Aug. 31-Sept. 2: Blue Jays vs. Indians Series Thread - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Antithesis · 08-31-2015, 06:39 AM

Toronto Blue Jays (74-56, conquering Kings of the universe) vs. Cleveland Indians (63-66, mediocre again)

Probable Starters:

Monday @5:00 Mountain Time: TOR: David Price, 13-4, 2.42 ERA; CLE: Danny Salazar, 11-7, 3.30 ERA
Tuesday @5:00 Mountain Time: TOR: Marco Estrada, 11-8, 3.19 ERA; CLE: Cody Anderson, 2-3, 4.30 ERA
Wednesday @5:00 Mountain Time: TOR: R.A. Dickey, 9-10, 4.25 ERA; CLE: Trevor Bauer, 10-10, 4.31 ERA

Another series sweep for the Jays over the weekend, and another one where it never really seemed in doubt. Gotta be frustrating to be a Yankees fan right now, watch your team completely destroy the (inept) Braves and not gain a single game on the Jays in the chase for the division lead. Oh well! Them's the breaks.

With 32 games left, if the Jays go .500 the rest of the way, they will amass a total of 90 wins which is pretty darn OK. FanGraphs has their expected final record as 92-70, with a 71.3% chance of winning the division, and a 99.5% chance of making the playoffs. Not bad!

The Jays are supposedly set to announce the hiring of Cleveland's Mark Shapiro, who will serve as the incoming President with Paul Beeston retires. I mention this as (apparently) his plan is to keep AA on as GM of the team. This is also one of the last sets of games where any number of seats are left to purchase (thanks jayswin!). Even with tickets still available, it's crazy to think that they are still expecting fairly large crowds for a Monday-Wednesday series against a team that is not a rival and frankly isn't very good. How things have changed!

Stats Time!

Over his career, current Indians hitters have the following stats vs. David Price: 182 AB, 50 H, 2 HR, 43 K, 0.275 AVG, 0.316 OBP, 0.379 SLG, 0.695 OPS
Over his career, current Indians hitters have the following stats vs. Marco Estrada: 5 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 3 K, 0.000 AVG, 0.000 OBP, 0.000 SLG, 0.000 OPS
Over his career, current Indians hitters have the following stats vs. R.A. Dickey: 70 AB, 19 H, 0 HR, 14 K, 0.271 AVG, 0.358 OBP, 0.314 SLG, 0.672 OPS

Over their careers, current Blue Jays hitters have the following stats vs. Danny Salazar: 21 AB, 6 H, 2 HR, 5 K, 0.286 AVG, 0.286 OBP, 0.667 SLG, 0.952 OPS
Over their careers, current Blue Jays hitters have the following stats vs. Cody Anderson: NO STATISTICS AVAILABLE
Over their careers, current Blue Jays hitters have the following stats vs. Trevor Bauer: 29 AB, 9 H, 1 HR, 3 K, 0.310 AVG, 0.429 OBP, 0.483 SLG, 0.911 OPS

OK!

BLUE JAYS!

LETS!

PLAY!

BALL!

SportsJunky · 08-31-2015, 08:15 AM

Last series the Jays avoided a a Verlander matchup. This series they won't have to face Kluber. I like it.

jayswin · 08-31-2015, 09:57 AM

Perfect, tonight's game now has a "not many left" tag on ticketmaster and they disabled the interactive seat map due to high traffic. Safe to say tonight is a sellout.

Friday against Baltimore is essentially a sellout now, too. So we just need fans to get excited after a win tonight and snap up everything for tomorrow and Wednesday and it will pretty much be a sold out regular season going forward.

jayswin · 08-31-2015, 12:00 PM

I was just thinking back to earlier discussions on the Jays on CP, and what could have been. Remember Caged Great wanting the Jays to sell high on our best players and enter a rebuild when we were in the thick of starting to build for a playoff run?

Not a shot at CG at all, as if we had only built half way and missed the playoffs things would have looked pretty bleak, but imagine if actually had been sellers and entered a long rebuild next season? Good lord, we could have been looking at 30+ years of no playoffs.

*Disclaimer; I fully realize we haven't made the playoffs yet

jayswin · 08-31-2015, 12:01 PM

It was neat to see that ESPN segment that TSN showed on Sportscentre where they basically all agreed that the Blue Jays are now the best team in baseball and championship favorites.

Sometimes when you're caught up in the hoopla and hype yourself you don't know how much is real and if you actually are as good as everyone on the bandwagon leads you to believe, but it seems the whole baseball world has seen this team through August and said "yep, they're right near if not at the top of the league."

It almost feels like if we had this line-up from day 1 we'd be running away from the league record wise. What a special year.

KidCanada · 08-31-2015, 12:26 PM

I am not sure how to estimate something like this, but I am curious since the deadline deals, what new additional revenue has been created through the increase in ticket sales, merchandise, advertising(?). From a business perspective they have to be just raking it in these days.

I don't want to get too far ahead, but its hard not to look at the possibility of playoffs as real now and what a first weekend that could be in October with the Flames season starting, playoff baseball, NFL going on.

cavalera403 · 08-31-2015, 12:27 PM

I think that what they have done to teams that are either chasing the Jays or how they have played the Yankees is a feat that can not be under stated. In the years of great expectations and "hope" when it came to crunch time those teams around the Jays would just stomp on them and leave all fans hopes dashed... not any more.

The Twins come in and are the second wild card team...sweep
Then go to the Angles (second in the wild card) that is usually a massive bust ... a sweep that is a beat down
Go to Texas (again second in the wild card) ... take two of three and the game they loose is not a great loss

Then the Yankees who at the all star break we had 13 games to go against and are 4-2 with 6 more to play

They keep beating the teams that are out of the picture and this should be a great finish to the year.

I love meaningful baseball

Sylvanfan · 08-31-2015, 12:45 PM

The Jays may catch a bit of a break missing the better pitchers that the Indians can throw at a team in Kluber, and Carrasco. As mediocre as the Indians are they have a decent rotation, and they have been playing a bit better of late.

jayswin · 08-31-2015, 03:13 PM

Looking at the interactive seat map is hilarious right now. This game is not sold out, there is one seat available out of 46000, haha.

Section 117R, row 22, seat 1.

The Big Chill · 08-31-2015, 05:10 PM

Why are the Indians bunting in the first inning?

jayswin · 08-31-2015, 05:26 PM

Dman, Salazar really settled down after that walk to Donaldson.

GirlySports · 08-31-2015, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayswin

It was neat to see that ESPN segment that TSN showed on Sportscentre where they basically all agreed that the Blue Jays are now the best team in baseball and championship favorites.

Sometimes when you're caught up in the hoopla and hype yourself you don't know how much is real and if you actually are as good as everyone on the bandwagon leads you to believe, but it seems the whole baseball world has seen this team through August and said "yep, they're right near if not at the top of the league."

It almost feels like if we had this line-up from day 1 we'd be running away from the league record wise. What a special year.

Theyre still not good enough for ESPN baseball!

Caged Great · 08-31-2015, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayswin

I was just thinking back to earlier discussions on the Jays on CP, and what could have been. Remember Caged Great wanting the Jays to sell high on our best players and enter a rebuild when we were in the thick of starting to build for a playoff run?

Not a shot at CG at all, as if we had only built half way and missed the playoffs things would have looked pretty bleak, but imagine if actually had been sellers and entered a long rebuild next season? Good lord, we could have been looking at 30+ years of no playoffs.

*Disclaimer; I fully realize we haven't made the playoffs yet

I never expected them to have the balls to go out and actually go for it. I hate middle of the road half measures. That's why the Flames stalled out after 04, and that's why the Jays have sucked for 22 years. Either go in whole hog or blow it up and start over.

The Jays have gone in whole hog, and that's awesome.

Machiavelli · 08-31-2015, 05:57 PM

No answer for Salazar right now

KootenayFlamesFan · 08-31-2015, 06:07 PM

Goins, beauty play.

transplant99 · 08-31-2015, 06:26 PM

What a well pitched game thus far.

jayswin · 08-31-2015, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Machiavelli

No answer for Salazar right now

Except to hit it right at him, apparently, haha.

whosurnabby · 08-31-2015, 06:36 PM

nice at bat by the MVP. Here's our chance now.

jayswin · 08-31-2015, 06:37 PM

We're getting bad luck with most of our dangerous offense coming with 2 outs. Tough to score runs that way.

whosurnabby · 08-31-2015, 06:37 PM

Mvp!!!