Tallet's name was tossed around in the off season as the throw in that we'd give to anyone if they gave us a mediocre shortstop or Mencherson-type back.

While we are praising Tallet and his unmatched will to make this Summer his own, let's take a moment to recognize the fact that it was one John Paul Ricciardi who grabbed this guy for the low low price of a minor leaguer named Bubbie Buzachero.

Yes, this is the same J.P. who you've all fired a dozen times a week over the past seven years because of his five-year plans (no planning!) and his home address in Worcester and his reticence to share his phone number and his lack of respect for Reed Johnson. And J.P. is such an idiot that he actually got Bubbie Buzachero back in the system (1.04 ERA, two saves, 17 Ks / 3 BBs in New Hampshire)...so essentially, we got Tallet for nothing and Bubbie for free.

Drafting Pitchers Like Gallileo Dropped an Orange
The Jays loaded up on pitchers like it was going out of style in yesterday's MLB Draft. The Jays started off with Kennesaw State pitcher Chad Jenkins (Mr. Handsome, as Parkes called him) with the 20th pick in the first round before grabbing Scott Boras client James Paxton with the 37th pick. Paxton is lanky left-handed pitcher and a good Canadian boy to soothe the more parochially-minded of the fan base (and, as Jeff Blair noted, the Rogers folks.) A high-ceiling Canadian may well be worth the Jays going over the slot recommendations, as it seems likely that they'll have to.

(And won't it be fun to have a Boras client around these parts?)

The Jays grabbed another Canadian lefty, Newmarket's Jake Eliopoulos, with their next pick (68th overall), and Arizona high school pitcher Jake Barrett with the 99th pick.

And now, we sit an wait patiently for five years for these guys to make their way to the big leagues, and then another year after they blow out their arms. Fun!

The Drunk Jays Fans have a much better breakdown of the draft that we do, with lots of links and video, so go there for more information. We don't like to duplicate their efforts.

Another arm bites the dust
Whenever forearm tightness is mentioned for a pitcher, you pretty much bide your time and wait for the inevitable announcement that they're going to go under Dr. James Andrews' knife. Such is the case for Jesse Litsch, whose impending TJ surgery was confirmed yesterday. The Star is reporting that it could take 18 months before Litsch brings his transferred ligament back to the bigs, so here's wishing him a pink, round and efficient recovery.

In praise of Dirk Hayhurst
Last night was the first time that we got to see our springtime mancrush Dirk Hayhurst take the mound for the Jays, and he looked great in a clean frame, striking out one batter. Too bad he's not still blogging, because we'd love to see what he has to say about life in the Toronto clubhouse. (Feel free to drop us a line, Dirk!)

The Beej is not a hampy camper

So B.J. Ryan is not totally thrilled with all the talk about the possibility of being supplanted in the closer role. "It's an uncomfortable question with a lot of uncomfortable answers" Ryan told the Globe's Rob MacLeod.

After another subpar outing yesterday, Ryan sports a 9.00 ERA in seven Grapefruit innings, walking seven and striking out six. His velocity, if it matters, topped out at 87 MPH yesterday.

Without papering over the concerns over Ryan's performance in the Spring, we don't mind the Jays' high-intensity closer being a bit pissed when talk arises about someone taking his job. That's the gunslinger mindset that many of the great closers have, and without getting too hokey about this, that sort of swagger counts for something.

Perhaps more troubling is the fact that Ryan isn't alone in his struggles. If there was an obvious candidate to step in and assume the closer role, we might understand the public speculation about Ryan's capacity to lock down the ninth. But a glance through at the other closer candidates shows some pretty spotty performances in the fake games:

• Scott Downs - 6.75 ERA in four innings, two walks and two K's
• Jeremy Accardo - 8.71 ERA in 10.1 innings, 18 hits, three walks and five K's
  
• Brandon League - 9.00 ERA in four innings, six hits, two walks and six K's
• Jason Frasor - 5.71 ERA in four innings, seven hits, a walk and four K's
  

Really, the only "standout" so far in the exhibition season has been Jesse Carlson, who hasn't allow a run yet, but three innings of work is a pretty microscopic sample size. We could make an argument for the recently dispatched Dirk Hayhurst, although we're not sure that he has the mythical "closer stuff" that we seem to be buying into lock, stock and barrel.

Look who snuck into the Super Duper Roundtable
Mop Up Duty has posted part two of its blogger roundtable, and we've managed to sneak in our views on the Jays' prospects for the coming year.