Toronto Blue Jays

[PenguinHunter]

Bo off IL today. He's playing SS and hitting 2nd in the lineup

Just in time for an extremely important weekend.

Texas has a series against Oakland

Toronto has a series against Kansas.

Then they play each other in a series starting Monday.

Need to win all three against KC, cause I am assuming Texas seeps Oakland.

[LawMan]

Great weekend for the Jays... now in a playoff up 1 game on Seattle and 1.5 on the Rangers.
HUGE 4-game Series vs. Rangers starts today, Jays needs changed from at least a 3-1 a week ago to a split now....

8-2 in their last 10 but against some fairly weak competition, this Texas series should be fun... some playoff atmosphere for sure.

[2014olympicgold]

Getting wins, but some of those KCR games were too much of a nail bitter lol.

This can kill both teams seasons this Texas series. Should be fun.

[Axeman33]

Great weekend for the Jays... now in a playoff up 1 game on Seattle and 1.5 on the Rangers.
HUGE 4-game Series vs. Rangers starts today, Jays needs changed from at least a 3-1 a week ago to a split now....

8-2 in their last 10 but against some fairly weak competition, this Texas series should be fun... some playoff atmosphere for sure.

This is where the rubber meets the road for the Jays. The rest of way for the Jays is Texas for four games, then it's all divisional games versus Boston, NYY and TB. The Jays divisional record this season has been terrible, winning 12 and losing 25, and they are below 0.500 against teams with winning records, going 38-42. The Yankees are the only sub-0.500 team left that they play on the way out, and they are just 2 games below 0.500.

[PenguinHunter]

This is where the rubber meets the road for the Jays. The rest of way for the Jays is Texas for four games, then it's all divisional games versus Boston, NYY and TB. The Jays divisional record this season has been terrible, winning 12 and losing 25, and they are below 0.500 against teams with winning records, going 38-42. The Yankees are the only sub-0.500 team left that they play on the way out, and they are just 2 games below 0.500.

Anyone have a breakdown of what Seattle and Texas have left?

[LawMan]

Houston Astros 82-62 AL West Leader 1.5 games up on Jays
3 vs. Athletics (44-99)
3 @ Royals (44-100)
3 vs. Orioles (90-52)
3 vs. Royals (44-100
3 @ Mariners (79-64)
3 @ Diamondbacks (75-69)

Seattle Mariners (79-64) 1 GB Blue Jays
3 vs. Angels (67-77)
3 v. Dodgers (87-55)
3@ Athletics (44-99)
3 @ Rangers (78-64)
3 v. Astros (82-62)
4 v. Rangers (78-64)

Texas Rangers (87-64) 1.5GB Blue Jays
4 @ Blue Jays (80-63)
3 @ Guardians (68-76)
3 vs. Red Sox (73-70)
3 vs. Mariners (79-64)
3 @ Angels (67-77)
4 @ Mariners (79-64)

The Blue Jays need to handle their business against the Rangers and then a bundle of AL East Teams who are decent, and whom the Jays have not played well against to date this season. The good news is that since the Jays are battling with effectively 3 AL West Teams, who all play each other down the stretch, said teams should cannibalize each others wins and without doing all the math a slightly better than .500 record down the stretch should be enough to reach the playoffs.

[2014olympicgold]

Your Strength of Schedule for the "big 4"
Toronto - 0.546 3rd hardest in MLB
Texas - 0.522 10th hardest in the MLB
Seattle - 0.511 12th hardest in the MLB
Houston - 0.437 29th hardest in the MLB

Bonus:
Tampa - 0.549 2nd hardest in the MLB

If you're into "picking your opponent" the Playoff picture is:
Baltimore - BYE
Houston - BYE
Minnesota vs Seattle (home team gets all 3 games)
Tampa vs Toronto (home team gets all 3 games)

[LawMan]

Your Strength of Schedule for the "big 4"
Toronto - 0.546 3rd hardest in MLB
Texas - 0.522 10th hardest in the MLB
Seattle - 0.511 12th hardest in the MLB
Houston - 0.437 29th hardest in the MLB

Bonus:
Tampa - 0.549 2nd hardest in the MLB

If you're into "picking your opponent" the Playoff picture is:
Baltimore - BYE
Houston - BYE
Minnesota vs Seattle (home team gets all 3 games)
Tampa vs Toronto (home team gets all 3 games)

LOL. Yep! Regarding the WC spots I think the preferred spots in order are:
1. WC1 or WC3. 3 probably has the easiest opponent in Twins, WC1 plays at home.
....
....
WC 2 is the worst, go on the road against a tough opponent.
Given Jays are not catching Rays WC3 is actually preferred, but not at the expense of missing the playoffs...

[hockeyrobot]

Welp. I think they finished 17-13 in a stretch with some of the worst teams in the league. And including the definite 3 worst.

Just not good enough.

[PenguinHunter]

Oh its going to be tough sledding... but hopefully they can get hot and make the playoffs.

[2014olympicgold]

I don't wanna talk about it.

So update on Manoah. He won't pitch the rest of the year and will focus on "rehabbing knee and quad injuries". He has also been rumoured to be mad at the front office for his demotions as it was performance related and refused to report to AAA because of it. He's throwing a hissy fit essentially. I don't know what leg Manoah can stand on here, he was awful and given lots of opportunities to turn it around. He was even protected from the media since the demotion, protected about his weight at the start of camp. This is just a bad attitude by a kid facing adversity for likely the first time in his baseball career.

[PenguinHunter]

Yikes... that was a big loss..

hopefully they can rebound today.


And as for Monoah... what does he expect front office to do... its a business that they are trying to win games.

[LawMan]

I don't wanna talk about it.

So update on Manoah. He won't pitch the rest of the year and will focus on "rehabbing knee and quad injuries". He has also been rumoured to be mad at the front office for his demotions as it was performance related and refused to report to AAA because of it. He's throwing a hissy fit essentially. I don't know what leg Manoah can stand on here, he was awful and given lots of opportunities to turn it around. He was even protected from the media since the demotion, protected about his weight at the start of camp. This is just a bad attitude by a kid facing adversity for likely the first time in his baseball career.

Clearly not his right one due to the quad injury.
Tough loss yesterday, time to bounce back!

[2014olympicgold]

It's weird because if Manoah was actually hurt, he'd go on the IL. His agent or the MLBPA would be fighting that.

And if he's ever back around the Blue Jays, there will be bridges to mend as pitchers and teammates were stretched thin to try and help him work through things, then he essentially gives up on the team. He better be ready to go come March.

[PenguinHunter]

Is tonight's game as close to a must win as they get for regular season games?