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

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?"

‏Jon Morose

@jonmorosi
#BlueJays have the 5th bullpen in last 100 years to start a season 0-9. None of the previous 4 teams made playoffs, per STATS LLC.

bullpen did their job last night pretty well. tho it was an incredibly frustrating game to watch up until Smoak decided he was sick of losing.

I watched this entire game, bar the 1st inning, until the 9th inning when my cat escaped onto an adjacent balcony and I missed the thrilling denouement wrangling him back to safety.

Kershaw vs the Jays for the first time today!

Stroman graduates:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/marcus_zpsgyl8uxz9.jpg

I would complain about Gibbons' bad habit of leaving his SP's in the game for an inning too long, but with our bullpen ...

I been watching the Raptors, but this looks pretty wild.

http://www.si.com/mlb/2016/05/15/watch-blue-jays-rangers-brawl-after-takeout-slide

Zaun thinks hey guess what this is what you get for bat flippin'.

Bat-flip sheriff:

https://vine.co/v/e6uKPIg0qWp

@jonahkeri
Someone please alert me the next time a Venezuelan guy punching a Dominican guy causes a stadium full of fans to chant U-S-A

I go outside to bbq with the Jays in the lead. Came back to something else entirely.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ciiq53UWwAQ0liE.jpg

wow

Zaun is just about the only commentator taking the Rangers' side in this.

so when do we hear about the suspensions?

i despise zaun with a passion. baseball doesn't need a don cherry, you gormless buffoon

Pretty funny listening to Zaun on McCown's show today. As McCowan walked him through the whole sequence of events, he had a whole litany of this-should've-happeneds and that-shouldn't-have-happeneds according to Gregg Zaun's Book of How the Game's Supposed to Be Played. He's like Kramer on Seinfeld with the velvet scrunchie: "You've got really specific tastes." (Almost felt sorry for the Raptors today; the brawl seemed to be the bigger story, at least on the radio.)

what the heck is going on?

I'm going to guess that Shapiro might be the kind of guy to dismantle this team quickly. Not based on his own history, which I don't know, but on the fact that it's still basically Anthopoulos's team and he'd be happy to move past that.

I was one of those people who 48 hours ago thought that the big brawl would wake them up.

and the Jays tanking this year would give him the excuse he would need.

reminder that jays were < .500 until august last year

Back to back 13 run blowups look bad, but they ended a streak of 18 straight games with six or more innings pitched by the starters. We would have killed to have that level of pitching last year. We need a couple of bats to wake up and for the bullpen to wake up and realize it isn't spring training. The foundation to win is still there, there's no need to tear anything down. Yet.

I don't think the team should be dismantled--combine the starting pitching from April with something close to last year's offense and you're all set--just that I think Shapiro, as Thermo says, will jump on any excuse he has to do so. The other thing I expect to happen soon is for the fans to focus their ire on Shapiro. The Raptors have been a diversion thus far; when they're out, all the rancor from last November will return.

btw there was a sabermetric study of the 'wakeup' power of brawls. no correlation found.

i wasn't really saying he'd jump at any excuse to dismantle the team. i don't think there was ever a full dismantling in Cleveland. i was just saying *if* that's what he wanted to do, another month or two like this and he'll have the excuse he needs.

Bautista leading off

this is getting surreal.

Losing on a late inning comeback by the Twins might be rock bottom. Happ took a one hitter in the eighth and blew the lead, although he left with the game tied and the bullpen blew the game open as usual.

R Martin 2B