The Second Half

There are so many thoughts about baseball running through my head that I somehow never get around to writing them.

Here is the breakdown of things going through my head the past month or so:

• Tommy John. 'Nuf said.
• Casey Jansen. Casey fucking Jansen. If something happens to him. I might die.
• Trade with the Astros. I was happy to pack up Coco Cordero and Benny Fresh. Bon Voyage boys. Anything we get out of this is gravy.
• Edwin still rocks. He is blowing my optimistic thoughts about him out of the water.
• Joey Bats hurt his wrist swinging a bat. Something is just not fair about that.
• Its the end of July and the Blue Jays are within 1.5 game of second place. Holy shit. With the injuries and the crashing and burning (Ricky cough Romero) they are holding their own. It has been a tough season to a Blue Jays fan, but if you hang in there is something crazy exciting about this team.

There are many more things, but I thought I would just post some pictures, because everyone loves pictures of Blue Jays.

I call this, how many Blue Jays can you fit into one picture

This is a part of my Blue Jays from the back series.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Mike McCoy. He's short, he's a utility player and he loves baseball. Everytime he comes up he plays his ass off and I appreciate that about him.

 

Rest in Peace Luis Perez's Tommy John ligament.

Words cannot explain how much I enjoy Escobar's baseball picadillos. Here he is making his mark before getting up to bat.

 

Ode to Carlos Villaneuva (and Aaron Laffey). Picking up the slack for the starters.

Escobar steps into Pujols's office

Rajai escapes the box. From my Jays running out of the batters box series.

I have a fish eye setting on my camera. One night I had a little too much fun. Look! JP Arencebia is nine feet tall!!

And JP is four feet tall. The catcher is a freaking giant.

On the Underdog

I'm warming up to this Colby Rasmus fellow.

Anyone who has ever been to a game, knows the pain of sitting in earshot of a group of people who won't stop talking. Most of it is cringe worthy. I've learned a lot about what other fans think of Colby Rasmus from twitter and these overheard conversations. The result is not good. While JP Arancebia and Brett Lawrie invoke "oooh that's my husband" comments, Rasmus receives far less fan fare. "Oh my god that guys a freak. And he's so dumb! I hear that he's like from the South, and he's like such a hick. And you, know the other team, like gave him away cause he's like anti-social and crappy at baseball."

Yes, it's true. Colby is from Alabama. Watching his most recent 1-on-1 video with sportsnet emphasizes this. He lived in a single-wide trailer when he was an itty-bitty and he just wants to love on his little one. It certainly seems foreign. But he's being upfront, he's being honest and he seems content with the Blue Jays, and I think we're all starting to see the results in the months of May and June. Colby came to the team with oodles of possibilities, a fantastic defense, but batting numbers that were worrying. This boy is one the way up. He's walking to the plate with confidence, hitting the ball hard, diving in the outfield and sometimes, smiling in the dugout. 

Toronto is the place where the looked down upon come to shine. Just ask Jose Bautista, Yunel Escobar and now, Colby Rasmus. They were picked up for a song because other managers and teams couldn't wait to get rid of them. Followed by rumours and whispers, they fell in line in Toronto. Last year, Escobar gave an interview and they asked him what was different for him playing in Toronto compared to playing in Atlanta and he replied with, "I'm happy now."

And that seemed to be the tone of Colby's interview as well. A dugout that dosen't kick the young ones when they are down. They are team, and that's something I can get behind.

Under the Bus

I think we can all admit that it has not been an easy week to be a Blue Jays fan. Mike Wilner called it the "Road Trip from Hell." While I tend to take issue with most things Wilner says, I think we can all agree with him here. It wasn't pretty. Two losses in extras prove that the Blue Jays did their best, but it just wasn't good enough. The starting pitchers have taken a beating. Walks are increasing exponentially and Brendan Morrow, coming over his best start, promptly had his worst and was taken out after just 2/3 of inning of work. The bullpen was stretched beyond belief, to the point that the Jays had to send down Yan Gomes and heralded Japanese whiz-man (because at 33 he is hardly a whiz-kid) Ryota Igarashi, who did not exactly live up to his hype, in order to bring up more arms for the tired and overstretched bullpen. While Jesse Chavez's strike outs seemed like a breath of fresh air, i'm not so certain that big league hitters won't pick up his hard throwing fast ball approach, real quick.

The Blue Jays have also been hit with a series of injuries. Encarnacion is having back trouble after being forced into the first base role after the demotion of Lind, Johnson is out with a hamstring and most recently, Escobar was removed from Sunday's game with a groin injury. He is listed as day to day. This is the issue I want to discuss. I read about Escobar's injury on the official Blue Jays website this morning and scrolled down to read the comments and what did I discover? Several fans who seem more than willing to throw Escobar under the bus in order to get Hechavarria to the big leagues:

"Remember what happened with Cal Ripken ..... He never relinquished the position after being called up as an injury replacement. Could happen again. Go Hecht!"

Adeiny Hecharvarria has long been pegged as one of the Jays most salivating prospects. A true defensive Whiz-Kid. Everyone worried about his batting, but then he moved to Triple A, and so far in 2012, he's batting .314. Everyone seems to conveniently forget about the Pacific Coast leagues inflated batting averages (if you need evidence, let's take a look at David Cooper, who while certainly has potential is very unlikely to bat .350 in the big leagues).

Time and time again, Jays fan have been left unsatisfied with big prospects. Prospects are just that. Prospects. They need time, they will likely struggle. Everyone can admit that Eric Thames, Brett Lawrie and Drabek are not exactly having the seasons we hoped they would. So why do Jays fans seem particularly eager to throw a proven baseball short stop with a .975 fielding percentage and a .287 batting average with a great contract away in order to bring up an unproven minor leaguer who is, let's face it, fairly similar? Yunel Escobar has been plagued by fans and the media with tales of his bad attitude and ego. His over enthusiastic style seems to grate people. He loves to argue with umps if a call dosen't go his way. Has the opinion of those in Atlanta followed him to Toronto?

Is there something wrong with a player who loves to play the game? Who claps his hands when he gets a hit, who argues when he thinks he's right? Who will put his field percentage on the line in order to make a difficult out (even if he dosen't make it)? I'll admit, Yunel Escobar is my favorite Jay. And judging by the jerseys, I see at games, i'm not alone. For me Escobar is a throw back to the superstitious players of old. Every game he jogs out to third and rubs dirt on the same spot on his pants, he dosen't step on the foul lines, his routine is identical every time up at bat. He loves his secret hand shakes and when he gets a hit, he smiles. Nobody knows too much about him, i've only ever heard  Escobar say two sentences in English, and accordingly, he certainly dosen't get too much face time with the Toronto press. We are left with his play on the field, and frankly, that should be enough.

The Jays need to give Hechavarria a chance. But not at the expense of Escobar. And certainly, a day to day groin injury should not have fans calling for him to lose his spot on the team. His play and his attitude have done nothing to deserve that. And Jays fans should keep that in mind.

A Love Letter to Luis Perez

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

Dearest Luis, my left hander,

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways, it begins with your zero, zero ERA.
When you jog out, its all good, be it Yankee, Oriole or Ray.

Runners in scoring position? Whatever the situation,
It always ends in a celebration.

You get the job done.
And the opposing batters never score a run.

Lots of Love,
A Jay Fan

A Good Old Fashioned Cock-Up

An accidental photo from spring training

In my blog absence a lot has happened. The Blue Jays swept the Royals. They turned a triple play. Colby Rasmus hit two home runs. Bautista hit a homerun. Aren't we all ready, for the home run king to return to the plate? I sure am.

But I want to take it back. To the last series at home against the Rays (April 17, 18, 19), most specifically that painful game on the 18th. Yes that one. You know the one. We've all tried to forget it in the euphoria of sweeping the Royals. But here's the reality folks. The Jays and the Royals play two series. The Jays and the Rays play six.

Buster Olney over at ESPN has recently written a little expose that could have been done by anybody with a calculator. And something we all knew to begin with. The scheduling is unfair. Teams in the AL East have to play the best teams, the most often. And sadly, the Jays are not quite at the point that they are considered the best.

So back to the fateful night. I have recently decided that this is the summer I get my friends to love baseball. One friend at time. So that night, I convinced my best friend to come down to the dome and sit in the 500s with me. I was already sleeping on her couch, so it was an easy sell.
It started off well! We went for batting practice and got schooled by an usher how to bat our eyelashes to Rays trainers in order to get balls. It worked. It worked so well that we got a ball and in the little eight year old beside me DIDNT. Sometimes its fun being a girl.

I saw my former favorite Blue Jay, Jose Molina. (Yes, seriously. Don't laugh) I even got a wave and a big cuddly bear smile. I miss that man. And his strike calling. But I digress.

We hiked up the ramp, took our seats. And my friend started asking questions. Awesome. I answered them in a fun and quirky way, in order to best help her develop some baseball love.
Then came that question,
"Man, why are they always touching themselves?"
"Look at the Jay at third base. He's obsessed! He's going to give himself a rash."

You can probably guess what happened next. I was such a girl that day. I feel sorry for the guy sitting in our row with us. Yup, you guessed it. We watched Lawrie touch his crotch for an hour, which is pretty much the same thing as watching the game.

Let's talk about that ninth inning. I really like Carlos Villeuneva. I really do. I saw him jogging out of that left field bull pen, and I said to my friend, "He's good. He'll shut them down. Jays might be able to score a couple of runs in the bottom of the inning." Maybe not enough to win it, but enough to make it respectable.

But he didn't shut them down. And John Farrell didn't seem to care. A HBP, an error, a force out, a wild pitch, a walk. It was time to take him out. Instead they watch him issue an rbi walk. Watch him allow a bases loaded single. Somewhere between the single and the grand slam they roused young Crawford to get warm, but really what's the point? The damage was done.

I don't know what was going on down there player-wise, management-wise. But this is what it looked like to me from the 500s: Management gave up. They watched Carlos Villeneuva get hung out to dry, because they knew they were going to lose and didn't feel like using another pitcher. The game wasn't over. A good team dosen't give up, and I think the Jays could be a good team, which is what pissed me off. This is baseball. Anything could have happened, the Jays could have scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth. But they didn't get the opportunity, because when a player walks up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, you can bet your ass they don't play their best when they are down by ten runs. 

The Blue Jays play in the AL East. They have to play the best teams all the time. I love this team. And I will support them regardless, but the entire team, players, coaches, manager need to go out every day and play their best. They can't give up, they won't win if they give up.

Eddy's Big Year

Alright, and I may regret this later, but i'm calling it. Edwin Encarnacion is going to have a big year.

He's clearly baffled at his own awesomeness

Edwin Encarnacion has played with Blue Jays fans hearts the past few years. The errors at third base, the sluggishness on the field, the big bat they never seemed to materialize, a body we all assumed was five years old then it actually was.

The boos, the E5 jokes, the general disappointment.  I think we've seen the end of it.

Have you seen what i've seen this year? Edwin dancing in the dugout. Hustling. Stealing bases? Two home runs? Three doubles? In seven games?

Edwin has always played the hot and cold game. But i'm venturing out there and saying he's never going to go north of luke warm. He's going to hot and warm. But he's not going to go tepid this season. Playing DH agrees with him. His skills as a backup first baseman surprised us all (certainly after the many incidents across the diamond). Baring injury and position switching, I think Edwin could bat over .300 this year. I see him batting fourth for the majority of the season.

Here is my line for Encarnacion: .304 AVG, .345 OBP, .550 SLG .895 OPS.
25 doubles, 32 HR, 10 SB.

Maybe i'm out to lunch, but you know what, it never hurts to be optimistic early on. And i've got high hopes.

Home Opener Heartbreak

I love me a full dome

Baseball season is here. The dome was full and excitement was in the air. The home opener series against the Boston Red Sox, a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that this year, really is, the year.

 

Instead what the fans got was an exercise in how to suck all the air out of a concrete dome with 49,000 people in it in the span of four batters. The first game ended in heartbreak. I think everyone can admit to that. And suddenley there was a lot of hate. Chants of "Santos Sucks" followed me down the ramps from the 500s and all the optimism and hope that had been floating around seemed lost.

But i'm not worried.

Bautista can't seem to hit the ball, Edwin wants to steal bases, and Sergio blew two saves.

I don't have a select memory when it comes to the Blue Jays. Bautista went through several of these stints last year, several game long stints in which he struck out, popped up the ball and got angry. He recovered each and every time. And this year, will be no different. Just you wait.

As for Sergio. Compared to last year, the bullpen is better by leaps and bounds. If the bullpen only blows half the amount of games as last year. The Jays could finish well over the 500 mark. It is early days.

In a wonder of alliterations, Rajai, Rasmus and Romero all did wonderfully and reminded me as to why I love going to ball games. Who wasn't on their feet screaming when Rajai hit that triple? Rasmus hit the triple and made that catch? Romero allowed one run in NINE innings of work? There is a lot to be excited about this year. I'm sticking with it.