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

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

sounds like jays fans have basically overrun PNC park this weekend; i'm glad *someone* enjoyed seeing the pirates clinch their 26th losing season out of the last 30

mookie will you accept the 'i will not shave until the pirates have a winning season again" challenge?

nah, i'd just end up trodding on my beard

I shouldn't, I guess, but I felt sad seeing Dave Parker tonight. Didn't know about his Parkinson's. Along with Reggie, probably the most exciting player of the '70s.

yeah.

obviously he had a weird and benighted career, but when i was a kid willie stargell was the guy everyone loved and dave parker was the guy everyone wanted to be like

it's been nice to see the pirates honor him. one of the few things they've done well recently.

When I say "I shouldn't," don't want to leave the impression that means "because of all the bad things he did." I meant more that it's part of life, and pitying people in general is not good--he seems to be handling it well.

I’m more than a little nervous about this series. If the jays fuck this up, they’re out of the playoffs

You know Bradley Zimmer's back, right?

I sometimes defend Pat Tabler for his on-field intuition, but he actually just said this (talking about Cavan Biggio): "What's a good slugging percentage, .400? He's just under .400, coming into this day, at .392."

Nice job by Bichette jumping in there just as Gausman was about to lose it (over a balk call).

The Orioles' organist needs to learn a second song.

Lol. My gf was just saying that same.
Glad we got the first game. Feeling much more relaxed now that they can’t be swept!

For I think the first time all year, Bichette is really in a groove.

Gausman has been leading Fangraphs' WAR for pitchers for almost the whole year (he just slipped into second). If he weren't a Jay, and I never saw him, I'd probably be posting about how silly that is. But seeing him regularly, he really does give up an inordinate number of cheap hits--bouncers between infielders, flares, etc. The BABIP against him this year is .372! So while I think ranking him as the best pitcher in baseball is a slight overstatement, he's definitely much better than his WHIP or ERA (which is pretty good anyway).

orioles don't have an organist! it's just a sound clip

I checked that online, but I guess I read the capsule links too quickly--they were proposing an organist at one point.

For I think the first time all year, Bichette is really in a groove.
― clemenza, Monday, September 5, 2022 4:47 PM

Please note the time of this post.

Lol. Too bad he won’t get a shot at 4. Also shame he couldn’t get a proper hat trick treatment

Ok. I guess he will get a shot. No idea why they’re still playing in this shit weather on the back end of a double header, but here we are.

I was all set to send hate mail to Zimmerman if he had walked him.