If you were to look up ‘organizational crossroads’ in the dictionary, you might find the Blue Jays there. Since Toronto won the World Series in 1993, they’ve consistently pivoted organizationally to try and keep up with their ever changing competitive landscape. Through that, there have been a few key organizational crossroads, which ended up shaping […]
Author: Matt Gwin
Why We Should Stop Acting Like We Know What Shohei Ohtani Wants
Shohei Ohtani’s path to major league baseball is like Shrödinger’s cat. It’s not both dead and alive, but it’s everything and nothing with the designation at the whim of whom is interpreting it. While not all reasonable arguments, an case can be made that he could sign with any given major league team. Any team can […]
The Season That Was: Exaggerated, Oversold, and Bound to Disappoint
Many years ago, when I was just entering high school, I took a business class. The teacher, let’s call him Mr. Stewart, was a quirky fellow – and quite honestly not that great of a teacher – but on the first day of class he told us something that he said we’d remember for the […]
The Blue Jays Were Out of (Their) Depth in 2017
It’s September 22nd. The Blue Jays have 71 wins, they’re seven games back of a playoff spot, and there’s not a speck of meaningful September baseball to be found. Needless to say things have not gone quite as well as planned this season. If you were to dig in to the details, I’m sure you’d […]
How Increased Team Interest May Actuallly Hurt the Blue Jays
It’s incredibly touching to see so many Canadians getting back in to baseball; enjoying a once forgotten professional sport in Canada. Having become attached to this team in an era in which attending a game with more than 20,000 fans was a blessing, walking in to the Rogers Centre with a near sold out crowd these […]
The New and Improved Justin Smoak is Here to Stay
Justin Smoak has always been an odd player, but this year he’s been downright baffling. In his post on the 2010 Rangers Top 11 prospects, Kevin Goldstein noted that, “[Justin Smoak] has the best plate discipline in the organization, and among the best in baseball, with plus raw power from both sides.” Yet up until 2016, through […]
We Need to Reframe the Rest of the Blue Jays Season
The Blue Jays are a quarter of the way through the 2017 season and they’re in last place in the AL East. The team has gone 13-9 over their last 22 games while, at times, lacking their starting third baseman, shortstop, catcher, and three-fifths of their starting rotation. They won games on the backs of players who […]
The Enhanced Frustration of Familiar Blue Jays Problems
Let’s get a few things straight. Starting the season at 1-6 really sucks. However, the Blue Jays will also be perfectly fine in 2017, and one week’s worth of games holds no predictive value. But damn the start to this season has been frustrating. Everything that could have gone wrong has, which looks even worse […]
3 Things to Watch For in the Blue Jays Series Against the Brewers
Written by Matt Gwin, Nick Dika, and Jenn Smith 1. The Return of Eric Thames For the first time since September 11th 2012, Eric Thames will be playing at the Rogers Centre. Not a Jay as we remember him, nor as the Mariner he was during his last trip to the dome, but as a Brewer. Milwaukee […]
On Learning to Accept Marco Estrada’s Unorthodox Success
The conventions of sabermetric analysis are a funny thing. In theory, they should be agile and flexible; those following them should willing to adapt to new data findings. However, in practice that’s not always the case. Just as old-school baseball fans believe in closer mentalities and clutch performances, new school fans have DIPS theory and a standard […]