Tuesday, 17 January, 2012
Shut Up. It's Reasonable.
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
Big Guns
I haven't written since Yu Darvish didn't happen. But it's not like much has happened, except people moaning about penny pinching and lame duck GMs. But AA has been quietly making moves. Not splashy (ie expensive) moves, but moves.
Before they moaned about the cheapness, moaners moaned about the bullpen. AA went out and stocked the bullpen. Sergio Santos (new closer), Darren Oliver (octogenarian south paw) and Jason Frasor (once and future Sausage King of Chicago) came back from the White Sox.
“It felt like I was never coming back. (His July 27 trade) was an emotional day. I think it was the first time I'd cried since I gave up five runs in Atlanta a couple of years ago,” Frasor said, laughing. Aw, don't cry Sausage King. Especially not about Atlanta. Unless you have to hang out with Chipper Jones.
I understand the feelings of malaise some fans have with the off season. I mean, it's hard to blog when there is nothing to blog about. And if I don't blog, there isn't a blog.
The new uniforms and the Yu drama were ups, but the fall out from the lost bid and perceived non-action brought the energy down. "There's a lot of things that we could have done this past off-season just to say that we did it. But I don't ultimately believe that it would have been good signings or good trades for us. I think it would have been bad."
Also, the Sergio Santos deal was pretty amazing. As Frasor said, "I think you guys are really going to like him. I can't believe Alex pulled him away from Chicago first of all, and for me to go back there and hopefully set him up again, it's great.” Plus, Santos' contract is very team friendly.
I want another starter to increase depth, and I want another bat. But if Escobar, Lawrie, JPA, EE, Johnson and Rasmus, not to mention Lind and Snider, can pull themselves together and perform either as well or better than they did last season, that should be enough to cover Bautista in offensively protective deliciousness.
I took a question from Twitter:
@james_in_TO asks: Do longer games mean better records, if so, will you happily endure it?
Mr. Big Guns is also in love with Halifax, according to his tweets. He seems like a bit of a city slut, though.
Tuesday, 20 December, 2011
Yu Said Sit Back Down Where Yu Belong
So I was reading the comments over on DJF about the Yu Darvish ordeal, and one peaked my interest.
BJ
Best,
Joanna.
Does anyone know what exactly are "schoolyard dribblings"?
Wednesday, 14 December, 2011
Fun with Columnists

This was a good part:
"I don't know the answer. All I know is, the Blue Jays let it be known early on at the winter meetings that they weren't going to spend big on Prince Fielder over more than five years. They went out and traded for a closer rather than spend on one in free agency. These may wind up being prudent moves, but was that really the reason they were made? "
How has Baker been in this business for so long and not grasped the concept that what a GM says he is going to is not exactly what he is actually going to do? How has he grasped the concept of not showing your hand? And I am in favour of signing Fielder because I think it'll be entertaining to watch and I want him to be Bautista's special line up friend, but I am also completely aware of the reasons to be cautious and I'm very glad I don't have to make that decision. Also, they traded for a closer with a prospect. Why spend money when that deal can be made? I think that's a plus for Anthopoulos.
And finally knowing about the Dave Stewart situation does not an insider make. That was pretty well known news back in the day.
Now it's all right to have issues with Rogers and to criticize the moves, but at least get the facts straight. And don't freak out about Rogers possibly buying the Leafs when it hasn't happened yet. And please don't make stuff up to make Mariner fans feel better about themselves now that they have to see Albert Pujols on a regular basis.
Tuesday, 29 November, 2011
Sentences

The Texas writer who voted Michael Young first and Bautista 7th needs to be publicly shamed. And stripped of his credentials. And his pants.
The new uniforms are gorgeous. As was the sight of all the boys showing up in cold and dark Toronto to show them off.
Mmmmmm....serifs.
P.S. Phillies, you can't have d'Arnaud back. Piss off.
Tuesday, 4 October, 2011
Dispatches

"When things go bad, your true colors show and I was bothered by what was showing."
I like Terry Francona-and maybe even the fact that SOSH hates him so much made me think he is the sort of guy I can get behind. The enemy of your enemy is your friend, etc.
I have a feeling it is going to get very, very ugly. Francona was loyal to the cause to the very end and wouldn't name names, but it was clear that things were very, very rotten indeed.
"Some of it may be personal," he said. "I thought it was time. And again, to be honest with you, I didn't know, I'm not sure how much support there was from ownership. … And I don't know if I felt real comfortable. You've got to be all-in in this job, and I voiced that today. … It's got to be, everybody has to be together, and I was questioning some of that a little bit."
Brett Lawrie has so much star dust on him I sometimes can't believe he is for real.
Saturday, 24 September, 2011
Girl on Film : Moneyball
The acting is solid up and down. Pitt brings the right kind of cheeky swagger to Beane. His portrayal of Beane adds to a long list of performances where he eats a lot. This one featured a lot of chew. I think Jonah Hill's performance of Paul Brand (which is the name they use for Paul DePodesta) is the best part of the movie. And Philip Seymour Hoffman is just never not good.
I think JP Ricciardi tried and failed to build the Jays this way and an AL East team obviously sees the "beasts of the East" more often than the A's do. Now, I'm not saying that advanced statistics can't be used when trying to build a team. But I think a better course of action is to use both the newer stats and the more traditional scouting. I'm not convinced that every scout is 95 years old and babbles about "5 tools". There is value in their work. Combine the best of both. It's one of the benefits of living in the post-Moneyball age.
Thursday, 22 September, 2011
Shock Factor

“There was some shock factor, switching leagues and coming over to the [AL] East, seeing new pitchers every time out. As far as coming to a new team, the guys here made it real easy and everybody around the city has been great.”
Wednesday, 14 September, 2011
There's Always Options, Right?

Nowhere does it say "I know, let's move Brandon Morrow to the bullpen. That will solve all the problems." Take note of that. Make a t-shirt.
Keith Law got himself into some shit when he dissed the Moneyball movie on his personal blog, and got into it with Moneyball author Michael Lewis. Law discussed the situation on the Baseball Today podcast and Stoeten broke down the Blue Jay angle of it, which is wonderfully juicy in the gossip department. I want to wait and see the movie (though that really has nothing to do with the Law/Lewis showdown) before I make a judgement over what's going on.
At this point, I'm just going to assume that Law doesn't like the Moneyball movie because Brad Pitt played Billy Beane and not him.
Navin, awesome sports fan and writer, tweeted this tonight:
Monday, 12 September, 2011
Off Day of the Damned: I Got Older

Today is my birthday. Today is also an off day, which was richly earned by taking 3 of 4 from the Red Sox and 2 of 3 from the Orioles.
We must become the hum that we want to chuck.- Mahatma Gandhi
In pitching there's nothing so becomes a man as modest chuck and hum. -William Shakespeare
Thursday, 8 September, 2011
An Otherwise Crazy Game

I know that, after a Jays win that went down like the Jays win last night, a lot of you were hoping for a SOSH post, but I sort of lost my desire to hang out there for any length of time when one of them posted that the Red Sox had a worse day than the KHL hockey team. The KHL hockey team was killed in a plane crash in Russia. So I would argue they get the edge on who had a"bad day."
“It’s been very overwhelming,” Loewen said of the experience. “It didn’t really sink in until the first inning when I was standing in the outfield. I grew up watching the Blue Jays and wanting to play for the Blue Jays. I think any Canadian kid back at home dreams the same thing. For it to actually finally come true, it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
I bet Loewen and Lawrie bathed in beer and maple syrup pre-game.
Monday, 5 September, 2011
SOSH is What Happens

A Red Sox-Jays game means I have to go visit my good friends at SOSH, who ask "Do they even have Labour Day in Canada?"
Josh Beckett cruised until the 4th and left with extreme sucking (actual reason was a sore ankle.) He said post game that he fell during his bullpen session but didn't feel it until the last two pitches of his outing. He fell?
Beckett has a sprained right ankle. Could have been a lot worse
Yes, we could've had to continue to watch him take his sweet time to throw a pitch.
They're fucking awful right now. Just got shut down by a Double-A starter.
Yes, well very few great pitchers manifest randomly from a crowd of people. Some actually have to pitch some kind of level of the game before making it to the big leagues. Plus, have you seen this kid's stuff????
Alvarez hits 95 pitches at the end of 6. Delicate but crunchy morsels of Blue Jay relievers can't be far away.
This guy is going to be really disappointed.
The game carried on with no score. And the SOSH game thread becomes stale and dull,Youkilis strikes out looking and has his customary little spaz at the call.
STFU Youk, that shit was right down the pipe.
On occasion these people have a moment of clarity, and it is just really scary.
If the pipe was in the rh batters box
And order is restored.
I love it when these people complain about the strike zone.
DeWayne Wise made an amazing catch to rob Crawford of a sure triple and they complained about their luck. Bautista couldn't make a catch
Bautista's a shitty defender.
Just don't.
On a day where Beckett is injured and the bullpen steps up to shut down the Jays, what a letdown it would be if the Sox offense loses this game.
Yeah, a letdown.
Is Francisco the guy who threw a folding chair into the stands?
Yes. Now we just hope he throws strikes.
I thought they don't celebrate Labor Day in Canada. Why are Sox bats taking the day off?
It takes two seconds to find out the history of Labour Day. Canada had it about 8 years before the States.
Jonathan Papelbon put me (and much of Twitter) into fits and not because his stuff is so amazing. Why he is allowed to take so much time between pitches, I don't know. It took him 24 minutes to throw 27 pitches. I think baseball needs to enforce the never enforced time between pitches when there is no one on rule, and create a rule where the pitcher has a certain amount of time to either make a pitch or throw to a base if someone is on. If they fail to do so, it's a ball or a balk. For the sake of the game. For the sake of my sanity.
I wonder if Sox fans notice what the pace of the pitching does to the game?
What are those idiots booing at?
I guess not.
Are the citizens of Toronto always this irritable?
No, your team just brings it out in us.
Papelbon finally got his 3rd out and Shawn Camp took about 2.5 seconds to retire the Sox.
Things felt dire, but there was a glimmer of hope.
I hope for the best, but this game has the 'bullshit bloop double down the line' feeling to win it for Toronto in the 15th inning.
If by "bullshit bloop double down the line", you mean "walk off bomb by rookie phenom Gordie Dougie", you are so right.
Lawrie is a fucking douche.
I once hoped that Lawrie would be so energetically good, the Sox fans would hate him as much as Jays fans hate Pedroia. You have arrived, Brett!!!
Am I the only one who thought that tongue thing was a little excessive? I don't know if someone SHOULD throw at him, but if I was pitching tomorrow I would.
For those used to one who pumps his fist like an asshole after getting a mid season save from the Royals, Lawrie sticking his tongue while circling the bases after his first walk off homer would seem excessive.
The Rays aren't catching them, unless the Sox go into a complete free fall.
Something to look forward to!
Just enjoy this.
"Brett Lawrie is a STAR!"- Alan Ashby
The Tao of Stieb wondered over Twitter what is going on in the minds and souls of Red Sox fans that have to watch this shit all summer.
Wednesday, 31 August, 2011
Vexed
"Every time I get a base hit or a double, I clap. That's me, that's my game, and I don't try to do anything bad to another player," Cervelli said. "That's Cervelli."
Ok, I was with you until you said, "That's Cervelli." That was your third career homer. Don't refer to yourself in the third person.
Sunday, 28 August, 2011
In Praise of Jerk Ball
Monday, 22 August, 2011
Healthy Criticism
Between the Yankee pitching woes and the ridiculous dismissal of José Bautista as a viable MVP candidate, I am overwhelmed. It all invites more ridicule than I will ever have time to provide.
Tuesday, 16 August, 2011
Just Didn't Get the Job Done
Hear that? He's had ENOUGH.
Some of the credit for that rumour spreading goes to Keith Law, who said that he believed it to be true around the time of the draft and repeated it over Twitter last night.
When the rumour first surfaced, one of Law's followers asked if had a reliable source or was simply speculating, Law replied: “I would NEVER write something like that w/o reliable sourcing."
Like four anonymous White Sox bullpen pitchers?
That's not exactly fair, Law didn't write that article. But he did defend it, so I will continue to mock.
Sunday, 14 August, 2011
But Then I Just Smile
Smile, and get manhandled by very large men. Encarnacion's hitting .348/.458/.629 since the All Star Break.
"I didn't think there would be much but there was and I just tried to enjoy it an obviously not be a crybaby at home plate. It's just a moment I'll never forget."
Jeez, kid. I know it is hard, but it's a young team going places, it's probably some nice bank and you can go to college later if things don't work out. College at 18 is kind of overrated. Trust me.
Friday, 12 August, 2011
Friday Links
Some people (at least on Twitter) are tired of talking about the ESPN article, and I am a little, too. But the reaction to the reaction I still find interesting.
I had expressed earlier my disappointment in Keith Law's reaction to it, in the way he just deflected any sort of criticism of the numbers presented in the article. I think he knew that Nelson was taking a lot of shit on this, she's his friend and he wanted to deflect any more heat coming her way. The mainstream American press' reaction to this goes along the same lines. When Anthoplous said that the baseball community is a very small fraternity, I would say that the sports writing community is even smaller. I have no issue with the idea that some teams think the Jays are cheating nor do I think the use of unnamed sources is wrong. It's using cherry picked evidence to suggest it that it may be true that is the problem.
Also, something new I thought about. The article is basically one anecdote from anonymous sources surrounded by questionable numbers. The White Sox being the accusers isn't in the article itself, but it came from Jose Bautista when he was questioned about the incident mentioned in the piece.
Earlier in the season, Russell Martin and Joe Girardi came right out to the press and publicly said that they believed something was fishy. Like many who heard it, I dismissed it as trying to deflect attention away from struggling Yankee pitching but I am almost certain that that is what triggered this whole thing in the first place.
So, why use anonymous sources on incidents from a season ago when people are publicly saying things to the press, during a series between teams from this season?
I also found an old story about the Red Sox having TVs in the Fenway bullpen during a Tampa Bay series, until Lou Pinella got the umpire to make them turn them off. But again, that article is from a Tampa area paper, not on ESPN.
Most of these stories, including the man in white story, are amusing but reading them and the coverage of this piece in general just makes me a little bitter. I, by no means, think this is a wide-spread anti- Jays, anti-Canada conspiracy. But it leaves me a little peevish.
Jose Bautista has been subjected to a tremendous amount of scrutiny since breaking out. Sign stealing has now been piled on to the implications of PED use and jokes about bat corking. His numbers before the All Star break put him firmly in the lead for the AL MVP, but his success was repeatedly dismissed by American broadcasters and sports writers, who named a rotating line of Red Sox players (and one Yankee) as those who were worthier. The more these things happen, the more respect I have for Bautista in the way that he shakes off all the talk, is open to discussing his approach and in the way he leads the Jays.
Wednesday, 10 August, 2011
This Whole Thing is Stupid
First, my views on stealing signs.
I know I shouldn't have expected anything more. He works for ESPN. Instead of driving his crab mobile trough the holes in this article, he just called it well-written and said it reflects whispers he heard when he worked for the Jays. But what about the circumstantial evidence?! Law said people accused Cito Gaston of using the hotel in the early 90s.
Wait a second. The early 90s? When the Jays won it all? Of course they were cheating. There is no way this Toronto team was the best in baseball.
If any other team in the league had any sort of actual proof, why haven't they filed complaints with MLB?
I remember reading somewhere that the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry, after 2004, was mostly a product of the press. The real heated rivalry the Red Sox had in recent years has been with Tampa Bay. I would make the argument that the Yankees most heated rivalry is with the Jays.
It's completely unfair to say that Nelson writes for ESPN because she slept her way to the top, but that is just the sort of bullshit female sportswriters put up with.
Besides, everyone knows that Keating is the slut in this equation. I found some statistics, cirumstantial evidence and unnamed sources to prove it.
Keating, the slut, was on Sid and Tim of Score Radio to talk about the article. Keating stood behind his article, said he has "Canadian friends", there is no bias against the Jays on ESPN, said his "unnamed sources"' stories were backed up with compelling statistical evidence (which Parkes did a pretty good job of debunking) and was pretty insulted by the accusation of cherry picking stats to tell the story.
Not a single player in this whole drama asked what I think is the ultimate question: if the Jays are stealing signs, why the hell are they not better? The article claimed that the Jays stole signs all through 2010. So apparently the Jays stole signs to hit a crap load of homers, finish 4th in the AL East and once again come up short in their goal of making the playoffs.
The Jays are starting to show signs that they are going to be good in the next few years. I guarantee this shit is going to come up again if the Jays actually start challenging the beasts of the East.
Henderson Alvarez, with his plus fastball and his plus change, makes his ML debut.
Tuesday, 9 August, 2011
Cutters and Bewilderment
Brief observations over the weekend: Rasmus looks relaxed, Lawrie can rake so far and his defensive strategy that first night appeared to be to let the ball bounce off his body in Escobar's direction. Romero was absolutely nails on Sunday, and he was named AL Player of the Week for his efforts. How did you do it, Ricky? "We did it with a lot of fastballs and cutters." Brandon Morrow deserves a massive hug.
The Jays owe Drabek a huge, concerted effort to salvage the promise that still exists from the wreckage of his demotion earlier this season.
They appear to be on the right track: manager John Farrell said the club might take another look at Drabek in September, a move which could give the right-hander something to shoot for this season, and a much-needed boost of confidence heading into the off-season (where the Jays will continue to work with him).
Anyway, go read John Lott's article in the Post instead for an actual coherent take on Drabek.






