Dick_Pole

Very true. no matter what happens I view this as a victory especially in the context that the Raptors have played nearly twice as many games as the Cavs since the playoffs have started. When Cleveland dominates, it looks like the Raptors are gassed, not that they are suffering from a lack of talent or cohesiveness.

Ok, so who were those *******s that said the Raptors were closer to Indiana and Detroit than the Cavs a few days ago? The Cavs have two things going for them, having a basketball playing freak of nature (who is also a huge whiny crybaby) being born close to their city and an offense that excels at ball movement. Their defense is laughable. The Raptors honestly had a harder time breaking through the defense of Miami's banged up team than anything we've seen in the past two games. The Cavs are hardly the class of the East. They live off one dominant player. If not for the refs in the first half and a few threes downed by a veteran bench player as Casey had a complete brain fart in man-to-man coverage decisions, the Raptors could have won this game by 30.

Am I the only one who chuckled at this statement? It'd be like Charlie Brown out there. I can imagine Goins sitting on the ground after taking a flip with his cap and shoes fallen off to the side.

But a 135 RC+ at the MLB level is >>>>> 160 RC+ at any MiLB level, no?

I'm a defender more than a detractor of AA's but the one unforgivable sin of his to me was the handling of the catcher situation between off-season 2012 to 2015. If all else was the same but he had at least kept status quo on the team's excellent catcher depth the Jays would have Gomes and d'Arnaud for one-tenth of the salary commitment. He turned a position of great depth into one where the Jays needed to spend a fortune just to field a catcher with a pulse. I know, I know...no one saw Yan Gomes' rise coming. But that's because we were focused on d'Arnaud at the time thinking he's the man the team is going with. The f***ing guy shipped out those two and Mathis and brought in "knuckleball specialist" Thole in the span of 6 weeks. Totally incompetent bumbling of the position.

...or the team could engage competent drafting and player development personnel and compete every year like the Cardinals. Blue Jays 1992 World Series winners when the previous "rebuild" season they had was 1981. 1990 offseason was a retool and the team won around 90 games before and after. Jim's been brainwashed by years of derpy Gord Ash's beta personality and disgusting shortsighted moves, the Godfrey-Ricciardi years of Yankee payroll excuses and awful drafting and the AA-Beeston years of not delivering on big promises and thinks these are the only two options. A team DOES NOT need to tank in order to be good a few years down the road. The rare time that makes sense is when a Sidney Crosby or Tim Duncan is available. But that doesn't mean it'll work (Oilers) and the results are particularly mixed in the MLB (Nationals, Astros).

The Twins are always the remedy for the Jays. They've destroyed this team over the past decade, actually longer than that, but especially the past decade. Especially Bautista. It feels like every time he goes into Minnesota in a slump, he leaves at the start of a tear.

The one advantage of the WC2 from a seller's perspective is that it skews the ratio of buyers to sellers in their favour. So that's the only reason to even think about selling opportunities. If the Jays are one of 5-10 teams selling to 15+ buyers, then maybe, just maybe some of these guys get bid up. But otherwise outside of Bautista, what free agent is going to get a decent haul in a sell off scenario? Encarnacion maybe, but his market as a DH is limited especially if he continues on this path - which is the path he must continue on if the Jays are to continue to suck. The other guys are going to get nothing better than what the Jays gave up for Lowe and Revere - as in other words s*** all - unless the aforementioned bid up happens. Depth pieces or RPs unless the player development department can pull a rabbit out of their hat with the bodies they do bring in. You're better off going the comp pick route with Bautista and EE and maybe take a chance at QOing Saunders and Dickey (Smoak???) depending on how they end the year and do your best due diligence possible at the draft. Happ and Estrada actually have more value than any of the guys scheduled to walk at the end of the year outside of JB and EE.

Far be it for me to criticize how someone else wishes to enjoy being a sports fan. Especially since I am far more of a casual fan in basketball than other sports. But DeRozan brain farts aside, I have found the playoff run to be pretty f***ing entertaining. This team goes balls out every night. Every game except the final two have been competitive down to the last few minutes. Lowry looks like he came out of a boxing match. Each guy on this team deserves praise for picking up the slack when Lowry and DeRozan stunk it up and now that those two finally have some life I'm not going to write this team off against Cleveland even if they lost the first game by 50. Whatever happens in the off-season, happens. But I think it is naive to think that whatever Ujiri decides, plans were altered because the Raptors went deep into the playoffs against sub-par teams. He didn't become the GM because he's an idiot, he didn't fall into an exec position like a Ruben Amaro or Ed Rogers. If there's a serious opportunity to get Horford or Durant or someone else that can take the team to the next level, you better believe that he will pack DeRozan's bags himself. If Ujiri determines that those plans aren't possible and that DeRozan represents the best/only opportunity to put forth the most competitive team possible next year, then he's going to sign him. But he's not going to say "oh wow, Raptors made the conference finals, I'm gonna sign DeRozan to the max at the first possible opportunity and not even look at other possible options".

And I thought this board was for the "smart" Jays fans... *sigh* Do you recall what the team record was at this time last year? 18-24 With this much going on wrong with this team somehow they are still only 4 games under .500. Once things start clicking and the Jays go on one of their 11 game win streaks this board's members will be slobbering all over themselves again.

5 Playoff spots now. If the second Wild Card spot existed the first one, the Jays would have gotten it in 1998 and would have been close several other years, assuming all else being equal. It's not like the Jays were Pirates bad during the past two decades. 85 wins gives you a serious shot at WC2 unless you have an expansion team or 2003 Tigers in your league. I don't see a situation where the Jays, or any team, can go 20+ years without a playoff spot. Though the Leafs, Oilers and Blue Jackets are definitely challenging that idea given that in the NHL you have a 53% chance of making the playoffs.

Not that it wasn't predictable though. Back in the day of the whole Lincecum/Rios half-fantasy, half-reality deal, the two main arguments against the Jays doing it were: 1. Lincecum's mechanics make him look like he'll implode at any moment. 2. Rios was the only hitter on the Jays with a pulse.

What about the Clippers? Or the Grizzlies? OKC to some extent although they're looking good this year...Utah in the 90's. Or how about the Suns, the fourth best regular season winning percentage all-time behind the Spurs, Celtics and Lakers and still a big goose-egg in the championship column in 48 years. There are a lot of teams that could be considered the Bengals of the NBA. You speak as if the Raptors can drop DeRozan and Casey, snap their fingers and everything will be ok. What Golden State has put together is incredibly special. The Spurs have been downing 50+ win seasons since the Raptors came into existence. I wouldn't put the Cavs in the same class. They're not a good franchise, they just happened to suck at the right time and are lucky enough to have had the freak of nature they drafted be born just down the road, close enough to consider Cleveland his home town and return to them. With or without Casey or DeRozan, this season has been amazing. And if those guys are back and the Raptors win 50+ next season and are contenders in the East, I'll be satisfied with that too. If they can get Horford or Durant that would be awesome but let's not pull any punches at how hard that will be to do. Short of poaching San Antonio's front office I'm not sure what else you expect the Raptors to do at this point that's going to put them in the same class as the Warriors overnight. The team is in a better position than 25 other NBA teams when you consider current roster, cap space and upcoming draft picks. That's a lot better than three years ago when they were in the bottom 10.

Off topic, but this rant really reminds me of the funniest example of this I've ever seen. The "Montreal screwjob" in WWE. For those who aren't familiar, a wrestler named Bret Hart who is apparently a Canadian hero refused to lose to some other douchebag in his "hometown" of Canada in 1997, because you know, the Calgary native has such strong ties to Montreal. He has since had a stroke, cancer and his brother died in a wrestling accident and he still whines about losing his title in Canada in a scripted sport like it was the worst thing that has ever happened to him. And people still passionately talk about this s***. This is why I like having multiple Canadian teams in the NBA and MLB. Many Canadians hate our city's hockey team but when it comes to our NBA and MLB squads it suddenly turns into a fit of national pride. And both franchises push it, because $$$$ is $$$$.

Not Jays fans who grew up in the early 90's like me! Then things kinda fell apart in 1994 Jays fans old enough to know the expansion years know this all too well. All I have to say is the words Joey McLaughlin and that makes 50-something Jays fans go all sorts of crazy

I'd be happy enough to see that 16% of people actually think the Raptors can win it lol

Hmmm...I'll have to double check...was Maryland a blue state or a red state back in the days when "lynching negroes" was an actual political platform by the Democratic Party? Edit: And by days I mean back when Weams was a teenager in the 1950's.

This is obviously a troll/parody account and people are taking the bait. Who talks like this? I mean, even if you agree with his premise, this just screams of an SNL skit of a Sarah Palin impression.

I'm always fearful when I'm 100% on the same side as RealAccountant, as if I'm missing something huge that should totally change my opinion on the reality of the situation, but I just don't see it in this case.

It's 10 to 1 odds on the Raps to beat the Cavs so even that's a nice return. Put your $10 on the 50-to-1, another $10 on this series then when you win $100 back lay down $80 on whatever insane odds the Raps will get to beat the Warriors and you're riding a free lotto ticket.

It has nothing to do with Sanchez hate. Hutchison has pitched well enough to be deserving of a spot on a team which has issues with MLB relief depth right now. And he's a starter so someone has to be moved to the pen to make room for him. Dickey and Sanchez are clearly the #4/5 in this rotation. And with the current roster construction of Dickey having his personal ball bag carrier every time he's out there, Sanchez just translates better to the pen. Plus he has had success in the pen. This has nothing to do with hate, but a reasonable conclusion to try to get the maximum out of a pool of players in a "win now" year. Hutchison is an upgrade to Sanchez in the rotation and Sanchez is an upgrade to Tepera in the bullpen.

The man just came off the DL. In the alternate universe where Revere is still a Jay but he also got injured and is just coming back, he would be a welcome addition to this squad which is very low on OF depth and bench players with skills. No point in looking back in hindsight though.

I don't know why that's deserving of lol...we all should be pulling for that and getting Hutchison back up in the rotation.

I don't know WTF people are celebrating over Odor's punch. Bautista got CLOCKED, absolutely hammered with an unexpected hit. If Mike Tyson or one of the UFC guys hit you like that you should be down on the ground, toes curled, legs spasming and eyes in the back of your head. Even some hockey fights will end with one of the guys going down. Hell, if *I* hit someone that clean with a shot like that I'd like to think they'd at least fall to the ground. Bautista barely stumbled....his reaction was more like "WTF, f*** you, pal!!!" than any reaction due to pain. So either Bautista has a chin like Chuck Norris or Odor has the strength of a 6 year old little girl. It wouldn't surprise me if Odor has to go on the disabled list now for injuring his hand lol. Real funny Orioles board...dude got punched in the face and took it like a man, 100x better than any of those pussies ever could.

Let's hope they take this momentum into Cleveland to face a rusty Cavs team. If only they can steal that first game on the road. Raptors, one of 4 team remaining are 50-to-1 odds to win the championship. I've never seen anything like that from a #2 seed. The Marlins and Angels have the same odds to win the World Series.