Blue Jays vs. Royals AL Championship Thread

[eastcoastjaysfan]

It's 100% on the starting pitching.

 

I'm still confident the bats will show up... but their approach seems to switch instantly to swinging for the fences as soon as they get down early. We desperately need to shut them out early in the game. No stupid defensive mistakes, no walks... also for the love of god DO NOT THROW ESCOBAR A STRIKE.

[BigCecil]

It's 100% on the starting pitching.

 

I'm still confident the bats will show up... but their approach seems to switch instantly to swinging for the fences as soon as they get down early. We desperately need to shut them out early in the game. No stupid defensive mistakes, no walks... also for the love of god DO NOT THROW ESCOBAR A STRIKE.

 

^ Simply put. Yup. They have to get back to playing like they were for most of the 2nd half RFN.

[Olerud363]

Escobar having series of his life. Maddening. He isn't that good. We don't have anyone in our line up....yet....red hot like they are.

 

I guess I know how the Brave's felt when Pat Borders whipped them... I know old guy talking about the past.

 

It just frustrates me that there will be a "Escobar plays the game the right way crap coming from Harold Reynolds"

 

Reynolds - "and this is why Billy Beane's teams have never made a world series, the Jays led the league in walks and it's killing them, they're just too patient for the playoffs. You gotta get the on base percentage way down for the playoffs. The Royals don't walk and that's why they're going to the World Series... Toronto has to stop walking if they want to go further"

 

I am only half kidding here... Reynolds said stuff that wasn't quite that bad.. but almost.

[EMK19]

BTW, Hasn't ALL of our errors/error like plays ended up being driven in so far? Maybe I missed something here and there but from my memory EVERY SINGLE fielding mistake has gone punished by the Royals. Gotta say I've never seen this before, since a team usually gets away with a few over a 4 game spell. Royals have simply been ruthless in being opportunistic, gotta credit them for that.

 

Quite ironic too considering that it was us that had benefitted from those Andrus errors to get into this series in the first place...

[Olerud363]

Harold Reynolds "The royals are getting the game back to where it should be, they don't walk, they hit their way on, that's the way the game is meant to played."

 

I'm not kidding he said something very close to that... did anybody else hear it??

[Stangstag]

I think a HUGE factor so far has been the errors. The team played solid defense during the season, making maybe 1 error a week. Now they seem to make 1-2 errors per game. Its really killing them.

[Stangstag]

Harold Reynolds "The royals are getting the game back to where it should be, they don't walk, they hit their way on, that's the way the game is meant to played."

 

I'm not kidding he said something very close to that... did anybody else hear it??

 

I just tune him out now. I don't even listen to what he says anymore.

[BigCecil]

Escobar having series of his life. Maddening. He isn't that good. We don't have anyone in our line up....yet....red hot like they are.

 

I guess I know how the Brave's felt when Pat Borders whipped them... I know old guy talking about the past.

 

Another old guy here and when I wrote that about Escobar I was going to mention Borders....Scutaro and aging Renteria. In a short series someone has to get smoking hot for you and its often not the big bats. We need to pitch the games of our lives and we need some crazy hitting...a guy or two need to get blistering hot.

 

I don't listen to Reynolds. I just cant. Makes me throw up in my mouth.

[eastcoastjaysfan]

I think a HUGE factor so far has been the errors. The team played solid defense during the season, making maybe 1 error a week. Now they seem to make 1-2 errors per game. Its really killing them.

 

Crowd noise/pressure/expectations. People can harp on and on about the quantitative aspects of the game.. but these guys are still human.

 

The crowd played a massive role in game 3 when Cueto melted down. He let his emotions get the best of him. We've been the same way on the defensive side (i.e. Joey trying to be a hero in the first inning the other day, Goins trying to cover 50 meters to get the pop fly in game 2).

 

Stop trying to be a hero and play fundamental baseball.

[DonnysManbun]

Today is the big one. Need 7 innings of work from Estrada. I believe price will come good a second chance in Kaufman. Then it's stro in game 7, if we make it to that I'm happy either way. It's doable, let's do it.

[Jonn]

Feel good about today. Have to get out of the first inning and we need a strong pitching performance. Will be posting the GDT once the lineups are out.

[Flashman]

As good as the Royals are, there is this feeling that everything that could go wrong for the Jays has gone wrong: unlikely errors, outlier starter implosions vs outlier stud starts , stupidly cold bats vs stupidly hot bats... The Jays are due some baseball karma.

 

Last night was pretty devastating, but everyone needs to shake it off.

 

Three game series. Jays have to sweep it. Our three best pitchers on the mound, Sanchez and Osuna available, and still the best-hitting lineup of MLB. If this were the regular season, we'd fancy our chances. It's certainly not a 1 in 100 situation, and there are few other teams in the league you'd bet on doing it.

 

G'wan Jays.

[jays4life19]

I'll do the GDT today....it's been ages since i did one. I'll include scouting reports and everything. yay!

[jays4life19]

Feel good about today. Have to get out of the first inning and we need a strong pitching performance. Will be posting the GDT once the lineups are out.

 

Oh Jonny pretty please let me do the GDT. Oh please Jonny, please...

[KingKat]

 

Estrada, Price, and Stro will all need to pitch the game of their lives, they all really need to go 7 deep 2/3 runs or less each and keep us in the ballgame. They've figured out everyone from our pen so they really need to be minimized in use if at all possible.

 

Starters need to go deep or offense needs to put up a crooked number. If ever there was a time for Gibby to let go of his obsession with the 100 pitch limit this would be it but everything I've seen from Gibbons indicates that he is determined to manage the game exactly the same way he did in the regular season even if everything around him goes up in flames. Not only does he stick to the 100 pitch limit but he also divides his pen into the guys who pitch with the lead and the guys who pitch when we're trailing which is how Ryan Tepera and Latroy Hawkins end up going into the game before Mark Lowe in a game that's still close.

[BigCecil]

Starters need to go deep or offense needs to put up a crooked number. If ever there was a time for Gibby to let go of his obsession with the 100 pitch limit this would be it but everything I've seen from Gibbons indicates that he is determined to manage the game exactly the same way he did in the regular season even if everything around him goes up in flames. Not only does he stick to the 100 pitch limit but he also divides his pen into the guys who pitch with the lead and the guys who pitch when we're trailing which is how Ryan Tepera and Latroy Hawkins end up going into the game before Mark Lowe in a game that's still close.

 

^ in bold. I actually think he is bipolar. He is either twitchy erratic like when he pulled RA up 7-1 against TEX to insert Price or in Game 3 when he burned all our high leverage arms in a game we were way up in..... OR he manages like we are in the 3rd game of a July home stand where we won the first two.

[candymartinez]

So what is going on with Loup? Can't they just say he's hurt and take him off the roster?

 

Bring up Hutch or Francis. Anyone. What if the Jays are up 10 in the late innings today? Going to burn through Osuna and Sanchez?

[KingKat]

So what is going on with Loup? Can't they just say he's hurt and take him off the roster?

 

Bring up Hutch or Francis. Anyone. What if the Jays are up 10 in the late innings today? Going to burn through Osuna and Sanchez?

 

Shouldn't there be a bereavment list in the playoffs? That would simplify things. Of course we don't actually know what the f*** is going on so maybe a more comprehensive Personal List would be better.

[EMK19]

Starters need to go deep or offense needs to put up a crooked number. If ever there was a time for Gibby to let go of his obsession with the 100 pitch limit this would be it but everything I've seen from Gibbons indicates that he is determined to manage the game exactly the same way he did in the regular season even if everything around him goes up in flames. Not only does he stick to the 100 pitch limit but he also divides his pen into the guys who pitch with the lead and the guys who pitch when we're trailing which is how Ryan Tepera and Latroy Hawkins end up going into the game before Mark Lowe in a game that's still close.

 

Going by percentages I think the starters will have to carry the team more so than the hitters for the next 3 games... as I said earlier I think it's very difficult for any lineup to sustain crooked numbers for 3 straight games... it'd be nice but I'd say we would have better chances with our starters pitching three straight well pitched games, we all know it's well within their capabilities (Estrada/Price/Stro). I'm sure there will be at least one game from the next possible three that will need a lights out, stellar pitching performance from somebody, we'll need to win at least one close low scoring ball game. And if offence does come alive for one or more of those games hopefully it doesn't fall on the day where we don't really need all of those runs.

[Stangstag]

So what is going on with Loup? Can't they just say he's hurt and take him off the roster?

 

Bring up Hutch or Francis. Anyone. What if the Jays are up 10 in the late innings today? Going to burn through Osuna and Sanchez?

 

Day off tomorrow, doesn't matter if they have to pitch today.

[EMK19]

The question is whether Sanchez and Osuna would be effective enough out there with their blister/nail issues... but I guess it's not like we have any other choice in the pen for the matter. This is more so the reason why our starters really, really need to come up big and go long as possible the next (hopefully) three games.

[Jonn]

Oh Jonny pretty please let me do the GDT. Oh please Jonny, please...

 

I'm 3-0 in elmination games *******.

[EMK19]

Let's do the reverse of '85. Estrada shutout in game 5, win a close one in game 6 and get a Russell Martin wind blown triple to put it away.

[IBTrini]

Shouldn't there be a bereavment list in the playoffs? That would simplify things. Of course we don't actually know what the f*** is going on so maybe a more comprehensive Personal List would be better.

His absence is still shrouded in mystery however this was posted on Oct 14th:

 

"It's a family matter, it's a delicate thing for us to even talk about it," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "We're there to support him with whatever he needs."

[EMK19]

The weird thing with Loup's

Situation is that even an illness/death in the family kind of situation usually gets disclosed publically. The Jays seem to be trying their very best to not disclose any kind of information on this at all, and its very odd that he was never placed on the bereavement list, if it IS indeed a medical emergency in the family. For it to not be disclosed in any way at all like this makes me think that there may be a possibility that his family is involved in some sort of serious legal issues that they don't want blowing over publically, but I won't speculate any further than that. But this certainly seems out of the ordinary here, to be MIA on two separate occasions without notice over such a short time period.

Edited October 21, 2015 by EMK19

[jays4life19]

I'm 3-0 in elmination games *******.

 

0-1 in the ALCS.

Also you made the GDT with this exact same pitching match up and we lost

Also i have the better GDT history winning %

Also I love you Jonn <3

[Angrioter]

What the hell is happening with Aaron Loup?

[HERPDERP]

What the hell is happening with Aaron Loup?

 

It's kind of odd really. His situation was OK enough to come back for the first few games of the ALCS, but has the situation deteriorated so much that he is not available for game 4 and 5?. Or is he giving up because he knows he sucks and we are unlikely to comeback that he is calling it quits.

[intentional wok]

Yeah, I'll give Aaron Loup the benefit of the doubt and say something pretty bad is happening and that it's absolutely none of our business. MLB should have contingencies for stuff like this.

[HERPDERP]

Yeah, I'll give Aaron Loup the benefit of the doubt and say something pretty bad is happening and that it's absolutely none of our business. MLB should have contingencies for stuff like this.

 

The problem is, it will be abused considerably.

 

There is nothing stopping a player faking a personal issue just so that he team can sneak in roster changes.