The 2016 Toronto Blue Jays Thread

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Wow, Stro not getting some strike calls here, so close.

Thankfully it didn't matter. Whew.

[Lil Pedro]

Joey B!

[savemedrzaius]

I love Jose. So clutch. Such a great leader. Please re-sign him.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Smoak makes that catch out its 4-2 instead of 4-3. Oh well.

[Machiavelli]

Um, WTF was wrong with those last two pitches?

[JiriHrdina]

Balls and strike calls in MLB are starting to drive me nuts

[savemedrzaius]

Originally Posted by Machiavelli

Um, WTF was wrong with those last two pitches?

Sometimes I think the Rogers pitchtracker isn't very accurate though. On the tracker they had those pitches almost down the middle, but they didn't look like it. DOes anyone know how pitch tracker actually works? How accurate is it?

[flames_fan_down_under]

I am not a fan of Carrera coming in for Saunders at any point. Not a base stealing threat, not a better hitter, marginally better base runner.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Lol Carerra makes me eat my words.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Big win. The starting pitching has been pretty decent lately (besides Dickey).

The bats really get going and they should go on a nice streak.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Bats seem to be coming around. We are getting a lot more walks and getting way more contact.

[puffnstuff]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Big win. The starting pitching has been pretty decent lately (besides Dickey).

The bats really get going and they should go on a nice streak.

Agreed. Hey who pitches today...aww sonofa...

[SuperMatt18]

Pitching has been really good.

Stroman leads the AL in wins, Sanchez and Happ are both in top 5 for ERA, Estrada has only allowed 4 runs in his 13 innings coming off the injury.

Really the only poor starter has been Dickey so far (grumble gruble something about Syndergaard grumble grumble)

[corporatejay]

Can we ban the Syndergaard D'arnaud talk? We get it, terrible trade. Move on.

[flames_fan_down_under]

I'm OK with that, if only to protect my mental health. I will say this though AA should have been fired for that trade alone. And the ban on mentioning that trade starts now.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

I'm OK with that, if only to protect my mental health. I will say this though AA should have been fired for that trade alone. And the ban on mentioning that trade starts now.

I completely understand the move. Jays were drawing flies at home games, Jays fans were the most disgruntled they have been in the history of the franchise, and the fallout was begin to hit Rogers. They needed a team that could compete quickly and have some known names to temporarily right the ship.Syndergaard was their big chip to play and he wasn't going to be MLB ready for a couple years.

What I will never understand is why they used this chip to acquire a gimmick pitcher like Dickey. The guy was in his late 30's, had only a year and a half of quality performances under his belt which were the product of the fact that he is tailor made for the National League Game (spacious outfields, less reliance on power hitters, and a practically guaranteed out every 9 at-bats). In his CY-Young year Dickey was throwing an 82-84 mph fastball which allowed him to mess with hitters. There's no way the Jays should have expected him to maintain that velocity at his age and his questionable arm health issues.

In my opinion, the long story made shot is moving Syndergaard made sense at the time. The return they got did not. With the package they sent to the Mets, the Jays could have had any available starting pitcher they wanted. Choosing RA Dickey was ridiculous. We'll never know AA's reasoning for that, but I would suspect it was financially driven. Dickey was coming off a Cy Young and could be signed at a reasonable contract with a very limited term given his age and history.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

I'm OK with that, if only to protect my mental health. I will say this though AA should have been fired for that trade alone. And the ban on mentioning that trade starts now.

Prospects are a crapshoot.

For every "name that shall not be spoken" there is a Nolin, Marsenick, Wallace, Gose, Taylor, Nicolino, Drabek.

Fans overvalue prospects, look at Travis Snider! I thought he was going to be a beast. Hinske after his rookie year etc.

2012 Prospect watch:

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/mlb/...x.jsp?c_id=tor

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today...2/2612998.html

Lord help us if Matt Hoffman and Daniel Norris do anything.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

What I will never understand is why they used this chip to acquire a gimmick pitcher like Dickey. The guy was in his late 30's, had only a year and a half of quality performances under his belt which were the product of the fact that he is tailor made for the National League Game (spacious outfields, less reliance on power hitters, and a practically guaranteed out every 9 at-bats). In his CY-Young year Dickey was throwing an 82-84 mph fastball which allowed him to mess with hitters. There's no way the Jays should have expected him to maintain that velocity at his age and his questionable arm health issues.

Word back then is they originally inquired about Jon Neise, but that got shut down.

I think we need to remember who the owners are too. Dickey was a Cy-Young winner with atleast 4-5 years left in the tank and was making 12 MILLION! the Jays were still a sub-100 million club and most Cy-Young contenders were getting close to 20 million (Buehrle got 20 from MIA the yr. before). We were only a couple years removed from J.P.'s small market approach followed by big signings that did little for attendance.


I remember a story about the Jays coming into the deadline sellers (as always) and having Jose Cruz Jr. on the block. He was hitting like crap all year and a free agent. The Mets offered some low-A ball prospect who was hitting really good but still a way from sniffing MLB. The Jays rejected. Cruz was kept and left as a FA in the offseason.

The low-A ballplayer was David Wright.

I'm sure there are a ton of those stories around the league but i just really liked that one. haha

[Jiggy_12]

Trading prospects is such a crapshoot. You have to know for every 5 high end ones you are sending away, there's probably a future superstar in the mix. The important thing to look at is that it doesn't keep happening and become a trend. And look at the guys we DIDNT trade: Sanchez, Stroman, Osuna - these 3 young guys are the backbone of our pitching staff.

We also turned Gose in to Travis, and Lawrie in to JD.

So yeah, I can stomach the Dickey trade. It's not reasonable to expect to win every deal that involves prospects. If you win more than half you are ahead of the game.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Cappy

Word back then is they originally inquired about Jon Neise, but that got shut down.

I remember a story about the Jays coming into the deadline sellers (as always) and having Jose Cruz Jr. on the block. He was hitting like crap all year and a free agent. The Mets offered some low-A ball prospect who was hitting really good but still a way from sniffing MLB. The Jays rejected. Cruz was kept and left as a FA in the offseason.

The low-A ballplayer was David Wright.

I'm sure there are a ton of those stories around the league but i just really liked that one. haha

Yeah, lots of crazy stories out there. Two other notoriously bad trades for the Jays are these:

1995: Jays trade David Cone to the New York Yankees for Marty Janzen, Jason Jarvis, and Mike Gordon. None of these guys play in the major leagues outside of Janzen who pitched 98 innings over two years.

2000: Jays trade Michael Young (yes that Michael Young) and Darwin Cubillan to the Texas Rangers for....... Esteban Loaiza.