2K24: Toronto Blue Jays

[wannabegriffey]

Toronto-Kansas City are tied. What is the tie breaker for 1st place in the a.l. ?

[TranaGreg]

Toronto-Kansas City are tied. What is the tie breaker for 1st place in the a.l. ?

head to head during the season. Jays had a better record against KC so would have home field advantage ... and since the AL won the all-star game we would have home field throughout the playoffs.

[virgonomic]

The post season thread became live tweets for a bit there. Lets bring it back here. What an epic series. Down 2-0 I was deflated. However, there was an article about why the Jays could still come back and win. It started with beating Perez and Holland, good matchups, then it's down to one game. Stroman settled down and held the Rangers to 2 ER. The bats kept it close and the Jays took advantage of the Rangers' bullpen, whom they had seen plenty of in the series.

I forgot how gut-wrenching playoff baseball can be when you have a horse in the race and they are up against the ropes.

GO JAYS!!!

[Judge Jude]

Those pampered Blue Jays fans win yet again


well, they ARE the most recent World Series winners among the teams still left...

[revo]

Those pampered Blue Jays fans win yet again


well, they ARE the most recent World Series winners among the teams still left...

Isn't that amazing?
TOR 1993
LA 1988
NYM 1986
KC 1985
CHC 1908
HOU n/a (always next year)

[Teenwolf]

Admittedly, if the Jays make it to the series, I wouldn't feel as bad losing to either the Mets or Cubs.

I just love watching these young guys develop, Stroman + Sanchez + Osuna are all so young and inexperienced, but also poised. Awesome to watch.

Game 1 in Kansas City: Estrada vs. Volquez. You've gotta like the Jays in this matchup. The Jays could possibly clobber a meatball like Volquez, and start working on the KC bullpen before the 4th inning or so... Estrada is a perfect fit for KC's big outfield (fingers crossed). Jays plate discipline will frustrate Volquez, as he's a chase pitcher... his stuff has receded to mediocre in the zone. High hopes here.

Game 2 in Kansas City: Price vs. Ventura. Toss-up. Both pitchers have had some ups and downs, but Ventura has been insane down the stretch, and Price has shown playoff jitters throughout his career. Momentum goes to KC here, especially if they're down 0-1. Can't feel too bad about Price though, as he'll have something to prove now, wanting that big free agent contract... being passed over for the game 5 start in favor of Stroman in the last series... I would love to see Price pitching more like he's pissed off rather than scared. This will be an awesome matchup.

Game 3 in Toronto: Cueto vs. Stroman... Federal Election Day! Small edge to KC. Stroman hasn't been unbeatable, but he's shown some streaks of real dominance in both starts vs. TEX, and he's fully rested, throwing only 98 pitches in game 5. Cueto is on the exact same type of hot streak, also well rested with only 91 pitches in 8 IP. If Stroman beats KC AND we simultaneously boot our fear-mongering piece of trash Prime Minister on the same day... all of Canada will be celebrating!

[wannabegriffey]

Admittedly, if the Jays make it to the series, I wouldn't feel as bad losing to either the Mets or Cubs.

I just love watching these young guys develop, Stroman + Sanchez + Osuna are all so young and inexperienced, but also poised. Awesome to watch.

Game 1 in Kansas City: Estrada vs. Volquez. You've gotta like the Jays in this matchup. The Jays could possibly clobber a meatball like Volquez, and start working on the KC bullpen before the 4th inning or so... Estrada is a perfect fit for KC's big outfield (fingers crossed). Jays plate discipline will frustrate Volquez, as he's a chase pitcher... his stuff has receded to mediocre in the zone. High hopes here.

Game 2 in Kansas City: Price vs. Ventura. Toss-up. Both pitchers have had some ups and downs, but Ventura has been insane down the stretch, and Price has shown playoff jitters throughout his career. Momentum goes to KC here, especially if they're down 0-1. Can't feel too bad about Price though, as he'll have something to prove now, wanting that big free agent contract... being passed over for the game 5 start in favor of Stroman in the last series... I would love to see Price pitching more like he's pissed off rather than scared. This will be an awesome matchup.

Game 3 in Toronto: Cueto vs. Stroman... Federal Election Day! Small edge to KC. Stroman hasn't been unbeatable, but he's shown some streaks of real dominance in both starts vs. TEX, and he's fully rested, throwing only 98 pitches in game 5. Cueto is on the exact same type of hot streak, also well rested with only 91 pitches in 8 IP. If Stroman beats KC AND we simultaneously boot our fear-mongering piece of trash Prime Minister on the same day... all of Canada will be celebrating!

I'm "in the action" for game 4, any word on the pitching match up ?

[Teenwolf]

I'm "in the action" for game 4, any word on the pitching match up ?

It will probably be RA Dickey, with the dome closed for cold weather, saving Estrada for KC's stadium in game 5, Price game 6, and Stroman game 7...

This scenario presumes that Estrada pitches well in game 1 today. If Estrada gets obliterated early today, or Price gets lit up early in game 2... they could conceivably use Dickey for 3-4 IP out of the bullpen in either game 1 or 2... if the Jays were somehow down 0-3, I could see them going to Buehrle over Estrada for game 4... but it still lines up most likely for Dickey.

Gibbons pushes all his chips in, by using up his pitchers in surprising situations, so this entire scenario I've laid out could easily change given how desperate the Jays get to win at all costs.

[TranaGreg]

a couple of other points:

1 - Loup will be back for Game 1. At least we'll have one lefty in the pen.

2 - I was at the Jays-KC game in Aug (or end of July) which was Cueto's first start for KC. It was interesting to watch the dynamics between him & Bautista & Encarnacion, as they all are Dominican - in particular there were a couple of great AB's with Edwin where Cueto tried to quick pitch him repeatedly & EE would step out & call time - both were getting into each other's heads.

Should be some great ball.

[onejayhawk]

It was a heck of a run. Down 0-2 to Texas, then pull it out. Down 0-2 again was just too much. It reminds me of my 2012 Jayhawks. They kept coming back until the finals against Kentucky.

J

[virgonomic]

They were one hit short of sending it to game 7. Awesome season to build off of.

It's going to be an interesting offseason.

C: Navarro is gone, so we need a backup. Martin caught Dickey this year but I guess Thole could backup if we want to spend the money elsewhere.

1B: I had soft spots for Smoak and Colabello and liked how they were used. Both are arbitration-eligible.

LF: Revere is arbitration-eligible. Saunders and Pompey are #4 and 5.

DH: I think EE, Tulo, Travis share the AB here next year. Goins will split time at SS/2B.

SP: Price, Stroman, Sanchez, Hutchison would be strong. I'd be ok with Dickey as the #4/5 in this group. I'm torn on him. I like his veteran presence. He is such a philanthropist. Gun to my head I say bring him back for another year.

[TranaGreg]

yeah, it was a tough way to go out, with the tying run on third with nobody out, but on the other handthey had to scratch & claw just to get into that position. Still, it was great baseball in October up here.

For next year the first order of business is getting AA under contract - his expires Oct. 31.

[fuhrdog]

AA leaving the Blue Jays, didn't see that one coming.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/10/alex-anthopoulos-leaving-blue-jays.html

[TranaGreg]

AA leaving the Blue Jays, didn't see that one coming.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/1...blue-jays.html

damn. it's been reported that Shapiro wanted to retain veto/final say on key player acquisitions ... if so this is a huge screw up. This has the potential to negate all the goodwill that this season built up, esp. with respect to free agent acquisitions. Not good.

[joncarlos]

Wow. That would indeed be a massive fuck-up if they gave Shapiro too much power and pushed AA out. I'd bet he can land himself another gig if he wants one.