Whose Baseball Team Is This? (2009 Blue Jays Thread)

so true.

Recommendation: The Jays are saying he suffered a right in his right elbow but we'll know more on his status later today. The Jays did reveal that Litsch did complain about some elbow soreness in his last start as well. (Rotowire.com)

You have to watch out for those rights.

wau @ this teams' hitting!

Though rookie Travis Snider has been playing against right-handers and Bautista against lefties, Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston won’t call his LF situation a platoon. "Still early. There’s still an opportunity," he said. "Even though it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, the duck’s going to walk differently soon."

This kind of stuff gets brushed off when the team is playing great, but this is EXACTLY why Cito is such a cocksmoking douche and isn't fit to manage a Little League team. He's got the organization's best prospect on the roster (and he's hitting well!) but Cito wants to platoon him with a veteran, because Cito is comfortable playing vets whereas rookies need to be babied, even if the vet in question is a journeyman role player and the rookie is the future of the franchise. PLAY SNIDER. FIRE CITO.

^Dusty Lasordaism

somehow I don't think .317/.374/.540 for the team is going to last

maybe the future of the franchise it hitting so well right now because he doesn't have to deal with lefties for the time being?
not the biggest fan of Cito - mainly for bullpen-al reasons - but i'm not gonna flip out over a 21 year old sitting down every 3rd game.

Given enough playing time, Bautista just might be able to put up his SECOND season of league average OBP!

Oh come on Thermo, not you too! Snider's hitting well because he's one of the best prospects in baseball (according to just about everybody), and he's not playing everyday because we can't trust Cito to help develop young players any more than we can trust him to wipe his own ass without an instruction manual. Once upon a time, he didn't think Shawn Green should be playing everyday because who knows, maybe Orlando Merced would be the breakout superstar to lead the team into the next century. Real organizations don't tolerate this bullshit -- you didn't see the Rays hanging onto Ty Wigginton so he could platoon with Evan Longoria in his first season.

oh. me too.
so what happens if Snider goes to playing full time in LF, and slumps. does he keep him out there then, full time? or does he sit him down full time or back to the platoon? should he shift the kids role on the team daily based on his performance? i don't see anything wrong with being cautious to start the season - he is a full three years younger than Longoria afterall!

to be honest i don't have a big problem with the platoon or full time - i can see reasons for both. but flipping out on Cito when the team is hitting like they are seems silly.

Those "what if?" scenarios might be reasonable if we were dealing with an ordinary manager, but Cito Gaston has a long history of not knowing the first thing about breaking in young players. Longoria's age isn't the point -- he's just one example among plenty that if you've got a top prospect on the big club then you PLAY THEM and stick with them and that's how they become stars. The fact that the team is hitting well at the moment is also not the point -- this is about the big picture, and nobody thinks about that when the team can do no wrong because whatever they're doing now is presumably "working". But the Jays' management is supposed to be thinking about the big picture, which means this: Bautista shouldn't be playing in place of Snider. EVER.

The Jays have been hedging their bets with their young stars for the past 15 years and that's a big reason why the team has been mediocre for so long. They pulled exactly the same crap with Lind last year and they're doing it again with Snider.

So like what the fuck did Scutaro and Hill eat/drink/rub on themselves/inject this offseason.

heart.

Goat placenta

He should give some of it to Michael Barrett, who for a big strong stud just has one freaky injury after another. Landed on his shoulder last night, looks like weeks, or surgery.

the blue jays current injured rotation:

1. McGowan
2. Marcum
3. Litsch
4. Romero
5. Janssen

Cl. Ryan

lets play a game: match the injury to the player above!

A. right forearm strain
B. sore back
C. sore right shoulder
D. right shoulder surgery
E. right elbow surgery
F. sneeze

Whoa, "sneeze" isn't a joke!

i'm not nearly creative enough to come up with that on my own!

Rod Barajas led off the 11th with a base hit off Brian Bass (0-1). After Travis Snider popped his bunt attempt to the mound, Barajas took second on Marco Scutaro’s sacrifice and scored on Hill’s single to right-center.

OK, they won the game, but seriously, WTF? Why does Cito bunt TWICE in extra innings with the team's hottest hitters coming up? Is it because Snider is a rookie, so of course rookies should bunt?

Of course these questions are rhetorical because we know that Cito is a moron who will fuck this team ten times over before the season is up, unless he's blessed with Bob Brenly-style dumb luck.

calm down, calm down.
do you remember what happened with Snyders' earlier at bat? also with a runner on first? hint: it rhymes with "stubbleplay". he'd also pulled off a successful bunt earlier.

i was also going "wtf" with the double sac bunts tho - what's the point of getting a runner to second if you're giving up two outs? i'm more or less playing devils advocate because your Gaston hate-on is so ott!

i was at the game on friday night - you missed a good one man. when you gonna be back?

lol at this: it rhymes with "stubbleplay"

A strategy might fail once, but that doesn't mean it was the wrong move to make! Bunting is a poor strategic play in most situations.

I'll be visiting for at least a couple of weeks starting from Aug 7. This time I won't have a gf to tote around S. Ontario (at least, that's how things stand at the moment!) so that frees up a lot more time for baseball!

Maybe he was trying to ensure that Snider didn't hit into a DP so the player with the most hits in baseball could come up with a runner is scoring position.

The second bunt is same line of thinking.

i never liked Shawn Camp.

more like Shawn Can't - amirite?!

What the hell happened last night. Dude has a no hitter going into the 7th and both bullpens collapse like a barrell of collapsing monkeys.

ya - sending League (as much as i love him) out there for a second inning was obv a mistake.
just like Shawn Camp.

How many years have the Jays waited for League to turn into something even remotely resembling a decent major league pitcher? Time to give up on this guy, I think.

I mean, whatever great upside he used to have is obviously long gone, and the Jays have been assembling great bullpens out of scrap parts for a few years now (Brad Arnsberg rulz), so my tolerance for League has run pretty thin.

wtf?

Brandon League, mouthbreather

aw :(

Jamie Campbell: "Brett Cecil has a great spiked curveball"
Rance Mullinicks: "I've never heard of a spiked curveball"
JC: "A.J. Burnett threw one" (and came up about a thousand times last season when his fingernail broke)
RM: "All I know is that A.J. Burnett has the best one"
me: ***mutes TV, puts on radio***

Anyone have mlb.tv? The streaming radio has a longer delay than tv!

At times like this, there's only one thing to say.

John Cerutti RIP.

all i got going is radio. /nümorbs

so going to tuesday's game, btw!

lol thinking abt going to see a couple of games when im in town @ the end of the month. my friend told hed only take me if i dont jinx it. should be v. interesting to see how the next few weeks go

work is so slow right now. i want tonights game to start RIGHT NOW!

halliday will have a <100 pitch CG tonite for sure.

wow - i was a run off predicting the score too! over 43,000 asses in the stands!

this was a rape

Halladay (7-1) walked none and struck out five to win his fourth straight start and improve to 16-5 in 33 career games against New York. He has an ERA of 2.77 against the Yankees, his best against any AL opponent.

This is amazing, btw.

what is amazing is no FB outs until the 9th inning and eve then Wells had to come IN to get it.

^wow - did not notice that!

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/blogs/2009/05/13/toth_halladay_triano/

Oh MAN I really dislike Roy Halladay now.

wkiw those dudes dressed as umpires behind home plate

^^should be on dumbass media.

should be on dumbass media Hall of Fame

Blue Jays fire GM Ricciardi 8-year tenure

27 minutes ago

TORONTO (AP)—The Toronto Blue Jays fired general manager J.P. Ricciardi on Saturday, ending an eight-year tenure marked by an inability to get past the Yankees and Red Sox and into the playoffs.

“This was a tough decision and a difficult one for me personally as I have enjoyed J.P.’s friendship and his perspective on the game,” said Paul Beeston, Toronto’s acting president and CEO.

“J.P. has put an incredible amount of effort into improving the team and he has brought along a number of great young players,” Beeston said. “However, I feel that it is time for a change and accordingly we have decided to move on.”

Ricciardi, who was also senior vice president of baseball operations, joined the Jays in 2001 and had one year left on his contract. The team posted four winning seasons and four losing ones under Ricciardi, never making the playoffs in an AL East dominated by New York and Boston.

Ricciardi was criticized for poor free agent signings and off-field missteps that overshadowed some productive drafts and other good moves.

The Blue Jays (75-85) are finishing out their regular season in Baltimore.

Ricciardi’s firing comes on the heels of news of locker-room unrest with manager Cito Gaston.

VictorRojas29 On Cito-the guy got credit for turn-around last year but he's horrible now? The guys honest & players sometimes have to look in mirror #mlb

OK bub

wwooooo - Ricciardi era is coming to a close!

NA NA NA NAH - NA NA NAAA NAAH - HEY HEY HEY ETC!

Really hope the Padres don't go get that guy.

I know next to nothing about Anthopoulos ... although I do like the idea of starting fresh with a young GM.

discus

i guess vernon wells' leading of a clubhouse revolt is one way to distract attention from the fact that the players whose OPS is higher than his include alexei ramirez, brandon inge, jeff francoeur, kurt suzuki, michael bourn, scott podsednik, and 127 others...

just 127? i'm sure there's some pitchers in the nl...

all i know about AA is what i've gleaned from his appearances on a few radio broadcasts. which isn't much. he at least seems like he's not full of shit 100% of the time. they were grumbling on the j's message board that he might be some ricciardi sycophant and we might not see a huge difference - but who knows.

it is now official - come back player of the year: Aaron Hill.

Bill K. (Long Beach, CA)

So if the Jays had done this in 2006, do you think you'd still be there?

Klaw (1:25 PM)

I'll put it this way: I left in 2006 because I could not work for Ricciardi any longer. What would have happened after that is anyone's guess.

i always forget law used to be a J.

so to speak.

o_o

Eddie (Milwaukee)

What was Steve Phillips thinking? Almost trading a 19 year old David Wright for Jose Cruz Jr.? Ridiculous.

Klaw
(1:42 PM)

I've been asked about that trade rumor for three years but never answered while Ricciardi was still GM. The offer was made, though; I was there when the call came in. It was the first time I'd heard of Wright, since I wasn't with Toronto in 2001 nor had I followed the draft when Wright was in it. JP's reaction was, "I'm not trading a major league player for some guy in the Sally League." And that was pretty much that. We had a chance to trade Cruz after that for Rafael Soriano, but JP refused to do it unless Seattle included Clint Nageotte, who, at the time, was a pretty hot prospect. It's weird; I can't remember some things that happened last week but I remember those conversations (over seven years ago now) like they just took place.

:|

AA speaks: http://www.fan590.com/media.jsp?content=20091107_151806_11860

no huge revelations there and he said alot of thing that you'd likely hear from most GMs. his "plan" sounds fine and i guess we'll have to wait quite a few years to get an idea if he pulled it off or not. he at least seems heaps less douchy than JP.

and apparently working on swapping Overbay for Chris Snyder?!

ElAngelo (New York, NY): What team has the worst "best" prospect?

Kevin Goldstein: I think it's going to be Toronto.

WE'RE #1! WE'RE #1! WE'RE #1!

You'll also be getting Jason Giambi if Ben Reiter at SI is right...

sweet jesus. (i assume they're referring to Snyder above?)

Does Snider still count as a prospect? (i.e. he already has big league playing time in parts of two seasons)

if the rumours are anything to go by - the next few weeks are going to be pretty nuts for the J's:

• Halladay going to either the Dodgers, BoSox, Yanks or Angels (hello bidding war between Boston and NY!)
• moving Overbay... somewhere
• signing a new new catcher
• aquiring a new SS (not named John MacDonald) since it looks like Scutaro is gone
• maybe moving one of our late inning bullpen arms

i know i shouldn't put too much weight behind rumours and speculation, but it looks like at least 3 of those things will be happening for sure. will be a much different team in '10 - with 1B, SS, C, closer and our #1 starter all up in the air.

You're after Torrealba, I read. I think it'd be a decent move for everyone.

Torrealba is a career back-up catcher, why on earth anyone would be "after" him esp now as he approaches his mid-30s is kinda O_o.

you're looking at a team that gave Rod Barajas 449 plate appearances last year.

trading halladay to the yanks or bosox...is it a pre-emptive strike, taking advantage of what may be inevitable? or is it resigning oneself to being totally non-competitive for the next 5-7 years? both?

a little of both i suppose. it sounds as if he's gone no matter what after '10 - so why not get what you can since the Js aren't expecting to be competitive anytime soon. and lets face it - the best way to raise the price is with a dice-k-esque yanks/bosox bidding war.

well then. new SS is Alex Gonzalez?!
oh well for 2.75m i can't get too bent out of shape.

Signing a mediocre shortstop named Alex Gonzalez? I thought this GM had new ideas?

i read that he was offered 3 mil from Boston, but took the J's offer because the BoSox were waiting to hear from other guys before they finalized anything. which pretty much means they will be taking Scutaro now - which means the J's will be getting a pick from the the Sox.
rather convoluted but interesting nonetheless!

not that i love these deals or anything. but i don't hate em either.

jays best hope is still to find a shaman kid possessed by the ghost of ty cobb