Blue Jays Podcast (VIDEO): Talking Bisons, Awards and More!

For this week’s episode of Jays’ Nest, we invited Ben Wagner, the voice of the Buffalo Bisons to come on to give us some insight into the Blue Jays AAA affiliate. We’re so glad we did. He shed some light on a number of areas from the change in parent clubs for the Bisons, the plight of Ricky Romero and much more! We then moved our discussion to the past week in Blue Jays Land; from the drama of the Orioles series to our Weekly Awards. It’s a good one, so check it out.

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To lead off the show, we spent some time with Ben Wagner who has been covering the Bisons since 2007. In that time, the club has been affiliated with the Cleveland Indians and the New York Mets and now the Toronto Blue Jays. Wagner points out the way this team has been run under Alex Anthopoulos. It is interesting that a MLB team not only has to focus on supplying itself with talent when needed, but they have to keep a good product on the AAA field. Wagner tells us about the job AA’s team has done.

The highlight (for me) of the talk with Wagner was the insight into Ricky Romero. He’s been all but written off around these parts. His decline has been steep and confusing. But, we learn that he is working every single day, harder than most, to right the ship. He’s been trying to come back from “two new knees” (as Wagner puts it) and is tireless in his efforts. Romero is one of the first ones in the locker room working up a sweat, he studies video of himself to look for mechanical issues, etc. Ben also addressed the harsh criticism that Romero’s struggles are “between the ears”. It was a great topic of conversation.

We also talked about the logjam at first base, the performance of Steve Delabar and more. It is interesting that Delabar has been so good in AAA. He is pumping the strike zone and rarely missing in the early going. By all rights, he should be up with the big league club. It is interesting that he is not.

More from Podcast

After we let Ben go, we looked at the past week for the Blue Jays. We started with the drama that ensued with Jose Bautista and Adam Jones. Basically, we thought that the Orioles got what they deserved. When you throw at Bautista and it is incredibly obvious, you had better expect that he is going to show you what for. And, when he does, he is going to make sure you know he is showing you what for. His display wasn’t about disrespecting the game, it was about the Orioles disrespecting him. We also moved into the drama regarding the Orioles opinions on the Rogers Centre turf and even considering forfeiting a game because of it.

We handed out the Weekly awards, which were starting to look like the Devon Travis Awards. But, listeners will be surprised to learn that he did not get one this week. Instead we looked elsewhere for the Hitter of the Week, the Play of the Week, the Misplay of the Week and the Pitcher of the Week.

So, kick back, relax and enjoy our 16th episode! Don’t forget that you can tune in every week (now on Saturdays) to our LIVE Google Hangout to interact and ask questions. We welcome your participation. Look for us on our YouTube channel, iTunes and Stitcher! Go ahead and give us a ‘like’, some ‘stars’, a comment, or otherwise general goodwill. Thank you for taking your time to tune in. We appreciate the love!

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Jays’ Nest- Jays Journal- Podcast about Toronto Blue Jays – Jays’ Nest #16- Bisons and More!

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