Jun 11, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Adam Lind (26) hits a ground rule double against the Chicago White Sox during the second inning at U.S. Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports

Aside from the always involved Oakland A’s the Rangers are sitting pretty in second place in the AL West just a game back of them A’s. When Alexi Ogando and Colby Lewis make their anticipated returns to the rotation, the reliance on the Josh Linblom’s and Jason Grimm’s of the world will no longer be needed and thus fortifying the rotation for the second half of the season. The kids have done a good job in keeping the Rangers relevant and the team can only get better with the return of the veterans.

As for the Blue Jays they are no longer just better than the Astros in team ERA. The surprising Baltimore Orioles are now also not as good as the Blue Jays. Small victories my friends. It just shows that slowly but surely the balance is starting to turn. With the capabilities and talent of our pitching staff we knew they couldn’t be so bad for so long…though R.A. Dickey is still giving me fits. If you were worried about our offence, be worried no more. We currently are sliding up the standings and sit 9th in BA (.252).

To give some perspective, in April we were 14th. In the month of May we were 5th and so far in June we are the 4th best. This is all according to the classic Batting Average stat. I know it is old school but I have grey. I am (getting) old. Deal. All it tells me is we are going to kick it into high gear offensively with the imminent return of Jose Reyes (J.P. Arencibia‘s abyss of an at bat be damned). If the pitching can keep the slow and steady climb up the rankings we could be seeing a potential juggernaut on our hands. Potential.

Probable Starting Pitchers:

Game 1: Esmil Rogers (1-2, 3.60 ERA) vs Yu Darvish (7-2, 2.75 ERA)
Game 2: Mark Buehrle (2-4, 5.06 ERA) vs Justin Grimm (5-4, 5.25 ERA)
Game 3: Josh Johnson (0-2, 5.40 ERA) vs Josh Lindblom (0-1, 5.91 ERA)
Game 4: R.A. Dickey (5-8, 5.11 ERA) vs Derek Holland (5-3, 3.11 ERA)

Look at those ERA’s kids. Hard to believe that hitting is down overall these days. Why we can’t take advantage of this with our starting pitchers is kind of irksome. All Hail the Blue Jays bullpen! Put Esmil Rogers in that all hail. Rogers has done a great job filling the gap in the rotation. He may have been going short but the innings have been quality. Hopefully he is stretched out enough to go at least 5 and perhaps get himself a win to reflect his numbers. Unfortunately I don’t see it happening with the whirling Darvish taking the mound against him. We did a decent job of getting a win off of him the last time. Don’t count on this happening again. He may not have won since May 16 but his ERA since then is 2.28. He is overdue for a win, moreso than Rogers.

I like how Mark Buehrle has been more Mark Buehrle lately but that is at home. His ERA on the road is an unsightly 6.75. If he is to continue his ascension back to workmanlike innings eater he will need to pull those tricks off on the road as well. With a strong start he could get his ERA under that 5 mark. That would be a great moral victory. Taking the game from Justin Grimm. Grimm has been trending worse and worse since he started the season 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in April. His 4 runs given up against us was better than the 8 he gave up the game before against the Red Sox. You could try to give this game to the Rangers but I think Buehrle has turned the corner. One for the good guys

Game 3 could go either way. Johnson threw 109 pitches in only 5 innings with 4 walks and 3 earned against the Rangers in Toronto. He seems to still be finding his rhythm and hopefully the heat of Texas will remind him of his glorious days with the Marlins and he starts to become the ace that many still think he can be. The walks are uncharacteristic to the pitcher he has been so chalk it up to an aberration. If he can contain Beltre and Berkman then the rest should fall back as well. Not much to say about Lindblom other than the fact he has been kind lousy his first two starts. If he is hoping to get on track here I think it isn’t to be. It won’t be as easy to win as the Jays may hope but the bullpen will pull it out and get us a needed victory.

That brings us to game 4. My gimme game of the series. Dickey has done nothing this season to show that he is the Cy Young winning pitcher he was last year. Perhaps the AL is too tough. Perhaps his injuries are worse than thought. Perhaps hitters have figure him out. Aside from the gem he pitched against the Giants in San Francisco I see lots of 6′s and 7′s beside the earned run column in many of his starts. Not a few….many (4 of his last 8). Derek Holland hiccuped in his last start with 4 earned in 4 1/3 he was not the pitcher he has been most of the season. His K to walk ratio is almost 4:1 and he has given up more than 4 runs in back to back starts only one other time this season. I see some befuddled bats and a big win for the Rangers.

Probable Starting Lineups:

Toronto Blue Jays

1. LF: Melky Cabrera
2. RF: Jose Bautista
3. 1B: Edwin Encarnacion
4. DH: Adam Lind
5. C: J.P. Arencibia
6. CF: Colby Rasmus
7. 3B: Maicer Izturis
8. 2B: Emilio Bonifacio
9. SS: Munenori Kawasaki

Texas Rangers

1. SS: Elvis Andrus
2. 2B: Jurickson Profar
3. C: A.J. Pierzynski
4. 3B: Adrian Beltre
5. DH: Lance Berkman
6. LF: David Murphy
7. CF: Craig Gentry
8. 1B: Chris McGuiness
9. RF: Leonys Martin

The key to the resurgence has not been Jose Bautista but the first base boys, Lind and Encarnacion. Adam Lind is hitting .447 in his last 10 games and overall the man who couldn’t hit lefties is hitting .500 off of them this year. That is huge to keeping his bat in the line-up. There is no platooning him in and out anymore. He is as locked in as any hitter in baseball right now. Heck his OBP is .418! That is production kids. Encarnacion has his OPS approaching 900 and he should get there sometime this month. He has been getting the big hit when needed, especially with the long ball. These two are driving the bus and with some other timely hits from the rest of the team we are clicking pretty well.

For the Rangers you only need look at the split line for Adrian Beltre (.300/.349/.526) to realize just how valuable he is. He wins Gold Gloves almost every year and last year earned the Platinum Glove for best defender in all of baseball. That is an MVP right there. With a good set of power numbers (14 HR) and low strike out rate (29 in 253 ABs) he is the one who could single handedly take the series overall for the Rangers. Bet the Dodgers are cringing everytime they see him rake. He would look good at third for them right about now.

Final Word

It is all about the pitching this series. We know both teams can hit so it is a matter of our rotation being the bulldogs they were supposed to be. The winning has to start now or else we will keep fading and fading. Right the ship against the rest of the AL and then when it’s time to take on the East again we will be running on all cylinders. The big question remains if the rotation can’t do its job again is the bullpen ready to shut down all over again? They have been remarkable lately and it’s not right to expect them to hold things down all season the way they have been. Cross your fingers and enjoy the show!

May 31, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista (19) disagrees with a called strike three made by home plate umpire Dana DeMuth (left) during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

TRUTH: Jose is a child who needs to be humbled. All too often Bautista gets upset and shows the same classless act of yelling at umpires.

How is this leading a team to a World Series?

Keep tossing your helmet, yelling at umpires and telling them they’re stupid. Keep doing it. Smart Blue Jay fans will continue to think you’re a child who is extremely selfish. Fans are going to start thinking the organization needs to start a childcare for their own players. Jose Bautista is supposed to show the younger players how to be a big league ball player but what has he shown Brett Lawrie? Both players are suffering from the same problem and Brett needs better leadership around him to teach him how to be a big leaguer.

What makes this situation sad is that there are veteran players on the Blue Jays like Adam Lind and Colby Rasmus who show great respect to the umpires when they get punched out. For some reason Jose can not seem to watch and learn.

The team had to bring in Mark Derosa, Mark Buehrle and RA Dickey to lead this team because what they had in-house was toxic. Who was the leader ? Jose Bautista. This season has been a disaster AGAIN and the team needs to continue to make changes and I believe Jose should be #1 on their trade list.

Now What Makes him so valuable:

Contract

His current contract (5 years, $65,000,000) has him with the Blue Jays until 2017.

Stats

2010 – Games- 161 HR- 54 RBI- 124
2011 – Games- 149 HR- 43 RBI- 103
2012 – Games- 92 HR- 27 RBI- 65

Based on his production this $14,000,000 looks like a steal and would make him the most valuable trade commodity the Blue Jays have.

People can debate the value return for a player like Jose but I know pitching is needed. Would I be upset if the team trades him for two high-end pitching prospects and a mid level major league ready bat? No.

Our batting order would still be deadly:

1. J Reyes
2. M Cabrera
3. E Encarnacion
4. A Lind
5. JP Arencibia
6. B Lawrie
7. C Rasmus
8. E Bonifacio
9. A Gose/ R Davis

The rest of this season will be filled with speculation about the teams future and I hope Jose Bautista is not part of it.

Celebrating Canada Day at the Rogers Center Credit: MopUpDuty

As you can see in the article, he arbitrarily decided that the lovely city of Toronto was not deserving of our MLB club, the Blue Jays. Obviously this is an outlandish and ridiculous notion, made even more insulting by the line:

“Maybe Canadians just aren’t baseball people — I mean, just ask the Expos.”

Perhaps in the sunny confines of California, Jeffery Loria is only known as a benevolent savior of Florida baseball who brings stadiums and players that make the league minimum to the public, and in exchange he asks only for a massive windfall of tax dollars. However, in Canada the deceitful tactics employed by Loria as well as Bud Selig’s complacency in allowing the Expo’s to be moved stolen from Montreal is still very well-remembered, and should in no way be an indictment against Canadian baseball fans. Also, even with amazing fan support the lack of corporate money available in Montreal was what truly paved the way for Loria to waltz out of town with the team, and that corporate money is very much alive and well in Toronto.

Before overreacting to their claims though we must bear in mind where they’re coming from. Even though the Bay Area sports scene is currently in a golden age of prosperity, let us not forget that there is only one half indigenous franchises in the region. The Athletics and Giants were originally in Philadelphia and New York respectively, the Golden State Warriors also were once based in the city of brotherly love, and the Raiders are the prodigal son of the areas franchises leaving only the 49ers as a team that began in the area.  So when an area has pilfered three of their professional sports teams from less fortunate regions, the vulture like attitude of sniffing around for a team that can be had for the taking is just ingrained in them.

Now courtesy aside I will come to the defense of Toronto, which most certainly is deserving of the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays have a rabid fan base, while those south of the border as well as the majority of the mainstream sports media likes to paint Canadians as hockey-only fans, there is a very active community of baseball fans as well. I mean this blog you are reading right now is one of many blogs dedicated to getting fans their fix of Blue Jays information that the mainstream media either neglects to cover or taints with hockey comparisons. *cough Damien Cox cough* Not only do the Blue Jays have a very busy segment of the blogsphere in terms of volume there is also passion behind the blogs, to the point where we will write a rebuttal after being mentioned in a list that decries our right to have a team. I feel that the notion that all we know in Canada is hockey in fact forms an even stronger baseball fan base that has learned to search outside the box for it’s baseball content, instead of simply being spoon fed by the mainstream media.

In the article, the author says that Toronto ranked 30th out of 30 in a popularity poll. While I don’t have access to this poll and where it was taken from, I’m guessing it was most likely conducted in the continental United States where there is probably very little love for the sole Canadian team in the American League.

Toronto has had its ups and downs with the fans since the 4 million fan days of the early nineties, but despite years of poor corporate ownership from both Interbrew and Rogers, the fan base has remained strong. Even while Rogers manipulated its customers by making new channels to air Jay’s games on so you have to upgrade your cable package, all while they kept low payrolls to take advantage of a faulty profit sharing system, the fan base remained strong, with ownership behaving like that a more fitting category for the Jays might be under teams who don’t deserve their city.

Admittedly the fact that in 2010 Toronto, which is one of the largest markets in the league,  ranked 26 out of 30 teams is what the French would call “pathetic.” But when you consider the fact the team hasn’t played a meaningful game in September since winning the 93 World Series, and that 2010 was the first season after the Jays traded franchise cornerstone Roy Halladay, a dip in attendance numbers can be somewhat expected. Even when Toronto did employ the red-haired robot of pitching excellence, the mausoleum like charm of the Rogers Center is enough to deter most would be baseball fans from taking a trip to the ball park. You would figure as a member of the Golden Gate region would be more aware of how an old ugly stadium can impact attendance. The San Francisco Giants, who play in the gorgeous AT&T Park, enjoy excellent attendance usually within the top 10 in the league. Their neighbors across the bay, the Athletics, playing at the Oakland Coliseum however always seem to sit right near the bottom. While some might point to the Giants’ two World Series victories in the last three years  and Oakland’s relatively dismal recent past as the reason for this, I will gladly point those people to the year 2006.

Frank Thomas was largely ignored by “undeserving” bad baseball fans as he led the 2006 A’s to a division title
Credit: Eric Risberg

In 2006  with Barry Zito and a resurgent Frank Thomas the A’s took the AL West by storm winning 93 games en route to a division title and the 26th spot in the attendance rankings (The Jays were 18th that year I might add). The Giant’s meanwhile finished 9 games back of .500 at 76-85 and secured the 7th spot in league attendance. The Giants drew more than 1 million more fans than the A’s. Does that mean that San Francisco deserves their team but Oakland does not? Or maybe one of these cities doesn’t have good baseball fans… although I’m not sure who would be the worse fans, those going to see a lousy team, or the ones that didn’t go see a winning team?

While anybody saying that any city does not deserve their team is rude it becomes much worse when using faulty information and untrue generalizations about the fan base. But when mentioning attendance numbers that trump those of a division winning team in your own city…well Mr. Pot what would you like me to tell Mr. Kettle, he’s waiting on Line 1.

A Leafs Fan Storms The Field at The SkyDome. Image complements of IGN Message Board Poster viva_la_jam (http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/boston.452999241/)

Hey  Leaves Leafs!

It’s me, Travis (from Jays Journal dummies)!  I know you guys have a big game tonight, but I just wanted to touch base and let you know that I really appreciate what you’re doing.

Seriously guys, the Blue Jays have gotten off to a rough start, and aren’t meeting expectations (you know what that’s like amirite?). Fans have been getting pretty upset and have been losing patience, but lately some of the more ridiculous panic has subsided…and it’s all thanks to you!

I mean under most circumstances I would be upset about the people of Toronto caring more about hockey in May than baseball, but that was before I knew that a Toronto team was allowed to join in on these late spring festivities known as the NHL Playoffs.

Sure for a moment it looked like the distraction you were providing while our boys started to right the ship this past week would be short-lived. Down 3-1 and heading to Boston for Game 5? The people were ready to start calling for John Gibbons head again.

But then you won! And you won again! Now you’re heading to Game 7 in Boston. This is great! Not only are you providing a little something to occupy the more panicky corners of our fan base but you’re doing it at the expense of a Boston sports team. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, its Boston sports (plus it has to be a good omen that the Blue Jays won only their second series of the year this weekend against the BoSox).

What I’m really trying to say here is that I’d really appreciate it if you could go out there and win tonight. In one fell swoop you could cause some misery for those Boston fans, and provide a couple more weeks of distraction for our more bandwagon-y members while we climb our way back into this pesky playoff race.

So good luck tonight boys, just take it one shift at a time, give 110%, leave it all on the ice, play like a bunch of good ol’ Canadian boys, grind out the full 60 minutes, and keep mucking it up in those corners.

Sincerely Yours,

Travis

#TeamUnit (that’s still a thing right?)

Apr 3, 2013; Toronto, ON, Canada; Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Emilio Bonifacio (1) bobbles a groundball in the second inning against the Cleveland Indians at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

At the start of 2008 it seemed they had found the long term solution in Aaron Hill. Hill had finished the 2007 season with a .792 OPS, clubbed 47 doubles, was solid defensively and  appeared to be an up and coming talent at the position. He was then signed to a club friendly six year deal designed by then Assistant GM  Alex Anthopoulos with a handful of team options. While there was a scare in 2008 as Hill was limited to 55 games due to a concussion, he returned with authority in 2009 knocking in 36 home runs, making the all-star team, and winning both the Silver Slugger and Comeback Player of the year award, things looked good at second base for the Jays for the foreseeable future.

But the glimmer of hope on the horizon was extinguished when Hill suffered through a dismal 2010 that saw his OPS drop 164 points to .665 buoyed by his 26 home runs. When the 2011 campaign got underway the club declined to pick up the three year option on Hill’s contract, and when 2011 appeared to be more of the same of 2010 the club cut bait and swapped Hill for fellow underachieving second basemen Kelly Johnson then of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and while the dessert air seemed to be the perfect tonic for the struggling Hill, Johnson didn’t have quite the same magical rebirth coming north of the border.

Although Johnson didn’t have quite the renaissance that Aaron Hill experienced, he was one of the teams most consistent performers at the dish in the seasons early going. Through the first half of the season Johnson had a .721 OPS and hit 10 home runs. He suffered a hamstring injury near the end of May, and the lingering effects of that injury could explain his drop off in the second half where he hit only 6 homers and saw his OPS tumble down to .617. While Johnson’s season looked ugly, especially with his 27.4 percent strike out rate, a closer look at the numbers show he wasn’t all that bad, Johnson ranked fourth amongst the club’s regulars with an OBP of .314, he was behind only Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie, and that’s despite his huge K rate.

The Jays had decided they had enough of Johnson though and he walked in free agency to sign with the rival Tampa Bay Rays. These days if your club lets a player go, and that player is then signed by the Rays you usually are safe to facepalm, as their recent reclamation projects of Kyle Farnsworth, Fernando Rodney and others has shown that even if a player appears to have nothing left to offer the Rays have found a way to inject new life into them. And while Johnson now has five home runs and an .839 OPS to start 2013 and seems set for a solid season, the Jays have tried three different players at second, Mark DeRosa seems to have turned back time somewhat mustering an .816 OPS which seems quite Pujolsian when compared to Izturis’ meager .568 OPS and a woeful .481 OPS by Emilio.

I avoided looking too closely at Aaron Hill’s success in Arizona where he essentially bounced back to his 2008 levels of production. If I’d gone in depth on that it would make me think about how the Jay’s traded him away for essentially nothing, because they somehow didn’t have the coaching skills or general wherewithal to fix him here in Toronto, and when I think about that I become quite prone to banging my head off of my desk (repeatedly). Unless Mark DeRosa somehow maintains his glimmering start to the season, making the second base situation far less dire, Jay’s fans are going to start wondering who has made more errors at second base Alex Anthopoulos or Emilio Bonifacio?

Where does Mark Buehrle and his contract fit with the Blue Jays. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

While the Jays were able to mount an epic comeback on Monday night after Mark Buehrle gave up seven runs to the Rays, that sort of offensive firepower is not the sort of run support  Buehrle can expect  in every start. Monday marked the fifth time in seven starts this season that Buehrle that Buehrle gave up five runs or more. Normally if a pitcher is performing consistently at this level you would try him in the bullpen or even assign him to the minors, however when that pitcher is owed $48 million over the next three seasons those options become much less palatable.

Most of the time Blue Jay’s GM  Alex Anthopoulos is lauded for being able to dump Vernon Wells and his bloated contract on the Angels it seems he may have picked up something similar in Buehrle in his deal with the Marlins. Obviously the Wells contract, which had four years and $85 million remaining on it, was a much bigger burden than what the Jay’s picked up in Buehrle. There are however other factors besides the money to take into consideration when looking at how much a contract burdens a team.

One reason Wells received such a lucrative deal was because of his performance at a premium defensive position. As Wells defensive abilities have declined he has found himself in left field, while this makes him theoretically less valuable it also allows that position to be occupied by a higher WAR player, similarly he can be moved around in the batting order to come up in less crucial situation or less often in general.

In Buehrle’s case however it doesn’t matter which rotation spot he holds, none of them provide any leeway for regression the way defensive placement or batting ninth can. Even in Well’s worst days with the Jays, or Angels for that matter, no matter how many high fastballs he whiffed on, or how many times he popped up to the infield, none of those actions would put the club down 5 runs.

Former Jays Albatross Vernon Wells rounds the bases after hitting a home run off of Mark Buehrle. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

Therein lies the real problem with Buehrle. Moving to the American League East after a career in the AL Central and one year in the NL East Buehrle has seen a spike in his home run rate, on pace to give up 52 long balls over the course of the season. This is well over his previous career high of 36 allowed in a season, and more than double his career average of 24.6 home runs per season. This is a troubling trend for any pitcher on the wrong side of 30 regardless of what type of money is owed them.

The question that really needs to be asked though. Is the money the Jays owe Buehrle only well spent if he is successful? One can argue that taking on Buehrle and fellow overpay Jose Reyes from the Marlins, the Jays not only bought the services of those players (and Josh Johnson), but also bought the club relevance. Without picking up the contract of Buehrle would the club have gotten a chance to sign Melky Cabrera or lock up the reigning Cy Young winner for only $30 million. These team friendly deals that the Jays handed out could in theory cancel out the bad value on Buehrle’s contract making it easier to stomach. And even if his effectiveness has been questionable so far this season, Buehrle’s true calling card throughout his career has been his durability and consistency, for any club hoping to contend innings need to get eaten and how much is it worth having someone who you know should be able to do that for you?

While his ERA sits at an ugly 7.02 Buehrle has still been pitching fairly deep in the games, and although pitching like garbage for 7 inning is less than ideal, somebody needs to pitch those innings. Even with his homer happy tendencies it won’t seem to have a dramatic impact on bullpen usage, as believe it or not despite his rocky start,with troubling signs of decline and adjusting to a new division, Buehrle is still the model of consistency on pace for 195 innings. As long as you have no one clearly better to pitch those innings Buehrle is still a valuable cog on the 25 man roster. However if the money he is owed results in him blocking a young pitcher who could be more effective from pitching the picture becomes a little murkier as to what value he can provide.

Will Buehrle and his contract become nothing but a burden on the team, or will he be a valuable fixture in the rotation logging innings and always remembered for being a part of the franchise changing trade? Only time (and home runs) will tell.

May 6, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia (9) is congratulated by teammates after he scored during the eighth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 8-7. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Blue Jays have gone and done it again. They’ve sucked me back in, shown me that glimmer of hope, by the end of this Game Thread we could have an honest to goodness win streak! I’m a sucker you say? Well obviously…I’m a Toronto sports fan. We’re all suckers. That being said it’s not easy to stop yourself from getting caught up in the hope and excitement of a 7-run comeback victory. J.P. Arencibia‘s 2-run home run to put the Blue Jays on top for good is the kind of hit that narratives are built on.

Mark my words, if this truly is a turning point for the Blue Jays season (please please please let this be a turning point) these aren’t going to be the last words put into a word processing program to describe JPA’s bomb

News & Notes

Jose Reyes had his walking boot off, for a period of time at least, so there’s that.

Sometimes in life we lose track and forget how important the little things really are. We forget that… instagram.com/p/ZBCqXvTVXf/

— Jose Reyes (@lamelaza_7) May 7, 2013

The Blue Jays haven’t claimed anyone on waivers in what seems like hours…has anyone checked on Alex Anthopolous lately? Line Ups

Tonight’s @bluejays lineup:Lawrie-3BCabrera-LFBautista-RFEncarnacion-1BArencibia-CLind-DHRasmus-CFIzturis-2BKawasaki-SSHapp-P — Blue Jays-Official(@BlueJays) May 7, 2013

#Rays Line up vs #Toronto twitter.com/TomBerte/statu…

— Tom Berte (@TomBerte) May 7, 2013

Question of The Day

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Game Updates
BREAKING: It’s really nice out in Toronto, this Game Thread is therefore brought to you live from my balcony.

Well this is pretty cool:

Lots of optimism around here as Santos, Drabek, Hutchison and McGowan pay a visit to The Trop. Everybody feels great. #Bluejays #Jays

— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) May 7, 2013

Top 1:

Jose Bautista hits a double but that’s all the Jays manage in the 1st

Bottom 1:

A double, a walk but nothing else for the Rays. Zeros after 1.

Top 2:

Lind hits his first home run of the season! Maicer Izturis hits a double but is stranded. 1-0 for the good guys.

Bottom 2:

Scary moment here in the bottom half of the second as Happ gets hit with a line drive off the bat of Desmond Jennings. Let’s all hope that he’s okay.

Brad Lincoln into pitch, going to be tough for the Blue Jays to stay focused on the task at hand.

Happ raises his hand to wave to the fans as he was taken off the field. #Bluejays #Jays #rays

— Mike Wilner (@Wilnerness590) May 8, 2013

Top 3:

Blue Jays can’t get anything going in the 3rd, getting set down in order.

Bottom 3:

Brad Lincoln responds in kind setting down the Rays in order.

4th inning:

Nothing comes across for either team in the 4th

Top 5:

Nothing doing for the Blue Jays aside from a Kawasaki single.

 Bottom 5:

 Loup keeps the Rays off the board with a clean 5th inning.

Top 6:

A Melky single, an Edwin walk but nothing else as the Blue Jays fail to score again. They’re still trailing 4-1 heading into the bottom of the 6th.

Bottom 6:

The Rays can’t muster much against Loup, off to the 7th to see if the Jays can get to this bullpen again.

Top 7:

Lind doubles, and Rasmus kills the rally with a home run, but the Blue Jays are now within 1 heading to the home half of the 7th.

Bottom 7:

A very long Evan Longoria double is the only hit that Steve Delabar gives up, keeping it a 1 run game heading to the 8th.

Top 8:

Blue Jays tie it up in the 8th after double from Melky and Joey Bats; but squander a grand opportunity by not getting anymore across.

Bottom 8:

Delabar shuts down the Rays, thanks in part to a nice 3-6-3 double play started (and finished) by Edwin Encarnacion

Top 9:

Maicer Izturis Power, Brett Lawrie Red Bull, EE getting tossed. All ya need to know. Jays lead 6-4. Janssen in to work his magic,

Bottom 9:

Janssen closes out the win for the Blue Jays. We have ourselves a streak people.

The Blue Jays offense struggled mightily in their 4 losses, managing to score a pitiful 3 runs and never really threatening to do much else. In their two wins they appeared to be a completely different team, wutg the offense managing to show the kind of fireworks that was expected coming into this season as they exploded for 19 runs.

I’ve lost count of how many times the Blue Jays have won a game and had it heralded as a ‘turning point’ but Sunday’s win adds to the total. What’s left to be seen for the belaugered Jays is if this win actually is a turning point,  if their playoff aspirations remain in tact it had better be; ‘it’s early’ is getting closer and closer to ‘there’s always next year’ with every series loss.

GBOAT:

Edwin Encarnacion

Coming into this season there was some doubt about what the “real” Edwin Encarnacion was. Could he possibly match his prodigious  power numbers from last season, or would he regress to something less super human? Over the past couple of weeks EE has managed to eliminate any concerns about whether 2012 was an anomaly, crushing devastating home run after devastating home run.

Encarnacion’s Win Probability Added for the week was a gaudy 26.4%, how did he achieve this? By doing what he does best and hitting the baseball to where even the BABIP Gods couldn’t touch him. Watching from the 100 Level Outfield of the SkyDome on Tuesday night I can attest that Edwin’s 500 Level Bomb was something to behold. If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen the homer in question, I present it to you in GIF form complements of GameReax.

Omar Vizquel Honour of Ineptitude

R.A. Dickey

The defending National League Cy Young Award Winner continued to struggle this week. In his start on Saturday, Dickey was victimized by the long ball giving up 7 runs on 6 hits (3 of which were of the round trip variety) and 2 walks. For those of you keeping track at home that’s 7 runs on just 8 baserunners. Dickey also struck out 5 in his 6 innings pitched. His Win Probabity Added for the Game (and the week) was a nauseating -26.4%. It was an odd day for Dickey as he seemed totally in control until he was suddenly not. As a member of the crowd at the Dome for his start I would have been a lot more upset, but it was a really nice day out, and I live in Canada, I’ve got to enjoy this weather while it’s here.

If the Blue Jays are going to turn this thing around, they are going to need their presumed ace lead the charge. Mr. Dickey got off to a not quite this slow start last season as well, so here’s hoping to a similar turnaround to dominance.

Wrap Up

The Blue Jays open a 4 game set tonight in Tampa Bay facing the division rival Rays, before a 3 game set against the borderline unbearable division leading Boston Red Sox. It’s been said before, and hopefully won’t need to be said again but this is a big week for the Blue Jays if they have any hope of making a claim for one of the American League’s playoff spots.

If they continue to struggle, the Blue Jays fans will need to take comfort in the words of the Starks of Winterfell. Winter is Coming, and so far that’s the only time the Blue Jays have looked like contenders.

Apr 21, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Munenori Kawasaki (66) celebrates with a fan after scoring in the first inning against the New York Yankees at the Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to the final game thread of April 2013! The Toronto Blue Jays open up a 3 game set with  the Boston Red Sox this evening at the Rogers Centre. Our very own Jeff Morten previewed the series for Jays Journal, so I won’t go too much into the match up at hand.I’m also not going to focus on the Blue Jays struggles so far in April.

There have been countless words written about what is wrong with the team, and what they need to do to fix it not only here on Jays Journal, but on seemingly every other sports site in existence.

Instead I want to focus on something Blue Jays fans have been forgetting about an awful lot lately. Baseball is fun. We watch this game because it’s fun, your day shouldn’t be ruined because the Blue Jays may lose again. Did April suck because the Blue Jays have gone 9-17 so far? No! (It sucked because the weather has been awful in Toronto so far, now there’s something to be sad about). When you’re watching along with tonight’s game, try to ignore the fact that the Jays are 9-17, ignore the fact that their odds at making the playoffs get longer every day, and just enjoy the fact that you’re getting to watch two teams that are exceptional at what they do, play a game against each other that is exceptionally fun to watch (plus Brandon Morrow and John Lester are pitching tonight and that’s awesome).

Line Ups

.@bluejays lineup:Lawrie-3bDavis-DH Bautista-RF Encarnacion-1bCabrera-LFArencibia-CIzturis-SSRasmus-CFBonifacio-2bMorrow-P #Whiff

— Blue Jays-Official(@BlueJays) April 30, 2013

4/30 at TOR: Ellsbury CF, Nava RF, Pedroia 2B, Ortiz DH, Napoli 1B, Carp LF, Saltalamacchia C, Middlebrooks 3B, Drew SS, Lester SP.

— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) April 30, 2013

News & Notes

Took a big step toward getting back on the field today! Cast is OFF!!! #roadtorecovery #gojays #lovethisteam — Jose Reyes (@lamelaza_7) April 29, 2013

I think the apt way to describe this is NAILS.

@crtc approves Rogers’ acquisition of @thescore but says no to using tangible benfts to fund Sportsnet Winter Games crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/20…

— Nicholas Kyonka (@Nkyonka) April 30, 2013

Just to clear up any confusion, Rogers had purchased the TV properties of TheScore a few months ago, it finally gained control of those properties today after CRTC approval. The digital properties of TheScore (i.e. the website with all of the awesome blogs like Getting Blanked & DJF, and the killer phone app, and the Twitter handle @thescore) remain a seperate entity.

Look for TheScore TV channel to be rebranded as some sort of “Sportsnet” in the coming months, and presumably look for some Jays related content to show up on the network. There have been rumours of a live pre/post game show from TheScore’s studios just down from the Rogers Centre at 370 King Street.

Question Of The Day

After yours truly and the one and only Michael M. Beraskow (find him on Twitter at @donnieberaskow) gave varying opinions (but not really) on what the Blue Jays should do with John Gibbons, what do you guys think?

Game Updates

This is no ordinary Game Thread, I’ll be doing the Game Updates a little differently! Why you ask? Because it’s my birthday and I’m heading on over to the Dome to take in a little baseball to celebrate, but being the dedicated blogger that I am, I’ve decided to update LIVE from the Dome…cause I’m cool like that. I don’t know how I’m going to update yet, we’ll see how it goes along, I’ll also be over on the Twitter Machine tweeting my more inane observations that I don’t think are worthy of this fine post.

Almost game time!

Top of 1
The Dome is creepily quiet thus far.
Morrow strands two after a walk and infield single

Bottom 1
Blue Jays score 1 after a Davis single and steal and a Bautista double

Top 2
Morrow is dealing! A clean inning with a few Ks for good measure.

Bottom 2
Cletus gets stranded after his fellow bottom of the lineupers fail to get anything going

ALL-STAR BALLOTS

Top 3
Morrow strands 1, looking very comfortable on the mound. Pitching the way we all hoped at the start of the season

Bottom 3
A break goes the Jays way!

Top 4
A couple of solo shots put the BoSox on the board.

Bottom 4
I was getting/eating food…not really sure what happened, my bad!

Top 5
Morrow gives up another but is up to 7 Ks on the day.

Bottom 5
EDWIN

Top 6
Aaron Loup gives up his first career HR, the third solo shot of the night for Boston to make it 6-4 Blue Jays

Bottom 6
The Blue Jays go down quietly and Jacoby Elsbury remains unfazed by my heckling.

Top 7
Kawasaki gets a big ovation coming into the game at SS

#blamekawasaki

Ugh.

Bottom 7
EDWIN IS A GOD.

Top 8
Black Magic keeps the bad guys off the board. Guy is ageless.

Bottom 8
Blue Jays add an insurance run compliments of a Colby Rasmus RBI single. Janssen in to close.

Top 9
Good guys win!

Jul 2, 2011; Toronto, ON, Canada; Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Corey Patterson (left) is congratulated by right fielder Eric Thames (46) after scoring in the 5th inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at the Rogers Centre. The Phillies beat the Blue Jays 5-3. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees square off in game three of their four game set this afternoon. The Blue Jays look to avoid another series loss in this early season.  As Blue Jays fans are well aware, the season hasn’t gotten off to the start that everyone expected. The losses are piling up, and fan morale is crushingly low.

For everyone feeling down in the dumps about your Toronto Blue Jays, I just want to remind you of one thing: the picture you see above. That picture contains two thirds of an outfield that started a game for us in 2011. Eric Thames and Corey Patterson were starting games for the Toronto Blue Jays. Things may not be going swimmingly so far this season, but they could by much, much worse.

With that in mind I have made a list of the 3 things about this Blue Jays season that make me happy. This is baseball after all, so today when you’re watching the game, following along with this Game Thread, remember the following awesome things.

Edwin Encarnacion

The Blue Jays slugger has gotten off to a slow start by traditional metrics, but those who have been watching the games, or looking a little deeper into the stats know that Edwin has been crushing the baseball only to be foiled by just plain bad luck. Sick of having his batting average dragged down by a .206 BABIP despite his 24.6% line drive rate, Edwin has decided to foresake the BABIP gods by simply hitting the ball out of the park. He now has 5 homeruns in his last 4 games. Watch him hit Jays fans, its a beautiful thing, and if you’re lucky you’ll see him do his Chicken Wing Trot all the way around the bases again today.

A recreation of an Edwin Encarnacion Home Run Trot

Jose Bautista

If the past 3 seasons haven’t convinced you, I don’t know what will, but Jose Bautista is awesome. Simply put, the man crushes baseballs. His homerun last night was majestic (and would have been that much better if not for an egregious passed ball by J.P. Arencibia in the previous half inning). It was his 6th HR of the season, and it certainly won’t be his last.

Jose Bautista crushes a solo homerun. GIFS courtesy of http://www.gamereax.com

Gibby The Best

I know some of my fellow bloggers here at Jays Journal don’t have the same love of Manager John Gibbons that I do . The Blue Jays fans on Twitter that for some reason think the manager at the Major League level have some sort of magical power to improve the fundamentals of the team are kind of ridiculous. In reality, baseball managers provide minimal value to their team, it takes a truly horrific manager to actually cost their team games, and I’m not quite sure how a manager can help win too many games (“hey Jose, you wanna go slug one outta the park or what?”). What I do know is that having a manager as affable and hilarious as John Gibbons, is the best.

Head over to Gamereax for all of your GIF needs

News & Notes 

Laffey DFA

— John Lott (@LottOnBaseball) April 27, 2013

We hardly knew ye Aaron Laffey, the carousel of the Blue Jays 25th roster spot continues!

.@bluejays have selected the contract of right handed pitcher Justin Germano from the @buffalobisons

— Blue Jays-Official(@BlueJays) April 27, 2013

Line ups

#BlueJays lineup vs #Yankees: Davis 8 Cabrera 7 Bautista 9 EE 3 JPA 2 Lawrie 5 DeRosa 0 Izturis 6 Bonifacio 4 Happ 1 vs Sabathia — Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) April 27, 2013

Izturis and Bonifacio as our double play combination? Ugh.

4/27 @yankees lineup vs @bluejaysGardner CFNix 3BCano 2BWells LFYoukilis 1BHafner DHIchiro RFNunez SSStewart CSabathia P

— MLBLineups (@mlblineups) April 27, 2013

This entire line up is ugh though…how do they keep winning games?

Question of the Game?

Game Threadin’

Join us down in the comments section to discuss what’s happening throughout the game. We’ll be providing our insight and analysis, and even just our plain old vitriol as the game moves along.