The NL East All Star Team... aka the 2013 Toronto Blue Jays

I'd just like to welcome all the newcomers... R.A., Jose, Emilio, Mark, Maicer, Melkey, Josh, Josh and all the other catchers in the back... Adam Lind? The fuck are you still doing here?!

my bold prediction: Morrow will lead the team in Cy Young voting.

Was waiting for you to start this. The future frequency of my posts here can be accurately calculated by Bill James's "Pythagorean Bandwagon" formula (margin of error +/-0.5%).

wonder who ends the year with the better record - jays or dodgers

I really want to be optimistic about this season, but there have been so many disappointments and underachieving teams in the past decade that I can't help but be skeptical.

It's going to be an assload of fun this season either way though.

Closer to two decades, NTBT.

The Gord Ash era was a never ending rerun of mediocrity and completely uninspired baseball (Tim Johnson's fake Vietnam pep talks excepted), but I had high hopes for the Ricciardi era. So strictly speaking, one decade.

Either way, feels like five decades, at least.

Took a quick look, and they had their best year in the first decade (1998), their best back-to-back years in the first (1998-99), and their best three in the second (2006-08). For me, from the standpoint of '83-93, it's just one big blur after that. But you've followed them a lot closer than I have the past decade, so I can see where you'd had higher expectations.

W-L record is misleading here, Gord Ash couldn't understand that the team needed to get worse and rebuild before it could get better. Instead he kept signing and overpaying middle of the road players and pretty much doomed the team to several years of middling mediocrity. He'd do enough to keep the team around .500 but there was no long term strategy and no way to make the playoffs without a lot of luck -- which almost happened in '98. Riccardi understood what had to be done -- cut the fat from the payroll, rely on the draft, and only splurge on free agents when they had a stable core of players in place and it was time to go for it. So I had high expectations for his tenure, he just messed up the execution completely and by the end he was a PR disaster too.

They were replaying Game 1 of the '93 Series on TSN last night. I watched some of it, stupidly opted for the Academy Awards instead. It was so much fun watching White and Alomar--that was the game Alomar took the hit away from Dykstra with the diving catch behind first base. White made a great nonchalant catch in deep centrefield Mays-style, also hit a home run. And the Phillies were probably the most interesting losing WS team of the past quarter-century.

as much as we may have overrated him, White was always amazing to watch.

I would have agreed with that for years, but now I wonder if we did overrate him for those first three years. He was so good with the glove, his WARs from '91-93 were all over 6.0 (then he fell off a cliff the next two seasons). With the bat, yeah, I'm sure we overrated him some.

I was completely against the Junior Felix trade when we got Devo. I thought Felix was going to be the next Ken Griffey (senior) or someone like that. And if you look at his last season in Toronto (1990), it was fairly promising for a 22-year-old. Except you later heard he wasn't 22 at all...who knows?

Alomar, '91-93: 16.6 WAR (466 games)
White, '91-93: 18.2 WAR (455 games)

No, that does not make sense to me.

huh!

dWAR for that period:
White: 8.0
Alomar: zero... aka 0.0

you going to the opener, btw?

I assume it's a weekday, in which case I couldn't; if I'm wrong, I'm definitely interested.

Alomar seems to be a key lightning rod when it comes to defensive metrics. I want to be one of those stupid guys who says stuff like "But I saw with my own eyes how great he was," but I won't. (Unless I just did.)

i will personally back up your eyes.

and the opener it a tuesday (i think).

It is--night game, though. I'd love to go, but I think it's already a sellout, no? Let's try to get out to a game in April or May.

Sounds good! I had to settle for tickets to the 2nd game of the year... When I bought them, a good 1/3 of the 500s were already sold out!

That's crazy - i usually go buy a 500 ticket for the 2nd game and sneak down and sit like 10 rows field-level infield! i'm gonna miss sitting wherever i damn want, but all is forgiven if i get to sit in 1 playoff game

would like to get up there this year

that would be awesome!

yeah ive only seen a game there w. dr.bb!

I haven't written anything baseball-related on my page for a while, but I just posted something on the '92 Jays' pitching staff, a group of pitchers I find kind of amazing.

that's awesome. i'm sure it's been beaten to death over here, but has it been discussed how dave stieb is probably the greatest forgotten pitcher of the 80s? maybe throw frank viola in there, too.

Thanks. I think Stieb has, by now, gotten his due. Almost any article you read calling into question Morris's HOF candidacy will bring up Stieb's superior credentials. I think Viola, Chuck Finley, and Mark Langston are probably still underappreciated.

The 80s also had quite a few starters that seemed to figure it out late and had peak years in their 30s like John Tudor, Dave Stewart and most likely thanks to a nail file Mike Scott.

That Jays staff was really impressive. Duane Ward was a pack mule putting up that many innings out of the pen.

Nice work clemenza, I was really surprised by the 43 4+ WAR seasons.

We didn't realize it at the time, but when you look at Duane Ward's IP numbers now it's a miracle his arm didn't fall off sooner than it did.

I watched p much all the postseason games of that era and have no memory of Duane Ward.

career WAR:

Stieb 53.5
Key 46.1
Morris 39.3

Ward had five straight years of 100+ IP going into the '93 season; not sure where to begin checking, but that's got to be the last time that's happened.

I was curious how many 4.0+ seasons the 2011 Phillies had on their staff. To date:

Halladay -- 8
Lee -- 4
Hamels -- 4
Oswalt -- 5

No one else that I can see--21 total, half what the '92 Jays had. They'll pick up a few more, I'm sure, but won't come close to the Jays' 43.

If you're in Toronto and up: TSN is replaying Game 4 of the '93 Series right now: 15-14! (Not sure if they're going to condense it or go with the entire four-plus hours.)

ugliest Series game ever?

Just finished the first inning--more craziness/ugliness right there than in most Series games. First time ever both teams score 3+ runs. Jays go up 3-0, Stottlemyre goes out and walks four guys (tying a Series record for one inning) and the Phillies go up 4-3. McCarver's apoplectic that Gaston never gets anybody up to warm up. White misses by inches of making an inning-ending catch identical to his phantom-triple-play catch in the '92 Series.

Top of the 8th, where the Jays score six to go ahead 15-14, no less stunning than that Rangers-Cardinals game from a couple of years ago. I counted three times at least where it felt like the Jays could have been sunk for good. 1) In the 7th, Daulton almost hits a grand slam that would have put the game out of reach--just foul. He gets hit by a pitch instead, bringing in another run. 2) Eisenreich comes up next, still bases loaded and one out, 14-9 at that point, and for some reason he swings at the first pitch--pops up. Next guy makes out, no more runs. 3) Next inning, Alomar makes a quick first out. Carter and Olerud get on, then Hollins gets caught between hops on Molitor's ground ball--that goes for a double, and the rally's on.

Even Henderson's big hit in the 8th, which he drills to center field, could have been caught by Dykstra. It would have been a nice play, and would definitely have been risky, but it was catchable.

Romero to Dunedin

wow.

i guess they're hoping the Halladay treatment might work?

The decision blindsided you?

“Yeah, absolutely, I had already sent my car up, sent everything, I have a place up there and everything, so it blindsides you a little bit. Like I said, it is what it is and you’ve got to keep that chin up and head high. I feel like I’ve done a lot of good things and God forbid I had a bad spring, everyone made a big deal out of it.”

“I thought it was going to be harder because when it happened, I go like, ‘This is supposed to help my confidence?’ When it first happens, you’re kind of like, ‘Whoa.’ A million thoughts go through your head. I don’t know if you guys have ever been fired from a job and you go and sit at home and you’re like, ‘What the hell did I do wrong?’

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/romero-discusses-struggles-demotion-future/

Like has any pitcher whose had a lousy spring following a league-worst season been demoted ever? OK...GOD!!! Fuck this organization.

huh?

The primary objective of the Blue Jays this year was to help build Ricky Romero's confidence. So yes, I understand his surprise.

Lol

(If I'm reading Andy's first sentence correctly, I think he's making the same point.)

The sentence beneath the link (with the incorrect use of whose) is mine/sarcasm. The stuff above the link is from the article.

"I'm not a minor-league pitcher, I’m a major-league pitcher. I’m an all-star for a reason."

Come on, man.

all-star status has to be renewed every year, iirc

1) In the 7th, Daulton almost hits a grand slam that would have put the game out of reach--just foul. He gets hit by a pitch instead, bringing in another run.

Ha, I remember this sequence now ... I think that was the moment where I needed to get away from the TV for a while. It looked like the game was about to be put away and I needed a break since the game had been going on for about 17 hours already. I came back in the next inning, couldn't believe it the Jays had managed to escape without further damage, and got to see the 8th inning comeback.

Before our 38-year-old knuckleballer officially makes all the bad go away, one last word about the '93 Series. I watched about half of Game 6 on the weekend, and I'd totally forgotten that a) Alfredo Griffin was on that team, b) he was out at SS for the top of the 9th (not sure why, missed that--did Fernandez get hurt?), and c) he was actually on deck when Carter hits his home run. I was so down on Carter at the time, I distinctly remember praying that he wouldn't hit into an inning-ending double play as a best-case scenario; I just wanted him out of the way and (presumably, even though Griffin's in the on-deck circle) for a pinch-hitter to come up with two outs.

Everything worked out fine.

hoo, this ceremony, got the flag won already

Absolutely, people are overdoing it--some of us have been saying so all winter. But we've been in the wilderness so long, it's understandable. And I'm not immune--I got a real charge when Reyes and Dickey (and Hentgen) were introduced.

But we've been in the wilderness so long, it's understandable.

f u

shoulda let Blanco catch maybe

(xpost) Not sure what you mean...we haven't? Or are you a Royals fan?

i am a pirates fan

Thought of them, too (and the Cubs). Pirates haven't won anything since '92, Jays since '93--dead even, I'd say. I know the Jays have had numerous .500+ teams since then, while the Pirates haven't, but the Jays haven't seriously competed for anything even once during that stretch. I was spoiled by the '83-'93 run; finishing last or finishing third amounts to the same thing for me.

u do realize WS appearances are all that count?

(esp cuz the next summer I can't remember any of the other 'rounds')

finishing last or finishing third amounts to the same thing for me

okay tough guy

finishing third means that your team was in the chase and had a reasonable hope, if remote, of success. being under .500 for two decades affords no hope, although we at least had a little into july the last two years, before epic and nearly unprecedented collapses.

the leafs are in the wilderness; the jays have been in a tough division

I think you can see this differently. The Jays have never been "in the chase" since '93--not to my mind. They've occasionally cobbled together enough to give flashes of false hope, with no realistic chance of ever catching the teams ahead of them (New York and Boston because of money, Tampa Bay--I guess--because of a very smart organization). That's a different kind of treadmill than the one the Pirates have been on, but it's a treadmill nonetheless. I'm conceding that I was spoiled by their great decade run. It has nothing to do with being tough, and I've never said that making the World Series is the one measure of success. I was thoroughly caught up in all the years between '83 and '93 that we didn't make the Series, i.e. the other nine. The difference was that we competed every year--competed seriously. And I took it for granted, as I think a lot of Toronto fans did, that it would be that way forever.

And I think the tough-division excuse started to ring a little hollow once Tampa Bay stepped forward.

i dunno. maybe with the Os last year - but Tampa has been a well run franchise for a while. they only made things more difficult imho.

The Jays were below .500 in half the seasons since '93 and were never seriously in the pennant race even once post-ASB (although you could make a case for 1998), so they weren't exactly in the chase. In 2002-3 they were a "team to watch" -- that fizzled by 2005. In in 2006-2008 they might have been one of the top five teams in the AL.

Even though Boston and NY were winning every year (and outspending everyone) both the Jays and the Orioles did a poor job of managing the resources they had, taking on far too many overpriced contracts that didn't fit into a long term plan that could give them a realistic chance to win in the future.

Anyway, we're 0-1 now, so season over I guess.

haha

http://i.imgur.com/nvwYU4J.gif
http://i.minus.com/ibc4cWw5d6F1BF.gif

is that fucking Bricktop?!?!?!?

That guy was hilarious last night.

I didn't watch the whole game, but Dickey's knuckleball seemed to be moving pretty well. He threw a couple of great ones in the first inning. The control wasn't there, and the passed balls will happen. Can't believe how fast he works--I love that. Their offense is the thing I remain a little nervous about.

i don't think JPA should have been catching.

the guy looks like al franken as stuart smalley. the guy behind him mocking him is HIlarious.

the disappointed kid who thought the bat might belong to him is pretty good as well

Tell me when to hit the panic button--we're down to only 160 games left.

playing some HR derby tonight

wau, 5 off RA in the first

I want my money back. (I pay Rogers $100+ a month for cable and internet, so I have the right to say that.)

i was at the game...

I'm sorry. Tuned off the radio after 7-0, turned it back on as it was ending.
Glad i wasn't there for the paper planes, drunk and all the bullshit that comes with that unholy trinity of playing BOS/NYY, on the weekend, and getting blown out of the water.

open the roof -- r.a. needs wind

i went down to the new standing room area where the restaurant used to be and it was a pretty good vantage point for the volley of home runs all around us.
one hit literally three feet below where i was standing. it was a pretty good time out there either way, so the humiliation wasn't too stinging.

aw

is it panic time yet?

i'm considering it.

http://baseballinstinct.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Joe-Panik-RC.png

it's definitely panik time

panic has officially set in:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/04/blue-jays-sign-miguel-batista.html

I know there were at least two Miguels who had great years last year--this is not one of them, right?

no. he is several spots down on the Miguel depth chart.

I think they just want him to write a book in the bullpen and become a commentator

Prince Fielder beats out a routine ground ball to second baseman Bonifacio.

Earlier in the game, Fielder beat out a routine DP grounder.

Emilio's shaky alliance with the keystone continues D'8>

/:(

RIP, Jose Reyes.

http://blogs.thescore.com/djf/2013/04/12/breaking-jose-reyes/

Damn

aaaiiieee

ok, I regret looking at that.

;_;

I think Tyler Pastornicky back to the Jays makes a lot of sense for both them and the Braves.

Dickey out after 6 scoreless, w/ back stiffness

Sawks and Yanks atop the division, Jays underachieving and injured, just like the old days.

Is Boston for real? I don't know. It feels like nothing has gone right for the Jays so far, and they're almost at .500. I think they'll be okay. Tampa getting off to a bad start is a good thing for Toronto.

I have more faith in the Red Sox keeping it up than the Yankees

unless it's really extreme, best not to do more than glance at standings for 40-50 games.

especially if you're a Js fan. actually, don't even glance.

Man this is ridiculous, I know, but I haven't liked the Jays this much since 1993 and it is approx. 100% due to Munenori Kawasaki

and not in a weird kinda-racist condescending way

this guy makes me excited to watch baseball.

but he can't hit.

every game but one where i've watched him he's had a hit. in the one where he didn't have a hit, he was about 0.2 seconds away from getting an infield hit.

plus i jsut love watching guys who bring that slap-hitter approach to the plate. it's just fun baseball to watch.

the guy has the energy of a 7 year old on an epic sugar high.

unless it's really extreme, best not to do more than glance at standings for 40-50 games.

― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius)

Agree 100%--but doesn't that run somewhat counter to the idea that a win in April is just as important as a win in September? (Psychologically, I mean.)

a win in april is as important as a win in september, but a win in april is far less telling than a win in september

ie - if you have one win come september, it's probably bad.

Well it'd be historic, and that's exciting

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/23/gregg-zaun-on-blue-jays-fans-theyre-getting-drunker-and-drunker-and-drunker

We went to grab 4 tickets day-of on Saturday and it was SOLD OUT, surely for the first time on a non-Opener since the halcyon days? Zaun's irritation probably stems from crowds getting bigger and bigger - I can't see them getting any drunker. I agree that swearing at a baseball game is absolutely abhorrent, as it is a family game. Drunk people are idiots and whatever and I can handle the mean-spiritedness/stupid chants/player-personal slights that pass through their sweaty wordholes but swearing imo should not be tolerated whatsoever.

http://gamereax.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/lawriebarehand.gif

I was at Saturday's game--no problems where we were (right field).

One thing seems clear about this team: they're not going anywhere until they either learn to walk, or they get some different people into the lineup who do. Their OBA at the moment is .293--that's frightening. Arencebia's home runs are great, but he's struck out 29 times and walked twice. Unless it's 1968 and you've got Gibson and Marichal in your rotation, .293 will undo just about anything positive. (The 2010 Mariners had a .298 OBA to go along with their 513 runs; the 2003 Tigers were at .300, the '62 Mets .318.)

swearing at a baseball game is absolutely abhorrent, as it is a family game

Have you met David Ortiz?

We beat the unbeatable Orioles in extras? R we 4 real??

Against every instinct I have to bail on this team at the first opportunity to do so, I remain steadfast in my...what the fuck is wrong with these people?

they're like the reverse of the Orioles last year... so many 1 run loses. so much heartache.

nah, if they were the reverse of the O's last year they'd have a good run differential, not one that gives them a pythag right on point with their win total

Well either way - its now 3-2 for the yanks (on a 2 run HR from Overbay of all people).

Vernon Wells is one thing, but I would think that Lyle Overbay coming back to haunt you would be high on the list of signs that this may not be your year.

seriously.

they need to test the gatorade in the yankee dugout. no other reasonable explanation exists.

Time to bail you guys. Damn, I didn't have a contingency plan for the season being done in April.

I'm getting a whiff of Vince Carter-itis re: Wells.

Is Reyes really coming back at All-Star break? His foot got so twisty in that vid, how is he going to run? sorry, not trolling, potential fantasy drop related.

his foot is being replaced by a skateboard. surgically.

Well, this team still looks good for next year

ON PAPER

10 walks tonight

10-1/2 out on May 3. We've crossed into some weird Rick Bosetti/Otto Velez netherworld.

Nothing quite like the reigning Cy Young winner losing 6-0 to the worst offense in the league when your team is playing .333 ball and could really use a win.

Your 2013 Toronto Blue Jays!

pffft What do you mean losing to the 'worst offense in the league'? Your Blue Jays are the worst offense in the league.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka1PeNNi6dg

Look away. Look away.

well today was a nice break.

how is dirk hayhurst on the radio?

not bad.

COULD THIS BE THE MOMENT THAT TURNS EVERYTHING AROUND

J.A. Haap took one off the head tonight, got carried off on a stretcher.

http://tracking.si.com/2013/05/07/blue-jays-pitcher-j-a-happ-hit-line-drive/?eref=sihp

was one start in dunedin really supposed to fix ricky romero? smh

Romero down, RAMON ORTIZ up.

Guess this disloyal organization just doesn't have their ALL-STAR's back.

Heard a short post-game interview with Romero this morning, and he says he was throwing the ball well yesterday. I suppose that's possible, but the sportscaster suggested he was living in a bubble of denial.

It did not appear as if he was throwing a single fucking thing well yesterday.

re: dirk hayhurst on the radio

b/c the o's played the jays a bunch during st, i heard him a lot. not bad at all. enough playing days yarns for the old schoolers mixed in w/ a little sabr-friendly red meat.

he's probably about as funny as any radio guy i've heard too.

nothin easy for RA this year... has 1-run lead thru 5 on 95 pitches.

The Marlins have a better run differential than we do.

JENKINS!

Apparently the secret to success was to start nobodies!

Jays/Marlins watch: Toronto (-47), Miami (-56).

haha!

I wonder if the Jays have ever scored 10+ runs three games in a row before. I checked '87 and '93, two of their best hitting teams, and nothing there.

Jays/Marlins watch: Toronto (-43), Miami (-60).

I thought I read somewhere that they had scored 10+ in three straight games (in '03 maybe?) but I can't find it now.

The Blue Jays' (17-24) sweep of their two-game set with the 2012 World Series champion Giants (23-17) gives them two consecutive series wins for the first time since May 16-20, 2012.

I had to read this a few times to process it. No wonder we've been sucking.

You're right, '03: 13-2, 10-7, and 11-8 over Boston (home series). They also came close in '02, scoring 9, 11, and 14 against the Yankees and Rays.

Lets just move to the NL west

In 163 plate appearances, J.P. Arencibia now has 55 strikeouts and two walks.

impressive

possibly historic

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/5/24/4361548/j-p-arencibia-walks-strikeouts-good-gravy

Dirk Hayhurst @TheGarfoose

JPA walked . . . wtf? #jays

kawasaki

this was literally my win.

http://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/d5cc64d6450560082be32821d0044395/tumblr_mnfchsOVKx1qzniimo1_500.jpg

jp arencibia ‏@jparencibia9 1h
Please watch #TheBest RT @Sportsnet: Kawasaki gives one of the best post-game interviews you'll ever see. #BlueJays http://bit.ly/17cBjGO
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lol damn dude gets assaulted @ the end of that

This is, what, their third or fourth last-minute comeback win?--just enough to keep them hanging by a thread instead of falling off the edge of the Earth. I'm not sure if that's a good omen or a cosmic joke.

to explain my drunken post above - i started giving Johnson the gears as he was warming up. and not the "youfuckingsuck pitcher" type shit - (and notimebeforetime will back me up here) but quality heckling. by the time Johnson was in the game i had my row on his case. by the time he had loaded the bases - i had the entire section on his case! after Kawasaki's hit people were coming up to me and shaking my hand (a whole bunch of kids, a super nice older lady etc), one guy had me pose for a pic with his family (wife and four daughters). i've never had or seen this type of response just from heckling, i couldn't believe it!

@BlueJays
To make room on the 40-man roster, LHP RICKY ROMERO has been outrighted to @BuffaloBisons (AAA).

Danny Knobler ‏@DannyKnoblerCBS 5m
Ricky Romero in 4 starts for Buffalo: 13 IP, 43 baserunners, 20 ER.

What did he do wrong?

What a bizarre game. Jays blew a two-run lead in the 9th, almost lost it the 10th, had two great chances to score after that, just won it in the bottom of the 18th--wild pickoff throw moved Bonifacio to third with two outs, Davis singled him in. I tuned in in the 9th, stuck with it grudgingly, glad I did.

It was awesome seeing Matt Blanco score from 1st a few days ago.

Ugh HENRY

i was around the stadium and surprised by how many people i saw departing the game from the 10th inning beyond. there must have been a lot of people there!

good to see them playing better now too. 17-13 last monthish.

Adam Lind is hitting .500 in June and his average for the year is up to .342. The HR's still aren't there but his walk rate is way up compared to past years so he's not just hacking away at everything and getting lucky with his BABIP.

They haven't been within six games of .500 since April 26, so please, win today. They need some kind of springboard...getting to .500 by the All-Star break would give them at least a chance. Not easy, though, if you do the math.

ya - watching his (Lind's) plate appearances is a lot less anger-inducing than it has been for the last two years.

THREE RUN SHOT!!!

Clearly I was dreaming...Caught a bit of the game on the radio, and one of the radio guys (didn't recognize the voice) found the silver lining in all of this: because we moved our Triple-A affiliate from Las Vegas to Buffalo, it's been much easier to shuttle pitchers (a major-league-leading 29 thus far) back and forth to the minors.

chien

ming

wang

so the rumours are true...

god bless chien-ming wang, but even though he was leading the international league in era he had only 25 strikeouts in 58 innings.

should be quite a battle between him and dunn tonight

Five AL teams now have worse records!

yesssss (we're counting the Astros, right?)

Four-game winning streak, finally back to five under .500 for the first time since April 25. The really exciting news is that we now have three pitchers in our starting rotation with ERAs under 5.00. I'll have to check, but that may be a league record.

ha ha - sweeping Texas was awesome! Reyes back soon too. hopefully Kowasaki can stay up.

Lots of good stuff happening: six in a row, great starts by Buehrle and Johnson, Reyes about two weeks away. Baltimore/Tampa Bay/Boston/Detroit may jolt us back to reality.

yup. a little nervous those upcoming series... serieses? seri?
opponents.

anyways... SEVEN GAMES!

8 games - ONE AWAY FROM 500!

Finally some pitching. The bullpen is probably pitching way over its head (no ER in the past 20-something IP, Cecil hasn't given up a hit to hit last 38 batters or so) but Johnson's just now getting on track and Dickey has a lot of room to improve too, so it might even out. And Reyes might be back next week!

But yeah, these next few series will be tough. I remember too many series over the past few years where it looked like we were starting a run in May/June only to get smacked around by the Red Sox or Yankees.

The thing that makes me cautiously optimistic is that--yeah, bullpen excepted, Lind too--no one's really playing over his head; everyone else is more or less just doing what was expected of them, with room for a few guys like Lawrie still to come around.

wow - what a game. Rajai! 9 games! Munenori! Cecil! .500!!!

Must be the first Jays game in 15+ years where I felt my stomach knotting up near the end. And that's all I wanted out of this year: to have some game like that (preferably in September...).

"games," plural...

Big hits in the late innings to beat teams ahead of us in the standings? Who are these guys?

Great at-bat by Bautista. Ten wins in a row, what's the club record (I think it's twelve)?

bautista aching for an HBP or twelve, wtf is his deal

I had to go somewhere right after the game, but I was going to post something about that. Bautista and O'Day almost got into it last night, and today, as Bautista rounded third after a go-ahead HR off O'Day, Bautista waved bye-bye in O'Day's direction (who had turned his back on Bautista and wouldn't have seen that till later). These two teams will brawl at some point--maybe tomorrow, maybe later on.

No Time: the team record is 11--in 1987, and I think the other time was '98.

i've noticed Bats chirping at pitchers and umps a lot more recently. not sure what's up with that - because i don't remember him really doing that before 2012.

Well that's one way to get the teams run differential from the negative into the positive!

I got a little nervous after the Orioles' second home run. Wouldn't be surprised if this streak ends with a nightmarish loss, and blowing a 9-0 lead would have fit the bill. Anyway, we're clear.

Now that I'm actually watching games again, I'm surprised to say that Jack Morris sounds pretty good. I thought at the beginning of the year that his hiring was just PR to sneak him into the HOF--not sure I can explain that, but prospective candidates sometimes take coaching jobs for the sake of visibility, and the timing (his last year on the ballot) seemed suspicious. I also thought he'd announce along the lines of his most adamant HOF defenders--the specious, the provably untrue, and lots and lots about grit and character.

Not that I've heard so far. And he's just folksy enough, without overdoing it--his voice goes down easy. When Bautista and O'Day got into it the other day, Buck Martinez asked him if he'd ever told anyone to sit down after getting him out. Dryly, without missing a beat: "Many times."

standings gettin craaaazy

ya, liking him better than i thought. but i notice he will only broadcast slighter better than the other team's broadcasters.

xpost

Ouch--I think the clock just struck midnight.

three sraight homers is one thing, but when the third is to sam fuld . . .

Think I'll head over to the "Depression and what it's really like" thread. (It's actually nice to care about baseball again.)

Buck up - Reyes is back in a few days!

Any idea who's going to get kicked off the 25/40 when he and morrow return?

Morrow = Perez and Reyes = DeRosa or Kawasaki

OMG if it is Kawasaki :(

could very well be since he was called up when Reyes got injured. but ya, praying it's not him.

I'm torn on Kawasaki. Bill James and Joe Morgan are having a fight inside me.

I might be pulling a Joe Morgan here but it seems like Mune's having a better WAR season than Maicer, Boni, and DeRosa combined (or separately, as they're all either 0 or negative)

wow - Munenori at 1.2 WAR - better than i expected!

I just hope they don't lose seven of eight now and undo everything they gained during the winning streak.

Munenori - sent down.

:(

i think my sister grabbed me a mune shirt last weekend... will wear FOREVER

it's all coming together

ya - that was a great outing by Dickey! just two hits.

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2844211/dickeyK.gif

longoria was literally shaking his head on the way to the dugout

http://dealbreaker.com/uploads/2010/06/animated-siren-gif-animated-siren-gif-animated-siren-gif-drudge-report.gif Munenori - recalled! http://dealbreaker.com/uploads/2010/06/animated-siren-gif-animated-siren-gif-animated-siren-gif-drudge-report.gif

take a drink every time buck martinez mentions canada day

I loved the smile on Cabrera's face when he took that waiting-to-be-hit-900-miles fastball on Dickey's first pitch.

munenori!

Jonah Keri ‏@jonahkeri 16m
Color commentators on both are terrible, but Buck's fun, so Jays RT @mcrichley @jonahkeri Jays or Tigers broadcast?

o_O

Buck just said that if the knuckleball comes in there with no rotation, you can square up and hit it a ton, like Fielder just did. Think he's got it backwards--you want your knuckleball to have no rotation whatsoever.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/37708/best-deadline-deal-ever-blue-jays

No! As I posted on some thread last year, the Cone deal was crucial to the '92 WS win. "Future hall of famer" Jeff Kent seems like such a red herring to me: a) they had Alomar already, and b) it took Kent two more teams to really find his way. As for Jose Cruz, I was excited about him at first too, but that lasted about as long as similar excitement over Junior Felix and Alex Rios--I remember him as being a long-term study in frustration more than anything else. I'll admit that I don't remember him staying as long as he did, or hitting that many home runs with the Jays, but even a season like 2002 that looks pretty good from a distance loses something when you think about the home-run barrage at the time.

not to all Morbs here - but Cruz had some seriously dreamy eyes.

that all i remember.

I've been going through issues of my old fanzine for something I'm working on, and here's what I wrote about Cruz in 1997 (in a review of the Wallflowers' "The Difference"--the connection isn't that hard to figure out): "It's still way too early to say much about Cruz, but my conservative guess is that he'll hit upwards of 250 home runs in his career--I'd say there's a better chance that he'll hit a lot more than 250 than a lot fewer."

Well...he hit 204. Definitely not a lot more, but not really a lot fewer, either. A decent hedge.

But Alomar was gone a couple of years later and second base was a revolving door of suck after that. They could have found a position for Kent.

I don't know. I don't think anybody expected Alomar to be gone by '96 at that point--he was in the midst of only his second year with the Jays and seemed to be set for a long time. I don't see Kent as a SS, so maybe 3B or LF? Gruber seemed set also, but Maldonado was clearly a stopgap out in left, so maybe they could have moved Kent out there.

I still would have made the deal, though. The Jays had to move forward in '92--another ALCS exit would have hurt a lot, maybe even put a dent in their phenomenal crowds for '93. I think you agreed with me on some other thread that psychologically, the acquisition of Cone was huge (and he did pitch pretty great the rest of the way, much better than his record showed). Also, was there any expectation at the time that Kent would ever end up that good? He was 24 in 1992, a 20th-round pick coming off three okay years in the minors.

Let me change one thing in that: Gruber most definitely did not seem set at the time. He was great '88-90, so-so in '91, and was on his way to playing himself out of job in '92. So maybe they could have tried converting Kent into a third basemen, although generally such attempts don't work out, no?

the Lawrie experiment is still underway in that regard.

I should check everything thoroughly before posting...turns out Kent actually began at short (38 games) and third (35 games) his first year at St. Catherines; he didn't move to second until Dunedin in 1990, when I guess the organization decided they had Fernandez and Gruber but needed a second baseman. The Alomar trade obviously turned everything upside down.

3-7 since the streak, 6.5 out in the wild-card again. They need to figure out how to tread water a little better when they're not playing well.

Blue Jays catcher Arencibia rips analysts Hayhurst and Zaun as 'below average players'

inform us the right way, jp, you career .267 opb hitter

ugh. JPA can feel free to rip Zaun when he gets over 1,200 games under his belt and Hayhurst when he's written a best-selling book.

and also once he figures out how to block a ball in the dirt.

lol Pelfrey pickoff of Reyes

Lawrie is back. hoo-ray.

rough

a new rock bottom?

Don't jump the gun--I'm sure they can get worse yet.

Like I said: have faith.

Hell hath no fury like a bandwagon-jumping fan: I hope they get swept by Houston.

dude. not cool.

wow they needed to play the astros for a while now.

I know about the big contract and all, but maybe they ought to think about shutting Johnson down for a while. His numbers get more hideous every start.

Matt Sussman, BP: "You will never figure this team out. There is no answer. If they were an SAT question, you would throw it back in the proctor's face and ask for the real SAT booklet."

Exhibit #637: 7-2 lead going into the 5th against the equally mighty Mariners (now exactly equal), a chance to take a modest 4-game winning streak into back-to-back series with the A's and Red Sox, and they lose 9-7.

Bonifiasco: traded
Rasmus: DL

I was down Monday afternoon, the game they lost in the ninth. I went with an old friend of my father's, and he told me something I was completely unaware of: that when he and I and my uncle saw the Jays play Texas a number of years ago, Dickey was the Rangers' starter.

BP:

J.P. Arencibia's on-base percentage (.248) is last in the majors among qualifiers by .019 and would be the lowest OBP since Vernon Wells in 2011.

Wish I could find the Larry Sanders clip of Hank after his divorce. Arty (paraphrase): "Hank's way past hitting bottom--he's somewhere completely new right now."

Buehrle and Sabathia now the only two guys working on 13-year streaks of 10+ wins. The surprising thing (to me, anyway) is that Buehrle's right there with CC in WAR. Buehrle got a bit of a head start, not much--50 innings in 2000--and he stood at 54.5 going into today's start; CC's at 54.2 (but about 15 months younger).

i am very suprised - 54.5 WAR!

Early postmortem:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/39994/what-went-wrong-with-the-blue-jays

Nothing that's not in plain view: starting pitching, yikes.

could probably do better than the guy we got catching them too.

You mean you're not satisfied with a couple of guys who get on base almost 25% of the time? Man, you're hard to please.

not even talking about the hitting. just behind the plate, JPA makes me so very sad. i just keep thinking back to the home opener... why... WHY was he catching (or at least trying to catch) Dickey?!

Don Cherry @CoachsCornerCBC
5) p.s I thought for sure the Blue Jays might pick up Justin Morneau, a Great Canadian and all that. He knocked in 4 runs in one game last

Don Cherry would have been a terrific GM during the Latino explosion of the 1990s. "We'll take the Quantrills and the Butlers; those other teams can have the Rodriguezes and the Martinezes and the Gonzalezes."

let us not sully this thread with Fuckface Cherry

Wow!

"Barring injury, this will be Buehrle’s 13th straight season with 30 starts and 200 IP, joining Tom Seaver, Christy Mathewson and Cy Young as the only pitchers with such a streak in the first 14 seasons of a career."

(30 GS/200 IP are basic benchmarks, so that strikes me as genuinely impressive--it's not one of those Rube Goldberg-type combinations.)

http://www.highheatstats.com/2013/09/2013-milestone-musings-pitchers-edition/#more-16141

This is why Buehrle was our only SP I wasn't worried about during all the preseason hype.

The other thing I like about him is he's got a great John Houseman name. "Mark Buehrle--did you hand in your assignment, Mr. Buehrle?"

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/09/11/the-blue-jays-will-be-playing-on-grass-eventually

O.O

Going to start a band called the Arencebia Line. At the moment, his .236 OBP is the fifth-worst ever (450+ PA) in the live-ball era.

@joe_sheehan
John Gibbons just called a sac bunt in front of a guy with a .267 OBP.

Playing spoiler for the Yankees is nice.

if anyone is around - i'll be heading to the game friday!

I have a couple of work-related things Friday, else I'd join you and pay my respects to the deceased.

I've become fascinated by Buehrle's metronomic consistency. During his 13-year streak of 200+ innings, his most starts in a season was 35; his fewest, 30.

it's amazing after the rough start he had this year and how close he's come to his career numbers (still a little worse, granted). a career bWAR of 54.7 is pretty respectable!

http://skreened.com/render-product/v/u/u/vuudycpnwafwsslakprq/the-alfredo-griffin-canadian-remix.american-apparel-unisex-baseball-tee.white-asphalt.w380h440z1.jpg

I didn't realize we came so close to blowing our spot in the bottom ten:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/41002/bad-baseball-final-tanking-standings

dioner navarro signed; arencibia to be traded or non-tendered

somewhat relieved - but feel somewhat crappy giving up on the guy.