For Lack of a Better Word: Jays Complete Mini-Sweep

Photo by John Lott

That two day ass kicking was not as enjoyable as a Red Sox or Yankee or Oriole or just about about any other team ass kicking because the Giants are so damn adorable. It’s like a team of panda bears playing baseball. 

I don't know why they were so bad. It was kind of shocking, not only to see the 2012 World Series Champions play like they were asleep but because it felt that finally, after six weeks of disappointed hopes, everything was coming up Blue Jay. And despite the panda bearishness of the Giants, the Jays will take those wins and like them.  

Manager and lead panda bear Bruce Bochy said that he tried take his pitching staff out for dinner, but they were in too bad a mood to go after that first game. Judging by the way Chad Gaudin drilled Lawrie between the shoulders when Lawrie called time late on the previous pitch, Giants’ mood didn't improve much. There was a lot of Twitter chatter that the turf has been giving the Giants fits. But I saw misread flyballs and some nonchalance rather than turf issue. 

His sister, Danielle demonstrated that Brett isn't the only full dimed member of the family. 

So the Jays, backed by some solid pitching and an offensive resurgence, have a four game winning streak going. So what does it mean?

From the Toronto Sun: “It was 24 years ago Wednesday that Jimy Williams was fired and Cito Gaston took over an under-performing 12-24 team that was in last place. On the final weekend of the 1989 season, Toronto finally overtook the Orioles to win the AL East.”

It’s a shame the season ended in April. 

Links from around:

Getting Blanked provides links to the awesome David Ortiz's awesome charitable initiative to help the Boston Marathon victims. Choose the “This is our f@#%ing city” version of the bat if you want to be extra awesome. Awesome.

Also at Getting Blanked, Drew Fairservice and his press pass continue the "My Approach" series and talks to the one and only Tim "Big Time Timmy Jim" Lincecum.

The McCovey Chronicles covers the Jays/Giants two game set from San Francisco's point of view, and tells the sad, strange tale of Ryan Vogelsong. 

It also features the following sentence: "And then the Giants scored one run against Ramon Ortiz, who works for a temp agency and gets paid in corn."

Shi Davidi talks to BB machine Adam Lind: "I wasn't being a smart hitter, I was being stubborn and for lack of a better word, stupid.”

Sportsnet wrote a bit on old minor league scouting reports of current Jays. R.A. Dickey had a thick rear, a strong face and a fastball with "boring action."  

Darren Oliver was skinny, baby faced but was expected to get bigger. "Showed poise & confidence along w/ fringe ave stuff early in game." Change that to "late in game", and that's pretty much Black Magic. 

I don't know what the obsession scouts have with the pitcher's face, but faces are mentioned several times.

Vernon Wells, zombie offensive threat, hit his tenth homer of the season last night and did this:

No Homers

It's amazing how good a game can feel when your chosen team has their biggest single inning offensive outburst in the first inning.

It was a weird game in general. The Giants played sort of terribly, the Jays (for once) caught a lot of breaks, a couple of Cy Young winning chuckers battled against each other and Maicer Izturis tried to steal third. With a left handed Colby Rasmus at the plate, which gave the overwhelmingly capable Buster Posey a clear and unobstructed view. Gibby later called it a "miscommunication of signs" but at the time, he made this face:

I won't jump to hard on Izturis (lots of runs and solid starting pitching makes me generous), but it was pretty funny that no one would make eye contact on the bench.

R.A. Dickey, pitching with a cracked fingernail, was not as efficient as he'd like to be, with 115 pitches over six innings.

“We've been playing better baseball,” Dickey said. “Outside of a couple of plays tonight, I feel we were a pretty good baseball team tonight. We pitched well. We played pretty good defence. We hit with runners in scoring position. We got a lot of two-out hits. We did a lot of good things tonight. And that’s what we've seen more and more of over the course of the last week and a half to two weeks.”

So what you are saying is good pitching, good defense and timely hitting wins baseball games.

Melky Cabrera, hitting leadoff, had himself a game last night versus his old team, going 4 for 5. As was well documented, Cabrera was leading the league in hitting while playing for the Giants last summer, before getting suspended for PEDs. The Giants went on to win the World Series and hipster baseball fans across the land rejoiced. Giants' manager Bruce Bochy gave Cabrera his World Series ring in the clubhouse, privately. And for whatever reason, there is drama.  This reminds me a lot of when Colby Rasmus was traded from the Cardinals in 2011 and even after St.Louis won the World Series that year, the beat writers continue to harp on him.

Let it go. Flags Fly Forever.

One of the interesting things last night was that the Jays scored 10 runs without the benefit of the homer. Which, naturally, brought the "homers kill rallies" tweet debates back to life. I was glad to see the diversity of offense presented, but I wouldn't have been mad about a homer or two mixed in. As I've said before, they don't kill rallies. They are the exclamation point of a rally.

I'm not mentioning that ninth inning, because it didn't happen. Totally unnecessary walks preceding 3-run Panda homers will not make you friends, Brad Lincoln.  But I will say that people should stop calling for Casey Janssen every time things get a little difficult or hard to watch. There was still a massive lead and two outs.  If you break Casey Janssen, he can't come out to play anymore. 

I'm trying to not make this blog overly SOSHed, but during the Sox game in Tampa last night (which the Rays won 5-3), there was an extensive discussion about moving the Rays out of their horrible stadium, to Montreal. Way to keep things interesting, Bostonians.

Down in the Zone

I was more than a little worried about the way the Tampa series ended. An intentional walk followed by an unintentional walk is just terrible and a walk-off walk is even worse. The fact that all of that happened within about five minutes in the 11th inning nearly pushed me over the edge. THROW STRIKES.

That feeling of dread carried over to the Boston series, where 145 year old Ramon Ortiz started and Jon Lester one-hit the Blue Jays. Ortiz actually did all right, aside from the 5 walks, and only gave up one run. 1-0 was the score until the Sox punished the bullpen and ballooned the score to 5-0.

On Saturday, Mark Buehrle pitched like a guy one could actually believe has a World Series ring, a perfect game and a no-hitter.


“It was one of those days that I had the majority of my pitches working, movement, down in the zone, but the times I did miss they didn’t make me pay for it,” he said. “I think a big part of this game is luck and I had that on my side today.”

Adam Lind provided the late offense, putting the Jays back up on top 3-2 with a homer to straightaway centre in the ninth after the pen denied Buehrle a well-deserved win.



“It’s just fun to help this team win, do some good things, be on the bases, getting dirty, playing first,” Lind said. “You're really more involved with the game and you feel like you're part of it and have a better rhythm with it.”

Or as SOSH put it:

Lind is probably munching a hot pocket in the dugout now. 

Speaking of, SOSH, in the midst of a Red Sox slide that is wearing the sheen off their great April, is pretty colourful.


Chad Jenkins has The World''s Biggest Horseshoe lodged in his ass.

Chad Jenkins took a page out of the Mark Buehrle book of "Down in the Zone" and flat out dominated Red Sox hitters in a way that made me forget he was drafted by the Blue Jays ahead of Mike Trout. Well, actually I'll never forget that, but Jenkins was really good.


Well you can't expect to score any runs off an all-time great like Whatshisname Jenkins. You just have to tip your cap to the Hall of Famer who is dominating us today.

Holy shit April was a mirage. Honeymoon over for Farrell?

I love that this is an articulated sentiment. It's one of the reasons the whole "dream job" narrative was so funny. And I know #firegibby has been a thing, but those people are idiots, too.

And this:

I miss Bobby Valentine.

Double-steal up 7-1. Jays hate the Sox. I think we see a brawl with this team at some point this season.

The double steal was great.  There was a swagger present that's been missing. And why wouldn't they hate the Sox? It's fun to roll in and rain on the parade. Also, homers from Encarnacion, Bonifacio and two from Bautista helped, too. 

These are the Blue Jays that we expected to see. 

Yeah.

And finally, a warm sentiment from SOSH on this special day:

The Red Sox players' mothers should have gotten abortions. Thanks, Moms.

Yeah.

Happy Mother's Day.

Where Dreams go to Die

The past few days of baseball have been eerie. Two come from behind victories, when the odds seemed stacked against the Jays, and coming in the place where, in previous seasons, dreams go to die. A scary bad performance from Buehrle (well, really just the third inning. He and the bullpen held it down after that until offense rode in to save the day.) And a scary, scary J.A. Happ incident that led to praying on the field.

Line drives to the head illustrate perfectly just how sneakily dangerous this game can be. Hard objects are flying around at 90-100 plus mph and the players stand so close to the trajectories, leaving little reaction time. And this is a sport considered by some to be sedate or even boring, when it actually requires players to ignore instincts about personal safety and protection. I would imagine that if one actually started to consider what was actually happening, one would be too freaked out to hang in there.

I was also reminded of this:

 

Well, there goes your social life.

Happ luckily escaped with just a cut behind his ear that required stitches and a sore knee from when he dropped down post-hit.

NESN posted the Happ story on Facebook, and Red Sox fans were offering best wishes Happ. Which was great, until they started congratulating themselves for being such good people and "better than Jays fans". I thought they were referring to the Buccholz stuff as in "Jays fans hating on our successful pitcher" but Tweeps pointed out they were likely referring to Toronto fans booing John Farrell when he came out to get an injured John Lackey. The booing was tacky and lame (seriously, stop doing that), but Lackey re-aggravated an arm injury. And wasn't bleeding or knocked to the ground. He didn't leave on a stretcher. You'd be pretty much sub-human to not wish someone well in this situation. To paraphrase Chris Rock, stop looking for credit for things you are supposed to do. What do you want, a cookie?

I thought they were bad, but then I read Yankee fan reactions on Twitter who called this karma for the spring game where Happ unintentionally broke Curtis Granderson's forearm with a pitch. Curtis Granderson, one of the classiest dudes in pro-sports, would be horrified.

 Ricky Romero lasted one third of an inning in the third game. And it was weird. I don't like that they brought him up so quickly, after one outing in Dunedin. It wasn't that Romero was bad- I mean, he wasn't good- but he got kinda squeezed and gave up a bunch of singles that found holes. It was tentative all around- he was tentative and the coaching staff was tentative. And now he's been optioned to AAA Buffalo. My favourite part of the start was the turbo power talk Brett Lawrie seemed to give Romero after he loaded the bases.

 

Last year there was a contest to win a workout session with Brett Lawrie and I remember thinking "Pray for that person."

The Romero situation disturbs me because I'm rather fond of the guy and I don't like to see the talented not performing. It's a developing situation and I'm hoping for the best.

I have nowhere else to put this- Melky Cabrera is hitting like a damn machine right now. And making this face.

Which is the same face I made when Jon Morosi tweeted me. Twice.

[Expletive] Rodeo

Buccholz is loading up. I'm about 90 % sure. Not just the pictures, but the various attempts at explaining on the Sox end that hasn't really explained anything. That's not rosin. The rosin they use in baseball is like tacky chalk. It's not shiny. And the tapping on the forearm and the dirty shirt that he apparently doesn't wash.

I have kind of missed mildly annoyed John Farrell. He hasn't said anything as great as "Sometimes he writes things like 'Let's go today' in his eye black" but it's been pretty good.


“It bothers me immensely,” Farrell said. “When someone is going to make an accusation – and in this case, on cheating because they've seen it on TV. He’s got rosin on his arm. And I think rosin was designed to get a grip.

“Fact is, the guy’s 6-0, he’s pitched his tail off. And people are going to point to him cheating? Unfounded.”

And the rumours about sign stealing and "Man in White" have been brought up again.


Buccholz is a great pitcher and has historically owned the Jays, anyway, so I'm not outraged, really.

The Jays didn't think it was that big of a deal, or they would've said something. Gibby says it's very common in baseball and not why the Jays lost that game. Red Sox side says, "No, not true. And the Jays suck!!!!"

The pearl clutching and yelling from the Sox media is the funniest stuff about this. The personal attacks, the "shitty trade" articles, the "Houston of the North" articles. This is less than a year since their adventures with Bobby Valentine, and texts messages to management from "Kelly Shoppach" using Adrian Gonzalez's phone, so they probably are enjoying something newly salacious to cover.

Jack Morris said he shared his suspicions with Red Sox catchers David Ross, who caught Buchholz on Wednesday, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia before Thursday’s game.

“I went up to Salty and I told him,” Morris said. “He said, ‘It’s dry in Boston, and I've seen him put water all over his pants.’ I said, ‘Salty this isn't my first [expletive] rodeo.’ He didn't know what to say to that, so we ended the conversation right there.”

So good. And Dennis Eckersley is hilariously outraged at Jack Morris. I'll be forever grateful that Roberto Alomar took him deep.

Basically what's been reinforced for me is that it doesn't matter whether the Sox are in first place or last place, their media is full of petty, reactionary writers. Miserable winners, miserable losers. And smug.

I'm not outraged that Buccholz was loading up. I just want my team to play better.

And that game last night, that extremely winnable but generally limp game, was brutal to watch.

A SOSHing Good Time

I haven't visited SOSH in a while. Mostly because I really can't stand smug winners, because the last series they beat the Jays 13-0 in one game and well, their early record was much better than Toronto's. It's one thing when smug people lose, it's a whole other thing when not only do they win but they think they are entitled to their winning.

But with last night's up and down and up again Jays victory that closed out an abysmal month for one team and a great month for another, I figured I'd get a visit in.

In general what I noticed was that everything Jays fans on Twitter enjoyed, Sox fans hated. Shocking, I know.

Also, they hate Brett Lawrie, Jon Lester, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, each and every one of you and likely themselves.

Early observation of Brandon Morrow, who they think sucks for the most part.


Ugh. That slider and our lineup. 

It was nasty early, and he had a lot of strikeouts with it in the mix. Morrow threw too many pitches, however and didn't last long enough. But I'll stop complaining.

As I mentioned earlier, the SOSH crowd really hates Brett Lawrie. And honestly, if he wasn't ours, I'd probably make fun of him a lot more often. The kid is a cartoon. But I'll give props to the SOSH crowd:

So that was quite the play.

Prick Lawrie

What a fucking incredible play.Talk about helping out a struggling pitcher. Wow. 

They respect insane plays. And this was insane. 

As was this:

Holy shit, that was crushed. 

Fuck Canada and all things Canadian. 

That's pure Dominicano, cabrón. 

Holy shit.  Some countries don't have the technology to launch objects that high.

The Red Sox were tough to kill last night. They kept coming back. I nearly cried when the middle infield blew that double play. The inning continued and allowed David Ortiz to be David Ortiz. 

SOSH couldn't believe old man Oliver was still in the big leagues.

Ahh yes. Darren Oliver... 75 yrs old and about to make them look foolish...

Darren Oliver was old when we traded Carl Everett for him.

Darren Oliver pitched to Nap Lajoie a few times 

Oliver's appearance also prompted this astute observation:

Parents out there, watch and learn from this tomato can; teach your son to throw fucking left handed.

When the Red Sox pulled ahead, SOSH was pretty happy.

I LIKE BASEBALL

But some sensed trouble brewing.

Bautista scares me. Every time up, no matter who is pitching.

Nice job by Tazawa, there's worse things that walking their best player with 2 outs and nobody on.

And then:

Good fucking grief.

Fuuuuùuuuuuuuuuuuùuuuuuuuuuuuuuù 

That was delicious. I like that the "u" was pressed so long, accents showed up. 

Lester, and to a lesser extent Saltalamacchia were blamed for this loss. But one SOSHian made this observation:

Red Sox getting burned too many times by dumb mistakes on the bases.

Farrell-ball?  

The most adroit comment of the night:

That was a colossal missed opportunity to tighten the noose around the Jays neck.  With Encarnacion and Bautista kicking in they won't stay down forever, and winning two out of three this week would be a nice way to keep the distance between them and the Sox enough to make the Blue Jays keep answering questions about why they suck.

That's precisely why that win was so good and why the Jays need to go out and do it again. Because:

Ouch. This team is better than its record. 

And on Colby Rasmus, who went 2 for 4 with an RBI. 

Rasmus looks like he could sell you some killer weed......

A Bloody Bloodbath

Photo by John Lott

Judging from a particular tweet from a rather feisty José Bautista, people have been trolling him hard on Twitter. I’m sure many people are thrilled to be able to chirp rich, talented people in a brave way that Twitter offers. The Internet provides the long range missile approach to trolling, and I’m sure it makes people feel very good about themselves. 

I’m sorry the Jays’ marketing department went into overdrive, and people, apparently unaware of the nature of both marketing and baseball, bought into the hype to the extent that they now feel personally wronged because the team is off to a crap start. Wronged and out for vengeance. 

Let me assure you, it’s not personal. They aren't trying to pull a fast one on us. It’s just baseball. The team is not performing to their potential early. It’s just baseball. The pitchers are rough. The hitting is inconsistent. The defense is at times atrocious. It’s just baseball. 

As for the various rumours that there is dissension in the ranks, I can't say I'm surprised. There is dissension in the press (“it’s early” vs "haha trolololosi" vs PANIC, trade everything that isn't nailed down vs “I told you so. Stupid Canada. U-S-A! U-S-A!”) and  dissension in the fandom (“I knew they were going to suck. HAHAH” vs “Fire Gibby” vs “Shut up, it’s early” vs “I hate you all.”) Is it that surprising that there are rough feelings in the clubhouse? Issues are always highlighted when losing and smoothed over when winning. 

The New York Daily News went and talked to some rather sad Blue Jays about their start.

“There’s just a bad vibe creeping in here and we need to address it,” Mark DeRosa said. “It’s just weird after spring training when we had a swagger about us.”

It's called losing, Mark. It sucks.

The sweep over the weekend at the hands of the Yankees wasn't fun. But I do take comfort (to a certain extent) in the fact that all of them were one-run losses that hinged on a play or two. They really could've gone either way, and it could've actually been a sweep of the Yankees. Then things look a hell of a lot rosier, don't they? 

Despite the result, R.A. Dickey actually looked pretty good in his start. The Overbay homer was...well, it sucked. But the Boesch homer was a Yankee stadium special. It still counts, so I guess it also sucks.

Dickey said Nunez was stalling when he called time with something in his eye. The comments are pretty hilarious on this. Fans, you'd be so much cooler if you just owned your team's dickishness. Was it a stall tactic? Oh probably. It is the sort of thing they like to do.

I read a blog post by a Red Sox fan that I felt I needed to share, just because it’s so deliciously arrogant. Yes, the Red Sox are off to a great start and yes, “so-called baseball experts”, as you describe them, slotted the team to finish 5th in the AL East. This dude has basically guaranteed Boston for a post-season berth, based on their April and written off both the Jays and the Rays. 

How can someone who has watched any kind of baseball, let alone enough to write a blog about it, think this? How can someone have watched Boston’s dizzying highs, historic collapses and blockbuster signings and trades that didn't pan out over even just the past five seasons and think this is a sure bet? Ok, maybe write-off the Jays if you dare, but write off the Rays- the wiliest, sneakiest team around at your own peril. 

His prediction might come to fruition. Boston might be playing in October, while Rays and Jays are planning for 2014. But it sure as hell isn't a guarantee. In the preseason, I predicted the AL East was going to be a bloodbath and I stand by it. 

Bobbled

Frankly, I  have no idea the what and the why of what's going on with the Jays.

And judging by the faces of the dudes in the dugout, and the tweets from writers who cover the team, I am definitely not the only one. I think we are all burnt out and frustrated watching this team.  And with people who tweet the belief that homers kill rallies.

I realize that the hitting and pitching aren't there (thanks all, who have sent me stats over Twitter), but to me, the defense up the middle has been the most glaring and basic problem. Hitting and pitching has the history of being finicky and slow to get going, due to weather or rust or who knows what. Defense is usually a constant. Denying a Buehrle-type pitcher ground ball outs and forcing him to face the Canos of the world after an extended inning is never a good idea.  It's not because Buehrle sucks (feel free to believe that if you wish, just don't tweet me stats about it.) It's because it doesn't work that way. The world as a whole doesn't work that way.

It felt like something might finally give with the walk-off walk against the Orioles on Wednesday. That series featured games that were entirely winnable, except they weren't won. Bad luck, sloppy play or an umpire's insistence on demonstrating his mediocrity all contributed. I also discovered that Oriole fans on the Internet are as obnoxious as every other teams' fans on the Internet.

Hey losers! Every organization buys their team. No one is working for free. Every one of the players in the MLB is a commodity that is bought and sold. The Jays may have bought their team. But EVERYONE has bought their team.

On the subject of the rally killing homers: while I agree that an offense needs to be more diverse than just homeruns, I prefer homers to nothing (which is the other option, apparently.)

Homers are the culmination of the rally. The exclamation point, if you will. They are also guaranteed runs. They are better than a walk with two outs. They are better than a lead off double. They are better than an infield single.

I also want to point out just how awesomely Encarnación has been playing of late. He's hit three homers in three games, and is stinging the baseball even when he makes outs. That weird call reversal where Encarnación was said to have "bobbled" the ball was irritating, but I think the tense atmosphere around the team (and the fanbase) made that wound extra salty. 

Both Gibbons and Encarnación said they thought the catch was clean.

“They said he bobbled it,” Gibbons said. “I didn't see a bobble."

“My big concern was there was no appeal by the other side, and I thought the rules say on an appeal by the other side, the umpire making the call can check. That’s my interpretation of the rule. Luckily nobody scored. That’s a good umpiring crew, but when I saw [them rule] bobble, I just didn't see a bobble.”  

Say "bobble" some more, Gibby.

Crew chief Jeff Kellog gave elaborate reasoning for over turning the call. 

If I were Gibbons, I would've just yelled, "Armando Galarraga, you greasy bastards!!!" 

My friend, Liz, maybe the greatest fan this team has, had an interaction with Colby Rasmus' dad over Twitter about Colby. Some freaked out a little, but I don't think it's that mean or anything Colby doesn't already know. 

Colby just wants to dance.

Josh Johnson isn't going to pitch tonight because he's got tight triceps. Because, of course. Recently reacquired Aaron Laffey is going to spot start and we're all going to gird our loins. 

John Lott talked to Casey Janssen, who has been fantastic so far this year despite not feeling 100%. He says asks the team when he needs to rest. “I hate it,” he said. “It’s not the way I’m wound.”

Janssen's velocity is down, but his seemingly supernatural ability to throw strikes and his breakneck pace on the mound remains. 

“I’ve always had the mentality it’s going to happen fast, good or bad,” he said before the Blue Jays opened a series in Yankee Stadium on Thursday night. “Hopefully it’s in the win column, [then] get ready for tomorrow. The fewer pitches you throw, the more opportunity you have to go back out the next day.”

Let's drop some drive, KC Janz. 

Not Nearly as Fun as it Could've Been

That was a weekend of baseball that was not nearly as fun as it could've been. The Yankees rolled into town and took two of three. One of the losses was a pounding, with a patchy Brandon Morrow and anemic offense and some defense that allowed a shallow fly ball turn into two runs.

Rasmus took the error, but Arencibia took the responsibility:

“I don’t think that was cuttable. Again, cuttable or not cuttable, I had a bad read on that. That ball, probably, usually does get cut, especially with the guy not running, but regardless, that ball kind of ate me up a little bit. I put myself in a bad spot.”

The other was a late blown tie due to crap defense. All three featured a resurgent Vernon Wells, whose offensive and defensive displays created consternation amongst the Jays faithful.

Wells is a great ballplayer (yes, he is) and always seemed like a decent human being. His play so far doesn't surprise me all that much. I think Wells' struggles after signing his big contract were due to the pressure he put on himself to live up to it. He lost his job in Anaheim (who has a glut of young, talented outfielders) and has announced that after he's done this contract, he's going to retire and spend more time with his kids. Wells is now in the company of old veterans who have a lot of money. Maybe Wells just no longer gives a shit.

gif courtesy of gamereax.com

The third game was clearly the best game, with a come from behind win aided by some previously absent timely hitting. Everything clicked in a way it hasn't done much of this season. Adam Lind walked four times. FOUR TIMES.

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve got good players on this team, and it’s just a matter of us all clicking at once, instead of a single every inning,” said Lind after the game. 

“Hitting is contagious, as it pitching,” he said. “When they both start rollin’, they continue to keep rollin’. People get on base, opens up holes, puts pressure on the pitcher. And pitchers, pitchers try to keep up with each other.”

FOUR TIMES!

So apparently, the Yankees have security posted behind the visitors' bullpen. This became an issue because they had some Jays fans ejected from the game, supposedly for heckling the Yankees pitchers. 

While this can be seen as an example of the Yankees throwing their weight around and generally being irritating,  I also knows from my friends who have season tickets that there are plenty of people who take it too far. 

From the blog post written by the Jays fan who witnessed the ejections: As a fan, my rights are to cheer, jeer, chant, yell, boo and generally vocalize my adulation of the home team or my derision of the visitor. That’s what my ticket gets me. I am allowed to disagree.

Well, actually, while you can "disagree", your derision can't include any foul or abusive language (so it has to be boring).   You can't get drunk and rowdy. You also can't get to second base in the non-baseball sense. 

It's right in the code of conduct that appears on their website. Management also has a right to toss you if they deem your behaviour objectionable. That's printed right on your ticket. 

Your ticket gets you the right to watch the baseball game. And the heckling of the opposing team might be tolerated more if people weren't getting sloppy drunk and violent. So behave, people. Don't get booze banned for those who can handle their liquor. 

Truly, Fully Back

Brett Lawrie is back in the lineup for tonight's game. He tweeted a picture of his morning Red Bull, indicating he is truly and fully back.

About 20 minutes after the Boston Marathon, a likely benignly ignorant Brett Lawrie tweeted about his great hot tub time. I tweeted him, gently pointing out what was going in, that maybe hot tub tweets would be taken the wrong way. I got several admonishing tweets from bros from all over, including Chilliwack, B.C.

It was really annoying.

This made it better.

As did a Mark Buehrle start that was vintage Mark Buehrle. This is why people respect the guy. It's not because he blows you away with amazing stuff.

He works fast, he throws strikes so he doesn't walk anyone and he has a saucy little pick off move. He's like the perfect lefty that you slide into the bottom end of your rotation and just does his work. It's a shame he's so expensive, but there you go.

It was his first start ever versus the White Sox, a team he played for for 13 years.

“I tried not to take a look at too many guys as they stepped in the batter’s box because I knew I’d start laughing or something bad would happen,” he said to the National Post. “So I just tried to focus on the glove, which is not me. Usually, I’m out looking around and having fun."

Jackie Robinson- really good at baseball ( Flip Flop Flyball via Getting Blanked)

Casey Janssen and JP Arencibia are in love with Kawasaki.

Two things:

Apparently Casper Wells was on the roster specifically to provide former teammate comments on Kawaski. When that job was completed, his presence on the roster was deemed unnecessary. Also, Jose Reyes going by on crutches behind Arencibia is the kind of irony I enjoy.

“He’s got that infectious personality,” manager John Gibbons said about Kawaski. “In the dugout, you don’t necessarily know what he’s saying, but he’s fun to listen to.”

Kawaski chats in Japanese constantly in the dugout (even though no one speaks Japanese) and bows to his teammates when they make a good play. Let's keep him. #kawaskimercy


This is old, but vital. I noticed over the past two weeks that national (ie American) sports columnists, mostly Fox Sports, are trolling the Jays and Jays fans hard. But then again, we have our own columnists trolling the Jays and Jays fans.

Also, "long time Buehrle observer." Awesome.

The slow start of the team and the loss of Reyes has gotten a lot of wheels turning. Jeff Blair contends that the Jays were looking for help even before Reyes hurt himself. 

It's the "All In" season, afterall.

Here's R.A. Dickey's interview with Q's Jian Ghomeshi. Anyone who has read his book knows Dickey's story, but listen just for how he talks. His voice is sort of mesmerizing in this.

Fold Boston in his Heart

Something about me that some of you might find a little shocking, given the amount of shit I give Red Sox fans on this blog- I cheered for Boston in the 2003 and the 2004 playoffs. Aaron Boone's homer was horrifying. I felt awful for Sox fans and elated when the Sox came back from a 0-4 deficit in the ALCS the next year. The Yankees were a soulless evil and the Red Sox were the scrappy underdogs. In nearly a decade (!) since that run, the entitled attitude of the Red Sox fans (best exemplified on SOSH and in the Boston sports media), with the casual racism, the blowhards, the eagerness to eat their young and the bandwagoners who don't remember (or respect) the 86 years of suckage, has eroded any goodwill I once had for that fandom.

But in the wake of what happened at the Boston Marathon yesterday, I will say that I respect Boston as a sports city and as a great American city that a lot of people really love.  And I get why sports people love to play there. When it's good, it's really, really good.  Has any city been as successful, sports-wise, in the first decade of the 21st century? The Patriots, the Celtics, the Bruins and the Red Sox have all won their respective championships at least once. That's an amazing run.  

Patriot's Day in Boston is a perfect spring holiday. The Red Sox play at 11 am (morning baseball!) and the game finishes in time for everyone to go check out the Boston Marathon. The Marathon, the longest continually run marathon in the world, is a huge point of pride for them. This is just sad and horrifying. No city, anywhere, deserves this. 

Maybe after three weeks of some truly terrible examples of Jays fandom (which, frankly, turned me off blogging for a bit) has put Red Sox fandom in perspective. I still don't like them, exactly, but I have developed a new kind of respect. 

Sicut patribus sit Deus nobis.

Toughen Up

A few years ago I was watching some playoff game or another with my father, and I began making wailing noises at some point due to the unbearable suspense that comes into play during playoff baseball. And my father turned to me and said, "If you are going to watch this game, you better toughen up."

So, everyone who watched that game yesterday, hear this: if you are going to watch this game, you better toughen up. 

Baseball is hard. Catching a knuckle ball sucks, especially for someone who isn't that experienced with it, combined with all the emotions/butterflies involved in Opening Night. The passed balls did take away the possibility of the double play. If Arencibia lets 3 Brandon Morrow pitches get passed him tonight, then I will accept moaning. Until then, toughen up. And don't tweet whine to Wilner. 

Melky Cabrera stung a Masterson pitch, but it was right into the glove of Asdrubal Cabrera, which doubled off Jose Reyes. Man, that sucked.  But it happens. As do homers that neither the hitter nor the pitcher can believe. 

GIF courtesy of gamereax.com

Dickey is so gentlemanly. I bet he doesn't even swear. If he does swear, it's probably old-timey swears like "Tarnation!" and "Goshamighty!" But not old-timey as in Al Swearengen. 

Let's think about the good- the bullpen was insane. Brett Cecil hit 94 mph with his fastball and Sergio Santos' slider impregnated a few people. Melky Cabrera looked pretty solid with the bat, and Colby Rasmus took a walk. Yes, he struck out three times, but a walk! 

Anyway, the season is a long drudge. It's brutal, agonizing and annoying. This team is going to win baseball games. 

If you are going to behave like this team owes you something, that you are entitled to some wins, you might as well go cheer for the Red Sox. You'd fit right in.

Links A Go Go (Drunken Brawl Edition)

So it's t-minus 3 hours till launch of the 2013 Toronto Blue Jays season and I think everyone is just a little excited. I thought I would do a link round up to tide you over until it's time to head to the ball park or it's time to get comfy on the couch.

JP Arencibia's catching gloves, from Lott's Flickr. Big Yellow is for the knuckler.

Over at The National Post- Joe Carter wants you all to simmer down , some bloggers got together (over the Internet) and talked about 10 things about the Jays, and a gathering of all the stories that matter rolling into the season, with links to stellar work by John Lott and Bruce Arthur.

Also, John Lott talked to Bob Oliver about his time in the big leagues in the post-Jackie Robinson era. This article got a little lost in the shuffle last week, but it's a good one. 

Black Magic (and son of Bob Oliver) Photobomb.

Lovely (inside and out) Meredith Rogers guest posts on Getting Blanked with A Guide to Opening Day.

Jeff Blair was on Tim and Sid, talking Jays and his new book.

Stoeten's beard was on Metro Morning this morning. I don't have the link to the interview, but I'll post it when I find it.

 Now double your money and make a stack

"The Bottom of my Heart": Romero's Demotion Emotions

Almost right from the beginning of Romero's struggles in the spring, I have been tired of hearing about this situation.

One of the great things about acquiring new arms was that Romero could work out whatever issues he had without the pressure of carrying the pitching staff and by extension, the team.

Romero is sore and it's messed with his mechanics. It's one of the reason one shouldn't pitch hurt. One's body makes adjustments, sometimes unconscious adjustments, to prevent feeling pain. It can mess with the ability to throw strikes.

Pitching coach Pete Walker talked about Romero where his mechanics need to be:

“He’s a three-quarters slot guy, and when he gets a little across his body, that upper half gets in that east-to-west direction, his arm slot drops, and he’ll get around the ball and cut some off. (On Tuesday) he was little bit higher in the first inning, but that comes with the direction and where he’s landing and the positioning of his foot and his hips as they come through the delivery. When that’s all good, his slot is a little bit higher and he has better movement on the ball and better command.”

It never ceases to amaze me how complicated pitching can be.


“You get knocked down like that right after the game, it’s something you don’t expect,” Romero said during an interview with the National Post, Sportsnet.ca and the Toronto Sun. “It hurts and it hits me to the bottom of my heart, because I care so much and I’ve worked so hard for everything I have.”

His first reaction: “‘Is this supposed to help my confidence?’ When it first happens, you’re kind of like, ‘Whoa.’ A million thoughts go through your head. I don’t know if you guys have ever been fired from a job, and you go and sit at home and say, ‘What the hell did I do wrong?’”

All of Romero`s comments to John Lott in the National Post seem to be extensive self-talk. He is merely trying to articulate his feelings so he can process what has happened. Of course he doesn't like being demoted. No one likes being demoted at their job, even if they can see it coming.


Jeff Blair points out that the demotion to A ball has more to do with weather than some sort of reflection of Romero's status. Dunedin is warmer in April than New Hampshire or Buffalo. It also may indicate that Anthopoulos and company believe (or hope to believe) that the minor league stint will be a short one.

Romero has long adopted a "me against the world" persona that he shows to the public and I'm not sure he's a complicated enough guy for it not to be something he actually believes about himself.

“Today I woke up and I was like, ‘You know what, no one’s going to feel sorry for me.’ I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. I’ve got to go out there and work, work, work, because I’m not planning on being here for two weeks, three weeks. I want to get this done quick, and I’m going to spend all the time that I can to get up to Toronto and be with those guys because I am part of the team and I belong there."

On Twitter, some are talking about how he's insulted his teammates and is denying his issues with his comments. I've read the comments four times, and I just don't see it. All I see is a guy who's disappointed, frustrated and a little at a loss. All of which is completely understandable. Also, this is a team of late bloomers and veterans now. They've seen struggle and they know Romero much better than we do.

What does this actually say about the Jays as a team? I think it says that they aren't messing around this year. It's all in, and they are taking their 25 best guys north. And as Jeff Blair points out, it's not like the ace is staying in Florida.

As for the Happ situation, he's the fifth starter. And he'll pitch like the fifth starter. And that's just fine. Stoeten sums up Happ's new deal like this:

"Happ was already signed for $3.7-million for 2013, and has accumulated four years and 47 days of service time, meaning that a full year’s worth of MLB time for him this year would have pushed him into his last arbitration year at the end of the season, putting him on track for full free agency after 2014. So, essentially, the Jays have given themselves a halfway decent option on his first free agent year in exchange for paying him like they probably would have anyway, provided he was actually playing in the Majors."

Plus Happ's now a controllable pitcher for a few years, which may make him more tastier tradeable bit if they no longer require him to eat innings. And other than that, I can't really get excited about this deal one way or another.

I don't know if everyone is just excited about the new season, but the amount of drama, particularly on Twitter, seems excessive.

The Old Bookshelf

So soon my parents are planning on selling my childhood home (sigh.) And as a result of this massive move, I have been going through some old things. I visited my dad because he wanted to go trough his massive collection of baseball books to see if I wanted anything.

Here are some highlights.

"In more than 30 years in professional baseball as a pitcher, coach, performance analyst, and consultant, Tom House has helped enhance and extend the careers of many pitching greats, including Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan. In Fit to Pitch, Tom combines his on-field experiences, weight-room workouts, and years of research to deliver proven, practical applications that will strengthen your pitching throughout the year."


"Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver is the acknowledged master of both the psychology and the technique of making a living at the corners of the plate. "The Art of Pitching, a product of Seaver's twenty-one years of expertise on the mound, details what it takes to get to the top -- and stay there -- in terms of conditioning, mechanics, and concentration. "

Or as my dad put it: Tall and Fall (House) vs Drop and Drive (Seaver....and Casey Janssen.)

"At 43 years old, Nolan Ryan is a marvel. He is still blowing his fastballs by hitters at an age when most pitchers have long since retired -- or have learned to depend on guile instead of power. But the Ryan express keeps chugging on, getting more unhittable, not less. Nolan Ryan's Pitcher's Bible tells us the secrets of Ryan's success. Drawing on Ryan's practical experience and Tom House's research expertise, it shows how the right combination of exercise and motivation can help a pitcher develop to his greatest potential." 

It doesn't cover how to become president of the Texas Rangers, probably the most dominant team of the past five years that hasn't won a World Series. Nor does it cover how to old man glower when your bullpen has lost it's ability to throw strikes because your possibly inept manager has misused and abused them. 

"Boggs shows hitters how to apply the lessons of the power curve to use the impact zone to its maximum potential and produce the most hits and runs. He explains the similarities and differences between his hitting theories and those of hitting greats Ted Williams, Charlie Lau, and Pete Rose."

Not included are chapters on how to keep your road girlfriend on the road and out of court or any recipe for lucky chicken. You'll find such recipes in a different Boggs book called Fowl Tips.

"Former Philadelphia Phillie third baseman Mike Schmidt's Hall of Fame career was fuelled by an unshakable work ethic and an intelligence that allowed him to sift through numerous hitting theories and choose the elements that best complemented his physical abilities. This book is the result of more than 20 years of study and application on Schmidt's part. It is designed to assist little-league coaches with the difficult task of teaching young players how to hit. Schmidt combines elements of three major systems into one: the early weight-shift system (think of films of Ty Cobb); the Charlie Lau weight shift; and the Ted Williams rotation. The analogy Schmidt uses to differentiate between the shift and rotation systems is the difference between a shot-putter and a javelin thrower. The javelin thrower generates force via running and a final thrust (weight shift); the shot-putter requires a torquing movement (rotation) in a small space. Through text, photos, and line drawings, Schmidt explores the mental aspects of hitting, situational hitting, the strike zone, hand action, and how to recognize ball rotation, among other elements. This is an excellent text for hitters--young or old--and their coaches."

This is, according to some, the best book about hitting ever. Well, not for this guy, who commented on the Amazon listing in 1999 and itemized every single error in the book. 

My dad was a lefty pitcher and he said that there were old timey guys who coached him in the sixties as a teenager that wanted him to pitch like this.

Nolan Ryan's Fastball on VHS. Ryan "reveals legendary pitching secrets for the first time ever!" even though I think some of my dad's books by him pre-date this tape. Nolan Ryan Express, people. 

The next book is my favourite find, if only for the delicious irony of it. I kind of want to keep it for the irony alone.



"About steroids, don't use them. Steroids create the illusion of great gains in short periods of time, but they have a debilitating effect on your body chemistry, and in the long run you will be much worse for having used them. The ultimate price you have to pay is far, far greater than any short-term gain. Also, baseball is not a game of large muscle. It is a game of strong, solid, durable muscle. Therefore, steroids have virtually no value even in the short term, if you are serious about baseball." (Canseco and McKay 1990:159).

J.A. not Happ(y)

So J.A. Happ would likely be a 4th or 5th starter on most Major League clubs, but with the rebooted Blue Jays, Happ is likely to be relegated to the 6th starter-which means he's moving to AAA Buffalo.

And, understandably, Happ isn't down with that.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Happ, after he pitched 3.1 scoreless innings against the visiting New York Yankees on Sunday. “I told myself a couple things before I came into camp — that I would try to stay as positive as I could and let things play out. So I’m trying to do that.”

Happ sees himself as a Major League starter, not at AAA starter or a member of the bullpen and has hinted that he hopes other teams are watching what he's capable of, and that he might be traded elsewhere.

It's one of those situations were both sides have merit. The 2012 Jays rotation was decimated with injuries, so stockpiling solid arms would seem prudent. Also, should Ricky Romero have the sort of disastrous year he endured last season or if his knees or elbow give out (likely the cause of the disaster), Happ is the first to get the call. There is some question as to whether Happ should have Romero's spot already, based on last season's performance, but there are a few reasons that isn't likely.  The major one is a money reason. The team has made a bigger investment in Romero, contract-wise, and would like to see a return on that investment.

The "starter Happ" issue has been brewing since last season, when he was traded to the Jays and relegated to the bullpen after he was a starter in Houston. Happ won't right out and say he finds bullpen work unacceptable, but his comments on the matter hint at it constantly:

“I don’t want to make any waves or cause any issues,” he said to John Lott of the National Post last July. “I think we’ll just wait and see a little bit. But obviously I feel like I'm better suited to be a starter. I think I can be successful there and help this team in that role. So I do hope for an opportunity to get in the rotation.”

Well, for now, it's the Buffalo rotation. But I also think Romero's leash has been tightened. I think it's wrong to criticize Happ for feeling this way. You want guys that want to be challenge and have ambition. Stoeten over at Drunk Jays Fans makes valid points about Happ's situation and argues that a baseball player in his situation is going to have a different viewpoint on sucking up and taking one for the team than a fan would.

John Gibbons doesn't seem that worried about the Happ. He said that by the end of the year “he’ll probably be laughing and we’ll have forgotten all about this."

Jose Bautista did a "Ask me Anything" Reddit chat, and it was pretty amusing. He thinks Brett Lawrie is unintentionally hilarious, enjoys Southern food with Colby Rasmus, thinks he's a rather terrible actor, enjoys steak at Barberians in T.O., doesn't correctly remember his 54th homer in 2010, enjoys a show staring Betty White and answered this question: "Would you rather fight 100 Jon Rauch-sized ducks, or 1 horse-sized David Eckstein?" with "The Eckstein-sized horse...but shouldn't the question be 100 Eckstein sized hoses or 1 Rauch sized duck?"

Because 100 nearly 7 foot ducks that weigh 290 lbs are far scarier than a small (Eckstein-sized) horse.

Canada was eliminated from the WBC over the weekend, but not before engaging in a pretty crazy bench clearing brawl with Mexico on Saturday.

And it was a full out brawl. There wasn't just crotch grabbing and yapping. There were haymakers for all and dudes being thrown to the ground. Notably, Vancouver's Tyson Gillies tossing Alfredo Aceves like a rag doll. “I had a hold of him, and I think I saw Satan in his eyes,” Larry Walker said of Aceves while speaking with reporters after the game.

My favourite bit of the ESPN report was the description of Sergio Romo "cutting people with his eyes." Actually, the broadcast is pretty funny in general. They are the perfect combination of aghast and titillated.


The tricky thing about this brawl is what instigated it. Canada was leading 9-3, and it's considered bad form to run up the score with a bunt. It's one of those unwritten rules that baseball purists wear like a badge of honour. But,  the tie-breaking method in this tournament is run differential. It's actually how Canada was eliminated in 2006. So, as odious as it might be to some, running up the score is the right call.

Well, not according to Jose Bautista:

“I’m not buying the fact that teams are bunting when they’re up by six because of the rules of the WBC,” Bautista told reporters Sunday morning before the Blue Jays’ 3-0 loss to the New York Yankees at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

“I believe in the unwritten rules of the game. They should be respected. It’s a code amongst players and everybody who plays baseball at a level higher than Little League knows what it is and there’s no excuse.”

I'm not sure it's something that requires "buying." The run differential is the only reason they'd do it.   Bautista's wrong. And I'm not Happ(y) about it.

Links A Go Go

Today's "Famous People who Share our Interests":
Peter Richmond hung out with Bill Murray and watched a couple of Cubs games in 1990 and it was republished on Deadspin yesterday. Murray enjoyed polish sausage and told a teenage girl she smelled nice.

Also: "Another man came over and shoved a program in his face. 'If I miss one pitch, I'm going to kill you,' Bill said. The man laughed. 'I mean it,' Bill said. The man left."

Awesome.

Geddy Lee was featured in USA Today talking about Rush's election into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame and the Jays. He's also really into SABR and fantasy baseball and likes the pace of the game in general:

"I like the fact that there's no clock, and there's lots of time to critique what's going on while it's going on," he said.  "I think the spaces in between the plays actually complement your ability to appreciate what you just saw. So when a great play happens, even though when it's live you don't have instant replay, the conversation about what just happened is a form of instant replay."

Jose Bautista, Sergio Santos, Brandon Morrow, Colby Rasmus and R.A. Dickey talk about the music in the clubhouse.

Dickey is into opera. Naturally.

John Lott covers Marcus Stroman, whose massive personality overtakes his small stature. I'm always amused by pro-athletes that are shorter than me. Stroman talks about his PED suspension, his cop dad who made him run with parachutes as a little kid and his Twitter account.

“It’s me,” he said. “People tell me all the time on Twitter, ‘I hope you never change if you do happen to get a little bit of success, a little bit of fame.’ But I can’t see myself ever changing. It’s just who I am, and that’s exactly who I am on Twitter.”

John Lott also writes about Ricky Romero's quest to reclaim his sinker, and reports that Brandon Morrow is the one who did the research on Brooks Baseball and found that in 2011, when his ERA was 2.92, Romero threw sinking two-seam fastballs 22% of the time. Last year, his sinker rate fell to 11%. His ERA was 5.77, worst among big-league starters.  Morrow printed off the info and gave it to Romero.

Romero first start of the spring was a little rough. It wasn't so much that he was hit hard (other than the homer), but the command wasn't there and the velocity was down. But you know, spring. He's got six weeks.

John Lott also talks to Casey Janssen about his brainwashing, silencing his thoughts while he's pitching.

“I was too focused on feeling things,” he said. “‘What’s that? What’s this?’ I felt it here. I felt it there. Not that anything was alarming, but a little bit of my arm was affecting my head and we just wanted to eliminate that, to get to the point of picking up a ball and throwing it and not thinking twice.”

Sitting behind the bullpen as much as I did last season, I watched all the bullpen pitchers. Janssen never stops moving, fidgeting, or working out during a game. So it doesn't surprise me that his mind buzzes.

 Craig from Flip Flop Flyball was featured in USA Today talking about his Lego baseball players.

Dirk Hayhurst lost his voice today, so there was a rotating crew of announcers sitting in with Wilner, including Jamie Campbell, Alex Anthopoulos and Jeff Blair.

The Jeff Blair innings were the funniest. He and Wilner had easy rapport with a bit of snark. (Jeff Blair had snark? Shocking!)

As Stoeten at DJF and Minor Leaguer at Bluebird Banter both pointed out, Hayhurst and Wilner make a pretty good team on the airwaves.

And finally, Bob Elliot went to Tom Cheek's grave to tell him about the Ford C. Frick award. 

New Adventures of Old Jose

Stoeten took that in Dunedin. Cause sharing oxygen with his betters is how he rolls now.

One of the things I've noticed this spring about these new look Jays is how much I continue to admire Jose Bautista.

Imagine how your dream response to an ex or an old employer when you were asked about seeing them again. You'd want to combine grace (so you'd seem above it and better off) with just the right amount of snark to get a little dig in. I'd like to imagine that the dream response sounds a hell of a lot like this:

"As a person I like him. As a manager I like him. He never did anything bad or wrong to me. You can't blame somebody for having a desire to get to a certain place in his career.

"At least he said it and made it obvious and made it known to everybody. And he had a chance to pursue his dream. I would rather him be there doing that than be with us and wanting to be there.

"Yeah, I'll go say hi to him, talk to him, see what he's doing, see how's he feeling. Normal chit-chat. And then I'm going to try to kick his ass."

Also on Sunday, Bautista tweeted this:

Clearly, the man is on fire. 

Coming into the season, there are concerns. Bautista says the wrist is strong and feels good, but the kind of tendon sheath tear he had surgery on can be a tricky thing for power hitters. 

Mark DeRosa, who is currently serving as Brett Lawrie's new buddy, talked about how the same surgery didn't work for him. 

"I’m a tough guy to talk to," he says, "because I personally feel -- and not to make any excuses -- that it totally handicapped my entire career since I've done it. I’ve seen my power cut in half." 

Listening to the description of the swing that ended Bautista's season in July 2012:

“Maybe I had a little too much pine tar, or I held onto the bat for too long,” Bautista says now, seven months later. “But I felt a little pop, and a sharp pain.”  

And it becomes obvious just how fragile Bautista (and well, any of them) really are. 

With the emergence of Encarnacion as well as the various new and returning pieces, Bautista isn't quite the one man gang he once was. But John Gibbons argues that Bautista is the key that drives the entire offense:

"Look what he’s done the last few years. He’s a threat, in any ballpark. And home runs win. They're instant runs. You can be playing a tight game, and one swing of the bat from that guy, game's over. Or he's the kind of guy who, the other team's so careful with him, he draws a walk and now you've got that runner on base you need to get things going. … "

Despite all the new toys, this is still Bautista's team.

And whatever is going on in this picture, I get the sense there needs to be more of it. It's awesome. 

Here he is talking to John Kruk about the 2013 Jays. No mention of Kruk's hair in the '93 World Series. Which is a shame because I'd dearly like to hear a discussion about it.