The Official 2011 Toronto Blue Jay (2013-14 Champs)

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Comments

  • StoneAment
    StoneAment Posts: 393
    This made for an interesting read
    http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/ ... os-love-in

    I've also thrown in my 2 cents on some of the questions below:


    Will Jose Bautista repeat last year’s season?
    I hope so but I doubt it. 30+ would be nice though and not unreasonable to expect

    Is Toronto still a baseball town?
    No and it pains me. From the time I was born in the mid 80s to the time I left TO in the early 90s the Blue Jays were THE team in Toronto, the Leafs were a footnote in TO sports. Hell even before that baseball had a great following, it’s why we got our own franchise in the first place. Now when I go back the only sense I get about the Blue Jays and the game of baseball is apathy. Kids just don’t seem to care and a lot of older people have given up. We had a winning record (more than I can say for the other Toronto teams) and still the Jays had their lowest attendance figures. It’s sad to see.

    Jays’ bigger strength — pitching or hitting?
    Hitting. I’ve got hope for our pitching but the Jays don’t boast an all star ballpen as yet. Got a few good starters but there are question marks when it comes to relievers.

    Greatest Canadian team ever?
    1992 Blue Jays – they won a world series eh!

    Does Toronto need a new ballpark?
    NO! Look at it this way - we’re days away from opening day and I hear it was snowing in Toronto last week. The roof is a pretty good thing to have in Canada and on nights when it’s open you still get that open park feeling. As far as atmosphere goes – that comes with people. I’ve watched games where the Camden Yards was rather less than full and the atmosphere was every bit as dead as the SkyDome even though it’s a great park. Fill the dome up again and you will have atmosphere.
    Mike McCready makes the energizer bunny look tired.
  • fife
    fife Posts: 3,327
    StoneAment wrote:
    This made for an interesting read
    http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/ ... os-love-in

    I've also thrown in my 2 cents on some of the questions below:


    Will Jose Bautista repeat last year’s season?
    I hope so but I doubt it. 30+ would be nice though and not unreasonable to expect

    Is Toronto still a baseball town?
    No and it pains me. From the time I was born in the mid 80s to the time I left TO in the early 90s the Blue Jays were THE team in Toronto, the Leafs were a footnote in TO sports. Hell even before that baseball had a great following, it’s why we got our own franchise in the first place. Now when I go back the only sense I get about the Blue Jays and the game of baseball is apathy. Kids just don’t seem to care and a lot of older people have given up. We had a winning record (more than I can say for the other Toronto teams) and still the Jays had their lowest attendance figures. It’s sad to see.

    Jays’ bigger strength — pitching or hitting?
    Hitting. I’ve got hope for our pitching but the Jays don’t boast an all star ballpen as yet. Got a few good starters but there are question marks when it comes to relievers.

    Greatest Canadian team ever?
    1992 Blue Jays – they won a world series eh!

    Does Toronto need a new ballpark?
    NO! Look at it this way - we’re days away from opening day and I hear it was snowing in Toronto last week. The roof is a pretty good thing to have in Canada and on nights when it’s open you still get that open park feeling. As far as atmosphere goes – that comes with people. I’ve watched games where the Camden Yards was rather less than full and the atmosphere was every bit as dead as the SkyDome even though it’s a great park. Fill the dome up again and you will have atmosphere.

    I agree with most that you have said here except for a couple of things. while attendance is not very good, i still think Toronto likes baseball. they do have good ratings on TV and i think that shows that we still like baseball. I think the strike in the 90's made Toronto lose some of their love for baseball but if they become a contender they will coem back.

    The second thing i disagree with is that they are the greatest Canadian team but that is just wrong. the 1976-77 Montreal Canadians are the greatest sport team of all time. they lost only 8 games in 80.
  • Rygar
    Rygar Posts: 8,712
    fife wrote:
    I agree with most that you have said here except for a couple of things. while attendance is not very good, i still think Toronto likes baseball. they do have good ratings on TV and i think that shows that we still like baseball. I think the strike in the 90's made Toronto lose some of their love for baseball but if they become a contender they will coem back.

    The second thing i disagree with is that they are the greatest Canadian team but that is just wrong. the 1976-77 Montreal Canadians are the greatest sport team of all time. they lost only 8 games in 80.
    You're right of course, but the article meant greatest Canadian baseball team I think ;)

    Go Jays!
  • polaris_x
    polaris_x Posts: 13,559
    AA has done a masterful job ... can someone fill me in on what we paid for jose!? ... i was gone for about a month ...

    i agree with that TSN article ... i think the two major chinks in the blue jays armour is interleague play and losing streaks ... that's where not having a dominant ace comes into play ... they can go into these 2-13 slumps that absolutely kills your season ... you look back at the end of the year and you can always point to one 20 game stretch where it was over ...

    having said that - i think they've overexceeded their talent level the past few years ... this year will depend on pitching for sure ... staying healthy and all that stuff ...

    either way ... our farm system is stocked and we are definitely heading into the right direction ... and say what you will ... i doubt our post-season streak would be this long if we weren't in the AL East ...
  • StoneAment
    StoneAment Posts: 393
    Rygar wrote:
    fife wrote:
    The second thing i disagree with is that they are the greatest Canadian team but that is just wrong. the 1976-77 Montreal Canadians are the greatest sport team of all time. they lost only 8 games in 80.
    You're right of course, but the article meant greatest Canadian baseball team I think ;)

    Yeah the greatest team thing was in reference to Baseball only. Though as a Leafs fan I will also dispute the 76-77 Canadiens team - because I have a personal unremitting loathing of the Canadiens.
    polaris_x wrote:
    AA has done a masterful job ... can someone fill me in on what we paid for jose!? ... i was gone for about a month ...
    .

    $64M for 5 years
    Mike McCready makes the energizer bunny look tired.
  • StoneAment
    StoneAment Posts: 393
    They've moved Jose into RF and Encarnacion into 3B. I know Bautist'as happy but I quite liked him at 3B, certainly think he's better in that position than Edwin
    Mike McCready makes the energizer bunny look tired.
  • polaris_x
    polaris_x Posts: 13,559
    StoneAment wrote:
    They've moved Jose into RF and Encarnacion into 3B. I know Bautist'as happy but I quite liked him at 3B, certainly think he's better in that position than Edwin

    wow ... that's a big nut but i hear he is excellent in the clubhouse and he bridges the gap between the latino players and american guys ...

    i hear encarnacion lost some weight in the offseason and has looked much better at 3rd ... we will see ... i'm worried about lind at first ... having a solid D behind can compensate for our pitching issues ...
  • Rygar
    Rygar Posts: 8,712
    StoneAment wrote:
    Rygar wrote:
    fife wrote:
    The second thing i disagree with is that they are the greatest Canadian team but that is just wrong. the 1976-77 Montreal Canadians are the greatest sport team of all time. they lost only 8 games in 80.
    You're right of course, but the article meant greatest Canadian baseball team I think ;)

    Yeah the greatest team thing was in reference to Baseball only. Though as a Leafs fan I will also dispute the 76-77 Canadiens team - because I have a personal unremitting loathing of the Canadiens.
    $64M for 5 years
    Go Jays!

    PS - 66-67MtlCdn.jpg
    Go Habs too ;)
  • StoneAment
    StoneAment Posts: 393
    Typical, even on a thread about baseball Canadians will some how end up talking about hockey.
    Mike McCready makes the energizer bunny look tired.
  • The Fixer
    The Fixer Posts: 12,837
    Not sure if any of you read fangraphs.com, but they have been counting down their organizational rankings leading up to opening day. the rankings take into account minor league talent, major league talent, and revenue streams/ability to spend. the jays came out today...they are ranked 8th. not bad

    http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... 8-toronto/
  • polaris_x
    polaris_x Posts: 13,559
    The Fixer wrote:
    Not sure if any of you read fangraphs.com, but they have been counting down their organizational rankings leading up to opening day. the rankings take into account minor league talent, major league talent, and revenue streams/ability to spend. the jays came out today...they are ranked 8th. not bad

    http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... 8-toronto/

    thx ... i think anything around 85 wins would be great ... but you never know ... we saw what injuries did to the red sox last year ... both the red sox and yanks are veteran teams ... lots of guys could go down for extended periods ... of course the jays would have to stay relatively healthy ...
  • Rygar
    Rygar Posts: 8,712
    StoneAment wrote:
    Typical, even on a thread about baseball Canadians will some how end up talking about hockey.
    No we're just mentioning it, not talking about it!
  • StoneAment
    StoneAment Posts: 393
    Rygar wrote:
    StoneAment wrote:
    Typical, even on a thread about baseball Canadians will some how end up talking about hockey.
    No we're just mentioning it, not talking about it!

    :lol: Fair do's
    Mike McCready makes the energizer bunny look tired.
  • tvismyfriend
    tvismyfriend Posts: 2,118
    StoneAment wrote:
    They've moved Jose into RF and Encarnacion into 3B. I know Bautist'as happy but I quite liked him at 3B, certainly think he's better in that position than Edwin
    I don't like the move. From what I remember Encarnacion had troubles with the throw to 1st and not his fielding. With an inexperienced 1st baseman that's going to be fun to watch.
  • StoneAment
    StoneAment Posts: 393
    It's time!!!!!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qag6w_Tp ... re=related
    Mike McCready makes the energizer bunny look tired.
  • StoneAment
    StoneAment Posts: 393
    Opening night win - huzzzaa

    Great to see the SkyDome full again, I know it's expected for opening night but I do feel there's an excitement about this team now that wasn't there the past couple of years.
    Mike McCready makes the energizer bunny look tired.
  • Gibson72
    Gibson72 Posts: 1,245
    I was at the game last night.
    Awesome time. Loved the full house.
    Great game.
    If they play hard every game, we may just grab the wild card spot.
    Lets go blue jays !
    Gibson1972
  • StoneAment
    StoneAment Posts: 393
    Gibson72 wrote:
    If they play hard every game, we may just grab the wild card spot.

    I'd love to see that but I am not banking on it. This isn't a playoff team and we'd have to play way above ourselves to make it. Expecting things too soon will only go to deflate the excitement into disappointment.

    I will be happy just to see this team go out and play hard every night and end with 85 games or so.

    LETS GO BLUE JAYS!
    Mike McCready makes the energizer bunny look tired.
  • tvismyfriend
    tvismyfriend Posts: 2,118
    It was a good game to watch. Hopefully Davis' ankle injury isn't serious.
  • The Fixer
    The Fixer Posts: 12,837
    watched a lot of your game today. drakek looked great. his deuce is disgusting

    he's no halladay, but he's a nice piece for you

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