TheGrandslamMan

Sanchez is f***ing boss. I see shades of Roy Halladay in this kid! He has the perfect pitchers physique too. How many more years do we have him under control after this season? 2 or 3? If I was Shapiro I'd get on signing him to an extension. Natural talent

I wonder if the fact that Smoaks been so atrocious grants Colabello a lot of rope though. The teams hot as hell right now so Smoak stinking it up doesn't really hurt as much but you gotta upgrade when you can regardless. And whether we like to admit it or not Colabello was a big-time fan favorite last year. Everyone fell in love with his story, and if theres anything people like more than a success story it's a come back. I can just imagine Rogers milking it now.

It's absolutely fantastic seeing baseball excitement sweep the nation again! For years during this millennium you'd meet people and it would be like holy s***! You follow the Jays too!? Now everyone's on the bandwagon and it's a beautiful thing. Let's just hope that the boys make a playoff push/run again:D

s*** really eh? I must have missed the ineligibility for the playoffs thing. Is that a new clause to the punishment? Cause I remember when Melky was suspended the big debate was whether they'd let him play in the playoffs? so how could that be?

The Smoak idea was a good one. You'd figure that moving him to the AL East would give his offensive capabilities a big boost but it really hasn't played out that way.

Me neither. The guy let his team down and was incredibly fluky last year. I have to imagine that his teammates aren't buying his conspiracy theories either. Only problem is Smoak's basically been replacement level only putting up 0.1 WAR at a premium position. You need better performance than a 730 OPS at 1B. The Jays broadcast always raves about his defensive abilities but his defensive metrics are downright ugly too. Ideally they could pick up a useful piece to play first at the deadline but I'm kinda worried they're just awaiting the return of the shroom.

This is what I'm hoping for, but the front office sounded like they were fully behind him. It'd really piss me off if the team was fighting for the top spot meanwhile Gibbons is trying to integrate Colabello into a regular roll again.

god, kill me now. I know that AA was big on CC but I'm thinking Shapiro knows better.

How many games has he served this far anyhow? I know the suspension was 80 and he probably played around 15-20 so he could be back by around the end of July... Which is not that far away.

He's gotta be returning soon. Are the Jays gonna grant him a substantial amount of at-bats in the hopes that he heats up again? I personally hope that the Jays take the route that the Giants took with Melky when he was eligible to return. Just one of: thanks for your time and performance but we're fine without you. Bringing him back would probably bring nothing but distraction to a group that really seems to be heating up and playing well without him. And for what it's worth, I was doubtful that he'd be able to put up 2015ish numbers again anyways. Hopefully Shapiro cuts bait.

Ahh, it was a tough circumstance. These players are all largely paid assets, you can't really mess around by breaking free of the scheduled routine with a minutes notice. It's a shame and all, but I don't hold it against the coaching staff.

@4Life19: Apparently Thor's having some elbow soreness and he got roughed up badly tonight. Makes Jays fans feel a little better about RA

I really believe in this Jays lineup, but the decline on Stroman hurts and the fact that this regime is gonna move Sanchez to the bullpen has me a little nervous... There was also a report that came out a few days ago that they'd be limiting Estrada's innings. If they don't make some deals at the deadline it's hard to envision who's going to lead the rotation down the stretch run.

At least the Red Sox seem to be crashing down to earth. To their credit their traveling schedule has been pretty rough, but they have some glaring holes in the bullpen and a few in the starting lineup. Travis Shaw's red hot start has declined at a rapid pace, they need another outfielder (unless you believe that the return of Brock Holt will solve their problems) and their catchers have been an offensive black-hole. It's the other birds in the division that we have to be concerned about.

I'm desperately trying to remember the source but it was some late night 2am/3am ESPN baseball coverage broadcasted from a random Canadian network on my digital cable app. It could have been a crock of s*** for all I know, but about a week or 2 later reports came out that the Jays were open to trade him... Where theres smoke theres usually fire.

I agree. At this point he has little to work with in the bullpen. I think he's still trying to figure out somewhat of a bullpen rotation, but aside from Osuna no ones stepping up.

Yeah, but JD came from the s***-show that was the Athletics. He was ecstatic to play for a regime that was serious about putting a winning roster on the field. Some simpletons (like presumably Storen) get upset about having to play in Canada and the little complications that come with it.

I heard rumors from a talking head on talk-radio that he was really butt-hurt about being traded here and a week or 2 later the Jays made a report that they would look to trade him. His hearts obviously not in it, why Gibby keeps on putting him in high leverage situations is a mystery to me.

I'm a Jays fan who's happy about the Shapiro hiring... But the way he built the pen this season is a bit of a head scratcher. Jesse Chavez has been hot garbage. Great in low leverage situations, but when the games on the line; Forget about it.

That's a good point. The guy used to have a cannon, now he almost kinda side arms it in. If there is major damage done then he's delusional to think he's gonna get a 150 million dollar contract.

You believe he threw out his arm on that throw? Let's say hypothetically that he did need TJS, wouldn't that also affect his abilities at the plate? I remember reading that in 93 Jose Canseco came into pitch during a blow out and threw out his arm, his only option was to go under the knife

Their offense is so dangerous that they don't really need a great rotation. I think it's gonna be a great race down the line. Jays/Sox/O's are so evenly matched and the Yanks and Rays are pretty solid too. I can't remember a time when this division was so evenly matched.

From a PR standpoint it would be extremely difficult not to resign at least one of JB/EB as there's not much on the market to replace them with. The backlash will be heightened ten-fold if the Jays go on another exciting playoff run. Can you imagine the backlash if the Jays make the finals or win the World Series and then let both of em go? The riot mobs would be out in full force... Puts Shapiro in a real tough spot. I expect Edwin to have a big year and sign for some big-time money somewhere else but if Batista has a down year reality might kick him in the ass and he could end up signing a reasonable extension with the Jays.

It's hard to say cause the rotations been so awesome this year. I'm a Sanchez fanboy so I think he's our stud going forward, but with our other 4 theres a case to be made for any of them having any following ranking. If you look at the current seasons rankings though, I hate to say it but Stromans currently sitting last. It's close between him and Dickey and the fact that Thole comes into the equation muddies the waters.... But you can't argue that Stroman's been better than Happ or Estrada. Then the discussion of projections comes into play, and we all wanna think of Stroman as the pit-bull who came up mowing everyone down when he was new to the league and to play devils advocate Happ and Estrada have pitched a lot of s***** baseball in their career, so it's really hard to quantify at this point. The fact is, any talk about sending Stroman down in favor of Hutch at this point is preposterous. Sure, an argument can be made that Hutch is getting a raw deal dealing with the rigors of AAA when theres a handful of other MLB teams who would gladly welcome him to the rotation, but that's just the way it has to go. I think if you send Stroman down it has to be because he's not cutting the mustard as a major league starter not because "Hutch could potentially perform better".

ahhh...... f*** it. I can't be a hater. Despite their shortcomings they're still our guys and theres still a nostalgia and comfort of hearing the 2 buffoons blaring through my speakers 162 days a year.