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Artificial Turf Wars Ep. 110: Phase 2 – Begin!

Episode 110 Greg, Josh, and Nick look at the state of the Blue Jays as the second half begins play. They discuss Marcus Stroman’s rant, Kevin Pillar’s injury and the impact on the roster going forward, Marco Estrada’s potential return to the trade market, Justin Smoak putting together another very solid season, J.A. Happ’s All-Star […]

Jaime Market Ineffiency

The Danger in Hunting for Market Inefficiencies

This past spring, I wrote a piece for this site hypothesizing that the Blue Jays had decided on a new way of targeting pitchers, something I termed as a potential market inefficiency: choosing to go after pitchers with outlier movement on their fastballs. At the midway point of the 2018 season, it’s clear things haven’t […]

Vlad Guerrero Jr.

Minor League Report: Organization All-Star Edition

The upper level All-Star games were last week. The A-ball All-Star games were weeks ago. Even though such breaks are considered the ceremonial divide between first and second “halves” of the season, just like in the majors, the event doesn’t actually fall at the halfway mark of the season. Three of four full season teams […]

MLB: Texas Rangers at Toronto Blue Jays

Buck and Pat’s “Big and Strong” All-Stars

I don’t think I need to remind anyone that it hasn’t been a banner season for the Toronto Blue Jays. With J.A. Happ the sole Blue Jays All-Star representative, Jays fans and followers may not be very interested in the festivities this year. So let’s create our own. As many have pointed out, Buck Martinez […]

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A Farewell to J.A. Happ

This Blue Jays season has been, in many ways, reminiscent of the last. Mostly in that there’s been a lot of bad baseball played. While the Jays started out in the absolute worst way possible last April before crawling back to the low-end mediocrity in which they would reside for the entirety of the season, […]

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Artificial Turf Wars Ep. 109: The Right STUFF

Episode 109 Mike Sonne of The Athletic stops by to discuss the Blue Jays pitchers. He breaks down the Stuff reports for trade candidates, J.A. Happ, John Axford, Seung-hwan Oh, and Tyler Clippard as well as starters Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman, before also discussing how John Gibbon’s bullpen usage has affected the Fatigue Unit […]

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The Unsung Heroes of Minor League Baseball

As we have extensively covered, MiLB teams insulate themselves against the variable quality of the product on the field with fun, affordability, customer service, and unique promotions and giveaways. And if your team wins, hey, that’s an added bonus. Given this focus on fan experience over on-field success, there are many subtle roles in a minor league […]

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The Real Blue Jays All Stars

On Sunday, Major League Baseball announced the rosters for the 89th Annual Midsummer Classic in Washington, DC. Players from around the league were chosen and recognized based on their performance on the field and star power. Toronto will be sending one representative on Tuesday July 17th,  left-handed pitcher J.A. Happ. As the first half comes to […]