Blue Jays Podcast (VIDEO): Opening Day Preview Show!

The Blue Jays’ 2015 season starts today! Months of waiting and speculating will give way to a season of analysis and second guessing. In order to get you ready for the upcoming season and series, we sat down and discussed our thoughts about how things are going to shake down. And, this episode is a good one! We were lucky to be joined by Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling. Arden is a writer for Sportnet Magazine and appears on their website covering the Blue Jays.

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Toronto Blue Jays /

Toronto Blue Jays

Our discussion started off with a look at whether or not GM, Alex Anthopoulos has done enough to set this team up to compete in the American League East. The consensus is that he has done a very good job given the confines within which he’s been given to work. We looked at the monitoring of young pitchers, which seems to be a bit of a switch in philosophy on the part of Blue Jays brass. We also moved on to talk about the importance of Drew Hutchison if this club is going to compete in 2015.

We then talked about the opening series (Man, it feels good to type that!) against the New York Yankees. Keegan did a great job priming us for this series in his preview already. Our panel broke done the pitching match ups. In game 1, Hutchison goes up against a recuperating Masahiro Tanaka. We’re interested in seeing how Tanaka’s health is progressing with regards to his elbow. In game 2, R.A. Dickey takes on Michael Pineda. We’re a tad concerned with Dickey’s knuckleball. Assuming Pineda can keep pine tar off his neck, the Blue Jays may be in trouble in this one. And, to wrap up the series, Daniel Norris will be matched up with C.C. Sabathia. While Sabathia has question marks, Norris has looked really good this spring. We kind of like the Blue Jays’ chances in this one.

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Our discussion moved into much lighter territory as we went around the room giving predictions for specific aspects of this team’s potential performance. We started with total team wins. Let’s just say, based on the numbers thrown out there, it may not be enough to reach the post season. We gave our predictions for home runs between Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson. As well, we took a guess as to just how many All Stars will be on this squad. It is actually quite high…if we’re correct. After these warm up predictions, we each made one bold prediction. Well, some were, some may not have been that bold.

We then played a little game of “Would You Rather…”. I asked each panelist to make a tough choice between two ideas. For example, we led off with “Would you rather see Dioner Navarro play first base or see Josh Thole catch”. The answers were a little surprising. A little. We had a lot of good discussion out of this game.

Finally, we ended with some Blue Jays Opening Day trivia. Here is a taste of what we asked. Let’s see how well you know your Blue Jays. No cheating! Who hit the most home runs in an Opening Day? You can leave your answer in the comment section. Remember, no cheating. I did ask the question, “How many Opening Day starts did Dave Stieb make.” I have to point out that on the show I said 3. I was looking at something else and made an error. The correct number is 4.

This episode was a lot of fun to be a part of. I want to take the time to thank you for joining us each week! It’s a lot of fun for us. We’ve had great results on iTunes and Stitcher. It means a lot to us that you take the time to listen to us each week. Sit back and enjoy our Opening Day (!) episode of the Jays’ Nest.

AUDIO:

Jays’ Nest- Jays Journal- Podcast about Toronto Blue Jays – Jays’ Nest #13- Opening Day!

VIDEO:

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