Marcus Stroman won't stop tweeting; 2019 Vlad Guerrero Jr/Blue Jays thread

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. making fruit cocktails during last night’s 28-5 win over the Red Sox 😂

(📸: @ArashMadani) pic.twitter.com/sf3OP57Tte

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 23, 2022

Get the feeling that photo might be on Boston's locker-room wall today.

(I don't know--maybe my mind's still on 1978 time.)

Toronto's secret weapon this season: COVID vaccination laws. Arenado and Goldschmidt won't play in the series this week.

Maybe this is the year all these covid restrictions wind up as a net positive.
It still sucks that all these amateur virologists are limiting what players they can sign/trade for.

I was never his biggest fan - but it’s great to have buck back in the booth.

Not sure if there's a gap or two in there, but he's been with the franchise as a player/manager/broadcaster for four decades.

(Schneider) is the first manager to have a run differential of +50 or better over his first nine career games since Jim Price posted a +63 for the New York Gothams in 1884.

I guess you really can program a computer to figure out anything.

https://www.mlb.com/news/george-springer-vladimir-guerrero-jr-lead-blue-jays-to-win

Obviously the Jays don't "have to" do anything against Detroit--it's still July. But I'll be very disappointed if they don't win at least three out of four. Their starting pitching is so iffy these days, it feels like they have to open up a cushion for the wild-card.

Opening the series with Kikuchi makes this less easy than one might think.

Good start...but yeah, my last post was kind of tautological: the very reason they might not win three out of four is their starting pitching is so iffy these days.

was a good ball game, tigers kept it close!

Hey, we got some new bodies! Bass and Pop--we're starting a new indie label or something.

https://www.mlb.com/news/blue-jays-anthony-bass-zach-pop-trade

ha ha! glad they did *something*
Bass didn't blow me away his first stint here and Pop looks very interesting. shame we gave up on Groshans tho, but he really wasn't looking good at all in AAA.

man - we didn't even talk about the other nutty trades the jays made!

anyways - the play at the plate today. i watched the replay and though sanchez was indeed blocking the plate the way he threw his leg down... but looks like a lot of people thought the replay office got it wrong?!

Seemed to be blocking the path to me, but I don't know the exact wording of the rule.

Second great start in a row from Gausman. I don't know if my 35-year-old memory can be trusted, but he reminds me of Stieb: compact motion, keeps it low, ball darts all over the place.

I thought the catcher can block the plate if he needs to make a play on the ball? He can't exactly move out of the path of the ball if he needs to make a catch. And the knee only went down after he had the ball. I thought the Twins were robbed but OTOH who cares Jays win!!

Jays are actually within 10 of the Yankees, first time since June 15.

man, i just spent a while looking at diagrams and rules etc.

this call, either way, is definitely in a grey area where it could go either way.

Whit admitted he decided to go straight into Sanchez instead of sliding around because he felt Sanchez was getting overly cute with the rules and had, in this case, violated it.
Sanchez had apparently admitted in the past, he intentionally pushed the limits of where he could plant his feet.

Baldelli was upset because the play had often gone the other way. not like the umps could have done anything about it. tho, i guess a review of a similar play in Pittsburg had also ruled the same.

what looks clear to me was that the ball was coming to sanchez in fair territory, he'd set-up in fair territory – but he had actually started moving to block Merrifield before he caught the ball and had no need to move in that direction to make the catch.

i honestly don't know if I should give Whit credit for knowing he was, technically, on the right side of the rules here and possibly also knowing sanchez like to push the limits of where and when he could move to block the plate – of if he just got incredibly fucking lucky expecting the review office in new york to rule in his favour.

john schneider looks like alejandro kirk's dad

and then there's manoah. dear god the big portly boys i'm looking at

Not sure if I should be excited about Jackie Bradley Jr. or not. Good defender, obviously, but geez, some of those batting averages...OPS+ of 85 for his career.

very much a lateral move out there vs Zimmer

there's a decent chance you guys are about to get TJ McFarland'd. DFA'd yesterday, and he's been awful this year. But he was decent last year, and the blue jays do not have a left handed reliever. Neither do the Mariners, so...good luck

What do you do after you've exercised the fire-the-manager option?

If they lose this afternoon, they will be looking up at the Orioles in the standings. Maybe that'd jolt them out of this.

This team is just so much better when Springer's in the lineup. And not just his bat--I'm wandering into the dreaded land of intangibles, but he really does fire everyone up.

Now 7 back, with Manoah going tomorrow. I thought they were going to blow yesterday's game--one of those ones where they had two chances to blow it wide open and didn't--but they held on. Such a confounding team.

And scherzer and DeGrom right after manoah!

Whoops I forgot what thread I was in, that's about the woe of the Yankees

Lots of Jays fans in Boston today

i had the radio going yesterday due to a bad headache, so i couldn't see the stands – but it Sounded like a lot of jays fans there. which, i don't think was/is a regular thing for boston games.

i'm told there were a lot of jays fans in the bronx last weekend too

Sixth video clip: incredible double-play initiated by Chapman.

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/blue-jays-vs-red-sox/2022/08/24/663173#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=wrap,game=663173

That play was nuts

After of week of watching Brooks Robinson at third, the Jays look clueless in the field tonight.

Really nice reunion/anniversary of the '92 team at today's game, with one omission that initially baffled me. Seemed like everyone was either there in person--not just Winfield and Carter, but Alfredo Griffin and Rance Mulliniks--or on video. No Alomar, though, and no mention of his name on video, no even when they ran his HR off Eckersley (one brief image of him hitting it and raising his arms). And post-retirement, Alomar had a lot of continued involvement with the team.

https://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2022/08/24/roberto-alomar-not-invited-to-blue-jays-30th-world-series-anniversary-celebration.html

I literally don't remember that at all--did it generate comment here? I must have heard about it at the time.

I might have missed him, but I don't think I saw Jimmy Key in the stadium or on video either.

Meant to mention: instead of a ceremonial first pitch, Timlin and Carter reenacted the last out of the '92 Series.

Well hopefully key just couldn’t make it and isn’t actually a serial killer that the jays have managed to keep under wraps

Who's this Ohtani guy? Good pitcher!

Lol. Was just explaining to my mom who he is - her mind was sufficiently blown

This team is exasperating.

They (including Buck Martinez, his old catcher) had Stieb in the booth yesterday for a couple of innings. It was so funny: he says he's still haunted by his pitch selection in those almost-no-hitters (lost three on the last batter, I believe, including a perfect game). Normally you'd assume the player's just joking around, over-dramatizing, but I really think he is! His recall of what he threw, and what he now thinks he should have thrown, is so precise. Basically, he said he used to fall in love with his slider, and should have thrown many more fastballs than he did.

rough series : /

“Exasperating” is the perfect word for them. They click and kill it for a while, then they look like a AA squad for a bit until I stop stealing their game feeds; then it’s back to epic one-run wins for a spell.
The Orioles - the *fucking* Orioles - will have caught up to them by September at the rate this is going.
They need to rehire Montoyo and then fire him again. This is the only way.

I'm at the game tonight...missed Stroman by a day--damn, that would have been fun.

oh - that's too bad. i could see Stroman totally spinning a 9 inning masterpiece against his old team!

Good game last night, although--don't hate me, Thermo--we left after 9. My friend lives in Caledon, I had to get back to St. Marys; I probably would have stayed myself, but I was parked above Queen and rain was imminent.

Anyway, they were absolutely listless till Springer's diving catch, and Jansen's HR was a jolt. They've got 19 games left with the Rays and Orioles; they really have to win almost all of these Cubs/Pirates games.

I’ve soured pretty hard on Stroman over the years - but that was a pretty touching moment between him and that kid before the game today. And it’s fun to watch him pitch again I must say

Bradley Zimmer's back; all is well.

My girlfriend and I just had a massively confusing convo about where Bradley was playing in the outfield