Toronto Blue Jays

[2014olympicgold]

Other than the crappy start, Ray has been excellent. I do agree that Montoyo overthought it too much, again. I hate the way he deals with his pitching staff.

At least the result makes it not as bad so far.

[Axeman33]

Its going to be an interesting game today. The optimism seems to be around Ryu starting, but lets be honest, unless the Jays can get their bats going, it doesn't matter who's on the mound. It was painful to watch the Jays swing at so much crap outside the zone from Snell yesterday. They would have been better off leaving the bats on their shoulders and taking pitch after pitch outside the strike zone.

[bondon]

Its going to be an interesting game today. The optimism seems to be around Ryu starting, but lets be honest, unless the Jays can get their bats going, it doesn't matter who's on the mound. It was painful to watch the Jays swing at so much crap outside the zone from Snell yesterday. They would have been better off leaving the bats on their shoulders and taking pitch after pitch outside the strike zone.

Agreed. I didn't agree with the decision to take Shoemaker out either, I'm definitely more old school like that....but it didn't really matter because the bats couldn't get going.

[Axeman33]

Agreed. I didn't agree with the decision to take Shoemaker out either, I'm definitely more old school like that....but it didn't really matter because the bats couldn't get going.

Ya, I didnt like the pitching choice either. Montoyo had said in the post game interview that the plan was to go with Shoemaker for two innings then bring in Ray but since Shoe was going so well, they left him in for the third. Well he was still going well so why take him out? Have Ray ready to go if needed, but dont make a change just because that was your pre-game plan. Plans change during the game and Montoyo needs to adjust to the song being played. He overthought that decision way too hard. He could have left Shoe in longer, then brought Ray in and let him stay in longer again and not need the bullpen as much.

To me, it's like Montoyo would rather have his bullpen on the mound vs who he has for his starting pitchers. No faith in his starters what so ever.

[2014olympicgold]

The optimistic side of all this is though, there was about 3 hard hit balls that would have went for doubles if they were about 6ft the other way.

Grichuk gets that ball through in the 7th (or 8th?), we have a different discussion today. But that's baseball.

[hockeyrobot]

Tough go to meet up with the Rays. But it went the way it should have went.

Looking forward to 2021.

[Axeman33]

Tough go to meet up with the Rays. But it went the way it should have went.

Looking forward to 2021.

True enough, but I really thought the Jays would be better than they were. The offense was basically non-existent and it's like they were expecting Ryu to pull off a miracle or something. That's all everyone was talking about. It was like "Just wait until they face Ryu, he'll show them who's boss!". Well, Ryu wasn't very good last night and the offense still couldn't get it done.

The players will say the right things to the media around the experience of making it to the post-season, but I sure hope they actually learned something because they still have a long way to go before they are true contenders for a World Series.

[2014olympicgold]

Doesn't help that they ABSOLUTELY suck against the fastball and both pitchers they faced were FB pitchers.

Hitting approach needs to change team wide. They are def told to sit breaking ball for the AB, and try and catch up to the FB.

[bondon]

True enough, but I really thought the Jays would be better than they were. The offense was basically non-existent and it's like they were expecting Ryu to pull off a miracle or something. That's all everyone was talking about. It was like "Just wait until they face Ryu, he'll show them who's boss!". Well, Ryu wasn't very good last night and the offense still couldn't get it done.

The players will say the right things to the media around the experience of making it to the post-season, but I sure hope they actually learned something because they still have a long way to go before they are true contenders for a World Series.

While I agree this experience couldn't really hurt, I think the value added was pretty minimal. Making it to the post season in a condensed year where more teams make it to the playoffs + no experience of playing in an actual building full of fans.

Yesterday was a friggin yikes. I left the office a little early to try and get home to watch and by the time i got off the subway it was 7-0. Might as well have stayed at work lol...

[2014olympicgold]

The only experience they got was how to gameplan in a short series. But I guess it was more what not to do.

This team against fb tho...omg. Glasnow was painting a lot of those 98+mph pitches but they couldn't do anything.

[Axeman33]

While I agree this experience couldn't really hurt, I think the value added was pretty minimal. Making it to the post season in a condensed year where more teams make it to the playoffs + no experience of playing in an actual building full of fans.

Yesterday was a friggin yikes. I left the office a little early to try and get home to watch and by the time i got off the subway it was 7-0. Might as well have stayed at work lol...

I was off early yesterday myself and watched it at the start and I knew right away it wasn't going to end well. I didnt watch the whole thing. It was just ugly and I needed to go get groceries.

[hockeyrobot]

I was off early yesterday myself and watched it at the start and I knew right away it wasn't going to end well. I didnt watch the whole thing. It was just ugly and I needed to go get groceries.

Hope the grocery run served you well. Definitely better than watching that one.

[Axeman33]

Hope the grocery run served you well. Definitely better than watching that one.

LOL! Glad to know I didnt miss a massive comeback or anything crazy like that. It was a gamble, but I was pretty confident in my choice. As expected, it worked out as planned.

[2014olympicgold]

Toronto has said they are wanting to spend money on a top talent. Except there isn't really a top FA in this yrs pool, especially one that Toronto would need to add to the roster to help.

Like I guess there is some OF.
Ozuna, Springer, Castellanos, JBJ, Marte (team option)
Then 1 really top end SP:
Bauer
Then there's Stroman, Paxton, Hamels, Odorizzi, Tanaka, Gausman, Walker, Hendriks (RP), Colome (RP), Rosenthal (RP), Britton (RP), Jeffress (RP), Yates (RP, Was it TJS he had or just elbow issues?)

I'd actually think if they could get Giles and Yates on like 3yr, VERY low money deals, that would be an interesting move. The way TJS is now, they can come back, but it'll take into yr 3 for them to be back.

[hockeyrobot]

Ya I saw that news and was surprised as well. Definitely not the best year to be out there spending that kind of money. Although Ozuna could be a great fit and just seems to hit wherever he goes.