Laika

Yeah I was surprised Gonzalez was even on the roster. Very bad move. Equivalent to if Gibbons had called on Tepera in a close game for some reason.

Pretty hard to ask someone to lay down a bunt so good that it foils a cognizant and crashing Adrian Beltre. I wouldn't call it "bad". I mean, he didn't pop it up, so that was good.

Nah. The Rangers had the wheel play on (which is the reason Pompey pinch ran at that point) and, after a firm bunt, Beltre made a perfect throw that beat Pompey by like 5 feet. Beltre, as per usual, played his position perfectly.

106-MPH, 431-feet (JB) 110-MPH, 436-feet (EE)

It was also clear very early that Toronto was right on Holland, and he had Colby Lewis and Gallardo that he could have gone to. But he left Holland in for another inning+ and he ended up giving up 6 runs.

I thought Bannister made a mistake showing Diekman and Dyson to Toronto with his team down by so much in game 4. I know he wanted to give his best relievers work with the off day on Tuesday, but he just gave the Blue Jays another look and more information on his relief aces. Dyson faced Revere-Donaldson-Bautista-Encarnacion in game 4 in the 8th inning, with his team down 8-2. Then the very next game, those same Toronto hitters get the same pitcher. Same look. It might have been the difference.

It's a fact that the Blue Jays think it's easier to scout amateur pitching. I don't think it's about a lack of development. They just draft a lot of arms. On one hand, it's not a good approach because of the failure and attrition rate of pitching. High school pitching is the riskiest of the four main draft prospect types. But on the other hand, pitching makes for very fluid trade currency because every team in baseball always will covet controllable pitching, to some extent. Whereas if you have a hitting prospect at a specific position, you might simply not line up with teams that have depth at that position. Also, if the organization truly is better at scouting pitchers then that could overcome the attrition "risk" of amateur arms and make selecting them more often a viable strategy. Further, you need to invest in pitching somewhere. Maybe it's a more sensible prospecting strategy to load up on arms, and try to create a pipeline. Even if many of them fail, as they will, you should have more cheap ones coming. And then when it comes to the major league payroll you can invest heavily in hitting there, in the place where the injury risk of pitchers really hurts when you get dinged by it. This is ostensibly what the Blue Jays do, from the outside looking in. They spend most of their amateur budget (~$10M) per year on a truck of amateur pitching, let it develop over time, and spend most of their major league payroll in any given year on hitters. Vlad Guerrero jr. might have been a slight deviation from the normal plan, but they still had 4 of their top 5 rule 4 draft players as pitchers.

Estrada was in the pen with his 80 grade changeup. He made Fielder look goofy on it numerous times in game 3. Also could have called on Osuna a bit earlier so Sanchez at least never faced Fielder and Moreland, who both ended up reaching base. Even if you have to finish the game with Mark Lowe in that scenario, that's probably a better use of the bullpen. There were a number of things they could have done.

And me! We were talking about it before the game. http://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/threads/5543-Blue-Jays-vs-Rangers-ALDS-Thread/page22?p=779968#post779968 Just retarded to let Sanchez face the lefties.

Jose. It was a legendary moment. They should commission a massive bronze mural of his bat flip and cement it to the exterior of the RC somewhere. Or make a fountain around it or something. MVP for that alone.

Wasn't Russ. It was either J-Mac or Eckstein...

What a wonderful time to be a Blue Jays fan. I love you guys.

KC rotation lined up to go: Volquez Ventura Cueto Medlen? Volquez Ventura Cueto Obviously they can push Cueto up to game 6 if they want on 3 days rest, and same for Ventura for game 5. I wonder if Toronto will go Price in game 1 on 3+ days rest? 50 pitches on Monday so it would basically be 3 and 1/2 days rest. Would you prefer that, or Estrada on regular rest? Estrada/Price Estrada/Price Stroman Dickey Estrada/Price Estrada/Price Stroman

Not miles better. Defense a lot better. Pitching better but not exactly scary. Offense similar.

Yordano Ventura will get very mad, and then very crushed.

Was Sam Dyson throwing two temper tantrums and causing two bench clearing incidents respecting the game?

I mean I've seen 60's, 65's, and maybe a 70...

On one hand, I'd definitely rather face KC. Keuchel is terrifying in a 7 game series. KC doesn't have an Ace. On the other hand, I would hate to lose to KC. Also I have tickets so having home field would be cool.

80 power on Tellez? First time I've seen that #. Not sure who that scout is

Sanchez vs all of the lefties was never the right move. Hopefully it doesn't matter though!

Hopefully irrelevant at the end of the day but lefties have two hits, a walk, and a run against Sanchez.

fixed!

Retarded.

There's no doubt in my mind though that Gibbons does probably feel OK about Sanchez vs. lefties right now. I think he's let him face Choo x2 and Odor once in this series, hasn't he?

classic Grant strawman welcome back, buddy