General 2019 Blue Jays Discussion Thread

[Boxcar]

Agreed. 2014 and 2015 are pretty much the same as his 2017 and 2018 in terms of the pitcher who he was. So I guess we all agree 2016 was a fluke?

 

Sure seems that way. Aaron Sanchez not being able to pitch is a good thing from a team performance standpoint as guys like Merryweather and Thornton, and probably Reid-Foley are better.

[Dick_Pole]

Oh yeah, worst case scenario is that we go just a week without Aaron Sanchez. Definitely no other scenarios to consider.

 

I don't get this. Are you being sarcastic and you think Sanchez will will miss more than a week? Or are you being serious and think that Sanchez and his 5+ ERA through 30 starts and 80 innings pitched is the worst case scenario for this team?

[Dick_Pole]

Over 75. .500 team here we come. The young guys will impress on the offensive side.

[Boxcar]

I don't get this. Are you being sarcastic and you think Sanchez will will miss more than a week? Or are you being serious and think that Sanchez and his 5+ ERA through 30 starts and 80 innings pitched is the worst case scenario for this team?

 

I was thinking both of those when I wrote it. I was first like "lol, yeah, Sanchez will only miss a week, ok" and then immediately thought "actually, the worst case scenario is that he doesn't miss any time at all"

 

So it's up to you how you want to interpret it.

[tercet]

0% chance of Gurribabip having 2.1 war, lock of the century

[GreekFatAss]

0% chance of Gurribabip having 2.1 war, lock of the century

 

Who? I never heard a player with that name?

[saskjayfan]

Sure seems that way. Aaron Sanchez not being able to pitch is a good thing from a team performance standpoint as guys like Merryweather and Thornton, and probably Reid-Foley are better.

 

Yeah, Merryweather is without a doubt better than Sanchez.

[Boxcar]

Yeah, Merryweather is without a doubt better than Sanchez.

 

Speaks to how awful Sanchez is that I can say that with confidence

[Slade]

Anyone go to the Diamond Talk thing this weekend with Shapiro?

[wamco]

Yes

[justafan]

So Ken Rosenthal on his twitter account is saying the blue jays are close to signing Bryce Harper to a 10 year contract.

I'm not sure if this twitter account is real so has any one else had this. Or is it ********. And why would they do this. And the mean the blue jays

 

What do you think it would cost to have Harper? I really like the idea. The Jays are young and Harper is only 26. I think 2 years from now the Jays could be quite good and until then exciting to watch. Further, the Jays need a face, one who is an everyday player and ranks in the top of the league. Pillar, Stroshow and Sanchez just can't do it and won't be around for long. Vlad jr doesn't speak any of Toronto's first 3 languages so he won't help Hazel or numbnuts. Harper is smart, respected and shows professionalism. He gets it! Just sayin.....

[Deadpool]

What do you think it would cost to have Harper? I really like the idea. The Jays are young and Harper is only 26. I think 2 years from now the Jays could be quite good and until then exciting to watch. Further, the Jays need a face, one who is an everyday player and ranks in the top of the league. Pillar, Stroshow and Sanchez just can't do it and won't be around for long. Vlad jr doesn't speak any of Toronto's first 3 languages so he won't help Hazel or numbnuts. Harper is smart, respected and shows professionalism. He gets it! Just sayin.....

 

a) Vlad Jr. is Canadian who was born in Canada, that'll rally enough casuals behind him, language be damned. Harper would be an amazing pickup for any team who are on the same development path as the Jays. I'd love it if the Jays made that splash, but it seems unlikely.

[Brownie19]

what are Toronto's first 3 languages?

[Grant77]

what are Toronto's first 3 languages?

 

Presumably English and French are the first two. I'm not sure about Toronto specifically, but Italian is the third most common language in Ontario.

[Captain Adama]

Presumably English and French are the first two. I'm not sure about Toronto specifically, but Italian is the third most common language in Ontario.

 

I'm guessing English, Italian and Chinese (probably Cantonese). In that order.

[Boxcar]

I'm guessing English, Italian and Chinese (probably Cantonese). In that order.

 

Punjabi, English and Cantonese, in order imo

[Grant77]

We certainly aren't going to find many or any MLB players that speak Punjabi or Cantonese.

[Boxcar]

We certainly aren't going to find many or any MLB players that speak Punjabi or Cantonese.

 

I know, which is why I thought it was silly to knock Vlad for not speaking them.

[Spanky99]

https://www.tsn.ca/in-the-batter-s-box-or-in-front-of-media-guerrero-jr-handling-everything-thrown-his-way-1.1244244

 

 

Scott Mitchell

 

 

TORONTO — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is all about baseball.

 

Not to sell the 19-year-old’s social life short, but there’s a reason the best prospect in baseball is exactly that.

 

Pressure, media, conditioning, expectations, service time … the questions roll off his back and it’s all a means to an end.

 

The goal is to be to one of the best hitters in baseball, an assessment the scouting world fully agrees with and a mountain some expect him to climb as soon as this season.

 

With expectations low for the Toronto Blue Jays as a whole, Guerrero Jr. will without a doubt become the main attraction … once he’s been held down at Triple-A long enough to gain an extra year of contractual control, keeping him in Toronto at least through the 2025 season.

 

“My focus is just on getting better,” Guerrero Jr. said as he faced the cameras on Winter Fest weekend at the Rogers Centre. “I’m never just thinking about making it to the big leagues. I’m really just working every day on what I need to be a better player.”

 

Guerrero, the player, is impressive.

 

What’s become evident as you watch the teenager interact, whether it’s with fans, media or otherwise, is there’s a calmness about him that says no stage is too big and the spotlight is something he enjoys.

 

“The experiences that he’s had in the last couple of years in terms of the attention that’s been drawn to him has not been the same for any other player that we’ve had,” said Gil Kim, director of player development for the Blue Jays. “Through it all, we feel like he’s handled those pressures and that attention very well. Vladdy’s upbringing with a Hall of Fame dad, with a big league uncle, in a town that’s particularly crazy for baseball, in a country that’s crazy for baseball, where these guys are superstars and legends; those experiences probably translate to his level of comfort in this type of environment.”

 

The evidence of all the work - don’t forget the natural talent helping him along - is there.

 

In his 2016 debut in the lower levels, Guerrero hit .271 with eight home runs in 62 games.

 

Not bad for a 17-year-old with zero professional experience.

 

The 2017 season brought even more production, as Vladdy slashed .323/.425/.485 with 13 homers in 119 games, pushing him from a player who could be a superstar to one that people expect to take that path.

 

This past season simply added an exclamation point.

 

Not much more can be written about what Junior did to Double-A, Triple-A and Arizona Fall League pitching, leaving him on the doorstep of his Major League debut as he approaches his 20th birthday next month.

 

His teammate with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats for more than half a season last summer, Cavan Biggio has seen it all up close.

 

“It just goes to show how great he is,” said Biggio, who’s expected to start the season with Guerrero in Triple-A and could get a call to Toronto at some point if he’s able to continue the success he had in 2018. “In the mix of how great of a player he is and the fact of who is father is, the whole story is so incredible. He’s just a natural phenomenon and someone who a lot of people are going to want to be fans of. Vladdy is a very special player. His mix of power and contact and his makeup, too.”

 

Finding a flaw with the bat in Guerrero’s hands is tough.

 

His plate discipline and pitch recognition are elite.

 

Same with the hit tool that would allow him to dig pitches out of the dirt with hard contact like his father became famous for if it weren’t for the fact that aforementioned pitch recognition means he doesn’t chase outside the zone often.

 

The power, usually the very last tool to develop in many cases, has also gradually increased year by year, and no one expects the big right-handed hitter to do anything but mash as he continues to mature and add strength into his twenties.

 

There are no ceilings.

 

Defensively, however, there’s work to be done, and while Guerrero Jr. will debut at the hot corner in April, it’s uncertain how long he’ll stay at third base.

 

How hard he works to make himself a better defender (and he has), how his body develops, as well as what the Blue Jays have coming up behind him in the system will help tell that story over the next couple of seasons.

 

“There are a lot of reasons to be encouraged, while at the same time we all recognize that there are definitely areas that he can continue to learn, grow and improve,” Kim said. “We’re confident that he’ll continue to raise his standards in order to be the best that he can possibly be.”

 

They’re somewhat minor complaints about a player whose value is going to be tied to his work at the plate.

 

“Everything is important,” Guerrero said. “I know that I am not perfect. I try to be perfect.

 

“(The Blue Jays) talk to me about getting better, so I just follow their lead. I hear what the tell me, and work on what they tell me.”

 

Biggio & Co. don’t dispute Vladito’s readiness, but they’re all jockeying to join him in the majors.

 

“We’ve got a lot of good players coming up, not only the great one, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.,” Biggio said with a smile. “You look at the guys that got called up last year, like Ryan Borucki and guys like Danny Jansen, who are very good and are going to be a part of this team for a long time. I think that we’ve got a couple other pieces to bring up this year that are going to be in Triple-A, Double-A. If everything goes right, I mean, we can surprise a lot of people this year, I think, and that’s exciting to say with as young of a team as we’re going to have.”​

[Spanky99]

https://www.tsn.ca/ten-quotes-that-matter-from-blue-jays-annual-winter-fest-weekend-1.1245078

 

TORONTO — With the weather outside Rogers Centre fully matching the name of the event inside the concrete jungle over the weekend, daydreaming about baseball was a nice escape for the 20,000-plus Blue Jays fans that showed up to rub shoulders and hear what the expectations are for 2019.

 

To the surprise of no one, the Jays are relishing the underdog role and feel like they could open some eyes a little earlier than expected with all of the young talent starting to arrive.

 

“The Boston Red Sox, like five years ago when Mookie Betts and them first came up, they finished last but you go, ‘They’re going to be good someday,’ that’s how I see our team and that’s how I saw Toronto last year watching from the other side [in Tampa],” new Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “They had a tough year but you’re looking around, ‘Wow, that team is going to be good someday,’…and then I got the job.”

 

While pulling off a surprise season will be a reach with a pitching staff that will have trouble getting enough outs over the course of 162 games, there’s undoubtedly some long-overdue upside on the roster, as the Jays have morphed from one of the oldest teams in baseball over the past calendar year to one chock full of twenty-somethings.

 

With just about the whole organization – save for Marcus Stroman, Kevin Pillar, Devon Travis and a few other veterans – under one roof, here are 10 noteworthy Winter Fest quotes to dissect:

 

1. Montoyo extremely high on Jansen behind the dish

 

Two straight seasons of impressive minor-league production put Danny Jansen on the prospect map, and his MLB debut last summer did nothing to slow that roll.

 

The 23-year-old’s .247/.347/.432 slash line in 31 games has Montoyo excited to see the progression with a full season of work at the game’s highest level.

 

The Jays have gone out of their way since the Russell Martin trade to not label Jansen as the set-in-stone starter, preferring to view it as a full-blown competition alongside incumbent backup Luke Maile and fellow prospect Reese McGuire.

 

That narrative is going to change as we get into spring training, and Jansen will be behind the plate as much as he can handle this season.

 

His new manager sees a sky-high ceiling.

 

“I’m very excited about ,” Montoyo said with a wide grin. “Watching him from the other side, I think he’s going to be very good. I think he’s going to be an all-star someday, an all-star catcher.”

 

2. Bichette ready to force Jays’ hand

 

At the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas last month, I asked Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins about the plan for Bo Bichette in 2019, specifically whether a full season at Triple-A with the Buffalo Bisons is in the cards.

 

While saying nothing is ever set in stone, Atkins allowed that it might be the ideal scenario for Bichette, who will turn 21 on March 5, 11 days before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. turns 20.

 

Now it’s on Bichette to go out and slash .300/.400/.500 in the first two months of the season and push for a promotion.

 

“They have their opinion, but all I can do is go out there and play my game,” Bichette said. “For me, it’s just going out there and getting better and, like you said, force their hand and get up here at some point.”

 

Once the fan base is done clamouring for Vladdy Jr. in April, Bichette will be next.

 

3. Rebuild is not a word Montoyo wants to use

 

The Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays to win, place and show, with the Baltimore Orioles limping down the stretch to a last place finish.

 

That’s how most will handicap the AL East race today, tomorrow and on opening day March 28.

 

Montoyo and the Blue Jays aren’t taking a fourth-place approach.

 

“We’re not going to use that rebuilding word,” the 53-year-old manager said. “We’re just going to play games, and that’s how they see it, too. We’ve got good kids, and the older guys Kevin Pillar and Justin Smoak they’re outstanding guys so it’s going to be fun.

 

“I’ve been in this division now for a while and I’ve seen it. If you do your job, you don’t have to worry about what the other teams do. I saw it with the Rays and that’s what we’re going to do here.”

 

4. Gurriel Jr. will have to work to keep shortstop job

 

At this point, it seems like a foregone conclusion Lourdes Gurriel Jr. will be manning the shortstop position on opening day.

 

After all, light-hitting Richard Urena and minor-league free-agent signing Eric Sogard are the only other options.

 

While no one is doubts LGJ's ability to hit, the glove needs to catch up, which is the reason the Jays are hesitant to hand him the position.

 

In 46 games at short last season, Gurriel’s .955 fielding percentage and minus-9 Defensive Runs Saved told a story of subpar leather work. With Montoyo emphasizing infield defence this season, the 25-year-old Cuban’s leash, pardon the pun, will be short.

 

“We’re going to move around, that’s the kind of team we have,” Montoyo said when asked if he viewed Gurriel as his opening-day shortstop. “We can move guys around. That’s going to be good for them, also, because more chances to play. Right now, we’re not set on anybody playing anywhere yet. I mean, Smoak’s going to be at first, you know that.”

 

5. Defence the focus for Hernandez

 

While there are some moving parts on the dirt, the story on the grass is much different.

 

Montoyo will have to figure out how to mix and match the strengths of his current group of four outfielders: Kevin Pillar, Randal Grichuk, Teoscar Hernandez and Billy McKinney.

 

The 26-year-old Hernandez showed prodigious power in his first full major-league season — 22 homers and a team-leading .229 ISO — but he struck out too much (163 times) and struggled defensively in left field.

 

His trouble with the glove was surprising, considering the reports on his way up through the Houston Astros’ system never hinted at what showed up in 2018.

 

Hernandez’s minus-16 DRS pointed him out as the seventh-worst outfield defender in baseball, leading him to a 14-game stint in the Dominican Winter League where defence was the focus.

 

“I’ve been working on my defence down there, making some adjustments,” Hernandez said. “It’s working. I had a really good winter ball season and I’m just excited to be back and keep working.”

 

6. Giles works on mental preparation

 

With the game on the line in 2018, Ken Giles was lights out.

 

When your title is “closer,” that’s a good thing.

 

But a 0.35 ERA and just 13 hits allowed in his 26 saves completely flipped when Giles entered the game in a non-save situation.

 

When he wasn’t protecting a lead of three or less, Giles ERA was a bloated 9.12 with 41 hits allowed in 24.2 innings.

 

Giles didn’t have an explanation for those splits when the season ended, so he spent the winter searching for one as he focused on the mental side of his game.

 

“I think that’s the hardest thing to realize – that if you need something, you should ask for that help,” said Giles, who enlisted the help of his agent and wife, among others, in an effort to help sharpen his focus and figure things out. “That’s probably the hardest thing I had to do this year, but so far so good. I think I’m better than I was two years ago, three years ago. I feel like I’m back to who I was when I broke out in the big leagues now.”

 

If Giles, who has two years of contract control remaining, can find a groove in the first half of the season, the Jays will have an intriguing trade chip to peddle in July.

 

7. Sanchez aiming to be ready from Day 1

 

From blisters to strained finger tendons to freak suitcase injuries, the last two years have not been kind to Aaron Sanchez and his right hand.

 

Sanchez has now reached a point where lip service elicits eye rolls – he’ll have to prove his health on the mound over and over again this season – but the 26-year-old feels a solution has been found after September surgery to repair the UCL in his right index finger.

 

“I anticipate being fully healthy coming into spring training, and if I'm not, I’m a week behind and I’m on the mound the next week,” Sanchez said. “As far as I am in my routine now, I'm on pace to be ready to go.”

 

It’s a healthy dose of optimism, chased with a shot of realism, if he is in fact a little bit behind when pitchers and catchers report to Dunedin on Feb. 14.

 

8. Merryweather not fazed by Donaldson deal

 

It was clear Julian Merryweather knew what the line of questioning was going to be.

 

A couple queries into his first scrum as a member of the Blue Jays, it was lobbed his way by a tall, bald reporter: Do you feel any sort of pressure being traded for Josh Donaldson, a former AL MVP?

 

“It’s MVP or bust this year,” the 6-foot-4 right-hander said with a laugh.

 

The Jays will simply take a healthy campaign in the 27-year-old’s return from Tommy John surgery, a procedure he underwent last March as a member of the Cleveland Indians.

 

That recovery has Merryweather flying under the radar as a potential rotation piece for the Jays this season.

 

When Merryweather is cleared to return to the mound at some point this spring, he’ll enter into a battle with names like Trent Thornton, Jacob Waguespack, Thomas Pannone, Sean Reid-Foley and Sam Gaviglio as depth options behind a starting rotation that’s expected to be made up of Stroman, Sanchez, Ryan Borucki and off-season additions Matt Shoemaker and Clayton Richard.

 

9. Biggio impressed with Vlad, impressive himself

 

Cavan Biggio’s birth certificate says he’ll turn 24 on April 11, but all it takes is one conversation with Craig’s kid to realize he’s mature beyond his years and has inherited his dad’s leadership qualities.

 

One of the more interesting dynamics right now within the organization is each and every prospect being completely overshadowed by one Vladimir Guerrero Jr., leading to an abundance of questions to answer about a teammate rather than themselves.

 

To their credit, Bichette and Biggio seem to enjoy the attention being deflected.

 

“He keeps things very simple and I don’t think he’s going to let the hype get to him,” Biggio said about Vlad Jr. “He’s already been very hyped up with all the media before this year and he just went out there and just had a better year than the previous years. I don’t think it’s ever going to get to him.”

 

Every successful organization needs a Dustin Pedroia type, and don’t be surprised if it’s Biggio trotting out in front of the cameras to answer the tough questions down the road in Toronto.

 

10. Smoak not bothered by trade rumours

 

If Justin Smoak is in a Blue Jays uniform come August, something went wrong.

 

Heading into the final year of his contract at $8 million, there were trade rumours swirling around the big first baseman over the winter, and that likely won’t stop until the trade deadline has come and gone.

 

Part of the business, the affable Smoak said over the weekend.

 

“Everybody’s in trade rumours I feel like now. Going into the off-season and during the off-season, I felt like I wasn’t going to go anywhere, but at the same time you never know. Something good could come up and they have to. You just gotta keep your head down and keep doing what you’re doing. If you get traded, you get traded. If you don’t, you don’t.”

 

Returns for corner bats have diminished over the years, but there should be a market for Smoak if he can continue tapping into the power/on-base combo that’s led to seasons of 133 and 121 wRC+ in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Edited January 23, 2019 by Spanky99

[Spanky99]

Great video in this link, also... https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/extremely-special-roy-halladay-earns-rightful-place-hall-fame/

 

TORONTO – On the days Roy Halladay pitched, his legendary cone of silence extended even to his catcher, which meant the game-planning discussion battery-mates typically share in the leadup to an outing had to take place the previous night. Ken Huckaby, the ace right-hander’s primary catcher during his breakthrough 2002 season, hadn’t experienced anything like it with a starter before and wouldn’t again afterwards, learning to adjust to the most unique routine he’d ever encountered. Every pitcher was a little bit different – and no one more so than Doc.

 

"Just before warmups I would just walk by him and ask, ‘Anything changed?’ He would shake his head no and I would walk away," recalls Huckaby, who caught Halladay 30 times during the 2002, ’03 and ’05 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays. "Then we’d start our pre-game together and as we were walking in from the bullpen, I’d whisper in his ear, ‘I’ve got your back.’ He wouldn’t say a word and then we’d go to work.

 

"With the talks we had, I always asked him why he didn’t talk on game days and he always said he didn’t believe he could live up to the hype he was getting – it was actually nervous energy. So, he stayed super-focused because he wasn’t sure he could live up to the hype around him."

 

Over the course of 416 big-league games across parts of 16 seasons, Halladay more than lived up to the hype, surviving an early career demotion from the majors to A-ball to rebuild himself physically and mentally into one of the most universally respected pitchers of his generation.

 

Word of his election to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday – along with Mariano Rivera, the first player voted in unanimously by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina – came as little surprise to those touched by his greatness, his place among the best to play the game wholly deserved. Still, melancholy tinged the due recognition given that Cooperstown’s call came just 13-and-half months after he died in a plane crash at age 40.

 

"I feel excitement for him, excitement that it’s happening, humbled by the knowledge that I was able to be a part of it in some small way, and obviously sad and disappointed that he’s not here to experience it, even though he’d probably be quiet and not really know what to say about the acknowledgement of who he was and what he did for the game," says Huckaby. "I’m proud of the friendship we were able to build in the three years I was with him in Toronto, and the friendship we were able to continue after we were done playing.

 

"He was extremely special."

 

While Halladay is expected to become the second player enshrined in the Hall as a member of the Blue Jays – during an Aug. 14, 2016 visit to Toronto, he said, "I’d go as a Blue Jay," without hesitation when asked which logo he’d want on his plaque – he’s the first player drafted and developed by the organization to be so honoured.

 

Such a trajectory seemed unlikely when in the spring of 2001 he was sent all the way down to single-A Dunedin, a decision he told me in a November 2015 interview completely blindsided him.

 

"I had no idea, absolutely no idea," he said then. "You know, the year before (2000) was horrid, but to my recollection, that spring training wasn’t awful. I mean I had a few bad games, or a bad game or two, but I don’t remember it being extremely bad that I was really worried about something happening. So I was completely shocked, and I really didn’t know what to say to them, I honestly didn’t… The whole time I felt I was hovering above myself, looking at myself in that chair. That feeling. Once we got out of that meeting, I went and sat in one of the bathroom toilet stalls and shut the door, and I waited for everybody to leave the clubhouse that day before I came out to change. I was just… I was so embarrassed and I think a lot that was extremely motivating for me later in my career. Going through that experience was – I mean honestly for the first few months it gave me nightmares. And it was something that for the rest of my career I would avoid at all costs."

 

Halladay said his wife, Brandy, stumbled upon Harvey Dorfman’s The Mental Game of Baseball in a bookstore soon after the demotion and once he started reading it, immediately felt as if it had been written for him. He completely bought into the need to remake his approach to the game and under the guidance of Mel Queen, adjusted his arm slot to create the vicious downward movement on a sinker that caused nightmares for big-league hitters.

 

"The mental stuff made an instant impact, but to learn how to apply it and to use it constantly and where to use it, that took… well it took another 15 years and it still wasn’t perfect," said Halladay. "But it took me to where I really believed it, it took me a good two months. And you know it’s funny, it kind of all came together. I had been talking to Harvey on the phone, and I had been studying the book and doing some work stuff he had me doing, and I got up there and saw Mel Queen, and he motivated me some more. But once he made those mechanical changes, we threw nine bullpens in 10 days, and I saw the movement and where the ball was going, and that combined with the new mental approach that I had been working on was like supreme confidence. And the first time I went out and threw like that, it was just a completely different feeling."

 

A 3.16 ERA in 17 games, 16 of them starts, to finish out the 2001 season set Halladay up for his 239.1-innings, 2.93-ERA breakthough in 2002, when Huckaby first encountered him.

 

Aside from needing to do his pre-game planning with Halladay a day early, Huckaby also had to get used to not talking during the warm-up in the bullpen. With virtually all other pitchers, he’d discuss "which pitch looks good, which pitch doesn’t look good, which pitch we need to stick with if it shows up during a game, maybe go through a sequence to the three-hitter one time, a bunch of different scenarios."

 

Often, game-plans would be tweaked based on what was happening in the bullpen, but not with Halladay. "That’s just a tribute to who Roy was," says Huckaby. "His stuff was just that good."

 

"There are usually one or two guys per staff at the big-league level that can locate the way Doc did," adds Huckaby. "But the one thing Doc mastered that in my opinion every pitcher should master is a pitch he could throw with his eyes closed whenever he wanted to, so he could be as creative as he wanted to in all counts because he could get back in the count with that pitch. That changes the whole dynamic of the count and that’s what made him so tough to hit."

 

For Halladay, that pitch was his sinker in to righties and away from lefties, which when not taken for a strike, usually caused hitters to weakly drive the ball directly into the ground.

 

On rare occasions, when Halladay was off a tick, Huckaby would "muster up the courage" to make a mound visit, and silence was mostly the norm at those times, too.

 

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, I would literally just stand there and not say a word while I was there, he would take advantage of that time, gather himself, reset the wheel of thinking he would talk about," says Huckaby. "Then he’d look at me with a few choice words, ask me what I was still doing there and then I’d run back."

 

Over time, as their rapport both on and off the field grew – they’d sit together on the plane, eat dinner on the road and pal around with Pete Walker, then a right-hander who’d go on to become the team’s pitching coach – they ended up with a deeper understanding of how to work together. Halladay’s ERA of 2.51 with Huckaby behind the plate is the best among the 12 catchers to have handled him for more than five times (Carlos Ruiz was his most frequent catcher at 80 games, while Gregg Zaun was second at 75).

 

"We always had communication in-game but it was through his stuff during the games," says Huckaby. "We didn’t really have to verbalize it because we did talk a lot during the other four days that he wasn’t pitching. I knew him from the way he talked about how he felt when his stuff was doing certain things. And he wasn’t above screaming at me during games from the mound. I found out after he retired that one of the reasons he liked throwing to me was because I would laugh at him when he was yelling at me, which actually relaxed him.

 

"If he threw a bad pitch, he’d be screaming at me not to call that pitch again. And I would just laugh because I couldn’t hear him 90 per cent of the time – I could just see the look on his face and that he was screaming. But evidently me laughing and not getting defensive relaxed him, it showed him I wasn’t worried about what’s going on, so he shouldn’t worry."

 

Really, it was opposing hitters who had cause to worry. Halladay became an all-star for the first time in 2002 while leading the league in innings for the first time. In 2003, he won the American League Cy Young award while winning a career-best 22 games and logging a league-high 266 innings in the Steroid-Era American League East meat-grinder.

 

A decade of unrivalled dominance was on and that the Blue Jays didn’t do more with one of if not the best pitcher of his generation is among the most significant missed opportunities in franchise history. By the time he forced a trade to the Philadelphia Phillies after the 2009 season, it was impossible to fault him for wanting to be part of a winner before the inevitable decline each athlete faces set in.

 

In Philadelphia, he finally made the post-season appearances he so wanted – "I would have given my left arm to have the team we have now, it would have been a dream come true," he said during that 2016 visit to Toronto – and once his body gave out, he signed a one-day contract so he could retire with the Blue Jays.

 

"Honestly it wasn’t so much a decision, it’s kind of the way that I looked at myself, I felt like I was a Blue Jay," said Halladay. "I just felt that I had this unique opportunity for a couple years to have a chance to chase a dream. But you knew I felt my roots, and everything else, and everything I had become and everybody that helped me become, that was all in Toronto. So it wasn’t like I had to sit down and make a decision. It was honestly the way I thought of myself."

 

And now Halladay is what so many thought of him as – a Hall of Famer.

[Deadpool]

"... a pitching staff that will have trouble getting enough outs over the course of 162 games." I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the pitching staff is going to get exactly the right number of outs. The issue will be what happens between those outs.

[Boxcar]

"... a pitching staff that will have trouble getting enough outs over the course of 162 games." I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the pitching staff is going to get exactly the right number of outs. The issue will be what happens between those outs.

 

Pitching staff is generally used interchangeably with rotation. The writer appears to be stating that a lot of the outs will fall to the bullpen.

[Deadpool]

Pitching staff is generally used interchangeably with rotation. The writer appears to be stating that a lot of the outs will fall to the bullpen.

 

Meh, I'm just salty the he thought keeping Gurriel on a short leash was somehow a pun.

[tercet]

Meh, I'm just salty the he thought keeping Gurriel on a short leash was somehow a pun.

 

Stoeten and GROF are the only writers/bloggers/twitter crowd that will say anything bad about any blue jays players. Instead you s*** like what Mitchell wrote above stating that Gurribabip can hit, lol.

 

Stoeten noted on the last BAD hes gonna have an article out soon on Gurribabip, and why is a flawed player that is doomed to probably fail.

[Todd]

Is it just me or is this management team getting slowing and slowing at improving it.

I think they can not decide if the jays should go completely young or older.

My opinion is they should go completely young and let the team grow together.

And as they get better then add. They have the pieces.

For example

Vlad Guerrero

Cavan Biggio

Bo Bichette

Dan Jansen

Lourdes Gurriel

Ryan Borucki

Sean Reid Foley

Rowdy Tellez

As of right now they have two things to help

improve the team. More starters and a

deeper bullpen.

[Carlos Danger]

Presumably English and French are the first two. I'm not sure about Toronto specifically, but Italian is the third most common language in Ontario.

 

I was just triggered. French is not one of Toronto's top 3 languages, not even sure if top 4 or 5.. Yet Canada's draconian language laws force companies to provide service, products etc in French, even though there are other languages that would be much more beneficial to the community and or business owners.

 

Ok, I just melted...going to my safe space to decompress, rant over.

[Jimcanuck]

Is it just me or is this management team getting slowing and slowing at improving it.

I think they can not decide if the jays should go completely young or older.

My opinion is they should go completely young and let the team grow together.

And as they get better then add. They have the pieces.

For example

Vlad Guerrero

Cavan Biggio

Bo Bichette

Dan Jansen

Lourdes Gurriel

Ryan Borucki

Sean Reid Foley

Rowdy Tellez

As of right now they have two things to help

improve the team. More starters and a

deeper bullpen.

 

It's just you.

[SaskJaysFan_2]

Is it just me or is this management team getting slowing and slowing at improving it.

I think they can not decide if the jays should go completely young or older.

My opinion is they should go completely young and let the team grow together.

And as they get better then add. They have the pieces.

For example

Vlad Guerrero

Cavan Biggio

Bo Bichette

Dan Jansen

Lourdes Gurriel

Ryan Borucki

Sean Reid Foley

Rowdy Tellez

As of right now they have two things to help

improve the team. More starters and a

deeper bullpen.

 

You need two to tango. By that I mean you need to have another team willing to trade for Smoak, Morales, etc. They are essentially worthless. Are you suggesting we just cut them, ala Tulo?

 

 

For me, I would cut Morales. Smoak? Man, he's pretty good but if a Cron gets DFAed, Smoak has no worth. I would trade him for almost anything.

 

I am very, very anxious to get rid of Pillar. I want to throw Alford and Pompey into the fire and see what doesn't suck.

[Bobthe4th]

Wtf: