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OT: The Toronto Blue Jays

Cito Gaston is a rare, rare bird. Loyal, tested and true. And yeah, I am polishing off my bandwagon as we speak. They may finish anywhere, but under Cito, I feel a Burkie/Wilson mojo.
 
I'm starting to find it insane that people from toronto are not able to get their teams on tv (raptors/blue jays). Saw the highlights and was surprised that we actually fought back. Good sign. However, we have to start doing this against are division to have any chance this season. But great start.
 
citoGaston.jpg


that says it all.
 
zeke said:
....purcey was fighting his command a bit and falling behind too often, and still came out with an excellent performance overall. that's a good sign.
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Agreed, but he had a very small strike zone to work with. They weren't giving him the inside of the plate all night long. Which actually makes his start even more encouraging.

...nice to see Hill and Rolen get off the schneid early...they could be big parts of an imprved offense this year.
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Hill will be fine and will get his 12-15 jacks. Maybe more, he's still young.

Rolen is a big concern, though. We know that when he's healthy he can be a threat at the plate but shoulder troubles spell bad things in baseball. With that said, what I have found particularly encouraging is that he's hitting the ball well to all fields. They've adjusted his swing to try and relieve pressure off his front shoulder, which could (theoretically) entail a shorter stroke and necessitate an earlier start to his swing which could reduce him to a pull hitter. But he's gone opposite field a few times already, and of course hit that big jack yesterday...

....Beej gave up the dinger, but it was actually on a pretty good pitch, and he was at 87-89mph on all his fastballs, which is pretty good to start the year and he should be able to add a couple more to that as the year goes on. Also, his command was very good, which is a nice improvement over last year.
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Always the optimist. He only exceeded 88 once. Most of his fastballs were in the 86-87 range but he threw a few that were only 84 and 85.
 
zeke said:
citoGaston.jpg


that says it all.
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I've been saying for a few years now that the Jays need to reconnect with the team's past. The team has a pretty illustrious history considering we're only 32 years in; people seem to have completely forgotten that from 1985-93 the Jays were the best team in the American League.

With Beeston and Cito back in the fold it has started to happen. And it's about time. The Jays don't have the history of the Red Sox or Yankees but that didn't stop them from turning Toronto into a premiere free agent destination, and that was before they had even won a World Series.
 
I caught myself reading up on the Jays and baseball last night for the first time in over a decade. I stopped watching after the strike because I was so completely pissed about the expos not getting their chance at the series - just couldn't bring myself to be interested again.

I've got a learning curve to climb on this - lots of changes since I last followed baseball and I don't know hardly any of the players in the league, let alone the Jays.

The Jays should be fun to follow, as there are a lot of promising looking young players in the lineup. I first started following them when Jesse Barfield, Tony Fernandez, Jimmy Key and Loyd Moseby were coming up. Man, were those the days for this team.
 
msun30 said:
Agreed, but he had a very small strike zone to work with. They weren't giving him the inside of the plate all night long. Which actually makes his start even more encouraging.
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Absolutely. He was simply not getting that deserved call at all (and neither did Camp). BUT, to the umps' credit, at least he was consistent. Purcey and Barajas should have adapted.

What made it more annoying was that the ump was giving Jackson the outside of the plate all night long, and he was living out there and getting some very generous strike calls.

But I agree - it makes Purcey's performance even more encouraging.


Hill will be fine and will get his 12-15 jacks. Maybe more, he's still young.
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I expect him to be a .750-.800ops hitter.....but I still see breakout potential in him to be signifcantly better than that. I still see a guy with the potential to challenge for a batting title and pop 20 dingers.

Rolen is a big concern, though. We know that when he's healthy he can be a threat at the plate but shoulder troubles spell bad things in baseball. With that said, what I have found particularly encouraging is that he's hitting the ball well to all fields. They've adjusted his swing to try and relieve pressure off his front shoulder, which could (theoretically) entail a shorter stroke and necessitate an earlier start to his swing which could reduce him to a pull hitter. But he's gone opposite field a few times already, and of course hit that big jack yesterday...
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As much as we can make fun of his "new swing", that of the matter is that he's been killing the ball ever since he started using that new swing last year. He posted an .878ops at the end of last year once he came back using that swing, destroyed the ball all spring this year, and has continued to start this season.

If that swing does indeed help him take pressure off his shoulder (and just looking at him at the plate his movements seem much less forceful and much more smooth), then he could have a big year. We have to remember last year that when Rolen was healthy, he wasn't just good, he was dominant.


Always the optimist. He only exceeded 88 once. Most of his fastballs were in the 86-87 range but he threw a few that were only 84 and 85.
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No, his fastball was 97-89 based on the televised fun, only once dipping below that to 86 (which Inge tattooed for a dinger). The low-80s readings were for sliders.

And MLB gameday backs that up.... (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2009_04_07_detmlb_tormlb_1&mode=gameday):

Fastball 87
Fastball 87
Fastball 88
Fastball 90
Fastball 88
Fastball 88
Fastball 89
Fastball 87
Slider 82
Fastball 87
Slider 82
Fastball 89
Fastball 88
Slider 81
Slider 82

Fastball sitting at 87-89mph, and topping out at 90.
 
msun30 said:
I've been saying for a few years now that the Jays need to reconnect with the team's past. The team has a pretty illustrious history considering we're only 32 years in; people seem to have completely forgotten that from 1985-93 the Jays were the best team in the American League.

With Beeston and Cito back in the fold it has started to happen. And it's about time. The Jays don't have the history of the Red Sox or Yankees but that didn't stop them from turning Toronto into a premiere free agent destination, and that was before they had even won a World Series.
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I like the reconnection with the past, obviously.....but more importantly, i'm just glad we have a proven respected manager back at the helm instead of a nice guy whose only qualifications for the job were that he was J.P.'s buddy.

You know, a manager who the players can actually trust and respect and listen to, and a manager who has proven that he can give good advice.

This team might not be good enough to do anything, but at least I think we've seen the last of team-wide underachievment and long season-killing stretches of absolute incompetence out on the field.
 
It may be a small thing, but i think the Jays should go back to the 92-93 UNIS full time. I hete hae hate these unniforms they ahve now, and the hat with that goofy T thats sort of a J....
 
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