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	<title>Toronto &#187; Franklin Morales</title>
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	<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com</link>
	<description>Comprehensive coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays</description>
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		<title>Blue Jays Activate Estrada and Morales, Option Loup and Burns</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/07/22/blue-jays-activate-estrada-and-morales-option-loup-and-burns/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Jul 2016 19:24:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gideon Turk]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaron Loup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andy Burns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dustin Antolin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Franklin Morales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marco Estrada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=4767</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Blue Jays have announced that Marco Estrada and Franklin Morales have been activated off of the 15 and 60 day disabled lists, respectively, while Aaron Loup and Andy Burns have been optioned to AAA Buffalo to make room for the pair. To make room for Morales on the 40-man roster, RHP Dustin Antolin was [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Blue Jays have announced that Marco Estrada and Franklin Morales have been activated off of the 15 and 60 day disabled lists, respectively, while Aaron Loup and Andy Burns have been optioned to AAA Buffalo to make room for the pair. To make room for Morales on the 40-man roster, RHP Dustin Antolin was designated for assignment.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueJays">@BlueJays</a> have reinstated Marco Estrada and Franklin Morales from the DL. Aaron Loup and Andy Burns have been optioned to <a href="https://twitter.com/BuffaloBisons">@BuffaloBisons</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Blue Jays (@BlueJays) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueJays/status/756568194903597058">July 22, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Estrada, 33, the Blue Jays ace, has been his dominant self this season, with a 2.93 ERA in 16 starts. He makes his return after a brief time on the disabled list with a back injury. While he has been away the Blue Jays have carried an eight man bullpen, and that will continue with Morales also getting the call up. It&#8217;s an interesting strategy for a team that has starting pitching staff that leads the majors in innings pitched, but it&#8217;s likely to change in the coming days as the team cannot continue to carry relievers who aren&#8217;t getting the job done.</p>
<p>Morales, 30, was signed by the Blue Jays on April 2nd of this year with hopes that he would help stabilize the situation in the bullpen. However, after making just two appearances and recording a grand total of two outs, he was placed on the disabled list with shoulder fatigue. He has been on a rehab assignment in the minor leagues for the past 30 days, but now that his allowed time has run out, the Blue Jays needed to make a decision; release him or call him up to the big leagues.</p>
<p>He has been good as recently as last season with the Kansas City Royals, when he pitched in 62 1/3 innings and recorded an ERA of 3.18. His repertoire consists of a four-seam fastball that averages 92 mph, a two-seamer at the same speed, a slider at 88 mph, and a curve at 75 mph. In two innings with the Dunedin Blue Jays during his rehab stint, Morales allowed one hit, walked two, an struck out three. For the Buffalo Bisons, he pitched nine innings with an ERA of 2.00, striking out six and walking two. With Brett Cecil struggling and Loup being optioned, Morales could start to become an integral member of the Blue Jays bullpen if he can retire left handed batters at a decent rate.</p>
<p>Loup, 28, has really struggled, and has been up and down between Buffalo and Toronto this season, with a 6.00 ERA in 10 games for Toronto. He hasn&#8217;t shown the ability to get batters out like he did from 2012-2014, another example of the volatility of relief pitchers.</p>
<p>Burns, 25, is a fringe player at this point, and it wouldn&#8217;t surprise me if he was back in Toronto another couple of times before being called up for good in September. He has yet to record his first major league hit, reaching base on a walk once in his seven big league plate appearances.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>The Blue Jays and Impending Roster Decisions</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/07/22/the-blue-jays-and-impending-roster-decisions/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Jul 2016 11:24:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Passador]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaron Loup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Andy Burns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bo Schultz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chris Colabello]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Darwin Barney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Franklin Morales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jose Bautista]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Junior Lake]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Justin Smoak]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ryan Goins]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=4733</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Toronto Blue Jays are playing rather well as of late and have launched themselves back into the upper echelon of the AL East. The team has hit its stride, but will have to shuffle some personnel with a handful of players set to return to the majors. While they should be getting their best [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The Toronto Blue Jays are playing rather well as of late and have launched themselves back into the upper echelon of the AL East. The team has hit its stride, but will have to shuffle some personnel with a handful of players set to return to the majors. While they should be getting their best 25 guys on the roster and working the rest out later, there is some wiggle room in terms of who stays, who goes, and who plays where.</p>
<p>There are several routes the team could take in constructing their roster when all these players are ready to go, so let’s take a shot at it.</p>
<h3>Jose Bautista</h3>
<p>Most important is the return of Joey Bats. Adding Bautista to a group that’s clicking on all cylinders could produce the lethal lineup that many expected coming into the season. He homered in his first at bat in a rehab game on Wednesday and will move up to AAA Buffalo today.</p>
<p>Whether he wants to admit it or not, Bautista would do well to transition to first base or DH in the not-so-distant future. The problem is that the newly-extended Justin Smoak and Edwin Encarnacion have those two spots locked down. On days that Bautista DH’s (in a perfect world there’d be many) it pushes EE to first and Smoak to the bench. The other surplus comes in the outfield, as Bautista’s addition (temporarily) makes for five outfielders on the roster. The simple answer is to return Junior Lake to AAA though the team risks losing him on waivers. With all due respect to Lake, that’s a risk the team should be willing to take.</p>
<p>Losing Lake leaves some questions considering both Bautista and Michael Saunders should be spared from playing the field on a regular basis. Ezeqiuel Carrera has been scuffling and injured as of late but has still authored a fine season; barring a complete collapse he fits in fine as a fourth outfielder who’ll play more often than most. Wednesday’s experiment with Darwin Barney in left probably points to the end of Lake although Carerra’s nagging Achilles problem could prompt the team to keep him as insurance and demote Andy Burns instead. Having two regular outfielders in need of days off or DH time isn’t the best thing in the world, but the Jays can certainly patch together a working rotation with four outfielders plus Barney.</p>
<h3>Chris Colabello</h3>
<p>Colabello, set to return from his 80 game PED suspension, will present the most interesting challenge or the easiest out. While he could rejoin the Blue Jays at the end of the month, 80 games is a long time off and it’s doubtful that Colabello could jump right back in and be productive. The team could opt to keep him in the minors to work out the kinks and bring him up later, if they choose to bring him back up at all.</p>
<p>Colabello is ineligible for the postseason should the Jays qualify so they have to put some thought into whether he’s worth playing down the stretch. Do they try their best to get to October, an already projected outcome, at the expense of those who will actually have to play then? Or do they pass up potential gains to get players like Smoak regular at bats that might pay off in the postseason? That’s a delicate balancing act; one that the Jays might not want to deal with. They should be good enough to make the playoffs without adding the wildcard Colabello before September&#8217;s roster expansion, but stranger things have happened. There just aren&#8217;t many ways to fit Colabello unless one of the first base / DH spots opens up via injury (heaven forbid) or transaction (HEAVEN FORBID), making a triumphant return unlikely at this point.</p>
<p>Should the team decide he’s not worth using at the major league level this season it might be best just to release him once his suspension is up. This is a situation full of “ifs” in a year where the Jays don’t have time to mess around with the roster. Rather than have him kick around in the minors he’d be free to look for another job and would remove a source of potential distraction for the organization. Releasing Colabello would be like ripping off the Band-Aid; it’d be a quick end to a situation that could grow increasingly uneasy with time.</p>
<h3>Ryan Goins</h3>
<p>Goins has turned in a tough year, hitting just .176 / .216 / .308 to go with his 0.00 ERA. While he probably deserves to be in Buffalo based on merit, he seems to have carved out a spot in Toronto. If the team didn’t send him down during his struggles at the plate he’ll likely return to the big club at the expense of Burns (or Lake, depending on the Carrera business). That gives the Jays two backup middle infielders, though Barney can give Josh Donaldson a break at third base every once in a while.</p>
<h3>Franklin Morales</h3>
<p>Morales will have to be activated or released today; hopefully sometime after this is published. If forced to guess, I’d bet that he comes up for Aaron Loup. The Blue Jays have kept him on a rehab assignment for the maximum 30 days, so either they’ve either been killing time in hopes of a spot opening up organically or he’s really been struggling to get back to form. The smart money is probably on the former, as the only relievers with options remaining are Aaron Loup and Bo Schultz; neither of whom have played their way out of a job. Both have been adequate lately and it doesn’t seem like the Jays will carry three lefties. As a result, it’s pretty much a toss-up between Loup and Morales.</p>
<p>It might make the most sense to give Morales a chance to outperform Loup in the lefty specialist role. If he ends up being better, the Jays get improved production while keeping both in the organization. If he’s worse, they can release Morales and bring Loup back up. He’ll be kept on a short leash and the Jays will at least know what they’ve got before getting rid of him.</p>
<h3>Marco Estrada</h3>
<p>The staff ace will be activated on Friday, likely taking a spot from the bullpen. Bo Schultz probably gets sent down in the corresponding move, returning the team to five starters and seven relievers.</p>
<h3>The Shuffle</h3>
<p>To sum it all up, after all of the roster shuffling, here’s one guess as to what we’ll likely see.</p>
<ul>
<li>Franklin Morales to Toronto; Aaron Loup to Buffalo</li>
<li>Marco Estrada to Toronto; Bo Schultz to Buffalo</li>
<li>Jose Bautista to Toronto; Junior Lake to Buffalo</li>
<li>Ryan Goins to Toronto; Andy Burns to Buffalo</li>
<li>Colabello to the ether (at least until September)</li>
</ul>
<p>The Blue Jays are working their way back to full health and while that’s obviously a good thing, it does present some challenges in terms of roster construction. With the trade deadline approaching fast, there will surely be even more reshuffling. For now, there&#8217;s a couple paths forward. The team&#8217;s decision makers will have to navigate the forks in the road.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>Artificial Turf Wars Ep. 6: The High Performance Week that Was</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/08/artificial-turf-wars-ep-6-the-high-performance-week-that-was/</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Apr 2016 10:09:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Artifical Turf Wars]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Podcast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaron Sanchez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Artificial Turf Wars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cliché of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Do-Over]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Franklin Morales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Gibbons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Josh Donaldson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marcus Stroman]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=1222</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Biomechanist Dr. Thomas Karakolis stops by the podcast to discuss the new High Performance Department, as well as the new rule allowing MLB players to use &#8220;wearables&#8221; and how they can help prevent future injury. Also, Greg and Josh discuss the Franklin Morales signing and break down the first slate of games with a focus [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Biomechanist Dr. Thomas Karakolis stops by the podcast to discuss the new High Performance Department, as well as the new rule allowing MLB players to use &#8220;wearables&#8221; and how they can help prevent future injury. Also, Greg and Josh discuss the Franklin Morales signing and break down the first slate of games with a focus on Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez&#8217; dominant starts, Josh Donaldson&#8217;s injury, and some odd bullpen usage by John Gibbons. The guys also answer some listener questions, give out a Do-Over to Gibby and hand out the first ATW Cliché of the Week to the phrase &#8220;he handles the bat well.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Podcast</strong>: <a class="powerpress_link_pinw" title="Play in New Window" href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/btr.shows/8/648/show_8648257_2016_04_08_03_04_41.mp3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Play in new window</a> | <a class="powerpress_link_d" title="Download" href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/btr.shows/8/648/show_8648257_2016_04_08_03_04_41.mp3" rel="nofollow">Download</a></p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/blue-jays-plus-podcast/id705699884?mt=2"><img class="alignnone wp-image-63" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/itunes1.png" alt="itunes" width="125" height="46" /></a></p>
<p>Follow the guys on twitter: <a title="@coolhead2010" href="https://twitter.com/coolhead2010" target="_blank">@coolhead2010</a>, <a title="@JoshuaHowsam" href="https://twitter.com/JoshuaHowsam" target="_blank">@JoshuaHowsam</a> and <a title="@CWSherwin" href="https://twitter.com/CWSherwin" target="_blank">@CWSherwin</a></p>
<p>Intro music is Slow Burn (<a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/" rel="cc:attributionURL">Kevin MacLeod</a>) under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" rel="license">CC BY 3.0</a>.</p>
<div><strong>Podcast Email</strong>-<a href="mailto:artificialturfwars@baseballprospectus.com" target="_blank">artificialturfwars@baseballprospectus.com</a> Please drop us a line if there is a guest you&#8217;d particularly like us to interview, to submit a question to <strong>Stump the Josh</strong>, or to simply give us feedback on the podcast. We&#8217;d love to hear from you!</div>
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		<title>Blue Jays Sign LHP Franklin Morales to Bolster Bullpen</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/02/blue-jays-sign-lhp-franklin-morales-to-bolster-bullpen/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 03 Apr 2016 03:50:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tammy Rainey]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arnold Leon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Franklin Morales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Biagini]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto Blue Jays]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=1001</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[According to Canadian Baseball Network&#8217;s Andrew Hendriks, Toronto has signed veteran Venezuelan LHP Franklin Morales. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reports that the deal is for one year and $2 million, and that to make room of the roster, Ryan Tepera has been optioned to AAA Buffalo. #BlueJays sign lefty Franklin Morales to a $2m, one-year deal, [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>According to <a href="https://twitter.com/77hendriks/status/716314885752225792" target="_blank">Canadian Baseball Network&#8217;s </a>Andrew Hendriks, Toronto has signed veteran Venezuelan LHP <a href="http://www.baseballprospectus.com/card/card.php?id=48448" target="_blank">Franklin Morales</a>. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reports that the deal is for one year and $2 million, and that to make room of the roster, Ryan Tepera has been optioned to AAA Buffalo.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a> sign lefty Franklin Morales to a $2m, one-year deal, option Ryan Tepera to triple-Buffalo.</p>
<p>&mdash; Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShiDavidi/status/716471989431640064">April 3, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The deal is &#8220;non-guaranteed&#8221; and includes incentives as well.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Franklin Morales contract is non-guaranteed and includes incentives. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShiDavidi/status/716473554020249600">April 3, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The 30-year-old had been signed by the Brewers in the off-season to a minor league deal that would have paid him $2.3 million if he made the team, but he was released on Monday as Milwaukee chose fellow lefty Chris Capuano to add to the roster instead.</p>
<p>Morales was a product of the Colorado Rockies organization but never had any success there. He turned into a valuable contributor after being traded to Boston in 2011. After going back to Colorado and struggling again in 2014, he had a nice rebound season for the Kansas City Royals last year, posting a 3.18 ERA in 62 1/3 innings pitched.  He has a career K% of 17.9% and a BB% of 10.4%, though last season they were a much better 15.9% and 5.4%. Perhaps more crucial to the Blue Jays&#8217; interest is his excellent production against left handed hitters for the Royals in 2015, as they slashed just .194/.250/.320 against him in 107 plate appearances.</p>
<address>Lead Photo: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports</address>
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