Another Canadian Icon Traded - The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

I am a huge fan of edwing, donaldson and joey bats so that makes them my favorite non sox al east team

No Time/Thermo: unless we sit way out in 211 ($37), everything not in the bleachers and not in the 500s runs $55 a ticket. Too much. So I'll go ahead and order three 500-level seats, $18 a ticket, for Sunday, May 24. Good?

sounds great – thanks!

great!

We're Section 519L, Row 10, Seats 104 - 106. Let's try to meet somewhere beforehand.

I'll write you guys off-board (say on fb) when I get into town.

sweet!

https://instagram.com/p/2b40QVl1qI

luke scott signed to a minor-league deal

jesus, that pitch my Hoffman. wow.

hoffman got hit around a little bit in his debut wednesday, but he did hit 99 so i guess his arm's okay

here comes mune!

A Maddux for Hutchinson!

how did the get together go?

No Time caused a big commotion in our section when he openly rooted for Kyle Seager. He was later attacked by a mob outside the stadium.

btw - attendance was 37,929!

The get together was great -- the Jays won, Seager homered and scored twice, and everybody except for the 17 929 fans who didn't get trucker hats went home happy.

look out, couches of Toronto!

Just noticed their Pythagorean is running four games ahead of their record--they've outscored the opposition 252-225. Theoretically, that should point to good things ahead. With this team, who knows.

I guess those "fire sale" thinkpieces haben't taken that into account.

their Pythag, and the Astros'....

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/houston-astros-toronto-blue-jays-season-projections-prediction-052615

Fifty games in, and Donaldson's on track for one of the greatest years at third base ever. I don't know where to find an actual list, but a few post-war WAR peaks:

Schmidt -- 9.7 (1974)
Brett -- 9.4 (1980)
Boggs -- 9.1 (1985)
A-Rod -- 9.4 (2005, 2007)
Beltre -- 9.5 (2004)
Rolen -- 9.1 (2004)
Santo -- 9.8 (1967)
Petrocelli (!) -- 10.0 (1967)

Matthews and Robinson never exceeded 9.0 in any one season. Right now, Donaldson projects to 9.7--but no, I don't expect him to continue playing this well.

Petrocelli should be 1969.

Shutout for Buehrle. That's two for the decade.

That was a unique bottom of ninth. I've never seen someone reach on an infield single when a fielder tripped over the opposing team's runner. Epic meltdown for the Astros too, I never thought I'd be this excited about a sweep over the Astros.

best run differential in the AL

Great--I switched off the car radio in disgust when they gave up the lead.

The MLB headline calls it a "disputed call." I've watched it three times--I understand the Astros' frustration, but they don't really have a case, do they? Reyes goes back to the base and just stands his ground (even crouches a bit). What exactly did they want him to do?

i'm on pain meds for the back and passed out mid 8th.

Ouch, hope your back is feeling better.

Another walk off win, we're back to .500!

8 in a row!!

I'll be seeing Jays v Mets next Monday (Buehrle-Harvey scheduled)

I hate to be pessimistic, but this team seems to go on a major run every year in mid-June.

This kind of blew my mind (via Schoenfield)

Here's a weird stat: The Jays have 31 wins and just six saves. They have just five one-run wins all season and four of those were walk-off wins without a save. The only save in a one-run victory was on April 23, a 7-6 win over the Orioles. But the Orioles actually scored four runs in the ninth inning in that game and Miguel Castro got the save even though he gave up a run. Three of the other five saves came in three-run differentials. So while the Blue Jays haven't lost a game all year when they led heading into the ninth inning, the ninth-inning guys haven't been tested. Brett Cecil is presumably still the closer but hasn't had a save opportunity since May -- 18 wins ago.

(Rany Jazayerli reports that last team went more wins without a save was the 1987 Red Sox, who had 20 in a row without a save. No other team had more than 12.)

I'm not suggesting this is a problem; after all, it means the Jays aren't playing close games, which is a good thing. But at some point the bullpen will face tougher assignments.

No kidding, every team with a waffling, untested bullpen got bounced from the playoffs in a hurry last year.

Here comes Phil Coke!

omg - i don't think this will help matters!

The eight-game winning streak without a save (or even a save opportunity?) is one of those bizarre occurrences that you'd probably have to go through game logs to check. I bet it hasn't happened since the '70s. (The 34 games without a save is the longest gap for the team since '79.)

i may have just bet a friend of mine $100 that the Jays will finish above .500
if they tank now, it's entirely on me.

I've been watching a movie, just turned this on...that's pretty amazing.

Down 8-2 when I went to make diner. Check Facebook after eating to find out they won 13-10. Amazing.

@DanHirsch: The #BlueJays (5.5 R/G) have scored 0.82 more runs per game than the 2nd best team. This is the biggest gap b/w 1st & 2nd best since 1953

Exactly the kind of game you're used to them losing--winning streak, early 4-run lead, give that up, extra innings. They came back, though.

almost feel bad for the red sox here

ok theyve scored 2 runs making in 10-2 jays and they have two on base and 1 out now so no longer feeling any sympathy

10-5. to quote the radio guys, "no 10-run lead is safe when the Blue Jays are involved".

jesus. 13 runs now.

yeah two almost identical doubles by goins and reyes with 2 out!

I'm waiting for the bottom to fall out, so when I heard on the car radio it was 10-5, I chalked up a loss and a five-game losing streak, and consigned them to last place within a week.

they....they just score so many runs

I can't believe the red sox held them to only 5 on saturday.

Well, it took an 11th inning bloop single to finally bring the streak to a halt!

One $%&# pitch away--that one hurt.

ya. it was a fun ride tho.

and that second ump that took over home was atrocious.