Blue Jays: 2015 edition

[mandrill]

I have to agree. Nothing compared to the Jays 1992 starting rotation. Jack Morris, Jimmy Key, Juan Guzman, Dave Stieb/David Cone, Todd Stotllemyre.

2015 rotation is now - Price, Buehrle, Dickey, Sanchez and Hutchinson. Price and Buehrle would edge Morris and Key. Guzman had yet to become dominant. Ditto Stottlemyre, who was the favourite whipping boy of the fickle TO sports media to an absolutely revolting and cruel extent.

I think they are comparable.

 

[Butler1000]

I kind of understand the Valencia move, but Carrera should be the fourth outfielder. Where does it say Tulo is sitting out.....and if so, Gibbons first mistake of managing a top notch club. Smoak looked very bad at plate yesterday..while head and shoulders our best first baseman.

Just a day off for Tulo. We can afford them with this line up.

 

[Dawgger]

2015 rotation is now - Price, Buehrle, Dickey, Sanchez and Hutchinson. Price and Buehrle would edge Morris and Key. Guzman had yet to become dominant. Ditto Stottlemyre, who was the favourite whipping boy of the fickle TO sports media to an absolutely revolting and cruel extent.

I think they are comparable.

Estrada??????
Did I miss something?

 

[mandrill]

Estrada??????
Did I miss something?

No, just premature senility on my part. Big, embarrassing oops.

 

[Perry Mason]

2015 rotation is now - Price, Buehrle, Dickey, Sanchez and Hutchinson.

??????

If you are just daydreaming, Estrada comes ahead of Hutch -- at least in performance if not potential.

And I think Sanchez will stay in the pen at least until the end of August -- if Stroman really can come back this year...

And Price, Buehrle and Sanchez would be a formidable staff for October baseball!


But I feel badly for both Carrera and Valencia; both of them have played well and filled in admirably. I hope both clear waivers and go down to Buffalo so that the BJ's can have really strong reserves and September call ups, but would not be surprised if either or both declare free agency because they both could help other teams. I was surprised that neither of them were used as trading pieces...

So the question now is whether or not the BJ's can go at least 37 & 21 the rest of the way. I think that with this team it is probable -- but, then, 90 wins may or may not be enough this year for a wild card. If they can take 8 or 9 of their remaining 13 games with the Yankees they could even win the East, but considering how the Yankees are playing that will be no easy task!

I wish I had access to AA's season simulator... AA is a deep believer is sabermetrics and I am sure all these changes and possibilities have been run through it again and again!

So, OK, game on! At the very least, it will be exciting to watch the rest of the season.

Perry

 

[saxon]

Lowe stinks out the joint in his one inning of work, hope the Jays can pull off a ninth inning comeback.

 

[Insidious Von]

I suspect Lowe didn't get his routine in and his timing was off. After going into extra innings the game before, Gibby gambled on him. As he gets settled he'll improve.

 

[Perry Mason]

Are we watching a preview of the ALCS? :amen:

Perry

 

[AK-47]

Lowe will get his shit together. His ERA was never gonna stay at one, its just too bad he had a bad outing in his Jay debut

 

[RandyAndy2]

I went down to the game today, first game this season I've attended. I was surprised by the MLB security requirement at the gates - passing through a metal detector. Nothing as thorough as at the airport, but it made for a 10 minute line up to get in. Has it been this way all season?

Great game. The only thing that would have made it better was if the Blue Jays won. Lowe was certainly disappointing. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I don't think I saw a pitch of his that was above 90 mph. I thought he was supposed to be a hard thrower with a fastball around 95 mph. Maybe he was mainly using his off speed stuff, or maybe when he threw a 95 mph fastball was when I was distracted by some of the feminine scenery at the game. In any case, he wasn't too impressive.

 

[SkyRider]

I went down to the game today, first game this season I've attended. I was surprised by the MLB security requirement at the gates - passing through a metal detector. Nothing as thorough as at the airport, but it made for a 10 minute line up to get in. Has it been this way all season?

I didn't attend the game to-day but the enhanced security was announced at the start of the season.

Lowe was certainly disappointing.

Here's the thing. We are holding back on Price until Monday (yes I know he is an SP) and yet we rush Lowe into a game just a few hours after his arrival in the city.

 

[mandrill]

http://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2015/8/1/9084409/why-was-danny-valencia-dfaed

Long, complicated article about the technicalities of waivers and theories about why Valencia was dfa-ed and not Loup, Smoak or Bello.

 

[SkyRider]

I tried unsuccessfully to add the link in my original post so I'll post the link here.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/04/06/as-season-opens-mlb-stadiums-step-up-security-screenings/

 

[AK-47]

I went down to the game today, first game this season I've attended. I was surprised by the MLB security requirement at the gates - passing through a metal detector. Nothing as thorough as at the airport, but it made for a 10 minute line up to get in. Has it been this way all season?

Great game. The only thing that would have made it better was if the Blue Jays won. Lowe was certainly disappointing. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I don't think I saw a pitch of his that was above 90 mph. I thought he was supposed to be a hard thrower with a fastball around 95 mph. Maybe he was mainly using his off speed stuff, or maybe when he threw a 95 mph fastball was when I was distracted by some of the feminine scenery at the game. In any case, he wasn't too impressive.

I watched the game on TV and his fastball was consistently between 93 and 96 MPH. His slider out-pitch was about 86 to 87 MPH.

I dont know why KC were hitting him so hard, because he has excellent stuff. Maybe his pitch selection or location was off, or maybe KC batters just had a good day

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I think Gibbons has about half the say in who stays and who goes.
Gibbons must like Loup a lot because he did a lot for him in 2013 and 2014 before going all to hell this year and not being able to get anybody out anymore. Maybe Loup and Gibbons are
brothers in arms because of what they got through in 2013 and 2014.

So, I think that Valencia being DFA'd was something Gibby wanted as opposed to optioning Loup.
Also, maybe he thinks they're going to need a lot of relief pitchers on Sunday because Dickey is pitching on 3 days rest.

I read that the reason Sanchez is in the bullpen is because Gibbons convinced AA to put him there for the rest of the season.

 

[SkyRider]

Also, maybe he thinks they're going to need a lot of relief pitchers on Sunday because Dickey is pitching on 3 days rest.

Why can't we start Price on Sunday instead of Monday?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

It'll be interesting to see how much run support Dickey gets on Sunday.

I remember listening to a JP Ricciardi interview about 7 years ago and he floated this idea that I thought was completely ridiculous and absurd beyond belief.
He said that if the hitters on a team don't like a certain starting pitcher, they won't hit for him and you always have to keep that in mind when you assess pitching performance.
At the time I thought it was a bizarre and ludicrous theory; but, over time I've come to accept that it's all completely true.

And I keep thinking about what he said back then when I see the tons of run support Buehrle and Hutchison always seem to get while Dickey routinely gets squat. It's like the batters are on strike because Dickey is pitching.

Back in 1985 Dave Steib had an era of 2.48 and pitched 265 innings and you'd think he'd have a won loss record of 20 - 7 or so; but, no all he did was go 14-13.
Possibly because so many of his teammates hated his guts because he was such a condescending, prima donna dick towards them all the time.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stiebda01.shtml

In contrast in 1992 Jack Morris pitched to an era of 4.04 for the Blue Jays; but went 21 - 6 in 240.2 innings.
I heard that Morris used to always pep talk the hitters and pat them on the back and constantly lobby them to death for hitting support during games and they responded.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/morrija02.shtml

Probability would imply that over the long haul support for different Jays pitchers would all even out; but, that's not the way it's working out.
Certain guys always get tons of run support while other guys hardly get any.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Why can't we start Price on Sunday instead of Monday?

I heard for 2 reasons.
First is that Price was unable to pitch his off day side session on Friday because he was travelling by car from Michigan and Price considers his off day side sessions to be of supreme importance in preparing for his pitching day.
Second, the Jays are trying to set up the rotation for the rest of the season.
If they rest him on Sunday, things line up so that Price starts 4 games against the Yankees over the rest of the season and good left handed pitchers do well in Yankee stadium for some reason because of how the stadium is configured.

 

[Nad Smith]

Kilgore Trout is correct and Elliot Rosewater and Billy Pilgrim would agree....the moment is structured that way

 

[SkyRider]

Starting this coming Friday, 6 games against the Yankees in 10 days. The Jays lost an opportunity to gain a game on the Yanks yesterday. Why do the Jays lose so many 1 run games?