Okay Blue Jays, Touch 'em all Blog

Alice, Alice?...who the f#&k is Alice

2009-11-12T17:42:26Z

so it's been a while but you humble narrator has been pretty pissed at the Blue Jays...and a lot has happend from the BS mutiny to all that crap with Doc to the answer to prayer with JP leaving so I really don't want to break anything down today nor to I can to give any retro spective analysis to JP Retardie's track record however, I do want to wax my advance scouting skills by suggesting the Jays make get Alice Cullen a starting pitcher

So that's all from yours UNfaithfully........Shine on, Cheers and Smell you later.

Mr Bogangles

2009-07-04T14:53:19Z

Happy July 4^th.

Coach Cito I feel it for ya.

After all these years I like to think that I know you, in fact last July 4^th we sat beside each other at the Claim Jumper for lunch before the July 4^th game where Halladay got a big W over Lackey and the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles USA Planet Earth: in fact in that game, the 3 and 4 hitters, Alex Rios and Vernon Wells, provided clutch hits and power (a late double by Rios and Vernon with Rios on 2^nd {that is runner in scoring position} driving him home with a moonshot homer late in the game too??? WTF!!?!? where did that go???), and the game was saved by BJ Ryan, who's focus was not deterred by a rally monkey or the heart of the Angles order, which last year was Vladimir Guerrero , Torii Hunter, and Mark Teixeira.

However, today I want to honor an honorable man: Cito Gaston.

I believe that it truly pains you to demote players down the batter order or sit them which is what you had to do with Vernon and Alex.

It must be rough dance when your dance partner is millionaire athlete with a major league ego, I can't imagine what it is like to waltz on eggshells everyday; I guess that is the reason a lot of managers sit on the end of a bench during a game looking tired and worn out because they need they're rest from the dance which must be exhausting.

I hope today's July 4^th yields the same return as last year for our Blue Jays over another Mark Teixeira team (which now is a divisional rival and part of the Axis of Evil and the Big3), and a similar result for Rios, Wells, Doc and of course you Coach Cito.

That's all for now from yours faithfully.......Shine on, Cheers, and Smell you later!

The Big Long Contract

2009-06-30T14:52:27Z

Greetings and Salutations,

In the words of my friend Kenny, “Wa happen”?

Indeed, wa happen to Vernon Wells ability to hit and be a clutch performer, not to mention what happened to his gold glove: In Brian Tallets last start against the Phillies on Sunday, which series was lost to a play in my humble opinion by Wells, Brian pitched really well, in fact a quality start and though had one bad inning which the World Series Champs put some runs on the board; however, none of that would have happened if Vernon would have caught the ball at the wall like he did before the big long contract. There I have finally succumbed to whole notion that players play for the big long contract then take it easy afterwards, but I didn’t want to believe that and was sort of fooled at the start of the season by Vdub.

If you recall at the start of training camp, which in baseball’s history was when most players would come out of shape to get into shape, Vernon, who is in this case is a bit of a traditionalist as witnessed in past years, came this year with a personal trainer whose been getting Wellsy ready for camp to show the world that he’s worth every penny of the big long contract; but Vernon would be sidelined soon into the pre season and where we learned that he has chronic hamstring issues; and for those of you who like to expand Chronic is also known as unending, unceasing, constant, continual, etc.

So, I’m assuming that the Blue Jays have competent well heeled doctors and trainers on staff, and would likely have known this prior to the big long contract. This big long contract by the way has been suggested to be way lower than what Vernon Wells would have received on the open market and Vernon out of love for this organization took the proverbial hair cut to stay with the Blue Jays. Again, if the Blue Jays have the knowledgeable doctors and trainer and presumably have known of the unending, unceasing, constant, continual hamstring issue then why in the in name of baby Jesus would they give such a big long contract, moreover why wasn’t that information made public and thus other teams back off and negotiate from a better position and if Vernon would have walked or went back home to his home state of Texas, who wanted and had room for him at the time, the public perception would not have been so negative toward management since the guy has unending, unceasing, constant, continual hamstring issues.

DON’T GET ME WRONG, I still believe in Vdub and want him on my team, and don’t fault him in any way for taking the money, because WE ALL WOULD TAKE THE MONEY. I’m just disappointed in a whole bunch of little things, for example:

1) If Vernon is averaging .160ish at home and about the same with men in scoring position why when we’re playing a division rival who we’re neck in neck with for the wild card spot do we not put Lyle Overbay in the 3 spot, which in history he’s played, and let him have the opportunity for the clutch hit.

2) Why would the team all for the neon green banner, which is the banner which Vernon lost the ball at the wall in the last Phillies game, to be in the outfield; true, I know that the team needs the advertising revenue however, there could have been something done to the banner to keep the company branding and not be a distraction.

3) In that 5-4 loss with runners on and in the bottom of the 8^th why not put in someone else; even though Cito has his mantra about keeping the status quo, he has already shuffled the deck and he could after the game make some PR spin comment to protect his player.

4) In follow up to that last situation, why not bunt? If you can’t drive in the runners, then move them along.

Again, I still believe in Vdub and want him on my team, and don’t fault him in any way for taking the money because it’s not my money (well I do go to games and watch every other on TV so I do contribute to viewership which is deemed an asset thus there is a economic contribution on my part), but I just want a little more.

That’s all for now from yours faithfully………Shine on, Cheers, and Smell you later!

Vote for Pedro

2009-06-18T22:41:05Z

You know it’s amazing how fast a month can go by. Unfortunately, your favorite blogger has been struck harder then an Aaron Hill homerun by this economic recession and I’ve been distracted with deciding what to do with my life. And obviously in baseball a lot can happen any given night let alone over a 30 day spell.

OF COURSE I’ve been watching ball, and today felt compelled to finally write something since in one of my last blogs I indicated how much I dislike interleague ball and since then your Toronto Blue Jays lose a home series to the Fish from FLA and then sweep the Philadelphia World Series Champs. BUT, I don’t want to kick that dead interleague horse today.

Lets give a shout out to Marco Scutaro! WOW! Is this guy a player or what?

In my 20+ years watching baseball I have never seen a guy so into a game as Marco. And today, in an interleague game, against the Phillies Marco, on his second plate appearance, was thrown 4 balls and issued a walk; however, being the gamer that he is Scutaro noticed that Joe Blanton was distracted by his disgust in himself as Joe was hanging his head with his back to second and, more importantly, no one was covering second so which stealth and speed Marco took full advantage and second base. Fortunately V-dub has been quietly getting in some hits moreover, hits with runners in scoring position, and Vernon did just that lining one into the gap for Marco to score a BIG run in a tight game for a sweep over the team who’s World Series history was linked to Toronto first World Series Championship until last year when they won the darn thing in the most bizarre championship game ever.

What’s Up Doc? With the recent and unlikely interleague sweep of the Phillies there doesn’t feel like there is panic should Roy Halladay miss more than just his next start against the Washington Nats; however, that does not mean that Griff from the Star is wrong in suggesting that the Beaston should book some plane tix for him and J.P. and write a check that most of us could only dream of (http://thestar.blogs.com/baseball/). That’s right I think just like in
Napoleon Dynamite we should VOTE for Pedro!

Granted, that in his 7 years in Boston Pedro has a 2-2 record with a 3.09 ERA and 53K’s in 46.2 innings pitched, not bad but not great; still, the man throws strikes and thus has my vote. Besides, over that span you’ll be surprised how average high spending teams plays against your Toronto Blue Jays.

Fantasy Watch:

Team Polstar is still in first place up 188 points on trots team with the WinJays a not so distant third 398 points back. My secret, is all Blue baby!

That’s all for now from yours truly…….Shine on, Cheers, and Smell you later!

uh-oh and Six

2009-05-24T23:25:33Z

The streak is as bad as any that my wife has washed out of my shorts, bless her heart...maybe she can help in some way to do away with the Blue Jays nasty streak.

more to come...

Say it 'aint so Joe

2009-05-23T13:51:00Z

From all angles they look the same but with a 4 game losing streak.

Is this the fall from grace, say 'aint it so Joe.

So its been up and down lately with a sweep by Boston and then a rare night where Doc Halladay does not get the win. I really don't want to reflect much except to say to all the Shea Hillenbrands that the ship is not sinking.

Prior to the Boston sweep there was an intriguing stat for this season that the Jays have a poor record in series when the Doc doesn't pitch, which was most evident in Boston. So a sweep carried over into the dumbest thing in baseball, inter-league play and a 1-0 loss to the Braves on Cito's first game back since the World Series win in 1992.

Inter league Sucks!

With such an obvious advantage to the NL team there should be changes. I concede that states like New York, California, Florida, and Texas with teams in both leagues likely appreciate inter-league so there needs to be some sort of governors vote which teams participate with some teams having an opt out option. However, I also think that the inter-league play should be used as the determining factor in which league is awarded with home advantage in the World Series instead of an exhibition game.

Regardless, with Casey Janssen looking to start his first game this year for the Blue Jays after dominating the minors and Ricky Romero back to pick up where he left off this season hardly looks like a fluke, and the Blue Jays can get back to winning series.

I wish Travis Snider all the best in getting out his rut and swinging the bat like he can. Enjoy the game tonight.

That's all for now from yours faithfully.......Shine on, Cheers and Smell you later!

wait till 2010...

2009-05-08T12:41:17Z

I just wanted to point that what helps make this season even better than the obvious great play by your Toronto Blue Jays was the low expectations from the media and anyone who gives a damn about baseball; and pretty much the entire off off season the general message by people in know was wait till 2010.

Yesterday the Jays, according to the prophetic ramblings of baseball people, had made it posting a 20-10 record.

God Bless Cito Gaston.

THIS IS THE YEAR

Shine on Blue Jays, Shine on.

It's a good day to be a Blue Jays fan

2009-05-07T14:49:12Z

It's a good day to be a Blue Jays fan.

A reporter asked Cito Gaston this past weekend if he could believe that the Blue Jays would get off to this kind of start, and he as the now and then manager for your Toronto Blue Jays simply said, 'yes'.

Of course Cito knows all about this kind of Blue Jays start because it was his Blue Jays team in 1992 that got off to a 21-9 start, so as good as this year's team has been out of the gate Cito has managed a better start, and in the same uniform too.

So how does this team keep it going? That's simple, the bats need to keep hitting the crap out of the ball and give rest to the bull pen and not just when Doc is pitching.

And speaking of hitting the crap out of the baseball, Travis Snider needs not to reinvent himself for the show and to do what got him to the bigs, which is hit the crap out of the baseball; and more time spend in Toronto will mitigate such hitting slumps which Snider has recently experienced going 0-32. Fortunately he has the advantage over every other rookie with 2.5 men in his back pocket to iron out any wrinkles.

The two and a half men I speak of are Gene Tenace, Dwayne Murphy and the .5 in Cito Gaston which is whom Cito has labelled his coaching staff; and, though Geno is the official hitting coach, Cito was the hitting coach in the late 1980's prior to managing the team to back to back World Series championships.

I'm going to try something new here today. I'm going to find some negatives (I'm not the best at this so bare with me):

A rookie patchwork pitching staff with McGowan, Marcum, Litsch, Romero, Janssen, and Ryan all on the DL, replace with the untested Cecil, Romero, Ray and inconsistent Purcey. And with a starting staff that seems to be on a limited pitch count there is an inevitability that a highly taxed bullpen will run out of gas sooner rather than later.

Although there are some guys looking to have a career year there are several batters that are not sprinting out of the gate like their teammates; though Wells is a career slow starter, his slow start seems to have affected Rios and Overbay. What concerns you humble narrator is the fact that anyone who gives a damn about the Jays is aware that these three guys should be leading the charge under the tutelage of the 2 and half men due to their skills and abilities and the fact that they came out a Cito-Geno spring training.

So the doomsday scenario that was dibbled all preseason seems to be a farce. In what is supposed to be a gutter of a year waiting for our M&M's to return to the mount and allow the kids to take their lumps, there are some good young arms holding the fort and are giving us something to believe in. There is some serious veteran depth on the bench with Millar and Bautista, and with the 2 and a half men in charge of the offense there is a good reason to believe that this is not a coincidence and that our most talented players, Wells and Rios, will have a year to remember whilst in the care of Cito and Geno. Oh and about BJ Ryan, well whatever will be will be and he has time to find himself with Scotty Downs a solid interim closer.

That's all for now from yours faithfully......Shine on, Cheers and Smell you later!

Tim Brown from Yahoo Sports is a RACIST, ask the Blue Jays

2009-04-24T14:05:35Z

Greetings and Salutations Bob.

Today your humble and loving narrator is going to be regarded as an apologist; however, let's not jump to conclusions just yet, because I call it as I see it.

If you've been keeping up with your reading and maybe even religiously following brilliant amateur sports writers then you read my piece on Yahoo Sport's Tim Browns MLB Power Rankings. In my last submission Timmy had the Jays ranked at 14th, which was unbelievable since they at that point had won every series and were swinging a hot bat, and to a certain extent still are.

So today Tim's rankings are out again, however this maroon can't seem to give the Jays a much deserving podium ranking so in his brilliance and insight decided to award the cleanup spot, 4th, the dreaded ribbon instead of a trophy and place on the podium and arguably having their national anthem played (it's an olympic analogy for being first kids, keep up).

But it is obvious that it must have pained this dum dum so he had to write something so stupid and controversial to totally take away from the honorary fourth spot; oh and by the way, the Jays have continued to win every series and be in every game with 5 of their best pitcher, and one of which being the closer, injured.

Here is the top ten from Tim 'Yogi' Brown:

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (10-5; Previous: 6) - Randy Wolf shows Astros, smuggles $28.5 million worth of toiletries, towels and sunflower seeds out of Minute Maid Park clubhouse.

2. Boston Red Sox (9-6; Previous: 2) - Ortiz batting barely .200 with no home runs, tells Nation's hand-wringers, "Don't worry, be Papi."

3. Chicago Cubs (8-6; Previous: 3) - Cubs-themed cemetery opens, Wrigley cat recreates 1969 Shea dash, goat hangs from Harry, prospective owners seek more cash, Bradley hitting .043. Yeah, baby, this is the year!

4. Toronto Blue Jays (12-5; Previous: 14) - Vernon Wells jokes on video Aaron Hill is "racist" and Hill laughs, but not an over-the-top laugh like he's trying to cover for something, and not, like, one of those half-laughs where you're not really sure if he thinks it's that funny and not any laugh that might make it look like in this day and age that could be sort of an uncomfortable public joke for a white guy. OK?

5. St. Louis Cardinals (11-5; Previous: 11) - Ozzie Smith says Pujols will win All-Star Game with homer in ninth; La Russa preemptively scolds Charlie Manuel for playing Pujols all nine.

6. Florida Marlins (11-4; Previous: 9) - Marlins lose three in Pittsburgh, wonder when next series against Nationals starts.

7. Tampa Bay Rays (6-10; Previous: 1) - In 20-minute players-only meeting veterans make point it was a lot less stressful when they were terrible, vote to call themselves "Devil Rays" again.

8. New York Yankees (9-6; Previous: 5) - Club adapting to wind patterns that carry to right-center field after decades in which the bluster blew straight out of the owner's box.

9. Philadelphia Phillies (6-8; Previous: 4) - Lidge gets ovation after first blown save in Philly, later admits that when everyone stood his initial reaction was to run for it.

10. New York Mets (6-9; Previous: 7) - Mets order Gooden autograph cleaned off, while at it also demand that past two Septembers be erased. And maybe most of the '60s. The Scott Kazmir trade, too. The Scioscia home run.

Hey Timmy, obviously you miss the obvious: The Blue Jays are the best in the American League, and right now are a better team then the Red Sox.

So it is easy to conclude that Tim is obviously a Boston Red Sox fan as well as a racist who despises Canada.

Jays fans will know that in the last 6 years the Jays have owned the Bo Sox. So Tim being in a position to make himself feel better puts out these ridiculous and irrelevant rankings; it should be called "Tim Brown's Fantasy (Blue Jays suck) Power Rankings".

Furthermore, if anyone follows baseball they would know that Vernon has a wonderful sense of humor and is constantly playing games with media and his teammates and this whole Aaron Hill being a racist is so ludicrous. Browny is just grasping at straws to try to a promote his racist feelings toward Canada and also try to create some controversy in the Blue Jays clubhouse.

Here is the video:

Good on the blonde to play the "Poker Face" track in the background, and bad on Tim to be dummer than the blonde reporter.

This is why you gotta check your sources kids, you never know who is at the keyboard and how medicated they might be.

That's all for now from yours faithfully..............Shine on, Cheers and Smell you later!

Play Ball

2009-04-23T17:21:26Z

Blue Jays get snubbed by Yahoo Sports. So what!

2009-04-17T20:19:08Z

Seasons Greetings, I hope all is groovy in your corner of this planet. Lets talk shop, shall we?

If you are an avid sports fan you are probably familiar with power rankings; and, if you are more than just an avid fan you likely have a couple different sources which you would have more of an affinity for than other. For example I get a lot of Toronto sports news from the Toronto Star website and will likely check out some of their links to random sports information but I would never read anything from it's Canada/Politics/Extreme Right Wing section. But lets stick to the topic, shall we? Furthermore, the aforementioned more than avid sports fan may likely be into fantasy sports and again there may be some brand loyalty, again I really like the Sporting News for fantasy though I was involved in a Yahoo fantasy football and was subjected to their stats and information due to the convenience of links, but that won't happen again. For the record, I'm destroying my fantasy baseball league and for one simple reason: my team is with an exception of my catcher Jonny Buck from KC all Blue Jays. So what does all this mean, and why do I use words like affinity?

So back to the snubbing. Tim Brown is a 'sports writer' for Yahoo Sports who is (which if you recall from a couple seconds ago I shared that I was subjected to) apparently responsible for MLB Power Rankings for Yahoo sports; however, there really isn't any logic to his rankings, just personal bias and feelings. So why then should this come out weekly?

According to Tim Almighty the powerhouse Blue Jays are ranked 14th, in between the Braves (5-4) and the Chi.Sox (5-4). Wow! What can you say, besides Tim is an a-hole? Doesn't Tim see the standings in the tough American League East? Of course he does which is why he's an a-hole.

You know, the racism between Canada and USA is sad but that's how it goes. A lot of Americans are ignorant and Canadians despise them for saying that they're Canadian whilst traveling the world to receive a warmer reception.

So how about Rios inability to hit so far this young season? I seemed to believe that he would have a big year from behind the plate due to osmosis; however, this isn't too concerning since Cito and Gene are on the job so look forward to big things--and I gather that it's hard to argue since there are quite a few guys on the team having a HUGE year behind the plate.

Anyways, it's game time...

C YA !

There is a good question here for ppl at the Rogers center

2009-04-12T06:02:00Z

In this interview there is a really good question posed to Jesse Barfield, the Shake of the shake ‘n bake, and it was when are the Blue Jays going to honor him in their ring of honor?

jERSEY MANiA

2009-04-12T05:57:44Z

OK Blue Jays?

2009-04-12T05:49:57Z

You're all Jealous

2009-04-12T05:24:59Z

Cito

Gaston

--Listen to what G.Bell has to say about Cito,

That's all for now from yours faithfully.....Shine on, Cheers, and Smell you later!