It was on this day 82 years ago that the Yankees released franchise icon Babe Ruth, who immediately signed a $20K contract to join the Boston Braves for the 1935 season. Over 2084 games and 9199 plate appearances in a Yankee uniform, Ruth hit an astounding .349/.484/.711 with 659 home runs, literally transforming the sport of baseball along the way. Even in 1934, battling a number of injuries in his age-39 season, Ruth still posted a .985 OPS and 22 homers over 472 PA. Ruth played just 28 games for the Braves in 1935 before ending his incomparable career. Here’s some more from around the AL East…
- Michael Bourn is expected to miss four weeks recovering from a broken finger, which MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko notes could actually help the Orioles’ chances of keeping Bourn in the organization. Bourn’s minor league deal with the O’s contained an opt-out date for March 27, so given his current injury timeline, he won’t have much chance to play before making his decision.
- The early word out of the Blue Jays spring camp was that Joe Biagini was going to be stretched out as a starting pitcher, though manager John Gibbons told reporters (including Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith) today that the team still intends to use Biagini as a reliever. With Mat Latos in the fold on a minor league deal, the Jays don’t have quite the same need for rotation depth as earlier in the offseason, so Biagini may only be stretched as far as three-inning stints for his spring outings. “It’s something we’re playing with because everyone’s intrigued by what he can do as a starter, but right now he’s so valuable to us in the bullpen,” Gibbons said. After Toronto picked him away from the Giants organization in last year’s Rule 5 draft, Biagini surprisingly emerged as a very good bullpen option for the Jays last season, posting a 3.06 ERA, 8.2 K/9 and 3.26 K/BB rate over 67 2/3 innings.
- In another piece from Nicholson-Smith, he looks at Derek Shelton’s new role as the Blue Jays’ quality control coach. The wide-ranging (and still-evolving) position will see Shelton work with players, coaches and the front office on everything from incorporating analytics to improving information-sharing between the various team departments. Shelton spent the last 12 seasons as hitting coach for the Rays and Indians before being hired by Toronto this winter, and he is one of only five quality control coaches currently employed by MLB teams.
- With Blake Swihart facing a tough path to playing time as a catcher, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald wonders why the Red Sox didn’t experiment with Swihart at third base. Swihart has long been cited for his athletic ability and his potential to play all over the diamond, and the Sox are facing uncertainty at the hot corner as Pablo Sandoval attempts to revive his career. As president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski explained, however, the Red Sox have Rafael Devers as the top future prospect at third, and Swihart is more valuable as a long-term piece for Boston if he can stick behind the plate. “I think Blake has a chance to be, with the type of offensive capabilities and athletic capabilities he has, if he can make that transition on a permanent basis to catching, that’s a real plus for the organization….Then as we go into the future, if he can be our catcher for us, he can be our catcher for a lengthy time period,” Dombrowski said.
Bourn will be on the roster after spring training. His glove and speed will see to that.
See to that on another team!!!
I want Coco Crisp
Swihart comment translated:
“If Blake learns to be a great catcher he’s more valuable to the organization as a trade chip. Swihart at other positions has less trade value, so we hope he continues to catch on and be a valuable backstop.”
Gotta like DD saying if Swihart can “transition” to the position he has been playing all along, he has a better future . Evidently he doesn’t think much of his current ability at the position.
Swihart looked pretty slick behind the plate today.. Throws perfect, even bought the fairly wild Ysla a cpl strikes he might not have deserved.. Nice glovework behind the plate gently moving the ball into the zone. maybe not as good as vazquez at it, but who is?
Wow Johnsilver, forgot for a moment that Vasquez is a first ballot hall of fame. Guess that he doesn’t hit doesn’t matter to you and his resume is less than 2 years worth or work.
Swihart….throw perfect, nice glove work…..sounds like your his agent.
Pretty sure johnsilver was referring to Vazquez’s glovework behind the plate when he was saying that Swihart and most others weren’t as good as he is. That is not a difficult statement to agree with. There was not mention of his hitting or Hall of Fame status, that was just you inferring.
Thank God, another Swihart story. I was getting worried, it had been a few days since the last update.
If Bourn makes the roster, it’ll be a typical Buck liking “wily” veterans who can no longer really play over younger players who are cheaper and have more upside. Tavarez and Santander should make the roster over Bourn. In fact, Tavarez brings the same tools, defense and some speed, that Bourn does. Oh and Tavarez has a chance to actually hit and get better, two things Bourn can’t do.
Should’ve traded Swihart a longtime ago
Well guys Swihart hits, and Devers was at Low A last year, … which tells me if Panda blows up they will take a look… got to replace Papi’s bat… can’t afford a lot of holes not hitting anymore
Always thought Swihart would be phenomenally valuable if they tried to turn him into a Zobrist with more speed and the ability to be a third catcher in a pinch. Probably not ready to platoon w Panda though as they are both better as lefties.
True that Devers isn’t ready yet, but he was high A last year and will start at Double A this year, so might be realistic for majors next year. I’m hopeful that Sandoval can get to somewhere between replacement level and league average. That would be an upgrade from last year and 3 or 4 wins better than Sandoval in 2015.
Zobrist was above average defensively at multiple positions inculding MIF and was also above average offensively, I’m gonna assume blake swihart can not play ss or 2b and probably isn’t a very good defense 3b either. He’s also yet to show that he’s an above average offensive player at the MLB level.
This idea that you can just turn anyone into Ben Zobrist (or Andrew Miller more recently) is just an insult to how good and rare those players actually are. If it were as easy to do what they do, you wouldn’t be constantly talking about turning someone into them because there’d be a ton more.
Right on chesteraathur…..
All the Red Sox fans out there keep trying to remind of us of how terrific Swihart is or can be….pathetic.
It took Zobrist four years to put it all together and he was pretty much exclusively a shortstop, a below average one at that, until half way through his 3rd year. Blake is probably more than capable of stepping into the middle infield if needed considering that is where he spent most of his HS years.. Zobrist may have put it all together offensively but his first 300AB were actually downright awful, a 48 OPS+ his first 200AB and a god awful 4 his next 100. He didn’t starting hitting until they moved him off SS.
Like Zobrist, Swihart is extremely athletic and to think he couldn’t transition into a new role isn’t cutting him much slack, especially when he’s gotten positive grades defensively at both catcher and OF and is still very young.
I’m not even saying swihart is terrible or anything. I’m just saying that it’s incredibly hard to be as good as those players. Swihart very well may be useful as a utility type player who can provide 1-2 fwar playing multiple positions, which really isn’t that bad.
But comparing him to someone who has been a phenomenal MLB player for like 8ish years (and with better speed?) is insane.
call me when blake swihart has played a non-distarous mlb short stop or 2b. Also, it took zobrist what 600 mlb pas to be an 8 yes, 8 fwar player. So yeah, you can go ahead and say that swihart might be an early career roughly replacement level player like zobrist was…that’s not really a compliment though. But i’m glad we can agree that that’s what swihart is now. So swihart is a roughly replacement level player like zobrist was? Gotcha.
And where are swiharts positive grades at catcher? Other than in make belive bo-sox land. Further, being a good catcher doesn’t mean you can be a mif. So they are both athletic, cool. So are A LOT of mlb player who haven’t become Ben Zobrist, but you’re toats right, it’s not crazy to expect him to buck the average path of players like that. Players who are anomalies are far more likely than the norm. /s
I really don’t think Bert17 was saying he’d become the next Zobrist, just a guy that can slide around and play multiple positions. The better speed comment was absurd though.
Way to turn into a raving lunatic after a sensible first post. No ones saying Swihart is the next Zobrist or will become anything close to it, the point was Zobrist was a below replacement level player his first three attempts at being a major leaguer, offensively and defensively, before blowing up. To trash Swihart and say he isn’t capable of transitioning to a different position is just short sighted and blind hatred.
6.3 Overall defensive value at catcher, 8 UZR/150 for his outfield work, he’s not Yadi behind the plate but he’s not god awful like you seem to think, his problem is pitch framing, which isn’t even that horrendous. Again, no one is saying that he’s the next Zobrist, my point was he more than capable of successfully moving to a new position if asked, something he’s already done.
I think saying Zobrist was above average defensively at multiple positions is a pretty big stretch… Throughout his career, the only 2 positions I’d say he was “above average” at were 2B and RF. Outside of that, he was pretty mediocre at best in the field…
that is a utility infielder/player then, not a ben zobrist.
perhaps look again then at what average was, at those other positions, during his career.
Good for the Jays to stretch out Biagini, they are going to need starting pitching help. No way that they have the same health in the starting rotation as they did last year. More quality starting rotation depth please!
The article says they’re not anymore, our bullpens pretty bad, we kind of need him to repeat last years performance.
John Gibbons shouldn’t be making determinations on the organizations future. The Jays can survive 8-10 weeks without Biagini in the bullpen.
It would be great to go back in time and see Ruth play, or any of those icons play.
Wondering why everyone hates on swihart i mean clearly im a red sox fan but he really was not a bas catcher untu he caught for wright, they made the move for him to play left because at the time vasquez was the man, but then blake got hurt