The 2013 do-over Toronto Blue Jays (AKA the 2014 Blue Jays Thread)

RA is ready for business

http://wpmedia.sports.nationalpost.com/2014/02/dickey_hair_8478.jpeg?w=620

Our big hope this year is the Plexiglass Principle, except we don't want to bounce back to the 73 games we won in 2012 (one fewer than last year). We want to bounce back to he hypothetical greatness of March 2013.

lol at "hypothetical greatness". i think we have a new slogan!

We were something pretty special for a few weeks there in February. Oddsmakers loved us, opponents feared us. And then, that fateful moment that turned out to be our undoing: we took the field.

ha! i feel like this city in general has had a curse over it for the last few years.

That's why we need the do-over (of 2013 1993).

Haven't read this yet, but Dave Fleming has a system for ranking possible surprise teams, and he picks the Jays last among 2013's AL-teams-with-a-losing-record:

http://www.billjamesonline.com/which_team_will_surprise_in_2014_/

Meaning if we were a Seinfeld movie, we'd be Prognosis Negative.

is it bad that i have never heard of it?

The BP podcast ponders why they did nothing this winter, and the outlook for this season is ultimately "Sorry Toronto -- you still have Joe Pernice."

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=22886

they got rid of arencibia, that's something

Addition by subtraction and hoping that our injury prone players don't trip and fall -- official team philosophy of the 2014 Blue Jays.

Stephen Drew for 2B?

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/2/26/5449392/stephen-drew-free-agent-rumors-blue-jays

joey bats goes out of the stadium

first swing of spring training too!

as if he wasn't hard enought to watch already
http://wpmedia.sports.nationalpost.com/2014/02/lind_goatee_portrait_92222.jpg

undefeated!

j.a. happ today: 3 IP, 7 R, 12 H, 3 K, 1 HR (to a pitcher)

Dickey got shelled in the battle of former Cy Young winners and Reyes is back on the DL. Best opening day in years!

fml

the Wil Myers little league home run was pretty special too

i was watching that happen in complete awe. i'm thinking the brewers might be a cool team to cheer for in a more official capacity...

Blue Jays are in the daaaaaanger zone (pitching against Archer).

batting, i mean.

Halladay just threw out the first pitch at the Jays' home opener. Bittersweet: he looks way too young to be out of the game.

Leaving Halladay in to pitch last night would not have been a bad thing. Really, how much more damage can he do to his arm at this point?

well he's retired for one thing

i'm pretty sure he realizes that!

oh i didn't see the older post

I guess we can have fun rooting for Melky Cabrera until he fails a drug test.

shush. don't take what little i have from these last few games away from me.

The Astros prepared to face Dickey by taking swings in an indoor cage before the game against former major league knuckleballer Steve Sparks, now a Houston radio announcer.

When you're getting pwned by the announcers for the worst team in baseball, you really have to question your team's playoff chances.

Last night seems like a microcosm of the past 20 years: finish the easy sweep, go into Baltimore in first place and with a 6-4 record. And your putative ace is starting. But no.

to add to the microcosm of the past 20 years: i will happily take 2/3 vs the Astros.

that's another very good start by Buerhle, pleasantly surprised by the start of his season. maybe he can climb to 60 WAR before the end of his career (somehow 60 WAR is an important benchmark to me).

bWAR, that is.

Maybe he'll be the 1 in 10,000 player who gets into the HOF backwards. His chances today are 0%. But he's already taken care of the scenery part of his career--the bulk numbers you accumulate after you're 30, all those 15-12-type seasons with a 4.0-5.0 WAR. If he can miraculously string together three or four Cy Young-type seasons by the time he's 40, who knows.

Or he may get hammered next start, signalling the beginning of the end.

Almost exactly where Tim Hudson is in terms of WAR--and Hudson's off to a great start too. Hudson's old-school stats are a little flashier, but Buerhle's got a couple of years on him (and no history of injury).

Buerhle also has the perfect game and the world series ring, which should help.

maybe in three years Buerhle can pick up the knuckle ball and pitch for another 10 seasons, going on to win three world series with the juggernaut 2019, 2020 & 2021 Houston Astros... you. never. know.

maybe everything's pointless

buerhle will never last that long without his pit bull

with Izturis GONE, they're not gonna play Goins regularly, are they? with THAT bat?

nah, i suspect Robinson Diaz and Kawasaki will get the majority of starts at 2B. Pretty shameful situation, I just hope Reyes actually plays this year or it's gonna get a lot worse

supposed to be back tomorrow!

well, i know that, i'm just being cynical about his ability to _stay_ back

"Jose Reyes's hamstrings of polenta"

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/4/15/5617388/2014-blue-jays-marlins-trade-dickey-syndergaard

Minnesota - Bottom of 8th	SCORE
Steve Delabar pitching for Toronto	TOR	MIN
S Delabar relieved B Cecil.	5	3
J Pinto walked.	5	3
C Herrmann walked, J Pinto to second.	5	3
E Nunez sacrificed to first, J Pinto to third, C Herrmann to second.	5	3
T Plouffe hit for A Hicks.	5	3
S Santos relieved S Delabar.	5	3
T Plouffe walked.	5	3
K Suzuki hit for E Escobar.	5	3
J Pinto scored, C Herrmann to third, T Plouffe to second on wild pitch by S Santos.	5	4
P Florimon ran for T Plouffe.	5	4
K Suzuki walked.	5	4
D Mastroianni ran for K Suzuki.	5	4
D Mastroianni stole second.	5	4
D Mastroianni to third on wild pitch by S Santos.	5	4
B Dozier walked.	5	4
J Happ relieved S Santos.	5	5
B Dozier stole second.	5	5
J Mauer walked.	5	5
C Colabello walked, D Mastroianni scored, B Dozier to third, J Mauer to second.	5	7
J Kubel singled to right center, B Dozier and J Mauer scored, C Colabello to third.	5	9
J Pinto walked, J Kubel to second.	5	9
C Herrmann struck out looking.	5	9
E Nunez grounded out to third.	5	9
6 Runs, 1 Hits, 0 Errors

buck_martinez.wav

According to STATS research dating to 1974, this was the only game that featured an eight-walk, three-wild-pitch inning.

Wow, no shit, thanks STATS research!!

STATS is also saying that it's the first time the Jays have given away a game to a mediocre team since a couple of days ago.

No "sponsor this page" button--I'm going to inquire!

lol denny mclain started two games for the harlan smokies that year: 1-1, 0.00 ERA, 2 R, 0 ER, 9 H, 10 BB, 32 K in 18 IP

I think the Jays are about 60-0 if either Bautista or Encarnacion homers and 10-70 when neither one homers.

Mayberry!!! Takes McGee deep with two outs in the ninth!!

That was fun for about five minutes.

Too bad. The one that still hurts the most was that Boston loss; the two losses to the Rays this series are next.

six-game suspension for stroman

Adam Lind: if you don't know how to use a glove, next time just belly flop on the fucking ball so you can block it.

It's nice to play spoiler sometimes, even if it is just the second wild card against a team that was already imploding before we faced them.

i just enjoy kicking the shit out of our expansion year brethren.

To hell with the M's though, it sucks that we couldn't fuck up KC's shit to get even for '85.

First the Pirates, then the Orioles, now the Royals. The Jays are just a little more conspicuous today.

Horrible commentary today from Buck and Pat Tabler, even worse than their usual. Time to go home for the winter guys.

They didn't understand the tiebreaker rules and kept saying that the Tigers will win the Central by virtue of the "tiebreaker" they hold over KC.

This exchange drove me crazy:
Buck: The Jays will finish with the 15th best record in MLB, so they're literally in the middle of the pack.
Pat: Lots of decisions to make in the offseason.
Buck: Yes.
Pat: Getting to the middle of the pack is the easy part, if you're a losing team. It's taking that next step up that's the hard part.

THANK YOU CAPTAIN AND LIEUTENANT OBVIOUS, the Jays have been middle of the pack for twenty years, we're now the team with the longest playoff drought in NA professional sports, we've been dealing with this bullshit since forever, WE WATCH THE GAMES, find something interesting to talk about plz.

Yep, these guys need to go. At lot of the time they basically parrot whatever boring, obvious thing the other brings up, adding nothing to the conversation.
Tabler literally repeats exactly what Buck has just said but in a slower, more lilting voice. Drives me bonkers.

Same--they're awful. Full-time apologists for the organization.

They have to sound positive (and they were, talking about how things are looking bright for next year and so on) but we definitely don't need to hear the same "we're a .500 team and we want to improve for next year!" speech for the 20th year in a row.

This post really nails it:

http://blogs.thescore.com/djf/2014/09/26/about-last-night-and-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/

He loses me a bit at the end though by picking nits over how fans see the Jays' ownership.

This was definitely the year to go for though, and we blew it by heading into 2014 with almost exactly the same team as 2013 and hoping that guys who are almost never healthy would stay healthy. We all saw this coming though -- look at the beginning of the thread! Look at the thread title! But it's true, Rogers doesn't give a flying fuck. Depressing.

Thermo was asking about games on Youtube, which gives me an excuse to post something I discovered just this past week. There are only so many meaningful late September + October games you can watch before you start searching for past glories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKgzEcBh16I

Perfect--video not available in Canada. (I'll try the MLB site.) That was Game #155; I was at Game #154 the night before.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR198709250.shtml

Sorry, NTBT--we must stare down our demons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_nzzIwWzn4

You're too late, I already found the full game 162. I skipped through to see if that Larry Herndon home run cleared the fence by as little as I remembered it. It was less -- the damn ball practically scraped the wall on the way down.

Off day, so why not:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGbh5UitRA8

21 years ago today. I still find it very moving when Gaston and Molitor embrace at 2:49:55, followed by a teared-up Molitor walking away.

For me it's that moment when they lift Carter up on their shoulders.

Re: Molitor and Gaston, I remember in the postgame interviews nobody wanted to admit they were crying so they used the euphamism "my eyes were moist".

Hey, we won something. SweetSpot ranked each team according to its worst position in the lineup:

30. Toronto Blue Jays C: 0.6 wins below average

Congrats, Blue Jays fans: You had the best worst position in the majors! This was actually a big upgrade from 2013, when J.P. Arencibia led the Jays to 2.6 wins below average at catcher. Blue Jays catchers ranked 19th in wOBA with average-ish defense.

Our second basemen weren't worse than that?

i'm for starting 2015 team threads now

just traded Gose to the Tigers for Devon Travis (who i'd never heard of before just now)

Brook Jacoby signs on as new hitting coach--author of one of the infamous freak seasons of the '80s.

1987: 540 AB, 32 HR, .300/.541, 69 RBI.

Easy to figure out why. 1) Hit mostly sixth and seventh, behind the likes of Joe Carter (.304 OBP), Mel Hall (.309), and Cory Snyder (.273); 2) Was lousy himself with RISP: .221/.362/.295. (Better with men on--.274/.383/.393--but still slugging under .400.) A perfect storm.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/53786/jays-acquire-donaldson-as-fans-unhappy

I think we're still a frontline starter away. Who knows what Buehrle will do next year. Probably the same thing he does ever year--pitch 210 innings, win 13-15 games, and pitch pretty well overall. He's our #1 starter, though...

Stroman could be our #1 by the end of the season tho! would prefer to add an innings eater kind of guy that won't blow our budget, but LF/CF, 2B and the bullpen are bigger areas of concern for the J's to concentrate on imho.

I totally agree. We pretty much need Hutchinson and Stroman to become co-aces to be serious WS contenders. We're better off spending money on shoring up the weak-ass bottom of our lineup than dropping $150M on a Lester or Scherzer.

"I was up in my man cave playing some old school Mortal Kombat and watching The Golf Channel at the same time," Donaldson said. "I looked down and my phone just started exploding. I decided to check it out. The first text I see is 'Blue Jays?' I was like, 'Yup, I just got traded.'"

I'm not liking our new third baseman's offseason training regimen thus far.

Good point about the change in parks.

I wasn't even thinking about payroll earlier--and I should have been; payroll controls a lot--just looking at the starters and wondering if that's a starting five that can advance far. If Stroman and Hutchinson make significant progress, yes; if they don't, I don't think so.

One thing that's great about Martin and Donaldson is the obvious urgency attached. But better than two years ago (Dickey/Reyes/Johnson), which just seemed kind of random to me. I'm sure KC's success last year--as a reminder of how close so many teams are in the wild-card era, but even more so the embarrassment of now being the longest non-playoff team--has something to with it.

And not to go on about my less than ecstatic response to Donaldson, but on 590 today, a commentator said that Jays gave up a guy with unfulfilled potential (true) for a "proven All-Star." Really? I'd put the bar a little higher than two years before I'd attach the word "proven."

i dunno. he's proved himself pretty well. over 15 WAR over those two years.

also you shouldn't listen to call in shows. it'll rot your brain.

You guys sound engaged enough to make a 2015 thread eventually.

*checks calendar* we still got time.

This time we know it's for real - the win now 2015 Toronto Blue Jays thread.

There's a Stroman waiting in the sky, we'd like to win the pennant, it'd really blow our minds - 2015 Toronto Blue Jays thread.

Old school Mortal Kombat and the Golf Channel -- with more proven all-Stars than we can count, it's bound to be our year. The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays thread.

that last one

Duane Ward was on 590 yesterday, and he did something hardly anybody ever does: openly lobbied for the bullpen coach job. He started off like he was partly joking, but went on to say that he planned on calling Anthopoulos to see if they'd have any interest in hiring him. I'd love to see Ward get the job.

Winning the WS one round of Mortal Combat at a time.

It's Déjà Do-Over All Over Again.

Another Canadian Icon Sullied - The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

Crackstarter - Gawker crowdfunding the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays: good or evil?

Lol

xpost that one is legendary

John Dewan on Buehrle's durability:

http://www.billjamesonline.com/mark_buehrle_%E2%80%93_one_of_the_most_durable_pitchers_of_all_time_/

Some amazing context:

On that list, Buehrle became the current Rotation Emperor when Justin Verlander missed a start in late August of this season. Buehrle currently has 228 consecutive starts, which dates back to September of 2007. What’s interesting is that Buehrle did not miss a start then because of an injury. Instead, manager Ozzie Guillen skipped Buehrle to allow rookie John Danks to get a start off the DL...Had Buehrle’s streak not been snapped in 2007, his active streak would be 452 consecutive games. That would have been the longest streak, by far, of any pitcher Bill studied, going back to 1955...

(I'd probably look for another name other than the rather clownish sounding "Rotation Emperor.")

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/marcus-stroman-discovered-roy-halladays-sinker