A Game To Forget

Tonight was pretty ugly. Romero got rocked, and the Jays could only muster 4 hits against Ervin Santana who loves to pitch against the Jays this year.

Three out of the four hits were solo home runs, and JoBau launched his 15th earning him a POG.

"But you should be working banker's hours!!!"



I have to say that after tonight's game I am pretty fucking pissed off. I know it wasn't the best game, and it's a long damn year and loses are bound to happen, but I think it's the fucking commercials that Sports Net shows about 100 times a commercial break.

If I hear one more old man talking about banker's hours or one more garlic pizza add I will fucking kill myself.

Seriously Sports Net, wins don't feel as good as they should, and losses sting worse than they should after suffering through those fucking adds time and time again.

I would almost prefer Jamie Campbell in between the innings.

Almost.

Long Weekend Edition

Arizona In a Flash

Arizona 8, Toronto, 6 - POG Encarnacion
Arizona 8, Toronto, 5 - POG R. Lewis
Toronto 12, Arizona, 4 - POG JoBau

Cecil Dominates Angles



I agree. Thumbs up for Brett Cecil after a dominating 7.1 inning of ball against the Angels. For his effort, he wins another POG award.

Big Deal News Over the Weekend



Dana Eveland was designated to AAA, but of course his awesome stats will have to pass the waiver wire first. No real shock here. Although he did say this about the Blue Jays organization, "Top to bottom, it's the best organization I've been in."

With the demotion of Eveland, let the speculators speculate who will be the 5th starter. Purcey Lewis was called up, but he will be in the bullpen. This week the Jays have opted for a 4 man rotation, so no answers for a bit.

While perhaps the Jays will call up someone from AAA, my guess is that it will be our Weather Man, Brian Tallet. He is due for a return "late-May." Long shot off the DL would be Jesse Litsch who could possibly be back June 3. All injury updates here.

Lyle Overbay just recently has put his average over the two-hundy mark. Keep it up Lyle! Maybe we will be able to trade you for more than a roll of bubble tape and water bottle after all!

Aaron Hill just cannot seem to figure it out at the plate. I have the utmost faith that he can regain his stroke, but it would be nicer to see sooner rather than later.

Adam Lind has seen his average slowly drop the past 2 weeks. He hadn't hit a home run in awhile, but took one large in Arizona, and has been hitting a little better since then. Let's hope, he's out of his little funk.

My esteemed colleague found perhaps one of the internet baseball worlds most interesting websites. This website ranks all umpires on whether they are pitcher-friendly, or hitter-friendly. Most definitely worth a read.

Tonight's game features Slick Rick and rumor has it that the Angels may not even bother showing up.

Jays Split Again

Kevin Gregg Likes Balls (More Than Strikes)



Kevin Gregg, seemingly bored with being the AL saves leader, decided to allow fellow closers to catch up by blowing the fuck out of this save.

Romero is obviously the POG from that game. In line for his fifth win, but Gregg blew that game.

I know Gregg had pitched pretty solid until this, but I mean come on. 25 pitches, 13 of which are balls? 2 walks? Interesting strategy for a closer.

When Trevor Hoffman pitches now he gets hit hard, but at least he's not fucking walking batters. At least then you can say the hitters beat you, but this game, Gregg, you totally lost that one yourself. You cannot tell me that the Mariners beat the Jays tonight. The Jays were winning, Kevin Gregg lost.

The fucking Mariners. When you blow a save to a team that has Mike Sweeney as a clean-up hitter, well, let's just say you are buying the beers for the foreseeable future.

How long does it take me to forget Gregg as the the AL leader in saves?

One game.

Jays 3, Mariners 2

I know this is a game we won, but I'm still not sure who the POG goes to. Cecil was OK, Loverbay went 2 for 4, but had 2 KO. Call it a tie?

Good Luck To Ruiz

AA obviously gets his advice from The View, and even one upped me. Ruiz was released and signed to a Japanese team.

Good luck, Randy.

The Troubles of Randy Ruiz

When Randy Ruiz broke Spring Training with the team, I rejoiced, as many other Jays fans did.

Today, I stand here a broken man, almost begging for a demotion for Ruiz to AAA.

Ruiz came north with the team as a 33 year old, the first time he had ever broken Spring Training with a MLB job - I spare you the rest as I'm sure you have heard it before.

After the chains of Minor League ball were removed from Randy, and he finally thought he would get some serious time at the Major League level, Cito Gaston happened.

Ruiz knew he would be a bench player. But who knows, maybe an injury here, or an under-achiever there and he could take the job, and flourish. Enter Loverbay. Overbay is still struggling to find his bat, and his defense has not been as stellar as it should be.

And still, Ruiz rides the pine.

Ruiz is a slugger through and through. Sluggers don't ride the pine, especially not those that can DH and stand at first base.

Ruiz is not succeeding with the Jays because he doesn't get enough playing time, and is moved around in the lineup more than V-Dub last year.

So, AA, please. Send him down to AAA. Let him swing there, get his timing, rack up the numbers we all know hes capable of, and trade him. Trade him to someone who can use him. Someone who can use him full time, and let him get one season of 30 HR season before he is too old to swing. God knows he has nothing left to prove at the AAA level, but any numbers he gets there will look better than what he has now.

Randy, my heart truly feels for you. You manage to make the team, Overbay still struggles, and yet you still don't play.

I sincerely hope you get a full time chance in the Majors, but I feel that time will never come with Cito at the helm.

Minnesota Split

Marcum and Wells take the POGs for these two games. One was awesome, one was shit.

False Hope Once Again??

I am a virgin to the blogging world, so bear with me on my first ever post. Now that the Canucks have once again been eliminated from the playoffs in disappointing fashion, I can fully appreciate the over-achieving Blue Jays who remain in third place in the toughest division in all of sports.

While the Jays are all but destined to fall back into mediocrity as they have in years past following a quick start, there is reason to believe that these Jays who begin a new Doc-less era are a little bit different.

The Jays began season 1 A.D. (after Doc) without a legitimate staff ace, or a veteran presence in the rotation (unless you count Tallet.) However, this has caused pitchers such as Marcum to grow up quickly and take on the roll of teacher rather than student, which was never more evident than after hearing the news that Marcum actually helped tweak Morrow's delivery following his disastrous start at Fenway. This advice from Marcum at the very least gave Morrow the confidence that there was only just a miniscule problem with his inconsistent delivery and shows the camaraderie between the starters.

Often overlooked in reasons for the Jays success is their fielding. In fact, out of all the American League teams the Jays as of May 17, have the most TFC (Total Fielding Chances) with 1508 - yet hold the third LEAST errors. Furthermore, the under-rated Gonzo, Hill combination has helped the Jays surrender 43 Double Plays, good enough for the second most in the AL. Now that is how you help out a pitching staff that includes Dana Eveland, who holds no real skill yet somehow has managed a 3-2 record despite walking more batters than striking out. The Jays rotation also deserves some credit, along with the 'deadly' catching duo of John Buck and Jose Molina, who have allowed only 23 SB's this season and have thrown out over half that many. To compare, the Red Sox have allowed 46 SB's, while throwing out only 10 - so much for the acquisition of Victor Martinez, defensive catchers are highly under-appreciated, especially if they provide some unexpected pop ie John Buck. This is a nice change from consistently watching AJ Burnett willingly give up 2nd base to everyone he walked to put on first.

At the risk of being a stat nerd I am gonna whip out a few more numbers which help decipher just why the Jays are having so much success, despite boasting a .238 average, and without having a hitter above .300. Its easy to look at the 60 home runs and 102 doubles, which is unbelievable, but also note the 5 CS, and only 20 GIDP. The Jays simply do not give away outs. (Say what you will about their ridiculous strikeout rates, I still say that they are not as big a deal as everyone makes them out to be for both pitchers and hitters alike)

The 2010 Jays are also different because in years past their stats have been skewed by high averages, but no clutch performances. This year is the opposite and it is so much less frustrating to watch. It seems that every series, one or two guys come through in the clutch (see Bautista this past weekend, Snider against Boston, etc) Its not so much how many hits you get, but when you get them, and the Jays low LOB totals display exactly the clutch hitting that every competitive team needs to remain in the hunt well into the summer.

I know its still early, but there is a lot to like with the 2010 Jays so far, let us hope that the Red Sox continue to struggle, and the Yankees start to spend their ridiculously high contracts on hookers and blow - thus distracting them from their on field duties, to give the Jays a fighting chance for the ENTIRE season.

The Texas Series in a Flash

Blue Jays 16, Rangers 10, Friday's Game



Cecil and Harden disappointed as a potentially awesome match-up by neither lasting over 3 and both giving up way too many runs.

As the score would suggest, this was SlugFest 2010. Lyle Overbay had his best game to date this season, going 3 for 3, with 2 runs, 3 RBI, 2 BB, no strikeouts, and no runners left on base.

Congrats Loverbay on your POG!

Blue Jays 6, Rangers 0, Saturday's Game



Ricky Romero did his best Roy Halladay throwing a complete game shut out with 12 K (and only 1 walk!!!!) beating the Rangers. For another slick performance Rick gets another POG.

Blue Jays 5, Rangers 2, Sunday's Game



And the sweep is completed!

I know a little unorthodox but my POG is a three-way tie. Gregg, Downs, and Frasor all pitched scoreless innings surrendering only 1 hit with no walks.

That my friend, is what is expected of those three. Good job.

So the bullpen performance coupled with no one really hitting for the Jays, and Morrow being, well okay but not crazy good, the bullpen was the star of this game.

Jays Quietly in Third, 2 Games Out of Wildcard

Okay, I suppose it's still a little early to start the playoff expectations, but the Jays are quietly sitting in third place, 7 games above .500.

True, we were better last year and fell apart pretty quickly. I don't see how anyone can say that kind of epic fall apart is common for one team, yet alone common in baseball, or really any sport. I'm not saying we stay on pace to be way above .500, but so far, this rebuilding process has been okay.

While our rotation may not have as much experience as every other team, they are looking pretty stellar. Outside of Eveland and Tallet, our pitching has shown a ton, and look to be solid MLB starters.

The hitting is harder to get too excited about because most of the players in the lineup are not expected to be in Toronto's long term plans. Lind, Hill, Wells and Snider will unquestionably be around for awhile, but everyone else just seems to be inflating their stats to earn more than they should next year.

Anyways, I will stick by my predicted 4th place finish. Finishing 5th is going to be a disappointment regardless of a re-building year or not. Best place finish is 3rd, which would be sweet, but let's stay grounded.

Jays Finally Solve the Riddle that is the Red Sox

Er... Sorry, *Marcum and Snider* Solve the Riddle that is the Red Sox.

Marcum gets the POG award today for pitching lights out against the Red Sox. The zeros he put up over the 7 innings are impressive, but after watching Morrow and Eveland pitch like crossing guards, how nice is it to see a starter only give up 1 walk?

Very. That's how nice.

Hitters pretty much did fuck all, except for T-Snides, who is quietly and slowly raising his average, and general level of his at bats.

Beyond those two? Well, the hitters didn't really hit, and Kevin Gregg and the ump managed to save the game, albeit barely.

That strike on David Ortiz? Shit, I hate this guy more than I hate Youkilis, but that ump should get half a save for that call.

Anyone else hoping Gregg didn't start the season on a hot note and is starting to cool off? He started out amazing, and has slowly worked his way to slightly-scary.