Thursday, June 30, 2016

2016 Game 81 - Jays vs Cleveland


Oops! Sorry, forgot I hadn't done the pitching matchups!

We finally meet the Clevelands! Insert generic Shatkins whining here.

Carrasco vs Dickey. Let's go!

Where did Marcus Stroman Go Wrong?


Let's rewind to the start of the Blue Jays 2016 Training Camp. With Alex Anthopolous, the architect to the clubs first playoff team in 20 years, suddenly departing from the front office, the new management group of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins had some serious PR work to do. It's rare to find a team coming off a winning season with such turmoil in the front office. The teams hired ace, David Price, has left to join a heated division rivals. The middle of the order sluggers, who this team has been built around, are entering contract years and looking to get paid. The rotation was constructed (likely by the team of Tony LaCava and Andrew Tinnish) with another year of R.A. Dickey, knuckleballing his way through the AL East, and two familiar faces- a change-up specialist in Marco Estrada and a re-invention project from pitching guru Ray Searage, J.A. Happ. There was a battle for the 5th spot, luckily won by Aaron Sanchez, and one man who looked ready to put the weight of the rotation on his shoulders and run with it like he was rehabbing twice a day at Duke University.

That man was Marcus Stroman. With his flashy persona, catchy hashtags, and motivational quotes, the city was starting to fall in love with it's potential Ace of the future.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

2016 Game 80 - Jays vs Rockies


Bye Coors! It's been a slice. Can we steal your fountains?

Sanchez vs Anderson. This start was tba for a bit so I guess with StroChez they're not committing until they throw their bullpen.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

2016 Game 79 - Jays vs Rockies


Ouch! Another bullpen implosion. Today has to be better, right?

Happ vs Butler. Butler's been having trouble with the long ball. Hopefully that's good news.

Roxpile sure loves Coors Field


In putting together the blogosphere post yesterday, I keep wavering on the Fansided site, Roxpile. I'm not generally a fan of those sites. I find them to not have strong writing. But I liked the folk there and the writing was more frequent than Rockies Zingers. So I thought I'd give them a highlight and get another post out of it.

They've had two pieces written in the last 6 months about how great Coors Field is:

The Five Best Things about Coors Field
Why the 21 year old park still shines

Enjoy.

Monday, June 27, 2016

2016 Game 78 - Jays vs Rockies


Well helloooo Coors Field! Long time no see.

Since the games start an hour later, here's a read to pass the time: Secrets of Coors Field.

Estrada vs Gray. Wonder what welcome Tulo is going to get?

Guide to the Colorado Rockies blogosphere


There's not a lot of stuff out there in Rockies land. The Onion even talked about it in reference to Rockies Report. But here's some to check out.

Purple Row

The SB Nation blog named after the row of seats at Coors that designate a mile above sea level. We've already talked about them a bit in regards to Tulo. They consider their strength to be their minor league coverage, what they call Pebble Report. They have the Purple Dinosaur Podcast (no, it's not about Darwin Barney). And for some reason they call their weekly mailbag Football Friday. It's what you've come to expect from a SB Nation blog.

Recent post title: Football Friday: A scary tipping point for the Colorado Rockies looms
(Personally, I think they should have stuck with the url title - The Bachelorette Review)

Rockies Zingers

The ESPN Sweet Spot blog. They have a close relationship with the folks at Purple Row and seem to be the epicenter of Rockies fan info.  Their description of themselves: This is a site by Rockies fans for Rockies fans. There will be some analysis, some silliness, some critiques and some compliments. They don't seem to post every day but have a large and diverse writing staff. (Wait, I think I can relate.) They are active on twitter though. It seems to be similar to here, a community coming together with a SABR background to create a site.

Recent post title: The Truth About Rockies Pitching

Rox Walk Off

This site came about after the demise of Inside the Rockies to keep the community that had sprung up around that site together. (Wait, that sounds familiar too.) INR was started by MSM baseball writers when their day jobs disappeared. They wanted to have a mature conversation around baseball. It's not a large community but they do game threads and occasional other posts. Plus, how can I ignore another baseball blog that has decided to go the donation route?

Recent post title: Tropical Trouble

Bonus:
Some enterprising fan(s) have created Rockies Roster, a place to see the status of every player throughout the organization. It's updated daily. We could use one of these.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

2016 Game 77 - Jays vs ChiSox


Goodbye Cellular field. It's been a slice. And they say Skydome is a homer dome. See you next year.

Stroman vs Sale. Hoo boy. Team's got their work cut out for them this afternoon. Hope Papa Buehle had a good long chat with his padawan.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Party Weekend


Every weekend is an open thread to shoot the shit. There will be a challenge each week but don't feel confined by it.

2016 Game 76 - Jays vs ChiSox


Well that was a kick in the butt. Melky, Red Bull - I thought we were friends?

Dickey vs Gonzalez. The ChiSox can't hit a knuckeball, can they?

Friday, June 24, 2016

2016 Game 75 - Jays vs ChiSox


Well hello US Cellular Field. Long time no see.

Sanchez vs Rodon. Here's to Sanchez confounding the demoralized palehose.

Guide to the Chicago White Sox blogosphere


I was pleasantly surprised by what I found out there for the palehose fan. Grab Some Bench! seems to have gone by the wayside and the best known one, The 35th Street Review, died in 2010. These ones are worth checking out.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

What to do on a Jays off Day? Go to Pitch Talks


The ad said, Pitch Talks in Peterborough, with speakers Andrew Stoeten, Jen Smith, Pete Orr, Jeff Blair, Stephen Brunt, and Natalie Stoberman. Monday June 20th, at Boston Pizza I thought to myself, “I love baseball, and I love beer and I love pizza”, who am I to deny my quest for self gratification? I mean, if you can’t scratch that itch once in a while, it’s just going to fester into something that needs to be lanced. I ordered and printed my ticket, paying the full $20 even though I know Pitch Talks often offers a discount code, about a week before the event. Sure enough $5 off was soon advertised and I cursed myself for not waiting (I’m so weak).

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

2016 Game 74 - Jays vs Diamondbacks


A 4:07 start. Why? I can see a noon start if Arizona needs to travel. Makes no sense. Unless it's to give the broadcast crew more opportunities to talk about shadows.

Ray vs Happ. JA continues his tour of the NL.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

2016 Game 73 - Jays vs Diamondbacks


Time to start winning again. And who better to help us out with that than the Diamondbacks?

Corbin vs Estrada. This should be fun.

Guide to the Arizona Diamondbacks blogosphere


There's not a lot out there in the Arizona blogsophere but these are the best.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Something to dream on



So a month ago, Jays land was a pit of despair. They were wandering in the desert.The offence was anemic and the bullpen was coughing up every lead. The bullshit in Texas happened and then to add insult to injury, they were swept at home by the Rays.

Then the team went to Minny and got into the sunshine, literally. The dome was opened. The offence started showing signs of life. The bullpen started to have some good outings. Things started to turn a corner. We've seen the return of the 2-out hit, the clean inning, scoring runners, hitting bombs.

Someday I hope there's a study on the effects on only playing under lights for an extended period of time. The Jays sure did a lot of it the first couple of months.

Even though it was a tough loss to lose the series in Baltimore, there's a lot to feel good about. Stroman's struggling now but Dickey's getting stronger so the rotation is still holding solid. Edwin and Saunders are on fire, Travis is finding his groove, Russell found his, Tulo's back and looking better, The bullpen is having more clean innings and is not the dumpster fire it used to be.

A month ago I gave you a thread to bitch. Now I'm giving you a thread to celebrate. Let's talk about all the good things we've been seeing from the team lately.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

2016 Game 72 - Jays vs OriLOLes


So last game with these bastards until the end of July. That means there isn't a month we don't see them. Isn't that cruel and unusual punishment, MLB?

Stroman vs Tillman. First it was Tillman, then it was TBA, and now it's Tillman again. One would think they're afraid of having him face us.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Happy Father's Day

Who is the following quote attributed to?

"I love my dad. He's the biggest thing in my life. He taught me and he straightened me out and he kept me in line. If it hadn't been for him standing behind me and pushing me and driving me, I wouldn't be where I am today."

2016 Game 71 - Jays vs OriLOLes


4pm start. Place your bets on the number of shadow mentions!

Dickey vs Gallardo. Sad it's not our friend Ubaldo. Gallardo sucks against everyone else. It's time he starts sucking vs us. Plus, warm weather Dickey!

From the comfy chair redux


Another comfy chair post?

Well, a big event happened last night. Andrew now has Disqus on BJN and there was this discussion on the game threat there that I think a bunch of you have wanted to hear.

stimpymustwin:
I know some felt slighted by Stoeten, as if he wasn't valuing them in his move to bluejaysnation. I definitely do not share this perspective, but am excited that commenting is back where I can read Stoeten (and Lott, and Fowles, and Cam Lewis)! Now all we need is Drew to start writing here!!!
If everyone takes a step back and realizes that sometimes things take time to come to fruition, I think we can appreciate what is being created here...
stoeten:
I absolutely wasn't valuing them as much as I should have, and have missed, more than I thought I would, having actual discussion on posts (as I'm sure plenty of readers/lurkers do as well) rather than sending them out into the ether and hoping for the best.
That said, I couldn't turn down the opportunity these guys have given me here. Behind the scenes it's been nothing but terrific so far. I got to keep the podcast as it is, keep my ability to freelance (which some places don't allow -- *COUGH* theScore *COUGH*), and, frankly, get paid better than I was making off Google ads (which is essentially what this gig is a replacement for). Couldn't turn it down. But it wasn't an easy decision because yeah, I must admit there are things about how the site looks and functions that I'd do differently, and the comments were certainly one of those. In fact, part of the reason we didn't hit the ground running as a more fully-formed site (or at least my vision of one) was that I hemmed and hawed about making the move -- even when I knew it was in my best interest, and certainly offered me a much better opportunity to grow this than being on my own, because of the great team, because of the ability to pay great writers to produce amazing content, because they have things like lawyers (just in case, LOL), because of the natural synergy (which we're probably not taking advantage enough of yet) between a Jays audience and the ones at their Leafs and Canucks and Oilers sites, etc. So... the process began later than it probably should have, which was entirely my fault, and I knew it might take a little time to get to where I'd like it to be. But I also knew that it was a model (and a skin/comment system/CMS/etc.) that works very, very well for the other sites on the network. And also that, when it comes down to it, content is what is going to power a site people want to keep coming back to. I was hopeful commenters would stick it out with that other system, but I understand why they didn't, because I knew their needs as users (and therefore as a community) were collateral damage in this move. But I also knew we'd eventually get it straight -- and we have, and there's more where this came from.
So, I'm just happy we have something that functions here. If people feel slighted and don't want to come back or do their own thing, I get that. I'd prefer that they did come back, obviously, but my hope/aim is that it will happen naturally anyway, as we continue to make the site a better destination overall. (Believe me, I make noise about a proper mobile site every chance I get, but these things take time. I have zero doubts that it will get there.)

So the question becomes, what do you want to do? When I broached it in the game threat last night, the responses I got were that you were happy here. That makes me happy because I've put a lot of time and effort into creating a space where you could hang out. But I can't lose sight of the fact that Andrew was who brought us together so I wanted to let you hear his words and make decisions based on that.

So I'd like your thoughts.

Friday, June 17, 2016

2016 Game 70 - Jays vs OriLOLes


More damn shitbirds games. This time with added crap as my male relatives are there and I'm not.

Sanchez vs Wright. Time for Edwin to show Wright who's over-rated.

From the comfy chair


Been a while since we've had one of these.

First off, Karen makes her authorial debut tomorrow with a special Father's Day post that will go up immediately after the game. Check it out!

On Tuesday, Morgan Burton posted a podcast and suggested that we could do better. Just Okay has offered a conference bridge to record with  So if you guys want to do this, I'm happy to facilitate conversation between interested parties but that's as much time as I can devote to it. Discuss below.

 A few people  have expressed interest in creating a Jays Talk spreadsheet similar to the Tablerism Spreadsheet. Like that sheet, if someone wants to set it up, I'll link to it as well. Just give me the details.

So is there still interest in a group trip to the Astros game(s) or is that idea dead? If there is still interest, can someone step up and organize it? I just don't have the time.

I'd like to remind you of some ways to donate to the site on the right sidebar if you're so inclined. If you want to do small monthly support, like a Patreon, click on the Subscribe button. If you want to do a one-time donation, click on the Donate button. If you shop at Amazon, search for your item through the search bar and this site receives a commission for everything you purchase during that session.

Anything donated would really help but as always there is no obligation. This site is a service to the community.

Lastly, Wolf informed us in last night's game threat that today's his birthday. Have a great one, sir! Flip all the tables!

(This probably means at some point today a thread will be flooded with vids so remember you can hide media individually with the down arrow on the top right or all media with the arrow next to your name.)

Thursday, June 16, 2016

2016 Game 69 - Jays vs Phills

Photo: John Lott

Enjoy tonight. Tomorrow we end up in Camden Yards. It's been fun, Philly!

Happ vs Nola. Will be interesting to see if anyone cares enough to boo JA.

Is there something to game 69 being the first game of the annual family male bonding baseball trip that I can't go on 'cause I'm a girl? I've told them I don't want to hear one word about how nice Citizen's Bank Park is because it's utterly killing me.

Being left behind


So the men of my family left this morning on their annual baseball trip, where each year they drive to a new park. The schedule wasn't kind this season so they added on an extra day to be able to add Citizen's Bank Park to the list.

I don't get to go on this trip because I'm a girl.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

2016 Game 68 - Jays vs Phills


Hey Philly, how's it hangin'? Miss us?

Estrada vs Hellickson. Our old buddy, Hellickson. Who's been crap lately.

Guide to the Philadelphia Phillies blogosphere



I was first inclined to look at opposition blogs when Doc was traded. I wanted to know that the fans he was going to were going to appreciate him. Luckily, what I discovered was that they did. Some of them even expressed sympathy for our pain. So I walked away knowing Doc was in good hands.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

2016 Game 67 - Jays vs Phills


Quick turnaround travel day. So will this game fly or will the baseball gods be cruel?

Eflin vs Stroman. This is Eflin's MLB debut. Let's welcome him warmly.

Monday, June 13, 2016

2016 Game 66 - Jays vs Phills


Time for the annual hone/home series with the Phillies. They've lost their early season lustre and are now playing to what everyone thought they would be. Yay for us!

Eickhoff vs Dickey. A large part of the Phillies hot streak had to do with their young pitching. And with the wind blowing, this is going to be a very interesting game.

The sane Os fan


This was initially going to be about their tears but when I went to Orioles Hangout I found a really interesting conversation going on after the game that I'd like to share.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

2016 Game 65 - Jays vs OriLOLes


After today we don't see the shitbirds again for...5 days.

Jimenez vs Sanchez. I like this matchup. Ubaldo's good hittin' and Sanchy looked great last start.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Party weekend!


Every weekend is an open thread to shoot the shit. There will be a challenge each week but don't feel confined by it.

2016 Game 64 - Jays vs OriLOLes


Yup, we're still at it. Last night was pretty ok though.

Wright vs Happ. Not the nuckler but the other Wright. Hoping for good Happ today.

Friday, June 10, 2016

2016 Game 63 - Jays vs OriLOLes


Here we go again. Last night was a kick in the ass. Time to even the series up. I'm at the game tonight and want a damn win.

Gausman vs Estrada. I know which one I've got my money on. Go Marco!

Funny baseball stories


After last night, I figured we needed some laughs. So here are a couple of links to check out. (Funny enough, most of what's out there is pretty lame.)

Thursday, June 9, 2016

2016 Game 62 - Jays vs OriLOLes


4 game homestand against the Shitbirds? This should be fun. Hopefully it's as good as the ass-kicking we gave Boston when they came into our hood.

Wilson vs Stroman. Hopefully mini-me gets his stuff back tonight. Yankees roughed up Wilson in his last start so hopefully that bodes well.

#TBT Beatdown in Beantown


June 12, 2015. The dump known as Fenway. The men of my family are sitting near the monster. I'm sitting at home with my mom watching it on tv because girls aren't allowed to go. Ya'll were very supportive.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

2016 Game 61 - Jays vs Tigers


Well, last night was a kick in the ass, wasn't it?

Our last game in Detroit for the year. A once great rivalry decimated. Good job, MLB!

Dickey vs Zimmerman. Keep the good Dickey coming! The day game should help. Get the man some runs. Who cares if it's Zimmerman?

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

2016 Game 60 - Jays vs Tigers


Well that was a demoralizing ass-kicking, wasn't it? On the bright side, only 2 more games left in this series. Still hard to believe we only go to Detroit once a year.

It's the battle of the prospects! Sanchez vs Boyd. Get Sanchy some runs!

Bullshit post #2


Since life has happened and no one has stepped up, you're getting a two-sentence post.

Monday, June 6, 2016

2016 Game 59 - Jays vs Tigers


And we're in Detroit. Time for all those Windsor fans of both teams to get their jollies! Sucks for them that it's not a weekend.

Happ vs Fulmer. The Tigers rookie has serious facial hair for those of you who like that sort of thing. He also has a good change up for those of you who like that sort of thing.

Bullshit post #1


Since life has happened and no one has stepped up, you're getting a two-sentence post.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

2016 Game 58 - Jays vs Sux


After today we don't see these fuckers until September. Good riddance to good rubbish.

Estrada vs Rodriguez. Wily vet vs fire-balling kid. I know who my money's on.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

2016 Game 57 - Jays vs Sux


Over/Under on the amount of shadow mentions?

Stroman vs Wright. We came thisclose to a nuckleball showdown. Hope Gibby knows what he's doing.

It's my birthday. I want a win!

It's my birthday!


So thanks to the stupid 4pm start I couldn't do this the way I wanted, with a dedicated party weekend thread. It seems the Jays always screw with my birthday plans. Can you name the last time there was a home game on June 4th?

Friday, June 3, 2016

2016 Game 56 - Jays vs Sux


Here we are, back in the biggest bullshit park in baseball. Against the biggest bullshit team in baseball.

Dickey vs Price. Stroman was pushed back for this match-up. A canny Gibby move? We'll see.

Fuck Boston redux


Only 5 days since we last saw these fuckers and now we're going into their joke of a ballpark.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Baseball dream vacation


On this off day, let's engage in a little dream casting. If money was no object, what would be your dream baseball vacation?

I'm torn between 3.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

2016 Game 55 - Jays vs Yanks


The good news is that we don't see these fuckers again until August.

Tanaka vs Sanchez. The legend of Sanchez grows? Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't shift him again but I guess he needs to face the Yanks sometime.