Another Canadian Icon Traded - The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

Patheticer and patheticer.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-sanchez-gibbons-suspended-by-mlb/

(I did wonder about Gibbons showing up on the field in the middle of the brawl--suspected that was a problem.)

Gibbons makes sense. I guess Sanchez does, in a technical sense. But there are more or less doubling down on the bullshit joke officiating.

I'm not big on conspiracy, but the radio guy pointed out something a little unseemly today: the umpire responsible for all this is the brother of Randy Wolf, who has been stuck in Buffalo all year with a 7-1/2.48 record. Would seem to be a conflict of interest.

I thought that was weird. But not sure how that would make him biased against the Jays tbh

It doesn't seem out of the question, as the Jays shuttle guys back and forth from Buffalo, and then acquire another reliever at the deadline, that he'd be angry that his brother--who's pitching really well this year--has not gotten a call-up. (Not that I disagree with the club; Randy Wolf will turn 39 in a couple of weeks.)

I looked him up online, and the league doesn't allow him to call balls and strikes when his brother's pitching (but didn't say he can't work the bases). I'd broaden that to anything involving any game with his brother's organization.

Estrada's been so key this year. The last few years, whenever I'd enviously look at the rotations of playoff teams, they seemed to always have a third or fourth starter who was flying completely under the radar. Estrada is that guy.

ya – never would have expected the performance we've gotten out of him.

stroman threw off a mound today (!), tentatively scheduled to begin a rehab assignment aug. 21

might make it into the pen for late Sept.

Man, I hope he makes it back. Drew Hutchinson is conspicuously on some other page right now. How long can you carry a starter with an almost-6.00 ERA?

sounds like there's no real chance of him starting.

while of course you trade away prospects to bolster a contender, maybe not quite to this extent of depletion

Did the Jays cross that line this year? Eleven pitchers in a week. Anyway, I know this is the Tigers thread.

hard to say! norris seems like maybe a lot to give up for a rental of price, but it's hard to argue with the tulo acquisition. (what a nightmare for hoffman, like eddie butler and jon gray before him, learning he now has to pitch in places like albuquerque and denver.) and tbh a lot of norris' buzz has been about 'wacky lefty bro' rather than experience.

all prospect rankings are suspect, but the tigers currently have no one in mlb.com's top 100. the jays still have pompey, who has had a nice second half, and vlad jr. at least, and they have young pitching in sanchez and stroman. for every prospect who turns into syndergaard (so far) there are half a dozen who wind up as kyle drabek. russell martin's contract will eventually probably be a drag, but they don't have aging failing stars like miggy and v-mart for decades to come. plus they're secretly a big-market team and there's a lot to be said for generating some excitement after missing the playoffs for 20 years. you too could be the royals!

Man, I hope he makes it back. Drew Hutchinson is conspicuously on some other page right now. How long can you carry a starter with an almost-6.00 ERA?
--clemenza

as long as your run differential is above 100

side note: the loonie is collapsing

LaTroy Hawkins has now recorded a save against all 30 teams, cool stat

might make it into the pen for late Sept.

But too late to be eligible for the playoffs? (yeah, maybe let's make the playoffs first and then worry about it)

apparently it's cool because he is on the dl.

this series went very well.

Toronto's first ever four game sweep of the Twins?

Things are going so well now, I know nobody's going to change anything. But: would it just be too weird/complicated/unworkable to give the 5th start in the cycle to Hutchinson at home and Sanchez on the road? Can't Lowe or Hawkins be the set-up guy on the road? That'd be five or six starts left for each of them.

Hutchinson's road ERA is 9.00.

If they were to switch places, I would think it would be permanent so it doesn't mess with their respective regimens by bouncing them back and forth.
To me, it's more likely that Hutchison just kinda sucks than any significant psychological issue with pitching on the road or whatever

Gregg Zaun's keys to victory this weekend: "Pitch well, swing the bats like you're capable, catch the ball."

Joe Schultz himself couldn't have said it any better.

I don't have a lot of faith in Bautista right now; he's probably still hurting, and when you mix in normal decline, he's pretty iffy in the three spot.

That was me, eight days ago. Bautista since: .294/.333/.706, 4 HR, 9 RBI.

Any other Blue Jays you don't have much faith in you'd care to list?!

Justin Smoak!

Ha!

Bautista faking out Ellsbury was beautiful.

I'm totally fine with the blue jays just destroying everybody in the division, with the red sox being basically eliminated if not mathematically so

also, yea, smoak, jesus christ

first sweep in the bronx since '03

Whoa! Game-and-a-half back. First time we've swept in Yankee Stadium since 2003, first time the Yankees were shut out back-to-back since '99 (against us, I think, but only partially heard that). When the Jays didn't score with the bases loaded and none out in the 7th, I was pretty sure that was the entire edifice crumbling down.

The wins aside, New York's bullpen is awesome.

Winning is fun!

Pat and Buck said that our bullpen's peripherals (K/9 IP, etc) were just as good as the Yankees', and our relievers are overlooked because they get fewer save opportunities. I haven't tried to verify any of this yet.

Our bullpen was great. It just seemed like the Yankees sent one monster after another out there: Betances/Wilson/Miller/Shreve are all striking out between 9.4-14.3 a game (and their H/9 range from 3.8-6.2), and watching them at work jibed with that.

never even heard of this Shreve guy.

plz vanquish the Stanks

ok np.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aB2yqeD0Nus

there is no baseball today and i don't know what to do with myself.

Watch the CWS/LAA game and cheer for Chris Sale to put the Angels back another game (the more frontrunners losing games, the better the Jays odds)

Also has the added benefit of watching Chris Sale vs Mike Trout!

not a bad idea! Sale has not been the pitcher i was expecting this year tho.

as in you were expecting him to suck? he's been pretty incredible. ignore the ERA. best FIP of his life, 11.7 k/9, 1.76 bb/9... and he makes dudes look dumb when you watch him, for real

He's been great for most of the year. He's had three disastrous starts: 22 runs in 13.1 innings. Take away those and his ERA's 2.35.

i expected his ERA to be much better, but hadn't had a good look at his FIP – so i guess it's not as bad as i thought. had him pegged for the Cy this year!

and you can take away two starts for just about any pitcher and have them look much better. never really was a big fan of the "ignore these blow-outs and this guy is much better" argument with pitching.

To me it's worth noting. It's just another way of zeroing in on how many times you gave your team a realistic chance to win. In 21 starts, Sale's had 15 quality starts; even more important, he's had 14 high-quality starts (not an official stat, I don't think--I count it as 7+ innings, 2- runs). Scherzer's had 16/23, Greinke 18/22. Sale falls somewhere between those two--the blowouts mask that.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-marcus-stroman-cleared-to-throw-off-mound/

Says if he does make it back, he'll be in the bullpen. So I guess we're stuck with Hutchinson--who obviously has talent enough to turn it around. I do agree with francis above that the home/road thing is likely arbitrary--I checked last year, and there was no such split (he was actually better on the road in '14).

What they're saying now is that he's having difficulty pitching from the stretch. That's why his FIP keeps telling us he's better than he is - because as soon as someone is on base, he falls apart.

Finally figured out who Josh Donaldson reminds me of: Mike Love, at least with his cap on. Could be worse, possibly.

Yankees-Indians headed into the 15-inning. Hope we're down to a half-game when I wake up.

So let it be written; so let it be done.