GDT(3/3)Toronto Blue Jays @ Tampa Bay Rays - REYES!- Dickey vs Hernandez 12:10 PM ET

[Auldphartt]

Any series against teams ahead of us in our own division is obviously huge, but this one represents a chance to really tighten up the east.

 

Nice to start off with a fresh bullpen. Thanks R.A.

[Iluvbjs]

Agree, but our offense needs an upgrade imo, too many undisciplined hitters with poor plate approach means we go on stretches where we are easily shut down but pitchers who are not even pitching well, like this series.

 

I don't think so at all. We just have to be patient and wait for Reyes to get back into form and same when Lawrie returns. I mean when Lawrie returns, where do we have room for an upgrade ANYWHERE? Unless we go out and look for someone to play second base, we are more than fine anywhere else. The lineup we were going with was also good enough to win us 11 straight games and most of them handily. We've struggled a bit the last 3, but we always struggle against Tampa. Sop with this lineup, where do we improve?

 

Reyes

Cabrera

Bautista

Encarnacion

Lind

Rasmus

Lawrie

Bonafacio

JP*******

 

With a bench of Derosa, Izturis, Davis, Thole

 

I see no need for an upgrade anywhere unless we're going to trade for a new 2b or catcher...and I don't see any f***ing team dumb enough to take ******* off our hands, except the yanks maybe. don't mknow what their catching situation is, but they're dumb enough to take anyone with a heartbeat it seems.

[Metallijay]

I don't think so at all. We just have to be patient and wait for Reyes to get back into form and same when Lawrie returns. I mean when Lawrie returns, where do we have room for an upgrade ANYWHERE? Unless we go out and look for someone to play second base, we are more than fine anywhere else. The lineup we were going with was also good enough to win us 11 straight games and most of them handily. We've struggled a bit the last 3, but we always struggle against Tampa. Sop with this lineup, where do we improve?

 

Reyes

Cabrera

Bautista

Encarnacion

Lind

Rasmus

Lawrie

Bonafacio

JP*******

 

With a bench of Derosa, Izturis, Davis, Thole

 

I see no need for an upgrade anywhere unless we're going to trade for a new 2b or catcher...and I don't see any f***ing team dumb enough to take ******* off our hands, except the yanks maybe. don't mknow what their catching situation is, but they're dumb enough to take anyone with a heartbeat it seems.

 

I see the win streak gave some fans a false sense about this team..They are not as good as they were during that streak, and not as bad as they were in april, right now they are a .500 team that goes in too many bad stretches at the plate. Lawrie has not hit much in over a year. We need a betetr bat at second and catcher. We have too many undisciplined hitters, and Bautista has continued th struggle, his average below .250. We have too many low average hitters right now. This was a series 2 out of 3 was easily obtainable, but the offense went to sleep.

[Iluvbjs]

hoping for some help from the Rockies this afternoon.

 

Yeah, that sweep against Baltimore was HUGE, especially how they won those games. The bats were due for a letdown and I don't see that continuing for long.

 

Lester hasn't been pitching well at all lately and Bucholz is injured so we miss that ugly dick head. I like the matchups for us. Lester/Wang, Johnson/Webster, Doubront/Rogers and Buerhle/Dempster. I think 3 out of 4 isn't a bad bet. At worst a split I would hope.

[digiblader]

And they have a good shot--the Red Sox staff is far inferior to the Rays. And Buchholz won't be back anytime soon--and Lester continues to struggle badly.

[Metallijay]

And they have a good shot--the Red Sox staff is far inferior to the Rays. And Buchholz won't be back anytime soon--and Lester continues to struggle badly.

 

Problem is the sox are one of the best hitting teams in baseball............Lester though he is struggling usually owns the jays, won't be easy, bats need to wake up.

[digiblader]

Red Sox better pray that Salty doesn't cost he and the pitchers games--with Ross gone, defensively challenged Saltalamacchia is basically playing all the time right now and hurting the Sox pitchers.

 

And note to Reyes, Davis and Bonifacio--RUN! Salty is one of the worst at throwing baserunners out--at 19%(only Chris Ianetta of the Angels is worse)

[Iluvbjs]

I see the win streak gave some fans a false sense about this team..They are not as good as they were during that streak, and not as bad as they were in april, right now they are a .500 team that goes in too many bad stretches at the plate. Lawrie has not hit much in over a year. We need a betetr bat at second and catcher. We have too many undisciplined hitters, and Bautista has continued th struggle, his average below .250. We have too many low average hitters right now. This was a series 2 out of 3 was easily obtainable, but the offense went to sleep.

 

And that's going to happen, even against bad teams. The streak gave me no false sense of anything. The team absolutely hammered both Colorado AND Texas, with none of those games being close, except the 2-0 win against Colorado. Ups and downs are the norm in sports period. Don't know how much you follow, but I'd think you would know that. The norms we speak of are in the blue jays favor as the season progresses. With a power hitting team, the average is to be expected. Most teams who win their divisions will play .500 for a large part of the season, and go on 3 or 4 winning streaks like the one the jays just experienced.

 

I don't know what kind of upgrade yuo think the team can make at catcher, but if you know ANYTHING about baseball, you will see that for the most part, it is a weak spot on the roster of mostly all teams. You rarely ever see a team with a catcher even hitting in the top 6 in their lineup. At second, yeah, Boni hasn't come through, but do you really expect the team to be top notch at EVERY mposition. That seems a bit ridiculous to me. Bautista might be struggling a bit, but as long as he comes out of it, his WAR speaks for itself. He started this streak off by turning a loss into a win with that homer off CWS closer and he has done that two other times this year and we're not even halfway through. But when guys like that struggle, all you need is for one other guy to pick up the slack. That's what a winning team does and we have ALL the tools to accomplish that. For a few games it was Lind....Izturis himself was responsible for a win. Bautista pulled a gamefrom a loss into a win.....Encarnacion has done likewise. Even Kawasaki turned that potential demoralizing loss into an eventual win. So for as weak and undiscilined as you think this team is, they are equally as strong for a simple reason. TALENT. And the team is oozing with it from top to bottom and that includes Bonifacio. For as bad as he has defensively early on, I've seen him be equally spectacular. The only really weak link this team has is JPA. If you want to turn that into a team desperate to make upgrades due to their lack of discipline or whatever, then I think your being way too anxious and a wee bit deluded.

 

There was nothing about that streak that didn't REEK of PRECISELY what this team was chalked up to be. With Lind able to provide protection, and GREAT protection for Encarnacion right now, this team is primed to take this division bar injury. The bullpen is top notch and the starters have come arouind and the team is picking each other up onalmost every occasion lately. So they don't play well against a team they haven't played well against for five years now and all of a sudden it's time to start trading guys and making changes? Jesus Harold f***ing Christ! Once Lawrie comes back, our team gets better. We can afford to wait for his bat to come around. I mean, the kid struggles for half a season and its f***ing panic time on him???? REALLY? Because his bandwagon was tipping over and f***ing overloaded when he first came up just over a year ago...and now we've got people actually thinking because he struggling under .200 that he's a liability?

 

Watch baseball, every teams offense goes to sleep for short stretches and sometimes long ones. It f***ing happens! But when you have the talent, you don't rush to make changes, ESPECIALLY when the teams chemistry is just starting to mesh. So the solution is to mix it up? Because we're weak at 1 position where basically every team is weak at? Look at our lineup and put it up against just about any lineup in the majors and I don't have a worry in the world.

[digiblader]

It should be also noted that Boston is struggling--they're a .500 team in their last 10 and 20 games.