KingKat

Any reason why you wouldn't project Estrada to keep doing Estrada things?

Only smart thing he's done this week.

Estrada has been more effective deeper into games than anyone not named Sanchez.

Person who put that video together is a god damn hero.

You're right! Mind blown.

Slash lines of the catchers: Martin: .231/.335/.398 Navarro: .182/.250/.182 Thole: .169/.254./.220 One of these is not like the others. Hint: Navarro and Thole are practically the same, Martin is not.

It goes Sanchez > Estrada > Happ > Stroman I get wanting Sanchez but there's no reason to complain about Estrada over anyone else.

Holy f***... I missed that. That makes it even worse.

Main problem with the baserunning was not starting 'Zeke in a couple of situations that called for it and I put that on Gibby.

Who?

Carrera is overdue for some credit. He doesn't always make it look pretty but he's put together a good performance for a 4th OF. The only stretch where he was really bad was when he was filling in for Bautista and got into a slump playing every day. He's been absolutely nails in his part time work.

Why only the postseason? Plenty of venues don't give you a can.

It was really weird and he didn't have a defense for the decision. He said "being on the road" was a factor but not putting your closer in unless you have the lead on the road is just a convention. He didn't seem to have any actual rationale for doing it other than following the convention. Didn't seem like he measured the pros and cons at all. This is guy who is trumpeted as a great baseball mind but his actions suggest he didn't use his mind at all. Makes you wonder about these baseball managers. How many just default to "the book" whenever possible rather than make actual decisions and measure pros and cons on the spot? We sure didn't see a lot of out of the box thinking last night. Showalter should have turned it into a bullpen game much sooner. Tillman didn't look sharp. He was really dodging bullets out there and Showalter could have brought in all those same guys he ended up using a little sooner and used them as bridge to Britton. He practically gifted the second Jays run. He manages that differently and the O's probably win the game 2-1. Gibbons was highly orthodox too. He played with fire letting Stroman in a third time through the order but he seemed committed to managing this like a regular game and going to his bullpen instead of piggy-backing Stroman and Liriano. Since the new norm is for Biagini and Cecil to share the 7th, he needed 6 out of Stroman, times through the order be damned.

Darn, I thought we could be friends... Planet of the Apes

Comes down to whether you believe in the single fire-able offense or not. If you believe that a single bone headed decision in a big game can be enough to cancel out all other good faith than you just had that moment with Buck. It's not cut and dry for me. A lot of it depends on the players. Britton was reportedly livid. If enough players feels the same way, Buck loses the dressing room and maybe he does have to go.

Oh I'm totally rooting for him to win now. The irony would just be too rich.

It's funny to think about how much stress the pitching decisions caused us. In the end, everyone pitched so well that Gibby could have thrown them out in any order and it would have worked out. With the benefit of hindsight, it's clear that Gibby had the game mapped out in advance. Stroman for 6, Biagini and Cecil for the 7th, Grilli for the 8th, Osuna for the 9th and Liriano if Stroman falters or it goes to extras. Minus the Liriano part, these are the exact same assignments he's been using since the Benoit injury. If we had been privy to this plan before the game, many of us (including me) would have flipped at such an unimaginative, conservative strategy but it worked out great. It all comes down to the players and they answered the bell. This was a nice reminder that even without Benoit, the bullpen can be pretty sick when everyone has their proper rest.

You in the POTA club too?

Odor most plainly is not worth it. It's the playoffs. You can't put grudges ahead of winning baseball.

Maybe we can even have a big fight and Grilli or somebody can get injured and miss the rest of the playoffs.

Even if you assume that (theoretically) Gibby goes to Liriano before Osuna in a road game that's a much more defensible decision. Liriano is better than Jimenez and Osuna is not better than Britton. Equivalent decision would have been going to Feldman or someone like that which I can't see Gibby actually doing.

Have to feel pretty good about the starting pitcher depth now that the Jays can actually use it. Getting passed the Wild Card game was huge.

Kind of, sort of, compared himself to Rush Limbaugh too.

How pissed is Britton himself right now?