Spring training fake games!

 

Hope everyone is enjoying baseball being back. Carry on.

Monday Morning Conga!

 

Not sure why I chose a conga line. I just liked the sound of it. 

Only 4 days until pitchers and catchers report!

Welcome to the Turner era!

 

Sux Nation is crying, so that's good enough for me.

Seriously, as long as the dude can still hit, I'm ok with this. Let's see what else happens.

Yet another new thread

 

Here's a fresh thread. Have at it.

Another new thread

 

If only the snow looked this purdy, huh?

Sunday relaxation

 

Yes, another fresh thread. Everyone's a chatterbox. Happy Sunday.

It's time for a fresh thread

 

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

It's freakin' cold, isn't it? The whole country is in the deep freeze, and most of the US as well. Not fun.

I believe in the discussion yesterday there was an allusion to this song, so what the hell. Gotta love those 70s variety shows.

Can't wait to see what the next conversation topic is going to be.

T-Minus 2 Days to Blue Jays opening day

 

Yup, it's almost there. During the stupid lockout, it seemed like the season wouldn't start until the middle of the summer. But here we are, a couple of days away. 

This is doubling as a gratitude post. I'm grateful that baseball is upon us and we have the whole community back together. We miss you guys who are only here during the season!

#136 - Houston Astros (87-48) at Toronto Blue Jays (54-81)

Friday, August 30, 2019 | 7:07 pm

Rogers Centre | Toronto, Ontario

Wade Miley (13-4, 3.13, 1.20) vs. Trent Thornton (4-8, 5.34, 1.52)

PREAMBLE:

Mailing it in tonight, folks.  Gonna be short and sweet.

Astros = super good
Blue Jays = not great

Jays offer up Trent Thornton as tonight's sacrificial lamb to the Astros slaughter.  Wade Miley goes for the Astros and he gud.  Very gud this year.  Though he has a career 2-7, 4.47 lifetime against the Jays in 10 starts.

#88 - Boston Red Sox (45-41) at Toronto Blue Jays (33-54)

Thursday, July 4, 2019 | 7:07 pm

Rogers Centre | Toronto, Ontario

Hector Velazquez (1-3, 5.31, 1.30) 

vs. 

Derek Law (0-1, 6.91, 1.68) and Thomas Pannone (2-3, 5.91, 1.54)

PREAMBLE:

Short and sweet tonight, folks.  The Blue Jays look to pull out a series win against the Red Sox in the finale of a three-game set tonight.

Marcus Stroman is not able to go tonight, so Derek Law will open the game for an inning or so then turn things over to Thomas Pannone for (hopefully) the bulk of the innings the rest of the way.  The Red Sox will counter with Hector Velazquez, who is 3-0, 1.15 in 11 relief appearances for his career against the Jays, though he's just 3-6, 5.04 in 18 career starts overall (including 7 this season).

#74 - Los Angeles Angels (37-37) at Toronto Blue Jays (26-47)

Wednesday, June 19, 2019 | 7:07 pm

Rogers Centre | Toronto, Ontario

PREAMBLE:

After two losses to open this series against the Angels, the Blue Jays look to combine some decent-enough offence (as in game 1) and pitching (as in game 2) into one game for once and come away with a win.

Aaron Sanchez ponders which finger ailment will pop up tonight as he takes the ball for the Jays, going up against Andrew Heaney.

Monday Poetry

We haven't done one of these for a while, have we? Feel free to use free form but you can truly impress your fellow JITHians by trying a haiku or a limerick. (Leave the sonnets to NoCramps.)

My contribution:

Contrary to what Simmons may think
Our 2018 team does not stink
Speed, defense and youth has arrived
Travis and Sanchez have revived
Wily vet has been bought
Returning players not forgot (looking at you, Cox)
And if health still has not mended
At least Dream Job has ended
Wild Card is not without reason
Bring on the new season!

How Houston saw Teoscar Hernádez

Since this is day two of no baseball (yay Astros!), let's look to our own future.

Teoscar Hernádez brought a lot of excitement in his September callup. But there were questions about how real he looked and how much he might be able to improve. So I thought it might be worth looking at what Houston fans thought about him. Here's some links:

Astros season rewind - the promising Teoscar Hernádez
Astros - the case for Teoscar Hernádez
Teoscar Hernádez of the Houston Astros
Astros countdown - top five closest prospects

Thoughts?

Looking at where we are

A few articles came out over the weekend that gave a good picture of where the organization is and where it is headed.

Jays Journal takes a look at the 2015 mid-season trades, comparing how the players we traded away are doing versus what we got back and it turns out that we made out pretty well.

Andrew did a very good job of summing up what Mark Shapiro said on the Jeff Blair show about where the team is now.

For where it's headed, Shi Davidi goes in depth with Shapiro in a two-part interview. Yes, I posted them in the game treats over the weekend but if you missed them, here's the links.
Part 1
Part 2

Shi also looks at Biagini with Hernández talking about where he is at the end.

I don't know about you guys but I feel excited. I believe we've hit bottom and next year we'll make like the Sux and be right back in it.

Problem with the balls

So Brett Anderson, who had been looking so good for the Jays, had trouble in the 5th inning in last night's game and had to leave with what was identified as a hot spot on his left index finger.

Hurricane Irma and Florida baseball

By the time this post goes up, Irma will have tracked far enough north that all the MLB, minor league cities, and grapefruit league towns will be clear. So here's a place to talk about news we hear about any possible damage, as the storm hit the entire state.

Sadly, despite a lot of people rooting for it, I doubt anything happened to the House of Horrors. Sigh.

September call ups, wave 1

The callups are happening in two waves. The first starts today. The second will be when Buffalo finishes their season.

Joining the team today:

Michael Saunders (Gibby referred to him as Captain Canada last night)
Teoscar Hernandez
Carlos Ramirez
Richard Urena
Luke Maile (AKA Handsome Man)

What are your thoughts? Are you excited?

Debate Club

Sportsnet released their list of the top 40 Blue Jays in franchise history. We talked about it after the game yesterday but for those who didn't swing by, I want your thoughts! And for those who did, feel free to cut and paste your comments into this post.

Twitter Dump

Twitter Dump