John Gibbons 2.0 - The Return of Gibby

This post is long overdue, it actually should have been one of the 1st posts I wrote, but there was just so much going on in Blue Jays land that I didn't have the opportunity to write anything. So with that all being said this is my formal welcome back Kotter moment for John Gibbons as the new Toronto  Blue Jays Skipper!


Lots can be said as to who the Jays should have went out and got as their new Manager, but it looks like the Jays wanted to go with someone who they knew, trusted and who understood the Jays system.  Gibby (Outside of a return of Cito) was the only real person who fit that bill to a T.

Over the course of his 1st stint as the Jays manager I found Gibby to be the most fascinating manager/coaches in  Toronto Sport.  He seemed to garner the respect of his players, media and the fans and none of this was evident when he was announced as the New Manager of the  Blue Jays back in November.  At first we heard fans angered over the fact that we didn't end up with a big name,  but over time and we got the chance to listen to Gibby and AA & hear about the relationship that seemed to be there, I think everyone felt a little more at ease.  A great example of the relationship between AA and Gibby was how  Gibby was involved in the RA Dickey courting process.  That comfort level never seemed to be there with AA and Ferrell.   It's easy to say this now since Ferrell is gone, but the Guy seemed too much like a Robot built to say the right thing and over think everything.

If you had the chance to watch the Press Conference announcing Gibbons hire you would have noticed him at his best.  His casual "Ah Shucks" type of demeanor mixed with his good old buy attitude  put everyone at ease. You would have also gotten the chance to see a guy who talked to everyone by name, had a large amount of respect for everyone there and showed more personality in the 1st 2 minutes than the previous manager did in 2 years.

To the hatters.....

A lot has been said about his run in's previously with players such as Ted Lilly and Shea Hillendrand, but those were soon put to rest with a number of ex players coming to his defense saying he was in the right with each of those issues.  To be honest a Skip with some back bone who isn't going to be walked over is exactly what this team needs.  There are a number of young guys around that need to be pointed in the right direction and disciplined a little.

Don't forget that Gibby was a great tactician when he was 1st managing with the Jays.. Not only did he his Jays teams have some best year's in recent memory,  he was also consistently praised for his management of the bullpen and how well the Jays pitching staff as a whole preformed. Pretty sure that Jays had the lowest Team ERA one year under his watch.

Do I have some concerns with Gibbons?  Yeah a little (most of them involve him bringing the wind breaker back), but my optimism outweighs any concerns on how he will handle this team!

Go Jays Go!

If you want to have a giggle, just think of what a conversation between Gibbons and Rasmus would sound like.  Pretty sure that conversation would need a translator for the red neck impaired!

Janssen VS Santos - 2013 Jays Closer

Outside of the uncertainty of who is going to start at 2nd base for the Blue Jays, the other big question for the opening day line-up will be who is the "Closer"?

Two options seem to be the most logical at the present time. Option 1.  Casey Janssen, The 2012 closer, who was appointed after option 2 went down with a nasty injury.  Option 2. Sergio Santos, The guy who was supposed to be the 2012 closer, but struggled out of the gate only to get sidelined with an injury that just seemed to get worse as the season went on to finally end up resulting in shoulder surgery and Santos being shut down for the entire season.

Normally you would think that Janssen would be the obvious choice to slot back into the "Closer" role, but Janssen himself had some unexpected surgery on his should this off-season himself.  Apparently this was not a major surgery, but i'm no Doctor so I would think it may have some type of effect on him, which leaves me to believe that the question of who is going to be the go to guy out of the Jays pen  is still filled with uncertainty.

If I was calling the shots right now Janssen would be my guy!  Over the course of the past three seasons he has been outstanding, especially considering the tough division that he pitches in.  Take a look at his numbers of the past two years and you can see that he has been the measure of consistency in the Blue Jays bullpen.

His WHIP, ERA SO/BB,  have all been incredible and shows you how great Janssen's been.

Santos only really has question marks around him,  1st he didn't pitch all that well at the start of the season and his injury last season just seemed to get worse as the season went on.  Word is that he will be 100% ready to go at the start of spring training, and he'll be ready to pitch lights out when he does, but with the uncertainty that surrounds him I would have to think that he'll be the set-up man role to start the season.

Other options that you could see as the closer.....Steve Delabar. The guy has great swing and miss stuff, exactly what you want from your closer. While with that Jays he had a K/9 ratio of 14.1.  Dirty stuff.... Rafeal Soriano.  There are a few rumors here or there that the Jays may be in on Rafeal Soriano, it would be great but the $$$ tied to him and draft pick compensation would make this hard to believe possible.

So all in all I think Casey Janssen will be the closer for 2013, he's been great for the past 3 years and minus a minor surgery there really isn't any reason  to think he won't be the closer when April comes around.  Go Jays Go!

Side Note.....I left the room today while I writing this post and my wife thought she was funny and added in the comment below.  I thought i'd keep it in as she is actually pretty funny!  Enjoy.

-----
Janssen sounds like gizzem and Santos sounds an awful lot like Satan.  coincidence?  This expert doesn't think so.

Sportsnet Replay of the 92 World Series

To my surprise Sportsnet announced this week that they will be playing the entire 92 World Series starting on Christmas day.

1st off I wanted to say a big "Thank You" to the NHL and the NHLPA for  allowing both Sportsnet and TSN to be void of almost all other sports programing that they have been forced to play old games on TV.  (TSN2 had Field of Dreams on tonight and I was finally able to have my wife sit through the entire movie and finally have her understand how great a movie it is)

I am truley excited to watch the series again, which i'm sure Sportsnet was prying on with all the recent  excitment surrounding the current Blue Jays.  This will give alot of new Jays fans the opportunity to  see what it was like to watch the Jays in the World Series, and the rest of us who were around a chance to reminise about how truley special that 92 Jays team was.

When I heard about the showing of the series I was reminded of all the moments that surrounded the series.  Alomar and Gruber both mocking Braves fans with their own Tomahawk Chops, The upside down Canadian Flag, Ed Srague's Game winning home run in game two, and finally being the first non american team to ever win the World Series.

It was a great time to be a Jays fan and since I don't think there's been as much fan interest in the Blue Jays since then as there is right now, it really is a great thing that we all get to look back and en this important time in Jays history!

Go Jays Go!




*** Updated

How could I ever forget the not so Triple Play?  Game three is on tonight and I just saw the should have been triple play that was botched by the 2nd base umpire!   I feel shame for not putting that in my original post of all memorable moments.

Bonifacio VS Izturis - The Battle for 2nd

So for some reason Alex Anthopolous is trying to pretend that there is a battle for 2nd base within the Blue Jays between Maicer Izturis and Emilio Bonifacio.

Here is how I see it.  Emilio Bonifacio has the job at 2nd base and Izturis will be the utility guy coming off the bench.  AA said a number of times after the Marlins trade that one of the guys they really wanted to get in the trade was Bonafacio due to his ability to play multiple positions, his speed and the his bag.  It's also rumored that the Braves have been asking the Jays to trade Bonifacio, only to hear that he is not available. Why would a bench player not be available?  The reason is because he's your second baseman.

So why won't AA come out and say it?  I believe it's out of respect for Izturis.  AA went balls to the wall in the off-season and wasn't about to wait around for other teams to set the price on talent, so he saw a potential good deal in Izturis and signed him quick with the notion that he'd be playing 2nd. We'll little did AA know he would have the chance to pick up Bonifacio later on and now is simply trying to keep everyone happy and say there is a position up for grabs when he would really rather have Bonifacio at 2nd.

I don't think you can have a guy like Bonifacio on the bench if your the Jays.  The guy is sick....Last year he stole 30 bags in only 60 games!  That's crazy and he's even started to hit for some decent average.

One last thing on why I think he'll be playing 2nd come April!  Don't count out the chemistry that he has with Reyes!  With both guys coming to a new field it may help having a guy on the other side of the bag that you are familiar with.

Good talk! Go Jays Go!

My Blue Jays Holiday Wish List

This list would have been a lot easier to write about 6 weeks ago, but if I would have wrote it 6 weeks ago it wouldn't have been as topical since it wasn't Christmas 6 weeks ago. Anyways....here is that i'm wishing the Blue Jays are able to do with the rest of the off season.

1.  Another Bullpen Arm - Re-Sign Brandon Lyon

The Jays acquired Brandon in a trade with the Huston Astros mid 2012.  Brandon was extremely consistent over the course of the time he spent with the Jays and his numbers reflected this.  If Darren Oliver does not want to come back this year, I think it would be extremely important to have some additional veteran leadership in the bullpen and someone like Lyon could fit in great with all the young power arms that the Jays now have.

2. Right Handed Bat off the Bench - Sign Delon Young

This is probably not going to happen since he's going to be able to get a shot with another team that would allow him to play a lot more consistently, but Delmon outside of all the issues that he had last year would give the Jays exactly what they want off the bench and even a good option as another DH if Lind or Encarnacion should ever had any issues.

3. Sign SP depth for Buffalo - Sign Jair Jurrjens

Another long shot here cause i'm sure there are a number of times that will take a shot at him and offer some MLB playing time, however I would like to see him signed to start in Buffalo and if anyone goes down in the starting rotation and someone from the Bullpen takes over we would have a decent new bullpen long man to take over.

4.  Trade Rasmus for additional Bullpen Help

I know it's easy to jump on the Rasmus hate band wagon, but truth is I actually like Rasmus and think he's a great center fielder, however I really like Anthony Gose and think what he can offer to the Jays in the long run is ultimately a lot more than what Rasmus can.  I recently did a post on Rasmus VS Gose and ultimately explained why I think Gose is the better option.  To read it click here.... http://guywholikesbaseball.blogspot.ca/2012/12/rasmus-vs-gose.html


So there it is...a few things that I would like to see the Jays do before the start of the season. God knows they haven`t done enough so far!

Go Jays Go!

Ken Burns's Basebal

This will be short and sweet!  Today I got my DVD copy of Ken Burns's Baseball back from a friend after about 2 years of not having it. My wife was going to Yoga so I put one of the episodes in and instantly remembered why I love this documentary so much!

If you haven't had the opportunity to ever see the documentary and are a baseball fan do yourself a favor and find a copy of it (more than likely a library will have it) and watch it.  It's quite long, but rest assured after watching it you will have an entire new admiration for the game of baseball.

The entire series does an amazing job of drawing the viewer in capturing the essence of what makes baseball so enjoyable to each of us who are fans!




The story of baseball is amazing, and Ken Burns's film is equally great!

RA Dickey - The Newest Toronto Blue Jay

How about this....Only 3 weeks writing here and this is my 3rd RA Dickey post, and it probably won't be the last.

Now I've said on a few different occasions when we first heard of the rumors that because we did hear of it, it was not going to happen!  We'll i'm happy to say I was completely wrong!  RA Dickey is now a Toronto Blue Jay and a part of arguably the best starting rotation in the Majors.

Yes it's true the Blue Jays paid quite the hefty price for RA and his merry band of catchers, but to be honest this move was more about winning now than a team looking to be consistent for a long time.  The core of Jays talent  (Bautista, Encarnacion, Morrow & Romero) are all in the prime of they're career (and controlled for 3 -4 years) and Alex Anthopolous's master plan had finally started to make sense to the many Jays fans!

You see most of you may know, but AA when he took over he spent the first few years taking advantage of the CBA and stocked pilled draft picks like they were going out of style.  Over the course of the 3 year's that AA has been in charge of the team the Jays have made 21 picks picks in the 1st 100 selections over the course of those drafts. I even remember AA trading for Migel Olivo just so he could have him decline arbitration so he could pick up the pick in the draft.  Brilliant..... Well all that was leading up to now....Alex has finally decided that now we cash in on all the prospects that he was collecting and use them to build a contender around the core that he already has!

Would I have liked to have D'arnaud & Syndergaard on our team in 3 years?  F ya I would, but would I trade them for a proven Major Leaguer who just came off a CY Young especially since they just made one of the biggest trades in franchise history and it would only put them that much closer to a world series title!

These trades were three years in the making.  Can I say AA expected his team to look like this personnel wise when he took the GM job?  No, but I do think this was what his plan was to do with the picks and since the Rays, Yanks and BoSox look like they are going to have a down year, it was the right time to strike!

The time is now!  GO JAYS GO! FU John Ferrell

R.A. Dickey ‏@RADickey43

Looking forward to a new chapter with the Jays.

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Over Reaction City - RA Dickey Trade Speculation

So the supposed RA Dickey to the trade to the Jays is not even close to be finalized and already we are hearing that they jays are possibly going to be giving up Travis D'arnaud, Noah Syndergaard + other smaller pieces and it's the end of the world in Jays Fan land!

Seriously.....We need to remember 1 thing.  GM's in the league are not stupid!  They would not have gotten where they are if they were dumb.  I'm tired to hearing X terrible Jays player would get us Y amazing player.  I try to look at things always from the other team's point of view and see if it makes sense.  If we are looking at the RA Dickey trade why would the Mets want Arencibia and Rasums?  Would you trade those two for Brandon Morrow?  No probably not, and he hasn't won a CY Young award. 

To get you have to give, and by the price you're seeing for starting pitching this off season this is obviously what it is going to take to get a great starting pitcher!  I mean Dempster got 26.5 Mill over two years!  Yeah Ryan Dempster got that! He did real well pitching in Texas last year!

Why is everyone in Love with prospects?  I get it, there is always an allure of what may be, but we need to remember that Baseball is easily the hardest sport to project and there is not sure thing with prospects and we shouldn't fall in love with any of them.  Let's remember how much everyone had a hard on for Kyle Drabek when we got him in the trade for Roy Halladay!  

AA has been building to this moment since he stepped in as Jays GM.  Collecting valuable pieces that other teams would covet and building one of the best farm systems in the league.  Now the time has come and it's time to use these pieces and make sure he takes advantage of the prime years for the Major League core that  has been built.  

So we loose 4 of our top 5 prospects this winter, our team is a thousand times better and we have what we've been asking for forever! A chance to win.   To those who want to build something that is going to win for a long time, our system is still plenty deep with pitching prospects & remember that our scouting team is pretty steller!

Did we give up to much?  I don't know, I don't have a crystal ball, but I do know that our team is better for the upcoming season if the trade goes through!

Go Jays!

Blue Jays Rumors

Last night and today have been an interesting time for me in the midst of all the Jays RA dickey rumors.  Being that it is the Holiday season we all typically have commitments with our time to go to different get together's or even have people over and I'm no different.

So the last two days have been filled with me trying to sneak away at a number of these functions to try and ensure that i'm 100% up to date on all the possible rumors that surrounded RA dickey and the Jays.  

So it's been almost 36 hours of straight RA Dickey trade rumors and as of right now I think I have finally fallen back to earth and realized that since we have heard about it, it probably isn't going to happen.

Don't get me wrong I would love to have RA Dickey in the Jays rotation and I would absolutely would pay for him with some (not all) of our top prospects. If you look at the Jays prospects they all typically play the same positions, and these positions are the ones that are the most sought after around the Majors. However  you can only have so many people play one position, so you might as well trade those pieces away to fill your needs for current proven players who can help you win now.  

I mean isn't this the moment all Jays fans have been asking for?  How many years have we bitched that we have no chance?  When can you remember having the Yanks and Red Sox with so much uncertainty? AA has been working on this for a while.  Slowly gathering assets and re-stocking the farm system so the moment to strike while the iron is hot! The time is now for the Jays! 

Anyways I don't think this is going to happen.  Too many leaks from the Mets side.  AA has said publicly that the main reason he hates seeing trades get out as  it ultimately drives value up against one team, which he is clearly smart enough to realize.  Could you really expect anything else from the Mets, seeing how they have JP Riccardi on staff?  I mean remember how JP loved the limelight and talking to anyone who would listen?

Here's hoping i'm wrong!

Blue Jays Prospects

I love what twitter and the internet have given me in baseball knowledge. Before the internets knowledge on the Jays was difficult to find outside of the newspaper, but with the Internet and Twitter especially Its been like a god send for the Jays fan who is constantly looking for something to fill the need for updates, rumors and news.

One of the element of the Jays system that i've been able to learn more about has been it's prospects.  It's awesome to be able to follow along with the progress with the next generation of Blue Jays.  A great example of the increased knowledge comes from the Marlins trade.  I knew everyone who was involved from the Jays side. (still pretty pumped that the guys that went back in that deal weren't the guys with the highest ceilings)

Baseball prospects are such a different beast than prospects in other sports.  With the amount of minor league teams a big club has it's pretty tough to find info on players.  It's the only sport that you aren't going to see Rookies jump right into the highest possible level of competition.

There are a few sites out there that rank the Jays prospect system every year.  Today Baseball Prospectus came out with there list and even after the big trade it's still looking good.  8 out of the top 10 are all pitchers, and let's be honest you can never have enough pitching prospects.  Every time a new list comes out it's great to give it a good read since even though most of these lists are fairly similar they can be very different.  Its pretty cool to see different opinions on players, it allows you to really see who is more than likely to be a Big Leaguer.

With an increased knowledge of the farm system i've even become a fan of the MLB draft.  I can say I didn't think that would ever happen.  I've actually listened to the whole thing.....All 45 rounds on conference all.  It's a pretty interesting process if you have the patience.

If you aren't already please make an effort to read up on the Jays or your teams prospects.  It's a lot of fun to follow them on the journey to the majors!

What a day in the MLB!

Well it was only a matter of time before Josh Hamilton signed with a team, but not many people saw him signing with the Angels.  I'm indifferent on the deal.  It doesn't really kill the Jays chances I don't think, but i would have liked to see him go to the National League to limit the number of times he could possibly face the Jays.

Leading up to the off-season I tired to convince myself that if the Jays signed Josh Hamilton it would be a good move, but in the long run I didn't really think the Jays would ever be in the running.  You can't really blame me.  How good would the middle of the line-up look if it went. Bautista, Hamilton, Encarnacion.  Pretty Sick if you ask me.



The hated Red Sox signed Ryan Dempster (A Good Canadian Boy) to a two year deal.  I'm a little confused on this,  I mean I have to hate him cause he pitches for the Sox, but at the same time I have to hold off the hate as there is a good chance that Dempster is the ace of Team Canada when it comes time to start the World Baseball Classic.  I'm not overly concerned about this pick up be a division rival, sure his lifetime numbers are good, but within the division they are not great.  Keep signing these average guys Cherington,   It looks good on ya!

It looked like Anibal Sanchez was headed back to the NL for a second before it was quickly killed with Sanchez's Agent dismissing the report and saying they were still going over offers.  Here's hoping the Cubs come through and land the Free Agent and take him out of the AL.

Ichiro looks to be close to finishing the workings on a 2 year deal with the Yanks.  While Ichiro isin't the same player he was even 3 years ago,  he's still a great player to have who looks like more a 34 year old rather than someone who is 39.

All in all a pretty busy day with those deals and few other smaller ones!  Writer's at the winter meetings would have killed for a day like this!  With Hamilton and Greinke now off the market the rest of the FA should start to fall into place.   Should make the next few weeks pretty interesting....

Will the Melkman Deliver?

I remember the day I found out that the Jays signed Melky Cabrera!  It was a Friday afternoon and we just got back from Lunch.  I got back to my and noticed how the twitterverse had exploded with the news that the Jays had signed Melky!

At first I was jacked! How can you not be? We just went out and finally spent to get a free agent and one who was leading the NL in batting average before he was suspended 50 games for PED's.  I'm not sure if I was still on a high from blockbuster trade the jays did, but I thought this was a great move for the Jays.  To be honest I still did up until a few days ago.

However, I started to really look at Melky's numbers before last year and to be honest they weren't that good.  I mean they were ok, but nothing that you would normally be ridiculously excited about.

So take out last year, and you may want to take out the year before too, since you can't be sure he wasn't on anything then either, and you have a 265 hitter with no real power.

I am desperately hoping that Melky has turned the page and the last two year's are a better representation of what he is capable of,  i'm just not as sure right now as I was last week!

The good news is that Melky has something to prove!  He has got to know that he is going to be looked at that much critically the upcoming year and he has a real chance to silence any possible detractors by having a bounce back year.  And even better, his contract is only for two years, meaning when its done, he'll only be 30 years old and will still have the chance for a major pay day if he comes out and dominates for two years!

So do I think the Melkman will delivery? Time will tell, but I think it's in his best interest to make sure he does!

Duane Ward

Today i'm going to write a small little something on Duane Ward!  One of the greatest relief pitchers in Blue Jays history!  Not only a great set-up man for Tom Henke, but one hell of a closer in his own right!

In the late eighties/early nineties the Toronto bullpen was among the best in the league, and if the Jays had a lead going into the 8th inning you might as well make your way to the exits early and beat the traffic cause the Jays were not loosing.

Duane Ward is still the single season saves leader, and is second all time in pitching appearances, but what I think makes Duane Ward such a great Blue Jay is what he has done for the country of Canada when it comes to teaching our youth about baseball.

A few years ago Mr. Ward started a number of Camps in the Toronto that allowed young kids the chance to interact with a number of former Blue Jays and learn the fundamentals of Baseball.    Ok I don't know for sure that it was his idea to start the camps, but he did become the spokesperson and the driving force behind them.   Over time these camps have became so popular that they started to grow in attendance and additional camps were added across the country.  This year they have even added a Coach's camp where former big leaguers help develop coaching skills that can be brought back to our youth all over Ontario.

Over the time that these camps have been around Duane Ward has done countless interviews on TV, Radio and other appearances to help promote  and create awareness for camps that will help grow the game of baseball! In an age when it feels like Athletes don't want to come to Toronto, it's very refreshing that someone who was a part of the wonder years in Toronto is willing to give back to the city and country like he has!

So thanks Duane Ward! I'm looking forward to signing my Son up for one of the Honda Super Camps one day!

Duane Ward for the "Level of Excellence"

Rasmus VS Gose

As the winter months slowly go by we are left with questions to pose to ourselves on what could make the Toronto Blue Jays better! I think it's pretty obvious that If the Jays were to make a move through trade they would have to move some of the pieces that they have some decent depth in.

So that would leave probably 1 of 2 positions to move players from .  Either you move Arencibia/D'arnaud or Rasmus/Gose!  For the sake of this post i'm going to go over who I would keep in the Rasmus VS Gose debate.

Since the Jays made the acquisition of Colby Rasmus I have been a Fan and even tried to convince myself because he was hitting the ball hard at the start of the 2012 season he was going to be the Center Fielder of the future.  My excitement only grew when Colby was moved to the 2nd spot in the line-up and had an unreal stretch in June of last year, but then the rest of the season happend  and Colby was awful.  The more I watched Rasmus the more I questioned my original thoughts. Sure he was hitting the ball hard, and played a great defence, but it just looked like he missed some desire to achieve.  He looked like Andrea Bargnani out there!

What didn't help Rasmus's case as how Anthony Gose slowly improved over the course of playing time he was provided in 2012.  Given Gose was pretty bad in August, but his September numbers were considerably better and he finished with a pretty respectable line for the year. 

The age old adage is that speed doesn't go into slumps and given what we've seen from Ramsus over the year and a half he's been a Jay, the speed that Gose brings to the Team makes him my Center Fielder of the future.  The only problem is if Rasmus has any trade value left in him!

Gose for CF in 2013!

See Ya James Shields!

Dear James Shields,

Thank you for being traded out of the AL East!  You have been a thorn in the side of the Toronto Blue Jays side for far too long!  Sure the Tampa Bay Rays got the 3rd best prospect in Baseball along with 3 other above average prospects, but you right now are the only one that i'm worried about.

You see James, my Blue Jays always had one hell of a time beating the Rays and in a year where the Jays look to be a true contender in their division it is great to hear that you will no longer be available in 4 or 5 of the 18 inter division games! Sure we may face you in 2 maybe 3 games this year, but I can deal with that!

My excitement is primarily based on the right now rather than the future, but I am just jacked that I can say "See Ya" to you and your 200 + strikeouts, 200 + Innings pitched, 1.04 WHIP in 2011,  11 CG's in 2011 and all those other stats I would love to have in a Jays pitcher!

See Ya James! If you're talking to BJ Upton thank him for leaving too.

Signed

Jays Fan!

Welcome back Pat Hentgen!

The Blue Jays have finalized the 2013 Coaching staff by announcing the Pat Hentgen will return as the Bullpen Coach, a position he held for one year in 2011.  He chose to leave that position at the end of the 2011 season to spend more time with his family.  Totally reasonable for a guy who spend the better part of 8/9 months a year away from home for the better part of his adult life.

I always thought that Hentgen would be back, not very often do you hear a guy who decides to leave  make himself as available to media and the organization as he does.  To be honest I thought he was going to be named Pitching Coach. It was well known that Pat enjoyed working with starting pitchers through his work in the minors as a special adviser and he is known to have alot of respect for new Jays Manager John Gibbons.

I'm really excited for this move. How often are you able to have a former CY Young winner (and the 1st in the teams history) to help mold a lot of your young pitchers and give them insight on what the city of Toronto has to offer a baseball player. I think what I was really liked about his last stint at the Bullpen coach was the advice that he provided to Brett Cecil.  It seemed like the simplest bit of advice, but when it comes from someone with the resume like Hentgen has i'm sure it sinks in a little bit more for a young pitcher.

Welcome back Pat!  It's great to have someone back who is proud to be a Blue Jay!

Let me start right now the Pat Hentgen for "Level of Excellence" chatter!

Go Jays Go!

Tom Cheek

This past week at the Winter meetings it was announced that the late Tom Cheek will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Mr. Cheek if you don't know was the long time voice of the Blue Jays from 1977 - 2004, calling an incredible 4306 straight Blue Jays games.

The mark of a great announcer is someone who can paint a picture in the listeners mind that let's them imagine they are sitting in the front row of the ball game.  Too often these days when listening to games you have the broadcast filled up by needless, made up, over analyzed verbal diarrhea that takes away from the beauty that is baseball.  I realize fantasy baseball is a huge business, but I don't need to know every single possible stat about every single player!

Too often these days we are worried about getting as much information as possible, when sometimes saying nothing at all speaks volumes.

Check out the link below to hear a few different calls from Tom over his time with the Jays.  My fav moment like many people is the Home Run call from the 93 World series.  The moment after the famous "Touch em all Joe" statement  there is about 15 seconds of dead air unlike anything else. Do yourself a favor and close your eyes at that time and tell me you can't see yourself among 50,000 other screaming Jays Fans at the Dome that day.

https://soundcloud.com/bluejays-voices

Congrats Tom!  You are now in your rightful place in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Jays Winter Meeting Re-Cap

This past week we were treated to the MLB winter meetings.  4 days of crazy baseball rumors and coverage.  It's kinda like July1st in Hockey, but only a lot better.

Going into this year's meeting the Jays had done almost an entire off season of work already.  It lead me to think that they couldn't really be up to a whole lot at the meetings,  seeing how they covered most of the bases for next season already.  We'll my preconceived notions have become a reality as they pretty much just showed up, much like a employee showing up at the yearly work Christmas party. You just really don't want to be the only one not there.

They picked up a backup catcher off waivers, signed a pitcher who retired 2 years ago, lost a 3b in the rule 5 draft and picked up 3 minor leaguers who will probably never make it to the show.  Not a whole not to write home about....But we did see the Jays involved in a number of rumors over the course of the week.  Most of them revolved around RA Dickey, but as we all know if the Jays are involved in a public rumor it probably aint going to happen.

I did however really enjoy Sportsnet's coverage of the meetings. They had pretty much all they're Baseball writers down at the meetings and even had Jeff Blair along with Dirk Hayhurst hosting a radio show all week long.  One thing I did pick up from all the great coverage was how obvious it was that Alex Anthopolous does not like the format of the Winter Meetings. It seemed like all week he felt the need to control expectations and remind everyone that more than likely nothing was going to happen.  I could totally see how a guy who wants deals to be keep as quite as possible could hate the concept of winter meetings, where baseball "Insiders" are there by the hundreds and possibly lurking around every corner as well as rival clubs running all over the complex playing offers/deals off on another.  It almost seems like Alex's style is better suited to deals that take some time to put together, not something that is put together in 4 days.  If the Jays end up announcing any trade/signings during the rest of the off-season, something tells me the ground work probably would have been started at the winter meetings!

The meetings were not as exciting as I was hoping they could have been, but i'll take 4 days a great baseball talk any day!

Buffalo Bisons The AAA Minor League Club for the Jays

How great is it that the Jays have finally moved they're AAA Farm team out of Las Vegas and to the majestic city of Buffalo? I can only imagine how excited the Jays were when they finally got the word that they were able to be done with the constant back and forth flights between Vegas and Toronto.  Just think how excited Mike McCoy must be! The poor guy must have really racked up the air miles over the last few years with all those red eye flights back and forth from the big smoke.

Now not only is it easier for for the Jays to move players back and forth from AAA, but it's a great opportunity for the hardcore Jays fans to really get to know there teams system. I've already planned out a trip to Buffalo to check out some games, and i'm pretty sure i'm not alone. 

Before twitter became such a part of our everyday life there was no way that the average fan to know all that much about the farm systems of there respective teams.  We now have a greater opportunity than ever to learn about what is coming in the system and this move to a city that is so close to home gives us a chance to take then hour and a half drive to see the future Jays first hand. 

Coupled with a great little park in Buffalo and an exciting Farm system, i'm sure you'll see a bunch more Jays fans making the trip to Buffalo to see some great baseball. 

Toronto Blue Jays 2013 Line-Up

I was thinking I was going to end up writing something today about the winter meetings, but to be quite honest i'm kinda bored by the whole thing so far!

Jays fans were truly spolied with the the whirlwind of Jays news a few weeks back and AA has done nothing  but downplay any possible moves at this week's meeting, so instead of talking about how bored I am, i'm going to lay out what I think the Jays batting order will be on April 2nd when they take on the Cleveland Indians.

Here we go!

1. Jose Reyes - SS
2. Melky Cabrera - LH
3. Jose Bautista - RH
4. Edwin Encarnacion -1B
5.Adam Lind - DH
6. Brett Lawrie - 3B
7. Colby Rasmus - CF
8. JP Arencibia - C
9. Emilio Bonifacio - 2B

The line-up itself is really exciting.  I can't remember a line-up with this much speed ever on a Jays team and to boot there are 3 switch hitters in it.   Having this much speed is going to really show it's value when it forces opposing pitchers to throw more fastballs to guys like Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion & Adam Lind.

I really like finally having a leadoff hitter in Reyes. Lawrie did a good job last year at the top of the line-up, but let's be honest all of Lawrie's assets make him more valuable lower in the line-up.

My only real hesitation with the whole line-up, which I think I share with alot of other Jays fans is Rasmus.  Last year he showed signs of everything we thought he could be.  Great power and was scoring quite a bit.  That was however with a healthy Jose Bautista hitting behind him.  As soon as Joey Bats went down so did Rasmus's numbers.  Having him hit lower in the line-up may be good as it's taking some pressure off, but t could also be an issue with him having less protection around him resulting in less fastballs to drive.

The bench currently looks like it will be Izturiz, Davis, Buck and ______.   I love it so far, obviously there is still one spot open, but it has speed, defence, and some good numbers against LH pitching.  I'd love to see them add a Veteran Bat to come off the bench who is just a lefty killer, maybe someone like Ty Wigginton..

Anyways that's how I see it playing out right now......Who knows maybe the Jays are able to make a few additional moves that may make the line-up even better.

Toronto Blue Jays Twitter Question

So I wanted to share a tweet from the Blue Jays that I saw today that made me say Hmmmm?

Blue Jays-Official ‏@BlueJays

What moves (if any) do you think the @BlueJays should try to make at the Baseball Winter Meetings? Send us your thoughts!

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•  Reply 
•  Retweet 
•  Favorite 
•  More

I am all for teams using social media to allow they're fans to interact with them, but this seemed a little odd to me. I really hope that the Blue Jays are doing this to show the fans that they care about there thoughts on the team, but I hope to God that they do not take any of the suggestions seriously.... I am a firm believer that organizations should never fall to public pressure when it comes to making roster moves for a team.  Let me check that....The only time that it's ok for a team to fall to public pressure would be if there was a public outcry over something  a player did like Yunel Escobar did this past summer.

I mean, let's be honest if the team were to make decisions on what the public thought would be best we would have a bunch of contracts like JP signed Vernon Wells to.  I remember when Vernon was about to hit the open market and almost everyone in TO was begging for a long term deal for VW & when it was signed we were all ecstatic.  How did that turn out?  That contract is still regarded as one of the worst in Baseball history. 

It's great to have an avenue to bitch, moan and praise deals that your teams makes. that's what makes Social Media so great,  but I think leaving those deals to the true baseball minds is probably a better way to go. 

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RA Dickey Rumors

Over the past few days the rumors of the Jays possibly being in on the RA Dickey sweepstakes have been rampant. Only today to heat up again as the Jays picked up another back up catcher in Eli Whiteside  I started an countdown clock in my head when I heard of the waiver claim as to when the twitterverse would explode with rumors of JPA already having his bags packed for NY.  It was all of 15 seconds. 

What have we learned when hearing of the  Blue Jays in trade speculation? Two Things.....1. If they are involved it is going to be announced about 15 - 20 minutes after the initial story breaks. ie Marlins Trade, Rasmus Trade, Santos Trade, etc......2. If we have heard about it and it's not done ASAP it ain't happening.

This type of move just doesn't seem like something Alex Anthopoulos would do.  I'm not convinced he would see the value in giving up multiple young talented players just to get back one 38 year old pitcher who really only had one Amazing year.  I think if the Jays would ever do a trade for Dickey the Mets would ask for a bunch of guys and Alex would come back saying he couldn't give up that much without getting more back more....something like the Marlins/Astros trades.  If this is indeed the case I don't think the Mets have much more than Dickey that the Jays would want....Well maybe Niese, but that just opens a whole lot more questions.

Would I want the Jays to get Dickey?  Yes, very much Yes. For some reasons that I don't understand scientifically, Knuckle-ball pitchers are amazing in Dome stadiums and how knuckleballers mess up with other's teams swings is something that I would want on the Jays everyday of the week.  However, in my infinite wisdom of believing everything I read on the internet i'm about 90% sure that RA Dickey will never wear a Blue Jays uniform.   

A post about other stuff

When I was a young kid, my Dad bought us season tickets to the North Bay Centennials.  They were the local OHL hockey team and  a pretty big deal to a 10 year old kid who did nothing but think of Hockey in the winter.  My Dad brought me every week, never once did he leave me at home to bring one of his buddies in my place.

It's great to think back to a time when the only thing that mattered in your life is if your team won or not.  I know at the time I took the whole experience for granted since it was something that we went to so regularly, but I can honestly say that it's something that I will always remember and I have my Dad to thank for that.

About 10 years ago when I was in College when word came out the the Centennials were moving to Saginaw.  This was a big deal in North Bay.  When your a small town and you have a Junior Hockey team taken away from you it really cuts deep.

In those 10 years I made me way to a few OHL games here, but it was never as fun as the games when I was 10 years old.  Probably because I wasn't was invested in the communities as I was when I was younger.

About a month ago, I was amazed that to hear the news that OHL hockey was coming back to North Bay!  One of the failing Southern Ontario OHL teams were tired of not getting anyone out to the games & they were going to move the OHL back to North Bay if the City could sell 2500 season tickets in 4 weeks.  It took less than a week! I now just have to find a way to get my Dad back to North Bay so I can take him and my son to a game!

Best Baseball Video Game of All Time

There are countless Baseball Video games out there, and unfortunately I can't say that i've played them all, but I have played my fair share.

Baseball video games are typically the same in concept. You can't really change the concept of baseball I guess.  There was a time when Sega and Nintendo wouldn't even pay for the rights to use Major League Baseball player or team names.

Games nowadays are focused on making the playing experience as realistic as possible.  Games these day's  allow you to control everything down to the cost of Popcorn, the number of concession stands in your park, whether or not your team takes a bus or plane to games or you can even just play as a single player and take that player from the minor leagues all the way to the Majors.

These are all really cool games, however they all pale in comparison to a 1991 Video game that used Robots  as the players......Base Wars was a game unlike any other.  Concept was the still your traditional baseball, but fighting was a major part of the game.  Anytime there was a close play at a base, the two robots involved in the play were to fight each other with the winner ultimately deciding the outcome of the play....There were four different types of robots that you could use to build you team, each of which had different fighting abilities.  There was your typical cyborg robot who looked like a regular human, a robot who had a wheel instead of legs, a Tank and a Flybot.

Another very cool part of the game, which was actually way ahead of it's time, allowed you to accumulate points for each fight win that you had.   These points allowed you to buy upgrades to your robots...If you were good enough you eventually got all your robots equipped with guns.....Nothing was able to stop the guns! Over the course of the game if your robot lost several fights they would blow up and eliminated from the team.  If you eliminated enough of the opposing teams robots you would force them into a forfeit.

The game was awesome, always fun and it allowed you look forward to hitting into the 4, 6, 3 double play!

If you're able to find it on-line give it a try.  You won't be disappointed.

Winter Meeting Predictions

So i've seen a number of predictions from industry insiders and experts of things that may happen at this week's Winter Meetings.  So i'm going to offer my Top 5 completely unresearched, unprobable predictions of things to happen at this week's MLB winter meetings...

1. Josh Hamilton will stay in the state of Texas and sign with the Huston Astros.   Could you imagine?

2. The New York Yankees will be involved in 12 player trade of there own with the Miami Marlins, but will only end up acquiring beach front property.

3. The Boston Red Sox will sign all of Cody Ross, Mike Mapoli and Nick Swisher, and the rest of the league will throw a cocktail party to celebrate the Red Sox throwing in the towel so early for the next 3 years.

4. RA Dickey will be traded to the Washington Nationals for the rights to Montreal Expo mascot Youpie.  He's Hilarious

5. Toronto Blue Jays fans will get overly excited about multiple reports that anyone of they're players are mentioned as possible trade pieces in a deal that would have them acquiring another starting pitcher.

Book it!  They are all pretty much all done already!

What effect does Roger's owning the Jays have on it's TV Value

I've often wondered what the Blue Jays would get dollare wise from a Television network in these days of specialty sport stations if they were not owned by Rogers.  I recently saw a report that the Los Angels Dodgers were close to a deal that would pay them 6 Billion for the rights to they're games.

Seriously.....6 Billion.  That's amazing.   Now I don't think the Jays would get that type of $$$, but you have to think that with both TSN and Sportsnet who each have 2 stations that they have to worry about programming for along with the increased interest in the Blue Jays that the organization would be able to do pretty well in a TV deal.

I guess i'm pretty impressred by Roger's in the long run who were able to see what the possible value would be by owning the Jays.....When they bought them they must have known that the opporutnity was there for something big.  Owning the TV, Radio & On-line aspect of the Jays must be proving to be very profitable for them, especially since they dicided to invest over $150 into the team through one small deal.

My best guess....I think the Jays would be able to get a deal that would be close to something the along lines of what the Cubs or Rangers would be able to get,


Updated*****

Today I found this article regarding the Dodgers TV deal and how it would never really compare to the one that the Jays would have.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/baseball/blue-jays-out-of-dodgers-league-after-la-reportedly-signs-7-billion-tv-deal/article7652347/

This article gave me a really good insight into how the whole deal works for the Jays, Rogers and the rest of MLB.

I guess the biggest question I have from this article is this.  Are you telling me that the $$ that Rogers gets from the TV revenue does not fall under a Blue Jays budget line?  It seems weird that the Blue Jays wouldn't see any of the TV money other than the $35 Million a year that Rogers pay the Jays.

From what ive been lead to believe this off season the Jays have the opportunity to go to the Rogers BOD and make request for additional $$$.  I would think this extra $$$ is ultimately coming from from the TV revenue.

Anyways.....What have I learned?  Rogers was damn smart for buying the Blue Jays and it only benefits them if the Jays are a winner, which is great for all us Fans!

Go Jays Go!

Carlos Delgado for Level of Excellence

I'm sure i'm not alone when I think the nexy Jay that needs to be honoued in the Jays "Level of Excellence", but for real the guy was a complete stud for the Jays.  How can we ignore the guy who leads the "all time" team stats in HR's, BB, RBI and is 2nd or 3rd in countless others.

I'm old enough to remember the hype that surrounded Delgado when he came up to the Majors. Things were different then, we didnt have the luxury of knowing any of the Jays prospects like we do not thanks to the Interwebs. Which actually makes it pretty impressive that we heard about him as much as we did. He came to us
as a catcher but quickly moved to 1st base, and the 1st memory I had of him was him blasting one of his 1st HR's off the 5th level facing of Skydome.

Sure there are tons of great Blue Jays past that should  be up on the "Level of Excellence" (Tom Henke, Dwayne Ward, and Mosbey to name a few), but Delgao truely deserves to be the next name to grace the Level of Excellence.


Update:  Well it looks like my post did not go unnoticed!  Carlos Delgado will be honored at a ceremony on July 21st, 2013 where his name will be added to the "Level of Excellence"

Full details can be found here.....  http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=411146&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Congrats Carlos!

Anatomy of the 12 Player Blue Jays Trade By Bob Elliott

If you haven't had the chance to read the Anatomy of a trade article that Bob Elliott wrote on Friday I really urge you to. 

If you have trouble finding it it can be found here.....http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/29/anatomy-of-the-12-player-blue-jays-marlins-trade

I try to read almost every article I can find on the Jays and to be honest I find it difficult at times to find anything really get's me sitting on the edge of my seat.  Don't get me wrong Toronto has a bunch of great baseball writers, but this re-cap had me thinking I was a fly on the wall with access to information that knowone had else had access to.

So please if you have a chance check out this article...It is well worth it.

Who's the 5th Starter?

So I think it's a pretty much a given that 4 of the 5 starters in the Jays rotation is locked in place, and one of the biggest questions going into spring training is going to be who is that 5th starter.Right now it's common thought that JA Happ is the front runner for that last spot, however the word on the interwebs is that the Jays are going to be looking to add another name into that mix for some additional depth.Whether they add that depth pitcher by Free Agency or Trade until that move is made it's going to be fun to talk about who else we could see as that 5th starter.Who could they target through Free Agency....  What about Carlos Villanueva?  I know he wants to start and the Jays situation is isin't ideal for that, but Happ is under contract for the year, so why not give that spot to Los Del V and send Happ to the Bullpen to be your longman?  Carlos will give you a great 5th option and if he got hurt we would have Happ to fall back on.  Happ is a Free Agent at the end of the year and could be gone anyways.Who could they target through Trade....What Alexi Ogondo from Texas?  The Jays may have some pieces (Oliver & Buck) that they could move to get a young guy who is effective as a SP or a Bullpen arm. There are probably a lot of smarter people than I who have better suggestions or reasons why both my suggestions wouldn't work, but hey whatever!

BJ Upton - Thank God You Are Gone to the NL

Being a Jays fan hasn't been all that easy for the last few (more like 20) years.  We've had to deal with mediocrity on an ongoing basis, and one of the most frustrating things being a Jays fan was that for some reason the Jays cannot seem to ever beat the Tampa Rays.

Why can't they beat the Rays?  I have no idea..I would like to think this is just a recent thing since the Rays have become one of the best teams in the league, but it's not.  I can remember watching games when they were still the Devil Rays, long before Joe Maddon was the skipper and not understanding when the Jays were constantly loosing series after series to the rays.

Well with the news that BJ Upton signed a 5 year deal with the Braves on Wednesday I was pretty excited to see a Blue Jay killer leave the division with the hope that we've moved a little closer to winning more games against the rays than loosing.  No more watching some under .300 OBP center fielder come up in 12th inning of some game and walking off the Jays!  See ya Mr. Upton.  You will not be missed!

Ramada Worldwide Commercials

Dear Agency who came up with the Ramada World Wide Commercials

Really?  You think this is a good commercial? Please tell me what the hell you were thinking when everyone was sitting in a room and you decided that this was a good idea to go forward wit.

This is horrible and you should be ashamed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnImsAJEoqQ

Favorite Part of the Jays Mega Deal

I was asked yesterday what my favorite piece of the Jays/Marlins mega deal was!  The good thing was I didn't have to think up some on the spot answer cause I already asked myself that same question on more than one occasion since the trade happened.

I thought at first that I would love that we picked up Josh Johnson......Another Morrow for the rotation, potential Ace of the staff, but only having him for one guaranteed year made it a nice pick up, but not my favorite part of the trade.

Jose Reyes!  How could you not love a guy who two years ago won the NL batting title, could steal 40 - 50 bases every year and is the lead off hitter we've needed forever. Still injuries are a bit of a question and may take a while to learn to play on the turf at roger's center.

Two other pieces in Buck and Bonafacio are great, but not what i'm most excited about.

My favorite piece of this trade for the Toronto Blue Jays is Mark Fucking Buehrle.  The guy is a exactly what the Jays need.  A Veteran pitcher, who knows how to win and wants to do nothing but win.  Seriously..have you ever watched him pitch the guy works fast and looks he may kill someone if he walks someone.  The guy is going to get hit around and may even end up being only a .500  pitcher with the jays, but what this team has been missing since Halladay left was a Veteran presence that young pitchers can learn from.

I'm still pumped about the way this deal worked out for the Jays. It obviously sucks to loose all the great young players that went to Miami, but most Jays fans realize that the team was always picking up the young talent with the intent of one day moving most of them when the time came. But seriously we got Mark Fucking Buehrle.

MLB Winter Meetings

The MLB Winter Meetings are only days away and I'm excited more than ever!

Who knows what the Jays are going to do, but goddamn it's fun to follow along with all the ridiculous rumors and name dropping that you'll hear between the 3rd & 6th of December.

Hopefully the good guys aren't done improving their team and at the same time the Red Sox sign a bunch of bandaids!

If the Jays do make any moves who do I think could move?  Maybe JPA & Oliver to the Rangers for some additional pitching, Maybe Some prospects to the Indians for Masterson?  I'm not sure, but it sure is fun to play GM and come up with trades that could never happen.

The Toronto Blue Jays - Jump on for the ride

What a crazy first two months of this 2012-13 Jays off-season. We went from being at an all time low with our Manager leaving for the enemy and making us look like a bunch of amateurs to a two week stretch where the Jays were once again the talk of the baseball world and suddenly contenders.

I think my favorite part of this whole off-season so far is how much we've gotten to talk about the Jays again. There was a good stretch where I didn't have to hear about how the hockey lockout was negotiating over blah blah blah blah........Seriously though I love hockey, but this whole thing is rigodamdiculous!

Anyways we've had highs and lows already and we haven't even got to the Winter meetings yet!  All rationale thought tells me we probably aren't going to have many more moves this off-season, but at the same time i hope i'm wrong and the Jays pull off another rabbit out of the hat and have us all talking again shortly. 

Here we go.....

Well here I am, starting a blog.  Why am I starting this?  Not really sure, but today on my way home from work today I told myself I would!

So what am I going to talk about?  Well I know enough about baseball, so that may be fun.  I'll go with that, Well that and other stuff.  Real original I know. So what to say......I love the Blue Jays, I play mixed and men's league slow pitch, & I'm desperately trying to ensure my kid loves baseball too.

Not sure exactly what will make it's way to this page over time, but I know it should be fun!

Go Jays!