That's what a guy at work said--put Donaldson leadoff. I don't think I'd want that...I guess I've got the residue of traditional ideas about that spot: good OBP, speed (not necessarily stolen bases), some extra-base pop. The first two describe Donaldson, but obviously he exceeds "some" by quite a bit. I like him second or third.
― clemenza, Monday, 11 January 2016 23:54 (eight years ago) link
i guess you would go with your best OBP guy at leadoff then. which would be Bautista. which might cause a minor uprising within the casual fan masses. i could live with Travis or Pompey at leadoff (assuming Pomp bounces back).
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 06:10 (eight years ago) link
happy 60th to rance mulliniks
― mookieproof, Friday, 15 January 2016 22:49 (eight years ago) link
@BlueJaysWe are pleased to announce that work will begin the week of Feb 8 to install a regulation dirt infield in time for the 2016 regular season
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 3 February 2016 21:08 (eight years ago) link
i'm a little surprised. this was supposed to take years to get going.
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 4 February 2016 00:24 (eight years ago) link
gotta save tulo
― mookieproof, Thursday, 4 February 2016 00:28 (eight years ago) link
can't they just strap turf to the underside of his cleats?!
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 4 February 2016 00:30 (eight years ago) link
oh shit. i guess i misunderstood – it's literally just the dirt area and not any of part of the field/grass etc
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 4 February 2016 00:41 (eight years ago) link
Wait, so what they have now is some kind of synthetic dirt?
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 4 February 2016 11:12 (eight years ago) link
bautista wants to play another five years, has given the jays the $ figure that will require
― mookieproof, Monday, 22 February 2016 21:22 (eight years ago) link
plus, hometown discount: "Doesn’t exist. Not in my world..."
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 22 February 2016 21:37 (eight years ago) link
tbf he's been grossly underpaid on his current contract, but i don't think that's going to help too much when he's a 36-year-old free agent
― mookieproof, Monday, 22 February 2016 21:43 (eight years ago) link
Time for a new thread, Thermo. "I'm Still Angry at Ben Revere"...something more positive--it was a great year.
― clemenza, Monday, 22 February 2016 21:57 (eight years ago) link
Wha? Whym I in charge of thread makin here?!
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 February 2016 04:48 (eight years ago) link
It has to do with Fermat's Theorem, or Euler's Conjecture, or symmetry, or something mathematical--can't remember exactly.
I don't remember where Bautista's current contract placed him on the spectrum when it was signed--$64 million/5 years in 2012--but if he's been grossly underpaid the past couple of years, isn't that short-sightedness on his part (and quite common in baseball)? You sign for what you think you're worth, the market changes, and eventually you're a bargain. Did he really give them a "hometown discount" in 2011?
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 February 2016 12:48 (eight years ago) link
he gave them them the "last season may have been a fluke" discount.
apparently the Jays almost dealt Saunders for Jay Bruce?!
what amazes me the most is that there's a player with a no trade clause, who *doesn't* have the Jays on it!
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 February 2016 16:05 (eight years ago) link
haha i saw somewhere that the jays *were* on his no-trade list last year but he took them off sometime recently
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 23 February 2016 16:08 (eight years ago) link
i think the Jays should just automatically trade for anyone who who omits them from their list. as a kind of "thank you".
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 23 February 2016 16:23 (eight years ago) link
he gave them them the "last season may have been a fluke" discount
Yes--with a bit of "I've already turned 30" discount thrown in for good measure.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 23 February 2016 16:35 (eight years ago) link
there's a lot of money in baseball these days, but i don't think anyone is going to offer jbats $150m for his age 36-40 seasons
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 23 February 2016 18:21 (eight years ago) link
I think it's a huge bluff by Bautista -- from his perspective if the Jays are dumb enough to give him the money then great, and at the very least they'll be scared enough to go all in this season because they (Jays' ownership) know JBats will walk.
What he hasn't considered is option c), that the new/old Jays regime doesn't give a crap about winning or losing or his contract demands.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Saturday, 27 February 2016 11:18 (eight years ago) link
I'm not sure what he was thinking. He must realize the team wasn't likely to keep both him and EE (not at market value); so I do t get why'd he be so rigid right out of the gates.
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Saturday, 27 February 2016 16:56 (eight years ago) link
No harm really in playing hardball with management.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Saturday, 27 February 2016 19:31 (eight years ago) link
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!
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Saturday, 27 February 2016 21:39 (eight years ago) link
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.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Sunday, 28 February 2016 12:56 (eight years ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Sunday, 28 February 2016 14:56 (eight years ago) link
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.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 1 March 2016 10:06 (eight years ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Thursday, 10 March 2016 21:51 (eight years ago) link
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)
― uncle tenderlegdrop (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 10 March 2016 22:09 (eight years ago) link
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.
― clemenza, Thursday, 10 March 2016 22:16 (eight years ago) link
haha hadn't noticed you were the thread starter on the other one
― uncle tenderlegdrop (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 10 March 2016 22:37 (eight years ago) link