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2013 Toronto Blue Jays Team Preview

March 20, 2013 by 2 Comments

Check out the jerseys hanging up for the Toronto Marlins Blue Jays.  Reyes, Johnson, Bonafacio, Buehrle.  Just a part of the new players Toronto got to play north of the border this year.  The Blue Jays have long seemed a team ready to take the next step, but they never have.  They tried a few different methods.  Former GM JP Ricciardi, tried to do it with big signings such as AJ Burnett and, ahem, BJ Ryan?  New GM Alex Anthopoulos spent several years building the farm system starting with trading ace Roy Halladay.  Well, after acquiring a nice core of young players including Brett Lawrie, and Brandon Morrow, Anthopoulos made some deals to swing for the fences this year.  He picked a good year to do it too.  The Red Sox are down for sure, the Yankees have serious injury concerns.  Is this the year that Toronto gets back to the playoffs after a 20 year absence?  If it is, it will be greatly dependent on how this next group of players perform this year and adapt to playing in the great white north.

Let’s see who they acquired to make that playoff (and maybe more) berth a reality.  This could be long.

Major Off-Season Moves:

  • Acquired SS Jose Reyes
  • Acquired SP Josh Johnson
  • Acquired SP Mark Buehrle
  • Acquired OF/2B Emilio Bonafacio
  • Signed OF Melky Cabrera
  • Acquired SP RA Dickey

Toronto acquired 5 of the 6 players acquired in the off season are former or current All-Stars.  This is a serious influx of talent for a team that  already had a pretty good major league roster.  Now they had to pretty much deplete their prospects still in the minor leagues, but sometimes that’s what you need to do.  In a prefect world, a team can have a stocked minor league while still being a top major league team.  I can guarantee that most fans would trade one World Series title if it means there will be a rebuilding phase a few years later.  All these players are going to fill starting roles (Bonafacio being the shakiest) and will be significant upgrades over their predecessors.

We’ll get down to the nitty gritty after the jump.  Onto the lineup. [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013 Diamond Hoggers Season Previews, Toronto Blue Jays Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Recap of the 2012 Home Run Derby

July 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Prince Fielder wins the derby for the third time. He’s tied with Ken Griffey Jr. now as the leader in the clubhouse by accomplishing the feat that many times.

Here’s a couple of other memories we’ll take from last night’s derby:

  • The crowd booing Robinson Cano for not allowing Billy Butler to partake in the derby, and Cano zeroing out for the contest.
  • Mark Trumbo golfing out a few 420 foot shots where the pitch was pretty low and should have been taken.
  • Chris Berman had a careful amount of ‘back-back-backs’ but hasn’t entirely done away with the phrase.
  • Interviews with Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, getting their first look at being All-Stars.
  • Seemed like the energy at Kauffman Stadium was there last night overall.
  • I want some of the Kansas City Barbecue.
  • The fountain spray for sunken pearls added a nice touch.
  • My wife turned on the Bachelorette for round two. I watched the final round of Joey Bats vs. Prince on my iPhone. Brutal, but it was even getting boring for me. The main course is this evening, I thought to myself.

And that’s it about the 2012 Home Run Derby. The next one will be my 30th. Gross.

Filed Under: Home Run Derby Tagged With: , ,

Our Trip to Cleveland to see Joey Bats

April 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

[Toronto Star]

Originally, my wife and I were going to attend Opening Night in Cincinnati. My uncle mentioned that we were invited the day before Easter to see the Tribe play the Blue Jays in Cleveland. I wanted to see Jose Bautista–after all I’ve never seen him play. I owed this to myself.

It was enjoyable, cool early April afternoon and I’m glad we went North rather than South on this first MLB Saturday of the season.

I won’t lie, it’s always going to be “The Jake” to me. Nevertheless, I’ve had a lot of good memories at this park. There’s something special about a weekend afternoon game in Cleveland. Maybe it was the Bertman’s.

I didn’t get to see Bautista hit a bomb or anything, he went 0 for 4 with a walk. He homered the night before and was probably all tuckered out from playing the longest extra inning game (16 innings) to open an MLB season in history the night before.

A view below of what used to be Pronkville. An area that used to be in some demand now has few inhabitants. Notice the Horseshoe Casino advertisement, due to open up in May. I hope it’s kinder to me than Las Vegas has been over the course of my young life.

Ubaldo Jimenez brought his ‘A’ stuff on this afternoon. This was the longest game that I’ve ever been at before in which a pitcher has carried a no-hitter. Jimenez took his 6 and 2/3 innings before allowing a single to Brett Lawrie that also let the shutout get away from him due to a walk and a wild pitch.

I came away impressed by Jimenez, he was mid 90′s on a cold afternoon and if he can get his control going better he’s going to have a nice season.

Cleveland cityscape. It’s a cool city I suppose, though I rank it behind Cincinnati and Indianapolis in a lot of categories.

Tell me that isn’t a weird line score. My uncle and I were discussing if there were to be a walk-off homer and no other base hits in the game and the game ended 2-1, has that ever happened before? Had to get the bizarro world linescore on the blog.

Hairy Buffaloes in Cleveland. My wife had to pee after we parked. As sorry as this Chief Wahoo looks, he would look sorrier before the afternoon ended.

What, we’re advertising on foul poles now? Cleveland has officially became a foul pole advertising franchise. You should be real proud of yourselves, Indians. I’m told by my friend who is a Tribe fan that these were like this last year, but I don’t buy it. I would have noticed.

Life imitates Hollywood. Shades of Major League when the Indians players show up to the park and there are ads absolutely everywhere.

We sat in the club, ate way too much food, and enjoyed a 12-inning Blue Jays victory. Sorry, Cleveland. It’s going to be another long summer for you. At least you have the warmth of the memories (speaking of, I met Carlos Baerga before the game) and the Browns to look forward to.

Scratch that. At least you had the 1995 and 1997 Indians, a lot more than any other fans can be promised to ever experience. Like Tom Petty says ‘the good old days might not return’ but at least there are good old days to look back on.

Filed Under: Cleveland Indians, Dispatches, Toronto Blue Jays Tagged With: , , ,

10 Bold Predictions for 2012: Jose gets his 50 Bombtistas

March 25, 2012 by 1 Comment

As part of our preview for the upcoming 2012 season, we’ll be doing a 10 Bold Predictions for 2012 series that will be featured between now and Opening Day. Our third prediction? Jose Bautista hits 50 long ones in 2012.

It’s been done 13 times since 2000, by ten different ballplayers. When I was a kid, it was as exclusive of a group as sports really offered. Then 1996 happened and suddenly it seemed everyone was part of it.

The good news it that the 50 home run club is a big deal again, and it’s not going to be something that happens ten times in a decade too many more times, I wouldn’t think.

When someone does it now, it’s going to be a really big deal again. And it’s going to be something that you engrave in your mental sports epitaph that resides up in your head–you know the things you remember that take place of things that aren’t as important like when your children were born or when you and your wife got married or the song you first danced together to. But damn it, we knew that Brady Anderson hit 50 home runs on the dot in 1996 and we remember Cecil’s 51 back in ’90 as we do his son’s 50 back in 2007.

We remember these things because they are a big deal. And it’s a milestone once again for the sexiest stat in sports.

Jose Bautista is quite the human anomaly, is he not? I have to admit, I thought his 54 home runs in 2010 were a tremendous fluke. I thought he’d hit about 19 last season. I mean he only had four home runs in April of 2010, making the whole feat even more unbelievable to begin with.

He came back last season, hit 43 more; and added in a .302 average and .447 OBP% to go with. He’s going to be 31 years old this season and I think a lot of people are expecting Joey Bats to come back to earth a little bit or at least start proving that he’s a normal player. But alas we remind you that Bautista is no normal player. And he’s got one more big time run left in him.

Although Eno Sarris at FanGraphs tells us that no player will hit 40 home runs this season, we scoff at him and let him know that Joey Bats will see him at that number by mid-August (Bautista hit #40 on August 23 and September 4th respectively the last two years–both off Yankee pitching).

We’ll say Bautista’s 50th blast comes sometime between September 27-30, ironically enough against those same Bronx Bombers at Rogers Centre. And we’ll even be nice enough to dig up this post.

We expect Bautista’s home run totals to start trailing off after this season, but he’s going to give us at least one more free admission to the bomb show in 2012. Fifty coming your way in 2012.

Filed Under: 50 home run club, Toronto Blue Jays Tagged With: ,

2011 Major League Baseball All Star Game

July 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

There is one thing that came clear to me during yesterday’s All-Star Game, of which I watched the entire thing.

First off, the game was boring. It didn’t do a lot to showcase the sport’s midsummer classic. But there’s a reason for that. I felt the same way about this year’s game as I did about last year’s game. Pitching and arms are nastier and deeper than they’ve ever been before and on a lot of nights that equates to some really bland baseball.

Gone are the days where you have a Danny Darwin type arm sneak into the game or a guy who throws nothing but 86 and gets by on guile. You’ll never see that again. Baseball has a plethora of flamethrowers to choose from who have succeeded enough with their dynamite stuff in the first half of the season that you’ll virtually never watch another inning of All Star Game baseball that doesn’t feature a guy on the mound absolutely pumping 97 to 100 MPH.

Power arm after power arm last night trotted out and did their thing–and if you want to say Cliff Lee wasn’t throwing that hard–go ahead and notice that he got a bomb hit off him to allow the AL’s only run.

Prince Fielder hit the big majestic 3-run blast that salted the game away. The memorable plays I remember in the field were Hunter Pence’s assist at home plate that seemed to swing the momentum, along with Jordan Walden’s barehand play and Jose Bautista’s sliding catch against the right field wall.

But for nine innings, the display for all to see was the incredible arm that this league features. And the All Star Game was really a 9 inning sample of what we have going on all around baseball. Pitching is dominating everywhere you look and offense is down to 1992 levels for the second season in a row.

It’s neither good, bad or indifferent. It’s just how the game is today.

Click below for a few shots of the Reds.

[Read more...]

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Chris Berman, the State Farm Home Run Derby, and You

July 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Tonight, Chris Berman will take you on a back-back-back-a-thon of baseball’s biggest blasts, and all the All-Stars will be sitting on the lawn in Arizona like a bunch of little leaguers.

It’s annual, it’s fun, and it’s predictable.

Berman will throw in a few ill-fated puns only to interrupt himself with the ‘back-back-backing’ of a long home run by Jose Bautista. And we’ve got 2 to 1 odds that he uses the pun “Bautista bomb” as a very bad play on words from the former WWE superstar’s finisher.

The important things to remember while watching the derby go as follows:
1) Berman simply says things because they are fun for him to say them (i.e. when Matty Holliday goes deep Berman will declare it a “National Holliday”).

2) What you are watching no matter how fun it is; is just glorified batting practice.

Here are some other predictable verbal punches and kicks Berman might throw at you tonight:

“Oh my gosh folks! He’s gone deep again! He’s the Prince of the Desert!” (When Fielder hits a bomb)

“It’s back, back, back, back and David Orteases it off the wall, just missing his 7th home run”.

“And Robinson CAN!” (after Cano barely sneaks one into the crowd)

“And Ricky he might be little but do not call him Weeks has done it again”

As great as Berman probably thinks he is, and as great as ESPN thinks he is; he’s really just one big trip back to the European pool. You know what we mean by that concept; if you’ve seen one tit, you’ve seen them all. If you subject yourself to tonight and you listen to Berman the only way you have the choice, your home run derby experience will be forever changed. Every derby will then run together from here on out.

There will be brief periods tonight where Berman’s voice drones us into thinking that it’s 1996 again and things are happening back at Veterans stadium. The years go on and fly by but Berman remains the same.

In all seriousness, the derby is still awesome to us and the summer is now officially at it’s midpoint. We wish the contestants were a little different but if you are running a derby pool at your office don’t be a doofus. Put your money on Joey Bats and him actually destroying Josh Hamilton’s derby record. You don’t bet on a guy with that kind of facial hair ability, pulled shot power in a home run contest. He’s going to own tonight. And Berman will take whatever he leaves to chance.

Filed Under: Home Run Derby Tagged With: , ,

The Baseball Show: The Best, Around

February 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Today on The Baseball Show Mike Rosenbaum of The Golden Sombrero and I usher in Spring Training the best way we know how. Today we talked about the following:

  • The beginning of Spring Training baseball games
  • The Adam Wainwright injury
  • Was Johnny Gomes really singing a song in The Karate Kid? Or celebrating not having to face Waino?
  • What is Chris Carpenter’s value on the open market if the Cardinals fall out of the race?
  • Was the Jose Bautista’s contract a poor move for the Blue Jays?
  • Thoughts on Miguel Cabrera’s DUI
  • Can Bryce Harper play at the big league level for the Washington Nationals this season?

We didn’t have time to cover Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects or some other things we would have liked to have talk about. But as I and Mike talk about; business is about to pick up. Baseball lovers, we have just about made it.

Filed Under: The Baseball Show by Diamond Hoggers Tagged With: , , , , , ,