Another Canadian Icon Traded - The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

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.

Angels and O's both also lost!

It's all too good to be true right now. I'll be interested to see what happens when they lose two or three in a row--I'm confident they'll be fine, but that will be the next hurdle.

I've watched so little Blue Jays baseball the past 15 years (at least), I'd forgotten how time-consuming it can be to actually care about a sports team.

first place

thanks obama

thanks Osuna!

This is fun.

Fastest turnaround (14 games to go from -8.0 to +0.5) since the '82 Dodgers (13 games to go from -10.0 to +0.5). I checked back--wasn't paying much attention at the time, so I don't remember it--and eight of those games were head-to-head against the team ahead of them, the Braves. The Braves did win the division in the end...

I bought a few rookie cards online last week, including Sonny Gray. So I'm rooting for a 1-0 win today.

ordering them online – what fun is that?!

Wilner: "Sonny Gray scratched with back spasms...or Blue Jay-itis, whatever you want to call it."

Don't believe that for a second, but I did laugh.

Night terrors more like it!

Another esoteric first-since: first team since the '54 Indians to have two 11-game winning streaks in the same season.

the Mets could be joining them very soon

...no, forget that for now. Mets have won 11 of 13, but are only on a run of 4.

It boggles the mind to see the pitching turn the corner like this -- three ER or less allowed by Jays starters in 17 straight games. Then again, their BABIP allowed is unsustainable so there's a lot of luck involved, but there's always luck involved in winning 11 straight.

Just heard Ben Revere interviewed for the first time--I thought I was listening to Matt Saracen from Friday Night Lights. I know he's not hitting a whole lot yet, but I like him. He's very jolly.

Excruciating--runners on second and third, 12-pitch strikeout of Tulowitzki to end the game.

That was exhausting.

I really wanted this to end with a blowout, not a game like this.

u wouldn't be exhausted if they weren't important

or at least that's what i tell myself when the pirates lose to the cardinals again

Carlos Beltran's HOF candidacy had stalled; Jays helping to get him back on track.

hutchison optioned!

I was calling for his head last week, but a little surprised after his last two starts. Anyway, I'm glad they're disciplined enough to step back a bit and look at it bigger-picture.

great at home – abomination on the road; and i guess with the three random days off this allowed them to keep the starters on a regular schedule and keep Hutch off the road.

wonder who the last starter 10 games over .500 to be sent down was. (not that he shouldn't have been, of course.) interesting that his fip is both 1.10 lower than his era and also exactly league-average

psyched for hague -- he's like colabello 2.0

the way i understood it, his FIP was so much lower because his low LOB%. FIP would assume he was unlucky in how many of his base runners scored – but some people are saying he has a problem pitching from the stretch (which would make sense) and his FIP cannot be relied upon because of that.

cool, thanks

(btw that was sincere, didn't mean to sound like 'cool story bro')

lol at you feeling bad 20 mins later! it's all good.

After two HR last night, Donaldson has almost closed the gap with Trout on WAR (7.1 to 6.7; they're tied on Fangraphs). So tough to keep up, though--Trout could pull away in a week. Greinke, meanwhile, has leapfrogged both Trout and Harper.

does WAR take into account a pitchers hitting?

Yes--Greinke is 7.5 on the overall leader-board, but only 7.0 on the pitcher's leader-board (which would put him behind Harper's 7.1).

When I turned on the car radio, sure enough they were heatedly debating Trout-Donaldson on the Fan.

as long as their numbers are similar, Donaldson's only real chance is for the Angels to not make the playoffs.

i dunno -- Trout Fatigue