In the Unlikely Event Drew Hutchison Posts a Sub-5.00 ERA, How Will You React? (Toronto Blue Jays 2016)

Mystery solved. I should have paid attention to where the games were (from a Toronto Sun piece last year):

And there were extenuating circumstances as to why Stottlemyre was given the ball in the opener...his 35th career start.

There had been a work stoppage that spring, so when the season began the Jays opened with a one-game series in Arlington against the Texas Rangers and the next afternoon played the home opener at the SkyDome.

Jays management gave Dave Stieb the option, start the opener Monday night in Texas against Nolan Ryan in Arlington or pitch the home opener Tuesday afternoon against Charlie Hough?

Stieb picked the home date and beat the Rangers 2-1, a day after Stottlmyre lost 4-2 to Ryan.

What a choice. "Let me give it some--Jesus, I'll go with Hough."

I'm sure a lot of pitchers might choose Ryan actually

At home, perhaps--not sure about Ryan in Texas vs. Hough at home.

Donaldson homered, Pillar dove headfirst into the wall, it's starting to feel a lot like 2015.

New for 2016, tho: Saunders also had himself a day.

Gibbons still doing his excellent folksy-guy-from-another-era routine. (Excellent when you're winning; maddening when you're not.)

If we lose the division title by a game, it's Chase Utley's fault.

I've seen arguments for both sides of yesterday's call, but to me it was clearly BS -- Bautista slid directly into the bag and didn't change the path of his slide with the intent to initiate contact with the fielder (or whatever the exact wording of the rule is). If they call that, then practically any slide into a base can be called as interference if the fielder is in contact with the bag.

Yeah. My first reaction, after hearing the play described but before I actually saw it, was "They changed the rule, and you can't have it both ways." But now that I've seen it, there was nothing at all reckless about Bautista's slide. What exactly is he supposed to do--make a right turn and help the fielder out?

i don't think there was anything wrong with the slide itself -- it was the fact that he needlessly reached out and grabbed the dude's ankle

also 'maybe we'll come out and wear dresses tomorrow' is nagl

If that small grab is illegal though, I don't see how anyone can legally break up a double play. On paper, the rules still allow a hard and potentially dangerous takeout slide directly to the bag, even if the fielder is there. Bautista's slide wasn't hard or dangerous, was directly into the bag, but the fielder came slightly off the bag to make the throw. I thought the rule change was about preventing injuries, not judging whether contact is incidental or not if the fielder steps half a foot off the base.

Wendy Thurm @hangingsliders
It must be confusing for the Respect The Game crowd to defend Jose Bautista.

If that small grab is illegal though, I don't see how anyone can legally break up a double play.

i'm cool with that. there is no other situation in baseball where it's okay to interfere with a fielder -- and it's particularly striking since the runner in question is already out. edwin sliding into first and grabbing the first baseman would break up the double play too; no one advocates that. it's just an 'it's always been this way' thing, and it should stop

there is no other situation in baseball where it's okay to interfere with a fielder

http://deadspin.com/yankees-protest-game-over-confusing-baserunning-call-1769350452

Normally not big on the Twitter, but I like that one above. If you want to read a great rebuke to the Respect the Game crowd, read the Posnanski interview with Dale Murphy I posted a few days ago (Dale Murphy thread).

Sliding into a base isn't interfering with the fielder. The runner has rights to the base, not the fielder, he has to slide there and his momentum will carry him into or through the base -- and through the fielder if he is standing there trying to make a throw. That is all perfectly legal, and more dangerous than Bautista's play. The rule is supposed to cover runners who intentionally slide away from the base and into the fielder, that's not what happened here.

"Already out" isn't relevant here, the runner can't stop dead in his tracks and disappear from the field the moment the out is recorded, he has to slide.

Donaldson just scored a 3 run homer :)

That end to the game last night was beyond deflating. Though perhaps in line with current stupid rules? bautista intentional touches - ever so slightly - the fielder with his hand, it wasn't a part of the slide etc. Infuriating anyway.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/jose-bautista-slide-toronto-blue-jays-replay-tampa-bay-rays-logan-forsythe-ken-rosenthal-040616

Figured they'd come back and have a great day. Very close. They lost 5-3, and Donaldson left the game with an apparent injury.

he is day-to-day, was fearing worse

Month-to-month?

Do the other 29 teams have to go through the full customs rigamarole every time they travel to TOR for a road series, or is there an expedited customs process, or do the bigger pro sports leagues manage to skip that stuff altogether?

almost 100% they have to go through customs as any commercial passenger does

teams have expedited processes for domestic flights though, like just off the coach onto the plane

Why does our bullpen hate our team so much?

I really like that R.A. Dickey uses words like "confluence" in his post-game interviews. I just wish he were a better pitcher.

R.A.D indeed one of the most loveable personalities in baseball.

Looking down his last 3 years over Fangraphs, 1.7, 2.0, 2.0, I'm actually pleasantly surprised.

At the salary he's paid, that's a pretty good deal. Maybe not so much worth the prospects the Jays gave up for him tho...

I'll put it this way: we traded for the other league's Cy Young winner, and we're into our fourth year of an okay third starter. I think we were looking for something that fell maybe halfway between.

agreed and agreed.

seeing the Jays at Fenway, next saturday.

venditte!

Job opening:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/job-posting-toronto-blue-jays-baseball-operations-data-architect/

I don't see "owns a lot of old Street & Smith and Zander Hollander annuals" anywhere, so I'm going to pass.

(Don't think I realized till now that Zander Hollander was an actual person, that he lived to be 91, and that he died only two years ago.)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CgWCqOPWIAIfyfT.jpg

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/joe-biagini-playfully-irreverent-rule-5-blue-jay

It seems like every game this season has ended 4-3 or 5-3. Our pitching has been better than I expected. It's not like I expected a repeat of last year's offense, but the stars and scrubs lineup is getting a bit worrying. Offense is way down in the AL so far this year, so maybe there's something bigger going on.

http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/22/blue-jays-agree-to-milb-deal-with-of-michael-bourn/

really could not parse "with of michael bourn" for a few seconds there

http://www.tsn.ca/jays-colabello-suspended-80-games-after-positive-drug-test-1.476705

jesus montero time imo

fucking hell.

muni's walk-up music with the triple-a iowa cubs: drake, '6 man'

;_;

Grim scene, baby, grim scene.

today was not a fun day.

I know Dickey turned it around last year, and I know he's probably an okay investment in terms of WAR-per-four-syllable-word-uttered/IP or some such formula. But if the Jays gave him his outright release tomorrow and ate his contract, I wouldn't care.

Brett Cecil has managed to lose five of the Jays' first 25 games.

Not a bad win today. Encarnacion hit a picture perfect double play ball to the shortstop position in the 9th that should have ended the inning. Except that the Rays were shifting on him, the ball was fielded by the second baseman, and there was nobody to cover 2B to turn the DP. That scored the go-ahead run. This seems like it should happen not uncommonly (i.e. the shift backfires and the game is lost in the 9th because of it) but I can't recall seeing it before.

This was also the third series win for the Jays in the last 27 series in TB. They always seem to have our number but I didn't realize it was *that* bad.

Call-in shows are the best when things aren't going well. Missed it, but some guy called into Wilner today and suggested the Jays try to trade Tulowitzki + a pitching prospect to the Nationals for Harper. I did hear this: guy points out that Lawrie hit a homer today, and that he was great against the Jays last weekend (Wilner: "He was?"), and wonders if the Jays maybe gave up too much to get Donaldson. Wilner (paraphrasing): "Absolutely. I don't know what the Jays were thinking when they brought a guy like Donaldson over. Moving on..."

In defense of the first caller, I would trade Tulo + a pitching prospect for Harper in a heartbeat.

Which, three years from now, on a day when Tulowitzki hits a home run, would inevitably lead to the second guy calling back and asking, "Don't you think we maybe gave up too much to get Harper?"

I'm sure EE will be thrilled to see Bautista get a somewhat comparable deal.

@sportslogosnet
Full line from Marcus Stroman on why #BlueJays always wear blue in playoffs: "Tulo. Tulo likes the blue jerseys. He's the man, so he picks"

Having a hard time believing that Bautista turned down more money to return. That's what I heard on the radio, and the headline of this article corroborates that:

http://www.tsn.ca/bautista-turned-down-more-money-to-sign-with-blue-jays-1.655192

When you actually read the article, though, nowhere does it say that he was offered more money elsewhere.

I just played the press conference clips, and he doesn't seems to say it there, either. All he says is that were other offers.

Somehow the idea that he turned down more money is taking hold.

Heard a Joe Biagini interview clip on the radio yesterday (not Jimmy Kimmel--still haven't watched that) that made me laugh. The reporter asked him if he'd made any adjustments this year (paraphrase): "Well...I drove down instead of flying--that was an adjustment."

i want to adopt him.

I didn't pay enough attention to him last year--he's like a character from Ball Four, the living heir to Bill Lee and Moe Drabowsky and Dan Quisenberry.

I like the Latos ml deal.

I was just checking Russell Martin's career box, and something I'd never noticed before (although I've lived through it twice): among players with a decent sample size, he must be among the worst post-season players ever. In 57 games/320 plate appearances: .185/.300/.303. And his awfulness is very consistent between divisional series and league championships (never played in a World Series). He had a couple of good WC games.

Morales crushed the hell out of that ball.

also maybe new thread time, but also i'm lazy.

new season new thread boys

always so much pressure coming up with new thread names. i feel like i let everyone down with the fantasy thread one!

I really liked the Fantasy thread title...Was trying to think of something for the Jays, couldn't. Feels like some kind of hangover right now after two exciting years, and I don't know where the personality on the team is anymore.

loved the fantasy thread one.

can't be worse than mines!

Biangini. maybe something about him getting a high five? i dunno, i'm going to bed.

xpost aw, thanks!

JUST IN: Sportsnet baseball TV personality Gregg Zaun has been terminated by Rogers amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour.

— CP24 (@CP24) December 1, 2017