Another Canadian Icon Traded - The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

figured it was time.

we just officially lost Janssen, in addition to Cabrera, Lawrie, Morrow, Happ, Gose, Lind and a few of our young arms.
But we have gained Donaldson, Martin, Saunders, Smoak, Estrada and one Devon Travis!

the team is now a weird combo of youth and age, with a righty-heavy line-up, one too many catchers and some serious question marks at 2B and the bullpen. Should be fun!

at any rate, I always liked Janssen.

I remain resolutely optimistic. (Until they lost their first game--then it's complain, whine, deride.)

"lose"--I've already moved into past tense.

gonna miss colby. the club house presence, the interviews.

only shallow

http://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2015/1/31/7954407/examining-the-blue-jays-depth

TIL – the Blue Jays have a guy named Ezequiel Carrera.

Pillar and Tolleson are garbage. Hopefully Goins and Izturus can be otherworldly for complimentary stretches.
Don't even want to look at what they're listing as pitching depth.

i like Pillar's odds of being "otherworldly" over Goins or Izturus. he's young and did pretty well in the minors, his speed and defense translated well to the bigs, the only question is if his bat will.

and we should probably just sit a hockey goal at 2B until Travis is ready (tho Kawasaki brings enough value with his glove and GIFs that it make make his presence in the line-up more tolerable than the other options).

@CDNBaseballHOF
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame 2015 Inductees are Carlos Delgado, Matt Stairs, Corey Koskie, Felipe Alou and Bob Elliott.

'bout time

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12288422/toronto-blue-jays-move-closer-installing-natural-grass

From the little I've seen the new turf this year looks good, aesthetics wise. Deeper green and at least for now without those rubber pellets, should be less offensively ugly.

another canadian icon down with an injury until the allstar break.

some of us who are not hyperelectronified would like link to actual story instead of cryptic mystery posts

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Michael Saunders stepped on a sprinkler while shagging fly balls Wednesday, tearing cartilage in his left knee and sidelining him until the All-Star break.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12385936/michael-saunders-toronto-blue-jays-hurts-knee-due-sprinkler

just like mickey mantle

I don't think Mantle stepped on a sprinkler? Elliott Maddox did, during the two years the Yankees' home park was Shea.

ok, MM did, in the '51 WS

ban sprinklers

johan!

you know what doesn't need sprinklers? astroturf.

but in Florida?

just making a joke. everyone makes a fuss about how the skydome is the last stadium using artificial turf and apparently every ball player hates the stuff etc

valencia will start in left, everything will be ok. everything will be ok

i just got the name of this thread a few days ago and laughed harder than i should have, so thanks for that :)

signed johan santana also:
http://www.amazinavenue.com/2015/2/26/8118021/blue-jays-sign-former-mets-pitcher-johan-santana

oh someone mentioned it alrteady. oops

Saunders now out only 4-6 weeks! Apparently surgery showed the knee cartilage was worse than expected, so they just took a bunch of stuff out rather than trying to fix anything...and this shortens the recovery time.
suck it Pillar.

also they just signed Dayan Viciedo... so... ya. there's that.

bummer about the 4-6 week news. he didn't want to get that surgery because it causes arthritis later in life but i guess his hands were tied?

read somewhere he preferred this option anyways.

take that, aaron sanchez

russell martin needs to relearn how to say 'out'

was it like, a known quantity that this daniel norris dude lives in a van?
http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/12420393/top-blue-jays-prospect-daniel-norris-lives-own-code

new favorite player

the D Norris van coverage has been everywhere

copycats

edwing is having some trouble with the new batter's box rules https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/B_RLiUJU8AA15IM.mp4

Daniel Norris:

http://www.vancouversun.com/cms/binary/10781747.jpg

obv has a gay cult following already

marcus stroman, torn acl, out for season

Please tell me you're...no; no joke there. That's awful.

ugh

my first reaction... "this is a joke right?"

very sad news, loved to see him play.

in memorandum
http://gamereax.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/StromanSlider.gif

Stroman out, Encarnacion is hurting, RIP 2015 Blue Jays.

At least it wasn't an arm injury, I guess.

I was aghast when I heard it was a bunting drill--for what, in preparation for the World Series?--but he was of course fielding bunts. I don't know if the year's a write-off or not. 15 wins/20-25 quality starts would have been a good year. That second number will be hard to pull out of thin air.

kyle drabek is ready for his closeup

I don't get some of the outrage over how he was hurt. like baseball players shouldnt be practicing baseball.

First and last time I'll ever be able to say this: a kid I used to coach (Darren Shred) is playing in today's Jays vs. Junior National Team game.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_03_15_cannae_tormlb_1&mode=gameday&c_id=tor

looks like he might have done ok vs Dickey?!

I didn't see it, but the play-by-play says he grounded out to third.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/blue-jays-of-kevin-pillar-says-oblique-straining-sneeze-not-a-big-deal-1.2996194

randy wolf, minor league deal

delabar mad

kyle drabek is ready for his closeup

― mookieproof, Tuesday, March 10, 2015 7:54 PM (2 weeks ago)

claimed off waivers by the white sox

/tinstaapp

http://cdn.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DickeyMartin1.gif

good luck russell martin

doug mirabelli is available

i very much enjoyed that 3rd inning. glad i was able to catch it over my lunch break!

xp he's not that far from canada tbh http://www.cbgreatlakes.com/doug.mirabelli

they can pick him up in a helicopter and close all the lanes to the stadium like the red sox did during the great mirabelli airlift of 2007 or whenever that was

Should be Dalton Pompey's AB track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB5isaB32QA

tagada tagada voila les Daltons

Devon Travis hitting his first big league HR!

Aand the 20 year old is now the closer.

Gotta be more specific ;')
The other 20yo, Osuna pitched the highest leverage index in that game, which was a bit nail-bitey.
Norris better get those pitches down in the zone, he's hanging a lot of shit up there

i think he started tiring when his pitch count got into the 90s and those two balls left the park. from what i saw he was looking good up until then.

Travis is also looking pretty impressive so far.

where is the LOVE for kevin pillar

i keep wanting to pronounce it "Pilash" like that guy what used to be on the Leafs.

I'm glad re: Norris. Admittedly I just watched the condensed game and everything looked up.
This team is super exciting
I've always meant to post this; Pillar reminds of this guy every time i look at him:
https://cinema1544.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/kidnapped.jpg

HA HAHhaahaa

yeah saunders definitely gonna have to fight to get back the starters job, pillar two nice grabs and a jack today (plus a k with the bags loaded)

both those catches were crazy. one might have saved the game. an occasional game at DH for Saunders or Bautista probably won't be terrible, with the turf and all.

What's gotten into Pillar? Yesterday's catch was ridiculous.

i was at the game and everyone there lost their minds that catch was so ludicrous

A grade 8 student at my school (really nice girl, fantastic baseball player) was sitting with Joe Carter at the game the other night. (Not sure why--with her rep team, probably.) She brought back autographed baseballs for four of us, and also got to wear one of Carter's WS rings for a photo.

*JEALOUS*!!

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/one-week-with-kevin-pillar

Jose Reyes is hurt.

The shitheel Baltimore Orioles, a living, breathing, 25-man avatar for the pile of human garbage posing as their manager, Buck Showalter, got their shit-brains knocked out, metaphorically, by the Toronto Blue Jays tonight, and so like so many petty losers before them, decided to try and actually get physical with the Jays....

http://andrewstoeten.com/2015/04/21/jays-take-out-the-trash-13-6-game-fourteen-thoughts/

that entire game last night was insane. Encarnacion hit it into the 500s with his 2nd hr of the game – Pilar made what might have been his most unthinkable catch to date and then, amazingly, doubled up the runner – Dionner Navarro hit a triple – and then they stupidly throw behind Bautista, AGAIN, who proceeds to launch one out of the park, AGAIN, admiring his work as long as possible before calling whoever their 2b is a bitch on his way around the bases – Adman Jones decides that all this has somehow hurt his feelings

The Pillar double play was pretty outstanding.

http://mlb.mlb.com/images/2/1/6/119691216/042115_tor_bautista_homer_med_sszl49l0.gif

twice in one AB, bautista puts up the most badass face i have seen in baseball in years. if any clip ever required a thug life meme treatment...

Pillar always makes these catches with six run leads. That dude is intense, he never lets up for a second.

Batista's HR left the park in a HURRY.

unlike his departure from the batters box!

i try to watch every 2 or 3 three games – will def be tuning in for the next two.

Buehrle's pitching okay--almost like his whole career in miniature--but wow, is he leading a charmed life. 12, 12, and 13 runs; that must be some kind of a record to start a season.

(Run support, I meant to say.)

good lord edwin's homer

also yeah, fuck the orioles

anyone who thinks garcia threw at him intentionally is a fucking idiot

doesn't matter in the least

you don't get to throw behind a guy, accident or not, in a seven-run game and get pissy when he pimped his subsequent homer

xp and even if he did, showalter would've had nothing to do with it. i'm not a showalter-worshipper or even apologist in some cases, but he has a reputation for not condoning throwing at people

"You throw at me, I’m not going to forget. And if I get you right after, then I’m going to enjoy it and I did.”

"He admired his shot, flipped his bat, shouted at second baseman Ryan Flaherty, glared at the dung piles in the Orioles dugout, then celebrated with his teammates like the ball he knocked out of the yard (again) had been hit directly into the souls of the cheapjack little shits who threw at him for no good goddamned reason."

it seems like it matters if it was an accident or not

literally that entire embarrassing blog is whining that the o's threw at poor delicate prince jose

whether it was intentional or not, he actually *did* get thrown at

in a situation in which an otherwise useless rule 5 pick might very well want to make friends

bautista's slow pace is his reward for standing in there and fucking turning a 3-1 pitch from the guy that threw behind him around. nothing he did threatened anything except poor adam jones' pride. suck it up and win the next night

or don't

"in a situation in which an otherwise useless rule 5 pick might very well want to make friends"

so you're... saying he did it on purpose

bautista's trot went beyond celebration, he shouted shit at ryan flaherty (?) and glared into the dugout like, idk, a dude trying to start or escalate shit, what do you expect the opposing team to say? "oh, well it was clearly an accident but jose's totally right to try to instigate a fight with our entire team, what a guy"

A FASTBALL WAS LITERALLY THROWN AT BAUTISTA

and then holy shit BAUTISTA MADE THREATENING NOISES and RAN TOO SLOWLY

literally you are whining that bautista ran too slow and yelled words at the poor delicate orioles

grow the fuck up (and don't take opposing teams' fanblogs so seriously)

it seems like it sounds really scary to you but baseball players literally get baseballs thrown at them

it is a part of their job

HBPs happen all the time every day

a pitch to the torso isn't going to kill the poor puppy

i don't like that baseball is full of etiquette but it... is and there's no reason for jones to not call him out for acting like a pissbaby

i'm just having a lot of trouble understanding how responding to an accident by purposely trying to escalate shit is understandable but verbally responding to that escalation isn't

in baseball, as in life, not everyone can have the last word

the orioles threw at former pirate legend j. bautista. his response, which i can well imagine every other player in baseball truly cherishing, was to crush a homer and make sure the guys who threw at him knew he enjoyed it.

action followed by reaction. even! tip yr cap, move on and maybe you can trot a little slower on your next homer

this is the thing with the royals, too. lawrie slid hard, maybe dirty, and took out esky. so the royals drilled lawrie and to his credit he ran to first. action-reaction. you do not, however, get to keep throwing at lawrie for the rest of his career.

baltimore got the first shot and bautista's response was stronger. sometimes you just get beat and need to recognize it.

and that is entirely setting aside the fact that fastballs injure bodies while slow trots injure fee-fees

idk craig biggio spent an entire career getting hit by fastballs and didn't shout spittle at opposing 2Bs when they missed

you started out saying it doesn't matter if it was intentional or not and everything you've said since implies that it was, so why not just say that it does matter to you

bc if it was an accident -- and, if you've seen any of jason garcia's other pitches you'd know it was -- what you have is a large baby overreacting to not even getting hit in one of the safest spots to get hit, and then adam jones responding to a large baby who is acting more immaturely than the average baseball player by like fifty standard deviations

like i said i wish baseball wasn't all etiquette but relative to everyone else in the league he was being absolutely ridiculous

Bautista enjoyed his home run after he thought he'd been thrown at. Get the fuck over it. He flipped a bat and glared at some guys. Big fucking deal. Boo hoo. Grow a fucking pair. 90% of the baseball world seems fine with Bautista's reaction - Jones needs to be a big boy and realize that. You'd think he was the one getting thrown at for all his pissing and moaning.

He didn't charge the mound, no one threw at Jones in retaliation. Get over it and move on.

lol

want 2 find a gif of bautista literally screaming shit at o's on the field and put it next to bj's fans whining that jones is acting like a baby by responding and not, like, hanging his head down and kicking dirt

Big fucking deal. Boo hoo. Grow a fucking pair.

great post good job

hey qualx can you gtfo thanks bud

Everyone's reaction on that sequence, from the fastball to Adam Jones reaction seems as normal as life.

i'm sorry i have brought agony unto the ILB blue jays thread where all the blue jays fans live

i will slink back to the orioles thread which is my home

where art thou jq higgins, i am so lonely in my thread house

the issue is that you can't talk like a grown up.

With the recent history, throwing behind Bautista is going to be assumed intentional in the heat of the moment.
Benefit of the doubt is removed and the glory of that game remains wholly intact. Suck it shitbirds.

damn shit got real intense itt

if we want to be all lawyerlike about things – what matters is that Bautista felt like he was being thrown at. and after everything that happened with O'Day and that entire game going poorly for the O's, it would be entirely reasonable thing to think if you're him. or a normal person.

otm

i would only say that while i don't much care for joey bats, if you don't like getting scored on at will, pitch better and field your position better and if you don't like having monster jacks hit off you, don't throw arrow straight fastballs down the middle of the plate.

the whole injuring (re-injuring) oneself on a throw to first? well...yeah.

lol is that what did it? jfc pull that shit when it's september and you're 15 games out not when the games still matter

the issue is that you can't talk like a grown up.

this whole conversation is just confounding ! ok, so bautista is paranoid and overemotional and assumes he was being thrown at despite every one of garcia's pitches missing by five miles. he then heroically throws a tantrum running the bases, acting more immaturely than pretty much every baseball player that's ever been thrown at intentionally, yelling shit into the faces of orioles players. and looking at replays it looks like he was actually shouting right at jones, not at flaherty, who was just in the way. this is all good and majestic and not at all babylike. but adam jones, who after markakis' departure is the closest thing the orioles have to a captain, decides to respond to the human yelling shit at him and maybe even stand up for the young green pitcher that shares his uniform, and for this he is both a monster and a balls-less pile of garbage, a true pussy-man who probably is a virgin

tbh this is dumb

sports

http://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2015/04/24/orioles-considered-boycotting-blue-jays-game-over-rogers-centre-turf-report.html

why does it take three years to put in grass?

because of the football team that still uses the stadium. once they're out – the grass is in. and also it was never designed with drainage in mind – so a lot of work under the structure needs to be done too.

o no where are the argos going

I think to BMO feild, where the soccer team (TFC) plays.

Sounds like it could take a little longer than when the argos leave

http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/mlb/toronto-blue-jays-want-grass-in-the-rogers-centre-an-inside-look-at-the-difficult-growth-process-it-requires

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/is-the-new-turf-at-the-rogers-centre-really-a-problem/

@MLBRosterMoves
.@BlueJays grant LHP Ricky Romero his unconditional release.

wow. still rooting for the guy, with whatever he ends up doing

Don't despair--Buehrle goes tomorrow, so they'll win 17-8.

Down 5-0 in the 7th. The season has started to feel painfully mediocre.

The Toronto Blue Jays -- perfecting mediocrity since 1994.

ya. Rays always seem to kick then around for some reason.

dead last, per quite some distance, per team pitching fwar

jonah keri's weekly column gives a good summary of the orange birds-joey bats kerfuffle:

First, the right-hander fired a fastball that sailed behind Bautista, whizzing past his back. Then, four pitches later, Garcia challenged Bautista with another fastball — but this one tailed back over the middle of the plate, and Bautista crushed it to Saskatchewan. Then he stood and watched the ball clear the fence, flipped his bat dismissively, and began a slooooow trot toward home. As the Jays right fielder rounded the bases, O’s second baseman Ryan Flaherty yelled something, so Bautista yelled back. Adam Jones trotted in from center field and started yelling, too, so Bautista yelled back again. It was ridiculous, and it was glorious.

so flaherty said something first, rather than bats just yelling at him randomly in particular, then again i guess some would say keri is a canadian w/ no expos to cheer and must be showing bias to the guy on the canadian team lol

did anyone think Bats just started yelling at Flaherty for no reason? it was pretty obviously to me he was responding to something.

It seemed obvious to me Flaherty instigated.

It's gonna be a looong season with this bullpen :/

who'd have thought relying on two guys who are a year removed from teenagerdom would be a bumpy ride?!

i really wished they didn't trade for ra dickey, right now it would have been a nice collection of young up and coming players.

you got LOL'd by the Mets, eh?

i'm not a jays fan particulary, i just happen to live in Canada so i hear about them slightly more, i actually prefer the mets, it's just that the trade seems really really dumb at the moment

both of those "win now" trades are pretty easy to hate when... nobody won now

can't wait to see the comparative numbers for these players in 5 years... buerhle/reyes (and I guess bonifacio/johnson) VS. hechavarria/marisnick/alvarez/desclafini, and dickey/thole vs. d'arnaud/syndergaard/hell-even-john-buck-did-something

they have a nice collection of young up-and-coming players!

but imagine + d'arnaud/syndergaard/marisnick/alvarez/hechavarria

i dunno -- several of those guys have had hot starts this year, but hechavarria is a 26yo with a career war of zero, marisnick has a career opb of .284, tough to judge syndergaard in a place like las vegas but he's more likely to turn into kyle drabek than matt harvey

they made a win-now move that didn't pan out, but it wasn't a disaster and they were working with pretty remarkable depth. norris/sanchez/pompey/travis is a young core that most teams would like to have

i believe in marisnick still. having a very good start this season.

but you are right!

a bunch of prospects that never was will always be more romantic than grizzled veterans.

norris optioned

sad. but we're adding yet another canadian!

he needs some triple a

apparently so does Pompey.

pitching continues to be disastrous

I'll be in T.O. at the end of May, is anyone up for catching a game? They play the Mariners on May 22,23,24, and the White Sox on May 25,26,27.

YES! haven't seen you in forever.

where do you live xp?

May be in Toronto in late may myself.

nice! we should just fly Ned in at this point, then.

Room at the inn for one more?

^^^stable

Most of the time, yes. I have my moments.

Hey Clem!

Thermo, maybe we should go to one of the Seattle games so we can boo Ryan Franklin for old times sake (even though he's retired)?

ah, the "Posada" treatment. sounds good!

how great would it be to all go see Felix Hernandez

pretty good considering i would be quietly cheering for him.

It looks like the Mariners' rotation is set up for Felix to pitch against the Jays on Friday the 22nd, but I probably can't go that night. Would people prefer a day/weekend game or a night/weekday game?

Either's fine with me.

i can make anything work that week, unless there's a day game during a work day.

Sunday the 24th is looking best for me (out of the weekend games).

Let me know if you want me to look after getting the tickets.

works for me – where do we want to sit? cheapo 500s (and/or hanging out in the standing area that used to be Windows), affordable 100/200 OF? baller field levels?!

I haven't been to the dome for a game since ... 2010?? Can it be? The last time I was there I sat in the 100 level OF. Anyway, I'm cool with just about anywhere.

I'm good with either the 500s (didn't mind that at all) or the affordable 100/200s. Over $40, I want Koufax or Seaver on the mound. Van Horn Street: let me know if you're in on this.

have you guys read this book?

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/alison-gordon-book-foul-ball-blue-jays-050715

Actually I can't :( , took on a job. The joys of freelancing. June and August/September should be good.

man you gdamn blue birds are gonna fuckin home run derby on teh sox bc Miley is pitching 😭😭😭

it's hard out there for a red sox fan

I'm guessing that's half zing and I accept it bc the team has ultimately been fortunate

I am a huge fan of edwing, donaldson and joey bats so that makes them my favorite non sox al east team

No Time/Thermo: unless we sit way out in 211 ($37), everything not in the bleachers and not in the 500s runs $55 a ticket. Too much. So I'll go ahead and order three 500-level seats, $18 a ticket, for Sunday, May 24. Good?

sounds great – thanks!

great!

We're Section 519L, Row 10, Seats 104 - 106. Let's try to meet somewhere beforehand.

I'll write you guys off-board (say on fb) when I get into town.

sweet!

https://instagram.com/p/2b40QVl1qI

luke scott signed to a minor-league deal

jesus, that pitch my Hoffman. wow.

hoffman got hit around a little bit in his debut wednesday, but he did hit 99 so i guess his arm's okay

here comes mune!

A Maddux for Hutchinson!

how did the get together go?

No Time caused a big commotion in our section when he openly rooted for Kyle Seager. He was later attacked by a mob outside the stadium.

btw - attendance was 37,929!

The get together was great -- the Jays won, Seager homered and scored twice, and everybody except for the 17 929 fans who didn't get trucker hats went home happy.

look out, couches of Toronto!

Just noticed their Pythagorean is running four games ahead of their record--they've outscored the opposition 252-225. Theoretically, that should point to good things ahead. With this team, who knows.

I guess those "fire sale" thinkpieces haben't taken that into account.

their Pythag, and the Astros'....

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/houston-astros-toronto-blue-jays-season-projections-prediction-052615

Fifty games in, and Donaldson's on track for one of the greatest years at third base ever. I don't know where to find an actual list, but a few post-war WAR peaks:

Schmidt -- 9.7 (1974)
Brett -- 9.4 (1980)
Boggs -- 9.1 (1985)
A-Rod -- 9.4 (2005, 2007)
Beltre -- 9.5 (2004)
Rolen -- 9.1 (2004)
Santo -- 9.8 (1967)
Petrocelli (!) -- 10.0 (1967)

Matthews and Robinson never exceeded 9.0 in any one season. Right now, Donaldson projects to 9.7--but no, I don't expect him to continue playing this well.

Petrocelli should be 1969.

Shutout for Buehrle. That's two for the decade.

That was a unique bottom of ninth. I've never seen someone reach on an infield single when a fielder tripped over the opposing team's runner. Epic meltdown for the Astros too, I never thought I'd be this excited about a sweep over the Astros.

best run differential in the AL

Great--I switched off the car radio in disgust when they gave up the lead.

The MLB headline calls it a "disputed call." I've watched it three times--I understand the Astros' frustration, but they don't really have a case, do they? Reyes goes back to the base and just stands his ground (even crouches a bit). What exactly did they want him to do?

i'm on pain meds for the back and passed out mid 8th.

Ouch, hope your back is feeling better.

Another walk off win, we're back to .500!

8 in a row!!

I'll be seeing Jays v Mets next Monday (Buehrle-Harvey scheduled)

I hate to be pessimistic, but this team seems to go on a major run every year in mid-June.

This kind of blew my mind (via Schoenfield)

Here's a weird stat: The Jays have 31 wins and just six saves. They have just five one-run wins all season and four of those were walk-off wins without a save. The only save in a one-run victory was on April 23, a 7-6 win over the Orioles. But the Orioles actually scored four runs in the ninth inning in that game and Miguel Castro got the save even though he gave up a run. Three of the other five saves came in three-run differentials. So while the Blue Jays haven't lost a game all year when they led heading into the ninth inning, the ninth-inning guys haven't been tested. Brett Cecil is presumably still the closer but hasn't had a save opportunity since May -- 18 wins ago.

(Rany Jazayerli reports that last team went more wins without a save was the 1987 Red Sox, who had 20 in a row without a save. No other team had more than 12.)

I'm not suggesting this is a problem; after all, it means the Jays aren't playing close games, which is a good thing. But at some point the bullpen will face tougher assignments.

No kidding, every team with a waffling, untested bullpen got bounced from the playoffs in a hurry last year.

Here comes Phil Coke!

omg - i don't think this will help matters!

The eight-game winning streak without a save (or even a save opportunity?) is one of those bizarre occurrences that you'd probably have to go through game logs to check. I bet it hasn't happened since the '70s. (The 34 games without a save is the longest gap for the team since '79.)

i may have just bet a friend of mine $100 that the Jays will finish above .500
if they tank now, it's entirely on me.

I've been watching a movie, just turned this on...that's pretty amazing.

Down 8-2 when I went to make diner. Check Facebook after eating to find out they won 13-10. Amazing.

@DanHirsch: The #BlueJays (5.5 R/G) have scored 0.82 more runs per game than the 2nd best team. This is the biggest gap b/w 1st & 2nd best since 1953

Exactly the kind of game you're used to them losing--winning streak, early 4-run lead, give that up, extra innings. They came back, though.

almost feel bad for the red sox here

ok theyve scored 2 runs making in 10-2 jays and they have two on base and 1 out now so no longer feeling any sympathy

10-5. to quote the radio guys, "no 10-run lead is safe when the Blue Jays are involved".

jesus. 13 runs now.

yeah two almost identical doubles by goins and reyes with 2 out!

I'm waiting for the bottom to fall out, so when I heard on the car radio it was 10-5, I chalked up a loss and a five-game losing streak, and consigned them to last place within a week.

they....they just score so many runs

I can't believe the red sox held them to only 5 on saturday.

Well, it took an 11th inning bloop single to finally bring the streak to a halt!

One $%&# pitch away--that one hurt.

ya. it was a fun ride tho.

and that second ump that took over home was atrocious.

took him 10 mins to get the gear on, goodchrist

Thought it was kind of sad that two of the 20 or so Jays fans in the adjoining section were still rockin' their LAWRIE shirts. Entire family of 4 was clad in Donaldson's tho.

After the walkoff I advised then to "drink up at Tim Hortons" and did the McKenzie Bros yodel.

That's some low quality heckling there TBH, you're better than that.

I've deteriorated.

Keri on whether offense can carry them:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/mlb-toronto-blue-jays-playoffs-historic-offense-starting-pitching/

Nice knowing you, Scott Copeland. Ownership needs to wake the fuck up and trade for Hamels already.

The Jays entered play today with the second best run differential in MLB (two runs behind the Cards).

Wow, they came back from 7-0 down to the O's, it's now 9-7 Jays in the 4th!

they....they just score so many runs
--slothroprhymes

it's kind of astounding, like just a bit

They're a new kind of team: they're gunning for the run-differential crown. They'll lose a couple of close ones, win a couple of close ones, every few days they'll blow someone out, and Baseball Prospectus and Rob Neyer will write nice articles about them. It's a whole new thing.

they will lose most close ones because our current bullpen is full of arsonists

This is supposed to be the easiest problem in baseball to solve. We can't seem to solve it.

Legendary Jays bullpen just starting to do their thing.

load the bases?

oh man. whenever i feel bad about my team – all I have to do is look at the T-Bay attendance to feel better.

sort of.

chris colabello: .343/.383/.512 in 44 games

(kinda scary in left tho)

that catch my Donaldson earlier O_o just wow

Del the Funkee Homosapien fans take note: Mr. Colabello, Mr. Chris Colabello...

Three notes I gleaned from the post-game show:

1) First time a pitcher has taken back-to-back no-hitters into the eighth since Stieb in '88. (First time for any team--just a coincidence that both are Jays.)

2) First 12-inning shutout for the Jays since 1986:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198609260.shtml

Key vs. Clemens, game-winning HR from Barfield, save to Henke.

3) First time the day started with all A.L. East teams within four games of the lead since forever--has never happened since divisional play started. (Which must mean this late in the season.)

Just looked at the video of the catch. Which if he'd pitched a perfect game, and if Willie Mays had never been born, I'd now start calling "The Catch"--incredible.

Also, just glanced at the standings...What in the hell are they talking about on the radio? Boston's well back. Either I misheard, or they forgot it's a five-team division.

would love a gif of longoria running back and forth between 2nd and 3rd in the 8th or 9th or whenever that was he lost track of the outs and the jays blew the double play. so awesome that he ended up safe afterall, he slid into both bags.

Donaldson wasn't running full speed like Jeter though! There are many diving catches into the stands, but only one Captain.

His hangtime was better though.

what on earth is happening to estrada right now

oh man! just checked the box score. looks like the wheels totally fell off there?!

don cherry a lil short with the first pitch

i fucking hate don cherry.

jays sign vlad jr

Interesting, in view of his father's acrimonious non-stopover with the club.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CI7giEZWcAAYxWm.jpg

saunders where you at? gotta get carrera/collabello out of the outfield

That was a fun inning for Carrera.

Castellanos singled to left center, Romine scored, V. Martínez to third, Avila to second, V. Martínez scored, Avila to third, Castellanos to second on throwing error by left fielder Carrera.
Gose singled to left, Avila scored, Castellanos scored, Gose to third on throwing error by left fielder Carrera.

Those curveballs to Donaldson were awesome.

Woo-hoo, our run differential still impressive.

Getting rather tired of seeing the Jays at the top of Baseball Reference's "Simple Rating System." It's becoming like a bad joke.

over the last calendar year, the highest fWAR in baseball belongs to . . . not mike trout

Stanton 5th! had no idea.

hope jays get out of this slump soon, they're super frustrating to watch, plus im going to my first major league baseball game in a couple weeks when they play the mariners in seattle and I want to see a win damn it.

https://sports.vice.com/ca/article/canadas-rise-on-the-diamond-is-for-real

hey, if you're seeing the mariners, there's at least a chance you'll see a major league caliber pitcher, at least!

HEY JAYS IF YOU'RE GONNA SWING FOR THE FENCES EVERY TIME SOMEONES ON BASE CAN WE AT LEAST GET A HOMER OR TWO EVERY NOW AND THEN

LIKE EVERY COUPLE GAMES OR SOMETHING

whoa

taking credit for that one

67 pitches for Buerhle through seven.

Never mind, the page I was looking at wasn't updating properly. 85 pitches through seven isn't bad though. His ERA since the start of June is 1.55.

10-8 Royals in the 6th, six errors in the game, nine earned runs total, Jays were down 7-0, then led 8-7, and are now trailing again, somehow this team drags everyone down to their level.

Somehow we tied the game in the 8th against Wade Davis, who had only given up about 0.0001 earned runs all season.

tbf – sounds like Rios fucked up that first play.

aaand Bautista just got himself ejected. i really with he didn't chirp so much at the plate.

Rios had a bad read, but the OF's have been fighting the sun all day.

Fuck Jerry Meals, how do you throw out a team's best hitter in the eighth inning of a tie game with runners on in the middle of the count? Pitch F/X showed that the called strike wasn't even close, so Bautista had a legit beef. Usually if a batter complains but doesn't turn around to show up the umpire (which is what he did), there's some leeway to complain.

ya – i was listening on the radio and assumed he had turned around (as he will do).

How the hell did Hutchison get to nine wins?

I was at the game last night--friend's sister got us seats right behind home, 10 rows up from field level. Good game, moved along pretty briskly (relatively speaking). Travis made a great leaping catch.

I fell in love with the usher girl; she was playing a part that I could understand.

Buehrle's defying logic these days. He's actually pitching well, not just doggedly hanging around and getting runs.

Buehrle's June/July:

5-1, 1.52, 34 K, 6 BB, .228/.249/.344 slash line for opposing hitter.

it's like the reverse of last year, where he started off amazing and then trailed off.

My first thought was, "Yes, in terms of W-L record, but last year it was primarily because of run support." But you're right--he pitched really well, too.

2014, up until June 1 (his last win before slumping):

10-1, 2.10, 46 K, 20 BB, .253/.301/.355 opposition slash line.

They both pivot on June 1. Put them together...

Jays lose on an walk off infield hit in extra innings. The play at first that would have ended the inning couldn't have been closer. Now that's a tough loss.

Terrible. Jays had bases loaded in the 9th, none out, down a run, Donaldson/Bautista/Encarnacion coming up. They scored one run.

One of the worst offenses in MLB just averaged 5+ runs/game in taking two out of three, but it's OK, we don't need to add pitching at the deadline!

OTOH, as usual with this team, these moves should have been made in the offseason.

Would be happy if the Jays went after Kimbrel.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/138986044/craig-kimbrel-and-5-potential-trade-partners

I don't know what you'd have to give up, but you'd get him for the rest of this year, plus 2016/17. I know that closers are thought of as highly replaceable these days, but Kimbrel is closer to Rivera than to the parade of one-year success stories. His numbers are a little down this year, but he got off to a slow start--maybe just the transition to a new team. His June/July numbers are back to normal.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=kimbrcr01&year=2015&t=p#month_extra

it just seems like every team wants Stroman and/or Norris. it's just too much to cough up a premiere future piece when you're a team that's three games out of playoffs. Essentially you'd need to add a 7+ WAR pitcher and then pray for some better luck just to scrape into the wildcard at this point.

It's maddening when you look at the Yankees pulling away...on the backs of A-Rod and Teixera, no less.

I've pretty much given up on this year; at least we'd have Kimble in place for two more. But then I a) look at Osuna's numbers, who looks like he's up to the closer role, and b) think about how few save opportunities the Jays have actually had this year (they must be last in baseball). Picking up Kimbrel might be completely beside the point.

They're tied for fourth fewest SO with 32 (they're last in baseball in save percentage--50%); the Cardinals lead with 50 SO.

http://www.sportingcharts.com/mlb/stats/team-save-percentage/2015/

i do not understand this trade, but gratz on the tulo

Hoffman along with Castro and one other prospect are apparently going with Reyes.

I've got to hand it to Anthopoulos -- this is a gutsy trade. Only Russell Martin is signed past 2016, so taking on Tulo's contract isn't much of an issue. Hopefully we'll still have a decent offense to support the pitchers that are supposedly too valuable to trade because we won't be ready to compete until 2017 (after Bautista and Encarnacion are possibly gone or not as productive).

I am super stoked about Tulo playing for the Jays though. I just don't see how this addresses our most important needs either this season or next.

it's definitely a win-now trade, and if they went on another big run they could easily give the yankees real trouble. (my red sox certainly won't.) c'mon, the other shoe, marked with OLD in big capital letters, has to drop for the yankees at some point right?

They now move into the youth-movement phase of the master plan and ship out LaTroy Hawkins for Bartolo Colon.

I had no idea that Hawkins was still pitching. The Jays will be his 11th team -- I think the record is twelve teams?

13 - Octavio Dotel

Though to be fair I think he actually chased that particular record and welcomed trades for that reason. still pretty cool.

I'm surprised that Hawkins is still going too, but I remember him being surprisingly solid at 38 & 39

my friend who is #1 jays fan is rabidly defending this trade, and is kind of convincing

or rather he WAS kind of convincing until he said the dickey trade wasn't bad at the time

it wasn't terrible (at the time). hurts like fuk now tho.

dude, it was definitely bad at the time! weren't d'arnaud and syndergaard like the top 2 guys in the system (even before the marlins trade)? all for some parts and a pitcher whose best years were based on a pitch we don't understand and can't predict future success of?

Somebody posted an article about Colon on Facebook last month, and that led to finding out that it was Hawkins, not Colon, who was the oldest active player. His '99 season is an amazing steroid-era artifact: he got 33 starts with the Twins, apparently never missing a turn, with a 6.66 ERA--and still managed a 10-14 record with a team that won 63 games. Breakdown:

Wins: 10-0, 3.05
Losses: 0-14, 10.28
No-Decisions: 0-0, 5.67

that was fast!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLA8uCmUYAE1iAV.jpg

that is a super odd year xp

https://twitter.com/Minor_Leaguer/status/625908950488121344

amazing

and Dickey was coming off a Cy Young season. and agreed to a super cheap extension!
i honestly wasn't crazy about it, but get why people liked it at the time.

a miraculous Cy season, at age 57.

cy young season's a cy young season.

but it was considered then unlikely to be repeated.

whatever. i'm not arguing that it was a good deal, just that i get why people saw it as one at the time.

If the Rockies don't flip Reyes, I'll be interested to see how both his and Tulowitzki's numbers are affected by the park change. I've always wondered if park-adjustments for Coors still come up a little short.

There are three takeaways here. The first is that rosters don’t have to be balanced to succeed: A great hitting team can still get better by upgrading its offense and out-bludgeoning its opponents. The second is that swapping Reyes and Tulo improves Toronto’s run prevention, no matter who’s on the mound. At age 30, Tulo probably isn’t as adept in the field as he used to be, but his defensive stats haven’t fallen as far as Reyes’s. And the third is that this deal doesn’t preclude the possibility of the Jays importing an arm this week.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-mlb-trade-deadline-rockies-blue-jays-troy-tulowitzki-jose-reyes/

I was down for the game tonight (not specifically for Tulowitzki--it was already arranged two days ago, before the trade). The HR was pretty electric. Listened to the dreaded call-in show on the way home. Wilner made me laugh when he called the Twins (explaining to a caller why you can't compare the Blue Jays' situation to the Royals') "a little smokey and a little mirrory."

One call...had an unmistakable subtext (and I'm generally not quick to pounce on this kind of thing). Paraphrase: "Did you notice the Jays' dugout tonight? No high-fiving, no dancing, no theatrics--just a bunch of guys focused on baseball."

Happily, Wilner was quick to shoot him down.

going to the game tonight! must have been awesome to be there last night. crowd sounded awesome on the broadcast.

I'll be there tonight too, up in the 500s. I thought we were going to see Cueto, but no.

By the way, Baseball Prospectus has us at 37% for the postseason, 5th in the AL and well ahead of Minnesota's 25%. Can't we just call the season now and start the playoffs based on that? Those guys are pretty reliable.

ideally we're going to hustle our way into the 100s.

so that was a good game. we managed to secure ourselves some pretty great seats just past 3rd!

This has nothing to do with the Price trade, but I think I heard or read Rickey Henderson's name thrown out there three times yesterday, the implication being that trading for Henderson was key to winning in '93. People have evidently forgotten how terrible Henderson was after he came over, one of the most mysterious Jekyll-and-Hyde transformations I can ever remember.

Henderson with Oakland in '93: 90 games, .327/.469/.553--he was playing almost as well as in his '90 MVP season (slighter higher OPS).
Henderson with Toronto in '93: 44 games, .215/.356/.319.

He was even worse in the postseason:

ALCS: .120/.241/.200
WS: .227/.393/.318

He still had a knack for scoring runs--47 in 56 games--but this was one instance where I'm sure that more to do with the people coming up behind him. The Jays didn't, as it turned out, give up anything to get him--Steve Karsay (1993's Daniel Norris?) and Jose Herrara--but people are simply misremembering what Henderson did when he got here. I think he blurs together in people's memory with Cone, who actually was a key part of winning in '92.

fret not – the Jays just traded for Mark Lowe!

lol

@Buster_ESPN 3m
The Phillies have re-engaged the Jays on Ben Revere. Price could be dropping, as the deadline nears.

i don't get these last two moves. we already have some good right handed arms in the pen – why add Lowe? and we already have two speedy/meh-OBP outfielders in Pilar and Carrera (plus Saunders or Pompey could be back within a month) – why add Revere?

Boy, I don't mind Revere at all. I don't have a lot of faith in Bautista right now; he's probably still hurting, and when you mix in normal decline, he's pretty iffy in the three spot. I assume they're looking to get Tulowitzki or Donaldson in there and lead off with Revere.

Should note that I say that having no idea what they've given up to get him.

‏@JSalisburyCSN 3m3 minutes ago
Hearing the Phillies will get pair of pitchers, Jimmy Cordero and Alberto Tirado, for Ben Revere in TOR deal

.334 obp not bad really, these days

@jgoldstrass
To recap: 11 Jays MiLB pitchers traded. All position-player talent remains. (And, trust me, there are big-time arms left in the system.)

^^^class a lansing broadcaster

why not put him at false leadoff? having a guy like tulowitzki lead off is not a bad idea at all when edwin, bautista (old or not), donaldson, martin, and whoever's hot between colabello/pillar/etc at the moment are all behind him.

the closest thing to a big-time arm i can think of in the minors is possibly Jon Harris - this years first round pick. or *maybe* *possibly* Sean Reid-Foley, Dawson or Castro.

i saw harris throw his first pitches after signing as a jay. one of them was 95.

I don't mind Tulowitzki leading off at all; he'd do fine there. Watching Bautista and Colabello come up 3-4 last night wasn't pretty, though--they're both slumping badly. I'd just like to see someone other than Bautista batting third. (By false leadoff you mean bat him 9th, right?)

yeah exactly, meant ninth. i mean i am not entirely opposed to putting the "prototypical leadoff" guy first, but when you have that many guys who can just hit doubles and home runs, why put a guy with a lower obp who might steal in front of them?

my thoughts exactly.

Wow. If not for Trout, Donaldson would be right there for MVP this year.

tulo > donaldson > bautista > e5 is p sick

everything about the jays' lineup is insane; i hope it works out because it's worth a shot

and tomorrow i imagine Revere will be batting leadoff.

i guess the odds are against it -- as they're against everyone -- but srsly look at this fuckin team

if only they played on grass i could love them absolutely. (and if buck martinez had a different voice). it's close nonetheless

just need one of the new guys to wear 17 in tribute to wendel and let's go

should be playing on grass by 2018 apparently.

I wouldn't count on Saunders contributing after being out for the entire season. Anyone is better than Colabello on defense.

Do people really remember Henderson as a key contributor to the '93 Jays? At the time everyone knew he was underperforming, but the team was winning so there was only so much complaining you could do.

At the time, sure. The people I heard yesterday seemed to be younger, with no specific recollection of '93 (or too young to have any)--just "Jays got Rickey Henderson, went on to win World Series." Just in general, from listening to the call-in show a couple of times last week (a sure sign I'm back on the bandwagon), I was surprised how many people had never seen the Jays in the postseason. It was 22 years ago, though.

Is it just me, or does Bautista seem to be in a weird place right now? Some combination of Reyes' departure, his own slump and injury trouble, and (maybe) a sense that he's less central to the team now? I'm sure I'm reading too much into things, but he doesn't seem especially happy. Probably just the slump/injury and wanting to contribute more.

i recall him as more of a rental mascot that anything. tho he was still evil on the basepaths.

sooo - as a result of the Revere deal, Jays just DFA'd Valencia. which sucks because he has been great so far.

My favorite thing about Henderson was how WAMCO (White-Alomar-Molitor-Carter-Olerud) became HAMCO overnight.

Agree about Valencia--he's been real good with the bat this year. How many pitchers are they carrying right now? Didn't they have a reliever who was expendable, or have they already made that move?

... and Revere is batting leadoff! (Tulo has the day off though)

Is it just me, or does Bautista seem to be in a weird place right now?

I think he's been playing hurt all season, but even at 75% he's still really good. The offense is so great that I'm fine if he settles into the Joe Carter role (low-BA with power, not good enough to carry the team but always a threat).

So Valencia's gone and Kawasaki's here (and starting today)? I seem to be the rare person who's not enamored of Kawasaki. I take it he's their sole backup infielder, otherwise I don't get that.

I'm not sure why Buerhle came out after only 89 pitches, I guess Gibbons felt obligated to use all his new toys right away.

Then again, contending teams with real bullpens should be able to turn leads over to the 'pen in the 8th, and Lowe had only given up one homer all season. I guess we're still not that kind of team.

I don't like him - this new guy.

Geez, when I ducked out it was 5-1 Jays.

If we had time machines it would be cool to travel back one year and say that we saw Tulo pinch hit for the Jays in the 9th inning of a game against the AL champion Royals.

We lost today, but the game (and the series) felt genuinely important.

Definitely feels vintage. 1) Last night, after they won, I picked up a pizza and there was a table of five guys in their 20s sitting in the restaurant. For the first time in forever I felt like saying, "Hey, Jays came back tonight." 2) I just sat in a parked car listening to the bottom of the ninth. Again, first time in forever.

Put this one down to the law of averages--Toronto had one three in a row, KC had lost three in a row.

Just so I'm not second-guessing: don't press your luck--Dickey's been great, put someone else in for the 8th.

Daniel Norris and the Tigers are leading the Orioles 6-1 and the 7th, and the guy we traded for Norris is sitting against the best team in the AL on his normal start day.

I guess I shouldn't complain because Dickey is pitching well and we're winning.

Either the greatest or the worst baseball name ever: Cheslor Cuthbert.

Wild! Pathetic umpiring.

i was at a thing and didn't catch any of the game – was it really that bad?!

So I'm reading the post game tweets and Volquez sounds like a wretched human being. Pretty much admitted to throwing at Donaldson. Why the fuck were the umps asleep at the wheel for all of this?!

It was that bad. The first-inning warning was questionable, in terms of what it sets in motion; not following through on subsequent HBP/close-calls with Donaldson and Tulowitzki was worse; ejecting Sanchez was preposterous.

what was the deal with throwing at Donaldson intentionally anyways? he had hit well so far this series so, they decide to bean him and then throw at his head? wtf?!

Yeah, it was bad. Gibbons getting tossed also made no sense -- the Royals were throwing at his guys after both benches had already been warned, what was he supposed to do? Talk about blaming the messenger.

The Jays are now running nine games behind their Pythagorean record (54-52 vs. 63-43). Their run differential is 561-455. How does that happen?

1) As they said many times on-air this weekend, they're 11-23 in one-run games.
2) Looking at all those green and red bars on Baseball Reference, they've lost one game this year by more than six runs (12-3 to Tampa in April). They've won ten such games.
3) Baseball Reference counts a blowout as 5+ runs. They're 22-6 in blowouts.

Oakland is running 10 games behind their Pythagorean. I'm guessing it's really rare to have two such teams like this in the same year.

did they Jays do this last year too? can some teams just be more prone to have a better pythagorean record without an expectation of a correction?

The record of a 14+-game differential ('93 Mets) seems to be out of reach. There's a list (compiled in 2007) of the biggest differentials here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3APythagorean_expectation

Teams that under- and over-performed are mixed together there. Teams with winning records near the top of the list are made up exclusively of teams that over-performed. If I'm reading correctly--the numbers are in a jumble--the Jays have a chance to be the worst under-performing winning team ever; right now it's the '70 Cubs, who won 84 games and should have won 94 (806 runs scored, 679 given up). Or we may start winning one-run games, or we may start losing some blowouts. I think I'd like to start winning one-run games and leave the Pythagorean record to the Cubs.

(xpost) Just barely--they won 83, Greek math says they should have won 85.

Patheticer and patheticer.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-sanchez-gibbons-suspended-by-mlb/

(I did wonder about Gibbons showing up on the field in the middle of the brawl--suspected that was a problem.)

Gibbons makes sense. I guess Sanchez does, in a technical sense. But there are more or less doubling down on the bullshit joke officiating.

I'm not big on conspiracy, but the radio guy pointed out something a little unseemly today: the umpire responsible for all this is the brother of Randy Wolf, who has been stuck in Buffalo all year with a 7-1/2.48 record. Would seem to be a conflict of interest.

I thought that was weird. But not sure how that would make him biased against the Jays tbh

It doesn't seem out of the question, as the Jays shuttle guys back and forth from Buffalo, and then acquire another reliever at the deadline, that he'd be angry that his brother--who's pitching really well this year--has not gotten a call-up. (Not that I disagree with the club; Randy Wolf will turn 39 in a couple of weeks.)

I looked him up online, and the league doesn't allow him to call balls and strikes when his brother's pitching (but didn't say he can't work the bases). I'd broaden that to anything involving any game with his brother's organization.

Estrada's been so key this year. The last few years, whenever I'd enviously look at the rotations of playoff teams, they seemed to always have a third or fourth starter who was flying completely under the radar. Estrada is that guy.

ya – never would have expected the performance we've gotten out of him.

stroman threw off a mound today (!), tentatively scheduled to begin a rehab assignment aug. 21

might make it into the pen for late Sept.

Man, I hope he makes it back. Drew Hutchinson is conspicuously on some other page right now. How long can you carry a starter with an almost-6.00 ERA?

sounds like there's no real chance of him starting.

while of course you trade away prospects to bolster a contender, maybe not quite to this extent of depletion

Did the Jays cross that line this year? Eleven pitchers in a week. Anyway, I know this is the Tigers thread.

hard to say! norris seems like maybe a lot to give up for a rental of price, but it's hard to argue with the tulo acquisition. (what a nightmare for hoffman, like eddie butler and jon gray before him, learning he now has to pitch in places like albuquerque and denver.) and tbh a lot of norris' buzz has been about 'wacky lefty bro' rather than experience.

all prospect rankings are suspect, but the tigers currently have no one in mlb.com's top 100. the jays still have pompey, who has had a nice second half, and vlad jr. at least, and they have young pitching in sanchez and stroman. for every prospect who turns into syndergaard (so far) there are half a dozen who wind up as kyle drabek. russell martin's contract will eventually probably be a drag, but they don't have aging failing stars like miggy and v-mart for decades to come. plus they're secretly a big-market team and there's a lot to be said for generating some excitement after missing the playoffs for 20 years. you too could be the royals!

Man, I hope he makes it back. Drew Hutchinson is conspicuously on some other page right now. How long can you carry a starter with an almost-6.00 ERA?
--clemenza

as long as your run differential is above 100

side note: the loonie is collapsing

LaTroy Hawkins has now recorded a save against all 30 teams, cool stat

might make it into the pen for late Sept.

But too late to be eligible for the playoffs? (yeah, maybe let's make the playoffs first and then worry about it)

apparently it's cool because he is on the dl.

this series went very well.

Toronto's first ever four game sweep of the Twins?

Things are going so well now, I know nobody's going to change anything. But: would it just be too weird/complicated/unworkable to give the 5th start in the cycle to Hutchinson at home and Sanchez on the road? Can't Lowe or Hawkins be the set-up guy on the road? That'd be five or six starts left for each of them.

Hutchinson's road ERA is 9.00.

If they were to switch places, I would think it would be permanent so it doesn't mess with their respective regimens by bouncing them back and forth.
To me, it's more likely that Hutchison just kinda sucks than any significant psychological issue with pitching on the road or whatever

Gregg Zaun's keys to victory this weekend: "Pitch well, swing the bats like you're capable, catch the ball."

Joe Schultz himself couldn't have said it any better.

I don't have a lot of faith in Bautista right now; he's probably still hurting, and when you mix in normal decline, he's pretty iffy in the three spot.

That was me, eight days ago. Bautista since: .294/.333/.706, 4 HR, 9 RBI.

Any other Blue Jays you don't have much faith in you'd care to list?!

Justin Smoak!

Ha!

Bautista faking out Ellsbury was beautiful.

I'm totally fine with the blue jays just destroying everybody in the division, with the red sox being basically eliminated if not mathematically so

also, yea, smoak, jesus christ

first sweep in the bronx since '03

Whoa! Game-and-a-half back. First time we've swept in Yankee Stadium since 2003, first time the Yankees were shut out back-to-back since '99 (against us, I think, but only partially heard that). When the Jays didn't score with the bases loaded and none out in the 7th, I was pretty sure that was the entire edifice crumbling down.

The wins aside, New York's bullpen is awesome.

Winning is fun!

Pat and Buck said that our bullpen's peripherals (K/9 IP, etc) were just as good as the Yankees', and our relievers are overlooked because they get fewer save opportunities. I haven't tried to verify any of this yet.

Our bullpen was great. It just seemed like the Yankees sent one monster after another out there: Betances/Wilson/Miller/Shreve are all striking out between 9.4-14.3 a game (and their H/9 range from 3.8-6.2), and watching them at work jibed with that.

never even heard of this Shreve guy.

plz vanquish the Stanks

ok np.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aB2yqeD0Nus

there is no baseball today and i don't know what to do with myself.

Watch the CWS/LAA game and cheer for Chris Sale to put the Angels back another game (the more frontrunners losing games, the better the Jays odds)

Also has the added benefit of watching Chris Sale vs Mike Trout!

not a bad idea! Sale has not been the pitcher i was expecting this year tho.

as in you were expecting him to suck? he's been pretty incredible. ignore the ERA. best FIP of his life, 11.7 k/9, 1.76 bb/9... and he makes dudes look dumb when you watch him, for real

He's been great for most of the year. He's had three disastrous starts: 22 runs in 13.1 innings. Take away those and his ERA's 2.35.

i expected his ERA to be much better, but hadn't had a good look at his FIP – so i guess it's not as bad as i thought. had him pegged for the Cy this year!

and you can take away two starts for just about any pitcher and have them look much better. never really was a big fan of the "ignore these blow-outs and this guy is much better" argument with pitching.

To me it's worth noting. It's just another way of zeroing in on how many times you gave your team a realistic chance to win. In 21 starts, Sale's had 15 quality starts; even more important, he's had 14 high-quality starts (not an official stat, I don't think--I count it as 7+ innings, 2- runs). Scherzer's had 16/23, Greinke 18/22. Sale falls somewhere between those two--the blowouts mask that.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-marcus-stroman-cleared-to-throw-off-mound/

Says if he does make it back, he'll be in the bullpen. So I guess we're stuck with Hutchinson--who obviously has talent enough to turn it around. I do agree with francis above that the home/road thing is likely arbitrary--I checked last year, and there was no such split (he was actually better on the road in '14).

What they're saying now is that he's having difficulty pitching from the stretch. That's why his FIP keeps telling us he's better than he is - because as soon as someone is on base, he falls apart.

Finally figured out who Josh Donaldson reminds me of: Mike Love, at least with his cap on. Could be worse, possibly.

Yankees-Indians headed into the 15-inning. Hope we're down to a half-game when I wake up.

So let it be written; so let it be done.

Angels and O's both also lost!

It's all too good to be true right now. I'll be interested to see what happens when they lose two or three in a row--I'm confident they'll be fine, but that will be the next hurdle.

I've watched so little Blue Jays baseball the past 15 years (at least), I'd forgotten how time-consuming it can be to actually care about a sports team.

first place

thanks obama

thanks Osuna!

This is fun.

Fastest turnaround (14 games to go from -8.0 to +0.5) since the '82 Dodgers (13 games to go from -10.0 to +0.5). I checked back--wasn't paying much attention at the time, so I don't remember it--and eight of those games were head-to-head against the team ahead of them, the Braves. The Braves did win the division in the end...

I bought a few rookie cards online last week, including Sonny Gray. So I'm rooting for a 1-0 win today.

ordering them online – what fun is that?!

Wilner: "Sonny Gray scratched with back spasms...or Blue Jay-itis, whatever you want to call it."

Don't believe that for a second, but I did laugh.

Night terrors more like it!

Another esoteric first-since: first team since the '54 Indians to have two 11-game winning streaks in the same season.

the Mets could be joining them very soon

...no, forget that for now. Mets have won 11 of 13, but are only on a run of 4.

It boggles the mind to see the pitching turn the corner like this -- three ER or less allowed by Jays starters in 17 straight games. Then again, their BABIP allowed is unsustainable so there's a lot of luck involved, but there's always luck involved in winning 11 straight.

Just heard Ben Revere interviewed for the first time--I thought I was listening to Matt Saracen from Friday Night Lights. I know he's not hitting a whole lot yet, but I like him. He's very jolly.

Excruciating--runners on second and third, 12-pitch strikeout of Tulowitzki to end the game.

That was exhausting.

I really wanted this to end with a blowout, not a game like this.

u wouldn't be exhausted if they weren't important

or at least that's what i tell myself when the pirates lose to the cardinals again

Carlos Beltran's HOF candidacy had stalled; Jays helping to get him back on track.

hutchison optioned!

I was calling for his head last week, but a little surprised after his last two starts. Anyway, I'm glad they're disciplined enough to step back a bit and look at it bigger-picture.

great at home – abomination on the road; and i guess with the three random days off this allowed them to keep the starters on a regular schedule and keep Hutch off the road.

wonder who the last starter 10 games over .500 to be sent down was. (not that he shouldn't have been, of course.) interesting that his fip is both 1.10 lower than his era and also exactly league-average

psyched for hague -- he's like colabello 2.0

the way i understood it, his FIP was so much lower because his low LOB%. FIP would assume he was unlucky in how many of his base runners scored – but some people are saying he has a problem pitching from the stretch (which would make sense) and his FIP cannot be relied upon because of that.

cool, thanks

(btw that was sincere, didn't mean to sound like 'cool story bro')

lol at you feeling bad 20 mins later! it's all good.

After two HR last night, Donaldson has almost closed the gap with Trout on WAR (7.1 to 6.7; they're tied on Fangraphs). So tough to keep up, though--Trout could pull away in a week. Greinke, meanwhile, has leapfrogged both Trout and Harper.

does WAR take into account a pitchers hitting?

Yes--Greinke is 7.5 on the overall leader-board, but only 7.0 on the pitcher's leader-board (which would put him behind Harper's 7.1).

When I turned on the car radio, sure enough they were heatedly debating Trout-Donaldson on the Fan.

as long as their numbers are similar, Donaldson's only real chance is for the Angels to not make the playoffs.

i dunno -- Trout Fatigue

Donaldson doing a pretty good '67 Yaz imitation these days.

that's a paddlin'

knew the score, didn't know when the runs were scored. just watching the recording, the top of that 4th inning, wow.

7 runs in one 17 minutes inning.

I think I won't be starting Garrett Richards vs the Jays today in fantasy baseball.

Was it really necessary to pinch=hit for Donaldson in the 9th? He had a chance for a 5-hit game, a chance to add to the 6 RBI, and was also a triple short of the cycle. Was it that crucial to get an AB for Goins right then and there?

first place!

(plz hold onto it)

The Jays' run differential (+164) is higher than any team from the entire 2014 season.

We can't complain, but sometimes we still do.

The only real ongoing issue on the call-in show is Tulowitzki leading off. I agree with Wilner: even mired in a slump, he's still more effective in that spot than Revere. He's basically doing a Rickey Henderson in '93 right now: not hitting much, but still getting on base enough (10 walks + 4 HBP) that he's scoring runs anyway (20 in 22 games). Nothing special in context, but I'd leave things as is and hope/assume he starts to hit soon.

I know what Baseball Reference's Simple Rating System is based on--run differential + strength of schedule--but I don't know what the relative weight means.

1. Toronto Blue Jays (69-55) 1.5
2. Kansas City Royals (75-48) 0.8
3. New York Yankees (68-55) 0.8
4. Houston Astros (69-56) 0.8
5. St. Louis Cardinals (78-45) 0.7
6. Baltimore Orioles (62-61) 0.6
7. Pittsburgh Pirates (74-48) 0.4
8. Oakland Athletics (54-71) 0.3
9. San Francisco Giants (66-58) 0.2
10. Tampa Bay Rays (62-62) 0.2

That and a dime etc., but that gap between Toronto and K.C. is large.

Just caught the bottom of the ninth last night--Tulowitzki's AB sounded like a repeat of his AB against the Yankees in NY, with a much happier outcome. Cecil hasn't been charged with a run since he got hammered on June 21 (21 games...not sure about inherited runners, but his reverse slash line is .188/.224/.266).

I don't know about Buehrle and Dickey down the stretch. Especially Buehrle. The knuckleball comes and goes, but Buehrle's clock-like consistency throughout his career would suggest that he's already had his good stretch this year, and that six innings and a lot of three-, four-, and five-run outings might be all that's left the rest of the way. Which may be good enough anyway.

Buehrle should be a lock to get to 200 IP like he always does. He's not going to pitch like an ace (even though he put up a decent impression of one around June) and that was a problem up until a month ago when he was the best starter on the team.

Encarnacion just extended his hit streak to 21 games with a grand slam. Another 10-run game--amazing.

Yet another total destruction of a would-be wild card team. I think this playoffs thing is actually going to happen!

Donaldson's currently leading both leagues in runs and RBI, and he's tied for the lead in extra-base hits. No one's lead all three since Aaron in '63. I know combining categories arbitrarily is parlor game, and obviously two of those are team-dependent, but for a GG-caliber third baseman, that's still pretty damn impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9jaMJvYNq0

Donaldson's HR tonight--where Canseco used to hit them.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/145969270/troy-tulowitzki-donaldson-go-back-to-back

(As a visiting player, I mean. Forgot he was a Jay for a year.)

fucking love that vid. great editing too, for some rando.

Two HR, 5 RBI for Encarnacion today, hitting streak at 24 games. For August: .385/.440/.859, 9 HR, 30 RBI. A couple of months ago, I was telling everyone that it'd be a great time to trade him, but that they probably couldn't get anything for him.

You can add a grand slam to that.

Josh Donaldson Swing ‏@DonaldsonsSwing 5m5 minutes ago
After his start today, Drew Hutchison now only has the 11th worst ERA in the MLB, but he's about to be 13-2

still needs a solo shot to match tyrone horne

did he carry the parrot on the third one?

Two hits after the grand slam--he may get one more AB.

EE just tied a franchise record for RBIs in a game. And say what you will about Hutcheson's flukey luck, he's looked great today.

Encarnacion, holy crap 9 RBI through seven. Another team crushed with house league softball-like numbers. What's the record for most RBIs in a month?

The thing about Hutchison is (Thermo says you can do this with any pitcher; I don't know), he's pitched very well in his wins. Going into today, his ERA was 1.91 in the 12 wins, and that'll go down a bit now. Meanwhile, he was not surprisingly awful in the two losses (7.15) and even worse in jos 10 no-decisions (9.80).

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=hutchdr01&year=2015&t=p#outco_extra

("his" not "jos"--no sure how Joe pitched in his 10 no-decisions.)

Edwin needs a solo HR to match Tyrone Horne, but he also needs a baserunner to get to the plate. He'll have to hit a two-run HR, forget to touch home plate, and he'll have his Tyrone Horne.

His what now?!

run differential at +186

http://teespring.com/theparrot

Solo HR Edwin! A two-game Tyrone Horne.

Four home runs today, up 6-0. Edwin missed a 5th straight by a few feet.

How does it feel to get hit by a 46-mph eephus, slugger?

Wasn't that hilarious? Even the umpire who had earlier issued the warning was probably confused and laughing.

wasn't watching – why was there a warning in the first place?

It was silly--similar to that nonsense a few weeks ago. The Tigers pitcher let one fly on Tulowitzki after the two first-inning home runs; it wasn't close to a HBP. Bautista and Donaldson and a couple of other Jays gave the umpire what-for. It really handcuffs your starter; he can't throw a "message" pitch, and if he accidentally hits someone, he's probably out of the game. (Maybe not so applicable with Buehrle.)

Mark Shapiro, new president.
i'm okay with this.

Great choice.

Blue Jays seem to be unusually, suspiciously lucky as of late in dodging other teams' best pitchers (Gray, Verlander, Kubler).

pirates were doing that for a while too

Dodging pitchers or sitting them down?

dodged greinke, cueto, scherzer, etc.

Atypical highlight for this team, but thrilling nonetheless: 2-2 game, Dalton Pompey gets put in as a pinch-runner--he just got called up today--steals second, steals third, scores on a sacrifice fly.

We're 11 wins worse than our expected W-L record ... would would give us the same record as the Cards (whose actual record exactly matches their expected one, 86-46).

Goins' 124 foot sprint and catch is making all the highlight reels tonight. Since when did he learn to hit too?

apparently just after the allstar break: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/ryan-goins-is-the-new-reason-well-never-understand-baseball/

was at that game last night just behind the Jays dugout, btw. frigging awesome seats!

was at the perfect angle to have no ability to tell if that ball was going over the fence or not!

I'm down tonight for the last time this year (unless some benevolent angel drops some playoff tickets on my doorstep).

no hits, seven Ks over 4 2/3 innings for stroman in lansing tonight

Donaldson was a madman on the bases tonight--twice he tried very risky advances, made it both times (one for a run). I missed the exact question, but someone was asking him about the tag-up on third after the game and he said "Yeah--it was crazy."

He randomly tried bunting on a run the other night! Didn't work and I'm not sure it was a great idea; but you gotta respect the moxie.
I do think all the "MVP" chanting has to be going to his head in a weird way.

Yeah, trying to score on a routine pop up to second is something you only do when you and the team are on the hot streak of a lifetime.

so i was able to snap some pics of Goins walk off the other night:
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5826/20931600028_3022b047ec_b.jpg

there a few more shots through the image link

Jays have the same record right now as in '92 and '93: 76-57. The '92 team went 20-9 the rest of the way, the '93 team 19-10.

blue jays have outscored opponents 200-97 in last 32 games (26-6)

only other team above +103 for the whole season is st. louis

I met up with a friend I taught with 15 years ago today. He left my school and went on to teach at a few different places. Found out he was Dalton Pompey's grade 6 teacher. I asked if they had a team that year; Dalton wasn't playing baseball then anyway.

Looks like they have their first actual dilemma in a while: Buehrle or Stroman? Both had terrible days.

i think Stro was supposed to replace Hutch in the rotation? either way, he didn't look ready for new York today. minor leagues are done for the year – so maybe another simulated game, see if he can get his control/velocity a little more MLB ready?

That was the plan, but I think Buehrle's ominous last few starts have complicated matters. I don't know how many off days are left, but if there are enough, maybe it comes down to Buehrle or Stroman or Hutchinson.

oh man, hutchinson vs joe kelly tomorrow night

gonna be like a 15-15 game in 6 innings most likely

Weird extra-inning play. Donaldson led off the 10th with one of the top of the Monster; looked like a homer, but it bounced back and he ended up with a triple. The Jays appealed, hoping for the homer; they lost, Donaldson's left at third and not looking very happy. Then Boston appeals the play at third. I was thinking that if Donaldson goes from a disputed homer to the first out of the inning, he's about to do his own little tribute to Joaquin Andujar.

The triple stood, and the Jays went on to break the game open.

ya - i was ready to flip my table when the BoSox appealed!

5-0 Jays with one out in the first. Pretty good start to this Yankees series.

9-2. That's more like it!

Looks like it's Estrada-Stroman today. I'd flip that. They'll have to depend on Stroman if they lose the first game; I'd rather be coming back with Estrada in that situation.

With the forecast, I'd be surprised if both games happen.

But. I don't see why you wouldn't put your safer choice for starter first.

It's not a playoff series, I don't think they need to "depend" on Stroman for anything today. The more important thing is setting up the rotation for the eventual WC or first round playoff series and not screwing with that to try to sweep a doubleheader (for example).

i imagine the choice had to do with a) who the yankees were starting, and b) if one of the pitchers (presumably estrada) had a preference. i suspect that most pitchers would rather go first (unless it's a day/night and they hate days) rather than wait around

Five homers so far in the game (4-2 Yanks in the fourth) and even Ben Revere is hitting home runs to left.

Wilner thought they should have began with Stroman too. How would today's order affect the set-up of the rotation?

Anyway, it's 4-4, Tulowitzki's x-rays are negative, everything's fine. (Like George Costanza, I had to take an extra second to properly process "negative.")

(Wilner's reasoning had nothing to do with mine, I should add--his argument was weather-related. He did find it puzzling that the team itself hadn't given any visible indication that the order even mattered.)

Hopefully there isn't any serious tissue damage with Tulo. Whatever happened there just looked so weird.

I just got home 10 minutes ago, so I missed it. Terrible when you're listening to the radio and all you know is that Tulowitzki's lying there not moving.

Cliff! Or Chad! Or whatever your name is!

Not to come on all Gregg Zaun, but Pillar swinging at that 2-0 pitch was ridiculous.

Not sure I've ever seen anything like this. Three bases-loaded walks--the Jays have scored four runs on one single.

(In extra-innings, I mean, and with two of the bases-loaded walks from the same pitcher.)

stroman has a real chance to bring the hammer down in the nightcap

o my bad, didnt even realize this wasnt a dun deal yet :o

Crisp 399-pitch ballgame

I'm exhausted already, now I've got to get re-psyched for STROMAN RETURNS.

This Stankee beatdown is so, so satisfying.

By that I mean we are the ones smashing them, of course.

We meaning the Jays.

Keep pouring.

Tulo has a fucking cracked goddamn shoulder blade. No indication how long this will take.

http://www.healthline.com/health/pain-relief/shoulder-blade-fractures

Such fractures typically heal within six weeks.

Which wouldn't be fast enough. They've been winning with Tulowitzki not doing much hitting. Defensively, he's been flawless. Pennington was great today, and Revere had already pretty much claimed lead-off. I feel queasy, but maybe they're deep enough to get by. (I'm almost as queasy about Munenori now being the #1 backup middle infielder.)

the first reports were negative?

Ya. I guess it's v small. 6 weeks would have him back late Oct... So... Ya. Guess he's probably missing the playoffs.

Anthopoulos says 2-3 weeks. Sounds rather optimistic.

he's not a real Blue Jay yet anyway

...

Anyways. Sounds optimistic for sure. Three weeks would be in time for playoffs. Even if he misses the first round, that's still pretty good. Apparently it's just a matter of playing through the pain after a few weeks.

Thought that might have been the first time we've been shut out this year, but not even close; fifth time, including back-to-back in July, a couple of weeks before the turnaround. The bandwagon hadn't quite pulled into my neighborhood at that point.

Sussman, BP:

"Oh, that's right. Troy Tulowitzki gets injured sometimes. We probably should have told you that." — The Rockies

"Oh, that's right. Jose Reyes also gets injured sometimes. Don't worry, we're even." — The Blue Jays

I didn't really have any sense of David Price beyond his stats until he came over here, but after watching him for a couple of months, he reminds me a lot of Cabrera--he visibly has so much fun playing the game. There's been this running joke on the bench where he's always grabbing a bat at key moments as if to say, "Put me in there, I can hit." Last night, with a runner on first and none out, he grounded a perfect non-sacrifice sacrifice to the right side and got the runner over. The whole way back to the bench and into the dugout, he was beaming. "Told you this hitting thing's easy."

zoinks

http://m.mlb.com/video/?content_id=483543883&topic_id=6479266

I was thinking that the Jays must be unusual--very, or at least a little--in that all three of their star hitters (I'll leave Tulowitzki out of this) didn't get going until they were 27 or older. Donaldson's first star season happens when he's 27, Bautista and Encarnacion 29. Just guessing, but I would think that almost all teams this good have at least one guy who was already a star before he was 25.

Bautista's career trajectory is one of the biggest outliers in baseball history. Players have had flukey great seasons with 40+ HR but Bautista went from being a nothing player (sub-replacement level!) to a near HOF-level peak almost overnight at age 29.

That was the first game the Jays have lost this year when leading after eight innings (and the first the Red Sox have won when trailing after eight). Kind of amazing when you think about how bad the bullpen was for most of the first half.

If that game had happened during the playoffs I would have been having a heart attack. Good thing they're getting this out of their systems now (I hope).

Ugh--blown lead in the 9th yesterday, blown three-run lead today. I'm worried that the Jays have been playing so well for so long, that the laws of probability are going to catch up to them at the worst possible time.

Let's forget about these two blown leads (and near comebacks) and focus on smacking around the Yankees again.

I refuse to remain calm when there's an opportunity to panic.

so you guys may have seen this on fb – but i took my daughter to her first baseball game yesterday! they came out with a little plaque and pin for her 1st game. the plague was a template dealy with her name and the date/opponent written in a different colour marker. was really nice the effort they put into it. she lasted the whole game, mainly just watching the crowd and clapping along with everyone. aside from being a little sick, it couldn't have gone better.

that is adorbs

I've already assigned blame to your daughter for yesterday and added her to the Harper/Trudeau/Mulcair list.

it was determined Joe Oliver was to blame for the game before, aswell.

The certificate was sooo cute (and your daughter is too).

let us know when she picks fWAR or bWAR

Highly unlikely, but if they somehow manage not to even make the playoffs this year, I'll be heading down and asking for a "Last Game Ever!" certificate.

ha! we can just photoshop tiny thermo thinwall's first game certif for you, if that's the case.

also: morbs called something adorbs!!!

Geez, that was scary--career-ending if Price doesn't catch it.

114 pitches, so I assume that's it for Price. (Yankees seemed to foul off so many pitches tonight, hence the high count through 7.) He was great. If the bullpen can hold, and depending upon what Keuchel does (shutout through 5), could be a real Cy Young race shaping up.

What a huge win. I was sweating after the Jays blew the big inning in the 7th and Sanchez got into trouble in the 8th. Cecil was godlike.

Fantastic--though I think he got a call on that third strike to Gardner. Big trouble if he loses him. After that, he blew away A-Rod and McCann.

Pitch framing!

That 8th inning look a year off my life. And scary to think we were a matter of inches from losing our ace with the very first batter!

What's the Roberto Clemente Award for? The Jays are probably going to lose tonight, but give Bautista the Roberto Clemente Award.

DIONER

Who the he'll is Greg Bird and why does he seem to own us????

he's the guy who plays most of the rest ofTeixeira's contract.

are these playoff-caliber bullpens?

apparently Teixeira going down was a bad thing for the Blue Jays.

and both those Bautista throws were incredible.

Not that this is hugely important, but along with the crummy, demoralizing loss, I feel like Donaldson's letting the MVP slip away. If the idea of him winning had already cemented a few weeks ago, then he'll win; if voters hadn't made up their minds, his good-not-great (and not as good as Trout's) September may cost him.

i think people need to stop chanting "mvp" when he's at the plate. he seems to get overly jacked-up and – it could be a pitch-out coming – he will be swinging for the fences like a madman. trying to put it in the mvp-zone until he's behind with two strikes.

Hadn't thought about that, but you might be right. He seemed to thrive on it in August, but maybe he's pressing now.

If the Jays win the division and Donaldson doesn't fall apart the rest of the season, he'll win the MVP easily.

That said, if he'd gotten a hit yesterday in the ninth to win the game he could have clinched both.

Fuck. Edwin hits that HR one at bar earlier and we're laughing. But no.

Also: why the fuck was Hutch brought in?! Hardly an appropriate situation to start experimenting.

During the pre-game show, Gregg Zaun allowed that while he doesn't normally give advice to players, he did offer some counsel to Marcus Stroman on how to set up his four-seamer.

Good god, no.

RUSSELL!! MARTIN!!

I didn't understand the IBB to Encarnacion from a strategy standpoint, but who cares, screw the Yankees.

lol otm russ killed that omg

Trying not to second-guess, but you wouldn't walk Edwin to get to Smoak? He'd already struck out three times, and then proceeded to strike out again.

Is it just me, or was there a second of shocked silence--from the announcers, from the crowd--after Martin made contact?

I noticed that too ... I was not expecting the HR at all.

Smoak struck out against a different pitcher. They walked Encarnacion to get to two switch hitters (i.e. no platoon advantage). But the main thing is, why give the other team a free runner when you're trailing by a run already? That insurance run matters, even though it was only the seventh inning.

Those are fair points, but I didn't think twice about it at the time. The walk sets up an inning-ending double play, and it's hard for me to think of any key situation where I'd opt to face Edwin rather than Smoak.

Anyway, what do we (realistically) need now, about three or four more wins? Stroman was fantastic, although I thought his final pitch (the line drive to Pillar) was headed for the wall off the bat.

Donaldson's double last night was his 40th...Has a third baseman ever had 40 HR/40 doubles? I checked Schmidt, Beltre, Matthews, Rolen, and home-park Godzilla Vinny Castilla, and none of them did it. (Pretty sure Brett never hit 40 HR.) One more HR, and I'm thinking Donaldson might be the first.

I don't know where Martin's HR ranks in Blue Jays lore, but it has to be Top 10 already.

Found a list--of course, missed Chipper Jones.

http://www.themlbblog.com/2009/albert-pujols-makes-history/

My sense was that 40/40 was pretty rare period, and it was, until the PED era. I remember it being a special thing when Stargell did it in '73.

I thought that the current thinking is that IBB's aren't worth the risk of having an extra runner on base. The Jays have been issued only 12 IBB's this year (Buck Martinez said this after Encarnacion was walked last night ... I was kind of shocked). With a lineup as good as ours, it's really not worth it to pitch around anyone. The Yankees decided to try for the perfect storm advantage of an inning ending DP but gave up the platoon advantage (for two batter) and didn't really reduce the risk of a HR because Smoak and Martin combined have the same number of HR as Encarnacion.

If we go 4-6, the Yankees need to go 8-3 (they have one more game remaining). These aren't very extreme scenarios, so I wouldn't start celebrating yet.

What's going to happen with Beurhle in the playoffs? In the last two months he's gone from being our best pitcher to being totally out of gas and probably not going to surpass 200 IP for the first time in fifteen years. After Stroman's performance last night he has to be in the playoff rotation (assuming we don't go one and done of course). Where does that leave Beurhle? He's never relieved and no playoff team needs a guy with an 83 MPH fastball coming in to hold late leads. Is he the long relief/break glass in case of blowout guy? I guess these are good problems to have though, even if our bullpen has been shaky lately.

If we go 4-6, the Yankees need to go 8-3

that's to tie

After last night we are also one game behind the very vulnerable Royals for the best record in the AL.

I guess you pray a little rest before playoffs will fix what’s ailing him. Right now I figure the rotation is Price, Stroman, Estrada, Dickey and (I guess) Beurhle? Huh, maybe with a 4-man rotation we do sit him?

I’ve been wondering why Smoak has been batting in front of Martin. Russ is clearly the better hitter – they both bat switch, so I don’t get why Gibbons has been sticking with this.

I'm sure they'll go with four starters. The FAN show I was listening to the other day, to a man they thought Beurhle would be off the postseason roster. Right or wrong, that would be a surprise. I'm guessing Gibbons has some emotional attachment to Beurhle that complicates that.

My sense was that 40/40 was pretty rare period, and it was, until the PED era. I remember it being a special thing when Stargell did it in '73.

― clemenza

i remember when albert belle managed a 50/50 season in the mid-'90s. and he did it in 143 games in 1995!!

That was an amazing season. Still think it was one of the silliest MVP picks ever.

Clarification.

1) The 50/50 pairing: only player ever. (And yes, in an abbreviated season.)
2) The 50 HR itself: first guy since Fielder in '90, who was the first guy since Foster in '77, who was the first guy since Maris in '61.
3) Dominant player on a team that went 100-44 and won their first anything in 40+ years.

So they gave it to a nice guy instead. In fairness, it was one of the closest 1-2 finishes ever. (Edgar Martinez had a historic season too, probably the best DH season ever.)

I like Donaldson in the DH spot tonight. He's not exactly mired in a slump, but he has been spinning his wheels the last week or two.

Great bit of gamesmanship last inning.

After a strikeout first time up, Donaldson finally hit his 40th off Odorizzi. He'd hit one off Odorizzi earlier this year. Next time up, on an 0-1 count, he crushes one upper deck, just barely foul--must have been 450 feet-plus. Next pitch, 0-2, was up towards his head--not dangerously close, but close enough. Donaldson looked out, but stayed put. Before the next pitch, you could see an unmistakable smile on his face. It was like he decided "Okay, I'll give you that one--I would have thrown at me too."

Jays were one nice Darwin Barney play away from a third ninth-inning error and a blown five-run lead.

Jays now have the best record in the AL--tied with the Royals, but we won the season series.

MVP!

Fifty games in...Donaldson projects to 9.7--but no, I don't expect him to continue playing this well.
― clemenza, Saturday, May 30, 2015

(Talking about WAR.) He may come close, though; he's at 8.8 on Baseball Reference this morning, with seven games left to play.

already blown away the previous Blue Jays single season WAR record.

Without looking it up, I'm going to guess Olerud in '93 still holds the record for a position player? Either him or one of Bautista's first two big years.

For pitchers (and for everybody), easily one of Clemens' two big years.

AL PLAYER OF THE WEEK KEVIN PILLAR

Had a fantastic series against the Rays this weekend: 7-11, 4 doubles, homer, game-tying hit yesterday. Almost also had his second injury-causing collision with Revere, but that's another story.

Buncha stollen bases too. He really is a terrific base runner.

This has got to be the most--or close to the most--lopsided clinching game ever.

Clinching a division, evidently less exciting for a team than an April walk-off victory.

Unwritten rule: don't upset the home team with revelry when there's a nightcap to play

They were excited. They have to play another game, and they'd already been through a sort-of clinching Friday night and a wild-card clinching Saturday. Plus the score.

"hey, look at kevin gausman finally mowing down the... oh."

his line was ridiculous. 8IP, 10k, 0BB! i have him in a league that counts only WAR so, gonna enjoy that one!

kind of surprised the O's didn't match, at least somewhat, the Jays scrub lineup tho. you'd think there'd be some professional courtesy there. also they're going to be exhausted tomorrow. double header and then a 12 pm game. and the Jays are probably going to keep the up all night with their partying!

"kind of surprised the O's didn't match, at least somewhat, the Jays scrub lineup tho. you'd think there'd be some professional courtesy there."

is this an unwritten rule now

There was the suggestion the radio that today's lineup would be similar to Game 2's...Wouldn't do that. I know home-field only comes into play against the Royals, but that's worth having (especially the way the Rogers Centre has been lately). We have the extra game on KC because of head-to-head, but still, get that done. (No problem with starting Hutchinson, though.)

I'm drunk!

That would be kind of insane to run that game 2 lineup out there again! I could see running a few bench guy out there - but not 9!! Esp Kawasaki since he's going to be hungover as hell.

so great to see Muni back

you'd think there'd be some professional courtesy there

?

this is kinda like shifting during a no-hitter then getting upset when someone bunts. if the second game is important, don't get hammered; i don't see why the other team should be expected to play handicapped

Seeing as there's some history between these teams the last couple of years, I actually thought the Orioles showed some restraint the first game in not throwing at anybody.

https://twitter.com/RADickey43/status/649663383260819464

Maybe the only good thing about 22-year playoff drought is that you're spared from things like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0yx61IoVWo

Well, I hope Gibbons got that out of his system and we can go back to fielding a competitive team tomorrow.

?

this is kinda like shifting during a no-hitter then getting upset when someone bunts. if the second game is important, don't get hammered; i don't see why the other team should be expected to play handicapped

― mookieproof, Thursday, October 1, 2015 10:00 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

at least bunting is like, an actual choice someone has to go out of their way to do.

expecting a team to not field their... normal lineup... because you decided to throw a hi-A team out there ???

imagine buying tickets for your family and then finding out the entire game is expanded roster jabronis

Wow. I got it. Just figured game two of a doubleheader with a noon game the next day would coax a compromised line up out of both teams.

Not like there was actually many people around for the a ball roster game anyways.