art_vandelay275

imo, he hasn't. for sure we don't have to hold our breath like we did with reyes so it's definitely an improvement. on the other hand, i've seen more with iglesias, ramirez or even bogarts defensively. so the bat has to come through consistently sooner or later. if things don't pick up soon, at some point down the stretch his deficiencies are going to be shown up on a much larger stage

The problem is there aren't much options I am not optimistic about Stroman either on Sat

here we go .... 0-2 to 2-2

is it me or is Kelly varying his velo a lot more than before? I don't recall seeing that much variation in his velocity

it seems he can't finish off batters when he is 0-2 or 1-2. He almost always goes back to full or at least 2-2. That's why his PC is always high

Every time I see Owens, I see Todd Stottlemyre

He sure is locating and not missing much

they are not biting on the slider in the dirt

94 pretty much down the middle to get Jones... they are not going to miss it if Hutch keeps this up

There was a promo for an upcoming Tulo/Brunt interview. Anyone catch the time for that?

I think that's the point. If it were our money, it wouldn't be a wise investment but the point is that it's not. It's at the discretion of Rogers (or Guggeinheim to polarize the discussion) what they want to invest based on they believe is an acceptable/equitable return. MLB is not like the NBA where there is a cap. I think most savvy fan who somewhat understand the economics of baseball knows that it's not a wise investment to spend that much on a FA ace who likely will be in his mid/late thirties by the time the contract ends. The evidence both past (Sabathia) and present (Verlander) are plain to see

Let's say that we get the money to go after an ace next year (I know it's a big if as we don't have any ideas on the policies of the new regime), for the sake of discussion on an off-day, I am wondering whether Price is the right guy. The last Cleveland start was a case in point. They got 2 in the 7th even though Price gave us the shutdown after we scored in the 5th. Even with the Bautista bobble and all that, Raburn and Sands were legit hits IMO and of course there was the Santana walk. I was expecting that a 2-1 lead would be all a "true" ace needed. Note that I am not blaming Price for that inning. After all Bautista clearly misplayed the ball and arguaby, Sands' hit was a bit of a "seeing eye" since if Tulo had played a little more to his right, it might have been a routine ground out. This is more of a hypothetical... From a character point of view, there is no doubt that advantage goes to Price. It's not that Greinke is a bad guy from what I read, it's just that he's a bit of a flake; he's "out there". Also Greinke is turning 32 in Oct whereas Price just turned 30. I'm talking about FA and I'm assuming Greinke is going to opt out. Other notable potential candidates are Cueto, Zimmerman, Fister, Kazmir, Samardzija Personally, I'd be giddy if we ended up with either Price or Greinke though probably not Cueto.

Does anyone know what happened to the supposed trade involving Carrasco at the deadline? All I heard was that there was a deal in place and in the last minute, it fell apart. I'm wondering whether that was on our side or their's. According to the Cleveland media, baseball ops is pretty much all Antonetti with Shapiro approving trades even though he wouldn't have done it if he was still the GM. So perhaps it was more between Antonetti and AA and not so much Shapiro...

This is soooo Dickey. Probably what he is doing now in the clubhouse

I'd go with that Comparing to the swings they are putting on Dickey vs Osuna and even Sanchez last night, I'd take my chances with Dickey

From the very beginning. I remembered my Dad yanking me out of school (I was in elementary school then) and going together. I don't remember whether it was opening day and I'm not sure whether we were playing the White Sox. What I do remember clearly was that it was snowing (at the Ex of course) and they were giving away hockey sticks signed by all the Blue Jays as the fan souvenir. It was the coolest thing. Of course being a kid and lacking foresight, instead of putting it in a case or something like that, I actually used it and it broke soon after. Telling my American friends now about the hockey stick give away at a baseball game always gets a laugh. To them it's so Canadian. From that point on, I was hooked. Jerry Garvin and Otto Valez - they became my new heroes...

If we were to win the division, right now it's likely that we'll go up against the 'stros. In a best of five and with their starting rotation (Keuchel, McCullers, McHugh, Kazmir, Fiers) not to mention Altuve, Correa, Springer (assuming he'll be back), I am wondering that's a "non ideal" match up for us. Whereas if we are in the wildcard and assuming we win it (which granted is a big "if"), we are now matched up against the Royals. With some of the more recent struggles the Royals have had, both in SP and bullpen, that might not be a bad match-up for us. I guess what I am saying is that going into a 5 game series, the 'stros are the scarier team to me and I'd rather take my chances against the Royals. What do you guys think?

Thanks for the tip. Are there other sources you use where you are notify of these promotions?

Anyone planning to head out? I usually get ticks in the 400/500 sections though there may be some last minute deals in 200 - right field side of course. If you plan to head out, let me know where you guys will be.