Hang on, this is an afternoon game? Anthony Gose is up with the Jays for some reason, but not in the lineup. Apparently this is something resembling big news. I don’t know. Happy Bastille Day.
Game Threat: Jays (17-26) vs. Rays (23-20)
Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Game Threat on May 20, 2013
Rain Threat: Blue Jays (17-26) @ Yankees (27-16)
Posted by Scott Lewis under Game Threat on May 19, 2013
UPDATE: POSTPONED
There will be a battle of initials and aces this afternoon, weather permitting. The Blue Jays will send R.A. Dickey to the mound while the Yankees counter with C.C. Sabathia. Rain falls in NYC, so we may have to wait for baseball today.
This can’t get any worse, right?
Game Threat: Jays (17-25) @ Yankees (26-16)
Posted by Scott Lewis under Game Threat on May 18, 2013
Big Hirok happens. Dreams of climbing to four games below .500 fell by the wayside on account of the Blue Jays getting owned by Hiroki Kuroda last night, which isn’t all that surprising seeing how Big Hirok pretty much owns everyone. Thus, here we are putting our faith in the rested back of Brandon Morrow as he’s set to face David Phelps and the Yankees in game No. 2.
I gotta say, Mark Buehrle wasn’t entirely shitty last night. I mean, we could be looking at a 4-0 loss as opposed to a 5-0 loss had Melky Cabrera not resembled a drunk bison roaming around the outfield while Brett Gardner stretched a maybe-double into a triple. Anyway, that’s enough about last night.
Morrow is coming off some extra rest due to a nagging back injury, but his last start was rather promising considering he made into this thing they call the eighth inning. Rarely charted territory for the 2013 Blue Jays starting staff.
The shitbags counter with Phelps. The right-hander has made three consecutive starts after beginning the season as a reliever. He’s nothing to scoff at, but he ain’t Hiroki fucking Kuroda either. How ’bout some bats today, ok?
Game Threat: Jays (17-24) @ Yankees (25-16)
Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Game Threat on May 17, 2013
Playing third base!?!??!
Today very well could be the first day of the rest of our lives, as the Jays head into the Bronx needing only *COUGH* a sweep of the division-leading Yankees to get them to *COUGH* four games below .500.
Yes, getting back into the race will be a damn difficult thing, but if the pitching can keep on pitching– and Mark Buehrle is certainly coming off his best performance of the season to date– and the hitting can keep on hitting like it has, why the fuck not? I mean, Vernon Wells can only be the best team in the division’s top hitter and super-utility man for so long, right? RIGHT???!??!?
The Jays don’t necessarily need to keep the good times rolling tonight against the near-mint Big Hirok, but… they kind of do. The lineup still looks like it’s capable, though, with #GibbyTheBest continuing to place Jose Bautista in the two-hole. We shall see…
Well, you shall see, at least. Haven’t decided yet, personally, if Mark Buehrle starts are once again safe to take in, given my condition (my condition, of course, being unease with shitballers and an inability to stop telling people on Twitter to go fuck themselves when they start turning into hopelessly negative fucking insufferable suckholes about goddamn everything).
The Daily Duce: Friday, May 17th
Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Daily Duce on May 17, 2013
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.
At Getting Blanked, Parkes takes a break from tradition and gives Ten (Not So) Stray Thoughts On A Friday, and tells the story of the ten most influential moments on his fandom, including the retelling of how this blog began, and his turn to the dark side.
Great stuff from John Lott in the National Post, who talks to Brett Lawrie about his hands– specifically, Lawrie’s renewed focus on making sure his hands are in the right place when he’s ready to throw them. Lawrie, for whatever little this is worth, has six hits and a walk in his last four games, including a home run and a pair of doubles.
In another interesting piece, Lott talks to Casey Janssen about the hard work he does game-planning to face certain hitters. Whatever he’s doing, it’s obviously working.
Speaking of closers, Bill Lankhof of the Toronto Sun takes a look at what it takes to be one.
Gregor Chisholm tweets that Dustin McGowan has been moved up to Triple-A after a couple of scoreless performances for Dunedin. No word if Ricky Romero, who walked six in less than four innings yesterday, will be the reciprocal move– and, in fact, it hasn’t been rumoured at all. But… it’s just… y’know…
It’s Getting Drafty In Here (Also: Some Prospecting!)
Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Prospecting, Rule 4 Draft on May 17, 2013
Indiana high schooler Trey Ball
We’re just about three weeks away from MLB’s annual Rule 4 draft, aka the amateur draft, and with the tenth overall pick– though nothing in the way of extras this year, for the first time in… forever– the Jays have a chance to see a nice bit of high end talent fall their way, and we’re starting to see that in the mock drafts that are filtering out.
Two of those showed up in the ol’ digital inbox yesterday, with John Sickels of Minor League Ball coming out with his second version, and Keith Law of ESPN.com (Insider Only) revealing his first mock.
Both of them link the Jays to two-way Indiana high school prospect Trey Ball, who was profiled today at Baseball Prospectus. Sickels evidently thinks the Jays are more inclined to take him than Law, as Keith actually has the Jays passing on Ball– though obviously things are very fluid at the moment.
Jose Canseco Chirps Mayor “Rod” Ford
Posted by Andrew Stoeten under Mayor Jose Canseco on May 17, 2013
Some rather funny stuff from late last night, east coast time, at least, on Twitter, as the Rob Ford crack-smoking scandal– the Rob Ford crack-smoking scandal (sorry, not sure how many times I’m going to get to write that)– was exploding across the internet.
You see, it would seem that Jose Canseco– who you may remember from his 46 home run, 29 stolen base, club record 159 strikeout, .836 OPS season with the Blue Jays in 1998, or, more recently, from his blatherings about becoming the next mayor of this fair city– doesn’t particularly like our current mayor.
He demonstrated this through a number of tweets in the wake of the Gawker piece about the alleged existence of a video of Ford smoking crack (which was also written about in the Toronto Star, who appear to have been working on a bigger piece on it but were scooped by their American competition). Thing is, dislike him as he might, he doesn’t quite bothered to learn the mayor’s name:
goodbye rod @tomayorford
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) May 17, 2013
