TJ's AL Awards, and full season All-Stars

Howdy folks. It was a great season for our guys, but a strange season in the AL, as seven teams won 90 or more games, and there were really only two absolute dogs in the league. The Orioles lost 110 games, and Texas lost 102. No other team lost 90 or more. The Blue Jays great, and all around really fun, season is a big reason I got off my ass to do these posts. Let's dive in.

TJ's 2021 NL Awards and full season All-Stars

Howdy folks. It's now four years since I did the last post of this series, so it's probably time to make another attempt. 2017 was not a good year for the Blue Jays. Nor was 2018. Or 2019. In 2020, they made the postseason, but drawing any conclusions from a 60-game season is dumb IMHO. 

Non-Game Thread for an Offday: TJ's All-Stars and Awards for the 1987 Season

Oh what might have been....

Everything was going very well for the Blue Jays in 1987. They were extremely competitive for the AL East crown throughout the season, as they held one of the top three spots in the division for all but five days, and all of those days came between April 12th and April 19th, which, of course, is the most volatile period of the year. They were never more than 6.5 games out of first, which sounds like a lot, but remember how quickly deficits can be erased in baseball with a good hot streak, and how quickly leads can disappear with a horrible, ill-timed swoon.

They had survived a 13-0, 17-1, and 20-3 start by the Milwaukee Brewers, who were never in first after May 13th, but put up one helluva fight thanks to an 18-11 August, and a 20-9 September. The Yankees grabbed the lead twice in 1987, from mid-May through the first week of June, and from late June through the first week of August, but they faded down the stretch thanks to an 11-17 August, followed by a 13-14 September. It was a four team race, as the Red Sox, Orioles, and Clevelands were never really in it.

Non-Game Thread for an Offday: TJ's All-Stars and Awards for the 1985 Season

Some of you requested that I take a look at 1987, while others wanted 1998. I've also decided to look at seasons where the Blue Jays made the postseason in chronological order, so I'm gonna run with 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, and 2015 for now. 2016 was done in 2016, 2017 was done in 2017, and 2018 will be done somewhere in the playoffs or early in the offseason. Doing the fun historical seasons first gives us a chance to enjoy dessert, before we go wandering in the postseason desert(s) that this franchise has endured over the years. Remember that even in the deserts, great things do and have happened, albeit on an individual rather than a team basis.

I'll look at other seasons as requested, or as I please, but for now that's the order I'm hoping to do things in. The first four will be done on the remaining offdays in 2018, and sometime in the offseason, I should get around to the other four. I should also acknowledge that none of this stuff would be possible without Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs, which are incredible sources as most of you already know.

Non-Game Thread for an Offday: TJ's All-Stars and Awards for the 1981 Season

I'm starting this post just before game two of the Seattle invasion, so I have no idea how that series will turn out/turned out. I only know that Tina got a win in her first ever live baseball game, which is awesome. This post will either find us wishing for a Monday game, glad for a respite from this topsy-turvy season, or somewhere in the middle.

Why 1981 you ask? Blame poster Teddy Ballgame for that. I took requests for various seasons before or during the Blue Jays' history, and his was the furthest removed from 2018, so I chose to tackle it first. When he requested it, I told him he was a masochist, as the Blue Jays were the worst team in all of baseball that season, and he responded by posting that indeed he was, but that he was also a bit of a sadist. There was a team just down Hwy 401 though, that had been teasing Canadian baseball fans, knocking on the door of the postseason, but falling just short, and 1981 was the year they would finally crash the party, so perhaps he's not such a masochist after all.

TJ's (Better Late Than Never) 1st Half All-Stars and Awards for the National League

Back again. Same stuff, other league. Once again with the All-Stars, not gonna go with all the layers of BS that have built up over the years with how the rosters are selected for the real life All-Star Game. This includes the at least one player per team rule (or as I like to call it, the participation medal rule). Just going to select 20 position players (at least two at each position [at least six outfielders], but no more than four at a single position [no more than nine outfielders]), 7 starting pitchers, and 5 relief pitchers to give me a 32-man roster. As was the case with the AL All-Stars, there are two teams that were not represented on the NL side of things, so I will indicate who I would've put on had I been beholden to this silly rule, and who I would've had to remove to get them on. Ok, let's get this show on the road, shall we?

TJ's (Better Late Than Never) 1st Half All-Stars and Awards for the American League

Heyo my fellow JITHers. Hope everyone's doing well as we leave behind a rough first half and look ahead to a transitional second half in Blue Jayland. A little late, but I'm back with my look at the 1st half in the American League. The thing about the timing of this post is that I wanted to allow the first half to end and then look at the numbers and make my picks. I prefer that to grabbing the numbers early, and having a player go on a hellacious tear before the break and seeing it not get reflected in said picks. The National League version of this will fly either next Monday or Tuesday morning depending on when/if Tina wants to do her ten weekly random thoughts post. Let me know Tina, and I'll work around whatever you want to do.

The 2018 BBWAA HoF Ballot

It's that time of year again. The 2018 BBWAA HoF Ballot is out now, and I know I said this last year, but once again it is way overcrowded (at least IMHO). There are 33 names on the ballot this year, which can be found here with some handy dandy stats on it. Depending on how big you like your HoF, you can probably make a case for 20ish of the 33 candidates. There's a catch though. There are only ten slots on each ballot. Yikes. Let's get into it after the jump, shall we?

2017 NL Awards and full season All-Stars

2017 NL Awards:

Hello. I'm back with more baseball content goodness to help chip away at the emptiness of the early portion of the baseball offseason (before it gets fired up, which is coming soon despite any withdrawal symptoms you may be currently experiencing). This time we're looking at the Senior Circuit and who I think should take home the individual hardware for the just concluded 2017 season. Join me after the jump won't you?

2017 AL Awards and full season All-Stars

2017 AL Awards:

Hello again my JITH friends. What a season we just witnessed, even if it didn't go according to plan for our beloved Blue Jays. The pennant races didn't have much in the way of suspense, but the postseason...Oh my! Four of the seven series went the distance, with more than enough drama for baseball die-hards and casual fans alike.

1st Half Awards and All-Stars for the National League

1st Half Awards:

Hey there. I'm back again, ready to take you up to the game thread at 6:00 pm. Yes, there's a Blue Jays game tonight folks. In Motown. According to MLB dot com's probable pitchers thingy, it's supposed to be Aaron Sanchez vs Justin Verlander. Sounds like a great matchup. Hopefully Aaron's troubles are behind him. Anywho, I won't steal anymore thunder from the game thread. Just nice to see Blue Jays' baseball back again after four days off. I'm gonna skip the pre-amble this time. Did enough of that in yesterday's post, which you can probably still scroll down to and check out if you need pre-amble. We'll start with my 10 first half NL MVP selections after the jump.

1st Half Awards and All-Stars for the American League

1st Half Awards: 

Greetings fellow JITHers. Long time, no post. I've been around, just not posting (since November 28th, 2016? Egads!) in the formal sense. Sorry about that mk, but I just didn't have much to say. However I'm back for now with a look at first half awards and all-stars for the American League today, and later in the week I'll do the same for the National League. Gotta cover off the darkest days/nights of the baseball calendar with something I suppose, so please accept this humble offering.

David Andrew Stieb and the HoF (Part II: Top o' the Mountain to ya!: 1982 - 1985)

From 1977 through 1981, the Jays had stumbled through five seasons of mostly bad baseball. How long could .359 baseball (270 - 482) bring fans out to the ballpark? How long could you sell them on coming to see the stars of the American League, with very little hope for the home nine ever getting their act together? To be fair, they were assembling quite a lot of young talent, but that hadn't translated into wins yet, and let's face it, wins are what bring fans out to the ballpark in droves. The novelty of big league baseball in Toronto and seeing all the different stars on the opposing teams was starting to wear thin with the fans, and it showed. In 1981, they had their worst ranking for attendance in the history of the franchise. They finished 11th in the 14 team American League in attendance. Something needed to change.

David Andrew Stieb and the HoF (Part I: The Early Years: 1979 - 1981)

Yeah, that's right, I put the words "Dave Stieb" and "HoF" in the same title. Am I out of my mind (hint: highly probable)? After all 176 Wins, a 3.44 ERA, a shade over 1,500 K in fewer than 3,000 IP doesn't exactly scream "Cooperstown!" as a body of work does it? The surface numbers just aren't there.

Ok, what about the awards? 7 All-Star selections (1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, and 1990), one 4th place Cy Young finish (1982), one 5th place Cy Young finish (1990), and back to back 7th place Cy Young finishes (1984, 1985). 7 All-Star games in 11 seasons is extremely impressive, but the rest of it doesn't add up either. In fact it's kind of meh for HoF consideration. So what the hell am I on about?

If I had a (rocket launcher) BBWAA ballot, it would look something like this...

Part 2: The National League:

Why "Space Oddity" over "Rocket Launcher"? Why not? I just couldn't bring myself to run Bruce Cockburn back out there again, much as I like him. A little repetitive methinks. Besides, Major Tom would've needed a rocket and a launch pad to get into space, so it's close enough for me. And seriously, it's Bowie. Enough preamble, let's get to the goods.

If I had a (rocket launcher) BBWAA ballot, it would look something like this...

Part 1: The Mike Trout American League 

First, a word (or two or ten) about some of the advanced (read: nerd) stats I'll be looking at in these selections. Don't worry, there will be some "normal" stats as well, but I find the advanced stats can be really good separators between very good and great player seasons.