Auldphartt

The only axe I have to grind is with Jansen's overall incompetence. I will however admit that sometimes I find Jansen's snotty attitude annoying. It seems everything he does is for the camera. "Leadership" is not a popularity contest.

Absolutely. Two of those base runners were Jansen's fault. He's so bad at pitch framing he turned strikeouts into walks. He's also terrible at pitch sequencing and trying to throw runners out... usually throwing too high instead of down at shoetop level where the tag should be. I'll give him credit for improving his blocking this year, but many of those blocks were on pitches he should have caught in the first place. His terrible defense might not seem so bad if he was a good hitter. He's not though. He seems to be incompetent at guiding the ball through the hole into right field. He treats every at bat as a home run derby. The result is usually a strikeout or a pop fly to left field. He then has the audacity to try to claim that he's "playing to his strength". What a crock. Hopefully he's gone soon. The trouble is that nobody will offer anything of value for a scrub like him.

Not good enough.

Gotta hope Macko pans out better than Pinto.

Teoscar for Swanson? Oh wait, they got a prospect thrown in. Almost as great a trade as Grichuck for Tapia.

We really messed up that deal. Acquiring Varsho was brilliant but giving up Moreno was just plain stupid. Arizona was desperate for a catcher. If we'd thrown in a couple of our extraneous middle infielders or pitching prospects, we probably could have dumped Jansen on them.

Also the highest attendance in baseball. Labatt's understood the eternal connection between baseball and beer. Interbrew didn't have a clue. Being European they looked at beer as a food and couldn't understand why a brewery would be interested in sports or entertainment. Shoeless Paul Beeston was a Labatt's boy from London Ontario, long a baseball town. When I lived there in the 1950s, public-school-aged kids played played hardball and slid cleat-first. Baseball was definitely the #1 sport. Not every kid had skates or a hockey stick. Every kid had a baseball glove.

Jansen blows another one. DFA please.

Dumb (Schneider), dumber (Atkins), dumbest (Shapiro), doofus (Rogers). We need an owner who actually cares about the team, the players, the city, and the fans... not just the bottom line. This team could be a gold mine for the right owners. Hiring loser bean counters from Cleveland is not the way to do it. We need a re-boot, starting at the top.

I almost puked when I saw Pop come out for the 9th. Green was already warmed up and it was a one run game. We should have gone to extra innings. Schneider is a horrible bullpen manager. At least we got to see what a good catcher can do for a pitcher. I always liked Yariel Rodriguez and said I'd like to see what Kirk could do for him. The results spoke for themselves.

There are many things that make up good catching. Framing and pitch sequencing are two of the most important. Blocking balls in the dirt and throwing out runners are also important. A catcher whose framing turns borderline pitches into strikes results in pitchers throwing fewer pitches out over the plate. Framing is a subtle art. A good framer like Kirk barely moves his glove and his circular framing is just enough to turn balls into called strikes. A poor framer like Jansen uses a sweeping motion that fools no one and might even annoy the umpires into thinking he's trying to con them, resulting in pitches in the strike zone being called balls. In today's game, there's usually a clearly developed plan based on anal-ysis of the starting pitcher and the opponent's lineup. Where the thinking and skill are required is when things don't go according to plan. Maybe a pitcher is having control problems with a certain pitch. Maybe an opponent has figured out what you're trying to do and is making adjustments. Altering your plan on the go can be very important. A quick-minded intelligent catcher like Kirk has a distinct advantage in this regard. Luckily since Jansen has improved his blocking this year, both our catchers are among the best. Kirk has always been a top blocker. Now we have two. Someone pointed out to me at one game that maybe one reason for Jansen's increased number of blocked pitches this year is that some of them should have been caught in the first place. No matter. Better to let the ball hit the ground and block it than mess up trying to catch it and letting it go to the backstop for a passed ball. Throwing on the other hand shows a great discrepancy between our two catchers. Kirk is faster on the transfer and much more accurate than Jansen. Jansen almost always throws too high resulting in the infielders having to sweep the glove down while Kirk specializes in accurate throws at shoetop level just before the runner reaches the bag. No contest. As far as the intangibles are concerned, Kirk exudes an air of calm leadership while Jansen seems more concerned with his camera image. I get the distinct impression that many veteran pitchers are annoyed with Jansen's showboating. You can see the obvious appreciation from them for what Kirk brings to the game. Catching is too important a position to be too concerned about offense but even there Kirk's superiority stands out. Jansen seems to treat every at-bat as a home run derby, swinging wildly trying to pull the ball to left field, resulting in far too many pop flies and strikeouts. He seems incapable of shortening his swing and poking the ball through the hole into right field with a runner on first base. His lame excuse is that he's doing it intentionally to try to play into his "strength". Lawl. Kirk, the former Silver Slugger hits to all fields and drives in runs. It's interesting to note that with fewer games played and fewer plate appearances this year, Kirk has more RBIs than Jansen. The only thing that Jansen does better is base running. The only time Jansen should catch 2 games in a row is if Kirk is injured.

The Dodgers just became my new favorite NL team. Otani, Freeman, Teoscar, and now Biggio... what's not to like. I won't hold Betts against them. They also have some pretty good pitching. Go Dodgers go.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer...

Once again Captain Kirk shows how much better he is than Boy Jansen. Not only is Kirk's catching so much obviously better than Jansen's but former all-star and silver slugger Kirk has been more productive than never-won-anything Jansen. Sorry Danny Boy. Leadership isn't a popularity contest. Performance matters. The Jays had a winning record this year before Jansen was brought up. We had a better record with Brian Serven (small sample size). Obviously Dalton Varsho is needed in the outfield and Isiah Kiner-Falefa if our best infielder but either one of them would probably be better than Jansen. Catching is too important a defensive position to be wasted on a fly ball hitter.

That's not the case. He was very friendly and was being supported by others around him. He wasn't blocking other people's view of the game. In fact he was careful not to block people's view. It was a simple matter of them not liking the message of his sign. It was security who were being the asses.