John_Havok

3. It's everywhere. Everyone is blowing everything on purpose for the gamblers. Classic "your mom" joke inserted here. Of course gambling is involved in baseball, always has been, always will be. Weirdly though, gambling sites being legalized actually make it easier to catch those involved because there's now a record of every bet placed and it's easy as hell to see irregularities and match them up with individual patterns from a player. The amount of coordination to have an entire team tank a full game, series or even to blow a huge lead though would require a huge amount of coordination with players on both teams involved, plus the patterns in changes in betting would be completely obvious. Like, sure, when a team takes a big lead there will always be a few degenerates that toss a few bucks on the comeback to try and score big, but when those patterns fall outside the norms in a large way, you can bet it's being investigated.

Crazy things happen. The Rangers were 72-1 when leading in the 8th inning prior to last night's game and ... they lost with a lead in the 8th. The thing is, if the Jays go 7-2, then Texas probably won't go 6-3 since at least 2 of those losses would be against the Jays. We can really spin all the numbers and permutations all we like, but the reality is .. there's 3 series left and at minimum the Jays need to go 6-3 to even have a slight chance. Anything worse, they're likely done for sure. Anything better and the odds just go up from there

Not sure I agree with a 30 HR hitter in the 7 spot, but the players themselves should be an improved offense. The obvious problem... age.

About as close to must win as you can get without it being the actual mathematical necessity of lose and you're out.

I wouldnt want to go toooooo long term at all if they did want to bring him in, my concern is the 1-trick pony aspect of his profile that as soon as that 1 skill drops even 1 tier for him, he becomes a huge liability.

Thats some serious voodoo

Mlb network was practically jerking off to Arraez earlier tonight saying he was just like Tony Gwynn as a "master of his craft" And this was followed by another 5 minutes about batting average was better way to judge a hitter than using OPS because "nobody asks you in high school or college what your OPS is and when youre there you always tell other people what your average is..." Seriously, MLB pays people to be that far behind baseball reality.

Texas was a bullpen game, used 7 pitchers tonight. That's a good piece of news. Sox win, Texas loses. Pretty much the bets the Jays could have hoped for really even if it didnt move the needle that much. Every little move of the needle helps at this point.

There you go...making up statements again. I said they were swept by the sub .500 Pirates. I said they haven't been playing top teams while only winning 1 series in September. Both of those statements are simply factual. Whatever connotation you inferred from them is in your own head.

I have no issues with your posting style, I'm concerned for your mental health. If a sporting event makes you want to rage, you have bigger concerns in life. (yes I realize some of that was probably in jest)

1. Step away from the keyboard. 2. activities are up to you, but your option 3 sounds like a great idea. 3. Do not return to the keyboard for at least 3 months. the term keyboard also includes all devices used to connect to the internet.

naw man, its just... the way you framed it makes no sense. Like, it just wasn't actually funny. You had to make up a statement to turn something I didn't say into a light hearted post. That makes no sense. lol?

Tucker with a near cycle, going 4-5 with a HR, 2 doubles and a single as the Dodgers clinch their 13th division title in 14 years.

We definitely don't want both the Rangers and the Stros to win though...

heh, okay, so you dont understand comedy. Noted.

Hilarious how you straw-manned what I said to be outraged. I said they were a sub .500 team, which they are. And we can finish in a tie and still get in, as long as it's a 3 way tie with Cleveland, us and the Sox.

Gausman/Soriano have been perfectly healthy. Aside from that, ....... yeah. Grossly terrible

They've only won 1 series this month so far, havent even been playing top teams and were swept by a sub. 500 Pirates team. There is as much chance of the Sox collapsing as anyone else in this glut of AL teams at .500-ish sh*tshow

They tried to close the thread and the whole site tanked for an hour. Just let it exist

Definitely has the power hitting profile this team covets.

Naw, that's just what happens when someone tries to close the Jays Playoff Hopes thread. Even the internet won't allow it.

It's actually kind of astounding how close the Jays are to a .500 team with the clusterf*ck of injuries and underperformances from key players all year. Schneider should get manager of the year for this mess to make up for him getting shafted on it last season.

I agree mostly. I just wonder how many years from the opening of the pitching lab is a reasonable expectation to be able to poach the right talent from the right organizations doing it right. I also wonder how much the extra picks and draft money plays a role for the smaller market teams over the course of 10+ years. Yes, of course they still need to do development correctly, but it's certainly an advantage to have 2+ extra picks in the top 100 or so every year to go along with that extra draft budget. Like, why would the Jays not just go to the Cleveland or Milwaukee or Tampa orgs and say to the guys in those development positions, here's 50% more money to come do that for the Jays. I guess for all we know they've tried and failed as there's obviously a limit on what people are willing to do in their own lives as far as moving to entire new cities and places with their families for work but... it seems like 5 years is a decent length of time to see some fruit on the tree. So, looking at the Jays 40 man roster of pitchers... Trey, Dallas, Tiedemann, Van Eyk and Fluharty are really the only farm to table arms there. Some credit could be given to polishing up Fisher and Little into useful pieces and Miles has clearly benefitted to some degree. Though with those guys it's more of a scouting win than a development win. Other interesting wait-and-sees are Stanifer, Perry, King, Guerra, Messina, Coleman. If even 3 of those guys in the wait and see pile pan out over the next 2 seasons into the 3/4 or pen roles... is that enough to declare improvement in the development?

True, but the Jays don't have the tiebreaker on the White Sox, so that's a negative. Murakami has cratered so hard. Since the calendar flipped to August he has a 66 wRC+ compared to his 157 wRC+ up to July 31. A bit can be explained with the babip dragon of .188 in his slump, but a much larger problem is his 42% K rate over that period. Heard the White Sox manager the other day on why he hasn't been moved down in the order. quote was something like "Moving him to 8th isn't going to fix his swing"

And the Paleface Sox need to not choke again...