Jays 2023

[maurice93]

I would have waived Mitch White.

Other teams are also afraid to offend the Alphabet Community. The average age of a Major League Baseball fan who attends games is significantly higher than for the other Major pro sports in North America. Almost every stadium in the league has plenty of empty seats at every game, even for teams with good attendance. This is why the pitch clock was introduced, why both Leagues now have a DH, and why extra innings start with a runner on second base.

Games were too damned slow to attract and hold the youth market, with their notoriously short attention spans. Families with young children are reluctant to attend mid week night games, when there is a good possibility that the game won't be completed by 10:30 PM, as there will likely also be considerable additional time spent returning home.

While the Alphabet Community does not represent a large percentage of the attendance for live team sports, anything which offends them also offends the sizable demographic which takes personal offence on their behalf.

It would have been insignificant if Bass had tweeted that he thought the Bud Lite Trans promotion was a tactical error from the Bud suits. Bud Lite is consumed in the back of pickup trucks and in trailer homes, or by anyone who buys the cheapest brand at the store. Alphabet People don't and won't consume the product in any significant quantity; they're much more likely to buy a smaller quantity of a more expensive imported brand.

Bass crossed the line when he incited other people to join the boycott of Budweiser products. Baseball is a Show, and one of the unwritten rules of Show Business is that you do not piss off the folks who pay the bills. Budweiser does a lot of advertising, and a lot of that advertising is during team sports.

I don't think professional team owners care a lot about attracting the Alphabet Community to their events, but they do care a lot about not wanting those same people to publicly voice negative opinions about the sport.

You can't make a strong case, or in my view a correct case for White being released over Bass. Which is why I don't understand the political outrage here - the move made sense from a baseball perspective, or at least was a decision that could be argued either way.

Both sides have tried to use him to argue or validate their politics, when in fact the answer is that he sucked and was the odd man out for baseball reasons at June 8.

The left wrongly exalted in Bass demotion claiming it was a victory for someone that upset them, when really it was about no spot being available for Bass for baseball reasons. The Jays kept him for a while.

The right got angry in Bass demotion thinking it was purely political, when in fact there was no spot open for him for baseball reasons.

----------

White is younger, cost-controlled, and potentially filled a long reliever role / swingman role that they needed. Can't see how you can say Bass was the right call purely from baseball.

From a pure baseball perspective the right move was this.
1) Recall White on June 8(which they did)
2) DFA Bass on June 8, since you know he will not be claimed due to his salary commitment for 2023 and 2024 (which they did)
3) You are then permitted up to 10 days to figure out what to do with Bass. (recall, release, demote (with his permission))

1 and 2 were the right calls at the time. Regarding #3, the Jays chose to release him several days after he was DFA'd. This is the part that can be debated. But his DFA on June 8, the right baseball move, which was not a release, caused so much attention and controversy, that bringing him back 10 days later was no longer feasable.

 

[maurice93]

His teams have been highly competitive wherever he has gone.

It's only been 8 years. Clearly an insufficient amount of time for the Jays to have developed new talent on their own.

But they will have had enough time to hugely boost seating prices for next year.

The Jays were not highly competive over the course of AA's term here. They were generally mediocre. They had 2 playoff teams, but were headed on a downward trajectory at the end of the AA era, because there was a lack of young cost controlled positional talent that came up during AA's tenure. When Shapiro / Atkins arrived the team was in great shape moving past 2015. The team got bad very quickly in 2016 not because of Shatkins. AA did leave the gift of Vladimir Guerrero, but he was several years away.

I think about the same thing can be said for Shapiro / Atkins. They had 2 good teams (2021/2022), and now have a team that appears to be on the decline / capped out in terms of potential due to a questionable farm system.

As mentioned above its disappointing because AA has done a great job with the system in Atlanta (but not Toronto), and Shatkins did a great job with it in Cleveland (with mixed success initially in Toronto, that is now below average)

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

 

[shack]

White filled a long reliever role / swingman role that they needed...

...for when they felt the game was pretty much a losing proposition.

He's been shit since he got here. Both guys were/are losing propositions for Toronto. Since Bass is a dickhead, good riddance for non-baseball reasons.

 

[maurice93]

...for when they felt the game was pretty much a losing proposition.

He's been shit since he got here. Both guys were/are losing propositions for Toronto. Since Bass is a dickhead, good riddance for non-baseball reasons.

White has not been that terrible so far. Nothing that good either. 8 innings, 1.38 WHIP, 3.38 ERA. He hasn't really hurt them so far which was expected given how bad he was in Buffalo.

Indeed you are dealing with a bunch of low level, low performing, low leverage reliever types. It comes down to roles in the end, who could potentially be something more - White made more sense baseball wise by a small margin and nothing more. At that quality level if you are a dickhead it won't help your cause. The Bass case would have been more interesting if it was somebody of actual value - I am spending way too much time being triggered by those who are trying to make this "political" move seem like a big blow to the Jays.

Bass was emboldened by the fact that he had another 3 million of guaranteed contracts no matter how he acted -- he has also nicely set himself up for some Fox News type victim work in the future when he was a victim due to his own on the field failures.

 

[shack]

White has not been that terrible so far. Nothing that good either. 8 innings, 1.38 WHIP, 3.38 ERA. He hasn't really hurt them so far which was expected given how bad he was in Buffalo.

Indeed you are dealing with a bunch of low level, low performing, low leverage reliever types. It comes down to roles in the end, who could potentially be something more - White made more sense baseball wise by a small margin and nothing more. At that quality level if you are a dickhead it won't help your cause. The Bass case would have been more interesting if it was somebody of actual value - I am spending way too much time being triggered by those who are trying to make this "political" move seem like a big blow to the Jays.

Bass was emboldened by the fact that he had another 3 million of guaranteed contracts no matter how he acted -- he has also nicely set himself up for some Fox News type victim work in the future when he was a victim due to his own on the field failures.

As always, a good take on things.

 

[shack]

"Lockdown" Romano strikes out the side. 25 saves in 28 attempts.

Jays are lucky to have him.

 

[tml]

"Lockdown" Romano strikes out the side. 25 saves in 28 attempts.

Jays are lucky to have him.

On one of the morning sports radio shows they were pointing out his reliability in save situations, and his lack of reliability in non-save situations. It seemed like more of a shot at the manager than a shot at Romano.

 

[Toronto Passions]

"Lockdown" Romano strikes out the side. 25 saves in 28 attempts.

Jays are lucky to have him.

The only thing “lock down” about Romano is his haircut that looks like he has no access to a barber when we were in fact, on lockdown.I was at Sunday’s blown tie game against the Red Sox where his second pitch was hit 1000 feet. My section was booing him. So was I after 5 Nutrls lol. The section usher, told me she is sick of him. I came home, and posted here that I’m sick of him too lol I still can’t find the girl you like btw. I must be blind.

I am pretty damn excited right now. I am actually going to Friday’s game in Detroit. I bought these tickets in March and now things are getting very interesting because Manoah makes his come back. So now I have swimming in the hotel, Buddys Pizza, Eminem and his spaghetti restaurant Moms Spaghetti, and now Manoah and his return. Yippy!

Philip

 

[shack]

I was at Sunday’s blown tie game against the Red Sox where his second pitch was hit 1000 feet. My section was booing him. So was I after 5 Nutrls lol. The section usher, told me she is sick of him. I came home, and posted here that I’m sick of him too lol I still can’t find the girl you like btw. I must be blind.

I am pretty damn excited right now. I am actually going to Friday’s game in Detroit. I bought these tickets in March and now things getting very interesting because Manoah makes his come back.

Philip

Depending where you were sitting, the angle may not have been good. You'd have to be able to see the very 1st one or two rows behind home plate. And on TV, it's almost impossible to miss her. Brown skin, long hair and bright red lipstick. Dressed in all black. Just look to the right of the ump and the batter.

What I don't understand, is why a guy who has 25 saves in 28 attempts and leading the majors in saves, is getting ripped to shreds. Is he perfect? No. Does he make some saves tighter than we'd like? Sure, but in the end, for the most part he is doing what he gets paid to do, record saves. It's like in golf, if you get a par you maybe don't deserve, as they say, there's no pictures on a scorecard.

Is the loss against Seattle solely on him? No, but I think some people have a hard time forgetting his part of the fiasco.

This is from an article from May 19 this year.

Maybe Romano brought this undue criticism on himself by setting such wildly unrealistic expectations when he passed Blue Jays legend Tom Henke last year on his way to a team-record 31 consecutive saves that spanned the end of 2021 and the beginning of the 2022 season. If you pass "The Terminator" on any list, you're doing something right.

Romano has been about as consistent as they come. Since 2021, the former Rule 5 pick ranks fifth with 69 saves while sporting a 2.23 ERA. He's keeping good company with the likes of Kenley Jansen, Emmanuel Clase, Josh Hader and Liam Hendriks.

Over that time, he has only nine blown saves. Of the other four closers on the list, only Hader has fewer blown saves than Romano, and only Clase has a lower ERA. Romano also leads the group with eight holds and 15 wins, while his seven losses tie him for the lowest total.

To the eye, maybe he could be better, and people are entitled to their opinion, but look at his stats for almost 3 years now. You can have a hot streak for a while but the stats don't lie for a 3 year period of relative consistency. If one looks at it objectively it's gotta be more that just luck.

Have fun in Detroit.

 

[Toronto Passions]

Depending where you were sitting, the angle may not have been good. You'd have to be able to see the very 1st one or two rows behind home plate. And on TV, it's almost impossible to miss her. Brown skin, long hair and bright red lipstick. Dressed in all black. Just look to the right of the ump and the batter.

What I don't understand, is why a guy who has 25 saves in 28 attempts and leading the majors in saves, is getting ripped to shreds. Is he perfect? No. Does he make some saves tighter than we'd like? Sure, but in the end, for the most part he is doing what he gets paid to do, record saves. It's like in golf, if you get a par you maybe don't deserve, as they say, there's no pictures on a scorecard.

Is the loss against Seattle solely on him? No, but I think some people have a hard time forgetting his part of the fiasco.

This is from an article from May 19 this year.

Maybe Romano brought this undue criticism on himself by setting such wildly unrealistic expectations when he passed Blue Jays legend Tom Henke last year on his way to a team-record 31 consecutive saves that spanned the end of 2021 and the beginning of the 2022 season. If you pass "The Terminator" on any list, you're doing something right.

Romano has been about as consistent as they come. Since 2021, the former Rule 5 pick ranks fifth with 69 saves while sporting a 2.23 ERA. He's keeping good company with the likes of Kenley Jansen, Emmanuel Clase, Josh Hader and Liam Hendriks.

Over that time, he has only nine blown saves. Of the other four closers on the list, only Hader has fewer blown saves than Romano, and only Clase has a lower ERA. Romano also leads the group with eight holds and 15 wins, while his seven losses tie him for the lowest total.

To the eye, maybe he could be better, and people are entitled to their opinion, but look at his stats for almost 3 years now. You can have a hot streak for a while but the stats don't lie for a 3 year period of relative consistency. If one looks at it objectively it's gotta be more that just luck.

Have fun in Detroit.

And Mitch Williams had 47 saves in 1993. And he was still uneasy to watch and people use to put towels over their head like Curt Schilling.

Romano and his ERA in non-save situations such as tie games, is a balloon. Baseball stats for saves and relief is bullshit in so many ways. You have a three run lead and you get three outs in a clean ninth-inning, and you get a save. Yet the guy that came in with the bases loaded and nobody out in the eighth, and got you out of it gets nothing. A hold? Wtf is a hold lol it means nothing to Baseball America. Romano is a closer that is babied. Looks bad ass on paper but really he’s a doofus. Tie game blowing dude.

Philip

 

[onomatopoeia]

5:10 starting time for game one of today's doubleheader.

 

[unassuming]

5:10 starting time for game one of today's doubleheader.

Conflicting start time for game, TV guide says 5:10 pm, Shi Davidi says 4:10pm

 

[Phil C. McNasty]

Conflicting start time for game, TV guide says 5:10 pm, Shi Davidi says 4:10pm

MLB.com says 5:10pm.

Remember its 1 hour earlier in Chicago (Midwest time)

 

[shack]

Conflicting start time for game, TV guide says 5:10 pm, Shi Davidi says 4:10pm

The game is 4:10 Central Time and 5:10 Eastern Time.

Whenever the first game ends, there will be a 30-45 minute break and then game 2.

 

[Toronto Passions]

Manoah will probably be comparing what’s better on this road trip…. Chicago deep dish pizza or Detroit square pan pizza.

If it was me, I would go with Detroit Pizza! It is the freaking bomb!

Philip

 

[tml]

Conflicting start time for game, TV guide says 5:10 pm, Shi Davidi says 4:10pm

Sometimes they quote the time of the pre-game show instead of the actual game time.

 

[tml]

Manoah will probably be comparing what’s better on this road trip…. Chicago deep dish pizza or Detroit square pan pizza.

If it was me, I would go with Detroit Pizza! It is the freaking bomb!

Philip

HaHa!!!!! Unfortunately for him the team has changed plans. They told him to go directly to Detroit due to travel concerns. My guess is they are trying to keep him away from that deep dish pizza.

 

[tml]

Problem: Manoah's weight.
Solution: Ozempic!!!!!!

 

[unassuming]

Manoah should have been in that A&W "Burger Boy" commercial, noy Vladdy!