Call it pessimism if you will, but when we look back at the 2009 season, I’ve got a sinking feeling we’ll recall the glory days of May 18th.
Everything has gone wrong in Boston. Wakefield’s crap on Tuesday, 3 runs on 14 Goddamn hits on Wednesday and now Rios misplaying a flyball into a two-run homer on Thursday.
Fuck, is all.
Forgot about the live blog.
Anyway, I really fucking hate the knuckler. 16 pop-ups induced by Wakefield. That’s damn impressive, and annoying as all hell. In any event, not a terrible loss; Tallet pitched well, Frasor was nails again, and Ryan even tossed a scoreless 8th, albeit shakily.
Oh, and David Ortiz is just a walking corpse up there. Sweet Jesus, the man looks lost. (Obviously he now homers in a key situation later this series).
In other news, Mark Teixeira and ARod continue the homer barrage in the Bronx. ARod is hitting about .200 but with 5 HRs in 33 AB. Impressive.
Cecil tomorrow. Win.
I guess we can call this a live blog.
Lind looks stupid against Wakefield who then throws four straight way out of the zone to Rolen. Looks to be a huge strike zone tonight. Daniel Cabrera could find this zone.
By the way, nice job by my mom in joining the 21st century today and signing up for digital cable just to watch this series. Well done. She’ll be live-blogging by July.
Overbay flies to the track in left. Three down. On to the bottom of the second.
Nice, Alex. Get caught stealing on a 66 mph pitch.
Here’s another reason I hate knucklers: You can’t watch the pitch count and wait them out. Fouling off a dozen pitches means nothing. Wakefield could throw 250 pitches tonight and pitch in relief tomorrow.
I’ll let you know in about three hours if that opinion changes.
Well, look what the ceiling cat dragged in. I’m starting to think I’d be more suited to Twitter seeing as anything more than about 100 characters in an incredible stress on my lifestyle. In any event, I’m here with absolutely no guarantees of sticking around.
As I type this, Jesse Litsch has just left his second start with “forearm tightness”. Admittedly, I’m a giant pessimist but in my book, he’s as good as on Dr. Andrews’s operating table. For those keeping score at home, that’d make 80% of last year’s starting rotation gone in one way or another. That’s, um, unfortunate.
The good news is that, seven games into the season, the Jays offense has already surpassed last year’s hit, runs, and home run totals for the year. Or they’re at least close.
Lastly, before I leave, how about a totally frivolous stat. Let’s say the Jays continued their torrid offensive pace (6.5 runs/game) and combined it with last year’s dominating pitching and defence (610 total runs). Their expected win-loss record would be 119-43. Why can’t things just ever line-up for this team?
Alright, I’m clearly working on a strict word count here. I’ll get my reps up soon enoigh but I’m at least a month behind in my conditioning.
See, all it takes for me to make a post is an eight game win streak. Man, this is fun, isn’t it? I’m not even concerned with the fact it would still take a near-miracle for the Jays to steal a playoff spot; that’s not what this is about. This is simply about enjoying a lengthy hot streak. It’s about being that little bit happier every morning.
On Saturday, my wife and I pulled into the driveway as Gregg Zaun stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, two out, and the Jays down by a run in the 13th. Knowing I wouldn’t get to the tv in time, we stayed in the car. Jess asked if it was “going to be going, going, Zaun!” not five seconds before he launched the walk-off slam. We both yelped and high-fived. Since when does my wife care about the Jays? Seven game win streaks do weird things.
Then, on Sunday, we were out running some errands with the Jays clinging to a 1-0 lead in the 7th. Over the course of ten minutes, I checked the score on my mobile at least a half-dozen times. I was genuinely nervous. Since when have I been that concerned about a slim lead, late in a game? Eight game win streaks do weird things.
Of course, this is all likely to come to an end any day now, even tonight. Two days from now, the fifteen minutes I spent figuring out Magic Numbers could seem foolish. But right now? Who cares? Today I woke up and smiled almost immediately. My team is the hottest in baseball and making noise, if only just a peep. And even if this high doesn’t last, we got to enjoy the ride for a few days. After all, isn’t that all you can really ask from sports?
Look, I’ve got an excuse. I was lazy.
In any event, what could have brought me out of my foxhole to blather away to precisely nobody? The Jays recent run? Of course not. Why, it’s our dear friend Richard Griffin!
From today’s mailbag:
Q-First I wanted to say thanks for all your answers and insight into the Jays, I look forward to your mailbag every Wednesday. My question is, If you were named Jays G.M what moves would you make, what free agents would you go for, or what would be your game plan for this powerless lineup of underachievers that Mr. Ricciardi has assembled? A loyal fan and reader.
Jonathan Sanchez, Toronto
Jonathan Sanchez is the new Ron Mexico. Anyway, this softball is right Griff’s wheelhouse. Let’s listen in:
As I always like to point out, GM Ed Wade of the Astros and GM Ned Coletti of the Dodgers were both former public relations guys in baseball – Wade with the Phillies, Pirates and Astros, Coletti with the Cubs – which makes me just as qualified as 6.7-percent of all major league GMs.
He really does mention this a lot. Part of me thinks Richard truly does believe himself to be fit to be a GM. As an aside, as a government worker during my summers in University, I am just as qualified to be leader of a sovereign nation as 100% of all heads of state.
One of my first moves would be to find every former major-league player living in Canada and put them on the Jays payroll as consultants, scouts and ambassadors. Then, I would increase funding to Greg Hamilton’s Baseball Canada program and take a more hands-on approach to our team in the World Baseball Classic.
Sure, why not. Neat idea. But how many former major-leaguers are currently living in Canada? Five or six?
I would sign free agent Carlos Delgado as a DH for one year until Travis Snider is ready and have him influence immature Puerto Rican star Alex Rios into maximizing his skills and focusing every day.
Not the worst idea. Delgado looked done about two months ago but has rebounded nicely. He may get more than a one year deal elsewhere but it’d be worth a shot.
I would sign Orlando Hudson and move Aaron Hill over to shortstop.
I sense a pattern. Shawn Green’s available too, you know.
I would trade for a young ready-for-prime time No. 2 or 3 starter and not be afraid to give up some premium prospects.
Me? I’d trade for Albert Pujols and David Wright. That’d shore up the infield nicely. Vagaries like the one above are essentially useless. What ready-for-prime time starter would you target? And which premium prospects would you deal? Surely not Snider as he’s in your 2010 plan as noted above. Brett Cecil? But he’s a nearly-ready-for-prime-time No. 2 or 3 starter. He’s what you’re trying to acquire!
I would hire an experienced senior advisor and some veteran scouts and actually listen to their advice.
Me too!
I would stay in Toronto all winter.
Not me. I’d winter on Pluto and conduct all transactions through Morse Code. Seriously, of all the things to rag on J.P. for, living in the US is about as far down the list as you can get. I don’t care if he lives in Fallujah if he can put a winning team on the field. Neither should you.
Ok, that was just an amuse bouche. Richard really turns up the crazy on the next question:
Q-I’ve previously asked you about evaluating the performance of pitchers using wins and losses and how that can be misleading, I now have a question for you about offensive statistics. I’ve noticed that more and more baseball experts have been leaning towards on-base percentage over batting average because walks are becoming more valuable and along with on-base percentage, Slugging percentage to create the all important OPS. My question for you is, do you think batting average will one day soon become obsolete?
Eric Sillius, Oakville
Get your pitchforks ready!
On-base percentage gained importance because certain teams on a budget were looking at players they could afford and weren’t highly scouted, that weren’t talented enough as hitters to post high batting averages but could swat the occasional longball.
OBP has always been important. It tells you how often a guy doesn’t get out. OBP gained prominence when Michael Lewis wrote a book about Billy Beane exploiting inefficiencies in the baseball marketplace. Then it became infamous when older baseball writers and ESPN analysts misinterpreted the book as an attack on the mystique of the game by computers.
You use the term loosely when you cite “baseball experts”.
And we’re at rock bottom. Come on, Richard. Is Billy Beane not a “baseball expert”? What about Bill James? Or absolutely anyone who attaches significance to a broader statistic than batting average? This is absurd.
Considering on-base percentage more important than batting average is not baseball. Jack Cust has a better on-base percentage than Ichiro Suzuki, but who’s the better player?
This doesn’t even make sense. No, it’s not baseball. It’s an opinion. And you’re insane.
Ryan Theriot has a higher batting average than Alex Rodriguez, but who’s the better player?
Vincente Padilla has more wins than Johan Santana, but who’s the better pitcher?
Mike Jacobs has more homeruns than Vlad Guerrero, but who’s the better player?
Michael Phelps has more world records than me, but who’s better at Sudoku? (It’s me, I’m fucking amazing at them).
I honestly don’t even know what else to say to that. It’s just a shame that people will read this and accept Griffin’s logic.
Anyway, see ya in a month or something.
I figure a night where the Jays squander a bases-loaded, nobody out, 10th inning scenario is as good as any to start posting again. It has been about 15 games since I last wrote and in that span the Jays have gone on a wild tear to move something like six games over .500 and then a wild slide with some truly remarkable defeats to crash right back to Earth. And during that time, I’ve received no less than two emails demanding my reinstatement to the blogosphere. I feel touched.
In any event, I have an excellent excuse for my absence: I’m an incredibly lazy person. Combine that with not wanting to jinx things when they were going well, and then not even wanting to think about baseball during the past week, and, well, my half-dozen readers have had to look elsewhere to kill a minute and a half while at work.
And in honour of my return, I’m going to leave it at this and focus on my next post, which will come tomorrow. And it’ll be about horses.
Screw it, I’m lowering myself to this: live-blogging to nobody.
Situation: Bottom of the 9th. 4-3 Angels. 11-4 hits in favour of the Jays. GameDay probably delayed so this may not be live.
9:51pm: KRod vs. Wilkerson. Two strikes, looking. From what I see on GameDay, I’d have swung. Ball that appears to have been a strike. Groundout.
Cue a one-out single or a walk…..
9:54pm: 2-1 on Hill. Ball 3. ESPN Gamecast is two pitches ahead of GameDay. Ball 4. Perfect. Nothing like raising hopes…….
9:55pm: Rios. Incoming pitch has been hit in play?! Fuck. The ESPN ball tracker made that look gone. Two down.
9:57pm: The kinda retarded looking kid just lost American Idol.
9:58pm: First pitch. Hit into play. Popout. Over. 23-25. Shit.
