Auburn and Toronto to Part Ways

Somewhat of a sad day for Doubledays fans - it is being reported that Toronto will be leaving Auburn after this year. Check the link for more information.

Auburn Doubledays and Toronto Blue Jays to part ways.

Elias Rankings & The AL East Arbitration Outlook

Sorry for the lack of updates again, I've been quite busy on the job search and conceptualizing where I plan to go with this blog.

Latest Elias updates:

- John Buck passes Jason Kendall and Gerald Laird, moving up quite a bit in Type B. Even Jose Molina now only has Kendall and Laird in his way for Type B status.
- Against other First Basemen, Lyle Overbay is four spots out of Type B status. He has Cantu, Branyan, Morales, and Nick Johnson ahead of him. With Johnson and Morales likely to fall out due to injuries, he would need to pass both Cantu and Branyan, which seems highly unlikely.
- Scott Downs is firmly planted as Type A still, and with Jason Frasor dropping a couple spots back, he's now more comfortably in Type B position with Kevin Gregg just a couple slots behind him. Both will likely finish as Type Bs.


Here is the number of Free Agents for AL East teams that qualify for Type A/B status:


- Toronto: Four (4). Buck, Frasor, Downs, and Gregg.
- Tampa Bay: Seven (7). Pena, Crawford, Soriano, Balfour, Choate, Wheeler, Benoit.
- Baltimore: One (1). Uehara.
- Boston: Five (5). Martinez, Varitek, Ortiz, Beltre, Lowell.
- New York: Four (4). Berkman, Pettite, Vazquez, Rivera.


Number of players likely to get arbitration offers (if options are not exercised, etc):


- Toronto: Four (4). Buck, Frasor, and Downs are almost locks to get arbitration offers. Gregg's options may or may not be declined at this point, but the majority is leaning towards declined.
- Tampa Bay: Four (4). While Tampa is looking to shed payroll, most of that will come from Pena. He would likely accept arb, and with his performance, chances are he won't get offered it. Wheeler's option will likely be exercised at 4M. With Balfour's success in TB, he is likely to decline but would definitely be offered. Benoit might be offered arb, but he might also sign a contract in advance of that. Choate's performance has been poor and he will likely not be back.
- Baltimore: Zero (0). It is highly unlikely that Uehara will receive arbitration with his salary already at 5 Million, especially with his injury issues and the fact he did not become the ideal starter they were looking for.
- Boston: Two (2). If an extension can't be reached, V-Mart will certainly look for a long-term contract elsewhere. It's hard to imagine they would give a raise to Varitek and his 5M salary, which is already way too high for a back-up catcher. Ortiz' option could be declined, and they may try and bring him back for cheaper (same with Varitek). Beltre will decline his 5M player option, and there is a good chance the Red Sox give him a multi-year deal. Lowell's time in the Red Sox, and maybe even in the majors, is done.
- New York: Zero (0). If Berkman's option is declined, I can't imagine they would offer him the chance at a raise. With his unusual peformance this year, he will either be a Yankee next year or on the FA Market. Pettite and Rivera will surely re-sign if they wish to continue playing. Arbitration isn't even a question. Vazquez might be brought back, but he has fallen out of favor this year and I can't imagine they'd want to commit over 12M to him.

Meet Eri Yoshida, Knuckleball Princess

If someone comes up to you and tells you they watched a knuckleballer pitch side-arm, you'd probably laugh. Then they proceed to tell you they're an 18-year old girl. You laugh again. Then they tell you she's playing professional baseball. They stop dead in their tracks.

Meet Eri Yoshida. Standing just above five feet tall, she's considered short by any league's standard. Her fastball non-chalantly clocks in at 65 MPH, a hitter's dream. Lucky for her, she's not a flamethrower. She's a knuckleballer.

In all my years of baseball, I never imagined a woman would have made it in pro-ball as a pitcher. I told myself over and over again, how could someone who physically is unable to throw heat going to succeed? I secretly hoped there would be a female eephus specialist, but that still hasn't happened. What I can say is, watching her play was a fantastic experience.

The Chico Outlaws were in town to battle my local Calgary Vipers on an overcast sunday afternoon. At first, it felt like we were never going to see Eri pitch. The Outlaws kept scoring, and the starting pitcher for the Vipers just couldn't hit the strike zone. Run after run, and sooner or later, Yoshida came up to bat. Now, my understanding is she is actually a quality hitter - but there were runners on first and second, so she was asked to bunt. She almost beat out the throw, too.

It felt like we were never going to see Eri pitch. Chico ended up scoring 11 runs in the first inning, 10 of which were before an out was even recorded. What felt like hours later, we finally were going to get our chance.

The crowd went wild with excitement as she threw her warm-up pitches. Her knuckleball constantly came in at 53-56 MPH. The ball wasn't dying off as it neared the plate as much as a knuckleball should, and she seemed to be getting more rotation on it than she wanted. Finally, it was her turn to face live batters.

The first batter came to the plate. The crowd of 1,759 clapped loudly in anticipation of the first pitch.

Unfortunately for Eri Yoshida, things did not go as planned. Batter after batter, sharp line drives were hit into the outfield. There was a couple defensive miscues that could have been avoided, and the ball wasn't launched too much outside of one home run, so there were some good things to note in her performance.

Whether you view her as a gimmick or not, it's absolutely exciting to see a woman play baseball. Not for the sake of being progressive, but simply to see a barrier being broken. She might not be Jackie Robinson, but she's still breaking ground. Her stuff is more than likely nowhere near good enough to be in the major leagues - but maybe one day, this will open up the door for someone else to do it.

And when that day comes - she better be an Eephus specialist.