The 2013 do-over Toronto Blue Jays (AKA the 2014 Blue Jays Thread)

RA is ready for business

http://wpmedia.sports.nationalpost.com/2014/02/dickey_hair_8478.jpeg?w=620

Our big hope this year is the Plexiglass Principle, except we don't want to bounce back to the 73 games we won in 2012 (one fewer than last year). We want to bounce back to he hypothetical greatness of March 2013.

lol at "hypothetical greatness". i think we have a new slogan!

We were something pretty special for a few weeks there in February. Oddsmakers loved us, opponents feared us. And then, that fateful moment that turned out to be our undoing: we took the field.

ha! i feel like this city in general has had a curse over it for the last few years.

That's why we need the do-over (of 2013 1993).

Haven't read this yet, but Dave Fleming has a system for ranking possible surprise teams, and he picks the Jays last among 2013's AL-teams-with-a-losing-record:

http://www.billjamesonline.com/which_team_will_surprise_in_2014_/

Meaning if we were a Seinfeld movie, we'd be Prognosis Negative.

is it bad that i have never heard of it?

The BP podcast ponders why they did nothing this winter, and the outlook for this season is ultimately "Sorry Toronto -- you still have Joe Pernice."

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=22886

they got rid of arencibia, that's something

Addition by subtraction and hoping that our injury prone players don't trip and fall -- official team philosophy of the 2014 Blue Jays.

Stephen Drew for 2B?

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/2/26/5449392/stephen-drew-free-agent-rumors-blue-jays

joey bats goes out of the stadium

first swing of spring training too!

as if he wasn't hard enought to watch already
http://wpmedia.sports.nationalpost.com/2014/02/lind_goatee_portrait_92222.jpg

undefeated!

j.a. happ today: 3 IP, 7 R, 12 H, 3 K, 1 HR (to a pitcher)

Dickey got shelled in the battle of former Cy Young winners and Reyes is back on the DL. Best opening day in years!

fml

the Wil Myers little league home run was pretty special too

i was watching that happen in complete awe. i'm thinking the brewers might be a cool team to cheer for in a more official capacity...

Blue Jays are in the daaaaaanger zone (pitching against Archer).

batting, i mean.

Halladay just threw out the first pitch at the Jays' home opener. Bittersweet: he looks way too young to be out of the game.

Leaving Halladay in to pitch last night would not have been a bad thing. Really, how much more damage can he do to his arm at this point?

well he's retired for one thing

i'm pretty sure he realizes that!

oh i didn't see the older post

I guess we can have fun rooting for Melky Cabrera until he fails a drug test.

shush. don't take what little i have from these last few games away from me.

The Astros prepared to face Dickey by taking swings in an indoor cage before the game against former major league knuckleballer Steve Sparks, now a Houston radio announcer.

When you're getting pwned by the announcers for the worst team in baseball, you really have to question your team's playoff chances.

Last night seems like a microcosm of the past 20 years: finish the easy sweep, go into Baltimore in first place and with a 6-4 record. And your putative ace is starting. But no.

to add to the microcosm of the past 20 years: i will happily take 2/3 vs the Astros.

that's another very good start by Buerhle, pleasantly surprised by the start of his season. maybe he can climb to 60 WAR before the end of his career (somehow 60 WAR is an important benchmark to me).

bWAR, that is.

Maybe he'll be the 1 in 10,000 player who gets into the HOF backwards. His chances today are 0%. But he's already taken care of the scenery part of his career--the bulk numbers you accumulate after you're 30, all those 15-12-type seasons with a 4.0-5.0 WAR. If he can miraculously string together three or four Cy Young-type seasons by the time he's 40, who knows.

Or he may get hammered next start, signalling the beginning of the end.

Almost exactly where Tim Hudson is in terms of WAR--and Hudson's off to a great start too. Hudson's old-school stats are a little flashier, but Buerhle's got a couple of years on him (and no history of injury).

Buerhle also has the perfect game and the world series ring, which should help.

maybe in three years Buerhle can pick up the knuckle ball and pitch for another 10 seasons, going on to win three world series with the juggernaut 2019, 2020 & 2021 Houston Astros... you. never. know.

maybe everything's pointless

buerhle will never last that long without his pit bull

with Izturis GONE, they're not gonna play Goins regularly, are they? with THAT bat?

nah, i suspect Robinson Diaz and Kawasaki will get the majority of starts at 2B. Pretty shameful situation, I just hope Reyes actually plays this year or it's gonna get a lot worse

supposed to be back tomorrow!

well, i know that, i'm just being cynical about his ability to _stay_ back

"Jose Reyes's hamstrings of polenta"

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/4/15/5617388/2014-blue-jays-marlins-trade-dickey-syndergaard

Minnesota - Bottom of 8th	SCORE
Steve Delabar pitching for Toronto	TOR	MIN
S Delabar relieved B Cecil.	5	3
J Pinto walked.	5	3
C Herrmann walked, J Pinto to second.	5	3
E Nunez sacrificed to first, J Pinto to third, C Herrmann to second.	5	3
T Plouffe hit for A Hicks.	5	3
S Santos relieved S Delabar.	5	3
T Plouffe walked.	5	3
K Suzuki hit for E Escobar.	5	3
J Pinto scored, C Herrmann to third, T Plouffe to second on wild pitch by S Santos.	5	4
P Florimon ran for T Plouffe.	5	4
K Suzuki walked.	5	4
D Mastroianni ran for K Suzuki.	5	4
D Mastroianni stole second.	5	4
D Mastroianni to third on wild pitch by S Santos.	5	4
B Dozier walked.	5	4
J Happ relieved S Santos.	5	5
B Dozier stole second.	5	5
J Mauer walked.	5	5
C Colabello walked, D Mastroianni scored, B Dozier to third, J Mauer to second.	5	7
J Kubel singled to right center, B Dozier and J Mauer scored, C Colabello to third.	5	9
J Pinto walked, J Kubel to second.	5	9
C Herrmann struck out looking.	5	9
E Nunez grounded out to third.	5	9
6 Runs, 1 Hits, 0 Errors

buck_martinez.wav

According to STATS research dating to 1974, this was the only game that featured an eight-walk, three-wild-pitch inning.

Wow, no shit, thanks STATS research!!

STATS is also saying that it's the first time the Jays have given away a game to a mediocre team since a couple of days ago.

Nine K's for Hutchinson through five has already tied his career high.

buehrlehh eh

Ryan Goins optioned at last; sorry HACKING MASSers

fuck – i'd managed to climb up to the mid 400's. this will set me back.

looks like Santos shoulda thrown more sliders in that 9th

Welcome back, AJ.

The Jays are now third in MLB in runs scored behind the Rockies and the White Sox. If they can keep this up, things might get interesting.

yea these guys have been mashing like rockies north

If they can keep this up

Six words I've tried to excise from my Jays-watching the past 10-15 years. Haven't quite been able to, which is good.

They couldn't even keep the momentum going through the weekend.

does anyone else think that bringing Stroman up only to dump him in the bullpen with irregular work was the dumbest thing they could have done?

2-0 win over Darvish. They're maddening.

maddening? i dunno - i'll take it!

Encarnacion has been seeing the ball well lately.

Curious to see what they do this afternoon. "Momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher"--okay, then, they've got their best pitcher going today, they've won five out of six, playing a team that's lost six in a row (complicated by the fact that Boston has their best starter going today). I know there's a thousand ways you can shoot this down, but I just feel like, if the Jays are a serious contender, they should win this game.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/47518/edwin-encarnacion-one-of-baseballs-best

I completely forgot that he was sent to the minors and eventually released after the 2010 season. I think that was before they made him a full time DH though -- I remember a lot of fans not liking him because of his awful defense.

Two home runs in the first (not by Encarnacion) off Jon Lester is a nice start. I want to believe!

7-1 in the 2nd!!

Sorry, Tug McGraw, that's our new slogan: "I want to believe!" (Extended director's cut: "I want to believe! I really do--I'm just not sure I have anything left at this point.")

Win over the A's? 1.5 game lead in the East? I still can't see how we're going to pull this off with only one reliable starting pitcher.

I did not expect a sweep of the A's.

When they fluffed up that one inning, I thought they'd lose for sure. Somewhat in shock. (The Jays were up by a run in the middle of the game, and they had bases loaded, none out, Bautista and Encarnacion coming up. After an out at the plate and the popular 8-1 putout--after an unsuccessful appeal--they came out of the inning with one run.)

It was definitely one of those games when I was waiting for them to somehow blow it. I thought bringing out Happ for the 7th was a mistake, but he turned in his best inning of the game. McGowan looked shaky too but he somehow got through his inning. And of course there was inning with the 8-1 putout at second on a misjudged pop up, right after Reyes got thrown out at the plate.

juggernaut

7 games!

myself and some coworkers, on a whim, went to the game today. did not disappoint.

Skepticism at Sports Illustrated:

http://mlb.si.com/2014/05/28/toronto-blue-jays-first-place-al-east-contenders/?eref=sihp

I'm skeptical too, but I'm not sure I get the logic of: last year this wouldn't have been a surprise, they barely changed anything, now this year it's suspect.

i don't see a cakewalk, but this is the proverbial "winnable" division.

xpost I agree, it's the same as last year's team, and that team didn't have enough pitching either.

petty much. we are now without Josh Johnson occupying the DL, and instead this year have Hutch and Drabek back from tommy John. so.. slight improvement?

at any rate i think we're a starter &/or 2B away from being able to hang onto 1st long term.

This is Monday morning quarterbacking, but the thing I like best about this year's team so far is Francisco. I didn't pay any attention when the Jays picked him up. But the one thing I always notice on playoff teams are these 2-3 WAR guys that come cheap and in a lot of cases nobody wanted. I go back and look at Francisco's career box, and you can see that there was some potential for a breakout year: in 2012-13, he hit 27 HR in 540 AB. I'm sure such acquisitions don't work out more often than not, but they make such a difference when they do. He's getting 1.3 million this year.

i wouldn't expect Francisco to keep his current pace up. he's already cooling off noticeably.

Encarnacion's going crazy--just hit his second of the game, upper deck, now has 16 HR and 33 RBI for the month.

@gregorMLB
Encarnacion has 16 in the month of May. That's one shy of the Barry Bonds mark set in May of 2001. #BlueJays

@gregorMLB
Encarnacion's five multi-homer games in the month are tied for most Major League history. Albert Belle (Sept. 95),Harmon Killebrew (May, 59)

welp

Don't know if there's a good way to end a winning streak, but that ain't it.

the 9-3 putout was nice at least

Billy Butler makes a mad dash to first on a single to right field.

Thank goodness. I'm sure I wasn't the only one nervous about Thursday night triggering a losing streak.

7 runs in the first inning = nope, all good!!

4-0 win behind Buerhle. I like this team.

KC being so anemic, I wish they'd won three, but that's okay, they came back well. Double and another homer for Encarnacion--needs a nickname.

ya, we can't really call him E5 anymore!

Mr. May's no good, just ask Dave Winfield.

double E , En-car-smash-ee-on (Encore-smash-home-run?), EdTV, E3, Ed-wing, Ed Teach me to walk the parrot

i can come up with a hundred more totally unviable options upon request. I like Ed-wing, but I just call him Eddie

Yankees lost tonight, so a four-game lead. Brace yourself, NoTime and Thinwall: I went back through the yearly logs, and the Jays haven't had a four-game lead since 1993.

o shiii

amazing.

I'm not booing, I'm saying "Looooooup."

I'm waiting for the bottom to fall out, so may as well revel in this for as long as it lasts. They're at .600 right now; the last time I can find them at .600 (excluding small early-season samples) is July 2, 1993, when they were just beginning a bad 10-game stretch.

On an 18-4 run, 2nd best record in the league, 4.5 game lead, I can hardly believe I'm typing this.

i did math last night. if they play .500 ball the rest of the season, that would still win them the first wild card slot!

I don't think there will be this much parity until the end of the season, so 86-87 wins won't be enough for the first wild card. We need to top the 88 wins from 1998 so that nobody can say that the Jays winningest season since winning the Series in '92-'93 happened under Tim "hitting a baseball is nothing compared to what I went through in Nam (or not)" Johnson.

i have not thought about that guy in years.

This board is full of jokes about him! (mostly mine)

When was the last time we swept the Tigers in Detroit?

The sort of good Jays teams in recent years always crumbled when they faced the best teams in the league. Last years' team had that 11-game win streak and then got crushed by Detroit, Boston, and Tampa Bay.

Sept. 16-18, 2003, according to some website out of Michigan.

I see a tough June ahead. Three each against the Cardinals and Orioles, six with the Yankees; the rest of their games are against teams around .500 (Reds, Twins, White Sox). Anyway, they can't take wins away, so build up a cushion now when everything's going miraculously right. If they're even playing for a wild card in late September, I'll be happy.

They were running down Blue Jay teams through 60 games on the radio today. The only ones better than this year were '84, '85, '87 (the best at 39-21), and '92.

Jimmy Key threw out the first pitch tonight, and he just spent an inning in the broadcast booth with Martinez and Pat Tabler. Had no idea he was so funny! He also talked about breaking in: first guy he ever faced was Rod Carew with the bases loaded, got him to ground into an inning-ending double play, didn't allow a runner for the next three innings, and in total retired the first 16 batters he faced.

3.6 K/9 his first year as a starter (1985)

I was just looking at his career box before your post. That was something of an anomaly--the rest of his career, he was between 4.2-6.6, and in most years he was around 5.5-6.0 like clockwork. What I really noticed was his last three seasons, when he was 35-37: 6.2/6.0/6.0 (when that was still a pretty good figure).

In a lot of ways, he was my favourite pitcher ever. Watching him was like watching the way the Spurs passed last night--such incredibly fluidity. (When the Spurs weren't turning it over, that is.)

Bottom of the 7th, Jays up by one, bases loaded, none out, Bautista up. Triple play--first one I've seen in 44 years of watching baseball. I keep waiting for black cats and cracked mirrors, maybe this is it.

In a lot of ways, he was my favourite pitcher ever. Watching him was like watching the way the Spurs passed last night--such incredibly fluidity. (When the Spurs weren't turning it over, that is.)

Along with Fernandez, Moseby, Barfield, and Bell, he was one of my favorite '80s Blue Jays.

Jays left the bases loaded three times, hit into the triple play, got a Steve Bartman play overturned in the ninth, and won again, 2-1. Early MVP favourites clearly Donaldson and Bautista.

Key's K/9 was good for the era, it was about the same as Stieb's -- surprising considering their reputations (crafty lefty vs ace pitcher with a wipeout slider).

Jays are looking like amateurs today hacking away against Shelby Miller. Gibbons looking dumb by issuing a completely unnecessary IBB in the 8th and setting up a big inning.

i don't know why he brought Delbar in there, when he'd been struggling so bad lately.

No ground lost--hope the Yankees and Orioles keep treading water. At almost any time the past 20 years, I would have been rooting for Miller to get his no-hitter. Instead, I'm sitting there saying "no-hitter, no-hitter, no-hitter--he's got a hitter."

ha! i sat him on my fantasy team ysterday, so his performance is entirely my fault!

i'm also starting Hutch today – so apologies if it goes sideways.

Special award to anyone who can decipher my jokes these days through the fog of typos and omitted words.

Poetic justice--walk-off bloop after throwing away the lead on two bloops in the top of the inning.

this reminds me of '93 when they were constantly pulling off the 9th inning heroics

Shelby Miller, sure. Jaime Garcia, maybe. Kevin Correia, unsettling.

http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/01420/05f047a3-532_1420752a.jpg

I don't think I'm up to the peaks and valleys of a playoff chase any more.

aaron sanchez promoted to buffalo

Nolan is killing AAA right now too.

So we've stopped scoring runs now? I'm worried about this Baltimore series.

three series this month against the O's and Yankees. not off to a good start.

Fifteen runs in their past eight games (2-6); pitching's only been so-so, but probably good enough to have won four or five of them. Win today, no big deal.

back to 4.5 up. this little skid hasn't really caused much damage thanks the gods.

What's happening?

I don't get the Yankee Stadium streak at all. It's not like these have been the Yankee teams of 10-15 years ago.

i blame Morbs for saying toronto was a lock for the playoffs a few weeks ago!

"lock" my eye! they're still at 59%, down 9.5% in the last week.

so where were these bats against the yankees?!

There were loads of Jays fans in Cinci for the game!

Edwin had to love hitting that big HR in the ninth. I'm sure for total WAR that trade is looking pretty bad at this point (unless you count moxie), of course even the Jays almost gave up on Eddie before he finally figured it out at the plate. That said, Encarnacion was never going to make it in Cincy playing third base, as it was always sheer terror when he had to make a throw from over there.

going for the revenge sweep tomorrow!

Officially mediocre now after dropping three of four to the White Sox at home. The "Jays haven't been in first this late in the season since July 6th 2003" (or whenever it was) meme might still carry forward to next year!

Since June 6, when the Jays beat the Cardinals 3-1 and pushed their lead to six over the Yankees:

Toronto: 7-15
New York: 10-9
Baltimore: 12-10
Boston: 10-11

They could easily be up by seven or eight by now--more if they'd somehow stayed hot. But I guess they're lucky no one's shot past them...yet.

Francisco homers, Batista homers, Encarnacion hits a walk off homer to win it against a division leading team, this is more like it.

it's weird - they sweep one division leader after another but collapse against the mediocre teams in our own division.

Anyone else think it'll be a miracle if they're still in first after this nine-game road trip (beginning in Oakland)? I am feeling more confident, though, that they'll at least be contending for a wild-card come September.

Very unusual appeal by the Jays in the first inning: a runner of theirs was called safe, and they appealed (and won) to have him called out. In context, it of course made sense--allowed a run to score. The whole episode took about 15-20 minutes, ending with Melvin playing the game under protest.

Not sure why Melvin was upset about the appeal -- he obviously tagged the runner at first and removed the force, the rules couldn't be any clearer.

Not sure what he was arguing either. Hopefully he'll win the protest and the game will be replayed.

590 had an umpire on this morning, and he thought Melvin's protest was valid. The way he explained it, Melvin was arguing that as soon as the umpire missed the call at first by not calling Kawasaki out, the catcher then has no reason to make the tag at the other end; he's basing his actions on the original non-call. Which makes sense, now that I think about it. The umpire thought the appeal, the overturn, and the protest were all correct, it was just a bizarre play.

ya - I think Melvin had a valid reason there.

no longer in first. :'(

Related post a few back. But geez, I thought they'd hang on longer than the first two games.

no runs in 18 straight innings :/

They need a solid right-handed hitter off the bench, the team is very thin - as usual

It's be nice if they could get Prado in there to play second. I know Roberto Benigni's fun, and I'm not trying to scapegoat him, but you need more.

Taking a break during the meltdown. Reading to jump back on the bandwagon at a moment's notice if things turn around.

not even a wild card spot anymore :(

My typos on here get ever-more plentiful and more creative. Apparently I'm reading books on how to jump on a bandwagon.

hard to type through the tears.

saw the Dickey-Reyes triumph last night. Angel fans are annoying; around the 5th thousands of them started flashing the lights on their phones, out of boredom.

yet another replay that seems to have gone the wrong way against the J's. wtf

@gregorMLB
This actually happened: Lind said his mom wanted him to get an MRI on foot because he didn't have one yet. That revealed the fracture.

@gregorMLB
Lind: "My mom wanted me to get an MRI,which I hadn't had yet, because it wasn't getting any better. So I asked for an MRI and it showed up."

lol

Great start to the second half: hitters strike out 17 times (Darvish, granted), J.P. Arencibia provides the offense for the Rangers.

The Rasmus/Lewis mini-controversy is pathetic. Slow news day? Lewis is delusional and what's more, the bunt sucked. If Lewis had fielded his position properly he could have thrown him out.

happy dave stieb's birthday

so they're bringing up Sanchez to pitch out of the pen. i think this could be a bad idea.

yeah he seems to have some command issues

From the broadcast tonight: also Cliff Johnson's birthday (67). Fun guy, also had a couple of good seasons here in '83 and '84.

joey bats imo

mstroo imo

Starting to see a glimmer of hope again after taking two of three in the Bronx.

Hope so. They don't make anything easy, though, do they? They blow a 3-0 lead Friday with Buehrle pitching, and today they're up 2-0, lose that, 3-2, lose that (at which point I'd had enough), 4-3, lose that, win in the 9th.

I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.

Cabrera's switch-hitting home runs not nearly as rare as I would have guessed:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats20.shtml

Swisher's done it 13 times himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdGai72Tt8Y

i'm more curious bout how many times a ball has literally left fenway park in such a manner. i'm sure it's happened plenty... but i've never seen it before!

Couldn't even salvage a split against the Astros--sad. I don't blame Stroman; should never have come into Sunday needing a win. I'm not sure who I blame. I want to blame somebody. (I'm going to the game on Tuesday--the atmosphere will probably be less than what it could have been had they swept Houston.)

damn lawrie lasted 4 innings~

I was down there tonight--we were puzzled as to why he got taken out.

I said "sad" in my previous post. I'll now use the word I almost used last time--pathetic. When they were down 4-2 tonight, they had first and second none out, and Bautista hit into a double play. A few innings later, down 6-2, they had bases loaded and none out; Bautista hit a long fly, got in one run, followed by another double play.

Yeah, I think they lost the division title today.

On a brighter note, Alomar, Devon White, and Candy Maldonado were all in attendance last night. There didn't seem to be anything special going on, so maybe it was in connection to the card show this weekend.

I think that's really it now. How could they give up the tying and winning homers in the ninth to two first year players? Even the three game lead for the second wild card has evaporated since last week.

Got in the car after a movie just as Janssen was exiting. Going to stay away until this ugliness settles down, if it does.

I love great players, I love numbers, I love streaks. Tonight, I must root against Felix. (Best possible result: Jays win 1-0.)

... in the 10th.

or 20th, i don't care.

If it goes 20 tonight, they're going to have to activate Rob Ducey, Jim Gott, and Otto Velez just to get through the rest of August.

don't fear -- brad mills is on the way

^^ prophetic

I'm willing to write this game off because of fatigue from the Detroit series.

how did Detroit do yesterday?

wow - they *also* coughed up 11 runs!

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

I think I've used that before. But that's where we're at.

The call-in stations right now are wall-to-wall debate/venting/psychotherapy about the Jays' inactivity at trade deadline and Bautista/Janssen's subsequent comments. Mike Wilner pointing out the mediocrity of the Tigers since getting Price, and the A's since getting Lester, doesn't convince anyone.

More and more, I'm inclined to agree with the view that this is the mediocre team everyone expected, and they just happened to play over their heads for a month and a bit.

March: 0-1 (.000)
April: 12-14 (.462)
May: 21-9 (.700)
June: 12-15 (.444)
July: 15-11 (.577)
August: 4-12 (.250)

I suspect they're due for another good stretch at some point, and one last false run at the second wild-card.

That bottom of the 10th was UGLY.

.500

that number looks more impressive than it actually is in this context.
i still blame Morbs for jinxing us!

u r silly d00d

(congrats on babby tho)

thanks!

o shit congrats! (i hope its name is cito)

ha! would be a kinda mean name for girl.
named her after a Bjork song, which is pretty much the most ilx thing i could have done.

Violently Happy Thinwall

Frosti Thermøsdöttir

(congrats!)

ha ha haha, thanks guys!

cito sucks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH1VBYZT-y8

Isobel! congratz

Buehrle's last 16 starts: 0-11, 7.25.

he misses his pit bull ;_;

Those are his last 16 starts against the *Yankees*.

That's how much of tonight's game I watched--the 30 seconds where they flashed that graphic. It didn't seem all that unreasonable that those might be his numbers for the past couple of months...Buehrle's actual numbers for his past 14 starts: 1-7, 5.15.

That'll put us all out of our misery. Jays had won five in a row and were sort of creeping back in; Red Sox had lost eight in a row at home. Jays blew a three-run lead in the eighth, then blew a two-run lead in the tenth.

and melky's out for the season - along with the loss is the coffin nail for me, time to get on with my september in peace

I was about to post the same thing(s).

stroman!

he had a rough patch for a bit - glad to see he's come out of it big time!

Stroman threw a Maddux! I wonder who was the last Blue Jay to throw one ... we might have to go all the way back to Halladay.

At 5'9", Stroman seems to have a bit of a Guidry-Lincecum look to him.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/413684-you-must-be-this-tall-to-dominate-mlb-the-12-best-pitchers-ever-u

That surreal loss to Boston on the weekend notwithstanding, they're doing okay--they're putting up a bit of a fight. I said before the season started that all I wanted was some meaningful baseball in September, and they're indeed playing games that are sort of meaningful. So I'm sort of satisfied.

sort of.

So much of it is perception. If they'd piddled along all season and suddenly charged to within 4.5 games of a wild-card on Sept. 9, we'd undoubtedly be much more engaged. They picked a bad time to play like the '27 Yankees.

A win tonight and they're 3.5 back of the wildcard; Blue Jays still stringing me a long

That was an impressive destruction of the Cubs, but their only remaining games against WC contenders ahead of them in the standings are four games against Seattle. They'll need a lot of help.

they need to play the cubs the rest of the season, is what they need to do.

holy shit - for the sake of my sanity i hadn't been looking too closely at the standings... but four games vs seattle could be enough to get them into the playoffs. (obviously winning at least 3 there and having a little luck vs the other teams)

looks tough tho – series vs rays at home, orioles away AND home (yikes), the 4 vs seattle and 4 in NY (also yikes).

We can knock out Seattle ourselves but we still need two out of KC, Oakland, and Detroit to crash and burn without our help. We need to conjure up the spirit of Tim Johnson and the '98 Jays and take on the AL like TJ took the fight to the Viet Cong down in 'Nam. We'll need every one of the 88 wins that the Jays managed to rack up that year (incidentally the last time we were within four games of a playoff spot in September). That means going 12-5 the rest of the way, and 21-7 to end the season. It's a long shot but Cleveland did something similar last year so who knows.

A guardian angel would help: Otto Velez, Junior Felix, Sliding Todd Stottlemyre, somebody.

http://i0.wp.com/mopupduty.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/fergie.jpg?resize=153%2C253

dad?

(srsly - who is that? Gillick?)

You're too young, Thermo: Fergie Olver, Jays' color guy from the mid-'80s for the next decade. I liked him--he had spunk (normally I hate spunk), and he could get just about any player to talk, even notoriously surly guys. Tony Kubek used to condescend to him something fierce. I sat beside him on a plane once and told him he should have pushed back. I recall he changed the subject quickly.

ha! i remember the name. he also looks like my dad if he could smile.

I could never figure out why the host of Just Like Mom was broadcasting baseball games.

He actually had a baseball background that he'd sometimes refer to on the air. Wikipedia: "Olver began his sports career as an outfielder in the minor leagues, then with Saskatoon/Medicine Hat in the semi-pro Western Baseball League." I don't know if that was like single-A or what. Didn't seem to matter to Kubek, though; they'd cut away to Fergie, Fergie would say his piece about some matter, then they'd go back to Kubek and he'd be really condescending.

Yeah, I was too young to really understand who was competent and who wasn't. At the time I couldn't get past the fact that the goofy host of Just Like Mom was on the baseball field.

Also, most of the time I was listening to the games on the radio.

I think Kubek was highly thought of in his day, but I never cared for him. He had a piece in the very first Zander Hollander guide I ever bought (and still have), 1970's, called "What's Wrong with Us Baseball Announcers." Lots of "inside baseball"--Kubek puts the phrase in quotation marks, so it must have already been in circulation.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=olver-001fer

good on-base guy, terrible fielder

That's great, never even thought to check. So it really was legitimate minor-league experience. Seemed to be on a career path for those terrible-hitting White Sox teams of the mid-'60s.

No "sponsor this page" button--I'm going to inquire!

lol denny mclain started two games for the harlan smokies that year: 1-1, 0.00 ERA, 2 R, 0 ER, 9 H, 10 BB, 32 K in 18 IP

I think the Jays are about 60-0 if either Bautista or Encarnacion homers and 10-70 when neither one homers.

Mayberry!!! Takes McGee deep with two outs in the ninth!!

That was fun for about five minutes.

Too bad. The one that still hurts the most was that Boston loss; the two losses to the Rays this series are next.

six-game suspension for stroman

Adam Lind: if you don't know how to use a glove, next time just belly flop on the fucking ball so you can block it.

It's nice to play spoiler sometimes, even if it is just the second wild card against a team that was already imploding before we faced them.

i just enjoy kicking the shit out of our expansion year brethren.

To hell with the M's though, it sucks that we couldn't fuck up KC's shit to get even for '85.

First the Pirates, then the Orioles, now the Royals. The Jays are just a little more conspicuous today.

Horrible commentary today from Buck and Pat Tabler, even worse than their usual. Time to go home for the winter guys.

They didn't understand the tiebreaker rules and kept saying that the Tigers will win the Central by virtue of the "tiebreaker" they hold over KC.

This exchange drove me crazy:
Buck: The Jays will finish with the 15th best record in MLB, so they're literally in the middle of the pack.
Pat: Lots of decisions to make in the offseason.
Buck: Yes.
Pat: Getting to the middle of the pack is the easy part, if you're a losing team. It's taking that next step up that's the hard part.

THANK YOU CAPTAIN AND LIEUTENANT OBVIOUS, the Jays have been middle of the pack for twenty years, we're now the team with the longest playoff drought in NA professional sports, we've been dealing with this bullshit since forever, WE WATCH THE GAMES, find something interesting to talk about plz.

Yep, these guys need to go. At lot of the time they basically parrot whatever boring, obvious thing the other brings up, adding nothing to the conversation.
Tabler literally repeats exactly what Buck has just said but in a slower, more lilting voice. Drives me bonkers.

Same--they're awful. Full-time apologists for the organization.

They have to sound positive (and they were, talking about how things are looking bright for next year and so on) but we definitely don't need to hear the same "we're a .500 team and we want to improve for next year!" speech for the 20th year in a row.

This post really nails it:

http://blogs.thescore.com/djf/2014/09/26/about-last-night-and-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/

He loses me a bit at the end though by picking nits over how fans see the Jays' ownership.

This was definitely the year to go for though, and we blew it by heading into 2014 with almost exactly the same team as 2013 and hoping that guys who are almost never healthy would stay healthy. We all saw this coming though -- look at the beginning of the thread! Look at the thread title! But it's true, Rogers doesn't give a flying fuck. Depressing.

Thermo was asking about games on Youtube, which gives me an excuse to post something I discovered just this past week. There are only so many meaningful late September + October games you can watch before you start searching for past glories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKgzEcBh16I

Perfect--video not available in Canada. (I'll try the MLB site.) That was Game #155; I was at Game #154 the night before.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR198709250.shtml

Sorry, NTBT--we must stare down our demons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_nzzIwWzn4

You're too late, I already found the full game 162. I skipped through to see if that Larry Herndon home run cleared the fence by as little as I remembered it. It was less -- the damn ball practically scraped the wall on the way down.

Off day, so why not:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGbh5UitRA8

21 years ago today. I still find it very moving when Gaston and Molitor embrace at 2:49:55, followed by a teared-up Molitor walking away.

For me it's that moment when they lift Carter up on their shoulders.

Re: Molitor and Gaston, I remember in the postgame interviews nobody wanted to admit they were crying so they used the euphamism "my eyes were moist".

Hey, we won something. SweetSpot ranked each team according to its worst position in the lineup:

30. Toronto Blue Jays C: 0.6 wins below average

Congrats, Blue Jays fans: You had the best worst position in the majors! This was actually a big upgrade from 2013, when J.P. Arencibia led the Jays to 2.6 wins below average at catcher. Blue Jays catchers ranked 19th in wOBA with average-ish defense.

Our second basemen weren't worse than that?

i'm for starting 2015 team threads now

just traded Gose to the Tigers for Devon Travis (who i'd never heard of before just now)

Brook Jacoby signs on as new hitting coach--author of one of the infamous freak seasons of the '80s.

1987: 540 AB, 32 HR, .300/.541, 69 RBI.

Easy to figure out why. 1) Hit mostly sixth and seventh, behind the likes of Joe Carter (.304 OBP), Mel Hall (.309), and Cory Snyder (.273); 2) Was lousy himself with RISP: .221/.362/.295. (Better with men on--.274/.383/.393--but still slugging under .400.) A perfect storm.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/53786/jays-acquire-donaldson-as-fans-unhappy

I think we're still a frontline starter away. Who knows what Buehrle will do next year. Probably the same thing he does ever year--pitch 210 innings, win 13-15 games, and pitch pretty well overall. He's our #1 starter, though...

Stroman could be our #1 by the end of the season tho! would prefer to add an innings eater kind of guy that won't blow our budget, but LF/CF, 2B and the bullpen are bigger areas of concern for the J's to concentrate on imho.

I totally agree. We pretty much need Hutchinson and Stroman to become co-aces to be serious WS contenders. We're better off spending money on shoring up the weak-ass bottom of our lineup than dropping $150M on a Lester or Scherzer.

"I was up in my man cave playing some old school Mortal Kombat and watching The Golf Channel at the same time," Donaldson said. "I looked down and my phone just started exploding. I decided to check it out. The first text I see is 'Blue Jays?' I was like, 'Yup, I just got traded.'"

I'm not liking our new third baseman's offseason training regimen thus far.

Good point about the change in parks.

I wasn't even thinking about payroll earlier--and I should have been; payroll controls a lot--just looking at the starters and wondering if that's a starting five that can advance far. If Stroman and Hutchinson make significant progress, yes; if they don't, I don't think so.

One thing that's great about Martin and Donaldson is the obvious urgency attached. But better than two years ago (Dickey/Reyes/Johnson), which just seemed kind of random to me. I'm sure KC's success last year--as a reminder of how close so many teams are in the wild-card era, but even more so the embarrassment of now being the longest non-playoff team--has something to with it.

And not to go on about my less than ecstatic response to Donaldson, but on 590 today, a commentator said that Jays gave up a guy with unfulfilled potential (true) for a "proven All-Star." Really? I'd put the bar a little higher than two years before I'd attach the word "proven."

i dunno. he's proved himself pretty well. over 15 WAR over those two years.

also you shouldn't listen to call in shows. it'll rot your brain.

You guys sound engaged enough to make a 2015 thread eventually.

*checks calendar* we still got time.

This time we know it's for real - the win now 2015 Toronto Blue Jays thread.

There's a Stroman waiting in the sky, we'd like to win the pennant, it'd really blow our minds - 2015 Toronto Blue Jays thread.

Old school Mortal Kombat and the Golf Channel -- with more proven all-Stars than we can count, it's bound to be our year. The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays thread.

that last one

Duane Ward was on 590 yesterday, and he did something hardly anybody ever does: openly lobbied for the bullpen coach job. He started off like he was partly joking, but went on to say that he planned on calling Anthopoulos to see if they'd have any interest in hiring him. I'd love to see Ward get the job.

Winning the WS one round of Mortal Combat at a time.

It's Déjà Do-Over All Over Again.

Another Canadian Icon Sullied - The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

Crackstarter - Gawker crowdfunding the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays: good or evil?

Lol

xpost that one is legendary

John Dewan on Buehrle's durability:

http://www.billjamesonline.com/mark_buehrle_%E2%80%93_one_of_the_most_durable_pitchers_of_all_time_/

Some amazing context:

On that list, Buehrle became the current Rotation Emperor when Justin Verlander missed a start in late August of this season. Buehrle currently has 228 consecutive starts, which dates back to September of 2007. What’s interesting is that Buehrle did not miss a start then because of an injury. Instead, manager Ozzie Guillen skipped Buehrle to allow rookie John Danks to get a start off the DL...Had Buehrle’s streak not been snapped in 2007, his active streak would be 452 consecutive games. That would have been the longest streak, by far, of any pitcher Bill studied, going back to 1955...

(I'd probably look for another name other than the rather clownish sounding "Rotation Emperor.")

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/marcus-stroman-discovered-roy-halladays-sinker