Dick_Pole

For the first two months it worked. It's only been a bad move recently. When the team started off as complete s*** and then a bunch of their starters went down it was Pillar and the other scrubs who really carried this team when they needed it. Gibbons is hardly deserving of the title of MLB's worst manager for keeping him in the lead off spot a couple of weeks longer than he should have. When Donaldson, Tulo and Pearce were out and Bautista, Travis and Martin couldn't hit a beach ball who else would you have rolled with at the time? Might as well stick with the hot bat in that dire situation.

Yes, the 30 men who have been deemed competent enough to manage MLB baseball teams and get paid millions to do so certainly do not hold a candle to random internet baseball message board posters when it comes to tactical decision-making skills. Certainly their inside knowledge of the clubhouse, who has some aches and pains and years of experience dealing with player egos as well as access to a slew of stats and other information from their FO is no match to people who can look up publicly available information on Fangraphs and base decisions on that.

I'm never going to jump on the Martin to leadoff bandwagon. He already has enough workload and will play around 75% of the games. No need to give him an extra PA two-thirds of the time. Put Tulowitzki there instead.

You guys just can't admit that Gruber was right can you? Goins 1,100 plate appearances and counting. Pillar hitting well enough to be batting leadoff according to the manager of the Jays. The day all you stupid motherf***ers just give in and admit that Gruber was right on both accounts is the day that Goins gets released and Pillar gets jettisoned to the 8th spot. Until then....have fun bashing this guy incorrectly and watching questionable roster decisions.

If we're doing this 6 man rotation ******** again the expectation better be that each starter goes 7+ innings and the team has a shorter BP. I can't stand looking at the bench where there are only three options and two of them are Goins and Maile. I'd rather have Sanchez come out of the BP for a bit if people are insistent that both Biagini and Liriano start.

Yes this is what I meant. My question was semi-rhetorical. Summed up as the FO has done a marvelous job/got extremely lucky with what was at the time two of the most despised moves on the board. Actually looking back at it...what hasn't really panned out for this regime so far? The Hendriks trade, and that's not an egregious screw up. Howell as well I guess. This should be a sign that we have a lot of good things to look forward to in the next several years, whether 2017 is a go-for-it or rebuild year.

He's 27, not 21. The time to use him is now. Plus the two years before he came to Toronto he was around 130 IP. This is not new territory for him. I'm undecided but leaning Biagini because I think the Jays could really use Liriano out of the pen. Howell< Grilli.

Would you trade Smoak for Encarnacion straight up right now? No money changes hands.

Oh yeah also, Golden State is going to kick the s*** out of the Cavs tonight. The other bet I wanted to place was GSW -8.5. So use this information accordingly.

You all have me to thank for this.

The Jays are going to 100% win this game. Why? Because I wanted to put money on this game at -119 but I messed up my betting account password and got locked out for the rest of the day.

Don't forget his Rogers commercials with Sanchez. The franchise is too cheap to pay for a re-shoot so that's why Grilli is still on the team. Sanchez is perma-injured and Grilli sucks. Do I smell a jinx?

This moogy is defective. Let's return it back to the store and bring back the original one we had.

The closest to national hate that I see towards Toronto especially from Westerners is about our absolutely garbage politics. I admit this city is full of libtards and I can see how those 20-something seats reserved for ol' Justin in 2019 will be a source of great irritation for anyone west of Timmins. Admittedly Rob Ford might have alleviated some of that, both for his embarrassing behavior and his abrasive right-wing style. Now everyone just feels sorry for us that we were the butt of late night comedy for a good two years.

I read that as the Baby Boomer generation which is 100% accurate. The whiniest me-first generation that has always gotten their way just from the sheer size of the group. Global warming, out-of-control consumerism (they need their house, cottage, three cars), high debt levels, a widening gap between the have and have-nots of this world and unstable boom-bust economies are all a product of the Baby Boomers having taken control of this world since the 1970's. And the funniest thing about it is the complete lack of self-awareness that this group has. Just look at nextyear's posts as a perfect example. "I'm a good ol' Maritime boy and all those Toronto-folk are obnoxious jerks. It can't be me that's the f*** up, it must be the 2+ million within the city limits who are all *******s".

As long as this f***tard stays here and doesn't waft back into the politics thread, I'm happy. BTW, good job on the RCMP post. My money is on you being the culprit.

I agree with all the softies in here. Let's give all the crack addicts a slap on the wrist and a playful pat on the bum so they can be on their merry way back home to play catch with their kids.

I ruined that one too...

Black kids don't play baseball cuz Reagan and Bush. I agree with the father-son-catch connection but blaming the deadbeat dad phenomenon on Republican Presidents is lame. EDIT: Also, there's been Clinton and Obama since then and yet the problem still remains? Oh, and isn't three strikes prison policy primarily the jurisdiction of the states? Not the Feds.

Lucky for him his career as a victim player is just getting started: https://sports.yahoo.com/news/adam-jones-qa-race-america-continues-speak-175451330.html Yahoo: You’ve been as involved as any major league player when it comes to community-based youth programs. What can MLB do to get young kids – and particularly black kids – back into the game? Jones: It’s bigger than just baseball. And this is what I believe: Baseball always has been a father-son game. You play catch with your dad-type game. The last 30 years, especially in California with the three-strike policy that Reagan and Bush – the three-strike policy in general – there aren’t as many black fathers out there to play catch. The mother is turned into a single mother. She doesn’t have the time, the energy, because she just worked a double. The availability of the parent is not there to play with the kid. The neighborhood is fine, but baseball is generally taught from father to son, even if the dad didn’t play. I just think that with the African-American father not as involved with the life of the kid – that’s way bigger than baseball. It’s real life tying into sports. You want to talk about baseball? To me, these are issues that are baseball.

I am very glad that they took this game and I have been shown to be wrong. Now the team has rested players for the Yankees.

Best article ever, if it hasn't already been posted: http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/mlb/ryan-goins-big-dilemma-utility-infielder-loves-toronto-blue-jays-but-wants-to-play-every-day

Are they trying to throw this f***ing game? Gibbons having a bout of Pete Rose syndrome and betting on the Reds? Why would you put your worst possible line-up out there on the day you have your worst pitcher on the mound? If you're going to give Donaldson, Tulowitzki and Pillar a rest at least do it when Stroman is on the mound and you have a chance to win the game with 4 runs or less. Pillar just had a potty-mouthed rest and Donaldson and Tulo played half the game on Monday. How much rest do these guys need.

And even that doesn't go for them. As a fan of a team that was complete dogshit just 6 weeks ago, you gotta feel something for poor Reds fans today, if there are any left watching this game.

I think Liriano being put in the pen is the best move. Howell's been useless and we shouldn't trust Loup to bear all the work from the left side. Biagini will get several more starts before the rotation is at full strength and this decision needs to be made anyways. So the FO will have more information to make the right decision by then. As far as maximizing trade value - everyone knows what you get from Liriano by now anyways. Him ripping it up as a starter for the next two months (while the rest the Jays have to suck to be sellers) won't get that much more than him coming out of the BP where the team would need him. As far as protecting Biagini's arm, that makes no sense. He's not going to throw 200 innings this year and he's not 21 years old. Going back and forth as a top BP guy to #6 starter puts a lot more stress on the arm. A role suited much more for Liriano if we're looking at him as being a disposable arm.