Going to Cooperstown?

Planning a trip to Cooperstown, home of Baseball's Hall of Fame, and aren't sure what the can't miss things in town are? Never fear, Richard Griffin supplies us with his tips today in the mailbag. Listen up kids, here's what Griff recommends:

"Ask for Hall president Jeff Idelson, a good friend of mine, and ask him to show you the Robert O. Fishel Award and look for my nameplate"

Fun times! Griffin on a plaque!

Also, in this mailbag, according to Griffin: Zaunie, Fletch and Towers were Blue Jays for less than 2 years.

A+ for effort.

Chacin: There are Two

Remember the news last month, when the Jays took Gustavo Chacin off their 40 man roster, making him available for any team to pick him up? Well, apparantly, nobody wanted Gus, so he's still in our system.

I decided this morning to pull up his numbers in Dunedin to see how ol' Gusy is doing. Will there be a chance for all of us to see the greatest smelling Toronto athlete once again? I went to Baseball America, and did a search on Chacin. Little did I know... there are two Chacins in professional baseball! Two!

Like our good friend Josh Towers, the other Chacin is in the Rockies system. Jhoulys Chacin is his name. And he's throwing in low A ball, putting up ridiculous numbers. 10-1 record. 2.10 ERA. 1.01 WHIP. So there appears to be a Chacin on the rise, the smell of Victory could be on its way eventually to Denver.

As far as our Chacin goes. Not so pretty. 1-7 record. 7.88 ERA. 1.84 WHIP in high A ball.

In summary: Gustavo = done. Jhoulys = The New Chacin!

First Round Report Card

So the Draft was earlier this month, and the Jays took, with their first round selection, a projected sandwich/2nd round pick. A potentially poor fielding first baseman. Most probably a designated hitter.

David Cooper was so excited about being so highly coveted by a team with a mid first round pick, that he quickly became the first first rounder to ink a deal with his team.

It was a curious selection by a team that has historically had a farm system void of top shelf talent, but a team in the past two drafts altered their strategy into selecting more high ceiling guys.

In the two drafts previous to 2008's the Jays were lauded for their selections of Travis Snider, Kevin Ahrens, Brett Cecil, etc. The selection of Cooper, though, appears to be a regression in draft strategy to the team's philosophy prior to 2006.

Notably, most analysts suggested that the 2008 draft was a relatively weak class. That being said, when the Jays were on the clock, they had every opportunity to really roll the dice with selecting a player with perceived signability issues. And with a weak draft class this year, the worst case scenario for the team would be that the Jays wouldn't be able to ink a deal with the pick, and would be compensated with another first round pick for 2009's draft.

If the Jays gambled with their pick and snatched a high risk/big money demanding high school arm like Gerrit Cole or Jake Odorizzi, the team would conceivably have an arm that could have a major impact when Ricciardi is long gone. Instead, they took a lumbering designated hitter who will rise through the system relatively quickly. And back up Travis Snider.

David Cooper. Yippee.

Hazel Mae's Future Unknown

After another pointless hiatus, All Your Base returns with this huge newstory that has transpired this past month in Boston. Hazel Mae is leaving NESN, and her future destination is shrowded in secrecy. Perhaps a return to Sportsnet to replace Jamie Campbell as the new play by play announcer for Jays broadcasters? Indeed!

Oh yeah, and I'll get a post up soon enough about the Jays draft, and other minor league shit that you might find somewhat interesting. I really can't stand watching the Jays lately, but I'll be going to the Cincy games, and might have something relevant to post after that experience as well.