TheHurl

But I've actually been giving out Lemonhead's and Tootsie pops (options weren't great and Chocolate costs a lot of money here for some reason). Only had the f***ing annoying neighbours kids show up. Halloween is a big deal here but most parents have to drive their kids to trick and treat. There are better neighbourhoods to hit than mine (this sounds funny in a town of 3,200 but there really are little neighbourhoods.

I've been showing any kids that came to the door Justin Verlander sex tapes. Halloween is really about teaching the children that even if you have a small penis you can still be an unreal pitcher

In 2009 while at Oregon LeGarette Blount was suspended for the season for punching a Boise State player during handshakes. In 2012 he lost his starting job with Tampa Bay to Doug Martin, a Boise State alum. In 2017 he will lose his starting job to Jay Ajayi, also from Boise State. Karma?

I'd put him more as the "most improved"

Gsnarls is lucky that I can't ban a moderator for spamming

But momentum... A little wager on the Dodgers might be in order if the price is right.

Vern Law and Bill Mazeroski say "f*** You"

That was fun

I wonder if playoffs are the same as regular season and they are charging almost nothing for ad rates

Jays fans would be screaming murder after that slide

Not as fun as a passed ball. All this power though and it was a hustle play by a catcher that led to the tying run

Wild pitch or passed ball?

Well I feel better now that I got Zaun's opinion

He is quite good...but I figure whoever comes in is going to give up 3 runs at least. Harris does have HR issues

what would the score be in the strike zone wasn't so big?

Will Harris coming in...this game is going to be tied really soon

How about Air Canada and we can call it Air Canada Centre

You know I agree, but the Players Association would insist on an appeal. Makes me wonder what it will take to get a post-season suspension (outside of drug suspensions of course)...Utley's was overturned, just a month after the PA agreed that there would have to be an attempt to stay on the bag as you slide (rule was changed because of this of course)

Fair decision on the Gurriel suspension IMO. If you suspend him for 2 games immediately he appeals and only ends up getting 2 games next season (what Pillar got for his slur). They give him 5 unpaid next year and it sets a new standard for this stuff. Would rather see the Astros step up and bench him but that isn't going to happen.

and the winner for shooting their load a little too quickly goes to... J4L19 congrats!

Not me at all, all Doug Fox. I wish he posted here more often (Clutchlings). He's done well to get legit interviews for his blog. I do think we could get some F.O. members to answer some questions if we just asked them. I know Angus was asked to do something for King's program at school and he said yes right away (Strike is likely affecting that ... sorry King) but we could easily send him questions or do a video chat and I think he'd answer what he can. Shapiro seems open to doing things for smaller blogs as well.

He's an interesting guy in that he'll just change everything for stretches. It would be great if he's the 140 wRC+ with a 12.5% BB rate and just 15% K Rate, monster in the field, that he's been in the second half. Or do we end up seeing 2015 or 2016 Puig who swings away and makes really dumb decisions.

I mentioned to Doug that BJMB has had some discussion about why Nutrition isn't pushed (in some cases is ignored) and asked him to talk to Shapiro or someone in the F.O. next time he has an interview. He responded that it is a story he is pursuing. Sorry for the poor format this was from a FB conversation. Good to see the Jays are trying to get ahead of the curve on this one. This is a topic I've researched but have yet to write about. In the course of my research, I've spoken to a number of Blue Jays prospects, as well as Director of High Performance Angus Mugford. And I can tell you that the club has made huge strides in this direction. There are High Performance staff at each affiliate, and an area of focus for this season has been proper diet and nutrition. I asked Angus how you get a low round draft pick who's playing for less than a 7-11 worker to get with the program, and he said those are the guys who are most motivated to find anything to give them an edge, and almost all of them have bought in. Rowdy Tellez said in an article in Fangraphs last year that he never really learned how to eat properly or cook for himself until last year. Here are some questions I asked Chris Rowley this year about the topic, with his responses below: 1. What (if anything) have you learned about nutrition since the high performance dep't came into being last year? 2. How hard is it to eat properly on a minor leaguer's salary, with all the training, playing, and travel you do? 3. What (if any) changes to your diet have you made since turning pro? 1. A lot. Nutrition is different for someone trying to get strong or improve body image, etc. compared to performance optimization. So what to eat, when to eat it, and in what quantities are in the majority of what I've learned in the past couple years. 2. It's obviously difficult because of the salary, not to mention the fact that we're home for a week, in a hotel for a week, and constantly back and forth. Oftentimes we're at the mercy of what visiting clubhouses have prepared for us, and at that point it becomes a choice of what's available to you and the fact that you need to eat. The jays do a good job of keeping spreads optimized at home. 3. The most significant change was putting on weight. I came out of the army around 185 pounds, and I needed to put on a lot of weight to get my velocity up and stay healthy throughout (hopefully) 162 games. So the challenge with that is making sure it's good weight. I pitched last year between 190-200, this year 210-215. Chris' response was above and beyond what I received from other players, but the sentiments were similar. As Mark told me, he hopes the HD Dept will help give the Jays a competitive advantage.

This Tony Kemp article makes really want to trade for Tony Kemp (just a pure student at all aspects of the game) but also makes me think that even the current front office is still behind the times when it comes to the new approaches to hitting. Jeff Albert (or Eric Cressey) should be the kind of hitting instructor teams are looking for (Masters in Exercise Science) https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/tony-kemp-on-hitting-the-astros-way/