with the extra wild card, it is not a stretch to see the Jays contend for a playoff spot.
Gunna have to bank on Romero staying sharp, and Morrow/Alvarez taking leaps in their development, and Drabek/others not being terrible. Would have liked to see another 2/3 starer added to the rotation, but aside from Darvish, I'm not comfortable with the amount it would have cost to get any of the other arms that went this offseason.
Except for Pineda. Stupid mariners helping the stupid yankees.
Darvish cost almost 19mil/season if you consider the bidding fee for him as well. As good as he might be, its a high risk for someone who never pitched in MLB. At the end of his contract, i believe he comes a UFA as well so its a pretty big investment.
Pumped for their home opener. Hopefully the Toronto faithful can actually pack the Rogers Center more often because this years Jays is going to be a wicked ride. Really wish I could go see a game. Would love to see Joey Bats, Lawrie, Ricky and company play live.
Such a young energetic team, or so it seems that way ever since Lawrie has been in a Jays uniform. He's brought swagger to this team.
11 innings from the pen on the first day of the season. Recipe for disaster but at least they got the win. It would have been devastating had they not.
How good is Jose Bautista my god what a player. The lack of hustle by Raja Davis on that bunt was awful, he should be tied to a chair and made to watch Derek Jeter run out every grounder of his career. Be a professional and run hard no matter what.
11 innings from the pen on the first day of the season. Recipe for disaster but at least they got the win. It would have been devastating had they not.
How good is Jose Bautista my god what a player. The lack of hustle by Raja Davis on that bunt was awful, he should be tied to a chair and made to watch Derek Jeter run out every grounder of his career. Be a professional and run hard no matter what.
I love their jerseys as well. A big improvement.
Actually I thought the bullpen performance was remarkable and the Jays have an off-day on Friday for the pitching staff to recover. Of course if their starter on Saturday can pitch a complete game win then it is even better.
Other than Luis Perez who carried the bulk of the duties out of the bull pen and got the win, the other relievers pitched about an inning before Sergio Santos closed it out by getting the final two outs in the bottom of the 16th and delivered 11 shutout innings. That has to be a positive sign for the revamped bullpen. If anything this game should be a huge boost in confidence. Oh yeah and Perez screwed up in the 16th when he stepped across the foul line which meant he had to pitch when Santos was supposed to open the inning.
Plus Romero who did not have his best stuff shut the Indians down for three more innings after giving up the four runs that set up the opportunity for the bullpen to do their thing... and the Blue Jays offence came alive in the 9th and 16th innings to get the win.
"We've got to tip our hat to the bullpen -- what a great job they did -- everyone came in and it just shows you the depth that we have," said Romero. "Thank God we have a day off (Friday). It helps to kind of get the bullpen back on their feet."
Bautista is unbelievable and Brett Lawrie at 22 is amazing. Lawrie worked the walk and negated a potential double play in the 16th on the perfectly executed hit and run by Omar Visquel... leaving aside the fact that Cleveland pitcher Jairo Ascencio, should have taken the sure out at second base.
JP Arrencibia did a masterful job behind the plate handling the parade of pitchers and his defence was superb keeping low pitches in front of him. And to have the stamina to park a home run in the 16th after catching 15 innings was amazing (even if he did miss the sign on his final at bat).
"I think that was the most balls I ever blocked in the dirt," said Arencibia. "That's part of my job, at the beginning of the game I wasn't doing it at the plate and I was really trying bear down defensively and do everything I can to help us. …
"Part of my job is knowing that I can impact the game defensively and you can't take for granted every pitch, it can lead to something. Even that pitch where Perez threw the fastball in the dirt, I was able to get my glove in a good position where it hit off my chest and bounced forward and didn't give an opportunity to score."
...
"I was 0-for-6 already, I was just trying to do something to help the team get a guy to third base," said Arencibia, who learned about his misread of the sign from Farrell in the dugout afterwards.
"He just high-fived and he said, 'Great job. You missed a sign.'"
The Jays look to have the team to make a run for the post-season in the American League and are helped by the addition of an extra wild card team this season.
As manager John Farrell said after the win:
"I know it's Day 1, and we've seen an awful lot in the first game, but the one characteristic we had last year was a relentless attitude and a relentless approach, and came back a number of times and today was another example," said Farrell. I think that just speaks to the character of this group."
At least the fans in TO can forget about the abysmal seasons of the Leafs and Raptors and look forward to an exciting talented baseball team.
I am planning a trip to Seattle for the Blue Jays three game series with the Mainers on July 30 and 31 and August 1. (Mon,Tue,Wed).
Last edited by Wetcoaster: 04-06-2012 at 11:41 AM.
During the telecast of the Jays game they talked about the potential of Langley, BC's own Brett Lawrie. Here was his first hit at home last season... a grand slam.
Great trade for the Jays after Lawrie and the Milwaukee Brewers had a blow-up over his development and assignments in the minors. The Jays sent pitcher Shawn Marcum to the Brewers and in return Lawrie came the other way. http://www.theprovince.com/sports/Bl...303/story.html
The Brewers were unhappy with his effusive and aggressive personality and confidence while Jays manager John Farrell says he has not seen it. One of Farrell's managerial mottos is: Let players be themselves.
"I've never seen it," said Blue Jays manager John Farrell. "Never. From the day he walked into our clubhouse last spring, he fit right in."
...
So halfway through this spring, Farrell found himself describing his 22-year-old third baseman as "part of the heartbeat of this team." When we asked the manager about that quote this week, he replied: "Leadership, to me, doesn't have an age."
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"In time," said Farrell, "as long as health is on his side, he's going to put himself in position for everybody to take notice of who Brett Lawrie is."
As of last season during his late season call-up to the Jays he ended up 14th all-time on the list of players 21 and under in terms of OPS (On-base plus Slugging percentages) with a .953. The others listed in front of him is a veritable who's who of Baseball's Hall of Fame and current greats including Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Willie McCovey, Mel Ott, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Eddie matthews, Al Kaline, Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez.
Lawrie, on the other hand, already has about a month and a half of been-there, done-it in the big leagues on his personal page at baseball-reference.com. And what he did in that month and a half has gotten way too little attention.
A .953 OPS? A .580 slugging percentage? More extra-base hits (21) in a month and a half than the National League's starting third baseman in the All-Star Game (Placido Polanco) got all season (19)?
And have we mentioned that this guy was 21 years old at the time?
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The Toronto Blue Jays' 22-year-old third baseman isn't technically a rookie anymore, thanks to the 150 at-bats he got at the end of last season. But mention the name Brett Lawrie to people inside baseball's inner circle, and the responses blow your eardrums away.
"Wow," said one longtime scout.
"Oh my God," said another.
"Speed, power, attitude, hustle -- and he's got every intangible you could ever want in a player," said another.
"He's going to be a great offensive force," said yet another. "And defensively, I don't know what quality you'd want in a third baseman that he doesn't have."
And Buck Martinez, former Jay and current Blues Jay broadcaster has measuring stick against which he compares Lawrie:
"He's got more ability than George Brett, and I was George's roommate in Kansas City," Martinez said. "Now obviously, he doesn't have 3,000 hits or [three] batting titles or an MVP award, so he's got a long ways to go. But he runs and he plays with the same kind of intensity as George did. And that's as high a compliment as I could pay any player."
As Lawrie develops he will move up from the Number 6/7 slot and that will give the Jays a deadly 3/4/5 combo. Look for a Lawrie-Bautista-Lind 3-4-5 line-up as the season progresses. Farrell likes Bautista in the Number 3 slot as it ensures Bautista comes up every first inning but with Lawrie's power, speed and base stealing ability he looks to be a perfect Number 3.
Early in the spring, Farrell was busy describing why Bautista was remaining in the three-hole instead of being considered for cleanup. He talked about wanting his best hitter batting third, about having him come up in the first inning of every game, because even with nobody on he is a scoring threat via the home run.
But the ideal third-place hitter should also be a threat to run and since becoming the league’s leading home run hitter two years in a row, the Jays and Bautista have slammed on the brakes. Meanwhile, Lawrie is frisky and fast and is a good candidate for a shot of his own up either power-alley or to score if Bautista delivers the same type of hit behind him. If Bautista is batting fourth, either he comes to the plate with a runner on base, or he leads off the second and sees better pitches to hit, still being, as Farrell likes to say, in scoring position.
Farrell already plans on having a different lineup against opposing left-handers. In the alternate lineup, Encarnacion will bat cleanup with either Lind-Lawrie or Lawrie-Lind to follow. Farrell would not rule out the future possibility of a Lawrie-Bautista-Lind 3-4-5 but the feeling may be that despite his obvious potential, the 22-year-old kid from Langley, B.C. needs to earn it.
Pumped for their home opener. Hopefully the Toronto faithful can actually pack the Rogers Center more often because this years Jays is going to be a wicked ride. Really wish I could go see a game. Would love to see Joey Bats, Lawrie, Ricky and company play live.
Such a young energetic team, or so it seems that way ever since Lawrie has been in a Jays uniform. He's brought swagger to this team.
Drive down to the Mariners game when the Jays come to the west coast. I went to one of the games last season and the Blue Jays chant was unbelievable.
I still can't believe what happened to the great Rivera today. Didn't look like he was in regular season form. Seems to start slow each year but it's still shocking.
Price vs Kuroda tomorrow... could be 0-2 to start.
