Michael Holloway's Baseball Blogs: @benshapiro

Showing posts with label @benshapiro. Show all posts

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Toronto Manager John Gibbons Trying Desperately to Hone a Team

As per my last post about how this team is not a team ... there is evidence the manager sees the same thing - not using the 40-man roster at all ... even when it would seem to be an obvious situation.

And tonight it worked...

Gibby leaves Russell Martin on the base paths after his double - to hobble around the base-paths for the insurance run ...

espn mlb Play-by-Play Sept 16 2016 Toronto Blue Jays at LA Angels - http://www.espn.com/mlb/playbyplay?gameId=360916103

.. despite having one of the fastest Triple-A runners in the league (Dalton Pompey) on the bench:

espn mlb Roster Sept 16 2016 Toronto Blue Jays at LA Angels - http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/roster/_/name/tor

But it all worked out ...

espn mlb Box Score Sept 16 2016 Toronto Blue Jays at LA Angels - http://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=360916103

The dream continues.

That is all.

mh

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Carrera PH Pop Celebration Makes It Intensely Obvious - This Team Is Trying To Believe

The 'salsa' between Carrera and Encarnacion in the dugout tries to get joined by Michael Saunders and Ryan Goins - to bad effect.

TB@TOR: Carrera pinch-hits a go-ahead solo home run https://t.co/rHJjHOzCT5
— Michael Holloway (@m_holloway) September 13, 2016

This team is 3-7 in the last 10 games - we need more than a one-off to turn this around.

Luckily the Jay's have two more bad teams in front of them after this one:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/schedule/_/name/tor

..expect that 3-7 to turn around to 7-3.

If not you may check the wildcard standings and find that this team is out of it.

Also ...

The fact that the right fielder and the third basemen are not in the line-up, and that their defensive replacements late were more 2nd-teamers ... plus Mark Shapiro's statement last week that, "All the Free Agents will go to market"

Blue Jays’ Mark Shapiro: Pending free agents likely to hit market @Sportsnet https://t.co/DSOmcTeAFn
— Michael Holloway (@m_holloway) September 13, 2016

... tells this sage old fan that this team is rebuilding; and will not take on old contractual agreements - in other words - another round of corporate governance saying to team management, "You have a 5-year budget - spend it any way you wish" - so Shapiro is going to Re-set - and win or lose on his terms ... another downside of letting the great Blue Jays General Manager Alex Anthopoulos go.

So this team is not trying to win ... even though they are likely to go the playoff for the second year in a row.

_________________

Also ...

On the dust-up at the end (which I leave out of the pov above):

Souza Jr. on confrontation - www.mlb.com/video 09/12/16 | 00:01:12

Boxscore/Video: http://m.mlb.com/gameday/rays-vs-blue-jays/2016/09/12/449019#game_tab=box,game=449019,game_state=final

mh

Liriano is great again in Jays' win against Rays

Toronto Blue Jays
Pitchers        IP       H       R      ER      BB      SO      HR      PC-ST   ERA
Liriano         6.1      3       2      2       1       6       2       72-51   4.06