Another Canadian Icon Traded - The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

Please tell me you're...no; no joke there. That's awful.

ugh

my first reaction... "this is a joke right?"

very sad news, loved to see him play.

in memorandum
http://gamereax.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/StromanSlider.gif

Stroman out, Encarnacion is hurting, RIP 2015 Blue Jays.

At least it wasn't an arm injury, I guess.

I was aghast when I heard it was a bunting drill--for what, in preparation for the World Series?--but he was of course fielding bunts. I don't know if the year's a write-off or not. 15 wins/20-25 quality starts would have been a good year. That second number will be hard to pull out of thin air.

kyle drabek is ready for his closeup

I don't get some of the outrage over how he was hurt. like baseball players shouldnt be practicing baseball.

First and last time I'll ever be able to say this: a kid I used to coach (Darren Shred) is playing in today's Jays vs. Junior National Team game.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_03_15_cannae_tormlb_1&mode=gameday&c_id=tor

looks like he might have done ok vs Dickey?!

I didn't see it, but the play-by-play says he grounded out to third.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/blue-jays-of-kevin-pillar-says-oblique-straining-sneeze-not-a-big-deal-1.2996194

randy wolf, minor league deal

delabar mad

kyle drabek is ready for his closeup

― mookieproof, Tuesday, March 10, 2015 7:54 PM (2 weeks ago)

claimed off waivers by the white sox

/tinstaapp

http://cdn.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DickeyMartin1.gif

good luck russell martin

doug mirabelli is available

i very much enjoyed that 3rd inning. glad i was able to catch it over my lunch break!

xp he's not that far from canada tbh http://www.cbgreatlakes.com/doug.mirabelli

they can pick him up in a helicopter and close all the lanes to the stadium like the red sox did during the great mirabelli airlift of 2007 or whenever that was

Should be Dalton Pompey's AB track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB5isaB32QA

tagada tagada voila les Daltons

Devon Travis hitting his first big league HR!

Aand the 20 year old is now the closer.

Gotta be more specific ;')
The other 20yo, Osuna pitched the highest leverage index in that game, which was a bit nail-bitey.
Norris better get those pitches down in the zone, he's hanging a lot of shit up there

i think he started tiring when his pitch count got into the 90s and those two balls left the park. from what i saw he was looking good up until then.

Travis is also looking pretty impressive so far.

where is the LOVE for kevin pillar

i keep wanting to pronounce it "Pilash" like that guy what used to be on the Leafs.

I'm glad re: Norris. Admittedly I just watched the condensed game and everything looked up.
This team is super exciting
I've always meant to post this; Pillar reminds of this guy every time i look at him:
https://cinema1544.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/kidnapped.jpg

HA HAHhaahaa

yeah saunders definitely gonna have to fight to get back the starters job, pillar two nice grabs and a jack today (plus a k with the bags loaded)

both those catches were crazy. one might have saved the game. an occasional game at DH for Saunders or Bautista probably won't be terrible, with the turf and all.

What's gotten into Pillar? Yesterday's catch was ridiculous.

i was at the game and everyone there lost their minds that catch was so ludicrous

A grade 8 student at my school (really nice girl, fantastic baseball player) was sitting with Joe Carter at the game the other night. (Not sure why--with her rep team, probably.) She brought back autographed baseballs for four of us, and also got to wear one of Carter's WS rings for a photo.

*JEALOUS*!!

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/one-week-with-kevin-pillar

Jose Reyes is hurt.

The shitheel Baltimore Orioles, a living, breathing, 25-man avatar for the pile of human garbage posing as their manager, Buck Showalter, got their shit-brains knocked out, metaphorically, by the Toronto Blue Jays tonight, and so like so many petty losers before them, decided to try and actually get physical with the Jays....

http://andrewstoeten.com/2015/04/21/jays-take-out-the-trash-13-6-game-fourteen-thoughts/

that entire game last night was insane. Encarnacion hit it into the 500s with his 2nd hr of the game – Pilar made what might have been his most unthinkable catch to date and then, amazingly, doubled up the runner – Dionner Navarro hit a triple – and then they stupidly throw behind Bautista, AGAIN, who proceeds to launch one out of the park, AGAIN, admiring his work as long as possible before calling whoever their 2b is a bitch on his way around the bases – Adman Jones decides that all this has somehow hurt his feelings

The Pillar double play was pretty outstanding.

http://mlb.mlb.com/images/2/1/6/119691216/042115_tor_bautista_homer_med_sszl49l0.gif

twice in one AB, bautista puts up the most badass face i have seen in baseball in years. if any clip ever required a thug life meme treatment...

Pillar always makes these catches with six run leads. That dude is intense, he never lets up for a second.

Batista's HR left the park in a HURRY.

unlike his departure from the batters box!

i try to watch every 2 or 3 three games – will def be tuning in for the next two.

Buehrle's pitching okay--almost like his whole career in miniature--but wow, is he leading a charmed life. 12, 12, and 13 runs; that must be some kind of a record to start a season.

(Run support, I meant to say.)

good lord edwin's homer

also yeah, fuck the orioles

anyone who thinks garcia threw at him intentionally is a fucking idiot

No harm really in playing hardball with management.

uhya... behind closed doors maybe.

well actually yes – the harm maybe be management decides to pay out the other guy well into his 30's, who will probably be DH'ing for most of his contract instead of you!

All the more reason to be aggressive now! He knows he's competing against an equally popular teammate and there's only going to be room for one of them on the team, isn't it better to go on the offensive and dictate the terms of the debate?

I think he also realizes that the only way to get our cheapskate ownership to deal with him fairly (if he's interested in staying with the team) is by making his demands public and getting the fans on his side.

I'd be interested in a study that compares Bautista to another set of similarly-skilled 35-year-olds. (Could be difficult to find a large enough pool of players--Bautista's career arc has been pretty unusual.) Seems to me that the biggest risk he's taking is that he heads into the break this year hitting .225 with 11 home runs or something. That wouldn't be out of the question for someone his age.

His age-based similarity scores (on B-R) list names like Jason Bay, JD Drew, David Justice, and Jay Buhner. All of them were good through Age 34, and all of them pretty much fell apart within the next couple of years. But none of them were as good as Bautista has been from Ages 30-34.

Darryl Strawberry appears as a comp, but it's misleading -- Straw was great in his 20's and then declined, JBats had his first great season at age 29, but if you compare their career stats at Age 34, they're similar.

So yeah, finding a good comp is tough.

Oh please:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14943065/goose-gossage-rips-jose-bautista-toronto-blue-jays-nerds-ruining-baseball

I suspect half the reason people my age remember Gossage so well is because of the flair and colour he brought to the game--he was a character. I know I've said that walk-off bedlam for a meaningless game in June can be a bit much, but the bat-flip game wasn't that.

worst thing about north american sports in general and baseball in particular: old white guys getting mad at non-whites for being insufficiently reticent.

someone started a new thread:

In the Unlikely Event Drew Hutchison Posts a Sub-5.00 ERA, How Will You React? (Toronto Blue Jays 2016)

Yes, someone...I thought I was on the new one, oops.

You're right--I didn't even mention the underlying racial implications. I don't know much about Gossage the person, so it's not an accusation, but you can't avoid acknowledging that. Anyway, Bautista handled it well, and I like the Harper quote in there.

haha hadn't noticed you were the thread starter on the other one