2012 Toronto Blue Jays Season Thread

[zukes]

I am off to the home opener shortly! Hopefully the Red Sox continue their hating each other, infighting and terrible pitching for 3 nore games!

[CedarMeter]

They blew that one..Brutal.

[Sylvanfan]

Does anyone think Anthopolus should be asking the Angels about a guy like Mark Trumbo? He seems stuck on a team where he has no position to play as Pujols is locked at first, and they have an assortment of guys to DH or play corner outfield positions. His OBP lacked last year, but he's got serious power. After Bautista, the Jays do seem to lack that second big power bat with Adam Lind being happy to have accomplished all his career goals.

[flames_1987]

Rasmus: "I was definitely happy to have everybody cheering for me, especially since the struggles I’ve had since I’ve got here." #bluejay

I thought I'd share this quote from the post game presser, brought a smile to my face.

[Gozer]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Does anyone think Anthopolus should be asking the Angels about a guy like Mark Trumbo? He seems stuck on a team where he has no position to play as Pujols is locked at first, and they have an assortment of guys to DH or play corner outfield positions. His OBP lacked last year, but he's got serious power. After Bautista, the Jays do seem to lack that second big power bat with Adam Lind being happy to have accomplished all his career goals.

Trumbo is a guy that I assume has inflated value (runner up for ROY) and I don't see him as a big-enough upgrade at DH or 1B. I also think the roster needs balance (veterans) when they make a world-series run - not yet-another guy in his first few seasons.

I wouldn't be opposed to adding Trumbo, but I'm not hoping for it.
I'd rather see them add a guy like Paul Konerko.

[zukes]

Originally Posted by flames_1987

Rasmus: "I was definitely happy to have everybody cheering for me, especially since the struggles I’ve had since I’ve got here." #bluejay

I thought I'd share this quote from the post game presser, brought a smile to my face.

We could have Vernon Wells misplaying his way into a decent defensive metric and living with his up and (mostly) down batting or have a true up and comer, who will hit and have the best defensive OF'er since Devon White...I know what I am taking.

[zukes]

Santos sucked terribly tonight, however, him getting booed off the field was terrible, what are we Leafs fans? Players already don't want to play in TO, now you are booing a guy in the 4th game of his first season? Yes, he was terrible, but he is better than anything else the Jays have...patience folks.

To Farrell's credit he said Santos is the closer, end of discussion....

To Santos' credit he said he would have booed him too (still doesn't make it right, IMO)

[Cheerio]

The new Blue Jays jerseys look 100 times better than the old grey ones.

[SportsJunky]

NSFW!

[bluejays]

^ The one on the right isn't bad. The other one, probably chose the 200 section for the hot dog buffet.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Just a heads up, AA is a guest on the George Strombolopolous (?) show tonight.

[flames_1987]

So 5 games into the season is far to small of a sample size to draw any real conclusions about this team but the good news is, besides Romero's one bad inning, the pitchers who are going to be in the starting rotation, all pitched incredibly well. This lineup is going to do some damage and I believe the bullpen will continue to pitch strong, if the rotation can keep giving the Jays these type of starts, this team can really contend.

[flames_fan_down_under]

So far Kelly Johnson, Encarnacion, Lawrie and Arencibia are providing the majority of the offense. Encarnacion looks so good so far.

Once Bautista and Yunel get in their groove they'll be even more potent.

I really hope Lawrie goes yard tomorrow.

Go Jays!

[Otsy]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

So far Kelly Johnson, Encarnacion, Lawrie and Arencibia are providing the majority of the offense. Encarnacion looks so good so far.

Once Bautista and Yunel get in their groove they'll be even more potent.

I really hope Lawrie goes yard tomorrow.

Go Jays!

Arencibia only has 2 hits on the season in 19 at bats. Both incredibly timely and important as they've resulted in 5 RBI's, but he needs to pick it up a bit.

Bautista really needs to pick it up, hopefully he's not trying to do too much cause the offense started off slow. Agreed once he and Yunel get going we could see a few longer innings when the Jays are at bat. Couple more big innings and give those pitchers some cushions.

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by fleury

^ The one on the right isn't bad. The other one, probably chose the 200 section for the hot dog buffet.

Fat girls give the best BJ's. Cause they're hungry.

[Trojan97]

Originally Posted by flames_1987

So 5 games into the season is far to small of a sample size to draw any real conclusions about this team but the good news is, besides Romero's one bad inning, the pitchers who are going to be in the starting rotation, all pitched incredibly well. This lineup is going to do some damage and I believe the bullpen will continue to pitch strong, if the rotation can keep giving the Jays these type of starts, this team can really contend.

Good post. First turn through the rotation, the starters have given the team a chance to win every game so far which is huge.

To add onto that, how freaking good has the bullpen been?! Perez and Villanueva have been lights out in a couple of long relief appearances and have the ability to come in and get the job done in close games as well. Oliver, Frasor, Coco and (until last night) Janssen have been tremendous also. That just leaves Santos who has probably the best stuff out of the bunch and just needs to calm down on the mound to work out his struggles. Obviously it's early but there are so many solid arms this year that it seems like the team will be able to hold a ton of leads once they get the bats going.

Extremely positive stuff.

[flames_1987]

Something is up with Bautista. Not saying it's long term or should be a significant worry at all. His eye is still there, every strikouet yesterday was a 3-2 count. But he missed that 2-1 fastball in Cleveland in the 9th that 9/10 last season he rips and even last night he got the green light to swing away at 3-0 and fouled it off. His timing seems to just be off a little bit, that's why we've seen so many pop ups

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by flames_1987

Something is up with Bautista. Not saying it's long term or should be a significant worry at all. His eye is still there, every strikouet yesterday was a 3-2 count. But he missed that 2-1 fastball in Cleveland in the 9th that 9/10 last season he rips and even last night he got the green light to swing away at 3-0 and fouled it off. His timing seems to just be off a little bit, that's why we've seen so many pop ups

I'm mildly worried. Ever since the all-star break last season he's been routinely missing fastballs that he crushed prior to that.

He's obviously still a great hitter but his ability to turn any hittable pitch into extra bases has been missing for that last little while. I hope he finds that timing that's so imperative to his success soon.

[The Big Chill]

Bautista is just gripping the bat a bit too tight and swinging for the fences. You can see when he swings that it's causing his head to move a bit right before contact. The last couple years his head has been perfectly still during his swing.

I think it's just a result of a little bit too much excitement for the start of this year. A few other players seem to be doing the same thing, hence our offensive struggles so far. They just need to collectively shorten up their swings and get their balance back at the plate.

JPA was a perfect example of this when he got his RBI single last night. His swing was very long at the start of the at bat, but he shortened it considerably with 2 strikes and got the single.

[403ep3]

Man, I love watching Rajai Davis run. He runs like the wind