Flashman

Another Brit/Englishman here. I have an uncle who lives in Ajax and we visited him in the early 90s. I was taken to the Skydome on a couple of occasions during the Jays' prime, and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon with a bunch of Kelly Gruber and Robbie Alomar gear. I rediscovered baseball in the 2000s with Baseball on Five (a show I'm sure UK fans are familiar with), and automatically found myself following the Jays. I used to work night shifts and would usually have Ashby & Howarth accompanying me, but nowadays am limited to the afternoon games. I've only been back once, for the 2010 opening couple of series. I missed out on the Bautista bobblehead (bah!) but I did bring back a fine Jays mug that still houses my pens and pencils on the desk.

I don't have a position on this, but Jacoby is receiving an unconditional defence in many quarters. If the hitting coach has no impact -- why hire one at all? If the hitting coach has some impact but should not be fired for an underperforming lineup -- should he just be given the job for life? If the hitting coach is necessary and is accountable -- then when do they warrant the hot seat treatment?

No.

He didn't question Cito - he tried to humiliate him. It is easy enough to make Cito out to be a know-nothing without trying to force the issue in front of his face. The manager is not a politician who is accountable to the people - just the GM.

But it's been hinted at that the Marlins trade wasn't his baby. If that were the case, and he was doing the bidding of Beeston/Rogers, it would seem a bit odd that he couldn't function under Shapiro.

There's a guy on Twitter who posted some tidbits from a final Shapiro appearance on a Cleveland broadcast. He said he didn't favour the free agent route as it tends to cost you in the long term. Not a promising sign for keeping Price.

Life was sometimes fun under AA - the big trades; the 2015 season. But I'm neutral on his departure. About as neutral as his record: 489 - 483. 1 x 5th placed finish, 3 x 4th placed finishes, 1 x 3rd place finish, 1 x 1st place finish. Looking ahead to the 2016 season just sums up the AA engima to me. A killer lineup, yes, but no rotation. I'd like to have seen AA have another season. To see if he had truly grown in the role of GM as he himself alluded to. But it is what it is, and it's an evens bet that the new GM will leave a better legacy than AA did.

Holland has a conservative view of baseball - cool professionalism, respect, no theatrics. He's not wrong. But nor is the more exuberant culture that likes to show passion in baseball. It's an individual matter, and the only daft idea is that there's just one way to play the game.

Blair and Brunt said the problem with the national reporters is their lack of familiarity with the Jays and their issues (e.g. Cecil). Buster Olney and Keith Law, in their podcast today, said much the same thing. Olney also mentioned Price's reputation as a team-first player. And that it's near impossible to envisage the usage of Price without his complete consent. Nothing to see here. But it has been interesting to note the sense of anti-Canadian bias in the reporting of the Jays. Whether it's sign-stealing, bad attitudes, a misreading of the Jays' talents, or not knowing how to handle stud aces, it seems one-sided and agenda-driven (I say that as a reasonably neutral Brit observing from the UK).

tbf, Brunt did address this, saying something like 'Tulo probably didn't envisage Toronto as one of his goals', implying that he'd likely be open to a trade to most teams. It'll be a fun off-season anyway. Hopefully AA positions the Jays to be perennial contenders for the next few years. I do think a huge part of that would be inking EE to an extension, mind.

Just spitballing around here... I've been listening to Brunt this week. On the subject of Travis vs Goins for 2B, he suggested it could be Tulo who is shipped out. A surprising idea at first. But consider this: the Jays save on his contract and get back an elite pitching prospect in return. That pitcher teams up with, say, Stroman and Zimmerman at the top of the rotation. Tulo's money is partly put towards extending EE, giving the Jays a stable long term middle order of Donaldson, Encarnacion, Martin. A rock solid and cheap defence up the middle between Martin, Travis, Goins and Pillar. Wouldn't be a bad core going forward with just a bit of tinkering, especially if they could emulate the Yankees and Royals by getting a couple more shutdown arms for the bullpen.

As good as the Royals are, there is this feeling that everything that could go wrong for the Jays has gone wrong: unlikely errors, outlier starter implosions vs outlier stud starts , stupidly cold bats vs stupidly hot bats... The Jays are due some baseball karma. Last night was pretty devastating, but everyone needs to shake it off. Three game series. Jays have to sweep it. Our three best pitchers on the mound, Sanchez and Osuna available, and still the best-hitting lineup of MLB. If this were the regular season, we'd fancy our chances. It's certainly not a 1 in 100 situation, and there are few other teams in the league you'd bet on doing it. G'wan Jays.

Perhaps it's better to take a shoulder-shrugging approach to lessen the potential pain of losing, but I am very confident for the Jays for a few reasons: 1. Stroman on the mound. A legit ace, and tough to see any team blowing him out. FWIW, he also appears to have exactly the right attitude for these situations. Someone who truly wants the pressure. 2. Hamels. Sure, a fantastic pitcher, but the Jays have numbers against him, and we'd take him over Gallardo (or most other teams' aces) 3. Momentum. I loved the professionalism of locking up that series in Texas even when 7-1 up. They are running up the pitch counts, there are no ego disuputes, and the initial bad luck seems to have evened out. Texas, by comparison, must feel much greater pressure having blown a two game lead. It'd be interesting to know the win stats on teams in Game 5 after winning the first two. 4. Home field advantage. Seems contradictory to say after the Rangers won two in Toronto and Toronto won two in Texas. But it might just compound the backfoot feeling the Rangers must be experiencing. Intangibles, sure, but there's such an ocean of anecdotal evidence in sports psychology books to suggest these are definite edges. I'll take 'em all. There's also the Jays' regular season home record to show that more often than not they'll play better than their opponents at RC. Go Jays.

I don't agree with anybody writing off Price as a potential force in the playoffs or any firm assertion that he's a choker. But I do find it curious that many sabermetrics fans, who rightly consider themselves more enlightened than the RBI crowd, are so dismissive of the intangibles. If stats were the be all and end all, then there would be no use in the sports psychology profession. The playoffs are the highest level of the highest level of the sport of baseball. Frankly, it'd be weird if there weren't some players who didn't were chokers on such a stage. It's the diversity of human beings. It's worth reading The Maverick Mindset to see how psychologist John Eliot helped out Phil Humber on the pitching mound at Rice University. It's the same principle of the pre-game superstitions; there are no supernatural forces at work, but adhering to a superstition might just give the player that peace of mind they need to perform better on the field. A clear mind. It's thuggish to dismiss the potential importance of a player, say, wearing their favoured number.

Worst: Wilner by an ocean of a distance. If it's going to be about you rather than the game, and you're going to condescend listeners to an extent that it's practically class war, and you're going to justify this by saying you're rational ... then be rational. Anybody who pays attention to Wilner understands he's not nearly as rational as he makes out, regularly using double standards and various fallacies to 'win' whatever artificial argument he's contrived. He comes across as a small and petty man, dazzled by his betters in a Basil Fawlty type of way. The best is BNS, who is the anti-Wilner. No hang-ups and makes intellectually honest arguments. Knows his baseball back to front. You could ask him which starting pitching the Jays should target at the deadline, and he'll whip out five names with salary details and sabermetrics.

Nobody believes in a jinx. Nobody at all. At worst, some people like to honour the traditions of an old sport. One of the charms of baseball, I think, rather than a cause for snark.

Please watch, it's only a few minutes:

'Half-wet'? There are mountains and mountains of evidence. There is nothing half-baked about it; it's a complete theory. What holes can you pick in it? May I suggest watching on YouTube? It concerns the intelligent design vs evolution court case in America, where IDers wanted to change what was on the education curriculum. It was on the evolution supporters to convince the Bush-appointed judge that evolution was, indeed, slam-dunk science.

It's a fine domain for personal blogging or showcasing your previous work and acting as a digital business card. But if he intends to write mostly about the Blue Jays, it seems a little untargeted. And, perhaps, a little grandiose.

He had it in for Cito, sure, but he has been a long time admirer of John Gibbons and Alex Anthopoulos. From his Wilnerish perspective, there's not much to rock the boat about. He does have a huge ego though. Whether it's sycophantic interviews with the staff, talking up media colleagues, setting his own standards for the phone-in, or arguing the toss with any caller who doesn't say "Love your work, Mike, and I agree 100%"...he's become unlistenable for me.

The comedy in that play was actually worth the out.

You ain't kidding - that was a seriously sharp intake of breath...

I think Stoeten gets some attention because he is standing on the shoulders of the Drunk Jays Fans brand. That was a three-man enterprise for most of its history, with the better content coming from Parkes and Bergkamp. I wouldn't bet on him having this platform if he'd been the sole author at DJF.

The hiring of John Farrell, which I consider his biggest mistake. There was a lot of talk about the hiring process - hundreds of candidates, a big board of names to be whittled down, second and third and fourth interviews, etc. And in the end he hired the wrong man. This was supposed to be the fellow who worked simpatico with AA and would help oversee the new Blue Jays dynasty in the years to come. His game management was unspectacular, he didn't seem to see eye to eye with AA, and then he wrangled his way out. That AA then went to Gibbons - the safe, grateful, anti-Farrell candidate - says more about AA than Gibbon's abilities methinks.

Kinda wonder whether he's a hoarder in his personal life.