nextyear

OK. I actually like Devon Travis, he seems like a good guy and he really can hit.

Yeah that would make it a nice day. If the Blue Jays win the ALCS, then the coming week will be a nice week to be a Blue Jays fan.

If he can do that then you are probably right, but Goins drove in 45 RBI's in 428 plate appearance. In 600 plate appearance next year are you expecting Travis to have well over 100 RBI's? Just think about it: any time the Blue Jays have lost Bautista the team has struggled, when they have lost Encarnacion the team struggled but when they lost Devon Travis the team record greatly improved (the team didn't struggle at all). Doesn't this create red flags for you?

Up until the past few months, your philosophy was the one followed by the Blue Jays management for 20 years; I think the Blue Jays management will have second thoughts about following such a philosophy in the future. Proof of this can be seen in the ALDS - how many times did Gibbons pinch hit for Goins even though Goins had no hits in the series?

Luckily there will be 162 games next year to experiment and see if Travis' better offense means more wins. This season has shown that superior offensive numbers don't correspond to more wins (in spite of what WAR stats indicate). The Blue Jays 2015 season turned around once it was Tulowitzki and Goins in the infield, neither of whom had the offensive stats that matched Devon Travis' stats. If Devon Travis is healthy enough to play in the World Series and the Blue Jays make it that far, how many people would be willing to replace Goins with Devon Travis at 2nd base?

I lived in Japan for 2 years a long time ago and actually Japanese is like algebra, easier than English to learn to speak. (and Korean sounds very similar to Japanese). I was able to carry-on everyday conversations in Japanese within a year, but I studied it constantly. English is more difficult to learn than Japanese because of the 10's of thousands of English words to remember (luckily English is my first language), but still many Japanese people can carry on a conversation in English within a year if they work at it. I have actually seen a game in the Japanese Professional League, Warren Cromartie an ex-Montreal Expo, was one of the players in the league at the time and I saw him play.

I haven't watching many episodes of South Park, but that was a good episode. Some of the most anti-American people are other Americans! Thank goodness for the freedom of speech.

. Could you provide some context, please; I don't know what this means. I am curious. I just got it. Players who aren't Americans. As a side-note (actually a rhetorical question): how could Kawasaki live in North America for 3 years (2012 - 2015) and know so little English?

That made me laugh.

I think Tulowitzki needs to be dropped down in the lineup. Pillar is batting much better than Tulowitzki so there is no reason for Pillar to be number 8 and Tulowitzki to be number 6. I just don't think Gibbons has the nerve to do it with a highly excitable, high-paid star player. The fact is, Tulowitzki doesn't look any better at the plate than Goins at this point. Tulowitzki looks like he is afraid of the baseball and is flinching on anything over the inside of the plate.

Lots of anger on the GDT thread last night. The Blue Jays had some chances but couldn't come through against some tough pitching. David Price will have to come through this afternoon and pitch a gem. I hope he can perform in the cool weather; it will be around 60°F at game time. Now we know just how tough this Kansas City Royals team will be.

The ball won't carry well in the cool dry air.

We were both thinking the same thing. I thought for sure she must be American, but in reality that must be the Newfoundland rendition

O Canada sung like the Star Spangled Banner. Whoops, she is Canadian - it didn't sound right for some reason.

I predict 1 double, a single and a walk from Goins tonight.

It is going to be cool in Kansas City tonight; 60°F at game time and getting down to 50°F by 10pm CDT (Central Daylight Time) - http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/kansas-city-mo/64106/hourly-weather-forecast/329441 The players will probably be looking forward to playing inside the Rogers Centre starting on Monday.

I shouldn't give away the ending, but Bautista will hit a 3 run home run in the bottom of the 7th and the Blue Jays will win 6-3.

Yawn. Nope, I won't take your bait. My post might have been possible to argue against 4 - 5 months ago, but now even people outside of Toronto are saying the same thing. So it is obvious that you are trolling.

Kevin Pillar is a bona fide All Star caliber player. Without Pillar on the Blue Jays I am sure we would now be talking about next season, or many of us would now be watching football and hockey since the season would have been over on October 4th. There is no way AA will trade Pillar anytime soon.

Maybe this has been posted already. I didn't think I would be happy to see Loup on the roster but recently he has been decent.

Colabello showed that he belongs on the field as the starting 1st baseman, even defensively he was good. If the Blue Jays get to the World Series, then unfortunately Colabello will be on the bench for the NL home games.

In my opinion, Ryan Goins was overwhelmed by being in the MLB playoffs. Initially he even had difficulty fielding, however, Goins played well defensively the last couple of games (especially the last game in Toronto) so I predict in the ALCS he will bat around .275 with a .350 OBS and SLG 0.400 and generally be average offensively (MLB average that is, which is quite good). After getting only 1 walk and 1 run in 20 plate appearances, getting a hit or two a game and a few walks in the series will be a bonus along with his usual good defense. Luckily Pillar's offense in the ALDS helped make up for Goins' lack of offense. If Pillar continues this way in the ALCS along with Goins being average the Blue Jays will once again start generating runs from the bottom of the lineup.

Of course it worked in the Rangers favour, that is what I am saying. So you think that ball players don't talk on the bench? Such as " you notice how close that ball is coming to us when Martin throws it back to the pitcher. What happens if he hits us?" Sure, people can sound sincere, how many examples would you like of people sounding sincere who weren't?

Luckily the Blue Jays won the game, so the point is moot but here is a screen capture from this MLB video clip - http://m.mlb.com/video/v523212483/must-c-curious-rangers-take-the-lead-on-crazy-miscue/?game_pk=446255 . I find it very interesting that Jeff Bannister knew of this rule because it had been previously called on him as he stated in an interview after the game (probably he was in the minor leagues). It happened so quickly and unexpectedly, and with Harold Reynolds immediately saying it was a live ball and unintentional, that the immediate reaction is to consider it as such. However, by that point of the game, Choo would have seen Martin throw the ball back to the pitcher several times and would have known exactly what path the ball would be taking. It appears to me to be a well timed, crafty move by a veteran player who knew the rule. However, even though Choo was in the batters box he had to make it appear to be unintentional since the rule doesn't allow a player to intentionally interfere with the throw back to the pitcher. I find it to be very suspicious that the Texas Rangers all knew of the rule and the runner (Odor) broke for the plate immediately whereas almost no one else in the stadium had ever seen such a thing before and the umpire was not sure of the rule. In any case, I think this play got the Blue Jays fired up and resulted in the Blue Jays blowing the game open in the bottom of that same inning. So it worked out in the Blue Jays favour.

What a great win by the Blue Jays. I don't agree with the call in the top of the 7th inning. I think that Choo intentionally stuck his arm and hand out with the hope that Martin would hit him; that would be against the rule. I rewound the game a few times and at no other time did I see Choo make such a deliberate movement (it wasn't part of his normal batting ritual as Reynolds stated). The rule is shown below. Even though Choo was in the batters box, the umpire can still decide that he deliberately intended to interfere with the throw. In any case, the ruling on Choo made the win that much sweeter.