Toronto Blue Jays 2018: Our Team Was Founded by Regular Canadian Guys, but It’s Being Run by People from Cleveland

Last year of Donaldson?

I changed my mind, I do have something to say: Roberto Alomar turned 50 today. Geez.

(I don't know...so many factors at work there.)

+ title

What's the over/under on Urena and Teoscar Hernandez?

I assume Teoscar has a job to lose, based on what he showed last year. I actually had to look up Urena to remind myself who he was.

I forgot how much clutter there is in the Jays' outfield right now. I guess Teoscar doesn't have a guaranteed job. I'd certainly at least platoon him until you know for sure that the .600 slugging average was a fluke.

as one would expect

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/2/12/17004262/blue-jays-roy-halladay-retiring-number-jersey-patches

there is still no way i am going to the yearly shit show that is the home opener.

And there he goes. (I'm the rare listener who always preferred Howarth to Tom Cheek.)

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/blue-jays-broadcaster-jerry-howarth-retires-36-seasons/

I'm not a Blues Jays fan, but Howarth was a gem. Mike Wilner isn't a bad announcer, but he won't inspire me to listen to a game I'd otherwise ignore, just to hear Howarth's sheer professionalism.

Lost arbitration. Is what it is. Looking forward to going out and dealing again. The negative things that were said against me, by my own team, will never leave my mind. I’m thick-skinned so it will only fuel the fire. Can’t wait for this year! #HDMH

— Marcus Stroman (@MStrooo6) February 15, 2018

Stroman to the Yankees as a FA.

I don't know what the club said--clubs would say awful and ridiculous things 40 years ago, but I had assumed that they stopped that somewhere along the way (James has written that making up stuff during an arbitration hearing is a guaranteed way to lose). In any event, getting publically upset about it sums up why I'm not Stroman's biggest fan. "I'm thick-skinned"--obviously, thick-skinned people always air their grievances on Twitter.

stroman is hardly alone -- though at least no jays exec has come out and publicly shit on him like randy levine vs betances. he was the fourth-best pitcher in the AL by bWAR last season; a $400k difference is maybe not worth going into an arbitration session and tearing apart your supposed ace

this is why the giants, for example, haven't taken a player to arbitration for almost 15 years

This isn’t his first bizarre outburst on twitter tho. I figure the jays will have the money to extend one of him or Sanchez -obv I’m hoping it’s sanchez at this point. His twitter outbursts are becoming exhausting.

Also - just signed Jamie Garcia as their #5 thank god. Not that I’m over the moon with the guy, but he’s way better than Biangini for the role.

maybe the jays can trade stroman for shea weber

Avoiding arbitration is of course better for both parties--if the Giants have done that for 15 years, that's sound management. But Stroman needs to realize that a) arbitration does happen, b) the club has to present some kind of case (they can't go in there and act as the player's agent), and c) players do sometimes lose. I'd want to know exactly what was said, but taking something personally in the normal give-and-take of an arbitration hearing strikes me as silly, just like getting all worked up over a couple of missed pitches in the third inning of a nothing game isn't the best approach to a 162-game season.

I mean, if the club's arguments basically amounted to "We think Marcus is a fine pitcher and an important part of our team, but he's not Corey Kluber--and here's why," then I'm with the club. If the club got petty, then Stroman's anger is justified. Just don't take it to Twitter.

The 2016 St Louis Cardinals: Your 2018 Toronto Blue Jays

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/blue-jays-continue-sneaky-good-offseason-with-jaime-garcia/

We already went through 20 years (1994-2014) of hanging around in the middle of the pack making "sneaky good" low-risk signings, never good enough to win and never bad enough to lose.

I did like the Garcia signing though.

Re: Stroman, on one hand playing the public relations game on Twitter isn't going to help his financial situation in the short or long term, so why do it? OTOH, somebody needs to publicly shame this BIG MARKET club for being cheap and noncommittal with key players that real, contending clubs would pay good money to have.

Jays probably working from the idea that Stroman would never sign an extension in Toronto. And even if he would, I'm sure the idea is that with his size and injury risk, they don't want a 100+ million dollar extension hung on the club.

Clubs are just going to get picky with the big deals, which they should.

Thing is that the Blue Jays seem more than just a player away, signing the big dollar guy is at best a stand pat decision and one that limits on what can be done going forward.

If they're more than a player away and want to win in 2020 when the next gen of prospects will be ready, then they could have traded Donaldson and Stroman in the offseason and thrown in the towel on 2018.

If they want to compete now then they need to lock up their best players.

As usual, this team is doing neither.

I don't know if they are doing neither, the Donaldson contract is decent in terms of showing good faith for the future.

lol just saw the news for the next contract and you can erase what I said.

I’m out of the loop - which contract?

starting rotation depth

The photographer thinks Tulo is a pitcher??!! Tulo doesn’t correct him and obliges..shhhhhhhhhh 😂😂#PhotoDay pic.twitter.com/3GlKtmDZPY

— Hazel Mae (@thehazelmae) February 22, 2018

Gregg Zaun presents: Manalyst TV. Finally a sports show for MEN. pic.twitter.com/S8O0FVBltO

— Stephen Campbell (@ScampbellTV1) February 23, 2018

Of course it’s all caps.

except for: "can you smell that roast"

Tulo injured, not likely to be ready by opening day. Shocking!

I guess he threw his arm out posing for that photo above.

Made the same joke on Reddit!

Anyways - a quick glance at the depth chart tells me not to get too broke up about it.

Bo Bichette with an RBI single to left in his second AB. Guerrero singled earlier, Anthony Alford has two triples and a double so far today. Good day for #BlueJays prospects.

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) March 8, 2018

Alford is my #1 prospect man crush.

vlad: 4-for-5
bo: 2-for-3, stolen base
aa: 3-for-4, triple, two doubles

the orioles don't actually have any pitchers, but still

if they did, they're dead now.

Came on to post about Vlad too. I did hear he clapped his hands and pointed to the sky on a single, mind you. I hope that was the first one...

That home run...

I was there. Can't believe it.

Amazing!!!

<3

fuck it was so great

tonight was more magical than any spring training night has any right to be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r9Rd3RqiYQ

#priceless pic.twitter.com/dh3RUpcTjg

— Vladimir Guerrero (@VladGuerrero27) March 28, 2018

Bo seems excited.

This is going to be a great season!

Gibbons keeping Sanchez one batter too long was so infuriatingly obvious.

So that was exciting.

And this has been fun

Santiago Espinal's (Jays got him for Pearce yesterday) having a good year, but he's a 10th-round pick who's 23 and playing in A-ball, so I don't know.

pretty much about what I expected to get back tbh.

Reasonably close to actual hell: sitting in the Rogers Centre in July watching the Jays lose to the Twins 8-1.

will biagini finally be gone? he's killing me holy shit. i actually sat and watched most of that game for some reason

On the call-in show today--Jeff Blair, I think--the topic was whether or not the Jays, while they wait around for Guerrero, have let the supporting cast fall apart to the point that his arrival becomes a moot point. He mentioned how Trout, over his entire career, has spent a total of five or eight days in first place. In at least one instance, Donaldson, this has just been bad luck. But they have to get stuff done within the next year to have something resembling a team waiting for Guerrero (and Bichette).

His supporting cast will be a year or two behind. Bo, Biggio, Kevin Smith. Then there’s a good amount of fringier guys we need to see how they pan out - Alford, Borucki, Foley, Davis, Jansen....
I don’t see why we need a fully formed team waiting for the guy. Maybe he turns into a dud in the bigs! You can’t know for sure. Must of what I would call our teams strength is in the minors right now - and I think we need to plan around our young talent as a group.
Our big, dud contracts come off the books in 2019 and 20. At that point we’ll know what we have in Vlad and we’ll have a better idea of the controllable talent we will have around him. That’s when we spend on free agents and go for it.

I don't think he was calling for a fully formed team--just something competitive enough that you don't end up with a situation like Trout's where the first five or six years of a (still only potentially with Guerrero, yes) generational player are kind of wasted. In particular, they were talking about a player filling the role that someone like Freddie Freeman does with the two phenoms in Atlanta: an established star who is already there as the foundation of the team. Donaldson would/could have been that guy.

The Jays right now fall short on all counts. But yes, I agree, the team is headed into a period of major change, so it's hard to gauge at the moment.

we're fortunate that Guerrero isn't coming up alone tho. wouldn't be surprised at all if one of Biggio/Smith (or even Heraldo/Groshans further down the road) force him to 1B or DH. the timing of our big contracts is perfect as well. if by 2020 they not spending, then it would

whoops... anyways – by 2020 they better have begun building around Vlad/Bo/Biggio/Jansen/Smith

Biagini worked two-thirds of inning last night, gave up a couple of homers and three runs, and took the loss. His ERA is now 6.66. Really, how much of a signal do you need as to who he secretly is?

He’s secretly Aaron Loup?

Ken Giles is apparently not the answer.

Jansen & Reid-Foley called up.

SRF starting today. Wondering if they’ll have Jansen catch for him.

Yes--first-ever first-game battery for the Jays.

First time in the AL since 1957, actually--surprised it's such a rare thing. Guess he got roughed up a little.

Ya. Wasn’t terrible - but could have been better.
Jansen, however, did p great for himself!

Having a forbidden thought in those Doug Ford days of summer: the future might be quite bright. Jansen, Reid-Foley, Teoscar, Borucki, Gurriel and perhaps Alford all look like solid players to build around Bichette and Guerrero. Plus the more experienced Grichuk, Travis, Sanchez and Stroman can help in the shorter term.

The walls are closing in--conceding that I've hardly watched the Jays at all the last couple of years, I've never seen Gibbons chew out a player before.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/pillar-thrown-stealing-third-draws-ire-gibbons/

Us and the Orioles, 162 games, winner take all. Come on, Baltimore, man up.

Yeah I'd be surprised if Gibbons was the manager next season.

I was looking at a WAR leaderboard the other day, trying to find the first Jay. Had to go down to the 180th spot or something to find Smoak around 2.0 (Happ was about even with him when he left).

You've got to go back to 1979 to find a year when the Jays didn't have at least one guy (and usually more ) at 4.4+. So even when the team was terrible, there was always somebody to root for and a reason to watch--Hentgen, Wells, even Rios led one year in the mid-5.0s. And when the team was winning, there was usually at least one or two guys with MVP-type numbers. Depending upon how excited you are by the two young starters, there is literally nobody worth watching right now.

Obviously, you weren't rooting for Hentgen and Wells to achieve a certain WAR, which didn't exist then. I'm just using that as shorthand for compiling numbers and having good seasons--you could root for someone to his 30 HR, knock in a 100, compete for the ERA title, whatever. I remember James writing once that these benchmarks take on extra meaning when you're following a losing team.

I kinda forgot about Josh Donaldson... after spending almost a month in the start of the season on the DL for his right shoulder, he went on the 10-day DL in May for a low-grade calf strain and has not been heard from since.

you liberated Canadians

http://awfulannouncing.com/local-networks/nbc-sports-philadelphia-intro-for-phillies-blue-jays-game-gets-a-look-at-naked-guy-in-toronto.html

Some full-court second-guessing on the call-in show today: the host (not sure which guy it was) was all over Shapiro and Atkins for not trading Donaldson in the off-season. Honestly, I didn't want them to make that trade. I assumed Donaldson would be healthy and that we had a chance at the second wild-card.

ya - a lot of people were saying to trade him in the off season and write 2018 off essentially. i don't blame them at all for seeing how the season went - there's no way to know your star player is going to be injured at the deadline. but it's a dumb call in show, where everyone is better manager than Gibbons the day after and i wouldn't put too much weight behind what they are saying. tho some people did earn the right to say "i told you so" on this one.

kendrys homers again, 7th straight game

I was at the game, had to explain the basics of the game to my parents and they really enjoyed it. Seeing 6 homeruns and Maikel Franco goofing around helps. Now, I’m almost certain learning about the game is easier when you see it live rather than on television.

Also the Skydome is not nearly as bad a ballpark as some people make it out to be, if only for the convenient location. I much prefer it to Nü-Yankees Stadium.

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reports that Josh Donaldson is out of the High-A Dunedin lineup due to soreness in his calves and legs.

Maybe time to take up chess or origami?

Us and the Orioles, 162 games, winner take all. Come on, Baltimore, man up.

They did, they did--I am duly humbled.

vlad (and bo) named to the arizona fall league, so presumably will not be called up in september

A few years ago, we started hearing about Rowdy Tellez. I saw him a couple of times in Buffalo, and he had such an air of career-minor-leaguer about him: .270 hitter, medium-range power, big and immobile first-base/DH-type. He finally got his first MLB AB last-night towards the end of a blowout. First pitch, RBI double. I was laughing out loud, it was such a great moment. Found out later that his mom died three weeks ago, so I was extra happy for him.

vlad (and bo) named to the arizona fall league, so presumably will not be called up in september

― mookieproof, Thursday, August 30, 2018 2:19 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Arizona Fall League is a great place to improve defence iirc.

Watch the clip up top till the end: Rowdy's hit, plus him leaving a tribute to him mom in the dirt.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/rowdy-tellezs-big-league-debut-nothing-short-amazing/

"his mom"

Rowdy has six doubles in his first 10 major-league AB--six! And he didn't even get a sidebar mention on the MLB site.

Home run, Rowdy! He's got 7 XB hits in his first 4 games, first time since 1913. Slugfest going on, so he may get another AB.

rip gibby

Thank you John Gibbons for leading our @BlueJays and for all the great memories. I want to wish you good luck in the future! Toronto will miss you, Gibby! Proud to proclaim today as John Gibbons Day in Toronto. #BlueJays pic.twitter.com/ZwtJuJjTD9

— John Tory (@TorontosMayor) September 26, 2018

I wanted to see the end of the game but got held up at the dentist. Ended up with the second-most wins behind Cito, and today's win assures he'll finish up with a winning record (barely). No one will ever surpass him in Stengel-like post-game meandering.

These days managers only need to keep the peace in the clubhouse while still finding time to memorize the reports from the analytics department -- not exactly Gibbons' best skills.

Russell Martin manager shows excellent judgement in sitting down Russell Martin player.

so i didn't realize until he did it Sunday – but Kevin Pillar hit 40 doubles! was rather surprised. has only happened 25 times in Blue Jays history – with 16 players doing it. (two accomplishing it three times as Jays)

Ed Sprague was interviewed for the managerial post today.

Oh god

i'm hoping Stubby Clapp gets the job.

I don't want Eric Wedge, otherwise no preference. Don't know anything about Sprague's credentials, other than his recent job with Oakland.

(xpost on Pillar)

He's been a pretty consistent doubles hitter the past three seasons: 35, 37, 40. As frustrating as he can be, I can envision him thriving in a situation where he's on a good team and can bat eighth or ninth and not be expected to carry any offensive load; just play defense (which has slipped the past couple of years), and any offense is a bonus. Because he does contribute with the bat--the doubles, 10-15 HR, and he keeps his average over .250. He's got one huge glaring weakness: the hideous walk rate (111 for his career now, in over 2,500 AB). Hidden away on a good offense (like the Jays three years ago), he can be the designated Caesar Geronimo, and his OBP is not that big a deal.