Ri¢hie Ri¢¢ardi & The 126 Million Dollar Man bring you the 2007 Toronto Blue Jays thread featuring the Swingin' 10 Man Rotation!

That was pretty great.

Good news for Jays fans finally! In a Baseball Prospectus article, Bryan Smith gave out the Draft Awards, and guess who took home top honours?

Best Draft: Toronto Blue Jays

It's hard to believe that the Blue Jays were the organization with the most well-balanced blend of players on Thursday, but Jon Lalonde had a great draft. The team picked a good infield of prepsters that should progress together up through the minors--Kevin Ahrens, Justin Jackson, and John Tolisano. Lalonde also went with his usual habits, picking a powerful collegian in J.P. Arencibia and an accomplished southpaw in Brett Cecil. I also really like how the Blue Jays ended with day, drafting southpaw Brad Mills and groundball artist Marc Rzepczynski. One of the game's worst farm systems might have about seven new members for its top ten prospect list.

wow! 8 innings of no-hit baseball! dustin's last start was so awful too, I was not expecting this from him at all. way to go mcgowan!

FRANK, IF YOU ARE READING THIS - CONGRATULATIONS ON NUMBER 500!

I wish I knew the whereabouts of the classmate who said (in 1992) Thomas would be washed up and retired by the end of the '90s.

that's why they invented facebook! creepily stalk him and send him a message (hey remember in 1992 when you said...)

i wonder if i would have gotten fantasy baseball bonus pts if i had not dropped him a couple of weeks ago. 500 ponits for 500th homer! ehh, not so much.

Big congrats to Big Frank

You do realize that Boston is a lot better this year?
-- Alex in SF, Wednesday, March 21, 2007 1:12 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Link

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And the Yankees are probably no worse (and maybe better too.)
-- Alex in SF, Wednesday, March 21, 2007 1:13 PM (3 months ago)

:-D

HA!

ALEX RIOS: ALL STAR

preseason odds: ugh

Marcum yesterday:
8 IP | 2 H | 1 ER | 0 BB | 8 K

Disgusting!

We might aswell rename this thead The Shaun Marcum Report. Another god-like start today making it 5 wins in a row - now 10-4!

Best random pickup EVAR in the fantasy league.

Ya - i was thinking that last night!
i think S Club had him for a bit before you, I should really call him up and remind of him of this.
and also remind him i have rios thanks to him too (which i love doing every now and again)!

Wells/Stairs: the most unlikely 1-2 hitters ever?

Will Carroll:

So the Jays admit that Wells was injured when they signed him, but decided that insurance was too costly. I think what they mean to say is that he couldn't have passed the physical. Wells' chronic shoulder problems haven't affected his play or availability over the last couple seasons, so the degradation that he's allegedly dealing with now seems a bit odd. If the shoulder is degrading—not unlike what we've seen with Scott Rolen—then both his ability to play the field over the duration of his contract as well as his ability to hit to the standards his salary demands are called into question. While the power numbers are down slightly, I'm not sure that's not more run environment than injury at this stage, but that's another way of trying to excuse the return on investment for a team with plenty of problems heading into next season.

so Glaus...

roids...

mail...

ESPN should juxtapose footage of years-old Glaus errors with recent towering home runs.

This team, sometimes, I swear...

I'm as gay for Halladay as anyone out there, but Gibbons has to learn to take the guy out of the game sometimes.

BEFORE the 9th inning starts, I mean.

He wound up throwing a lot of pitches but he HAD faced the minimum in the seventh and eighth. He was on his way to doing that in the ninth, too, after Timo's DP. And he does still pretty much own the Tigers. The temptation to leave him in there is understandable.

The biggest mistake was allowing Granderson to face a right-hander.

For me, the bigger issue is that just because he is capable of finishing the game, it doesn't mean that he should. It wasn't one of those cases when the bullpen was overworked and you need to ask more of your starter. Greg Maddux (another low pitch count, low BB rate guy) would throw 75 pitches in six innings and leave with a 4-1 lead (hell, he still does). Sure, he could throw more but you don't always have to.

Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine were all handled that way in Atlanta and it's probably a big reason why they're all still very good pitchers.

No, I wouldn't've left him in, either. I understand the temptation to let him finish, is all.

(Was Accardo unavailable?)

Accardo blew the game two days earlier, but was otherwise available, I guess. Although even a ragtag assortment of bullpenners should be capable of holding a three run lead in one inning.

with two outs.

Gibbons Q&A in BP: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6715

ugh:

DL: What did you think when you saw Grady Little stick with Pedro Martinez in Game Seven of the 2003 ALCS?

JG: I don’t think that anyone, realistically, can even comment on that. We weren’t in his shoes, and we didn’t know what was going on in his mind, or with Pedro--their relationship, what his status was, what his workload had been. The way it turned out, there was a huge uproar and backlash about it, but there were also a lot of people out there who, if he had made the move, and the game still got away from them, they would have criticized that, too ... So it’s not a perfect science, and unless you know what’s going on in that pitcher’s head, or in the clubhouse, what this pitcher has been doing the last two or three weeks, the magnitude of the game, how he’s doing in that particular game at the time, who is coming up. Unless you’re in those shoes, I don’t think it’s fair to try to analyze what someone else did.

uh ... at the time, we actually did know his workload, the magnitude of the game, how he was doing in that particular game at the time, who was coming up, and what his status was (i.e. how he had fared when pitching deep into games all year long).

Gibbons sucks. Take Halladay out of games! I fear for the day (let's take bets: July 2008, Jays one game over .500, Marcum and Burnett on the DL) when he claims that those guys didn't seem to be labouring, so what's the matter with letting them throw 120 pitches all the time?

Who here knew that Gibbons won a title with the 1986 Mets? (besides Morbs)

DL: A lot of people don’t realize that you have a World Series ring. Tell us about that, including what it means to you.

JG: It’s a dream come true, it really is. It’s from when I was with the 1986 New York Mets, and Gary Carter was injured at the beginning of August. He was playing first base one day, and dislocated his thumb, so I got called up from Triple-A when he went on the Disabled List. So I caught a few games, and then hung around in September after he was activated. When we got to the playoffs, Rick Anderson--who’s now the pitching coach for the Twins--and I weren’t on the postseason roster, but we were still around just in case someone got hurt and they had to activate one of us for the next series. So I was there with the team in Houston, and then Boston, and even though I didn’t get to participate, it was still a thrill. I had a chance to be with the team for two months, and it was arguably one of the best teams ever. It was a wild and crazy team, and also one that was very talented. It was a team that only had one thing on its mind, and that was to win. That’s what it’s all about.

Let's see how I did on the beginning-of-year quiz:

1. Who will fall apart first?

B) Frank Thomas

Zaun has already defied time and space by suddenly turning into a decent starting catcher while north of 30. Thomas is out of lives. Clayton I couldn't care less about.

Haha, whoops

2. Who will regress the most?

A) Alex Rios

DUH (unless his post-injury performance already counts as regression)

Looks like I messed up there too.

3. Who should start?

4) and 5) I'd go with Ohka and Janssen

Hahahahaha, well, Janssen HAS been pretty good out of the bullpen. I still think I have a mental block with McGowan from his start last year in Detroit, when the team left him out to dry to give up about 14 runs.

4. Who will Gibbons fight?

E) all of the above, plus two hosers outside of East Side Mario's on Front Street, plus a sausage vendor outside Rogers Centre, plus a group of teenagers who walk on the cycling/blading path in the East Beaches (OK this is annoying), plus the entire Ontario legislature

Damn you, Gibbons!

hey, he still has two weeks left - and Jason Frasor has been acting like he own the place lately!

MORE CONDOLENCES TO HALLADAY JESUS FUCKING HELL

JESUS CHRIST CANADA STOP PLAYING WITH YOUR DICKS

i luv u gregggg zaun

Brandon League, you gotta to let those sleeves show, dude.

This game right now is both fantastic and terrible in so many facets.

JANE, STOP THIS CRAZY THING!

HILL GODDAMNIT

18 pitchers used in today's game so far!

LATE SEPTEMBER BASEBALL FEVOR. DRINK IT.

FAWK NO!

dear baseball game: please to end, thx.

well, i didn't mean like that but whatever.
Josh Towers: mission accomplished.

Matt Stairs? Really? From first? Really?

And Gregg Zaun, too? On a hit to right?

Does Toronto have any idea what the hell's going on?

Awww, dry those eyes - i'm sure boston can handle the d-rays tonight just fine.

Maybe.