jaysblue

Let's hope the Jays make some bold moves at the deadline to fix this lineup. Can't waste another season of great pitching with a mediocre lineup.

The Jays are a borderline mid-to-high 80-win WC team which will have to heavily rely on their pitching again to sneak into one of the final WC spots.

Welcome back L54! Missed having a voice of reason on this board!

I'm saying the Jays teams in some of those JPR years weren't that much different from the teams Atkins has put on the field. Mid-to-high 80 win teams. Only difference is now we have an expanded Playoffs, so it's much easier making the Postseason now than it was in the 2000's. Maybe those Jays teams in the 2000's add at the deadline and sneak into one of the final WC spots. If Atkins is always praised on here for putting together mid-to-high 80 win teams, then JPR shouldn't receive the hate he gets is all I'm saying. Not arguing who was the better GM. Obviously I would still rank Atkins ahead of JPR when you factor in everything.

That 2006 team was fun. Lineup was stacked. Sucks they had no pitching outside of Halladay, Burnett and Lilly. Towers and Chacin both sucked and Burnett only made 21 starts. Defensively they were meh. Wonder if the Playoffs were expanded as they were today, maybe Jays make some moves to add at the deadline and sneak into one of the three WC spots. The 2008 team with Halladay and Burnett would have been dangerous in the Postseason. Sucks McGowan and Marcum both got injured. They needed some bats. Offensively that team was a joke. They were running out Shannon Stewart, Brad Wilkerson and Kevin Mench that season.

Not really. His drafting wasn't anything great, but he put together some good teams during his tenure, like the 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008 teams. They were a mid-80 win team during those seasons and given how tough the AL East was with the Yankees and Red Sox dominating, and with only one wildcard team, JPR wasn't that bad. As well, if the Postseason was expanded like it is today, who knows what other moves the Jays under JPR make at the deadline or in the offseason. No different than what Atkins has done really during his tenure so far. Not saying JPR was better or amazing, but he wasn't that bad of a GM as made out to be.

This is very true.

Damn Ohtani almost got ran over by Vladdy haha.

lmao!

Dodgers were paying 1.86 before the game because they had Stone pitching lol. Damn that was good value.

Royals aren't a push over this season. They're my pick to win the Central.

JPR wasn't as bad as a GM as he's made out to be. Drafting was suspect obviously. During that decade, Yankees and Red Sox dominated that division and only 4 teams in each league made the Postseason. Jays had some good teams with intriguing positional players and pitchers, though never had much luck on their side. For example, they either had offensive stars underperform like Wells or Rios the odd seasons, or had injuries to their rotation like with Marcum, and McGowan. Team looked promising after 2002 when Wells, Hinske, Phelps, and O-Dog all broke out offensively and Halladay became elite. Sucks Hinske and Phelps never became core pieces. There were some fun seasons like 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Never complete teams by any means, always seemed to be missing extra pieces or had some rough luck with injuries or significant underperformances. Wonder if the playoffs were expanded as they were today, would have things went different (e.g. offseason and trade deadline moves). Even in 2009, which was probably one of the worst seasons under his belt, they had some interesting pieces in their position player group break out like Aaron Hill and Adam Lind. Scutaro was a fantastic pick up and Rolen actually was valuable when on the field. Sucks Rios and Wells were awful that season. They had no pitching after Halladay, and lost a huge chunk of their rotation after 2008 when Burnett opted out and both McGowan and Marcum were injured. Funny, was just reading that JPR was only interested in acquiring Josh Roenicke and Zach Stewart from the Reds for Role, but Cincinnati would not accept the trade unless the Blue Jays also took on EE haha.

I kind of hate this argument being thrown around all the time with AA. Yes he learned a lot with the Dodgers under Friedman and grew, as anyone would over a period of time. Though that doesn't take away from what he brought to the Jays during his tenure. He was still a very good GM here. I don't recall having a 2015 moment under this Atkins regime, and he has already been here for 8 years.

He did, but he also knew he wouldn't have the same freedom and say under Shapiro. It's always different working under certain bosses.

Over 162 game season, this pitching staff is an elite one since they have proven to be durable and healthy. Of course come playoff time, most teams who make the Postseason could come pretty close with their frontline pitching to matching up against the Jays. Last Postseason, the Twins came pretty close with their pitching staff matching up with the Jays staff in the Wildcard round. They had Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray. After them, would have had Joe Ryan or Bailey Ober. Even in a DS matchup, don't think there would have been a huge difference. Pretty even if you ask me. Bullpen wise, gotta hope this version of Garcia keeps pitching like this come October. As long as the top arms in the bullpen are healthy, it's an elite pen and tough to match up against in a short series.

And without Gerrit Cole.

Glad you have taken the red pill. It's always Deja Vu with this team every time come Playoffs. They're still in the series however. Was a close game last night. They made some foolish mistakes and took some stupid penalties again. Even if they manage to get by the Bruins in R1, the Panthers taking them down in 5 games.

Erick Fedde with 11 K's in 6 innings vs. the Twins, but the White Sox still ended up losing.

Losing both Valdez and Javier is tough as they're two big pieces to their rotation. Framber is expected back soon from what I've read and they just got Verlander back. Blanco has actually been solid. Gotta hope Brown figures things out, same with JP France. As for their pen, it's off to a rough start but I'm sure they turn things around. Hader and Pressly aren't going to post 8 ERA's all season, and Abreu is too good of an arm to have an ERA around 5.

It's still early for the Astros but they haven't looked that great so far and have some concerns. They need to start turning it around quick. Looks like they're going to start 7-17 if they can't comeback against the Cubs tonight. Gotta hope they finish April with at least 10 wins and have a hot May to turn things around, which is possible. Blue Jays last season were 18-10 in March/April and then went 11-17 in May. We have seen before how teams could turn cold or hot when a new month comes around. Astros are lucky no team in the AL West has ran away with the division. Overall, they need to win around 18-20 games in May or else they could fall further in a hole.

I would imagine places downtown near the Scotia Arena will be packed. If you maybe walk a little further away from the Scotia Arena and Rogers Centre, might be a bit better. I would definitely either look at Earl's on King or Joey's at the Eaton Centre. Both places have a lot of TV's around the bar and decent food options as well. Earl's will have a happy hour after 9PM, so that's a plus. See if you could make reservations. If you want to avoid crowds, then yeah just hit up an LCBO and some Uber Eats/Skip the Dishes and chill at your AirBNB. Just make sure they have cable or Fibe TV to get the Leafs game lol.

I got Kikuchi winning the Cy Young. Got him at 81 to 1 about two weeks ago.

Berrios has a 0.85 ERA this season. He's winning the Cy Young man, nothing short of that. To say he's just a reliable 200 inning guy is ignorant.

Brownie is already writing up an essay to prove how the Orioles FO is inferior to the Jays FO, just because.

Canada should just adopt the USD as their main currency. Other countries like Panama do. The CAD sucks.