Toronto Blue Jays 2017 regular season thread

[Roof-Daddy]

lol @ Pillar, Smoak and Carerra.

If you'd have told me at the start of the year they'd be hitting like this I would have said the Jays will probably be in 1st place then.

Also, Bolsinger and Howell suck.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Hope they punt Bolsinger into space. Enough of that!

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Hope they punt Bolsinger into space. Enough of that!

Right?

Goddamn injuries. I mean guys are gonna get hurt, but do three starters have all get hurt at the same ####ing time? Looks like we could skate by with Biagini taking some starts, but Bolsinger is dipping a little too far down into the well.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

What is the Jays obsession with a 8 plus man bullpen? They have a 2 man bench currently. That doesn't seem smart.

Well right now with the injuries to the starters it makes sense to have extra bodies in the bullpen as the starters are less likely to go deep.

[calculoso]

Sounds like Tulo may be back on Wednesday, Martin is hoping for Thursday, Donaldson on the weekend.

[KelVarnsen]

Originally Posted by Alberta_Beef

Well right now with the injuries to the starters it makes sense to have extra bodies in the bullpen as the starters are less likely to go deep.

It just seems silly to me to not have a legit backup outfielder.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

It just seems silly to me to not have a legit backup outfielder.

yeah trying to skate by for 2 days. Once Tulo is back Coghlin is the backup outfielder?

[mrkajz44]

Originally Posted by alan21

There's been rumblings of expanding the 25 man roster to 28 or 30.

That would greatly improve the quality of the game as you can carry specialists on the bench and in the bullpen without having the restrictions of sacrificing utility guys.

Most guys don't come close to playing all 162 games these days and I think they really should expand the rosters.

A little late to this discussion, but I would hate if they expanded the roster to more than 25. September baseball is brutal to watch when each team trots out 9 pitchers a side. Half innings can stretch past 30 minutes when each new batter somehow needs a new pitcher. Keep it as is and the GM and manager need to make sure they are managing the roster properly to keep a rested bench and bullpen.

[KelVarnsen]

The roster limit is still 25. The new CBA could have had 26 man roster but it doesn't. If it has the 40 man roster rule in September would have become 28 man. It's still 25 man for now.

[calculoso]

New news:
Darrell Ceciliani: Recalled by Jays

Leonel Campos: Sent back to minors

Tulo pushed back to Thursday

Saltalamacchia back on minor-league deal

[alan21]

Why Salty again? What's wrong with Navarro? They traded for him last season and he won't cost a thing this year.

[TheAlpineOracle]

This is such typical Blue Jays baseball over the past 4-5 years. Hang with the best teams, and get beat by a bunch of bottom feeding garbage. You almost could have called this when you saw Atlanta was coming up. We seems to always play down to our competition.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Not watching, and I'm usually pro sac bunt when it makes sense, but when you have a guy like Travis that's hitting doubles like crazy you should probably let him swing the bat.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Wow. Zaun just took no prisoners.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Wow. Zaun just took no prisoners.

Care to elaborate? Was this part of his post game comments?

I saw a quick bit of Campbell/Zaun talking about the bunt situation and it sounded like he was being critical of Travis not being able to get a simple bunt down. Was that what you are referring to?

[mrkajz44]

Late to the party, but bunting is terrible and always will be. The game may have gone differently is Travis had gotten the bunt down, but that's still an out you are just handing the team that only needs 3 per inning. The only time I think bunts are good are squeeze plays where you are catching the defense off guard and actually scoring a run.

Talk about a rally killer - Jays have two on and no one out and the Travis at bat handed them an out without even moving the runners.

TL;DR Bunting is terrible.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

Late to the party, but bunting is terrible and always will be. The game may have gone differently is Travis had gotten the bunt down, but that's still an out you are just handing the team that only needs 3 per inning. The only time I think bunts are good are squeeze plays where you are catching the defense off guard and actually scoring a run.

Talk about a rally killer - Jays have two on and no one out and the Travis at bat handed them an out without even moving the runners.

TL;DR Bunting is terrible.

Spoiler!

[Hot_Flatus]

Like the call or not, a major league hitter should be able to at least get a bunt in play.

The Jays cannot afford to lose 3, 4, 5 in a row here and undo all they have done the last few weeks.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

Late to the party, but bunting is terrible and always will be. The game may have gone differently is Travis had gotten the bunt down, but that's still an out you are just handing the team that only needs 3 per inning. The only time I think bunts are good are squeeze plays where you are catching the defense off guard and actually scoring a run.

Talk about a rally killer - Jays have two on and no one out and the Travis at bat handed them an out without even moving the runners.

TL;DR Bunting is terrible.

Bunting is terrible? That's a pretty bad take. Bunting and other similar plays are what wins tight games. You don't have to be great at it, but you have to at least have the ability to pull it out when needed. If you are down by a run or tied, a bunt with two on and no out should move the runners over to second and third. This moves the team out of a double plays scenario, a sacrifice fly scores a run, and a hit of any sort likely plates two. How many times last year did the Jays have 2 on and no out and hit into a double play and leave inning with nothing? This absolutely killed the Jays offence last year. They routinely did this. Christ, if the Jays had bunted in 2015, they would have probably forced a game against the Royals and who knows what would have happened from there.

We aren't talking Bryce Harper at the plate here. We are talking Devon Travis. Bunting was absolutely the right decision. What the issue is, is that the Jays can't bunt worth crap. This has been a real problem for a couple years now. Goins, Travis, Smoak, Martin, Pillar, none of these guys are capable of laying a bunt down. Cabrerra is the only one whose had limited success with it and even he's below average. You have to have some bunting ability in the bottom part of your order. Not sure why the Jays are so terrible at it.

[KelVarnsen]

Bunting CAN be the decision. With a guy who already had two doubles in the game at the plate, it was the wrong decision. With a guy like Malle then you bunt. Not with a hot hitter like Travis.