Most fans turn to sports as a pleasant distraction, but the 2018 Toronto Blue Jays have not offered much of a reprieve from the daily horrors of our reality. A relief corps that was the backbone of the pitching staff for the first six weeks of the season has fallen apart since Roberto Osuna was […]
Author: Kyle Matte
MLB Draft: Blue Jays Select SS/3B Jordan Groshans with the 12th Overall Pick
With the 12th overall selection in the 2018 MLB Draft, the Blue Jays have made shortstop/third baseman Jordan Groshans the most recent addition to their farm system. It’s a selection that came completely out of left field. With Matthew Liberatore, Cole Winn, Brady Singer, and even Nolan Gorman — if the Jays wanted an infielder — […]
Blue Jays 2018 MLB Draft Preview
The 2018 MLB Draft kicks off tonight, with the Detroit Tigers presumably getting things started with Auburn right handed pitcher Casey Mize at 7:00 PM ET. Having lost no notable free agents last winter and evidently being excluded from consideration for MLB’s competitive balance picks, Toronto will make just one first round selection: 12th overall. […]
Tim Mayza Is Tipping His Pitches
Tim Mayza has incredible raw stuff. Over the first 18 and 2/3 innings of his major league career he’s struck out 33.3 percent of the batters he’s faced, which is among baseball’s elite. Roberto Osuna posted an identical strikeout rate in 2017 and ranked 18th among the 235 relievers with 30 or more innings of […]
Free Agency Not Looking Like Freedom: A Cool Winter’s Effect on a Donaldson Extension
The fourth Collective Bargaining Agreement, signed between MLB Ownership and the Players Association on July 12, 1976, introduced the radical notion of free agency into baseball. It represented a monumental leap in the direction of players’ rights in a sport where, even to this day, their employment options are startlingly restricted. To wit: Players have […]
Blue Jays Avoid Arbitration with Ezequiel Carrera; Raise Floor in Outfield
On Thursday night, the Toronto Blue Jays came to terms with outfielder Ezequiel Carrera on a one-year contract to avoid arbitration. The Blue Jays, a file-and-trial team, have a 1:00 pm ET deadline on Friday by which they must either reach an agreement or exchange figures with all of their arbitration eligible players. After this […]
The Top 10 Blue Jays by Trade Deadline Value (No. 1 – 5)
This is part two of the Blue Jays deadline 2017 top-ten trade value series. The introduction, as well as the tenth through sixth most valuable, went up at BP Toronto yesterday. As a brief recap before, your tenth to sixth most valuable Blue Jays trade assets: #10: RHP Joe Biagini #9: 2B Devon Travis #8: 1B Justin […]
The Top 10 Blue Jays by Trade Deadline Value (No. 6 – 10)
Twice a year over at FanGraphs, Dave Cameron publishes a list of who, in his opinion, are the fifty most valuable trade assets in baseball. Cameron’s most recent update was published over the All-Star break earlier this month. Rather than simply listing the best players, he has attempted to blend past performance and future projection […]
Ryan Tepera Developed an Elite Cutter and None of Us Noticed
Ryan Tepera debuted with the Blue Jays on May 10, 2015 with little to no fanfare. The bullpen was struggling through a transitional state, still reeling from the offseason departure of former closer Casey Janssen, the loss of of elite setup man Aaron Sanchez to the starting rotation, and the early season implosions of would-be […]
Joe Smith: Pitching Backwards and Getting Strikeouts
Every week in this space, we’re going to be running down the “Pitcher of the Week” for the Toronto Blue Jays. This won’t always be the best pitcher, but it will always be someone who did something notable that we can break down further. Using information from games through Friday (Saturday-Friday), we will try to […]