Let's Bitch About Our Stupid, Annoying Baseball Team: the 2024 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

Somewhere in Ball Four, Bouton gets nostalgic for the simplicity of his old Yankees uniform, and writes something about feeling like a clown in whatever the Pilots wore (which I'm guessing was less garish than that Jays jersey above).

You can see them here:

https://www.toddradom.com/blog/the-1969-seattle-pilots-one-team-one-season-many-uniforms

The Mariners used them as part inspiration for their own (polarising) city connects; I personally like them and have a city connect hoodie, the blue rules tbh

https://www.mlb.com/mariners/fans/city-connect

I think most teams with city connect designs have a page like this explaining the details; personally still think the Padres have everyone else beaten with theirs: https://www.mlb.com/padres/fans/city-connect

i liked the mariners city connect enough that i was using the it on my custom team in the show for a while. eventually stopped using it when i thought one day "i look like the police" and couldn't unsee it

Platinum Blonde looked a lot like the Police.

My feelings about the Jays aside, hate hearing that Manoah left in the 2nd tonight with some kind of injury.

Unrelated: Martin Maldonado's OPS+ right now is -23. I thought OPS+ was a percentage, and that a negative number was impossible. Anyway, not welcome on my all-catcher fantasy team.

I saw someone else with a negative as well, I can’t remember who but aldo didn’t realize it was possible

I don't like either the jersey or the hat. The hat logo looks a lot like the "T" design they used around 2005? It didn't last long.

The Manoah news sounds bad. Why did they pitch him when they knew he was hurting after his last start?

This image, for Joe Carter's upcoming annual golf tournament in Oakville, made me laugh.

https://i.postimg.cc/Pxx9n60j/josh.jpg

If anyone's going have a temper tantrum on the course and beat someone senseless with a golf club, it's John Donaldson.

Is that Josh’s evil twin?

Or is Josh the evil one

(Twin Peaks man-from-another-place voice) One and the same.

I think OPS+ isn't actually measuring a guy's OPS to the average, it's measuring his OBP to the average, his SLG to the average, and combining them. So if his OBP is 10% above average and his SLG is 15%, his OPS would be 125. And if his OBP is more than 50% below average and his SLG is more than 50% below average, you get below zero.

opened mlb the show today and i guess those are the real toronto city connects lol

I will be getting the backpack version Wednesday. That one doesn’t lol too bad tbh; but the connect Vlad bobblehead we were set to get Monday was a “no thank you” from me and the gf

I like the City Connect "Night Mode" uniform!

Me: Can we get hyperized birdhead?

Mom: no, we have hyperize--, oh wait

What is a hyperized bird head? pic.twitter.com/npr7w0RPT1

— Sophie is a hyperized borealis (@snowphieee) May 30, 2024

let's see if this can go 20 innings despite the man on second

I kind of gave up on my Cy Young bet after Berrios had that one miserable game, but geez--how much do Cy Young voters get into the weeds and start looking at game logs? Take away that one start--8 earned runs in 3.2 IP--and Berrios has 11 starts ranging from 5 to 7 innings; one of 3 earned runs, five of 2 earned runs, two of 1 earned run, two of no earned runs. I think Shulman said that, including tonight, his ERA would be 1.94 otherwise.

Three with no earned runs, that should read.

what an ending

Took a look at Scooby-Doo's game logs out of Detroit--never less than 5 innings, 4 runs a couple of times, his other nine starts 0, 1, or 2. Translates to an ERA almost a full run less than Berrios. I don't know who else is in the mix, but I need for some team to step up and shellac him.

Berrios isn't even in bRef's Top 10 for WAR. Lugo's the guy to beat right now.

Lugo?!

Lugo on bRef, Skubal on Fangraphs (where Kikuchi is way ahead of Berrios...I guess that one start really sunk him for his seasonal stats).

Took a look at Scooby-Doo's game logs out of Detroit--never less than 5 innings, 4 runs a couple of times, his other nine starts 0, 1, or 2. Translates to an ERA almost a full run less than Berrios. I don't know who else is in the mix, but I need for some team to step up and shellac him.

He's second on the bRef list. There's a whole bunch guys in the mix--because of that one game, Berrios isn't one of them.

1. Lugo • KCR 3.3
2. Houck • BOS 3.0
3. Anderson • LAA 2.7
4. Skubal • DET 2.6
5. Fedde • CHW 2.5
6. Gil • NYY 2.3
7. Blanco • HOU 2.2
8. Crochet • CHW 2.0
9. Crawford • BOS 1.9
10. Clase • CLE 1.8

could never in a million years have guessed that list

Clase making the top 10 with only 29 IP is something... Crawford at #9 is at 68+.

Vlad's playing third today, first time since 2019--inneresting!

"IKF," as has been much commented on, has been one of the team's bright spots this year.

This seems to be more cleaning up a mess from last week than anything else:

https://www.mlb.com/news/ross-atkins-vladimir-guerrero-jr-bo-bichette-trade-talks

My first thought earlier was that Vlad was at third to showcase some defensive flexibility for interested parties.

so the reason pirates manager derek shelton brought in a righty to face vogelbach -- a man with a career .128/.246/.214 line against lefties -- with two on in the fifth today was that available left-hander jose hernandez 'hadn't pitched in nine days'

well, now it's ten days. might as well cut him; he obviously can't be used now

Actual quote from Ball Four, pg. 167:

We'll know better after this next series. The Baltimore Orioles are in town. Which reminds me of a cartoon I once saw. It showed a little boy forlornly carrying a glove and a bat over his shoulder. "How'd you do, son?" his father asks. "I had a no-hitter going until the big kids got out of school," the kid says.

Trevor Richards starting tonight. What a schizophrenic pitching line:

28.1 IP, 12 hits, 26 K, but...13 BB, 4 HR. ERA = 3.18; FIP = 4.51.

In other words: H/9, 3.8; FIP, 4.5. That's gotta be extremely rare...

That’s a very high walk rate

I am very proud of myself.
I was at the game, and bottom of the 9th, winning run on second, I point out to my friend “they’re playing him kind of shallow” and sure enough he hits it just hard enough over the OF’s head to win the game

I also got a sweet backpack out of the deal. Not crazy about these jerseys but I like the backpacks. They’re honestly pretty good quality.

I was also there with an old friend instead of my gf because I think our relationship is over and im super bummed. Anyways I’ll stop making this thread my personal blog

Ok one more thing. I bought a custom (vintage style) Barfield jersey and regret nothing. I deserve it!

i was sort of half paying attention, but was everyone kind of wearing high socks or is that just the cut of the pants?

The socks are bright red and hard to miss, but only Bo and Springer were rocking them iirc

I really hope Biggio finds his way somewhere else. I think he's gotten the shaft a bit the past few years, put into a situation where it was extremely difficult to establish any consistency.

(He was DFA'ed today.)

oh!!

Manoah's out for the season. Who knows how far back this goes--would explain a lot, for sure.

Last year really sounded like a conditioning issue

Bummer about Biggio. Dude delivered some of my all time fav jays moments

I hope his next team feeds him better.