Jose Bautista is on Vine, it turns out, and apparently that means he now has the capability of posting an oddly lewd and lascivious, yet hypnotic, montage of pre-game routine moves in the Jays’ clubhouse, featuring him and shortstop Munenori Kawasaki. Because that’s what he did last night.
It’s… uh… it’s somethin’ else.
Check the clip after the jump.
| Batter | pLI | WPA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabrera – LF | 1.01 | 0.019 | |||
| Bautista – DH | 1.46 | -0.149 | |||
| Encarnacion – 3B | 1.11 | 0.011 | |||
| Lind – 1B | 1.41 | -0.107 | |||
| DeRosa – 2B | 1.28 | -0.138 | |||
| Davis – RF | 1.44 | 0.098 | Pitcher | pLI | WPA |
| Rasmus – CF | 1.20 | -0.019 | Johnson – SP | 1.34 | 0.279 |
| Arencibia – C | 1.63 | -0.039 | Cecil – RP | 4.25 | 0.283 |
| Izturis – SS / 2B | 1.51 | 0.115 | Janssen – RP | 1.56 | 0.078 |
| Total | 1.33 | -0.14 | Total | 1.61 | 0.640 |
Bests / Worsts of the game after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »
I understand that pitcher wins don’t mean a damn thing– repeat: not a damn thing, people– but if I’d told you back in January that on June 17th the Jays would be at four games below .500 and just 5.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot despite receiving only twelve wins combined to that point from R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, Brandon Morrow, Ricky Romero and Josh Johnson, you could be forgiven for thinking that something must have gone horribly right to have kept the team afloat despite what surely must have been terrible underperformance from either the bullpen, the lineup, the rotation itself, or some combination of all three.
It certainly doesn’t feel like that’s been the story of the season so far, but remarkably, here we are, with Josh Johnson about to take the hill for the seventh time as a member of the Blue Jays, and still searching for his first win. Getting here, until this past weekend, had been ugly– a constant dance with death– and maybe they’re still in too deep of a hole for the club to dig themselves out of. But… shit, I don’t know.
The Yankees and Rangers are currently tied for that last Wild Card spot, and only Cleveland, Kansas City and Tampa Bay sit between our boys and those two. It’s still a long way to go, but it’s been an impressive run since May 4th, when the season reached its nadir, and the club’s 10-21 record was better than only the Astros and Marlins. Since that nifty little arbitrary endpoint, the Oakland A’s are the only American League club to have played better, and the Jays now find themselves with a better overall record than a number of fellow AL clubs– the Twins, Mariners, Angels, White Sox and Astros, to be specific.
No, it’s not good enough yet, but at least it’s something resembling a starting point. With the talent on this club– much of which we know we haven’t seen the best of yet– right now that’s all they need.
Leading off, as always (or usual), it’s today’s edition of the Getting Blanked Podcast– which for the duration of the season will be coming at you daily! We’re not double posting this year, but I’ll be sure to include the link in the first Daily Duce or Game Threat that follows the post going up over at Getting Blanked. Otherwise, you can find the podcast at Getting Blanked on iTunes, get it via the RSS feed we have setup, or like Getting Blanked on Facebook in order to get each day’s podcast straight into your news feed (if we bother to post it). While you’re at it, go ahead and like DJF on Facebook, too.
Jon Morosi of FoxSports writes about potential trade candidates, noting that Adam Lind could be intriguing if they fall out of the race, and so could Mark Buehrle, though he seems to think that the Jays turnaround is for real. If they get to .500 by the All-Star break, he says in the accompanying video, it’s “at least conceivable” they could be buyers rather than sellers.
Brendan Kennedy tweets that Jose Reyes and Brandon Morrow have joined the Dunedin Blue Jays on rehab assignments. Fucking yes! Reyes tweets a Vine clip that shows him getting ready… or something.
Meanwhile, John Lott tweets that J.A. Happ is set to throw in the bullpen either tomorrow or Wednesday, which is good news as he continues to recover from a knee injury that took place during his scary beaning on a comebacker in Tampa last month.
The Bloom Is Off Brett Lawrie’s Rose is the title of a piece at FanGraphs, wherein Paul Swydan compares the Jays’ injured third baseman to Jeff Keppinger. Ouch.
At North Of The Border Gregor Chisholm writes that the Jays have hired Jamie Evans, the man behind the off-season weighted ball program that pitchers Steve Delabar and Brett Cecil have had so much success with. Because… why not?
Now a little something to kill time on a Monday afternoon: it’s the DJF podcast!
And today we’ve got just Drew and I, with no one filling in for the hopelessly disinterested Wally Pip, as we talk about the Casey Janssen thing, starting pitching, Munenori Kawasaki, Brett Lawrie and more!
“Guys, I actually was asking around this week to scouts, and to front office types, who were telling me that, generally, the relief market is going to be weak this year. A couple names to keep in mind: Jesse Crain of the White Sox has been throwing the ball really well. Casey Janssen, the closer for the Toronto Blue Jays is another guy who is gaining some notice among teams.”
Those were the exact words of Buster Olney during the top of the seventh inning of last night’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast of the Braves’ 3-0 win over the Giants, and though they are entirely fucking inoffensive and uncontroversial, why the hell should that stop Jays fans from getting their underthings in a twist about it, as though the club’s management themselves have added Janssen’s name to the Trading Block like they’re some fantasy league owner?
Witness:
Nothing like Chien-Ming Wang taking the mound on a Sunday afternoon in search of a four-game sweep of the Texas Rangers. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, this is your game threat.
