Jose Bautista is marching. You might see him stretching in the on-deck circle, diving in the outfield, or jogging to first on a pop up, but he is marching. Each time he trots around the bases after a home run, or pops up from a slide into second base, or strolls back to the dugout […]
Category: Articles
Jason Grilli’s Time in Toronto is Over
According to Hazel Mae, Jason Grilli’s time with the Blue Jays may be coming to an end. Grilli, who was acquired last May in a trade with Atlanta in exchange for minor leaguer Sean Ratcliffe, became quite become a fan favorite in his brief time in Toronto. May is also reporting that Chris Smith (3.93 […]
3 Things To Watch For Against The Orioles
Written by Rachael McDaniel, Nick Dika, and Elie Waitzer The Orioles Rotation Is Terrible, But Don’t Get Your Hopes Up Going into this season, everyone knew that the Orioles rotation was bad. It was just the truth, and we all knew that no matter how much they outperformed their Baseruns record in April via two-out home runs […]
How BABIP Explains the Blue Jays Terrible Hitting
Despite the presumed potency of their lineup, the Blue Jays have exasperated plenty of people this season. Whether it’s real or imagined, there’s a general and dispiriting lack of surprise out there when they fail to cash in runs in big situations. Lately, there’s been some silly discussion about a perceived need to “manufacture” runs […]
3 Things to Watch for Against the Royals
Written by Joshua Howsam, Jenn Smith, and Richard Lee-Sam Soft Slinging Success You could probably be forgiven if you forgot that Jason Vargas was in the league. The soft-tossing lefty signed a four year, $32M contract with the Royals prior to the 2013 season, but missed most of 2015 and 2016 following UCL-replacement (or Tommy John) surgery. Even […]
The Unusual Journey of Blue Jays Prospect Chris Rowley
Sports are in a sense a collection of narratives. Some more pedestrian and typical, some more unusual and compelling. The are often narratives attached to the results on the field—Bautista’s bat flip homer being an obvious example—but as often they are born in the synergy between the players life off the field and their sports […]
Why J.A. Happ is Throwing His Changeup Faster to Succeed
How might it feel to be one of Ray Searage’s ‘projects’? On the one hand you’re no longer mediocre, and that means money—a lot of money—for you. On the other hand, even though you’re the one dominating, most of the credit is going to Searage. All day long it’s Searage this, Searage that. As one of […]
Why I Hate Minor League Opening Day
This week marked the beginning of the season for the 22 combined teams of the Northwest and New York-Penn Leagues, both Single A Short Season (SS) levels. For Jays fans, tonight is the home opener for their SS affiliate, the Vancouver Canadians, the seventh season in partnership with each other. As I’ve previously mentioned, Opening Night is […]
Artificial Turf Wars Ep. 62: (Under .500) Days of Summer
Episode 62 Greg and Josh break down the latest 3-3 week in Blue Jays land. They look at the strange problems the starters seem to have when faced with a potential .500 record, the fun comeback against the Rangers, Marco Estrada’s struggles, Justin Smoak continuing to swing a hot bat, Kevin Pillar having issues both […]
What Ticket Sale Data can Tell us About Future Blue Jays Attendance
In an article last month arguing that the Blue Jays shouldn’t trade Josh Donaldson, Jonah Keri leaned heavily on a financial argument: “Losing games would be one thing. Losing games and trading Donaldson could signal to fans that a full teardown is underway, and that the next several years of Blue Jays baseball might be […]