José Fernández

It was hard to focus on baseball today. When someone as young, beautiful and talented as José Fernández dies, it can make things that are priorities fade into the background.

I cried during the Jays/Yankees game, completely unprompted and out of nowhere. It just hit me. The sadness of it all. 

This commercial that played repeatedly during the MLB.tv broadcast hit me, too. "What are you even doing here?"

There were many beautiful tributes to this remarkable guy. One of my favourites was by Jeff Passan:

Eduardo Pérez also spoke about what Fernandez meant to him, and what he meant to baseball and Cubans in Miami. 

There was also this beautiful video of the Marlins surprising him with the grandmother he left behind in Cuba.

The more video I watched of this kid, video which is abundant on Youtube, the more I realized how much fun José Fernández had playing this game. 

my favorite jose fernandez moment pic.twitter.com/VVES3EI61t

— matthias (a guy) (@Wecknerd) June 26, 2016

(There is kind of a theme here. The theme is the Braves seem to think they are the baseball fun police, and should maybe stop thinking that. The commentary on this video below is unintentionally hilarious.)

From ESPN's Bryce Harper profile in March, when he nailed what made Jose Fernandez so fun and special. https://t.co/hxlsKEH5Fl pic.twitter.com/IQnBEzqbOJ

— Jon Tayler (@JATayler) September 25, 2016

It's not just that he had a great time. Fernández had the best time. 

So the lesson I take from José D. Fernández's life, if a lesson can be taken by a 24 year old with all the talent in the world being snuffed out,  it is this one:

Find something you love as much as José Fernández loved baseball and celebrate the hell out of it.

— Joanna (@HumandChuck) September 25, 2016

Barry Bonds, who has come to think of Fernández as a son, greeted him after what was to be the last start of his too short career. It was a dandy. Eight scoreless with 12 strike outs. Barry Bonds showers him with kisses.

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Very Motivated: Jays Continue Beating the Yankees

José Antonio Bautista Santos has had an epic weekend and is getting hot at exactly the right time.

The first hint that something was up his game tying homer late versus the Mariners last Wednesday where Bautista launched one into the King's Court, did a bat flip variation with modified moon walk. 

Saturday's game versus the Yankees was deadlocked until the 8th when Bautista launched a three run bomb. The swing was classic Joey Bats. 

According to Statcast™, the homer traveled a projected 402 feet with an exit velocity of 111 mph. In other words, rocket launched.

Marcus Stroman pitched his best game of the season, going 7 scoreless innings:

Sunday's game was similarly low scoring. Bautista once again had two key RBIs- this was one of them-

.@JoeyBats19 conecta este salvaje batazo con un bate prestado. 😂😂 https://t.co/rkOQBR4uZY pic.twitter.com/UVfeLMCE2K

— MLB Dominicana (@MLBDominicana) September 26, 2016

Things looked promising up 2-1 with Osuna on the mound to close it out.

Osuna, however, blew the save and things looked dire. A few weeks ago, it might've been terrible. But this team has stated to play once again like a team of destiny. It was like Osuna blew the save on purpose just to set this moment up. 

Starter Marco Estrada had this to say:

I cannot. At least say "bunting for a hit", which is a different concept. The useful one was Carerra's safety squeeze in the ninth. Safety squeeze. 

To paraphrase something Andrew Zuber once said about prospects, bunting is for poor people. 

Here's a palate cleanser:

Someone help this man get this audio off his cable box.

Praising bunting. Keeping a cable box for audio saved on it. Marco Estrada needs help. 

That Was Fun: Jays Crush Yankees

As it turns out, destroying the Yankees doesn't get old.

The month of September has been plagued with anxiety about the talent and performance of the Blue Jays, particularly in comparison to the Boston Red Sox (who are annoying and won't lose). That game last night didn't exactly alleviate anxiety, but it was definitely fun. 

Led by a Liriano performance that was both methodical and bad ass, Blue Jays pitching shut out the Yankees and the offence pounded out nine unanswered runs. 

Liriano, who was plagued by the BB as a Pirate this year, walked only two and that came in the first inning. He wriggled out of that jam by striking out Chase Headley and didn't really look back. 

Liriano credits his communication with Russell Martin as a key to success:

The bats came around in a way that was a lot like how they did in 2015: aggressive, punishing and relentless. 

For a team that's been averaging 3.6 runs a game in September, this was great. Troy Tulowitzki had a big night, with two two-run singles, one in the first and one in the seventh. 

Josh Donaldson, with his high socks, impressive calves and blindingly white Lebron high tops, crushed his 36th homer of the season, scoring Devon Travis in the eighth. 

Float like a butterfly, sting like JD. https://t.co/nAmrz1ueRG pic.twitter.com/IUlCw3olmW

— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) September 24, 2016

How impressive are these calves, you ask? 

@MissStaceyMay pic.twitter.com/ujKaIzu1ZX

— Ian Hunter (@BlueJayHunter) September 24, 2016

This. by the way, is the result of getting "crunk" to Adele. 

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Devon Travis, because he does nothing but eat, sleep and poop (and hit), has been nicknamed "Baby" by his teammates. Ryan Goins had blue t-shirts made with a brown faced baby emoji on the front to commemorate. 

John Lott, for Blue Jays Nation, has the story:

Steve Clevenger was a racist idiot on Twitter and is now no longer playing for the Seattle Mariners. 

Apparently comparing black people protesting to animals has consequences. 

Finally. when I was at a game with two work friends earlier in the summer, we sat next to three guys who were roughly our ages. One of them was a drunk Tigers fan from Chatham who yelled at me because 1. I'm from London, ON and not a Tigers fan and 2. he was drunk. 

He insisted that the Jays and the Tigers would play in the Wild Card game and it'd be "awesome."

Me not wanting this drunk, belligerent man to be correct isn't the only reason I want the Jays to win the division, but it is a reason.

I'm not with some of the media guys who insist the division is out of reach. Given the September juggernaut the Red Sox have become, it's looks hard, but it's not over till it's actually over. It doesn't harm anyone on the team to still want the division and we, as fans, need to rejoice in the opportunity to play in this one game playoff game.

Although, one with the Tigers would let me use this picture from last year.

Fans should cheer for the most Jays wins and the most Sox losses. 

I miss The Clipse. This is classic Pharell, too. 

Fired Up: Blue Jays Nation West Descends on Safeco as Toronto Takes Game One

Seattle fans must hate the Blue Jays a little. I've sat in sections of the Rogers Centre surrounded by Yankee fans and it wasn't pleasant. But it was never to the point that all I saw were Yankee fans. 

There was a sea of blue in nearly every crowd shot that graced the TV screen last night. 

Obligatory Gibby quote:

Marco Estrada was as good as he has ever been last night and the atmosphere was as close to playoff baseball as one can get in September. These games will actually determine fates.

Sports on Earth's Cliff Corcoran wrote about the importance of the series for both teams.  He described the game like this:

It's the best Marco Estrada has looked since the All Star Break. He took a no-hitter into the 7th inning. Edwin Encarnacion hit his 41st homer. 

It was a group effort and a real team win. For one night, they had hope again. 

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Let's translate Joshua Adam Donaldson.

First, he got heated in an at bat in the 7th of yesterday's game. He didn't like a checked swing call and the call to ring him up on a pitch that was basically bowled to the plate it was so low pushed our boy over the edge. 

Donaldson had enough. pic.twitter.com/AVXiEaPKvW

— Ian Hunter (@BlueJayHunter) September 20, 2016

What's that you say, Josh Donaldson's bulging neck vein?

"That's fucking outside, you fucking piece of shit..." is some of it, maybe. Except the pitch was low, not outside. It wasn't a strike, in any case. 

And then, this afternoon, Donaldson tweeted this:

🔛🕐🕑🕒🕓🕔🕕🕖🕗🕗🕙🕚🕛🕜🕝🕞🕟🕠🕦🕧🕣🕤🕥🕦🕧☑️☮❤️⚔

— Josh Donaldson (@BringerOfRain20) September 20, 2016

An ALL EMOJI TWEET.

Let's break it down:

The arrow with "On!" I believe our boy is telling us that either we should move on, or he has moved on or maybe both. You send that to your ex if they just won't stop texting you. 

The clocks- they could mean he's on all the time or the time has come. By the way, no one uses the clock face emojis. Josh Donaldson used all of them. That's how passionate he is about this cryptic message open to any number of interpretations. Every. Last. Clock. Emoji. 

The check mark means approval. Or good to go. 

The peace sign often means "fuck off, I'm out." Like if someone just goes off and you don't want to deal with them, you just peace out. Or, maybe Donaldson just wants to tell us he's calm. 

The heart obviously means love, but also could mean his heart is in it. 

 The crossed swords facing up means Josh Donaldson is ready to fight. 

So to recap- Moving on! On all the time! Fuck yeah! Fuck off! Love! FIGHT!

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Heard this on my way to work this morning. This man is a treasure. A true original. 

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Kevin Pillar was named as one of Toronto Style's 25 Most Stylish for 2016.  And looks mighty fine in the picture.

The photo was taken on Fort York Boulevard and I think he's leaning on this thing. 

He says his hair looks kind of fro-ish without this stuff

He gets his haircut here. 

He likes Adidas, including Yeezys. He's apparently wearing head to toe BOSS, but those shoes (Timakers, apparently) look like Stan Smiths, a classic Adidas shoe. 

He likes clothes from here.

He likes to smell like this . A teammate gifted it to him, so apparently dudes do give each other stuff like that.   This was a discussion point in the whole Tom Ford thing earlier in the summer. This is how the smell is described:

I love it when copywriters get drunk and write about perfume. 

Pillar has one of the most unique faces I've ever seen. His nose is huge, his eyes are huge and his chin is huge but throwing them all together makes a face that draws the eye. I find it aesthetically pleasing but I don't really know why. 

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On the topic of Yeezys, I heard this on my way home from work.  

A classic Kanye produced track that uses old soul music (in this case "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5) and infuses Jay Z's words with energy and joy. 

Jay-Z - Izzo by BLACKHAWKS4

That's the anthem get'cha damn hands up.

By the way, it's incredibly hard to get old Jay Z videos on Youtube since the introduction of Tidal. Some of his videos are still available, but not this one. 

And just because:

Less Like Kicked Dogs: Blue Jays Down, But Not Out

I don't have much analysis to offer on the topic of the Blue Jays and their play over the series with the Angels. The Blue Jays need to play less like they are kicked dogs and more like the team that led the division for a good chunk of this season. It's ugly. 

The pitchers are pitching tight because any mistake means a loss because the hitters can't bail them out. 

The hitters are tight because they are trying their damnedest to get something, anything, going. 

How they go about fixing this is a tricky thing, because if it were easy they wouldn't have sucked for most of September. It's not lack of heart. It's not because they are revealing who they really are. 

Here we are. 

All I have to say by way of analysis is that it would be prudent to ignore so many talking heads that came out today and said the Jays should forget about the Division and also the ones who said they aren't even going to make the playoffs. 

It is ridiculous to write them off so early, especially given the schedule which has the AL East teams playing each other the last few series of the season. Also, Boston goes out on the road until the last series of the regular season. They play much better at home than they do on the road. 

This is Boston's remaining September schedule:

This is Baltimore's, who play the AL East plus the Diamondbacks: 

And finally, the Blue Jays:

They need to beat a hot Seattle team and let Boston and Baltimore duke it out. The division is within reach and so is the Wild Card. Somebody ahead of them has to lose. 

Yes, the Jays have backed themselves into a corner, but to completely dismiss them is shortsighted and sounds a hell of a lot like a hot take. It's not early, but it's certainly not too late.

Get. It. Going. 

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@neweracanada September 20th is the day these bad boys are released!!

"Different fabrics and everything....."

There were bees at yesterday's game.

There are many great bee references on The Simpsons. This is the best.

"I can't live the button-down life like you. I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles."

John Lott, who is the best, talked to John Gibbons, who is also the best, about the expanded September rosters, which nobody thinks is the best.

Smoak and Saunders used to be Mariners. Now they are Blue Jays.

Russell Martin is the best. 

Tweets about playoff teams I found interesting earlier in the day.

Worst reg season run differential for a champ came from those 06 Cards (+19). This year, the Rangers (+8), Orioles (+27) in that territory.

— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) September 19, 2016

Average MLB rank for last 15 World Series champ rotations

ERA: 10.5
FIP: 11.1
fWAR: 12.2

'07 BOS, '03 FLA, '01 ARI only legit Top 5 staffs

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) September 19, 2016

The suffering of other teams

Grant Brisbee writes about how the injured Indians makes a great underdog story.

Jeff Passan on the free fall of the San Francisco Giants. It's not just us. 

By the way, Kevin Barker, at the All Star Break, picked San Francisco and Toronto to face off in the World Series. So we can collectively blame him. 

You look a little kicked dog here, Coltrane. Less kicked dog.