oldnews
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[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Gibby and JD gotta hug it out lol. After the game though. Let the anger fuel JD for the time being. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Never liked him - not simply because he's a Yankee (although appropriate landing spot for him imo) - even as a Mariner I was happy to see him leave - and they're my other favorite team. His contract demands were absolutely ludicrous. I'll never think of/consider him in a discussion of best. The guy appealed his suspension. Talk about ego - and denial. I don't judge him for breaking the rules - so many players did - but his personality was divisive and his ego problems literally toxic. Jeter on the other hand - one of my all time favorites - despite being a Yankee. Clutch. Intangilble. The game just came to him. I find it fitting that the two didn't like each other. Jeter was the real deal. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
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[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
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[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Nothing better than going into the Yank barn and spanking them rope-a-dope style like this. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
C'mon EE, make this one a laugher. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Nice. Russell consolidates the comeback. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Yeah I know. Very perceptive. It was a fk A-Rod moment. Not exactly the best of friends. Jeter - one of the greatest, clutch-est players of all-time (I'm a Yankee HATER - but Jeter, mad respect regardless). -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Nice to see the end of A-Hole. Buh-bye ya tool. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
I think it's understandable. You come to a new club - surrounded by heavy bats - and he looked like he was trying too hard to produce. If he starts hitting though - with Travis ripping everything and the usual death row in the lineup.... deadly b.o. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Happ mowing through another lineup - about to get his 16th win. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
First good contact I've seen Upton make as a BlueJay. Hopefully he's breaking out of a funk. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
I think he's fairly valuable in a one-dimensional sense - as long as they have Dickey. It's hard on the legs catching every day. Getting Martin a regular day off helps. It's also hard on a catcher's confidence catching a knuckleballer. You are going to wrack up some passed balls regardless of how good you are. I think sparing Martin from messing with his 'momentum' might be a good thing. -
That was epic. Shoulda been the gold medal match - unbeatable quality
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[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
ftfy -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
No - but it was a change - wasn't throwing at JD or you'd have seen a different result. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
It was a brain cramp regardless - but Barney redeemed himself taking a one hopper from Martin and getting the tag down.. Made the 2nd out at third - was the tying run - the batter follows up with a bloop base hit that would have tied the game. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Good bounce-back performance for Travis tonight too. Loved seeing him come right out and rip a double in the gap from the get-go Overall, a solid game (good D, nice bunt basehit) after a shaky night last night. Nice to see. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Saner minds prevailed in the rotation decision. I like it. Liriano is good insurance/depth - as a substitute for Sanchez - didn't care for the plan. Really impressed with Happ. He responds very well to tight situations, consistently. Of all the moves/non-moves that management has made this year (haven't been impressed in general with Shapiro/Atkins), this one pretty much redeems the lot. The one thing they probably needed the most was a decent left handed starter and Happ has stepped up more than could have been expected. I like the Hutchinson deal a lot more with the decision to leave Sanchez in the rotation and spread out the starts. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Love watching Estrada pitch. Crafty as hell. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Dickey is fun to watch - gotta hand it to him. You just never know. Love him or hate him, you'll likely do both on a regular basis lol. Last night was clutch though. Favorite part was the way he screwed Carlos Gomez into the dirt on more than one occasion, trying to kill that knuckler. Someone's gonna look bad....very entertaining. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
His slider and sinking fastball are his bread and butter, so it makes sense that when he's on he's getting ground ball outs on a regular basis (particularly against lefties), however he's also a high pitch count guy (always has been) that gives up a lot of walks, doesn't necessarily go deep into games (handing it over to the Jays pen) and the problem is that he's getting hit hard when he does come into the strike zone (something that can't really be reduced to the effectiveness of his infield). Hitters get to know pitchers, particularly after seeing them 20 or 30 times, and guys aren't chasing him as much as they used to - they're waiting and forcing him to come into the strike zone. It probably doesn't help that his go-to two strike pitch is his slider and he uses it at an extremely high rate. So analytics are fine and all, but unless there's something tangible that they see - ie. in his delivery/release - or something in the pitch calling in Pitt that has made him too predictable, that can be remedied by Martin, it's not so much a solid 'analytics' move as a crapshoot - that a guy will regain previous form in that latter parts of a season that has been downright awful for him. The deal itself is hard to argue with - the prospects alone are arguably a good return on Hutchinson - and adding Liriano as depth makes sense - it's simply the idea of banking on Liriano to be a 2/3/or 4 in their rotation - and 'saving' Sanchez's arm for the future that I find problematic. As someone they're counting on in the rotation - it's not a great deadline 'solution' - he's obviously high risk and imo the team is deep and strong enough that they call for legit pieces to be added. At the same time, even if you add a Price there is no guarantee they deliver, so I'm glad they didn't follow up last year's rental with another expensive rental. Liriano has been the "comeback" player of the year twice, so here's hoping he can pull that off a third time - maybe coming back to the American league will also buy him some freshness by virtue of hitters have less recent familiarity with him. But the additional thing about the Sanchez decision - it's not like his inning count just jumped out of nowhere - it's poor planning to have used him as frequently as they have thus far this season and then turn around at this point and have this decision impact the club as significantly down the stretch of the playoff run and possibly into the postseason. It's a fail imo either way you slice it - they should have mitigated his use earlier, and in addition, inning count is not the only concern / risk - using him out of the bullpen presents a whole set of other risks that are difficult to relatively evaluate. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
Yes, jumping up and warming up at random intervals in the pen most certainly counts towards fatigue. And the risk of injury is arguably heightened given the fact he's not going to have the lead and preparation time that he does in the rotation, knowing when (which days) he'll be pitching, and at precisely what time he'll have to be ready. Very different than receiving a call in the pen because a starter gets in trouble. He's also in all likelihood not going to have the rest after pitching that he does in the rotation (unless by bullpen they actually mean 'on the shelf' for the most part). He'll likely be throwing more frequently (regardless of whether he gets a call) and he is not as likely to be entirely prepared. Imo this is a poor solution - and the fact he's an inexperienced 24 yr old moving into that role doesn't help, nor does messing with his momentum and confidence make much sense. He's far more likely to stumble (and probably just as likely to injure himself, if not more) being uprooted to the far more contingent role in the bullpen imo. I think they should leave him in the rotation and limit his pitch count, perhaps platoon him with someone on an interval basis so he's not out there every 5 days, but moving him to the pen is not a 'solution' imo. -
[Official] Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball thread
oldnews replied to The Stork's topic in Off-Topic General
It must have been a real boost in the locker room to hear that the Jays added arms like Liriano and Benoit. Oh yeah, and Feldman (and Bolsinger).. Have to consider the Atkins/Shapiro effort a fail at this point. Liriano is currently a project. The idea that Martin catching him will restore his control is questionable at best. Comfort/confidence in your catcher and liking his game-calling is great and all, but whether that will enable Liriano to hit his spots is another matter imo. The fact they're willing to bank on that risk is disconcerting. Unless they have some solid intel regarding his delivery, mechanics or some tangible indicator that they can tweak his game, it's the equivalent of a depth move when they're losing a premier starter to the bullpen. In any event, I absolutely loathe the decision to "save" Sanchez - and bringing in Liriano doesn't exactly enhance the sales job. WTF are you "saving" Sanchez for? The future? How does bullpenning him save him from the risk of injury? Don't buy their line of reasoning at all - nor the counter-intuitive timing of it. When is the next time the Toronto Blue Jays are going to have a lineup with the kind of punch that Bautista, EE, Donaldson, Tulo, Saunders et al bring? Solid enough defensively with Martin, Tulo, Pillar up the middle. But desperately need what Sanchez brings to the rotation imo (particularly considering what little else Atkins/Shapiro have done to strengthen the rotation), otherwise, wadr to Estrada, Stroman, Happ, there just isn't enough there in Sanchez's absence imo to have the championship potential that the lineup otherwise screams for. Tremendous opportunity - with a mediocre management approach. Oh well - I suppose Toronto is the type of city that will buy tickets regardless of how incompetent their management groups are. Decades of pathetic, AHL quality Leafs teams have proven that you can sell any loser in that fanbase. I suppose Rogers knows this - and with 40,000 showing up, meh, why bother going all in? Is that true of the Bluejay's fans as well, or are fans just unwilling to get off the ride quite yet as there remain so many remnants of last year's contender? What I do know - if I were in that locker room - if I were one of JB, EE, Tulo, JD - I'd be unimpressed with the combination of their deadline deals and the Sanchez decision. Longer term, who knows (the prospect pick ups are nice, but this aint a rebuild), but shorter term is what matters to these guys, and if the best you can do is bring in a risky, struggling Liriano? The Atkins/Shapiro effort thus far imo has been a Happ and Grilli away from abject failure. Selling the flips of Chavez and Storen as addition by subtraction doesn't exactly impress under the circumstances. Hopefully they gain some sense and realize that Sanchez in the rotation makes them respectable. I suppose they can experiment with Liriano and see what happens, but here's that thing - if it isn't broke, don't fn fix it.