Hum and Chuck

Shut Up. It's Reasonable.

2012-01-17T18:06:00.003-05:00

It’s unreasonable for a 30 year old man to need to be accountable to someone in order to ensure he doesn’t fall into trouble. I have no doubt about this. But it’s also unreasonable to waste away a ton of promise and potential through excess alcohol and drug use.

Oh Parkes.

Any sort of concern about Josh Hamilton's need for an "accountability partner" betrays a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of addiction and sober living. Addiction is an illness and sobriety, once achieved, needs to be maintained.

Of course it is unreasonable to ruin an infinite amount of talent and promise with excessive use of booze and drugs, but that is assuming there is any sort of reason involved in addiction. It's an illness in which a person violates a fundamental aspect of the human condition-self-preservation. His age has nothing to do with anything as addiction isn't age specific.

Sponsorship is considered a vital part of AA, as well as Narcotics Anonymous. Whatever "Jesus is my Homeboy" version Josh Hamilton employs is a variation of a pretty standard presence in the lives of many recovering addicts. It would be like saying, "it's unreasonable for Hamilton to employ a personal trainer- he should know how to work out" or "it's unreasonable for Hamilton to employ a nutritionist- he should know what to eat." Sponsors are usually fellow recovering addicts who have gone through the 12 step process. Sobriety is something that needs maintenance. This is not unusual. It would be more concerning if Hamilton didn't have one.

It may be unusual for one's employer to have the addict's sponsor on the payroll, but I think it's been well established that these aren't usual people. There's a lot of money piled up around them.

And whatever shady past Hamilton carries around with him, I think his play and his numbers over the past five years have made the Rangers satisfied with their investment. If (that's a big "if") the Rangers favour Fielder, it probably has more to do with age and injuries, not any kind of sobriety maintenance.

Big Guns

2012-01-12T16:48:00.004-05:00

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?

The Yankees and the Red Sox have great teams and usually have great records. However, watching those two teams is awful. It's slow, it's drawn out and deliberate. Red Sox pitchers are ponderous while pitching and Yankee batters are clearly encouraged to grind out at bats. It's effective, but incredibly irritating. Sunday Night Baseball games featuring those two teams are awful, because it invites blather from the commentators and games of no import get drawn out into the early hours of the morning. It's technically good, because both teams feature good players, but there is no joy in it.

The Jays play an up tempo style and are a very fun team to watch. A Jays/Yankees game can often be very, very fun. So while better records are clearly desirable, but I would not happily endure the drudgery. Watching the Red Sox just makes me militant.

The Jays Winter Tour has rolled on from Toronto to Ottawa to Montreal and now Halifax. The boys excitedly tweeted along the way and alienated Toronto Maple Leaf fans by wearing the Habs and very nifty Senators jerseys at hockey games. They spoke French, visited Parliament Hill and saw some sick kids at the hospital. Eric Thames' arms are alarmingly awesome. Wasn't he wiry like Bautista before?

Mr. Big Guns is also in love with Halifax, according to his tweets. He seems like a bit of a city slut, though.

Yu Said Sit Back Down Where Yu Belong

2011-12-20T02:46:00.001-05:00

Well, that was a let down. It would've been fun, in a brand new, shiny toy kind of way, but it was never a sure thing-either winning the Darvish bid or Darvish even being a successful MLB pitcher. The Rangers may not even sign him. They might get within a dollar twice, and still lose. That is the Ranger way.

And I'm sure some people will try to paint me as a Rogers apologist, but it is more than a little ridiculous to suggest that AA submitted a pathetically small bid. He could have bid 50 million dollars. It's a blind bid. We don't know what the losing bids were. Because it's BLIND.

I'm as frustrated as anyone about finishing out of the playoffs and being in the purgatory of "rebuilding" but step back from the ledge. Some configuration of Romero, Morrow, Alvarez, McGowan and Drabek (plus whatever other bits and pieces you want to throw in) is still a good starting point. The off-season isn't over. Just chill the fuck out.

There should be a study done on the Twitter goings on surrounding Darvish. Kevin Gray was strangely confident when he tweeted that he had inside sources that said the Jays won the bid. He kept tweeting it. It was eerie.

So I was reading the comments over on DJF about the Yu Darvish ordeal, and one peaked my interest.

BJ

Hey fuckwit, I see you've set aside your pissing and moaning about Beeston only to turn on Andrew (brilliant post) Stoeten. Maybe try the schoolyard dribblings of Hum and Chuck. Better yet, join her with her creepy tweeting of Jays players.

Hi BJ:

Thanks for your feedback. I'm all for supporting Andrew Stoeten and whatever he is ranting about, but could you leave me out of whatever it is you are doing? Stop encouraging the mouth breathing capons that are wailing about whatever move Anthopolous is or isn't making to come and interact with me. If you think any of my interactions on Twitter are creepy, you don't know Twitter. Or creepy. If you don't like what I do on Twitter, try not creeping me.

Kindly go #$(% yourself, because it is quite clear no one else will.

Best,
Joanna.

Does anyone know what exactly are "schoolyard dribblings"?

Fun with Columnists

2011-12-14T14:50:00.004-05:00

Dustin Parkes and Andrew Stoeten covered that Geoff Baker blog post and it's layers of bullshit.

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.

On Sunday, I made the mistake of interacting with Joe Cowley on Twitter. About a tweet or two into it, I realized he was that guy. He will also be the guy who stated that he can't find an NFL game on TV while in Toronto. There are only about 75 games to choose from on any given Sunday from September til February if you use that new fangled invention called a remote control. Oh and according to Cowley, Bautista isn't competitive. That's credible journalism right there.

Sentences

2011-11-29T14:33:00.004-05:00

For those who are unaware, I went back to school in September. School has kicked my ass and stolen my soul, leaving me unavailable for blogging and baseball (or much else.) So the following is what I've been thinking about baseball-wise for the last two months. I am also writing this because my little baby has been sorely neglected.

So congrats, I guess, to the St.Louis Cardinals. I hope Colby Rasmus was in a secluded cabin somewhere, cleaning game and not aware of the whole "Cardinals won that trade!!! Ooooh WEEE!" silliness that kept being said on the broadcasts.

Watching the Rangers get within a strike of winning the whole show not once, but twice in Game 6 was both awesome and horrifying. If your relief pitchers are so burnt out they can't throw a strike to save themselves, you have mismanaged your bullpen, Ron Washington.

Justin Verlander 100% earned the Cy Young and I've come to terms with him winning the AL MVP. What I cannot accept is Bautista finishing 3rd to Ellsbury.

The Boston Red Sox had a historical collapse in September. It was a total shit show. Many sportswriters dismissed Bautista for not being on a contending team. But they then didn't hold Ellsbury responsible for the shit show that was his team. I don't hold him responsible for it either, I just think there is a gap in logic. So apparently having great numbers in the second half on a team that played terribly at the beginning and at the end of the season is more valuable than having at times historical, Bondsian numbers on a team that played steadily for the whole season. Whatever. Bautista got the Hank Aaron Award, so that's something.

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.

Dispatches

2011-10-04T20:33:00.003-05:00

The following is made up of bits and pieces of baseball related things that came up over the week and change I didn't write.

I died a little on the inside when someone told me, rather snottily, that baseball was boring and also that it was the easiest to play because "fat people play it." So I dragged him outside and smacked him around.

Well, you can only be fat if you are a pitcher, a catcher or a first baseman. And someone like Sabbathia is clearly mounds of fun, but is also strong with ox-like tendencies and probably more in shape than most people. His arm would fall off if he wasn't in some sort of peak condition. Sabbathia is hardly ever on the DL, which is telling.

As for the contention that it is boring, I present this:

Whatever. The fact that the Red Sox loss and the Longoria homer happened within about 3 minutes of each other continues to blow my mind.

Speaking of the sleepless fury, the fallout from the epic Boston collapse began within hours of the end of the regular season. And Terry Francona said this,

"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."

Oh right, the Jays finished their season. I was disappointed that, once again, they finished out of the post season but some comfort can be taken in the fact that they finished .500. I guess.

Ricky Romero, Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie are highlights. Encarnacion's smile and offensive blossoming. Escobar's swag. In general, this group was insanely fun to watch.

Brett Lawrie has so much star dust on him I sometimes can't believe he is for real.

As Ned Stark likes to say, winter is coming.

This will keep you warm:

Girl on Film : Moneyball

2011-09-24T22:52:00.002-05:00

As the off season approaches, I'm looking for ways to keep the content flowing on this site. One of the ways I am going to do that is to write reviews of books, films and other baseball related material.

So I saw Moneyball, a film I had been anticipating for a while.

There is just not that much of a story. Beane's kid is cute and that's a nice relationship, but there are no stakes. Beane has a boring relationship with his ex played by Robin Wright. His daughter is unfailingly supportive. The DePodesta character never really questions anything. Aaron Sorkin did re-writes on this picture, so I was expecting a little more of The Social Network in it. The stakes in that movie felt higher, there was more drive. And computer programming is as dull as baseball stats, so you can't tell me that it couldn't have been more interesting. I haven't read the book in a long time and most people have been telling me how things have been cut or changed, making some of the moves nonsensical, but mostly I just found it dull. It takes a lot for me to find something dull.

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.

Winning 20 games in a row is an impressive feat, but it's not winning the World Series. It's something approaching delicious irony that the team that actually won the Series the season that the movie is set in was the LA Angels, Oakland's division rivals. That's not mentioned, because it seems the only three teams that count in this world are the Yankees, the A's and the Red Sox. Moneyball was used to "beat" the Yankees, but failed to beat the more modestly ($ 61,721,667) budgeted Angels.

I wanted to throw something at the screen when the postscript came up, saying that the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 using the same philosophy as Beane. Yeah, except Epstein had a $127,298,500 payroll when his team won the World Series in 2004. And a $143,026,214 when they won again in 2007. Now, I'm not saying that Epstein doesn't use SABR as part of his team building. I mean, the famous "Greek God of Walks" annoys the crap out of us every time we play the Sox. But it is a stretch to say that the Red Sox are a "Moneyball" team. The only team with a small payroll to win the whole show since Moneyball was published was the Florida Marlins in 2003.

I guess I just have a fundamental disagreement with the concept. I will admit that I find stats dull. I don't understand all of them, but I try to know what is actually considered good. Arguing with Boston fans over Twitter about just why Bautista is the 2011 MVP has expanded my knowledge. But I respect stats, and leave them to others who understand and care about them to develop and explain them. But I think eliminating the subjective nature of baseball is wrong. Baseball is subjective because life is subjective.

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.

Shock Factor

2011-09-22T10:02:00.006-05:00

Oh look, I'm writing.

Playing the Angels have proved a little more annoying than I remember. The Jays haven't faced Weaver or Santana yet this series, who have historically owned them, but still faced the mighty Dan Haran. And I find that unlike some really great pitchers around the league, Haran is a drag to watch because he is so methodical and a bit joyless on the mound. That, combined with the fact that Vernon Wells plays to his full potential in front of the fans who boo him and Peter Bourjos is very gifted, makes the series very annoying. Other than Romero dressing up as Vernon. That made up for some of it. Anyone else reminded of this? Vernon turned me into a newt!

Although it gets less funny when the guy you are mocking hits 4 RBIs and gets to the seemingly unshakeable Casey Janssen and his team smashes your bullpen for the second consecutive night.

Brett Lawrie broke his finger (and our full tilt hearts) when he was taking grounders yesterday, ending his season with just under a week to go. And no, Lawrie isn't eligible for Rookie of the Year next season. People need to get over that, as I think ROY is a massively overrated award. During his first 43 games, Gordie Dougie lead all rookies in the majors over that time in triples (four), slugging percentage (.580), total bases (86), and on-base plus slugging (.961). All while bathing in beer, maple syrup, wrestling moose and chopping down pine trees with his bare hands. And earning the scorn of Red Sox fans, which has endeared him to me immensely.

If you guys aren't reading John Lott from the National Post, you are fools. His stories have helped me deal with the impending melancholy of the end of baseball. Kelly Johnson talks about not paying attention to the Arizona Diamondbacks and their playoff hunt.

“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.”

Plus, the NL West is a humorous division, might as well build up your experience versus the cream.

There's Always Options, Right?

2011-09-14T21:24:00.008-05:00

I took a brief look at SOSH last night after the Jays victory, and it was pretty depressing.

This team is not even fun to watch right now. With the pitching matchups we have this weekend, Tampa is going to come in and sweep the shit out of this team and leave town with a lead in the wild card.

It's beyond schadenfreude, people. So these people have become officially useless to me.

I love that this is their attitude after their team scored 18 runs the previous game versus the Jays. Like, things are bad, but things could still happen for them. Their team can still play.

I am guilty of becoming emotionally invested in my team and having the outcome of games effect my mood, but if my interest in my team was basically sucking my soul, I would find a new hobby. I mean, these guys are basically saying, "You get the rope, I'll get the cyanide."

Their forefathers suffered through 86 years of futility and these numpties have 2 championships in the last decade (not to mention the Celtics, Patriots and Bruins' success.) They are a disgrace to long suffering Massholes everywhere.

For the second time in a week, the Jays got to Daniel Bard. Bard is 0-3 with a 30.86 earned-run average in his last three appearances. “I've been through it before. ”Sometimes the effects are magnified by how big the games are."

It was certainly magnified for me for how awesome it was to see Adam Loewen hit a base clearing go ahead double.

It's great the see the kids play well, but I feel the season winding down. The air is cooler, the leaves are changing and I feel a little melancholy. The New York Times wrote a really good article about the Jays and Orioles, in the context of their series last weekend, being on the outside looking in the AL East, where the 2nd and 3rd place teams are battling to the death. It's interesting, other than being lumped in with the Orioles, because when I look at what Anthopoulos is crafting, the future looks a lot brighter for this team than a lot of other teams, the Orioles included.

I enjoyed this:

“Everything comes down to opportunity cost,” Anthopoulos says. “If you go this route, what’s the impact? There’s always options, right?”

Right.

One of the big stories of the season is what the hell is happening with Brandon Morrow? John Lott, who has become one of my favourite Jays writers this season, sat down with Bruce Walton to discuss. Walton and Farrell have suggested to Morrow to try to work in a cutter, but there are a lot of questions and seems to be more experimentation going on than with a sexually confused university student. It's an interesting discussion on pitching, even though it doesn't solve much.

To note:

"Obviously, we need to stay down a little bit better. That’s just more staying over the rubber a little bit longer; it’s not too technical. It’s more coming up with a game plan, that we can go out there year in and year out and make little adjustments as we go. The main thing is him working back and forth in the zone: trying to kill some ball speed with either a breaking ball or a changeup.”

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:

I would counter that the AL East crown should be celebrated by bathing in the blood of their vanquished foes. But yeah, the competition is totally equal across the league.

Off Day of the Damned: I Got Older

2011-09-12T18:44:00.004-05:00

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.

I went to the game on Sunday, and it was the first one I had been to in years that wasn't versus the Yankees. The crowd is different because it isn't full of occasionally hostile Yankee fans. I didn't spend all that much time in my seat (section 129, row 7, seat 11-or the "See Lawrie Twitch" seats.) It was very sunny at the start of the game and I am a delicate rose, so I only hung out for an inning and a half. I met a bunch of blog/twitter friends in the shade and I walked Gregg Zaun to the door of the parking lot. I'd like to report that though they are not visible on tv, he has teeth. And he is somehow both bigger and smaller than me. Don't quite know how he managed that.

So, on this off day day of birth, I thought I would do a break down of the current starting 5 to determine the sum of their hum and chuck.

Brett Cecil

Oh Brett, Friday's game broke my heart. That, with the 9 strike outs, might have been the best Cecil has pitched all season and he ran into the behemoth known as Vladimir Guerrero.

“I’m scared to even intentionally walk him,” mused Brett Cecil. “He might stick the bat out there and try to flip one." And just to show that the baseball gods truly hate us, he didn't get any support at all to counteract the Vlad effect. One thing Cecil needs to work on not falling off to the third base side, which I think is the key to the velocity issue. Cecil really needs to appreciate his chuck because that's all he's got on the mound. He needs to nurture it, own it, kiss it and hug it. He needs to love the stuffing out of his chuck. But luckily, good chuck can go a long, long way.

If you chuck something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever. -Richard Bach

Brandon Morrow

Morrow should really be the king of hum and chuck. 93 fastball, with a slider, a curve and a change. It's an embarrassment of riches. But just judging from his body language, Morrow doesn't have faith in his stuff. He gives up a homer and his shoulders droop, like he has been trying to impersonate someone else and the gig is up. His last start versus the Red Sox, Morrow allowed eight Boston runs off eight hits in just 4 1/3 innings, including home runs to Jacoby Ellsbury and David Ortiz. I'm sure it's at least a bit of a concern for the Jays. He just really needs to trust his stuff and be the Brandon Morrow he can be.

We must become the hum that we want to chuck.- Mahatma Gandhi

Dustin McGowan

I watched McGowan's first start in the big leagues in 3 years, and it was clear that he had a few wrenches in the works. And was missing an out pitch. 3 years ago, the Jays used to send Roy Halladay, AJ Burnett, Dustin McGowan and Shaun Marcum to the hill as their 1-4. And it was fantastically good pitching. When Marcum was traded in the off season, I mourned the last piece of that quad of doom. It would be an amazing boost for the Jays to have a pitcher with McGowan's potential back. Plus, it's just a good story. “Walking back and forth to my place, you have a bunch of people telling me good luck and welcome back,” he said. “It means a lot.” Plus, as the Tao of Stieb pointed out, McGowan looks like he could be John Farrell's son.

In pitching there's nothing so becomes a man as modest chuck and hum. -William Shakespeare

Henderson Alvarez

Alvarez is something. He's got plenty of hum in his 96 plus mph fastball, a plus change up and a slider in progress. He had a bit of a rough outing vs the Orioles on Saturday, and by "rough outing" I mean a 93-pitch, seven-inning outing, where he gave up three runs, on nine hits and a walk. So the kind of start some pitchers dream about. But Alvarez got a little out of his delivery which caused his arm slot to drop and made his slider a little flat. “I noticed my ball was up a little in the first few innings and I had to find a way to keep it down to be successful,” said Alvarez, through coach/translator Luis Rivera. “I made a little adjustment and started hitting my locations.” All this and he's 21.

La chuck es el lenguaje del hum. - Pablo Neruda

Ricky Romero

I've talked a bit on this blog about how impressed I am by Ricky Romero this season. The only thing missing from his boss-dom was tackling the Red Sox. Romero had a 2-6 record, with an 8.08 ERA in 11 games vs Boston. John Farrell suggested that his normally delicious changeup wasn't tempting enough for the notoriously and annoyingly choosy Sox hitters, so maybe mix in the curve. Romero conspired with Arencibia over pancakes pre-game, and took what Farrell suggested to heart. He struck Pedroia out on a curve in the dirt in the 1st, and froze a ridiculously good Jacoby Ellsbury with a nasty, nasty hammer in the 5th.

It was so beefy.

You can do it son; be a man and chuck up or hum. -Tupac

An Otherwise Crazy Game

2011-09-08T15:02:00.003-05:00

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."

The gist of the sentiments was that the bullpen's performance is "unacceptable", Wakefield is never going to get win 200 and Francona is the worst person who ever lived.

Anyway, Encarnacion's transformation from Sad Panda with Bad Defence into Offensive Panda with Mythical Clutch is one of my feel good stories of the year. I didn't like to see him suck, I didn't like people screaming about him sucking. I just like the dude. I think part of if may be that EE is what we got for Rolen, and I just want to remind myself that I used to get to watch Rolen everyday. Encarnacion's base clearing double off an erratic Daniel Bard in the 8th inning was wonderfully satisfying. He just looks so damn happy.

Brandon Morrow remains frustrating, but almost as frustrating is the rabble comparing him to AJ Burnett. Yes, both are power pitchers with plus stuff, but AJ, at Morrow's age, had a lot more starting experience. He isn't a flake, doesn't seem to have any focus issues and actually has a change up. Morrow also has considerably better hair.

The Jays may have given up eleventy billion runs so far this series, but they have won 2 of 3 this series, and look for the series win with Romero on the hump. Ricky has been rocky versus the Red Sox, so it could get alarming. But this is totally why Sox fans hate the Jays. When I first starting writing this blog, the Jays had a habit of rolling into Fenway in September and putting it to a Sox team desperate to make the playoffs. The Jays would leave Boston with the home team twitching in the fetal position, arrive in New York and get swept by the Yankees.

It happened the opposite way this past week, but it's made me very nostalgic.

Adam Loewen climbed aboard the Warm Fuzzy Express when he made his MLB debut as a position player. My dad saw Loewen pitch at the 2001 Canada Games at a game that was played about 5 minutes from my house. He was very impressed with the kid's stuff, so I was sad when Loewen was forced to quit pitching. But he looks like a big, strapping hitter now and I'm glad to see him back.

“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.

In general, it was just a really weird game. I mean, the final out was on a caught stealing at second. As Farrell put it, "somewhat of a fitting ending to an otherwise crazy game."

Watching this Red Sox team makes me anxious, irrationally angry and sort of hate filled, despite all the winning. Sort of like a typical Sox fan.

SOSH is What Happens

2011-09-05T16:58:00.005-05:00

I had a very busy weekend so I only saw a few games sporadically over the weekend. Romero pitched fairly well, battled but didn't get the benefit of the Yankee strike zone. And to the people who get on Bautista for have discussions about the strike zone after striking out. Well, all of the Yankees do it and they do it several times during an at bat. And their stadium remains a joke.

Jeff Blair joined Gregg Zaun and Jamie Campbell in their pre game show. They discussed their choices for their MVP, Cy Young and ROY for each league. Blair chose Curtis Granderson for AL MVP and said that, like it or not, people only vote for players from contending teams. Jeff? That may be true, but that doesn't make it right. Pick who deserves it, not the one you think might win so you look clever if it comes true.

If you put Granderson or Ellsbury or (shudder) Pedroia into the Jays lineup do the Jays suddenly get vaulted into first place? Is that true of any player?

The Red Sox came off a weekend series where they got knocked around by the Rangers at Fenway so both teams limped into the Rogers Centre on Labour Day.

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.

Henderson Alvarez has so much promise and has so much raw stuff it's very exciting to watch.

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.

I think I know what happens to those who watch the Red Sox on a consistent basis. SOSH is what happens.

Vexed

2011-08-31T11:10:00.004-05:00

I'm not going to hate on Brian Tallet. But I had a major issue with how he and the rest of that bullpen was used last night. Tallet is fresh off the DL, hasn't pitched in the majors in months and has been seen by the Jays since last year. Maybe try him out in a lower leverage situation, see what Tallet actually had. And some are saying "He was all there was." Well, not quite, as Francisco and Lewis were still in the pen. And maybe don't burn through all your more reliable bullpen pitchers earlier in the game. It just vexed me as it was a very winnable game. I mean, Kevin Gregg had put all that effort into blowing the game for the Orioles and the Jays just didn't show him any appreciation.

“It was a pretty crappy result, huh,” Tallet said. “That’s what happens when you don’t throw strikes early when you get in there. Let those guys get on base and anything can happen and that’s what happened. It was just stupid. I’ve been playing this game for how long? It’s inexcusable. The team battled their asses off, man. For me to go out there and not get it done is really disappointing.”

Yeah, strikes are sort of important.

This game fatigued me. And I'm sure people are going to tell me that Tallet was the only option (as they did on Twitter last night), but I'm fatigued.

Brett Lawrie doesn't fatigue me. Because he continues to be awesome. In the third inning, with two on, Lawrie launched a 2-2 Jeremy Guthrie pitch into the seats for his 6th homer of his 24 game career. Full Tilt.

I tweeted last night that the Yankees and Red Sox couldn't decide which team was more boring, so they had a brawl. Really it had to do with Francisco Cervelli hitting a homer off Red Sox pitcher John Lackey and clapping his hands once, supposedly in Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia's face. Well, to be fair, Salty was standing about an inch from the plate.

So Lackey took offence and plunked Cervelli in the back next time he was up. Benches cleared and the game slowed down to an even more tortoise like pace.

"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.

In Praise of Jerk Ball

2011-08-28T10:17:00.001-05:00

I loved Scott Rolen as a Jay. I always thought he played his ass off and made all the right plays with a scowl on his face. Only after he was traded that I heard how surly he was with the press, how much he hated living in Toronto and how he was just generally a malcontent. And for whatever reason, I love him all the more. He was a miserable son of a bitch, but instead of going off somewhere to sulk, he played his ass off until he was traded.

When I heard about Colby Rasmus and his conflicts with Tony LaRussa, and that St. Louis went cold on Rasmus when they discovered he was quiet, sullen and a bit standoffish. Someone compared him to JD Drew. Now, JD Drew is a sullen jerk and that, combined with the fact that he plays for the Red Sox, means I kind of don't like him. That being said, I wouldn't kick him off my team. I probably wouldn't date or hang out with him, but he can play for my baseball team.

Hearing the various reactions to Yunel Escobar outrage over getting plunked by Luke Hochevar made me roll my eyes. "He's too arrogant." "He's making it all about him. It's not intentional" Remember, folks, that Hochevar had yet to give up a hit and this plunk was the crack in the facade. Maybe jawing at the pitcher just a bit pulls him off his game just enough to break his concentration. Hochevar then pitched inside to Bautista, which apparently woke Bautista up and whacked a monster shot to the seats. The look he gave Hochevar told me that he didn't appreciate either the plunking of Escobar or the inside pitch.

Speaking off Bautista, he had issues with the strike zone on Friday, got annoyed, then furious and got tossed out of the game for taking his bat to the Blackberry sign on the back of the dugout. The funny thing was that Henderson Alvarez had a short discussion with Bautista right before he took the bat to the wall. And then threw equipment on the field and yelled a bit more after he was tossed. Again, people were saying "Jose is so immature." I saw the pitches on Pitch fx, and yes, they were strikes, but they were borderline low strikes and Bautista doesn't have the benefit of Pitch fx. Most hitters of his calibre get the benefit of those kinds of calls. It's one of the perks of having fallible and slightly biased umpires.

Lawrie, playing at full throttle, even when he is celebrating, and doesn't care what the haters think. His energy pushes his team forward and probably annoys the crap out of his opponents.

I think Jerk Ball is what is going to take this team to the next level. Think of all the successful teams that have featured sullen jerks, guys you probably hate because they are good and loud about it and a healthy dose of Latino swag.

This, by the way, is what one thinks about when one's team is down 6-0 and the soon to be DFA'd pitcher is giving up 6 runs in the 9th.

Healthy Criticism

2011-08-22T09:02:00.006-05:00

I'm sort of a creature of habit, and the west coast game schedule throws everything off. Games start later, end later and are played in that sad stadium with the never ending foul ground.

Over the last weekend, the starting pitching for both sides had been extremely good.

Luis Perez flirted with perfection through 5 innings and only gave up 1 hit through his 6 innings. I've taken notice of Perez because of his stellar work out of the bullpen and for the little Dominican faux hawk he's been working. When asked if he was expecting near perfection for his start on Sunday, Perez said, “All I was thinking about was attacking the hitters and keeping the ball down, nothing else.”

José Bautista hit a homer at a time where it felt like no one was ever going to get another run. Ever. I like to imagine that Bautista heard that Curtis Granderson had tied him for most home runs, and it focused his attention. I think they should just start lying to him. Yeah, José. Curtis hit 2 today. Off you go!!

The MVP race debate had heated up once again. Keith Law and I have totally made up, after a fight he had no idea even happened. Law has been overwhelmingly pro-Bautista as MVP.

Some New York fan took exception to me calling him an idiot over Twitter for tweeting to Keith Law that he didn't see the value of Bautista. He tweeted me back and said I was blocked, for name calling. He accepts discourse and "healthy criticism."

I'm sorry, being called an idiot after undervaluing Bautista is healthy criticism. It's a freaking public service because it serves the greater good. People need to know when they are being idiotic.

Law really attracts the prime tweeters, as evidenced by some little Boston punk who was trying to convince Law that Bautista was horrible, because he had answered one of his tweets, calling the young Masshole a douche. Well, a little research showed that it was richly earned, as the little punk called Bautista something that rhymes with maggot. Which is way more offensive. The kid also wrote "aloud" when he meant "allowed." And was told, by someone whose second language is English, to learn to spell. Oh José.

AJ Burnett is a flake. Extremely talented in the stuff department, not that talented in the brain department. I really don't know why he is pitching as he is, but I have long suspected he is best served by pitching on 1 year contracts. His best year ever was his last one with the Jays because he was focused on working hard and getting a new contract. Focus is everything.

The speculation here is just really funny. "Let's check the words here." This is what I think it is. I think AJ thinks he struck Mauer out. He probably says something along the lines of "I got him." It really doesn't look like "Shove this ball, Joe." And both went up the tunnel to check the pitch on video. AJ maybe be a fool, but he knows to go sit back in the dugout.

This is not the classic "@&#! you, John." Which is really a classic in the Great Moments in Skipper/Pitcher Discourse archives.

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.

Just Didn't Get the Job Done

2011-08-16T09:52:00.004-05:00

Brett Lawrie made a kind of homecoming when the Jays flew in to start a series with the Mariners. There were large contingent from Vancouver, and the locals have an interest in Lawrie because his sister Danielle was the NCAA player of the year and led the University of Washington to the 2009 NCAA softball title.

It's a shame the bullpen couldn't make it pleasant for him.

There were an alarming amount of homers in last night's game, considering Safeco is a well known pitcher's park. It ranks 24th of 30 with a park factor of 0.896. The Rogers Centre ranks 4th. But Eric Thames and Adam Lind both had two run shots, and Brett Lawrie contributed a solo shot. The bullpen implosion wasn't exactly as bad as the bullpen implosion of April, where the Jays couldn't hold on to a 7-0 lead and ended up losing in a walkoff. Brandon League got his 30th save. Brandon League has his name and number tatooed on his back. In case he gets lost, I suppose.

What the heck happened?

"Two-strike breaking balls, both of them," said Farrell. "Mistakes made on location with both of them. We had left-on-left and right-on-right matchups we wanted and just didn't get the job done."

In general, it was horrifying.

I don't really know how any 18 year old can look at 2.5 million dollars and turn it down to go to school, even if it's a great school. Some people are saying, "Maybe Beede isn't ready to go pro." Well, maybe, by why put all the work into getting so good at this age if you aren't preparing yourself to go pro? Would it not be a good idea to put the mental and emotional work in, too? If I had this skill for something that is far from certain and so volatile, I'd pocket some money off it as soon as I could, even though there is a huge upside if it all works out. School can wait. That's just what I would do.

Some people were gnashing their teeth that AA "wasted" his top draft pick on this kid who openly said he was committed to going to Vanderbilt. Well, reports are that Jays just didn't offer enough money, so the deal could have been made if AA ponied up. The draft is a crap shoot. I mean, Corey Patterson was drafted 3rd overall.

There were rumours going around that the Jays had made an illegal pre-draft deal with Beede, which ticked Anthopoulos off. "I’m amazed at all the false rumours about everything," said Anthopoulos. "I’m just sick of reading lies and rumours that people make up about us all the time. I’ve had enough of it.”

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.

But Then I Just Smile

2011-08-14T22:48:00.009-05:00

Smile, and get manhandled by very large men. Encarnacion's hitting .348/.458/.629 since the All Star Break.

Vernon Wells returned over the weekend. He hit a homer the first pitch he saw, and I rejoiced. I got over it when I remembered Ervin Santana owns the Jays, and that is exactly what he did.

Wells got a nice ovation from the crowd, and looked visibly moved when he stepped out and tipped his hat.

"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."

It would've been so awesome if he started crying, just for the event of it. Hitting a homer on the first pitch was ok, too. Vernon goofed around a bit with Romero (who was throwing peanuts at him in the on deck circle) and he brought his whole family to Toronto for the weekend.

For a weekend I was dreading because we had to face some of the best pitchers in the game, going 2 for 3 was a pleasant event. I haven't seen Dan Haren pitch very often, and I've got to say it's a bit of a drag. His motion includes this leg kick where he suspends it in the air for a beat or two. It's probably his trick to throw off the timing of the batters or is just a way that he makes sure he loads properly. Watching pitchers with great, fluid mechanics is like watching a dance. It can be quite beautiful.

AA is trying to get his top draft pick Tyler Beede signed before the deadline, and apparently the two are a part by millions.

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 Links

2011-08-12T13:20:00.004-05:00

Brett Lawrie's grand slam celebration is already the stuff of legend. My favourite part is Lawrie tossing his helmet, having it bounce off Encarnacion and then the two guys body slamming each other, while Lawrie whoops it up. Lind and Romero cracking up in the background and Bautista applauding the display of uber manhood add to the general awesomeness of the entire thing.

Yesterday's game was a total buzz kill and I don't even want to think about it. The Jays are in tough this weekend versus the Angels, having to face Santana, Weaver and Haren. Vernon Wells makes his return for the first time since being traded. People are probably going to boo, and, judging by their completely irritating and disrespectful commercials, Sportsnet wants Jays fans to boo Wells because he is such a horrible disappointment and suffocated all our dreams. When Carlos Delgado made his first return, people wanted to boo him because he had refused to be traded before free agency. Well, Wells let the team trade him and both sides have moved on. He gave a lot to the community (I'm pretty sure his contract had a charitable gift clause. I think he had to donate $100,000 to Jays Care, or something.) Wells was very involved in local youth baseball. And Vernon was always good natured and humorous. So, yeah, completely boo-worthy.

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.

The Tao of Stieb had a little chat with Grantland's Chris Jones about the situation. Which is really excellent work on the Tao's part, but mostly contributed to my dissatisfaction. The Tao will probably find that sentence amusing.

Jeff Blair, a respected veteran sports journalist who is not in the ESPN community, criticized the article, saying it used "mathematics from your mother’s basement" to try and prove the outlandish claims made by the White Sox, so one can't really dismiss criticism towards the article as not liking the message or somehow not understanding the way investigative journalism works, which is something Keith Law did a few times over Twitter.

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?

ESPN published a story on the White Sox reactions to the piece, but I didn't see one about the Jays. Unlike Keating and Nelson's piece, the article has comments from actual former Jays. The Sausage King has no clue and figures if it happened, it was very, very secret. He is now questioning his whole time in Toronto, wondering what it all means (that last bit was artistic license.) Maybe that's why Frasor took so long to throw his pitch. He was thinking about all the secrets being kept from him. Ozzie Guillen remains awesome.

And this idea that four separate sources came forward isn't exactly true, as it came from four pitchers in the same bullpen. Those guys do nothing but talk for about 5 innings, and I'm sure the conversation topics range from food to boobs to Jesus, but if the team gets killed in a stadium the way the White Sox get killed in the Rogers Centre, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that they throw some conspiracy theories in there, too. Jose Bautista is described as smiling coyly when accused, which has its own implications. I would describe Bautista in a lot of ways, but coy isn't one of them.

I did a little investigating on the coverage of past accusations of cheating. I had forgotten that the Yankees were doing something fishy over opening weekend this season, and unlike with the Jays story, there is photographic evidence. It's a story from NESN, which is obviously completely neutral. What I didn't find is any kind of piece from ESPN on this. It broke first through Keith Olbermann, who used to work for ESPN.

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.

Most stories about this kind of sign stealing are treated like humorous soft news, while this, with a similar anecdote at it's core, was treated like hard investigative journalism. Actually, the "man in white" story is even flimsier because, unlike the Yankee employee in the stands or the bullpen TVs, it was never substantial enough to be investigated by either an umpire or MLB.

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.

People, over Twitter, asked me why I said I respect Nelson as a writer. I have followed her work a little bit over the past few years, and two stories stand out for me. One was a story on Luke Scott, which not only highlighted Scott particular brand of tea bagging craziness but also made me think about race in general and, in particular, race in Latin America (read it, maybe you'll see why.) The other was her piece on Nick Adenhart and the other people who died in the car crash that claimed his life.

This cheating story is by far not her best work, but Amy K Nelson isn't a hack.

This Whole Thing is Stupid

2011-08-10T15:09:00.007-05:00

Well, this little article by Amy K Nelson and Peter Keating that appeared on ESPN got a lot of people going.

"From the batter's box, it was clear the man in white had been perfectly positioned just above the pitcher's head so that the batter would not need to move his own head, or even alter his gaze, in order to see his signal."

That's just gold.

Stoeten here, Parkes here and The Mighty Tao here got their hacks in and knocked a few out of the park. With evidence and logical conclusions, instead of the "WTF?" incoherent feelings I had when reading it.

First, my views on stealing signs.

Teams stealing signs, using eyes, ears and observation, is totally cool. Don't like it? Change your signs.

Stealing signs, using blue tooth technology, mysterious men in white t-shirts, the stadium hotel and waving arms is not as cool. Hysterically funny, but not on the level.

Keith Law disappointed me on the Baseball Today podcast. I enjoyed it so much when he ripped into Tony LaRussa's incoherent ramblings.

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.

Jose Bautista told Jays' reporters that the dude who accused him and threatened him was with the White Sox and it happened in spring 2010. Spring 2010 aka the time when Bautista was that former Pirate who had a hot September in 2009. Bautista was hitting .161/.325/.323 and 1 home run when the pitcher threatened to bean him.

If the White Sox truly thought the Jays were stealing signals, why would they do business with AA at all? Those two teams were involved in trades 2 weeks ago. Teahen, who is sitting on the Jays bench, was a member of that team last year and most of this year. Why didn't Ozzie Guillen, whose mouth has no off switch, bitch about this at the time? I don't think the White Sox are the main players in this story. I think the Yankees are the actual accusers, just based on what Russell Martin said about changing his signs and then Joe Girardi's passive aggressive comments about outside equipment.

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.

A lot of people on Twitter joined Law in commending the piece as good, quality journalism. I have no problem with the style of the piece. I don't think either Keating or Nelson are bad writers. I just don't think you can have unnamed sources and circumstantial evidence and just go with that. Why didn't they go ask a former Jay about it?

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.

Cutters and Bewilderment

2011-08-09T10:57:00.004-05:00

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 Tao of Stieb was railing on Twitter over a Mark Zwolinski article in the Star about the so-called Jays hype machine. I checked it out and understood the bewilderment.

Ok, I don't know who expected Drabek to stick in the big leagues immediately. He pitched well in the spring, and was given a shot to try it in the big leagues, but no one who really understood the situation expected it to be smooth sailing. He made his MLB debut before he made his AAA debut. One of the things I believe led to Drabek's demotion, beyond his numbers, was his attitude towards failure. Had he proven he could fail and recover at the big league level, Drabek probably would've stuck around.

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).

The wreckage of his demotion? Roy Halladay getting demoted down to single A ball to rebuild his entire identity as a pitcher is wreckage. Demoting a rookie to AAA is standard practice. The Jays don't owe Drabek anything besides support. "The Jays will continue to work with him." This kid is the main piece in the Roy Halladay deal. This is who they got for the best pitcher around. They aren't going to scrap him because he hits a snag.

I find it particularly irritating that Zwolinski lumps Drabek in with Russ Adams in the "Didn't Survive the Hype" category. That is more damaging to Drabek's image in the media or among the average fan than any sort of hype the Jays as an organization have drummed up. And as if the press has no role in this hype.

The Jays are an exciting team to watch and people should start getting excited. We have a stud in the making for an ace, a short stop with swag, a dream boat catcher with pop, a pure Canadian third basemen with maple syrup in his veins, a magical ninja for a GM, a farm system Keith Law likes and the best damn baseball player in the league (and still the MVP.) There is a lot to be optimistic about. This isn't the Leafs (a team whose situation Zwolinski kept comparing the Jays to.)

Anyway, go read John Lott's article in the Post instead for an actual coherent take on Drabek.

Two Blown Saves for One

2011-08-05T07:40:00.006-05:00

People like the moan about bullpens. I usually try to find perspective, decide that eventually these things balance out. Also, for whatever reason, when people start to moan, I start looking for positives. But yesterday was torture. The game felt endless and depressing. The offense kept pushing the team ahead, and Rauch kept giving it back. I mean, Jose Molina hit a 2 RBI triple. A TRIPLE!!! MOLINA!!!! And it was totally wasted.

I had never seen young Ray Desmond Jennings play before, but to the half watching eye, he looks exactly like BJ Upton. And no, this is not to suggest that all people of colour look the same. Just these two particular ones. My point is, in that never ending extra inning game, it felt like Upton was up every third batter.

So that game finally ended and Travis Snider was demoted to AAA. And I sighed.

I don't want to believe that Snider is a AAAA player, but maybe that's what this is. The kid rakes in AAA, is called up, does well in spurts and then the swing gets long. Does he get tired or distracted and gets away from what he works on in AAA? I am probably of the opinion that Snider should stay up for the rest of the season and work with the big boys. But it there is something that is nagging me. I have no proof of this, but maybe Snider is rubbing someone the wrong way. Cito Gaston once implied that Snider closed himself off to the type of coaching Lind was open to. And I know everyone hates Cito, but the guy knows hitting.

I noticed on Twitter last night that people were saying that Snider should barge into AA's office and demand some respect (damn it!!) And I found those people really adorable.

Trading Snider or Thames for a closer is trading future goodness for a present need. On a contending team, that is a difficult decision. On a non-contending team, that is idiocy. Which do you think the Jays are?

My latest thing is to listen to the Baseball Today podcast, produced by ESPN. Keith Law, on the subject of the Rasmus trade, derided the trade by saying that it was a really bad idea to trade a starting position player for a relief pitcher. I've decided that is a good rule of thumb.

So, Brett Lawrie has finally been called up. Lawrie, Lawrie, Hallelujah!!! etc. This could be very exciting, but I get the sense that this call up has been a bit soured by the demotion of Snider.

Lawrie was batting .353 with 18 homers and 63 RBIs in 69 games for Las Vegas. He also had 24 doubles, six triples, a .415 on-base percentage and .661 slugging percentage.

Very Much Capable of Doing

2011-08-03T09:24:00.004-05:00

I don't think there are superlatives expressive enough to describe just how boss Ricky Romero was last night. It is often said that a pitcher's mettle is measured not when he is dominating, but rather in the way he adapts and overcomes when he is struggling. Romero was dominant in all 8 innings he pitched, except for the first 3 batters in the 2nd. He walked Roy Halladay's evil half-brother Ben Zobrist, plunked Casey Kotchman and then walked BJ "Not Justin" Upton to load the bases, with no one out.

Then Ricky got real. He struck out Matt Joyce swinging, Kelly Shoppach had a 2-0 count before swinging at 3 straight pitches and then Romero got Sean Rodriguez to ground out. Miraculously, Romero not only got out of the inning without giving up a run, he got out of the inning without giving up a hit. The no hit shut out was erased in one shot from Jennings in the bottom of the 6th.

The other miracle was that the Jays actually managed to get a win facing David Price, who has owned them in the past. His record was 8-0 career vs the Jays, with an ERA under 3.

“It's fun pitching against him,” Romero said. “We're good friends. We have talked about it. It was definitely fun going out there to battle against him and I'm happy we came out in front.”

As fantastic as Romero was, it also illustrates how anemic the Rays' offense has become. The Rays have scored once while Price has been on the mound during his last three starts. I'm sorry, that's just mean.

Romero got offense in the form of a Bautista "Shut up, I'm fine" homer in the 4th, his 32nd. As John Farrell put it, “It was good to see Jose get a 2-0 fastball and do what he's very much capable of doing." Escobar also hit a solo shot.

The win brings the Jays a half game back of Tampa for 3rd in the AL East. And as a Getting Blanked comment puts it, "if Morrow puts it together and someone burns down Fenway park… playoffs baby!" Now, before we collect matches and some sort accelerant, we should remember that Boston could probably convince Bud Selig to let them play in whatever Boston area park they choose, because they are, after all, a gift to Major League Baseball.

There was a strange incident where Mike Wilner announced over Twitter that Jesse Litsch had been traded to the Reds and the news spread like wildfire for about 10 minutes. This went on until people started investigating and discovered that it was started by a fake account. So Rojo is not a Red. He's still here to give us fits.

What a weird player to fake trade.

See Ball. Hit Ball.

2011-07-30T10:53:00.004-05:00

A few remaining tiny bits on Rasmus and his baggage:

Rasmus Sr. (whose first name is confusingly Tony) has gotten a bit of a bad rap in St. Louis for being a stage dad. LaRussa intimated that Rasmus Sr. was the reason Colby wasn't listening to Cardinal coaching. Well, Rasmus Sr. has a different theory.

“Tony kind of threw him in front of the bus for the veterans and then ridiculed him some, and then he never trusted much what they had to say. … When you do it in front of other players you kind of lose a little respect.”

He also threw in a "I'll tell you what" to Jeff Blair. This is the first Boomhauer sighting since Gibby left town.

J.D. Drew and Jim Edmonds. There’s Scott Rolen and Anthony Reyes. That's a pretty nice set of players that had issues with Tony LaRussa.

Rasmus has been called a JD Drew type, in that he is quiet and a little taciturn. Navin @eyebleaf named it JerkBall, and I'm okay with that.

I hope they aren't expecting riveting interviews from this kid, he's a bit low key. I did enjoy that he called Farrell "Mr John." You crazy redneck, you.

JPA has a mutual friend with Rasmus, Jon Jay has been JPA's best friend since childhood.

Last night's 3-2 win over the Rangers featured further evidence of the progress Brett Cecil has been making. His change up was particularly effective.

Arencibia, whose thumb appears to finally be getting better, is scorching hot. In his last 7 games, he has hit nothing but doubles and homers. He credits clearing all the thoughts out of his pretty little head.

“I was trying a little bit too hard earlier, I was trying to think about too many things at the plate,” Arencibia said. “Baseball’s hard enough; all I’ve tried to do really is clear my mind and it’s working out.”

So perhaps it's now "See ball. Hit ball."

Since July 7, Encarnacion ranks fourth in the AL with a .385 (25-for-65) average. He has doubled in four straight games. He also looks a lot looser and a lot happier. He may be the odd man out when Lawrie gets called up, but maybe he'll be traded for some nice pieces. People keep bringing up Encarnacion's tendency to get red hot in short spurts, but it's been nearly a month. Is this still a short spurt?

Stay for the Revival

2011-07-27T10:34:00.003-05:00

Last night, the Jays got smoked by the Orioles. That's not the sort of thing one wants to write about. Morrow was really, really bad. Probably his worst start of his season, on his 27th birthday, no less. Throw in a Bautista beaning, which sent him crashing to the ground. At the time, I was satisfied with the Lind three run homer as retaliation for a hit that was obviously unintentional. But then the Orioles kept teeing off, and I got annoyed. Someone should of been plunked in the ass. I think JJ Hardy, with his two homers, was cruising for one. He was entirely too comfortable. Yes, I am that petty.

Bautista has announced over Twitter that he's fine.

There have been rumours flying over Twitter about a possible trade of Jason Frasor, plus prospect to Chicago for Edwin "all stuff, no command" Jackson and Mark "I'm sorta Canadian" Teahan. "Why Jackson?" Well, see, it goes like this. St Louis is rumoured to want Jackson, and is looking to off load their troubled, young outfielder Colby Rasmus. Jays get Jackson, flip for Rasmus.

The talented Rasmus has had a troubled season and now Tony LaRussa is dissing him (and his dad) in the press. "No, he doesn't listen to the Cardinal coaches much now, and that's why he gets in these funks, in my opinion," La Russa said, according to MLB.com. "If he would just stay with [basically] what they teach, he would have … but I actually feel concern for him, because he hears it from so many places, he's got to be confused."

Yes, your concern is touching. "So many places" is apparently code fohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifr Rasmus Sr.

The last disgruntled Cardinal with LaRussa beefs that the Jays traded for was Scott Rolen. So, you know, woo!

I just hope Rasmus becomes the new Escobar....Toronto- we're fun and trans-formative.

Come for the Bautista, stay for the revival!

Oh, and that call in Atlanta last night was really, really terrible . Pirates' catcher Michael McKenry tags Braves' Julio Lugo three feet from the plate in the 19th inning marathon, and yet was miraculously called safe, ending the game. The Pirates rightfully filed a protest, because the lose meant they are a game back in the standings. "He called him SAFE!!! The throw beat him by a mile!!!!" Yeah, that about sums it up.

OOOH breaking news- Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart have been traded to the White Sox. Fare the well, Sausage King. You have great mechanics.

As summed up by @drewgrof "Jason Frasor: catches ball, goes for stroll, rubs down ball, stares in for sign, deep breath, comes set, OWNAGE, repeat for 8 years."

A Killer Clarinet

2011-07-25T18:23:00.006-05:00

I humbly apologize for the lack of posting. When this happens, know that I usually watch every game and write about it, intermittently, in spurts of 140 characters on Twitter. It's a lot like what goes on here, just shorter. So if you have a true hankering, follow @HumandChuck.

The Seattle Mariners brought their version of the saddest show in the world to Toronto, and promptly got swept. Ichiro looks like a shell of his former self, and it breaks my heart. We all have to grow up sometime. I still like Mariner pitching-King Felix, Pineda and the unfortunately named Fister run the range of nice to fantastic arms. If the team can figure how to get the ball out of the infield, they may actually be a threat one day. Stupid AL West. It's barely a division. It's the Rangers and scraps.

Then the Jays rolled into Texas, and I had high hopes, because they have played really well in Texas of late. The first game was a blowout, and Arencibia, with his two homers, was the only offense. And yes, despite what some around the Internets might say, homers in blowouts still count.

The second game featured defensive replacement Corey Patterson. That should tell you enough. But I expand my analysis by saying terrible control plus terrible call at first plus terrible outfield play was the formula for the terrible 9th inning.

The series was salvaged with a brilliant start by Brett Cecil. Why was he so good, JP Arencibia?

"The biggest thing was keeping the ball down. Getting ahead, he threw strikes, when he got behind he was able to throw an offspeed for a strike. He kept them off balance. It was one of those things, where he has got good stuff, he has a number of pitches he can throw at any time, if he can throw them like that he can be pretty tough.”

Balls down, down, down-straight to hell. It's about controlling the strike zone, not just about velocity.

Dustin Parkes retweeted the link to this article that amused me to no end. Like, imagine if you only paid attention to your one team and also honestly believed that your GM had complete access to whatever any team had because all the other GMs are imbeciles. Like that Wilner caller. Now imagine, with that mindset, that you wrote an impassioned article about what move your GM should make at the trade deadline.

Yes, let's trade Brandon Morrow away for Wily Mo Pena, because we are 10 plus games back in the division in 2011. Because of this, the Jays will disband by 2012 and will no longer need a pitcher of any kind, let alone one of the caliber of Morrow. The players who decide to remain in Toronto will be banded together in a jazz ensemble and Wily Mo plays a killer clarinet. I know, how about you just give us Justin Upton for nothing?

More Twitter fun from @captainlatte, an old recording of a Zito voicemail....featuring incarceration, quarantine and a unicorn named Powder.

And what do the insane wear to the White House?

I can't find The Franchise beyond the first episode anywhere, but I have my eyes open for it.

Off Day of the Damned: An Ace in the Hole

2011-07-18T21:22:00.006-05:00

Today, I split hairs.

While I mostly enjoy Getting Blanked, I often disagree with the opinions expressed. Today I disagreed with Drew Fairservice's definition of "ace".

Drew's main premise was that Ricky Romero is pretty good, but going toe to toe with CC Sabathia showed just who was an ace and who wasn't.

"When dilettantes (such as myself) wade into the weird world of minor league or amateur scouting, we hear a lot about the rotation slot of potential starters. “This guy is a number 2, this guy is a number 1″ and so on. When it comes to big league clubs, I tend to dismiss this as a silly designation. Who cares about the order the manager deigns to send out the starters? Playing matchups, ensuring rest and keeping the opposition off-balance is more important that labeling each pitcher The Ace, The Number Two, The Number Three and so on."

Well, I'll tell you who cares. The pitchers care. Pitchers are all about routine, rhythm and schedule. Pitchers get labelled as "ace" type or "solid # 2" because that's how baseball people talk. Players like categories and knowing their roles, it helps build team chemistry, one of those slippery things that can't be measured. Such labels can be dismissed if one so chooses, but they are still going to exist, despite certain baseball writers not seeing their value.

I would argue that an ace is determined only within a team. A team's ace is the one who starts Opening Day. Usually this is determined by a combination of the previous year's performance or seniority. It's an honour given and players treat it as such. Starting a playoff series or a series late in the season, and all things being equal rest wise, you go with your best. And this season, Romero has been the Jays' best. All stories from the pitching staff indicate that Romero is their leader, another hallmark of a staff ace.

"The value of an ace is obvious, they’re very good at their job. You can keep all the “stops losing streaks” and “rallies the troops” crap, an ace gives his team a chance to win every time he pitches because he’s a very good pitcher. No more, no less."

Um, an ace "rallies the troops" and "stops losing streaks" because he is a very good pitcher. Throwing strikes, preventing runs and winning is how one "rallies troops". Winning stops losing streaks, strangely. It's not mystical. So I will keep that crap, thanks.

Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez and Jon Lester are examples of elite pitchers. Their numbers and their World Series rings, Cy Youngs and no-hitters all tell that tale.

Not every pitching staff has an elite pitcher, but every staff has an ace.

Romero may not yet be elite, but he is the ace of the Jays staff.

Over the weekend, Jason Frasor made his 453rd appearance as a Blue Jay, breaking the record held by Duane Ward. Frasor has a zippity fastball, excellent mechanics and while he takes his sweet time delivering his pitches, he is, by and large, very successful. In John Lott's profile of him, Frasor talks about establishing roots here, buying a condo, marrying a Canadian woman and getting a Canadian dog. Oh, those Canadian bitches do inspire loyalty. And by bitches, of course I mean dogs. In the article, Frasor is described as being 5'9". That description is described as generous. By me.

Jim Thome is quietly marching towards 600 homers, hitting number 596 over the weekend. One of my favourite Jim Thome moments off the field was when was singled out by Oprah in her audience when he was still playing in Chicago. He wasn't a guest or anything, he just took his wife to a taping. He also looks just like Mr. Incredible.

Joe Girardi, total class act that he is, implied that the Jays were stealing signs from the Yankees using electronic means or osmosis or mind melding or something.

"Sometimes we have inclinations that things might be happening in certain ballparks that we're aware of, and we try to protect our signs." Then when he was asked if that meant using off-the-field methods, he replied, "Could be." But when asked whether he was accusing the Blue Jays of doing such a thing, he answered, "I'm not accusing anyone; I just said we need to protect our signs."

No, you just said, "Could be." As in, the Jays could be using off field methods to steal signs. Could be what, Joe? Could be shitty pitching? All the hitters love that shitty, shitty pitching.

5 Minus E

2011-07-15T23:12:00.008-05:00

I watched only four innings of tonight's game as I had to go out and catch a small independent film about a boy wizard and his friends.

First, a few notes about Thursday pounding of the Yankees.

Yeah, Bautista slid feet first into third base, caught a spike on the bag and rolled over his ankle. It looked painful, and he was seen limping around the clubhouse earlier on Friday. Everyone freaked right out and Adam Lind, who completely understands us, said to the press post-game, "I told Nick Swisher it's a bigger deal than if someone tried to assassinate the prime minister."

They've scored 14 runs since Bautista, who is listed day to day, left the game so the finger is still hovering over the panic button.

Russell Martin accused the Jays of stealing signs, and relaying them from 2nd base. I remember Yorvit Torealba accused the Yankees of the same earlier in the season when the Yankees blew the Rangers away. It was met mostly with ridicule over the Internet, but I guess it cuts both ways. As long as no one is using anything but their eyes, ears and observational skills, I think sign stealing is completely on the level. Martin said it was his job to change the signs if he suspected something, which is one of the ways to solve it. The other is chin music if it is really pissing you off.

To counteract the suspected sign stealing, Martin and Yankee starter Freddie Garcia used extra care and changed the signs, which slowed the game down to a crawl.

"It did seem like the game was a little slower out there," Martin said. "We were going with multiple signs, even with nobody on. When you do that it slows down the game a little bit."

If the Yankees are feeling like the game is crawling, you know it's damn slow.

As I wrote above, I missed much of this game, but was pleased to see the final score was 7-1. I did witness an absolute gem of a play at third by Encarnacion. It was the opposite of an E5....it was a 5 minus E.

Morrow, the game's starter said, “That’s one of the best plays that’s ever been made behind me.” The bench looked thrilled for him, and were all waiting to play high five and grab ass. He was so popular, Encarnacion left Arencibia hanging for a bro fist. Burn, J.P. Burn!

Encarnacion also had a double, and I am with @Contrasoma who suggested we start calling him Double E, as that has been his main source of offensive contribution.

Escobar made two great plays at short and contributed two RBI singles, a double and a walk.

“I always feel that I’m the same player here this year and last year,” Escobar said through translator Luis Rivera. “I had two tough months last year at the beginning [in Atlanta] and after that people started doubting me a little bit. But I never doubted myself. I feel like those two months are not going to make a difference in my career.”

Mean Mr. Jones can't hurt you here, Yunel.

Something I noticed on Twitter was that people were criticizing Bartolo Colon for living in the States for 12 years and still using a translator. Of all things to complain about, this is what they chose. Apparently Escobar can sort of speak English, but he, along with the rest who use translators, are probably just worried about misspeaking and being misunderstood.

That's two poundings in row, for those keeping score at home. Romero faces Sabbathia for a lefty Saturday duel to the death.

I planned to post on the first episode of The Franchise, the show that follows the Giants, but I never got around to it. A few things stood out. Brian Wilson lives up to the great freak show reputation he has built up. The previews for the next week, Wilson says, "Papa is feeling pretty delicious right now." Tim Lincecum says things like, "He's not coming in with that tight butt feeling." Barrie Zito is one frustrated hippie. And there is a hell of a lot of crying in baseball.

My visits to SOSH have soured my opinion on Red Sox fans, but I found some I actually like at Fangraphs, for their reasonable allowance that Bautista has been the MVP so far over Gonzalez. My favourite comment, "We should start a movement – 'Sox Fans for Joey Bats'. Kind of like 'Jews for Jesus'."

Shoulda Pitched Ricky

2011-07-13T07:10:00.005-05:00

The biggest story over the All Star Game festivities was the players that didn't show. Another smaller story was the pitchers who were in uniform, but were ineligible to pitch because of injury or their work schedule. I paid very little attention to all of that. I think players should be allowed to take time off if they feel like it, as there would always be another, possibly more deserving, player to take their place.

All of this is well and good until it comes to playing the game. The AL got their ass handed to them last night, and it wasn't really close. The pitching made the difference. The NL had Halladay counter Weaver, which is nearly a draw. But looking at the bench for the AL, and seeing David Price and Jon Lester were there but injured. Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander and James Shields were unavailable due to when they last pitched. Josh Beckett went to warm up, but tweaked his sore knee. Then I heard Joe Buck in about the 7th inning say that Ron Washington was short position players.

When Washington started using relief pitchers, and pulling his starting 9, I started to figure things were lost. "It's hard to beat great pitching and a three-run homer," NL manager Bruce Bochy said. Yeah, especially when you've pulled your best hitter.

Speaking of, Bautista was fairly quiet with the bat, getting a little bloop that was bobbled by Prince Fielder ruled a hit. He was thrown out at home trying to score on an Adrian Beltre line drive in the 4th. Bautista's biggest play was a fantastic catch in foul territory in the 2nd. The cameras didn't show the play during the game, but I knew it was awesome because of the way Dave Robertson adorably clapped.

It's especially amazing that Bautista made that play because the only above average aspect of his game is the homer. Right? Right?

CJ Wilson gave up the big bomb to Prince Fielder, making it 3-1 in the 4th. Jordan Walden of the Angels gave up a run in the 5th and Brandon League did the same in the 6th. For the record, League could make 25 All Star teams and we still won that deal.

Washington's reliance on relief pitchers from the AL West seemed a bit silly to me. I might have just kept using starters until I got a lead, and I would've used Romero in there somewhere.

“You never know what really would have happened if they had some of their best pitchers,” NL second baseman Brandon Phillips said. “But for them not to pitch, all I can say is, ‘Thank you very much.’”

I would've used Michael Pineda to face the toughest NL batters, not the bottom of the order, because Pineda is pure filth. I know CJ Wilson is Washington's guy, but he isn't the filth of Pineda. If Pineda is in to face Fielder, this might have been a different game.

Pineda has a mid-90s fastball and an 80 something slider, both go down, down, down-straight to hell.

Oh and the supposed "undisputed MVP of the first half" according to Tim McCarver and Joe Buck, got a homer that was barely worth mentioning. Keith Law's tweet on the undisputed MVP label more or less sums it up.

Stop trying to make me hate Adrian Gonzalez, baseball media.

I would like to dispute the MVP label. I would like to loudly dispute it, backed with solid numerical proof and expletives.

We Called It The Pond

2011-07-11T22:20:00.007-05:00

When I saw Jose Cano chirp at his son Robinson for taking too many pitches, I figured out how Cano junior got so good. The home run derby is too long, full of stupid banter ("It's in the pool! It's in the pool!!) But as Cano is the Yankee I'd pluck from the Yankees if I had a say and he does have a pretty swing. And Adrian Gonzalez gave it a good go, but I am relieved he didn't win, if only because it would give some sort of credence to the whole MVP nonsense. I actually read a tweet that said that Gonzalez should be MVP over Bautista because he plays the in field, and good infielders are harder to find than good outfielders.

The level of stupidity is alarming.

Cano's dad looked tough as nails and no nonsense, and I wish Papa Cano could've pitched to Bautista, too. A steely-eyed Dominican stand off might been the key to loosening Bautista up.

Maybe my favourite part of the derby is saying the player's kids. During the obnoxious country opener, there was a shot of a little boy, looking angry and covering his ears. The camera panned up, and the kid was in the lap of my favourite acrimonious third basemen, Scott Rolen. Of course the crabby kid is a Rolen. Big ups to @taoofstieb for the shot, and for that ode to Cecil's thighs.

Ricky Romero, who's smiling reaction yesterday to being named to the ASG was sweet, brought his siblings.

Prince Fielder (not Cecil, broadcast team) took the active booing from the Arizona crowd in stride. I didn't realize why they were booing until I heard that Fielder chose his teammate Rickie Weeks over Arizona's Justin Upton.

I heard Fielder's little son, who has a completely awesome blond afro, asked him, "Why are they booing?" and Fielder answered, "Cause they don't like me." They also showed footage of another one of Fielder's toddler-aged sons, expertly putting balls on a tee nearly as tall as he is, and getting his hacks in.

There were also a few shots of the little baby Bautista, who was a little bundle in a homemade "Bautista 19" sleeper. By homemade, I mean, draw on baby with Sharpie. It was probably done so she didn't get deported, because as you know, Arizona only likes foreigners when they hit baseballs to entertain them. She was snuggled right into her dad's neck, and Bautista waved her little hand at David Ortiz to say hi.

Last week, I missed the Toronto Star article on Adam Lind. Adam Lind has become one of my favourite players, not just because of his sweet swing and better than expected play at first, but for his simple world view that becomes evident in post-game interviews. This simplicity was illustrated perfectly in a quote where Lind is describing something from his childhood, “There was a pond,” says Adam, and after an appropriate pause: “We called it the pond.”

Oh the Pain

2011-07-08T12:59:00.003-05:00

Being a Blue Jays fan has be trying the last few weeks. For every amazing Jose Bautista moment, there are 4-0 leads in the bottom of the ninth that result in losses. Tabler and Martinez talked at length about the leadership qualities Bautista demonstrates. How encouraging he is to teammates, and how kind he is to fans. Bautista made a fantastic play at third base, and in the ninth, whacked his 29th homer of the season, making the game 4-0 going into the bottom of the frame. The broadcast also showed footage of Bautista greeting kids from the Thornhill Reds baseball team, and said that he took the time to take pictures with every single one of those little kids. It was heartwarming, until I realized that the kids were there to witness the bottom of the ninth.

Frank Francisco started the inning, and left with the bases loaded and none out. In the clubhouse post-game, he asked if the media wanted to talk to him. When they replied in the affirmative, he told them to fuck off. Well, why did you bother asking? If he wasn't so large, I might've responded "I'll fuck off if you'll throw strikes."

Anyway, Luis Perez came in, got an out in exchange for a run and was trying to get a groundball out of Travis Hafner. That didn't go exactly as planned.

As the manager explained, "I realize (he's) a young pitcher in that situation but as susceptible as they can be against left-handers and his sinking fastball (I) looked to get a ball on the ground for the potential of a double play in that situation."

The media asked to talk to talk to Perez, but his English isn't so good, so he didn't have the words to potentially tell them to fuck off. Shawn Camp was seen comforting him.

I also realized at some point during that 9th that Luis Perez looks like a Latino Ted Lilly. Google pictures, you'll see it.

Villanueva pitched well, Hill had two hits and a stolen base, Encarnacion had three hits and Arencibia had two singles.

Villanueva looked a bit nauseous when he accidentally beaned Lonnie Chisenhall in the third inning. It looked like the pitch went off the brim of the helmet, nicked his cheekbone(which was already puffing up when the trainer got there) and got his nose, which was bleeding. It was particularly scary because it seemed clear that Chisenhall, who made no effort to get out of the way, didn't see that pitch at all.

So, there have been inconsistent strike zones, non-calls at the plate, untimely opposition home runs, blown saves and shoddy outfield defense.

All of this comes into perspective when something like this happens. Just awful. I feel awful for that guy's family, especially his kid who was sitting right there and saw the whole thing. And for Josh Hamilton who tossed him the ball.

I saw something last night that sort of ticked me off. I used to read Batter's Box when my interest in baseball was rekindled in 2004. I visited until I got tired of it and decided to make my own site with the sort of thing I wanted to read about. That site is this one. And I became a member of this rag tag group of wise nerds and charming blowhards known as the Toronto Blue Jays blogosphere.

So when I saw yesterday on Twitter, through the @bluejaysbuzztap , that Batter's Box had done a SOSH post. And I yelled about it over Twitter. Batter's Box sent me a link to a post they did about SOSH in 2005 (ie pre-H/C) with little Twitter comments jokingly implying that I mooched from them.

I didn't start mine until 2007 or so. I have the memory of an elephant, and I don't remember SOSH posts on that site. I first heard of SOSH when I read that Curt Schilling used to visit it when he was considering signing with Boston, to interact with the fans. I went to check it out, and found the comedy gold within.

Whether I have a right to it or not, I feel a certain jurisdiction over that site. SOSH posts are one of this site's trademarks. I get requests if I don't do SOSH posts. I get requests even when the Jays get trounced, even though the SOSH posts only come out when the Jays win. So my nose is a little out of joint. I may not have done it first, but I like to think I've made it into an art form.

Still Waiting for That Tag

2011-07-05T22:11:00.011-05:00

Of all the loses this season, that may have been my favourite. It is pretty strange to think that a loss that was so heartbreaking would be so enjoyable, but I do.

Jon Lester is the Boston player I secretly covet, so I enjoy watching him pitch. Of course watching him no-hit the Jays through four was not that enjoyable. Neither was watching Albers mow through them, except for a Corey Patterson base running incident that made me tweet wondering if a player can be DFA'd mid-game. You walked. Bautista got a single. This is the first hint of a scoring threat you have had all game. Lind, your team's second best hitter, is at the plate. You realize AA is trimming the fat, right? WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

Some people over Twitter were quick to blame Farrell. If it was the manager, the manager seems to have no qualms about throwing his left-fielder under the bus. Farrell called the move “a poor decision, to try to make something happen when we’ve got really the only rally … to that point in time in the game. Your four-hole hitter [is] up. That was a poor decision.”

Brett Cecil, the pitcher who won 15 games last season, finally showed himself. Yes, I know wins count for not that much, but for argument's sake, I will say that it indicates that a pitcher has had a certain amount of success. He kept his pitches down, his velocity was good but most of all, there was a little something on his pitches, particularly his changeup. Cecil chucked, kids.

Trying to get something off Daniel Bard was nearly impossible, but going into the 9th, and right after Tabler compared Bard and Papelbon to Ward and Heinke, I had an inkling that the Jays might mess with Papelbon in the 9th.

Papelbon got a little jobbed on a call for once in his life, where it seemed he struck Corey Patterson out. It looked inside by a lot, but the pitch fx showed that the pitch was a nasty one on the edge. I figured it had to do with a poor framing job by Varitek, who overcompensated and made it seem more outside than it was. Anyway, Patterson singled and Bautista demonstrated, once again, that he is the best player in baseball with a towering shot over the Green Monster.

Things were getting intense and dramatic. And then the play at the plate happened. Encarnacion tried to score on a McDonald single that basically was willed into existence and was blocked off the plate by Varitek. Or at least that's what it seemed. @MLB posted a video of "the great play to win the game." Sox fans were, for once, not wanting Varitek's head on a spike.

And then the power of the Internet came through. People were grumbling, wondering if there had even been a tag. People started to post pictures over Twitter of the play and people starting GIFing.

This is the one that sealed it for me.

Yeah, so it appears Encarnacion is still waiting to be tagged. It is an embarrassingly bad call that seemed much closer than it actually was.

John Farrell has learned all too well the bullshit that comes from being the opposition in Fenway. Post game, he was pretty mad.

“That play is right in front of Brian Knight,” Farrell said. “It was clear that Edwin did a good job sliding around the plant leg of [Varitek], but his swipe tag missed him by no less than a foot. So right now, we should be out on that field playing."

I am looking over the pictures from the game, of the Red Sox players hugging each and celebrating. Looking at a picture of Papelbon trying to make out with Darnell McDonald, the player who threw the relay to the plate, and I wonder if they went back and checked the replay at some point, and realized that they were lucky. Or do they just not wonder?

As it turns out, I had an insider at Fenway. My favourite Antigonishian went to Boston at the last minute when a friend invited her from New York. She noticed the kajillion Nova Scotia flags, and wondered why until I told her it was Nova Scotia night. So it was fate. This friend had cherry seats. Like, a few rows up and to the left (right on tv) of the Sox dugout. People left, and they snuck down to the seats next to the field. She saw it all. She had a better view than Farrell.

I found this out when I posted something about the call on Facebook, and she commented something along the lines that it looked good to her, too. So I asked her about it.

"The whole place was going nuts -- so, so loud -- the ump probably feared for his life if he'd called him safe."

I've often suspected that was the motivation for some non-calls in some of the busier stadiums. Although, it was an active and aggressive crowd in the Rogers Centre for Rauch's Incredible Hulk impression, and that didn't seem to sway the umps. So maybe the crowd needs to cuss at the ump with a broad A and some non-rhoticity.

Lester was taken out of the game in the fourth, for what was later announced as a sore lat. Buckholz has a bulging disk. Dice K is out with TJ. Lackey is well, lacking. If Lester is hurt, that means they pin their hopes on a fat head (Beckett) and an old man (Wakefield.)

In other news, a group of tired and down Jays arrived at their hotel 90 minutes post game. Not recognizable due to jeans, youth and relative tininess. Everyone who were asked for pictures or autographs were polite and obliging.

Sexy Things Snider Says

2011-07-05T13:35:00.003-05:00

On Snider's three doubles, from the boy's own mouth:

"All three of them were a little different. The first one was a fastball, middle away; I stayed on it. The second one was an off-speed pitch, I was able to stay back and keep it fair down the line and the third one, they were trying to come with a cutter most of the day and I was able to stay inside it and hook it down the line.”

Swoon.

Sorry, kid. I gotta call this a comeback.

It's Not The Damn Olympics: A Sojourn to SOSH

2011-07-04T18:47:00.004-05:00

The previous time the Jays faced the Red Sox, it was like a trip through Hell. They got out scored, out hit, out pitched and out uglied by the Red Sox in the Rogers Centre, which must have been a serious blow to their egos and pride. I was able to forget that series, until Sportsnet, Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler decided to discuss and dissect that series at length. First there was the ridiculous "They were massacred. Yet they continue to live. Will they be massacred again?" commercials Sportsnet was running over the weekend. And then in the broadcast, every time the Jays added a run, one of them would mention the scoring differential of that series from Hell. 35-6. 35-6. 35-6. Were they under contract to mention it? Playing a drinking game?

So last series I completely avoided SOSH, but considering the box score today and by popular demand, I figured I should take a look. Some of you may find it "ugly" but sometimes baseball is ugly and I need to get hideous.

Here we go:

Let's give these Blue Jays the same treatment we gave the last band of Canucks who came through these parts...the nuts on these guys coming here on July 4, eh?

I didn't know at first what the hell he was referring to, but then I was like "Oh, that." Which illustrates the integral part hockey has in my life. And when are people going to learn that though the Jays are based in Canada, all the Canadians on the team are in AAA? There are 17 Americans on the active roster, with 6 Dominicans, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban. It's not the Olympics. And for the record, the Bruins have 21 Canadians on their roster. And that's ok. Because it's not the Olympics.

I have felt a little sorry for Lackey, not for his on field struggle but for the struggles in his family life. The post game interviews with him have been brutal. I would feel bad if one the Jays' pitchers was facing something similar.

Die in a fire, Lackey

Charming.

I HATE RAJAI DAVIS. He always hits us and steals bases.

Davis had two doubles and another stolen base, bringing his total to 22.

Lackey looks even uglier in that hat.

He has a lot of competition.

Losing to a Canadian team on the 4th of July. Way to go, assholes.

Olympics. Not.

How do Canadiens feel about the Blue Jays wearing those hats for July 4th?

Um, I'm not sure the Habs were asked.

Everyone get Macdonald (sic) out indeed. Asshole.

It was sort of justice for JMac today.

Toronto beat up on Cliff Lee pretty good yesterday. Lackey will be 6 feet under soon.

That was really fun. A day later, it's still fun to think about.

Give Lackey back to the Angels for a subsidized Vernon Wells.

They have just lost their minds now.

Come on Lackey, do it for America. These ungrateful Canadian communist traitors don't even celebrate the 4th of July.

It's not the damn Olympics!!!! I realize that is a joke. But it is missing a key component: the humour.

After Lackey, Terry Francona and Theo Epstein took the brunt of the surliness.

Great job Tito. I just cannot understand why you let the game get out of control. Stupid beyond belief.

Well, let me explain. There is something called bullpen management. The Jays ran up the score early in the game, and it was 7-0. Now 7-0 versus say a team in the AL West, for instance, may seem insurmountable. But the Red Sox can score a disgusting amount of runs, especially in Fenway. If the manager starts running out relief pitchers when his starters get knocked around, he is going to burn through his bullpen and they will quit being able to throw strikes. And a pitcher who can't throw strikes is perhaps the most useless member of a ball club. So there are worse things than letting your veteran starting swing a bit, and eat up some innings, because the offense will likely pull them out of it.

This would be obvious to anyone not a drama queen.

So they went on and on like this on Lackey, even though he only lasted into the third inning.

We're gonna win this.

Aw, close. But no.

I hate how "Thames" is pronounced, if only because I've expended a small bit of energy in my life learning how Marcus Thames pronounces his name.

Yeah, that sounds taxing. Thames extended his hit streak to 9 games. And he actually took a walk! He was promptly picked off first, but it was an important step.

Cool, Youkilis drilled in the spine.

Yeah, I gotta say. Brandon Morrow lived the dream when he did that.

The Red Sox climbed back into it, and it was 9-7 in the 9th when Frank Francisco came out and struck out some pretty scary hitters to hold on to the victory.

Travis Snider was just fantastic today. Gregg Zaun tweeted that he can't see any difference in Snider's swing. And he also nearly fell right on his face running to second base for his first double. Not once. But twice.

I don't really understand why Lackey is pitching when it is obvious he is injured. There must be some kid in AAA who is pitching well, and could come up and not be much worse than Lackey is. They have Lester and Beckett, and though Buckholz is currently injured, he should be back.

And what did the manager have to say?

“It wasn’t one particular guy, but we forced [Lackey] to throw a lot of pitches and we stayed disciplined,” Farrell said.

Disciplined!

Not June

2011-07-03T19:06:00.005-05:00

While having a 6'11" wall of tattooed man arguing about the strike zone can be effective, looking exasperated at a strike call, then regrouping and absolutely destroying the next pitch for a home run sends a different kind of message.

I had a certain feeling about this game going into it. While the Jays lost the previous two games, they were certainly right in both of them. They didn't look lost like they did during that Boston series from hell. And Cliff Lee has been beaten by the Jays before. I remember an incident in 2008, where Lee was supposed to face Halladay in a Cy Young/Who is the Man? head to head show down and the Indians moved his start. Lee was working on a record of scoreless innings pitched and he was 5-0 with an ERA of 0.21 for the month of June.

He was clearly riding high when he saw fit to chirp at Bautista who was protesting a strike out on a curve ball that ended up on the very bottom of the zone.

Well, Cliff, it's not June anymore. Rajai Davis had a sick afternoon that included a triple and three stolen bases. That helped chip in to the 4-0 lead the Phillies' tagged on JoJo Reyes in his rough 2nd inning.

And then the 8th inning happened, and whatever zip Lee had going on his pitches earlier in the game died. Eric Thames smoked one over the centre field fence making it 4-4. Bautista, previously disgusted by a high strike call, tattooed the next pitch for the go ahead shot. Lind singled and then Encarnacion, mirroring Bautista disgust at the strike zone on one pitch, destroyed the next one to the second deck.

It was almost enough to melt away all the frustration, raw feelings, bitterness and annoyance from this weekend of baseball. Was this not the best weekend of baseball Toronto has seen in a while?

Congratulations to Jose Bautista on being named to the All Star team, getting a record number of 7,454,753 votes. My mind is sufficiently blown.

Nostalgic Righteous Indignation

2011-07-02T17:40:00.005-05:00

I don't often have feelings of nostalgia combine so perfectly with feelings of righteous indignation. But I felt that today. A classic Roy Halladay victory in the Rogers Centre made me nostalgic for a time when Jays' fans got the opportunity to see him systematically dismantle the oppositions' offense for a full 9 innings every 5 days. The only difference was that this time, Doc was dismantling the Jays' offense. Except Eric Thames , who got two hits and John McDonald, of all people. I think JMac got pitches to hit in thanks for all those years he vacuumed up ground balls over the years after Doc decided to start pitching to contact.

I never bought into the idea that Doc was a robot on the mound, never showing emotions. More often than not, Doc had the look of wanting to eat kittens when he pitched. I'm not surprised he didn't acknowledge the crowd who cheered for entrance, because it would totally show up the Jays. In the pre-game show, Gregg Zaun, who caught Doc for 5 seasons, said he used to try to loosen him up from his pre-game intensity. I bet that was well received.

I think people complaining that Doc was getting cheered for need to get over themselves. Judging by the loud cheer that went up when Eric Thames singled off Doc in the first, these people were just clamouring for a great show. And what did Roy Halladay do for Toronto for all those years if not give them that?

When Jose Bautista took Halladay deep in his second at bat, he took him very, very deep. Bautista homered in a place he never homers, and it was one of those moments that makes this game so unbelievable. I had tears in my eyes. Yes, I cried in baseball.

Carlos Villanueva, to his credit, was nearly as good as Halladay and kept the Jays' in it. This guy has been one of the great surprises for this team.

And then the righteous indignation. Halladay got some calls that Jays' pitchers did not get. I'm pretty sure Halladay got calls Halladay didn't get when he was one of them. I knew something was brewing when Bautista struck out looking in the 1st, and had an extensive conversation with Alfonso Marquez about it. And Marquez got a pretty extensive earful from the Jays' dugout, who were chirping all afternoon. The pitch fx showed the pitch was there, but on the low end of the zone.

The zone was one way in favour of Doc to the point of utter ridiculousness. His strikes were in the strike zone, so the game was well called, but similar pitches from Jays' pitchers were not called. Handy info over Twitter from Parkes at Getting Blanked stated that 1 pitch in the zone was called a ball for Halladay, and 10 in the zone were called balls for the Jays.

So when Rauch threw a borderline pitch to Howard in the 9th that was called a ball and then walked him on a non-called strike that was very similar to the Bautista one in the first, things started to unravel. An RBI single, with a close play at the plate and Rauch was unleashed. I wonder if Marquez was at all alarmed to see a 6'10" tatooed wall of man come at him. Post game Rauch said, "I am not a small human." This was especially evident when he tossed John Farrell aside when Farrell, also not a small human, tried to subdue him. It took Wakamatsu, Butterfield, Farrell and Arencibia to get a hold of him, after his jersey was ripped off. It was quite the display. And then Farrell got right in Marquez's face and took over giving him a piece of his mind. Farrell's first toe to toe, hat brim touching screaming match as a big league manager.

If Bautista's role as face of the franchise was evident when he homered off Doc, his role as team leader was evident when he trotted in from 3rd to try and help subdue Rauch. One thing that made me chuckle in the video of the ejections was the look on the pitchers' faces when Rauch stormed through the dugout. They looked away or down, like "Don't make eye contact. He might eat us."

That got the crowd well into it, and the atmosphere got heated and stayed heated while Doc came out to finish out the 9th, for a 5-3 complete game victory. He finally acknowledged the cheers with a hat tip to the Rogers' Centre crowd and that was that.

So far it's been a really intense, tight and exciting weekend of baseball. I just wish the Jays' would quit ending up on the short end.

Tastefully

2011-07-01T06:50:00.003-05:00

I don't really have time today to write extensively about Doc's return, so I'll save that for his actual game. I posted links on Twitter a few classic posts about Doc (which more often than not, featured AJ Burnett. I clearly have a thing for contrast.)

The National Post had a piece about how much Romero was influenced by Doc and how much Ricky wanted to go head to head with him, old ace vs new ace.

“I knew I was never going to be a Roy Halladay but I can make a name for myself and be Ricky Romero. He always taught me that,” Romero said.

“He always said, ‘You’re going to have to create your own identity.’ I took that with me and to this day, I continue to build on that.”

As for what the team has planned for the return, Paul Beeston said, "It’s going to be done very tastefully, respecting his team and our team."

So, I assume that means a pig race, jell-o wrestling and a wet t-shirt contest.

No Lyle Club

2011-06-29T08:28:00.005-05:00

So, the Pirates are actually kind of good. Not Red Sox good, but almost there/good pieces good. That Andrew McCutchen is a talented guy. A 5 tool type that makes old school baseball fans sigh names like "Aaron....Mays." His homer off an otherwise solid Luis Perez turned out to be the difference in the game. This game actually felt like a Jays 2010 game, probably due to all the homers. Fred McGriff was a guest in the booth when Jose Bautista jacked a 2 run homer, his league leading 24th. McGriff was mid-sentence and then made the most hysterical noise, a little "My word" kind of sound that made me laugh. It was really good to see that guy looking and sounding so good, and the sadness in his voice when Buck Martinez brought up when he was traded from the Jays was touching. McGriff was at the core of this team when it was being built up and they won the World Series without him.

Encarnacion is in one of his moods where he hits with a tremendous amount of power, seemingly at will. I hope the two homers tonight silence people on the wretched, mean spirited "E5" nickname that persists. It's just as easy to type "EE", people.

I will word this carefully, as I am not looking to get into an Internet war with one of my fellow bloggers, but freaking out over the relatively benign Lyle Overbay comments speculating as to why the Jays don't draw people to the park was more than a little ridiculous. Using the word "values" was probably a misstep, but it was a dumb question and a pretty poorly written article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The comments were not completely out of line considering the strike pretty much killed the team in Montreal. People don't come to the stadium like they did in the early 90s. I'm completely convinced people will show up when the team plays consistently well and becomes more than just a showcase for one really fantastic player. Also, this team has fans that don't live in Toronto and that is reflected in the TV ratings. And considering that Jays' fans are normally described as passive or indifferent by sports writers around the league, being labelled "passionate" and "unforgiving" is a pretty interesting change.

The note pictured above was on the door to the Jays' clubhouse. In case there is anyone humourless or just a little slow, it's a joke.

Athletes are strange, and more often than not, sheltered. This can sometimes make their opinions or statements a little strange. I was reminded of this in the profile of Kyle Drabek that appeared in the Toronto Star on Saturday. Drabek comes off as an incredibly privileged and sheltered individual whose life has revolved around baseball for as long he can remember. Considering this, it's not so surprising Drabek has struggled to keep things together on the mound and keep his emotions in check. If the one thing that has defined you since you were a kid suddenly isn't working for you, it can be more than a little unnerving.

The Tao and Me

2011-06-23T14:58:00.002-05:00

The following chat (of awesome) took place Thursday, June 23 at 3 p.m.

HumChuck: Hey

Tao: Ding ding ding...Let's get it on!

HumChuck: So, that was a rather shitty series

Tao: Dreadful. It was drudgery to watch it unfold. And it's not as if you could even really get much of a hate-on for the Braves. Chipper aside, I guess.

HumChuck: No, they seem to be a pretty good team, which some nice young arms and pitchers that hit home runs.

Tao: I wondered that night if Tim Hudson was really that good, of if the Jays just made them look good. You take a look at the strike zone graphs, and the Jays (Hill and Davis, in particular) we waving at stuff that was nowhere near the strike zone. Down down down and away away.

HumChuck: Davis' new name is "Down and Away." In funks like this, I sometimes wonder if it would better to not swing at anything. Cause swinging at balls is just torture.

Tao: When the Jays got Davis, I think I said "good fourth outfielder, and could play every day in a pinch." But that was probably a bit too enthusiastic. He actually looks worse at the plate right now than Snider did when he got sent down, and that's saying something. He probably belongs on the bench, but the Jays just don't have another CF option.

HumChuck: Some people are whispering "Vernon...." some places. Not loudly or aggressively.

It's just a different situation to be in. We have no options at centre field for the first time in a long time.

Tao: I forget if it was in the comments or in a post, but I mentioned that - money set aside, and you can never really do that - I kinda miss some of what Vernon did. But yeah, for years, we couldn't wait to bump Vernon because we had a perfectly good replacement in Rios...and now neither are here. And productive CFs don't just fall out of the sky.

HumChuck: If he could leave his contract in Los Angeles, Vernon can come play any day.

Tao: Just looking up their numbers: Rios, .599 OPS. Yikes! That's Nixian territory. And Wells is .566, which is EXACTLY the same as Jayson Nix. Wow. Maybe we should keep our nostalgia in check. (Ray-Jay is a monster .622, BTW.)

HumChuck: What did you think about the Romero comments? Big deal out of nothing?

Tao: In a weird way, it was probably good for the team. He says something upsetting (possibly) to the media about his teammates, and then he comes back and says: "OK, I'm sorry. I love you guys. We're family. But seriously, start hitting." And it's all out in the open. Ricky seems like a guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve, and I don't think it's smart to just stifle him, because he really wasn't wrong at all with what he said.

HumChuck: I also see it as a situation where all of these people are adults, and he said what he said in the most diplomatic way. He said "We" a lot and he didn't say specific names. I don't think what he said was wrong, either.

Tao: And by the way: The way that the Jays' media corps dealt with this? They should remember this the next time they spend months on end getting media-trained non-answers. They really torqued this into something else.

HumChuck Yeah, what it became was totally blown out of proportion.

Tao: Saying RickRo "called out" his teammates was really turning this into something that it wasn't. But then, here we are still talking about it. Onto happier things...like...um...er...I dunno.

HumChuck: Let's answer some Twitter questions.

Tao: Bring it.

HumChuck: @Grubersmullet asks Can Carlos V be a legit #4/#5 starter for Jays? Possibly taking over Litsch?

Tao: I don't know that Jesse is all that close, or that he can stay healthy for any amount of time, so I'd take the second part out of the equation. But can Villanueva be a part of the rotation? I think so, but I think in the long term, he might be best suited to a middle relief role. His second or third time through the league, I'm not sure if he's going to continue to be as effective with just pounding 89 MPH fastballs down. But he's been great so far, and probably my favourite acquisition this offseason.

HumChuck: It was robbery what AA did. Our current #5 cost 100,000 dollars.

I really like what Villanueva has done so far, and what I think the policy on pitching should be is that the best guys pitch. And the ones that are successful stay and the ones that aren't get swapped out. Having too much pitching is a luxury

Tao: It's a good philosophy, although I think people would have been tempted early in the season to punt Jo-Jo Reyes out of the rotation (or frankly, out of the organization.) We're lucky that there wasn't a quick hook on him, because he's really been the second or third most effective starter, behind RickRo and sorta behind Villanueva.

HumChuck: There are always different rules for southpaws. I will amend my philosophy, and say that success would be judged by more than just certain numbers. Cause JoJo had turned a corner at a one point that happened several starts before the win.

Tao: Yeah, he's been alright. But it kinda raises the other question, which is: What's the deal with Brandon Morrow, and when does he snap out of it?

HumChuck: Morrow showed signs that he snapped out of it his last start. Morrow's 2010 first half numbers are eerily similar to his first half this season. I had just forgotten because he was so awesome the 2nd half. His next few starts should really be indicative. And he should use his changeup more.

Tao: It would be nice to think that he could put an entire season together, but we'll settle for now for a good second half. As for the change: He's been missing with fastballs early in counts, which means he ends up playing with a smaller deck. Still, he should come around. Any more questions from the tweeps?

HumChuck: Morrow also missed a chunk of time on the DL, so he might have "snapped out of it" earlier had that not happened. More tweep questions. @Roll_Fizzlebeef wants us to talk about baserunning, why some people have a knack for it and why some people need a stop sign at every base.

Tao: I hate to go too far down this road, because I can see where someone might want to take this, but I think some guys are just smarter players than others. Some have the skill because they've worked at it, or because they've learned the hard way when not to take the extra base. Some guys have to be smart base runners, the way some other players have to be good defensive players. They need the skill to supplement other weaknesses. I guess. I don't know. I kinda feel like that question was leading to something...

HumChuck: Corey Patterson is a bad baserunner is where it is leading. I don't think he is dumb, but he may have been one of those guys who are so talented, they never had to learn the way to do something. Alex Rios is like that. Jose Bautista is not like that.

Tao: Corey Patterson is the black Reed Johnson. Actually, Reed Johnson's probably better. And it pains me to say that, because 1) I hate Reed Johnson and 2) Reed Johnson runs like a girl.

No offense.

HumChuck: Running is for children and idiots. Unless you are getting paid. Reed Johnson plays smarter.

Tao: I stick to "meaningful strutting" if I need to get somewhere fast. You're racist.

HumChuck: Yeah, you caught me. Should I mention that some people on Wilner's Sportsnet chat (which I go to often) failed to comprehend why the Braves' chant was racist?

Tao: Let's not go there. It's kinda depressing. One more tweeted question, and let's put a bow on this thing.

HumChuck: I'll just say "IT'S RACIST. REALLY RACIST." @darelleats asks "Should Escobar have gotten more $$$?" and our opinion on pants in the summer.

Tao: If Escobar didn't ask for more, then I'm not going to give him any more. But if he'd played his cards right, I think he probably could have had another good season and a half and doubled the back end of the agreement. As for pants: Pants if necessary, though not necessarily pants.

HumChuck: I am very tall and very white, sometimes pants help to prevent the whole "My God, you are white" situation I sometimes run in to. I think if that's what Escobar agreed to, I think it's enough. I love him, by the way. So the deal makes me happy.

Tao: Yeah, I love Yunel as well. I just root for him, because I think he was put into a box and misunderstood in Atlanta, and I love to see a guy flourish given the right situation. I think people in North America forget how hard it can be to function in a second language, because most of them never have to speak anything other than English to succeed. I'm sure that being isolated as he was on the Braves was tough.

HumChuck: I think the fact that Bautista had to take him aside and basically say "No one dislikes you here, you can be yourself" says everything about that situation. The idea of the Latin coaches being necessary in this types of situations is really undervalued.

Tao: As for relative pastiness: I still can't really comprehend the whole "look at how tanned I am" thing. It's odd to me that people still want to go fry themselves, with everything we know about skin cancer and the like. You go to Central America, and see how the people there deal with the sun: They stay the fuck out of it, so that they don't croak. We should be as smart.

HumChuck: A lot of them are naturally brown anyway.

Tao: I was making the case for Latin coaches (or a Latin manager) and took heat from some people. Still, I think it's a skill that should be valued. If I were a catcher in the big leagues, you know I'd be learning Spanish and playing in Winter leagues to try to enhance my communications skills. I'd rather that than just speaking slow and loud, as though my Latin teammates are dogs.

Sill there?

HumChuck: Yep...and yeah, to help with the culture shock, too. I remember Pedro Martinez's stories about helping Vlad Guerrero out when he first got to Montreal. Cause Vlad was right off the farm in the DR. But Pedro found places for food in the Haitian community in Montreal, and it felt a little more homey.

Tao: Alright. So, we've answered everything that anyone could possibly want to know. Closing thoughts?

HumChuck: Um, hit the baseball, everyone? And there were more questions. But I think we are done.

Tao: We shouldn't give people too much goodness all at once. It's like drinking a whole case of "retro" Pepsi in one sitting. As for the Jays: A little offense would be nice. Not a 15-run explosion, and then a couple of one-run games, though. I'd like to see seven runs per game against the Cardinals. That's not too much to ask, is it?

HumChuck: It might be.

Timmy's Night

2011-06-21T07:08:00.007-05:00

The kind of start Ricky Romero had last night might be, in some ways, worse for the psyche than a blowout. Taking a shutout late into the game against another pitcher who is dealing, getting two outs (after a very nifty play at the plate) and then giving up a two run homer to that same pitcher who is dealing. The Braves had threatened to score a few times, but just hadn't gotten it done. It was almost as if Hudson had decided to take matters into his own hands. "It was Timmy’s night I guess.”

In the pre-game show, there was a quote from Hudson were he said that he had actually been pitching better than the numbers suggested. Yeah, you don't say.

After giving up the homer, Ricky was spitting nails in the dugout. And then on Twitter, some of the reporters were talking about how candid he was about his frustrations with the offense. I expected more nails. And then I read what he said,

"All I can do is just pitch. I can’t worry about the offence and what they do. I’ve always said this at one point we can’t rely on (Jose) Bautista, we can’t rely on (Adam) Lind. We’ve got to get somebody else to step up and get on base and drive them in. These guys are getting pitched around. Everyone’s got to step it up or else we’re not going to be winning ballgames. This team doesn’t revolve around one or two guys. Everyone’s got to put in their parts. That’s how we win ballgames.”

Frustrated, yes, but not exactly a Carlos Zambrano moment. Not that big of a deal.

Yunel Escobar returned to Atlanta for the first time since he was traded to the Jays, and armed with a brand new contract extension.

“Everybody has the right to their own opinion,” Escobar said. “(The Braves) have their opinion. I respect that. Now Toronto has their opinion about me. That’s the way I play. I’ve always played like that. I have fun on the field. I’m proving now by being the kind of player I am. I’ve always been that way and I’m proving it now. The Jays allow me to be myself.”

He looked a little tight from nerves being back in Atlanta, a place that seems to have made him feel pretty bad, even though Chipper Jones now says he was one of Yunel's biggest supporters. Sure, Chip.

Atlanta Twitter buddy @AliPhoneIC informed me that there were a lot of Escobar Braves jerseys in the stands. So basically I figure that it was more a Bobby Cox issue than anything as widespread as some would have you believe. Tim Hudson, for his part, after Escobar grounded out in the 1st, gave him a pat on the back with his glove, a gesture that was returned.

Although David O'Brien, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in a rather ridiculous column trying to, for whatever reason, justify the Gonzalez/Escobar trade, did call Escobar "a petulant hot dog of a player who rubbed teammates wrong at least as frequently as he ticked off opponents." O'Brien closes the column out by dissing Bautista, calling him the home run freak show, but told Braves' fans not to get excited because Bautista has only hit one homer in June.

I want Escobar to relax a little, hit a homer and whistle going down the first base line.

2011-06-18T19:39:00.002-05:00

You have Bautista'd the vote. You may have even Swagged the Vote. Now it is time to do this:

Since coming off the DL, he's batting .413 with eight homers and 17 RBIs.

Get it done.

Rolen on the River

2011-06-17T22:28:00.004-05:00

My NL team is the Reds, mostly due to the fact that scouts went to go watch Joey Votto hit at the ball diamonds at Christie Pitts, which is just so Toronto. That, my enduring baseball thing for Scott Rolen. I mean, he hit a homer against my team and he stuck his head down and power jogged around the bases, and I was all tingly.

And to all of you who want to say how splenetic Rolen is, I know. It's sort of why I like him.

That being said, I was still pleased the Jays won. José Bautista made a rare miscue in the outfield, when he didn't listen to Corey Patterson call him off on a fly ball to centre. The misplay led to an inside the park home run. The ball is clearly the centre fielder's, but I suspect that Bautista didn't trust Patterson to make that play and took it upon himself. The official reason for Patterson playing in centre is to give Davis some time off, but I also think Patterson's bat is what they want. Patterson in centre field is not a great idea. But Patterson stole 2nd in the next half inning and Bautista scorched a double to centre to score him, which erased the foolishness.

I was amused when I saw Davis on the bench with his glove on after the inside the park homer, though. JoJo Reyes got the win, and not a Blue Jays pitcher gave up a walk. Like, shut your face, no BBs.

Maybe the best thing about having Adam Lind being so hot with the bat, besides the whole hits and RBIs, is trying to get him to talk eloquently about it. Tonight, he just stands there and says, "I really have no idea."

On which ballplayer sent Kelly Kapowski naked pictures of himself, I totally put my money on Alex "Show Pony" Rodriguez. I mean, I could see ARod sending full frontal nude shots to himself, so of course he would do it to some chick he probably found super hot on Saturday morning TV when he was a teenager. And then was reminded of Kelly Kapowski when she showed up on 90210, and played a very slutty pot smoker.

But then I hear she said the mystery man didn't date Madonna. Well, that should cancel out ARod-but maybe, realizing the can of worms she just opened, Tiffani Theissan just said that to throw people off or doesn't consider post divorce cougar mating for publicity seeking attention whores to be dating.

One last thing, big ups and salutations to Ian over that The Blue Jay Hunter for sending me this:

This Past Weekend Was a Long Time Ago

2011-06-14T23:23:00.006-05:00

There are times we, as Jays fans, are really grateful for something. Last night, we were grateful for the Baltimore Orioles. After getting completely and systematically massacred by the Red Sox, Baltimore rolled into town and all of a sudden, a ray of neon orange sunshine broke through the dark sky that had settled over the team. Yes, it was a bit ridiculous to let it go to 12 innings and use 5 relievers to beat the Orioles, but it was nice to feel like a win could happen. That strikes could be thrown. That home runs could be hit.

I like how Orioles' pitcher Koji Uehara didn't really walk off. He watched the ball go out and stood there, scratching his head while Lind circled the bases. Most guys duck their head and haul it to the showers, which is how the walk off homer got it's name.

Adam Lind, the game's hero, got sort of philosophical about the win. He said,“But in our world this past weekend was a long time ago.”

Carlos "Carlito" Villanueva continued to be awesomely serviceable, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits over 6 plus inning of work. And Tampa beat the Red Sox 4-0 like it was no big thing. I realise that some of this funk is the annual June Swoon, traditionally the time were the Jays go from being the almost contender to struggling to see the leaders in the distance. I don't know why this happens, but it needs to stop.

Kyle Drabek was sent down to Vegas yesterday and I'm a bit on the fence about it. Based on what I've read and on observations I've made, Drabek is having a bit of trouble accepting the fact that his pitches are going to get hit. He does have an absurd number of walks, but it isn't really a matter of wildness. Drabek is around the strikezone, just not in it. I appreciate the idea of sending him down so he can regain his confidence, but I'm not sure Vegas is going to help the "My pitches are getting hit! Maybe I'm not the man!!" issues.

I really hope something like this happens with Drabek in AAA Las Vegas

"It's my arm now! Since this arm is mine, I want it strong! I want it to throw strikes!"

Only These Things

2011-06-12T00:03:00.007-05:00

Weird and wonderful things happened in today's game.

Above is a picture of Escobar explaining rule 6.05 b, probably in Spanish, to an umpire, who really should know better. As it's, like, his job and all. You can't ring a guy up on 2 strikes, Mark Carlson. It's just not allowed.

I like that when Farrell ran out to protest, Escobar just sort of stood there pointing at the scoreboard and Varitek was looking down, clearly thinking "I totally know there are only two strikes but I'm not going to say anything or even look up and maybe it'll stand. Maybe I'll make the Jays feel really bad about themselves and hit a homer. Yes." And Lackey thought, "Damn, I'm good."

It's admirable the way Carlson maintained an air of belligerence, refusing to change his mind, even when there were significant indicators that he was wrong. He maintained that air even when he changed his call.

Alan Ashby declared, "We are gonna have to straighten this one out." And they did.

Mike McCoy pitched, got a 3 up-3 down in the 9th with some sort of knuckle pitch. At least judging by the way Molina was catching them.

And Encarnacion got a 2 run homer and looked less like a Sad Panda. I would like to think something inspired from this helped:

Notice this game report is on little, marginal amusements.

And that's all that happened. ALL THAT HAPPENED.

Well, Anyway...

2011-06-10T15:23:00.002-05:00

So I thumbed through a copy of Sporting News, which had their list of who they consider to be the 50 best baseball players in the MLB. It doesn't really list the numbers or anything to indicate how they came to this list, just a bunch of anecdotes about why Albert Pujols is scary or how impressive Adrian Gonzalez is. Now, some of you might be saying "Don't you hate numbers and love anecdotes?" And yes, that is true. But I also value numbers as one of the ways to measure success. You don't draft a player just because they seem impressive.

I was curious to see if any Jays were listed. I had suspicions that one was going to be listed, if not in the top ten, then at least in the top 20. I was disappointed.

Jose Bautista is nearly halfway down in the list, coming in at number 23. 23!

The amusing part is that Sporting News has a section in the piece that lists players by WAR. Bautista's WAR is 11.5, putting him well above the pack and at the top of the list. What does Sporting News have to say about that? "Bautista's power surge put him on our top 50 list this year, but well behind his WAR ranking."

Well, Sporting News, what does that tell you about your list?

8.05(e)

2011-06-09T20:47:00.008-05:00

Baseball Rules- Rule 8.05 (e)

A quick pitch is an illegal pitch. Umpires will judge a quick pitch as one delivered before the batter is reasonably set in the batter's box. With runners on base the penalty is a balk; with no runners on base, it is a ball. The quick pitch is dangerous and should not be permitted.

Jose Bautista got quick pitched by Luke Hochevar, who demonstrated a sneaky way to get around that bat. Bautista was half out of the box and Hochevar sped up his delivery, threw a strike and Bautista was caught looking and confused. As soon as I heard "quick pitch", I looked up the rule. I knew it was vaguely not allowed, but not that the rule is stated in that way.

The trick is is that needs to actually be called. It's one of those annoying "judgement of the umpire" things.

I schooled Mike Wilner on this rule in his in game chat. He had his doubts, and then I cited the rule. And he read it and said, "You are right."

Well, duh, Mike. I am at that Wilner/Davidi chat most days and I find it enjoyable/maddening. The daily questions about Dustin McGowan, phrased by people like they think they are the first person to ask about him and like they can't google "McGowan".

Bautista is in a mini-slump in the power department. It wouldn't be a slump for mere mortals, but for Bautista, it has caused people to be alarmed. It also makes him say things like this,"It's not that I'm starting late, it's my load that's making me late."

When taken out of context, that sentence is strange. Even in context, that sentence is strange. His load is making him late. Did your load make you late to work?

Anyway, Ricky Romero was the hard luck starter yesterday. Pitched beautifully and had some bad luck. Kansas City is pretty good.

The Red Sox are in first place and are rolling in to town for the weekend, so it's a pretty big must win type of situation. I just want to give a shout out to the New York Yankees, who are currently in a rain delay situation with the Sox, but haven't yet.

*This was half written last night. Red Sox won 8-3. But hopefully they will be very, very tired.

Pretty Swing

2011-06-06T11:03:00.003-05:00

I'm so happy Adam Lind is back. His presence in the lineup paid off in spades on Sunday, as the Orioles refused to man-up and pitch to Jose Bautista. I mean, he got a few things to hit that he did nothing with, but there was definitely the intentional unintentional walk happening. Lind made them pay dearly, with 4 hits, 2 runs, 3 RBIs and 2 homers. Encarnacion also had a quietly excellent day with 3 hits of his own. My favourite part was when he hauled ass around first to get himself a double. He had a toenail removed last week, folks.

I'm also happy that Adam Lind can hit because it seems he was outwitted by Jerry Howarth. It concerned me a little. Lind was being interviewed by Howarth about being off the DL. Jerry shared an anecdote about a player with a bad back getting a T-shirt printed with "My back is fine" and asked Adam if he wanted the same T-Shirt. Adam said his back was fine.

That wasn't the question.

Adam? Wouldn't you prefer that message in T-shirt form? Or maybe one that says "I will be obtuse when it comes to your anecdotes, Mr. Howarth."

He's got one hell of a pretty swing either way. How was it for you, Adam?

“It was just nice to feel good all game.”

You betcha.

Escobar hit a 3 run homer in the 4th, reminding you all to swag the vote. Swag it long and swag it hard.

In the dugout, there seemed to be some sort of scuffle. Morrow appeared to be trying to give Drabek a pink belly to celebrate a Lind homer. Anything to make that kid throw strikes.

I think if the Jays could play the Orioles, the Rangers, the Twins and the White Sox all the time, they would rule the world and possibly cure some previously incurable disease.

Satisfy José

2011-06-02T10:30:00.008-05:00

Look how sad José Bautista looks. He is doing his favourite things, hitting baseballs and growing facial hair. He should be happy.

I think I know what's bothering him. José knows he is going to the All Star Game. He has more votes than anyone else. But he is worried he is going to be lonely.

I think I know how to bring a smile back to his face:

Bring some swag to the All Star Game. Yunel Escobar plays great defense, he smacks the ball around and he looks great doing it.

Go here and satisfy José. Vote Yu. He'd vote for you.

Belief and Spots

2011-06-02T08:12:00.004-05:00

Canadians in Las Vegas celebrating Vancouver in the Stanley Cup finals, taken and then posted by Brett Cecil. Let's take a closer look. Let's completely ignore the fact that Lawrie's left hand looks like he's about to turn into the Eddie Murphy version of the Nutty Professor.

Notice that Loewen thinks his heart is in his diaphragm and that Lawrie thinks it's under his collarbone. And that they are all clearly showing off for the Americans, because we don't put our hands over our hearts for our anthem. Notice the wall unit air conditioning and the sad couches and the empty Gatorade. Notice Travis Snider's Las Vegas socks match perfectly to the Canuck jerseys. Notice Travis Snider is eating a freezie (I think.) Notice Travis Snider's calf muscle. Notice Travis Snider.

I was contemplating a complete overhaul of my devotion to this game last night. The early innings of that game were so ugly, they reminded me of Brett Lawrie's left hand. That was easily the worst start of Drabek's young career. It is forgivable as he is so young, but it was also completely painful to watch Drabek try in vain to throw strikes and be down 4 runs and out of the game after 2/3 of an inning. At the time I felt it was a little early, but about 10 minutes later, I was on board with Farrell.

“This is absolutely the worst start I've ever had,” said Drabek. “Never in my whole life have I never gone at least an inning. It's just one of those things I have to forget about.”

So what's your deal, Kyle?

“Just leaving a few pitches down the middle and just continuing with walking people. That's really what it came down and that's what I need to stop. I believe in my stuff, I can't hit my spots right now.”

Alan Ashby made a very good point on the radio broadcast about preparation. What the hell is going on in the pre-game throwing session if ten minutes later, the pitcher can't throw strikes?

And so then it was up to the bullpen to hold it down. Except early on, they just inflated their ERA until it was 12-0 and the defense had committed two errors. And that's when I went outside for a bit.

The offense woke up in the later innings. Rajai Davis, who committed one of those errors, hit a 3-run homer and then an RBI triple. To take the game from 12-0 to 13-9 shows that this team can still score runs. And also that this game featured some all around crappy, crappy pitching.

(Expletive) Clown

2011-05-30T07:38:00.004-05:00

I was feeling a bit sorry for John Danks when I saw his numbers. 0-7 is ugly, but he had an ERA under 5. When the ERA is fairly reasonable, one expects that there should at least be a win or two to show for the pitcher's efforts. Now I've decided that John Danks' team won't give him offense because they hate him. Possibly because he calls them clowns.

Now, Danks' nose was out of joint because he is 0-7 and he let the Jays' put up a 6 spot in the first. It was 9-1 in the 4th when Jose Bautista popped out and slammed his bat down before running it out. And Danks got annoyed. They exchanged words. People were told to run the bases, people took offense. People were called (expletive) clowns. Here is what Danks said post game:

“I just told him to run the bases. He was out there acting like a f—ing clown. I told him to run the bases. He’s a good player. He’s had a great year-and-a-half, no doubt, he’s been one of the best hitters in the league. He was out there acting like he’s Babe Ruth or something. That’s horses—, I think. He isn’t that good to be acting like he needs to hit every ball out of the ballpark. That’s just the way I feel. I have pride. I really do. I’ve had a pretty crappy year to this point but I have pride still and I’m not going to let him sit out there and show me up like that.”

Well, if you are going to be be a jerk and make it all about yourself, you could feel that way. If one watches the replay, one notices that Bautista misses his pitch, tucks his head down and is clearly annoyed. At himself. He isn't all "You got me this time, cabron. But next time..." He doesn't even look in Danks' direction until he passes the mound on his way back to the dugout and Danks yells at him. And a note to everyone in the league. Jose Bautista always swings out of his shoes. He always gets annoyed when he misses his pitch. He always thinks he can handle any pitch and put it in the seats. Why? Because he probably can. It's not personal.

You know what would be way more insulting to one's pride? Having guys go easy on you because you are struggling. To not bring their A game. And Danks, looking back on his comments, probably (hopefully) sees that now. Unless he is an (expletive) clown.

Romero pitched really well and worked through a little spot of bother early on. Whatever the reason, he looked like he was fighting it a bit in the early innings. But that is the mark of a true pitcher, to battle through when one doesn't have their A-game and still win. That change up is pure filth.

Yesterday was a laugher. Every starter in the lineup had a hit and they scored 13 runs. Corey Patterson continues to enjoy the heck out of hitting in front of Bautista, going 4 for 5 with a homer and 3 RBIs. Aaron Hill hit his first homer of the season, the first grand slam of his career, in the first. And that other homerless sad sack Encarnacion hit an absolute bomb to left field. With Ricky Romero's bat. His smile in the dugout and how happy his teammates looked for him showed how tight knit this group is. I mean, Bautista was literally jumping up and down.

Sort of like an (expletive) clown.

Carlito's Way

2011-05-24T07:40:00.003-05:00

Carlos Villanueva has been quietly pitching his ass off out of the bullpen this season. The long man out of the pen has been composed and effective. And Villanueva definitely brought it against the Yankees last night in his spot start . Other than his unfortunate tendency to walk Curtis Granderson and then letting him score, Villanueva was pretty much perfect. "Even in a starting role, it didn't change his demeanor. It didn't change his mound presence or his body language," Farrell said. "[He's] very composed, a very good pitcher."

Yunel Escobar hit clean up last night, much the ire of a select few on Twitter. Here's the thing: Farrell has done it once. If it becomes a thing, then maybe make a stink. But it hasn't. As for Escobar bunting in the cleanup spot, that was indeed weird. But at the time, runs seemed at a premium, and Farrell isn't afraid to experiment a bit to manufacture runs. And ew, I just said manufacture runs. At least it wasn't as alarming the idea of Dave Winfield bunting, which was the last time a cleanup hitter bunted. I'm not that into either scenario, but I'm happy it worked out. Let's never speak of it again.

Colon was a bit of a mess last night and it really hit the fan in the 6th. Here's how it went: a Patterson lead off double, IBB Bautista, Escobar sacrifice bunt, IBB Rivera, Hill RBI single, BB to Thames and an Arencibia RBI double.

Perhaps Colon was upset by Escobar hitting cleanup, and was outraged by the idea of a cleanup hitter bunting. Because after he intentionally walked Jose Bautista, things got a little ridiculous. The Yankees tried again to get a double play by intentionally walking Juan Rivera. Colon gave up a single to Aaron Hill and then unintentionally walked Eric Thames.

The intentional walk followed by the unintentional walk is one of my favourite moments in the game, because it illustrates beautifully a certain kind of ineptness. And then JP Arencibia did his part by thoroughly punishing the Yankees for thinking they could ever pitch around Jose Bautista by hitting a base clearing double. Bautista had already gotten his Monday homer out of the way in the first, his ML leading 19th of the season.

Bautista is apparently the toast of New York, so much so that the Jays organized a pre-game press scrum where writers could ask Bautista to talk about how awesome he is just the once, rather than a dozen times. Pitching around Bautista is going to become a problem because he just isn't a secret anymore. "It was not satisfying that they pitched around me, but it's huge that we scored a lot of runs," Bautista said. "We need to show teams that every person in this lineup is capable of causing damage, and we did that tonight."

You hear that, baseball? Jose Bautista demands satisfaction.

He's Not Surprised.

2011-05-22T00:25:00.006-05:00

I was quietly having doubts this afternoon. About Jose Bautista. Not in a "It's over. Worst contract ever!!!" kind of way, but more in a "game of failure, he's only human" kind of way. The dude went hitless for the last two games. He struck out awkwardly in Friday's game (way to not win for JoJo, guys.) and looked a little bewildered for the first time in a very long time. Plus, he shaved his beard. No good can come from that.

At first, Bautista was lying in wait. He had a little infield single, that was for a good long while the only offense the Jays could get going against Brett Myers. He taught Carlos Lee that running on him first to third is all kinds of dumb. And then Bautista stole a base. I mused that Bautista is a very complete player, that even though the offense might not be there, he still makes contributions. Well, he shut me up.

Bautista in the post game interview scoffed at Barry Davis' beard power comments and gave full credit to Yunel Escobar for being the MVP of the game. Then on Twitter, he added Casey Janssen in for good measure for how he came into the game in the 7th with 2 on and none out and getting out of it with a strikeout and a double play.

Man, Jose Bautista is gooooood. Molina also had a great game offensively. He is now hitting .314 in his 14 starts. Sample size is a factor, but it's still nice to see.

What did you say, Jose? " I'm not surprised by the fact that I'm playing well."

Then I won't be, either.

I was watching sports highlights on the Score (plug, plug) and saw the Red Sox/Cubs highlights. And was it ever good.

Just watch

Anything as wonderful as that means I have to go visit SOSH for a peek.

I really didn't think they'd lose again this season.

Bitch, please.

I had no idea Cubs fans were this obnoxious.

I was actually pretty annoyed that the Cubs let them beat the snot out of them on Friday. But they are forgiven. Notice that Reed Johnson did his part. I seem to recall that Johnson really liked hitting in Fenway. And please with the "obnoxious." These people once called Jays' fans arrogant.

And now for the one moment where one of them makes sense. And things get a little scary.

Youkilis is an asshole.

Whoa.

Also scary: Marlon Byrd got hit in the face by a pitch, which completely dropped him to the dirt. Byrd was rolling around the ground in pain, which is sort of a good sign because it meant he didn't lose consciousness. He was sent to the hospital.

I think Encarnacion can feel a bit better about himself that he wasn't playing for the Red Sox in that inning. That video just makes me happy.

Painful

2011-05-19T08:14:00.004-05:00

Notice the gruesome TJ scar on Litsch's arm? Frankenpitcher.

I may be considered soft, but I think people shouldn't boo their own team. I find it obnoxious. The only time I think it is acceptable to boo one of your own is if they aren't making an effort. And no time last night did I think Edwin Encarnacion wasn't trying his damn heart out. Jayson Nix, who made a great play at third in the first inning, is clearly the better defender. But wouldn't you know it, every single ball gravitated towards EE, who clearly felt awful. He made some good plays at first last night, but they were lost because of the miscues. It's almost as if Encarnacion is trying too hard. Settle down, big guy.

That was the worst I have ever seen Jesse Litsch. He had no command and no composure. Litsch just wasn't himself. And usually the tone of the defensive game radiates from the mound. If a guy is working fast, throwing strikes and not nibbling, and is getting crisp ground balls or fly outs, the guys around the field usually respond in kind. One of the toughest things to do out in the field is to stay focused and if the pitcher is dithering or throwing a lot of pitches or walking guys, focus can waver or guys can tighten up because they want to pick up their pitcher. It's why I think walks are the most damaging to a pitcher, because they just are a waste of energy and they just drag the momentum down.

It's a miracle that the Jays climbed back into this. It made me feel less depressed about the game. I sort of figured it was going to be a heart breaker, but bringing the winning run to the plate after being down 6-0 is nothing to be down about.

As for the outrage of one over Davis stealing third during Nix's at bat in the ninth. Farnsworth gave him the base and it came in as a run which pulls the score closer to a tie, which is far more advantageous to the home team. And blowing a six run lead is disheartening to a team. Nix did have to take a pitch, but the likelihood that Nix was going to score Davis from second was not a huge likelihood. Running sometimes gets the batter a fastball, which Nix could probably use. Had it been Bautista or Lind been at the plate, I would probably have been more outraged. I might suggest that Davis be more selective or be more aware of the count, so Nix can take a strike and still have some room to work.

My theory on Drabek's missing curve ball. Drabek had TJ in 2007. There is some debate as to whether a curve ball is harder on the arm, so perhaps in the interest of preserving the young stud's arm, they have decided to develop something else off speed. Roy Halladay talked about easing off his curve to reduce arm stress. AJ Burnett has a history of arm issues (amongst other issues) despite having pretty smooth and easy mechanics. And his trademark pitch is the knuckle curve. New York Magazine wrote about the reemergence of "Bad" AJ. What did they expect? It is May, after all.

Bruce Walton is a changeup advocate and the change is my favourite pitch. Yes, I have a favourite pitch. Pitching is incredibly hard on the body. It's a completely unnatural thing to do. And I don't really care what Drabek pitches as long as it's strikes and he gets outs.

Eric Thames got a walk and a hit in his MLB debut. He is also very nice looking. Nice teeth.

Approaching a Gem

2011-05-17T07:57:00.004-05:00

I'll admit, I was worried about this game. Detroit is very hot right now and had a 7 game win streak going, which was started when Verlander no hit the Jays. The Jays looked bad against the Tigers, but didn't look bad last night. So now the only team hotter than Detroit is Toronto. Kyle Drabek, after some first inning wildness that only yielded a run, settled in and pitched what one might call a gem. I amend that. 6 walks is not a gem. What is this? An AJ Burnett no-hitter? But 3 hits and 1 earned run spread over 7 innings is approaching a gem. It's zoisite. Drabek has known Jim Leyland since he was a toddler, and Leyland was impressed with Drabek's pitching performance the same way he might have once been impressed with how Kyle shoved peas up his nose and filled his diaper. "His control isn't as good as his dad's," Leyland said. "But he throws a little harder."

Curt Schilling made me agree with him. Yes, apparently he has good points sometimes. This one was about Bautista. Schilling pointed out something I hadn't thought of before. Most guys who were scuffling a little but then find success are reluctant to change anything about their approach. But Schilling points out that Bautista is still evolving as a hitter and is different so far this season. He is also "a good kid."

Bautista had no RBIs last night, but did have 2 singles rounding up his average to .370. Which is ok, I guess. Oh and the search party that was sent out to find Aaron Hill's offense found signs that it is still alive.

It's Not Charming

2011-05-16T06:15:00.006-05:00

That was one action packed weekend of baseball.

Jose Bautista is unconscious right now. And apparently really likes hitting in Target Field. Pitcher's park, my foot.

“It's ridiculous, it feels like a dream right now,” Bautista said. “Sometimes I can't really believe it myself, but I keep seeing the good pitches.”

I thought I would visit the ESPN message board to see what the Internet plebs are saying about Bautista.

The rest of the AL should just agree to walk him every at bat just to protest his obvious PHD use.

He's using his doctorate to hit homers? Damn him!

The truth is I sort of felt sorry for the Twins. A lot of things are not going their way and the Jays basically poured salt in the wound. Not that I'm not glad. There was also a variety of different sorts of wins:

1. There was a classic Roy Halladay type win that might have been a loss. Halladay (played by Ricky Romero) pitches his face off into the 9th inning and is given next to no run support because the Jays have decided to give a middling pitcher (played by Carl Pavano) a chance at a win by leaving a village on base. They are democratic that way. Bautista hit a homer because he realized Juan Rivera had an RBI and he didn't. He couldn't let that stand.

2-There was an extra inning win in the rain. A Bautista homer in the 11 being the difference and all the other runs being gravy. The Jays let the Twins hang around long enough to prevent Jo Jo Reyes from getting a win. They are fascist that way.

3. There was a blowout win in the sunshine. Jose Bautista hit 3 homers. In this episode of Corey's Baserunning Adventures, Patterson was sprinting into third on Bautista's opposite field homer. Neither of us know why. Brandon Morrow pitched well, and the run cushion let him work out his little kinks during the game. Hey, Brandon? Why did the Twins keep pitching to Bautista, when it was clear he was just hotter than a supernova and making sport out of their misery? "You have to pitch it somewhere."

“He doesn't swing at their pitch ever,” Adam Lind said. “You're witnessing the best Blue Jay ever.”

"He's turned himself into the best hitter in the game, as far as I'm concerned. It's pretty amazing,” Michael Cuddyer said. “Every single ball he hits, whether it's a foul ball or whatever, is right on the barrel. To me it looks like he's used one bat the whole season. It's unbelievable. Words can't describe what he looks like at the plate right now.”

I find this really funny because for someone who says he has no words to describe just used a hell of a lot of words to describe.

In other news, Jorge Posada was just ridiculous on Saturday. I'm sure he knows when the lineups are posted and that if he was in the lineup and not in the game, it was going to be a thing. Especially since the game was on national tv. Posada knew he was going to be in the 9 hole the day before. If he had quietly said to Girardi that morning that he wasn't up to playing, I'm sure it wouldn't have been a thing. Or just say it's your back and be done with it.

Thinking back on the time that he high elbowed Jesse Carlson a few years ago after Carlson had thrown behind him. Behind him. And Posada had that whole time on base to get over it. I think Randy Ruiz had taken a pitch to the mouth, to the point that he was spitting blood. Posada is just a big baby. I wonder if he even remembers that he, as a young guy, took over the catcher's job from Joe Girardi. Posada probably thinks he lost the catcher's job in the off season because Girardi is now seeking revenge after all these years.

Sarah Silverman was so right on about Sox fans. Red Sox fandom is about being a loser and it's not charming when you are winning and a Masshole. It's my whole SOSH experience crystallized into one simple phrase.

I don't always love her. I mean, only idiots don't appreciate this. But I don't always love her. But she totally flustered Tim McCarver. LSD for pitchers. But I think Matthew Broderick is a Mets fan. Sarah Jessica Parker likes the Yankees.

And Not in the Good Way.

2011-05-12T09:49:00.000-05:00

I had a dream last night that I taught Jose Bautista how to hula hoop. Which is totally crazy, right? I mean, I'm sure Jose Bautista knows how to hula hoop.

John Lackey was all kinds of terrible last night. I questioned what his deal was when he said, "Everything sucks in my life right now to be honest with you.” Sox fans on Twitter told me his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in the off season.

Lackey joined SOSH in dissing John McDonald.

"Everybody’s had success with him in the past. You can’t give up hits like that to him when you have other guys in that lineup who can hurt you."

Well, that is pretty true though completely cheap. I wish Lackey and Mrs Lackey all the best. Some people dealing with this use their work as a touchstone, a way to keep some normalcy and focus. Lackey is apparently not one of those people. However, if I were him, I'd be a little more cheesed off with my manager. Francona hung Lackey out to dry last night in the 7th. He'd had a rough start all night, but had hung in close and kept his team close. It was apparent that Lackey was out of gas in the 7th, and Francona left him in and let a close game turn into a blow out. The way Francona managed this short series, both with leaving Lackey in and with maneuvering his starting rotation, like he was anticipating the weekend series with the Yankees. While it is true that the Yankees are a team that will stand between Boston and the playoffs, but dropping two games to a division rival is not bright. It's all about wins and loses at the end of the season, and you don't get extra points for beating the Yankees and losing to the Jays.

Dustin Parkes, over at Getting Blanked, asked us to be kind and understanding to Lackey and to look beyond his John McDonald comment. Have the Sox fans at SOSH done the same?

Fuck me, Lackey? Why the fuck does it feel like he pitches every other day? Fuck, even when he pitches well he looks like a fuckwit. Fuck him.

I guess not.

That was a comment from 7 hours before the game started. There were dozens of variations of that comment throughout the game. Just "I hate John Lackey" over and over.

And lots of moaning. So not that entertaining. Hanging out there was sucking my will to live. They were terrible, and not in the good way. They weren't funny or delusional.

So, instead, let's revisit a SOSH post from May 31, 2009. Rios, League, Downs and Rocco Baldelli make an appearance.

Just Shut Up

2011-05-11T14:23:00.005-05:00

When the Red Sox lose to the Jays, it means that I descend into the belly of the beast, that cluster of assholes known as SOSH.

Just a note: Zaun did the colour on NESN yesterday, which is why they were talking about him so much. The reviews I got from Jays fans who listened said they liked Zaun, but the Sox fans on Twitter didn't. I've decided that I like Zaun and the Sox fans are assholes.

I have nothing to add except I hate Toronto and everything about them

Feeling is mutual, asshat.

Never thought I'd be happy having to watch the Sox play at that lousy stadium in Toronto, but this team sure could use a vacation from weather.

See, here is another bit of hate. I mean, I know I hate them. But I didn't until I discovered that they were entitled, racist blowhards. Do these people even know anything about Toronto? And the Rogers Centre certainly has it's issues, but at least the foul lines aren't a cluster fuck.

They should fine each pitcher 5K for every pitch on the inner half to Bautista.

Sounds like someone has a crush, Jose.

I feel like Kyle Drabek is the Pizza guy in a porn I saw once

I don't know what to say to that. Other than Drabek is way more talented than you and has probably seen more girls naked in real life.

BTW, this is still several hours before game time.

Having Zaun there makes me realize how much I'll miss Eck when the RemDawg returns

Yeah, because Eckersley's thinly veiled hatred of Toronto and Cito Gaston 20 years after Alomar made him his bitch was really entertaining when Eckersly discussed Toronto a few years ago. What a small, small little man.

This 96 MPH stuff is nuts, he is usually 92

I don't know what Drabek's deal was last night, other than too many pitches, not enough strikes. When the kid actually does throw strikes, they are so beautiful they could make angels weep. Kyle Drabek is a stud in the making.

Then Jon Lester took the hill and things got real.

Already six strikes called balls.

They were borderline. Both pitchers got squeezed. But frankly, neither pitcher demonstrated enough command to get borderline calls. And also? Shut up.

Well this game is a massive pile of dogshit already. Jesus christ, help your pitcher out.

Crappy pitching leads to crappy defense. It's the first inning, settle down. And also? Shut up. Just shut up.

Gregg Zaun sounds like the most boring human being on earth.

You realize you choose to watch Dice K pitch every five games, so your opinion on boring human beings isn't reliable. Also, this game was like 12 hours long. It isn't the Jays that play that way.

Zaun says the Blue Jays swinging the bat well... I'm not sure I agree with that...

Bautista is hitting well enough to cover for all of them.

Seriously.

Lester's getting a bad zone, with no low strikes, and he has so far refused to adapt.

You mean the ump isn't calling strikes below the zone? How dare he!

The thing about this game is that it was rather boring. And maddening. I mean, Jon Lester had nothing. The Jays had him on the ropes and couldn't deliver the knock out punch. And while Adrian Gonzalez opposite field homers are going to happen, it was annoying that the Sox were allowed to hang around and make it close.

How can we be losing to these guys?

I think it's the Sox fans. That, and shitty pitching.

HAHA Davis you idiot

Yeah. Davis getting caught in a rundown after hitting a triple was dumb. But Escobar missed a sign on a suicide squeeze, so perhaps it was Escobar, not Davis, who was the idiot and maybe, according to some, John Farrell for being so aggressive on the base paths. But then Davis in the 10th, where he basically ran at will on Jason Varitek, demonstrated just how fun it can be to have speed. So I've decided that the Sox fan who wrote that is the idiot. And also, more than one of them on that board thought Davis was safe.

I wouldn't go so far by saying I'm enjoying Zaun's commentary but he's not making me hate him. Can't say the same for most baseball color guys

Wow, how generous of you.

Crawford has a hitting streak, Gonzo is hammering the ball, can you say overreaction to April?

It's nearly the middle of May. And they are still total drama queens. So I don't think we can say overreaction to April but rather standard SOSHian world view.

So Adrian Gonzalez hit his first of two homers and the board went bananas. And then Jose Bautista, our crown jewel, saw 6 Lester pitches, including one he fouled off his foot that made him double over in pain, and took one over the fence. Demonstrating once again why Bautista is the best player in baseball. And what did these assholes say?

Roids.

HGH is a wonderful thing

I'm sure Victor Conte is being properly compensated for whatever new designer steroid that he invented for Bautista.

No, that is Manny and Ortiz circa 2004. With Bautista, it's called bat speed and timing. And yeah, Jose Bautista is the only one who would have access to this mythical designer steroid. Just shut up.

Just tip your cap. Dude's a monster.

I know this is the easy way out people. It's like saying the reason why someone doesn't like basketball must be because they don't like black people. But c'mon. The guy came on the scene at the same time he completely changed his swing. It happened in an era with increased testing in which some people ARE getting busted. This just seems like a cheap and lazy approach..even for a gamethread.

See, it happens once in a while where one of them says something so right on, it's scary.

I was at the then Skydome in 2001 when one of the only games ever was cancelled (sic) there. I was staying at the hotel there when some of the roof panels collapsed. The game was subsequently cancelled(sic) and I was pissed because then all I got to do was go see the Toronto Zoo instead of a baseball game.

The Zoo has polar bears and giant cats. What's wrong with that? That sounds equally as fun as a 2001 Jays/Royals game you missed.

Let's just skip ahead to the tenth. After Gonzalez's second homer erased the lead given by David Cooper's first career homer. In both cases, they were beautiful swings.

But, first I will inject this, just for the rancor it will inspire.

I hate John McDonald so much. Trade him to the Twins already. He is a natural Punto replacement.

Is it so hard to see why I hate these people?

Ok, so Davis gets on and basically runs at will in the tenth.

Rajai Davis just stole Varitek's wallet.

Heh.

It's gonna be Cooper's night, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. And Cooper almost displayed an emotion when he succeeded.

They are finding new and more ridiculous ways to lose. If you think about it, they are quite talented in finding creative ways to sucker punch us.

Yes, your team is losing on purpose. To spite you. Just shut up.

Tigered.

2011-05-08T18:05:00.004-05:00

Shi "Diggity" Davidi wrote a column for Sportsnet about the little bit of saucy back and forth between Juan Rivera and Justin Verlander in the 7th inning of Verlander's eventual no-hitter. Rivera, after he grounded out, told Verlander he was lucky. Verlander didn't like it.

Rivera was right that Verlander was lucky. I mused earlier on Twitter that it isn't a true no-hitter unless you face the opposition's best hitter. That's true whether you no hit any lineup that is missing a Pujols, a Bautista or a Cabrera. Verlander didn't even have to face the Jays' hottest hitter in Adam Lind after Lind was forced to exit the game with a sore back.

Verlander went to Baberians, a schmancy steakhouse near Gerrard and Yonge, home of the 30 dollar appetizer to celebrate. Verlander is a classy guy and a beast of a pitcher. But now that we have seen one in the Dome, let's not ever cheer for another unless one of our boys throws one or Roy Halladay throws again, unless it's game 7 in the 2014 Phillies/Jays World Series. Wouldn't it be crazy if a no-hitter decided the World Series? How many heads would explode?

Brad Penny might as well have no hit us today, as it was just about as frustrating to watch the Jays try and fail to get anything going against him. Besides Bautista absolutely destroying a high fastball from Penny, there were some doubles and not a lot else. There was also a really weird play at home where Rivera threw a ball offline to home, which was cutoff by Encarnacion who fired a strike to a caught off guard Arencibia who tagged Victor Martinez, but the ball came loose and he was called safe, which erased the lead given by the 2 run Bautista homer. Encarnacion seemed really upset by the whole situation, and I'm still not quite sure what Arencibia was doing. I mean, I know he was going to catch the Rivera throw but it still seemed weird.

Morrow goes against Scherzer tomorrow to try to split the series. Expect strikeouts. About a million.

No-No Jo-Jo

2011-05-04T09:15:00.002-05:00

It is pretty apparent that the summer of Jo-Jo is going to live on, based on how well Reyes pitched last night. Kept the ball down, for the most part and threw strikes. I didn't like the number of fly balls the Rays hit, but Reyes looked good otherwise. The 9th inning just sort of happened. Thinking back on the game, it seemed like the Jays had to Rays on the ropes but didn't go for the knockout punch and crack the game wide open. Instead they let the Rays hang around and the Rays are too good a team to be allowed to do that. Maybe the absent Bautista contributed to the sleepiness of the game, but it felt like it all happened in slow mo. When they Rays hit the walkoff, I thought "Is that it?"

Jose Bautista is out for the series with neck spasms. There is a certain mystique he brings into a game. The way Bautista plays this game, it's like he always knew that this success was coming to him. And he calmly prepared for it and now that it is here, he is ready and at peace with it. Bautista was named AL player of the month. Why, exactly? Bautista hit .366 average with 9 homers. He also led the Majors with a .532 on-base percentage, a .780 slugging percentage, 28 walks and 25 runs scored. Those numbers are sick.

We covered Jo-Jo and now it's time for no-no. Francisco Liriano of the Twins pitched the first no-hitter of 2011 last night against the White Sox. Liriano, despite his potential to be filthy, had struggled out the gate and there were rumours that he might lose his spot in the rotation.

This situation reminds me a little of when Clay Buchholz was first called up as a spot starter for the Red Sox. Terry Francona said to the press, "I don't care if he throws a no-hitter, he is going back to Pawtucket." Buchholz threw a no-hitter in his second career start and sure enough, he was sent back to AAA. Sometimes a no-hitter changes things and sometimes it doesn't.

Dented Lunchbox

2011-04-28T17:17:00.004-05:00

Bautista was absolutely inconsolable after he heard about Snider's demotion. He threw himself to the ground. "¡No me gusta! ¿Por que?!?!?!" he wailed.

Well, ok, not really. I still kind of want to know what went through his mind trying to advance to an already occupied 3rd base in the top of the 9th. I think Zaun speculating that Bautista just thought he saw Butterfield as there wasn't a Ranger in sight is sort of credible. Thankfully, the Rangers had gone insane and stopped playing defense in the top of the 9th and the Jays tacked on 2 extra runs after they had scored the go-ahead.

Overall, it was a pretty remarkable series, especially after the pall that had fallen on the team after the Tampa series. Lind hits like a monster in Arlington. Bautista hits like Bautista in Arlington. Rivera hits like someone who gives a shit in Arlington.

The only real beef I have with Farrell so far is his insistence on calling on Dotel to pitch to lefties in a close, still winnable game. In last night's game, I thought it was completely insane. That doesn't mean I want him to use a lefty out of the pen, but someone down there has to have less alarmingly lopsided splits than Dotel.

I have less of a problem with Molina catching Drabek and Morrow. Drabek is very young (and a bit excitable) and they are grooming him for the future. Chemistry, in sports and elsewhere, is a mysterious thing. It does make a difference who catches a pitcher. Morrow and Molina developed a good rapport last season that resulted in a lot of success. That said, I don't see a problem with Morrow being transitioned into being caught by Arencibia at least semi-regularly. And if the Summer of JoJo rolls on, Arencibia should be catching him as he did in his last start. Reyes can't get much worse. As much as people want to blame Encarnacion for the error, as Zaun so succinctly put it last night, the pitches were baaaaaaad. And that is what led to the 6 runs.

And now for the bomb that was dropped on all of us almost immediately after the end of the game. Chris Woodward was demoted to AAA. I know, I know. Words cannot express.

I'm not sure what the point is of Snider going to Vegas to violate AAA pitching in the supposedly terrible team environment that is the 51s. To get his average up for a trade? Maybe Travis Snider isn't as much of the future plan that most fans seem to think he is.

Lord Palmerston!

2011-04-27T08:02:00.005-05:00

Montgomery Burns: "Now I want to assure those whose names are not on the list that I'm very disappointed in you. Something was lacking. Let's call it...heart."

Darryl Strawberry: "No hustle either, Skip."

Montgomery Burns: "That's right, Darryl!"

Does any of that seem familiar to anyone? There are two things that should be very familiar to Jays fans the last two seasons.

My favourites in Homer at the Bat, besides the obvious star Strawberry, are Mike Scioscia due to cuteness and Steve Sax because he plays in the Steve Sax Trio and because the cops call him "Saxy Boy." Big ups to @archizuber for giving me the heads up that it was on last night.

Everyone was cool except Canseco, who wanted to be as heroic as possible and thought the animated character looked nothing like him. Was it the yellow skin, Jose? He was originally supposed to wake up next to Edna Krabappel, but Canseco's wife objected. And I think that's all you need to know about their marriage. Ken Griffey Jr. had trouble with the line, "It's like there's a party in my mouth and everyone's invited!", got frustrated and his dad tried to coach him.

What? There was a Jays game?

I took the dog for a walk at about 8 pm and when I got back, the Jays had gone insane and it was 5-0. I'm not quite sure when this happened, because it used to seem like Arlington was the place the Jays went to die, but for the last two seasons, the bats come alive in this place. It probably had something to do with that fact that the Rangers used to own Roy Halladay and then rubbed salt in that wound by breaking his leg that one time.

Adam Lind clearly likes the theme from The Natural, because he has hit 9 homers in his last 12 games here. He hit two last night and added an RBI single for variety.

“The second one was his first pitch, just swung,” Lind said. “The first one I hit it on the sweet spot.”

Ah, the sweet spot. Is there anything sweeter than the sweet spot? It is especially encouraging because if no one hits besides Bautista, Bautista gets nothing to hit.

Jesse Litsch looked decent against everyone who isn't a lefty, but I guess that will come around.

People have been bitching a bit about Farrell on Twitter. Farrell is new. New manager, new in the city, new to the team. That's why he should be held to a different standard than Gaston. but then again, I never had much beef with Cito. Mostly because I find whinging about the manager to be particularly SOSHian. Now most sports fans have certain SOSH qualities like arrogance, a lack of perspective and the tendency to spout doomsday prophecies. So can we maybe wait a bit before extensively freaking out about Farrell?

That's Just His Face

2011-04-26T08:22:00.004-05:00

"Bautista is working in another stratosphere, solar system, whatever.This guy is just on a different planet as a hitter right now."-Joe Maddon

The thing about Bautista and why I might believe that he can be a consistent power hitter since his breakout last year, even though it historically not likely, is that the results are from a very definite change in approach. Bautista combines an excellent eye with patience, timing and the ability to adjust to what the pitchers are throwing him. He also just seems like a dude who has his shit together. Bautista talks like it was only a matter of time before he did this. Whatever it is, it is must-see tv for every Bautista at bat.

And thankfully, other people besides Bautista hit last night. Corey Patterson whacked an eye level pitch for a 3-run homer in the 5th and I think it broke the spirit of Rangers' pitcher Colby Lewis. It was a complete whatever waste pitch, and it burned him. He looked like someone kicked him in the stomach. Bautista, clearly embarrassed that Patterson upstaged him and took his first Lewis pitch over the fence. And then Juan Rivera followed suit with one of his own. See, people, he does care! It drove me a little nuts people saying that it looks like he doesn't care. Maybe that's just Rivera's face. He did have a little bounce in his step coming up the stairs for the post game whoop it up and grab ass at the end of the 9th.

The breakout 5th inning was relieving because after Sunday's loss, where Ricky Romero had one iffy inning and then was never bailed out by his team when he was more or less perfect (that is the classic Roy Halladay loss, btw) it felt like they would never hit again. Offense is so much more fun.

The Cecil Question

2011-04-21T12:36:00.003-05:00

Zaun said he saw Cecil's thumb on the ball in a way unlike he's ever seen any pitcher throw a pitch, indicating that this guy is trying absolutely anything to try to get something to work for him.

He looks uncomfortable on the mound, he looked down and answered questions tersely and said "Nothing. Absolutely nothing" when asked if there were any positives out of his performance.

John Farrell says that Cecil is getting out of his delivery when he is trying to hump up his velocity, meaning he is carrying the velocity question with him from Florida. The delivery issue means he loses command, leaves pitches up and doesn't throw strikes.

All of this points to the fact that Cecil doesn't have confidence in his stuff. Ideally, velocity shouldn't matter as much location, feel, movement. AJ Burnett has one of the biggest fastballs in the game, and Jose Bautista found it plenty tasty before he deposited it into the seats on Tuesday night.

“The game is not about how hard you throw,” Arencibia said. “Guys that throw hard get hit just as hard as anybody else. It’s all about location.”

From Cecil himself: “I don’t care about velocity,” he said. “I can pitch at this level with what I have. It’s a matter of getting the ball down.”

Liar. Cecil might be telling himself this, but his body language and his issues with his delivery indicate that the velocity bee is buzzing in his ear.

It's a chicken and egg situation. Is Cecil not confident because he is pitching like shit or is he pitching like shit because he isn't confident?

Brandy Halladay became my favourite all time WAG (sorry Posh) when I read the story of how she helped her man when he was down. Doc had been successful his entire playing career until he wasn't and he was complete lost and bereft at what he was supposed to do and if he wasn't a pitcher, what would he be? Brandy went to the bookstore and bought every single book on pitching she could find. She also got two journals for her man: one just for notes on pitching (what to who, when, results etc) and one just for how he felt. His anger, his disappointment and his frustration went into that book. One of the books became Halladay's guide : The Mental ABC's of Pitching. It's plainly written and talks about things like channeling aggressiveness into throwing strikes, to adjust, to focus and how to face adversity. I think this book should be absorbed by every struggling pitcher, including Cecil.

Now, I may sound mystical to some of you, but the truth of the matter is, while all of these dudes seem like decent sorts, I just want them to throw strikes. And I'll get behind anything that seems like it can help them do that.

Breaking News: Brett Cecil has been sent to AAA. Take the book.

JPA Unleashed on Local School Children

2011-04-20T17:26:00.012-05:00

There is a long tradition of Blue Jays taking the mascot to local schools for a visit. A few weeks ago, Aaron Hill went and shared a nutrition break with 10 year olds. He enjoyed a yogurt cup and talked about tender hammies.

It was JP Arencibia's turn. He joined a Phys Ed class and apparently kicked little kid ass at dodge ball.
It started innocently enough. I must say, the look on the faces of those two kids is pretty damn cute.

I included this one just because of the shirt that kid is wearing. Pirates need love, too!!!

"Now, this dodge ball game, it's serious. This guy might lay off you, but he's a total pussy."

And then JP unleashed it.Look at the glee he is taking, whipping balls at people much smaller than he.

When I originally conceived this, there was a picture in this group of a bunch of little kids running like they were on fire away from JPA. But the Jays' Facebook page took it down, probably because it called to mind this :

They Got to Mo (Travis Played Bo)

2011-04-20T07:17:00.003-05:00

This team really, really needed that and I was very happy to witness it. Watching the report on Baseball Tonight made me pause. Eduardo Perez said, re. John McDonald's safety squeeze, "Teams are realizing that this isn't the home run era, that this is about execution." First, the thing with small ball is that it needs to be combined with big ball. Especially since small ball tied it and big ball won it. And for a time that supposedly isn't the home run era, the Yankees have more home runs in April than any other Yankee team has in its history.

It was easy to forget who actually started the game. Kyle Drabek was not as sharp as I would've liked, walked Nick Swisher more than anyone ever should and plunking Texeira was followed up with a homer the next at bat. In a roundabout way, it was kind of like Son of Doc vs AJ. Burnett, who was his typical self. Bautista really likes to face him, and his eyes got hilariously huge right before he launched a towering homer to the left field stands. He was also typical in that he had flashes of nastiness, but also botched a pretty standard rundown.

"I threw a dart, like I'd never made the play before," Burnett said. "I got caught up. I should have ran more toward Bautista, but I think I gave it up a little too early before I committed."

It's kind of nice to know he is still a spaz.

I also enjoyed the idea that Russell Martin, with shiny nail polish on this throwing hand, suggested that Burnett try using his change up more often, like it's a revelatory idea, like no pitcher with that big of a fastball should develop a change.

Travis Snider had an absolutely brutal night at the plate. 0-5 with 3 strikeouts. After the last one, Snider impressively snapped his bat in two on his thigh. Apparently, it's a thing, because here is a video of him doing it in New Hampshire with the Fisher Cats

Something from the comments on that video: "did he do it after a strikeout? I played ball with him in high school. He gets super pissed after he gets out. he used to come in the dugout and hit himself in the head with his helmet. he's nuts."

Encarnacion scored from first on the Snider double in the gap, something that might have been more challenging last year when EE was carrying what Jeff Blair once called his "gooey goodness." Blair, on Twitter, also called the winning hit from Snider about 10 minutes before it happened.

When I was Green in Judgment, Cold in Blood...

2011-04-18T19:01:00.007-05:00

I hope you all enjoyed the visit to SOSH on Friday, because I get the sense that place might not be much fun this season. Unless reading the musings of entitled, racist blowhards is your thing.

Remember the salad days of two weeks ago when people speculated that John Farrell would be a "huge" advantage because he knows all the weaknesses of the Sox pitching after being their pitching coach for 4 seasons. Well, I hope no one was actually counting on that because the Jays offense was pitiful this weekend.

Escobar's homer in the 9th today, while sort of relieving because look, they can still hit, was also the most miserable homer ever hit. He launches Wakefield knuckle ball over the Monster, power runs around the bases, barely acknowledging Butterfield, gives a few grudging high fives and sulks on the bench. It was a beautiful contrast to the smiling and almost debonair Escobar who hit the walkoff at home.

Listen, it's not the end of the world. Cecil battled and got a win. Jesse Litsch pitched decently, minus an inning and getting jobbed on a strikeout call to JD Drew. The numbers weren't pretty, but it felt promising. Romero was rough, but the early start time combined with a surprise visit from Miss USA over the weekend (who, in addition to being very hot, seems very cool) might have thrown a wrench in the works. No judgment, just a maybe. Those crazy kids.

We shall not speak of JoJo.

It's a pain in the ass to lose to the likes of that fathead Josh Beckett, the bullshit that is Dice K and a beastin' Jon Lester, who lost some points by looking pointedly in at the home plate ump, whinging for calls.

But as I sit here watch an Orioles/Twins game, a game where neither team particularly excites or annoys me. And the back and forth rhythm of the game is sort of soothing. So maybe we should all just step back from the edge (and stop antagonizing Brett Cecil on Twitter.)

What's with the Line?

2011-04-15T22:18:00.006-05:00

Yes, folks. It's that time of year again. A series with the Red Sox means that the Jays have the opportunity to beat them, thus making SOSH one of the more entertaining sites on the Internet. Sort of.

Let's do it. Coming into this game the Sox were scuffling along at 2-9. I have no idea why, with the on paper talent, they are sucking so badly. But it's damn amusing.

The redsox have not lost in 2 days. Lets make it 3!

Delusion.

All of the players will wear #42 tonight in tribute to Mo Vaughn.

Attempt at humour.

We're going to continue to fucking lose until Crawford bats 6th or 7th and Lowrie gets in the goddamn lineup. It's baseball Jesus trying to tell us something.

The message is that baseball Jesus hates you and wants you to fail.

Is it me or does it seem like everyone throws their LHP in their rotation against us? We have two lefties on our roster and it seems like everyone else has 6!

Um, we have 3 and JoJo is only sort of in the rotation. So, no, not 6.

Y'all cry too much. Boston is winning tonight no matter what. Shut up and enjoy the show. Greg Zaun on the Canadian broadcast of tonight's game was discussing the difference of how Varitek and Salty set up for a pitch. In stop action frames, it showed Varitek has his target set up well prior to Beckett's delivery while Salty gets target set up as Clay's hands were separating. He thinks that is a difference that can throw a pitcher off.

That's 3 gs, bitch.

tight zone tonight

I always find it amusing when teams like the Red Sox and the Yankees complain about things like the k-zone, as if they have completely failed to see how the league conspires to have them stay competitive in the interest of ratings for Fox.

Must every game be so painful?

You've been watching too many Sox games, dude.

Where is the velocity on his fastball? I know it's April, but still.

It's comforting to know that everyone has this annoying and pointless conversation in April. Creates a sense of common experience.

Am I the only one that thinks this Jackie Robinson stuff is overdone?

No, you aren't. But the other guy who agreed with you is an asshole, too.

And then the Adam Lind homer/foul/ground rule double happened.

I'm going to hand it over briefly to Dustin Parkes, via Twitter.

But the Sox fans were also deeply, deeply confused. So that would be confusion on top of delusion and entitlement, for those keeping score at home.

Clearly foul

Yeah...it was really clear.

well it went inside the line on the wall, but outside of the foul pole... WTF that's a double, right? landed in fair territory.

Wow, I'm am not sure if that is a home run or not. What's with the line?

The line is in three different spots. It makes no sense, but I have a strange urge to buy Scott's paper towels.

Good news! Maybe lady luck is on our side now.

And then they whinged about Carl Crawford for a few pages...here is the jist- They hate him.

in other news ... the Sox continue to make a complete douchebag look like Koufax on the mound

Oh bless their hearts. This is a time honoured Red Sox tradition where every lefty that has a bit of success against them and Sandy Koufax gets name dropped. Ted Lilly was Koufax reborn (in a baseball sense.) Congrats Brett Cecil, you have arrived.

So, when do we expect Youks to stop sucking?

We have all been asking that for years now.

Ellsbury would look great leading off for a national league team.

The ritual eating of the young.

he would CRUSH the NL Central

I would crush the NL Central.

Pedroia is so much fun to watch. Makes up for a lot.

He is quite the little shit.

Pedroia really might be the best defensive second baseman I've ever seen

Were you born after 2000? Or do you have your head up your ass?

It'll be real fun once this team gets going

Well, it's been fun so far.

Youk is fortunate that Arrancibia(sic) runs like a true catcher.

I don't know why, but it seemed like JPA was running in quick sand tonight. Maybe he was cold.

I'd rather run the marathon. Should take about the same amount of time as watching Matsuzaka get through the 5th.

It's amusing that the Sox fans have also noticed that Dice-K dithers. But, fellas? All your pitchers dither? Why do you think games are 6 hours long?

Corey Patterson... is this real life?

Apparently.

Toronto recently seems to pick guys like Patterson or Fred Lewis off the scrap heap, and they produce for them.

Silent Assassin. He'll silently assassinate you.

Is there anyone who doesn't love Pedroia?

Hi there.

tailor-made dp, instead 2 on - jinxed. this season has been baffling.

No, it was just a totally AWESOME fake steal. The running game in general was really fun, creating holes all over the infield. John Farrell, you sly bastard.

Can we put an end to the hyperbole of the season being over, etc? Yea, this team is playing like shit right now, but we're 11 game into the season. It's incredibly frustrating, but it will even out.

But with this sort of talk, how would the other Sox fans recognize you?

Words can no longer describe how much I hate this team. Awesome fail at every level tonight

Does every team in the league have our signs or something?

Well, at least they are consistent. It's easy to hit pitches that are up and wait on pitches that are clearly not strikes. It has nothing to do with signs. Your pitching just sucks.

And then they whinged some more and bored me. Then our bullpen stopped throwing strikes. And they got all excited, which continued to bore me.

There was a mildly diverting conversation about how to pronounce Rzepczynski

it's really, zep-chin-ski, right?

Did Bautista always stand on the plate? Did he change his stance to get the added pop or his pharmacist?

This is nice. You know, coming from fans of a team that got a crap load of homers from a couple of key players, who later showed up on a certain list and one of whom just retired in disgrace. You guys used to get on the Yankees for having juiced players and buying WS, but the Red Sox are exactly the same. Perhaps worse because at least the Yankees own that they are SOBs.

Nice, the script has been written! A stirring comeback win in Frozen Fenway kick starts the season!

Oh save us.

Jon Rauch used to close for the Nationals. They are terrible. I think this is a good sign!

I haven't always loved what he's done so far, I will give this to Rauch. Dude came out and threw strikes. Like a man possesed.

Toronto coughed up a 7-0 run lead to Seattle last week. This is nothing!

Oh shut up.

Carl Crawford, renowned Ray who killed Jays, K'd and he hung his head in such a way I felt really bad for him. These people had truly broken his spirit.

Shitty zone tonight. This ump is on the take. Did Crawford really just strike out on 3 pitches against a guy with a tattoo on the back of his neck.

As opposed to Crawford, who has one on the side of his neck? What?

That was flaccid.

The posters at Sons of Sam Horn are flaccidity experts.

Just Put Your Head on Your Desk

2011-04-15T08:14:00.006-05:00

You know, back in school, those days when your teacher, clearly out of ideas and/or energy, would just show videos or film strips and maybe add some magazine time and a little time to just put your head on your desk?

In preparation for this weekend's big series with the Red Sox , I've decided to show videos.

Parkes, over at Getting Blanked, got me thinking about the BEAST that was Pedro Martinez. I also thought about how Martinez was, for my money, the star of the Ken Burns' documentary The 10th Inning. Here is the feature "Unhittable" from the annoyingly unembeddable (I made that word up) MLB videos. "You can't hit the changeup? I'm sorry, you are going to see it again."

The next one features the most magical baseball player in the league in his segment in the Ken Burns' documentary The Tenth Inning. I like the part about the scouts doubting that teeny Ichiro could handle big league pitching. Wolf Cub!!!

The next one features some of the most elite pitchers in the MLB (and well, Dice K) teaching this little man their signature pitch. Notice they play "Enter Sandman" for Rivera's segment. The characters in the title say "Magic Ball Featured."

All those who stayed up to watch that most insane game last Saturday and were outraged by the Bob Davidson call, needs to see this again. "That was BIG LEAGUE right there." It would have perhaps been cooler had Gibson pumped his fist as he left the field.

And finally, I was obsessed with Goofy Sports when I was a kid.

Filth

2011-04-13T07:07:00.007-05:00

Mariners showed off their shiny new toy. The 6'7" 260 lbs Dominican Michael Pineda had the dreaded rising fastball, which made fools of the Jays' offense.

Of course, the ball doesn't actually rise. As soon as a pitch is released, it starts to fall. A rising fastball just falls less than isn't. The kid is good, but he can't defy the laws of physics. Combining that fastball and some nasty breaking stuff, he was pure filth.

When Buck Martinez said Pineda was 6'7" and 260 lbs, it didn't really hit me when I saw him on the mound. He was a bigun. But then after Pineda was pulled, Hernandez went over to give him a pep talk and was looking up at him. And Hernandez is not small.

The Mariners celebrated his first big league win with a beer shower, as you do. After toweling off, Pineda said,“It's my first game winning here. I don't know, I'm just really excited.”

Not to be forgotten was Ricky Romero, gave up only 3 runs and at one point retired 14 batters in a row. More importantly though, he pitched so well that he gave the bullpen a much needed break. I'm sure Romero hates himself for giving up a homer to Ryan Langerhans. I'm sure we'd all hate ourselves for giving up a homer to Ryan Langerhans.

Corey Patterson seemed to realize the wall of Olivo waiting for him on that weird non-slide at home in the 8th. I don't know whether Olivo was still fired up by his mis throw a few minutes earlier, but he shove tagged Patterson at the plate. He's lucky that Patterson isn't bigger or more of a hot head and they were not in the cemetery-like confines of Safeco because they might've had words. Or fists. In the bottom half of the inning, Jose Bautista threw a perfect one hopper to Arencibia to keep the score within a run.

There is quite a multitude of ways of losing in the game. Infinite possibilities.

L'Enfer, c'est les Autres

2011-04-12T13:38:00.005-05:00

Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote that Hell is other people. I would counter that Hell is a bullpen that can't throw strikes.

David Purcey (who, at least according to the Globe, is now operating under the assumed name of Davis Purcey), Octavio Dotel and Mark Rzepczynski were given a six run cushion to work with after Jesse Litsch worked some kind of voodoo magic and stymied the offensively barren Seattle Mariners. A bunch of not strike throwing from Villaneuva and Frasor followed before the Trio of Doom began their reign of terror.

"This is one of those days I was just missing,” Rzepczynski said. “I think I could speak for the whole bullpen: We were all missing."

You think?

King Felix Hernandez pitched like he was sore, going for 6 innings but surrendering 12 hits and 7 runs. Jesse Litsch pitched 110 pitches, with 5 hits and 4 walks. I still don't quite know how he managed a shutout, other than the Mariners reside in an offensive black hole.

I will say nothing of poor beleaguered Shawn Camp except this: Shawn, make a stand and stop letting the mean men hurt you. You are a person, not a machine. And you and your arm don't deserve this abuse.

Girded Loins

2011-04-11T12:37:00.007-05:00

One final note on the ridiculous call. The only numbers that actually count when it comes to wins in a single baseball game are the amount of runs and the amount of outs. The Jays were robbed of an equal opportunity at a victory in the game on Saturday. Based on the fact that they scored more runs than the Angels did and should have been given the opportunity to protect those runs with outs. The Angels were given an extra advantage by Bob Davidson, when the only advantages should be produced by the players themselves. So I don't care how many LOB, they didn't "deserve" to lose.

JoJo Reyes had a very nice afternoon on Sunday. 7 very solid innings of pitching was exactly what was needed after taxing the bullpen the night before. And Reyes worked at getting the balls down, which is was a problem for him in the previous start and continues to be a problem for young Mr. Cecil. This was a fact lost in the madness of Saturday. Sunday's was just a frustrating game to watch because Jered "Baby Weave" Weaver decided to strike out the world. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they're fascist. That's right. Jered Weaver has a statue of Mussolini at his house.

Is it me, or do the Angels not seem that good?

Interfere This!

2011-04-10T01:39:00.005-05:00

Well, a really fun and freaky game was just ruined by one of the worst calls I have ever seen. It was so bad was embarrassing. It was so bad it was like a Yankee Stadium playoff type call. Escobar (miraculously cured, btw) ran a straight line from 2nd to 3rd on a Encarnacion ground ball, which scored the go-ahead run. Escobar ran the base line. He didn't dance or weave or yell "MINE!" (which, you'll recall, is totally allowed.) I'm not sure what exactly Escobar is supposed to do if not that. Stop dead in his tracks? It's part of the deal for a short stop or third basemen to contend with a guy running when making that play with men on base.

What then followed in the bottom of the inning was some of the most out there examples of baserunning, one where it seemed that not only did Torii Hunter not realize he'd been doubled off, but he also seemed to be confused about his own name and what he was doing at the stadium.

Other than the call, the bullpen was solid with double plays and the 18 left on base was alarming. But I will take comfort in the fact that while the game dragged on through the night and then the wee hours of the morning, Twitter was alive with the heat of outraged fans. Over a game in April.

I was in a sports bar earlier tonight, a Tiger's bar, one that had a lot of newspaper articles about key sports moments framed on the wall. I was looking at one of them, I saw a small little side article on the cover of the Globe and Mail Sports section for October 17th, 1985. The little article stated that only 4500 fans showed up to watch the Leafs play, one of the lowest turnouts in the history of the team. And what was the reason for this low turnout? I quote, "An epidemic of baseball fever."

The Best Fit

2011-04-09T10:13:00.004-05:00

Last night's game might be my favourite so far in the young season. It also lends credence to the idea that wins for a pitcher are a meaningless stat. Kyle Drabek wasn't sharp in the early innings and was getting jobbed by the ump, but pulled himself together and had a shut down inning after Adam Lind hit a 2 run double to tie the game.

The home plate umpire was brutal last night. Just a word of advice: Just because Bobby Abreu has the reputation of a good eye at the plate doesn't mean he gets to dictate the strike zone.

Jayson Nix, with his timely hits and his solid work at 3rd, is working his way into the esteem of Jays fans. The two times I've seen him interviewed and I hear his drawl, I think not quite of McConaughey, but rather this.

"Mr. Farrell, this might be an opportunity for me to wear my pants real tight and hit some timely RBIs."

I really dislike like it when people say "It doesn't look like this guy cares. I can see it in his face." I haven't gotten to the point of disliking Rivera and I roll my eyes every time someone mentions him, because it hasn't been enough time to really judge him. But dude needs to slide to break up that double play. I'm sure he knows or someone told him, and now he knows. Maybe it was the marine effect. Rivera had two hits, so I'm not mad at him, but it was the first time I had a major issue.

Manny Ramirez is one of my favourite figures in all of baseball, mostly because he combined supreme talent with healthy amount of pure freak. I don't have anything to say about his retirement or drug test, other than it just makes me sad.

When Farrell was asked about the rumours of Manny joining the Jays in the off season, he said, "I know there was an issue. I don’t know what that issue is. All I know is he was one of the most productive right-hand hitters that has chosen to retire and end his career. He was talked about. We did have conversations about him. But at the time we were looking for a right-handed bat, DH/first baseman. His position wasn’t the best fit.”

I was glad to see Vernon Wells but had mixed feelings about him going 0-4 with 2 ks. It was a really tight game, so I'm relieved he didn't get a hit but I don't like to see him flailing. Note to Angels' fans : It's April. This is what Wells does. Jeff Blair, on the Fan 590, talked to the man himself yesterday.

Bloody Small Ball

2011-04-07T23:08:00.007-05:00

Casey Janssen was demoted to AAA for the newly activated Octavio Dotel. It's rough for poor Janssen because though he has been decent , he isn't a lefty and he still has options. It's particularly bad timing because the team heads off for Anaheim, which is where Janssen is from. I'm imagining an awkward call home.

Jason Frasor is a frustrating pitcher. He is in possession of some great pitches and excellent mechanics. It's not that he made bad pitches, exactly, it's just long pauses and little mistakes. And for the love of all that is good, could the Jays, as a pitching staff, stop with the defensive indifference. Coco Crisp reached on a passed ball strikeout and then stole two bases (with no throw) and that was the decisive run.

Ricky Romero, despite the result, had a really great outing. His changeup was particularly filthy. Some people questioned Farrell's decision to pull Romero after he didn't look LaRoche back to second on a bunt. But Ricky, how did you feel?

“I was confident enough that I was going to be able to get the next two guys out,” Romero said. “It was unfortunate I wasn’t able to stay in the game. But you can’t question what Farrell does there. He’s got a plan and we’re going to stick to it.”

Well, that's diplomatic.

It's just one of those games where runs are scarce and little mistakes are what cost the win. Bloody small ball. While it's a pain to see it happen to the Jays, it's darn hysterical when it happens to the Red Sox. The Indians got three hits, for the series, and swept the Sox, pushing their record to 0-6. They will take that record home to face the Yankees, who are not 0-6.

Youngin' On His Grind

2011-04-06T22:00:00.008-05:00

This is no place to meet women, boys. You'll only have each other.

In an attempt to find pictures of this game, I ran across an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about fan demographics according to Facebook. The A's are younger and more single than their counterparts across the bay in San Francisco. The A's are actually comparable to Jays' fans in that "The Athletics and the (Toronto) Blue Jays are both younger and more single than we would expect for baseball fans," a report said. "These teams also stand out in another way: Their fan bases are predominantly male compared to the other teams."

Detroit, Cincinnati and St. Louis fans are all old and married. "The old cliche that males like sports more than females is true: Less than 50 percent of any team's fans are female, but the Blue Jays are the most extreme with a nearly 3-to-1 ratio."

Did you know that Dallas Braden pitched a perfect game last year? Travis Snider didn't remember, and played rough with a pitch, resulting with a 3-run shot in the 4th.

Yunel Escobar, of last night's fame, had three hits before sliding hard into Andy LaRoche's knee and spending next half inning shimmying, fanning himself and talking in tongues before being replaced by John McDonald in the 7th. Escobar will be reevaluated in the morning.

I was happy to see that Jesse Litsch still has the ability to be pink, round and efficient. Pink, round, efficient and bearded. 6 hits, 3 runs, 6 1/3 innings, 7 ks and two BBs is a lovely line for a number 5. Alexander Ovechkin would totally have that exact same line had he started tonight.

No Necesito José

2011-04-06T07:54:00.003-05:00

That game was flat out insane. It illustrated perfectly how this is a team sport. Both the A's and the Jays had nightmare innings. Jo-Jo Reyes started out ok, but by the 3rd inning, the pitches were up and the A's were just sitting on the fastball. Shoddy pitching led to some amazing plays that tried to keep things close but that didn't quite get the outs, and it was 5-0. A's starter Brandon McCarthy was limiting the Jays to useless ground balls until a defensive implosion, which was nurtured by the speed of Rajai Davis on the bases. McCarthy tried desperately to calm himself down while his team flailed and get the train back on the tracks, but it was 5-5.

Villaneuva, Purcey, Camp and Rauch held it down. And Jason Frasor illustrated why he can't be closer. He gives up a homer, which isn't good, but it's forgivable as he pulled it together and made his pitches. The problem was that he took 30 minutes to pitch his half inning. The A's do indeed work the count, but he took a constitutional after every pitch. God damn, son.

But then the bottom of the 10th arrived, and Yunel Escobar said, "No necesito José. Yunel es muy macho. A lo profundo... y ¡no... nono, nono, no...! ¡Dígale que no a esa pelota!"

Speaking of, Bautista will be out for the Oakland series for a "personal family matter." It became clear over Twitter about 10 minutes after it was announced. Here is @MLBastian, former Jays beat writer and general solid dude, with the line of the night:

Since the Sox are amusingly 0-4, I thought I'd go and take a wee peek at SOSH.

First thing I want to point out is the caption under the game thread:

"A roller-coaster diary of ecstasy and misery so overwhelming, it would make even Dostoevsky go weak in the knees and have to steady himself on the furniture..."

Right...but if you were going to be histrionic, how would you do it?

Beckett is the hero SoSH needs but not the one it deserves right now.

Jeez.

Off Day of the Damned

2011-04-05T09:11:00.003-05:00

What is up with an off day already?

Like a good little joiner and despite the fact that I was not in town, I watched 8 Men Out around the same time the event was happening at the Revue Cinema.

I haven't seen this film in years and had the suspicion that I've actually never seen it. It struck me mostly how innocent the times were. The players were payed peanuts (and flat champagne), the clubhouse looks like a dungeon, the star player is illiterate.

The other issue that stands out is that despite the fact that there are very good actors in it (hello there, David Strathairn), it just isn't a very good movie. It sort of meanders through the story and I didn't care past being a baseball fan and knowing I should care. It might have been better to either focus on the organized crime aspect of it (this was Chicago, after all) or focused on the aftermath of it or some sort of combination of the two. Or maybe picked one player to focus on. Probably either Eddie Cicotte (Straithairn) who won 29 games and was benched because Comiskey had promised him $10,000 bonus if he won 30 games or Buck Weaver (John Cusack) who was named but denied until his death he was involved in the fix.

The on field stuff, where they show the players actually throwing the game, looks silly and because they are all in the same costumes, they all look the same. Who is in on it? Who isn't? Who is that guy? It would be less of a baseball movie, but a better movie.

The lines drawn between this scandal and the more recent steroid scandal are obvious, but here is the major difference between them. Baseball players in 1919, at least according to this film, were underpaid, and were motivated to cheat because they wanted to punish the crooked owners. The vast majority of the players named in the Mitchell Report are not the highest paid stars, but rather journey men types that are trying to get an edge to get a job, keep a job, make some money.

But this is where someone like Alex Rodriguez becomes interesting as a character study. He is in possession of the greatest natural gifts and is already rich beyond imagining, and yet he still cheated. You can't compare the scandal of 1919 with the scandal of the first decade of the 21st century because the game is an entirely different animal.

Balls Up

2011-04-03T21:43:00.005-05:00

Despite the loss today, that 9th inning was about as intense and joy-inducing as baseball can be. And for things to be so intense and even devastating this early in the season bodes well for the season. Cecil had a rough start, and clearly felt obligated to follow the outstanding performances of Romero and Drabek. His velocity is down, but it would be less of an issue if he kept his pitches down.

“I shouldn’t be thinking about it while I’m pitching,” he said. “But in the fifth inning, I was like, ‘All right, you gotta get the ball down, you gotta get it down.’ And it’s waist-high. I guess I can’t really explain it.”

Well, Brett, let me explain. You ruined the whole weekend. It could have been magic and you shat on it, what with all those pitches you left up. You clearly have contempt for this team, for this city and for life in general. Just think about that next time you want to get the ball down. He was a poor sad bastard.

I know Encarnacion's errors were annoying, but so was the booing. The dude hauled ass out of the batter's box every time he made contact, even got an infield hit. A man who last year had what Jeff Blair referred to as "gooey goodness," got an infield hit. The only thing that deserves booing is lack of effort and if anything, Encarnacion is trying too hard. So piss off and desist, "fans".

Keith Law caused a minor stir among idiots this afternoon with this

People questioned that as a compliment. And I let out a withering sigh. This was an example of a story that cannot be told by numbers alone. Ted Lilly, at his best, was pure filth. A sneaky lefty with devastating curve. I particularly remember his complete and utter dominance over potent Red Sox lineups. And not just once, but all the time. He used to put them into fits. The dominance was so complete the Boston press used to hilariously whisper "Koufax" when describing the performances just to placate the frothing hoard. Lilly owned. Lilly pwned.

The Red Sox were well aware. One instance, I'm going to say in 2006, Manny Ramirez took Ted Lilly deep. And Manny stared him down, puffed his chest out and more or less said "Yeah, bitch." This was not the typical Ramirez homer pimp. This was a "Today, cabron, your ass is mine."

Finally, what is up with this? FIX THE DAMN TURF.

162-0

2011-04-01T23:11:00.002-05:00

I know it's a long season and it would be wrong to be overly optimistic, as more than likely any hopes will be dashed sooner or later, but holy crap, that was an impressive display.

I think my favourite single moment was Bautista asking for time, Joe West giving it to him but also giving him a lecture on late time calling. Joe West did a lot of lecturing all night long. Anyway, the very next Pavano pitch was deposited into the left field stands, total 2010 style. It was as though Bautista said, "Senor West, I need to catch my breath before I crush this pitch. We both know this Pavano, he has nothing. I toy with him a little. It's for fun. Alright, now I play." I admired the way Arrencibia handled himself behind the plate and it was evident the amount of work he has put in. The 2 homers and the 2 RBI triple is okay, I guess.

Ricky Romero had all of his pitches working for him and his changeup was particularly filthy. That, coupled with the shots of his really cute kid sister and his really hot girlfriend in the stands, things looked pretty fantastic for the new ace. Maclean's ran a really good piece on Romero and his family. The article finally solved the mystery of Romero's scarred face. I've noticed that he has scars that slash around his mouth and wondered about them. Apparently, a dog bit him in the face as a kid.

7 ks, no walks, 2 earned runs. What exactly were the Twins thinking starting Pavano instead of Liriano tonight? It was a classic illustration of a control pitcher who had no control.

And about all the stealing. I don't mind so much the double steal with Bautista up because Pavano was clearly on the ropes and it was meant to put that extra issue in his poor, besieged head. It sends a message to the Twins and to everyone else that this team can run a bit and will use it. What actually bothered me more is that both Davis and Snider got picked off and would have been out had it not been for a failed rundown and a balk.

Amusing incidence of bullpen height disparity: the low angle shots of the players during the team intro made Rauch look but 10 feet tall when juxtaposed between Camp, who looked 13 years old and Frasor, who looked 5.

DJF ran a post-game webcast. Adam Lind looked a little drunk, but it was nice of him to talk to Stoeten. They were kind enough to reassure me that Baltimore isn't better than the Jays and shouted out this blog. Though not in any of these featured clips, but I swear they did.

A Little Diversity...

2011-04-01T09:00:00.004-05:00

...up your ass. The National Post ran their Blogger's Panel season preview and once again, I was not asked to participate.

If I had just started this blog, I would understand. But 2011 will be the 5th season I've blogged about. If, on this blog, I wrote extensively about who was the dreamiest player, I would understand it. But I don't write about player dreaminess. This has the stench of preferential sausage treatment, if you get my meaning. The stench of bullshit also pervades.

But, I will not succumb to bitterness. I am going to answer the Blogger Panel questions here, and I have asked the lovely Sarah (@s_findlay) And when I say "asked", I mean she begged. Shamelessly.

Here it goes:

Joanna, from Hum and Chuck, doesn't need to have her work published on the website of a major national newspaper to feel special. Her site is best known the humourous humiliation of Red Sox fans who post on SOSH and for not being run by a dude. She thinks stats are for pencil-pushing nerds, who need to hide behind numbers because they are afraid to touch girls.

Sarah is a clever girl, best known for her cleverness and despite it, still believing in the Leafs.

1. What does Jose Bautista do for an encore?

Hum and Chuck: Jose Bautista hits 40 homeruns, grows a mighty beard and impresses us all with his feats of strength and manliness. Bautista also shows discipline at the plate and a hose in the outfield.

Sarah: Jose Bautista hits 30 homeruns and punches Damien Cox in the face before dropping his bat and walking away coolly, lighting things on fire with his eyes.

2. Who is the Jay most likely to have a breakthrough or breakout season?

Hum and Chuck: If Brandon Morrow gets healthy, he has all the makings of a super stud. His success will serve to increase the legend of Alex Anthopoulous. Travis Snider, if he stays patient, may finally blossom into the beast at the plate all expect him to be.

Sarah: Travis Snider, if only by the sheer will of the populous who has watched him eat his heart out this off season. "Watching Man vs Food for the first time. Wondering if baseball is really my dream job," - everyone knows it's the guys with outside interests who excel the most in sports. Wayne Gretzky loves baseball, Alex Rodriguez loves centaurs, Andre Agassi loves mullet wigs. Travis Snider loves food. Go forth, Lunch Box Hero.

3. Who else might be a pleasant surprise?

Hum and Chuck: Encarnacion showed up to camp skinny and with a strong wrist. Skinniness alone was enough of a pleasant surprise. Not so pleasant surprise, we are going to realize how much we miss Lyle Overbay.

Sarah: Edwin Encarnacion. It just isn't hard to be better than 1000 people on Twitter bemoaning your return to 3rd base. Anything that isn't a shifted tribute to Russ Adams will be a pleasant surprise.

4. Who do you expect to be the biggest flop?

Hum and Chuck: The bullpen, minus a solid left-handed presence of a Scott Downs, is scary indeed. So probably one of the right handed veterans acquired in the off-season.

Sarah: I'm not sure I can think of anyone in terms of expected success to disastrous BJ Ryanism. I can foresee some limited use (Dotel) or some general failing (Posednik), but as for legitimate flops no one comes to mind. Are we still paying BJ Ryan or can I just not get how much I hate him off my mind?

5. Who is the better candidate for a bounce-back season: Aaron Hill or Adam Lind?

Hum and Chuck: Adam Lind is a power hitter. He has been a power hitter at every level he played at. I don't know whether the idea that his offense was effected by his lack of defensive play as DH holds any weight, but Lind will now see time at first base and he will regain his swing. Short of concussing him again, I doubt Hill will ever repeat his miraculous 2009 campaign. But I hope he has some sort of recovery.

Sarah: Lind. I'm not as down on Hill as everyone else seems to be, but I'm also not as down on Hill as Hill seems to be. Adam has other things to worry about right now, and I can forgive the lack of Silver Slugger for any defensive prowess at first whatsoever. Infield confidence!

6. Will Toronto’s young rotation improve this year or take a step back?

Hum and Chuck: Another year under their belt is bound to improve their game, but they may still take a step back. But I think these boys can pitch, so the future is bright.

Sarah: I suppose you have to assume that they'll take a step back, but I certainly don't think it will be a big one. I expect consistency from Romero and Morrow, maybe a bit of a fall for Cecil.

7. Who is your closer? And if he falters, who takes over the role?

Hum and Chuck: Jon Rauch has experience in the role from his time last year with the Twins. If falters, be very afraid because a falter could turn into a fall, and Rauch, at 6'11, could take out the whole bullpen. I hesitate to put Frasor into the closer roll as it was a failed experiment under both Gibbons and Gaston. He works too slowly for my liking. I would probably put Francisco into the role.

Sarah: Francisco. When he eventually needs Tommy John surgery for his back injury, Rauch.

8. When does Brett Lawrie force his way into the lineup?

Hum and Chuck: No earlier than September. I like the idea of holding Lawrie back until next year the way Tampa did with Longoria, to push back his time till free agency. Let the kid tear up Vegas for a while.

Sarah: Only once he has tattooed Jay-Z lyrics on his other arm.

9. What other prospects are you waiting to see?

Hum and Chuck: Prospects are going to be fun because they are the reward the team got for giving up Halladay. And Halladay yielded some good ones. Perusing the list, I'm going to go with Travis D'Arnaud, a catcher with a nice arm and a quick bat. But really, any one of these kids could be fun to see. The future is bright.

Sarah: You can only underestimate my excitement for Adeiny Hechavarria, whether it be this year or next.

10. What will the Jays’ record be?

Hum and Chuck: The Jays gave up a few key guys in Wells, Marcum, Buck and Downs, but I honestly think the foundations of the success of last year still exist in this team. I'll say 81-81. I guessed low last year, and was pleasantly surprised.

Sarah: I'd guess in the neighbourhood of 75-87... but last season I bet a friend who doesn't even like baseball that the Jays wouldn't crack .500. Needless to say I lost and have no confidence in anyone's ability to guess such a random number. It won't be great and it probably won't even be good, but it certainly won't be the Baltimore Orioles.

Fake Conversations with Those Newly on TV

2011-03-30T16:22:00.004-05:00

I was a semi-active participant in Parkes' Getting Blanked pre-Opening Day chat, partly because my Internet was spotty and partly because Parkes' was stingy with the approval button. But many good questions were asked and Parkes (and Stoeten and Drew) answered. I thought I would take some of those questions and answer them, you know, correctly.

LET US BEGIN:

[Comment From PdcDPdcD: ]

Last year Bautista sorta came out of nowhere to give Jays fans an unexpected pleasant surprise. Who this year will surprise the fans with and "out of no where" type of season?

Dustin Parkes: I really, really like Edwin Encarnacion's chances

Drew Fairservice: Rajai Davis?

Stoeten: The way people keep talking about Encarnacion it's not going to be a surprise if he kills it. I'd put my money on Rajai Davis as well.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: Likely, it will be no one, because Bautista had the kind of magical season that happen very rarely in this game. But I suspect Encarnacion is going to do well just because he looks damn fit. And as Parkes points out, another season of wrist healing.

[Comment From KathsportKathsport: ]
do you guys think the Jays are gonna have a huge upper hand over the sox' pitching because of Farrell??

Dustin Parkes: This is a good question, but I think the upper hand actually comes from Farrell knowing how pitchers approach certain Blue Jays in at bats.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: The other thing Farrell knows are scouting reports and flaws of hitters from the opposite perspective. But I'm guessing the upper-hand won't be huge. If it were, the Yankees would've been hiring rival pitching coaches for a long time now. It probably balances out.

Stoeten: I agree with Parkes on that one. It should be interesting to watch how they handle the Sox, though-- and how the SOSH types react if we get to their pitchers.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: Ah yes, the SOSH types are never not fun.

[Comment From Andy McAndy Mc: ]
Over / Under 1. Bautista 32 HR; 2. Davis 60 SB; 3. Escobar .350 OBP

Dustin Parkes: 1. Under 2. Under 3. Under.

Drew Fairservice: Underunderunder

Stoeten: Over. Under. Under.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: I'm with Stoeten.

[Comment From JamesJames: ]
Are you as concerned about Cecil's lack of velocity as I am? Especially how no one seems to know the reason behind it

Dustin Parkes: I'm not concerned in the least. This happens from time to time, and we'll be given reason to worry if he's still hitting low velocities in May.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: Parkes just shat on your concern, James. The biggest concern is that Cecil doesn't bring any angst or worry with him into the season and listens to the people he's supposed to be listening to.

Then there was a lot of back and forth on who was going to be in the WS. Parkes likes Red Sox/Rockies.

[Comment From Stoets McGoatsStoets McGoats: ] People forget how shaky the Sox rotation gets after Bucholz and Lester...

Drew Fairservice: I think Josh Beckett is a decent candidate to bounce back strong. And they're bullpen is deep. And they'll score many, many, many runs.

Dustin Parkes: Fair enough. But calling Beckett shaky is a little bit off, no?
Joanna, Hum and Chuck: No, it's right on. His numbers have gone done every year since 2007. Plus he is prone to back issues. Plus, I just hate him.

[Comment From JKent: ] How does Adrian Gonzalez adjust to the AL East? A lot of people picking him for MVP.

Dustin Parkes: I think they see a LH power hitter moving from Petco to Fenway, and the prospect of that makes people lose their mind.

Stoeten: Gonzalez would hit in any division, I think. And in that park, yeah... he'll be good.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: It'll be interesting. If he sucks, SOSH will be sure to be passive aggressively racist towards him.

[Comment From Quatre-cingt cinq: ]Is Boston a sneaky place where Fielder might end up? Big Papi may regress any day now - or run out of eye drops.

Dustin Parkes: Discounting the Yankees or Red Sox on Pujols or Fielder is dumb
Drew Fairservice: I can't see the Red Sox paying that much for a DH if they're going to sign Adrian Gonzalez long term. He or Youk will have to move there at some point.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: NL lifers who are still young might resist becoming DHs in the near future. Plus, there has been some argument that removing the defensive duties from a player effects his offensive production. A focus thing. I don't think it's so cut and dried, but I agree it's dumb to count either Yankees or Sox out of the running for Pujols or Fielder.

Comment From Guest: ] Parkes/Stoeten: I love your guys blogs etc. and read them daily... Here's a question, where is your guys favourite place to go for interesting reads re: Jays... ?
Drew Fairservice: WELL! Let me tell you about a blog...

Dustin Parkes: I read Tao and Ghostrunner regularly, but that's about it. I still check in on Hum and Chuck and Blue Jay Hunter though. Otherwise it's fairly link driven.

Stoeten: Ghostrunner is fantastic, as is the Tao, and I love that Jon Hale has been posting again. I always have to read anything FanGraphs says about the Jays, and Jeff Blair always has some nuggets buried in whatever he writes, too. I hear Richard Griffin has a halfway decent mailbag. Bluebird Banter is on top of shit. And yeah, H&C, BJ Hunter, and a bunch of sites like that are great-- too many to list, really, and new ones coming to us to add them to the blogroll all the time.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: The correct answer is Hum and Chuck. And Jeff Blair is back to writing baseball again.

Comment From PdcDPdcD: ] who's the next current Jay to sign a multi year deal?

Drew Fairservice: That's a great question. I say Snider, depending on how this season plays out

Stoeten: Very possible.

Dustin Parkes: Yeah, I'm with Drew. Snider has to be that guy.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: Morrow. Of course, depending on the season, but Morrow and Snider seem most likely.

[Comment From itsgettinglate: ] on a scale of 1-10 how concerned are you about Snider's eating habits? 1 being not very concerned

Dustin Parkes: -10. Snider knows what he's doing and actually came to camp lighter than he's been since grade eight. Eventually the metabolism will catch up and eventually he'll probably become a DH or 1B, but for now just enjoy the humour.

Drew Fairservice: -10. Dude is a machine. I'd be more concerned were he on the "only Mountain Dew and candy" diet of Lamar Odom.

Joanna, Hum and Chuck: Odom also has a steady diet of Kardashian. So unless Kim dumps Kris Humphries, and trades Hump Time for Snide Time, I think things are cool. And holy shit, Snider was big 13 year old.

Damn Springtime Yankees

2011-03-24T12:09:00.005-05:00

There was a lot of things to like about last night's game. One being that it was on tv and they weren't playing in snow. The other thing was like Jo Jo Reyes pitched himself a dandy, until he got a little tired and the pitches flattened out. He mixed his pitches and they had nice movement. He worked quickly and confidently. It took a little of the sting out of the loss of Brandon Morrow to the DL.

And then David Purcey arrived and ruined everything. The other great thing about this game is that it doesn't count.

With the DL addition, the rotation seems set at Romero, Cecil, Drabek, Reyes and Litsch. I'm ready for this season to start already.

In other news, L.A. Times T.J. Simers opening question to Marcus Thames went like this, "Are you that horrible on defense that teams don’t think it’s worth playing such a home run threat?"

Wow. He goes on to write, "Maybe somebody else wastes time schmoozing with Tims/Tems, but he’s a one-year rental who has some explaining to do. How bad are you on defense that teams don’t dare risk playing you?"

Maybe somebody wants to feel like a big man by taking another guy's performance personally and also behaving like an asshole for no other reason than being an asshole and trying to seem cutting edge and relevant in the ever more populated realm of sports writer. It drives me nuts when people hide behind truth telling and use it as an excuse to be a jerk. Thames resisted the urge to punch this smug SOB and merely smiled in response.

Curtis Granderson defended Thames via Twitter. Through a blog on MLB.com that he wrote while he was a Tiger, I found Granderson to be one of the nicer and more grateful ball players around. He is just decent. And the stank of pinstripes can't even cloud that.

Even his Thames defense is polite and accommodating:

But Curtis, Simers problem is that he has no shame!

Speak Neutrally and Carry a Big Bat

2011-03-18T20:03:00.008-05:00

GQ profiles Derek Jeter this month and it highlights various things I noted about the guy over the years.

One thing that is amusing about this feature is that they used Terry Richardson to shoot it. Richardson's pictures are full of energy, but are also usually on the raunchy side. Just Google his name. The usual highlighted body part is the tongue or the breasts or the crotch. Hence the big bat in the pic. The big bat represents (wait for it)... Jeter's dick. Richardson also has this ability to get starlets to eat on film and/or lick food off each other. Maybe there are outtakes of ARod licking ice cream off the big bat.

Anyway, the actual article is sort of typical Jeter stuff. The guy has an unbelievable talent for keeping his cards close to his chest. He had the worst year of his MLB career in 2010, and this is what he says:

"My focus is always one year at a time. I don't go into 2011 thinking about 2010. I haven't met a person who can change what's happened in the past, and I haven't met a person who can tell the future, so my job is 2011. That's the only thing I'm focused on. That's the only thing I'm concerned with."

True to form, Jeter is mum on being jerked around by the Yankees this past winter. They were snotty and went to the press to passive-aggressively dis him. It couldn't have been easy for him.

Mariah Carey, Minka Kelly, Lara Dutta, Adriana Lima,Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jordana Brewster, and Vanessa Minnillo. Those are some very famous women and he dated them all. Yet not a single one of them have talked shit about him. At least one of them seems like a shit talker ('sup, Mimi?) and yet nothing has been said.

"There's never been any kiss-and-tell stuff where a girl breaks up with Jeter and then says what a creep he is. I don't know how he avoids it. He must have some sort of vetting process—maybe he makes them fill out a questionnaire or has a psychological profile done. He's incredible." Richard Johnson, legendary former editor of Page Six.

I can totally imagine some chicks sitting in a room, and Jeter's people handing out clipboards with forms and pencils.