Fast Takes

The Blue Jays resigned good-field-no-hit shortstop John McDonald to a $1.5 million contract for 2010.  It’s still too much money for a player who will be 35 years old and is coming off a career year with the bat in which he still only had only a .655 OPS.  On top of that, he isn’t even the only John Joseph McDonald ever to play in the major leagues — a John Joseph McDonald briefly pitched for the Washington Senators in 1907.

The Giants are apparently considering bringing back catcher Yorvit Torrealba as a replacement for Bengie Molina, while Buster Posey grows into the role as an every day major league catcher.  I remember Yorvit fondly from his prior stint as a Giant a few years back, when he looked like like a promising young catcher who perhaps deserved more playing time.

Now that he’s had that additional playing time, I’m not particularly impressed.  In his four years playing semi-regularly for the Rockies, he’s had OPS numbers of .732, .699, .687 and .731.  These numbers wouldn’t be bad for a catcher playing on any team in MLB except the Rockies.  The Rocks play in the best hitters’ park in baseball by a wide margin, and a catcher who consistently posts an OPS right around .700 playing half his games there just isn’t giving you much offense.  I would expect to Torrealba’s OPS to decline playing semi-regularly for the Giants.

The Tigers are apparently eager to trade pitcher Edwin Jackson, coming off a break-through season at age 25.  The reason: the only one I can see is that Jackson’s ERA got worse every single month in 2009.  From April through October, he posted monthly ERAs of 2.25, 2.34, 2.91, 3.16, 4.45, 5.08, and finally 14.40 in one October start.  Yeesh!

That being said, Jackson had a second-half ERA of 5.07 with 64 Ks and 35 walks in 92.1 innings pitched.  These are not terrible numbers for a 25 year old starter in the AL.  Depending on what the Tigers are asking for him (reportedly, not very much), he looks like a player worth taking a chance on.