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It wasn't the best of times, it wasn't the worst times. It was just like all the other times.

It was pretty irritating, to tell you the truth.


It was Tuesday 28 July. On Sunday, the Jays had lost in extra innings when Franklin Gutierrez hit a walk-off home run against Aaron Loup. It was the team's 100th game, and they'd won exactly half of them. As you might recall, I detected a certain pattern:

After 100 games:

2015 50-50
2014 51-49
2013 45-55
2012 51-49
2011 50-50
2010 51-49
2009 49-51
2008 49-51
2007 50-50

Gotta admire the consistency.

But it was that very afternoon when Alex Anthopoulos, who had so notoriously done nothing whatsoever at the trading deadline the year before, began to shake up his ball club. For this was the First Day of the Great Mid-Season Overhaul, the likes of which had never before been seen in the reasonably long annals of Blue Jays Lore.

On the First Day, Anthopoulos obtained Troy Tulowitzi and LaTroy Hawkins from Colorado in exchange for Jose Reyes and pitching "prospects." (TINSTAAPP.) Savvy vet that he is, Hawkins had his passport on hand as the trading deadline approached, and was able to join his new team that very evening as they opened a series with the hapless Phillies. I grumbled that while Tulowitzki certainly represented a defensive upgrade at shortstop, he didn't really do much to address what I regarded as the team's real problem. That problem I described - somewhat pithily, if I do say so myself - as "pitching, pitching, pitching" and I would further submit that that very problem was made manifest for all to see by the identity of Toronto's starting pitcher that night. It was none other than the redoubtable Felix Doubront of high reknown. Doubront, makng his fourth start for the Jays, was the third man trying to fill the rotation spot originally held down by Aaron Sanchez, Scott Copeland and Matt Boyd having already been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

The evening's ball game started off well enough. Devon Travis led off with a home run. Travis had been absolutely en fuego (.354/.400/.451) since returning to the lineup after missing six weeks with a shoulder injury.  Nevertheless, he had yet to hit a home run since his return, after hitting 7 in his first 36 games before getting hurt. That works out to roughly a 30 HR pace, and something pretty nice to have from your second baseman. So that's good news to start the game. But alas -  this home run would also be the last one Travis would hit in 2015. He tweaked his shoulder again while striking out in the second inning. Had we known that he wouldn't play again all season - and he wouldn't - we would have been sad. Very sad indeed.

Staked to a 2-0 lead, Doubront cruised into the fifth inning. And then it all fell apart. Ryan Howard fouled a ball off his own body. It rolled into fair territory, and Howard alertly lit out for first base. With the Jays playing a shift, he made it easily - and the umpires allowed it to stand, howls of protest from Gibbons and the Blue Jays notwithstanding. Doubront promptly fell apart, allowing three consecutive doubles and a wild pitch. The Phillies scored three times, and that was the ball game. Toronto fell to 50-51.

But on the Second Day, Anthopoulos liberated David Price from the Tigers in exchange for another gaggle of pitching "prospects" (TINSTAAPP).

And from that day forward... everything was different.

How different? Why different? Let us examine the entrails...

As we all realized at the time, the Jays' 50-51 record was bizarre. The team had scored 530 runs (5.24 per game) while allowing 436 (4.32 per game.) A team that does that over 101 games can be expected to go 60-41 rather than 50-51. When a team falls that far short of its Pythagorean expectation, you will always - always - find one of two factors present: 1) a tendency to lose a lot of close games  or 2) a tendency to beat the other fellows senseless on a regular basis. The Jays were coming through in both ways. At this point, the Jays were a miserable 10-22 in one-run games, while posting a sensational 21-7 record in games decided by 5 runs or more.

As is very well known (I've said so a gazillion times, haven't I?) - a team's record in one-run games only tells us something about a team's luck. Whereas a team's record in blowouts tells us something about that team's quality. Their frustrating, inexplicable won-loss record notwithstanding, the 2015 Blue Jays were already a very good team. They were just a team that had been utterly cursed by fortune.

But from this day forward, they would be a) even better, and b) not unlucky. In the final 61 games they would go 43-18, and a team that scores 361 runs and allows 234 in 61 games can expect to post a record... pretty much just like that.  Over those final 61 games, the team's runs scored increased from 5.24 per game to 5.92; their runs allowed were reduced from 4.32 per game to 3.84. They were better on both sides of the ball, and by roughly the same amount. And - perhaps just as important - their luck evened out. They didn't play nearly as many close games, and they went 5-6 in the ones they did play. Which is good enough, especially as they continued to play very well (16-6) in the blowouts.

So what, precisely, was better over those final two months? (That's the question I'm here to address - the preceding is just a Big and Fancy Prologue.) David Price represented a truly massive upgrade over the likes of Felix Doubront. However, Mark Buehrle, who had been the team's best and most dependable starter over the first part of the season faded pretty badly over the final two months. Something similar had happened to Buehrle in 2014, and it's something that happens to a lot of pitchers as they age - they can still be as effective as ever, but they can't maintain it for 30 plus starts. If it was 1950, Buehrle could transition nicely into being a Sunday pitcher.  Unfortunately, the day when teams played a double-header every Sunday - and hence the need for a Sunday pitcher - has been gone for a long time.

As for the offence, somewhat surprisingly. Troy Tulowitzki really didn't provide any thing with the bat that was better than what Jose Reyes was already giving the team. As already mentioned, Devon Travis missed all of the remaining games, a development which turned notorious non-hitter Ryan Goins into an everyday player. Goins did hit much better than expected, but he didn't hit as well as Travis. So how to account for the massive offensive improvement that followed. What exactly happened? Ben Revere? I don't think so.

It's Data Table time! What we have here are Before and After stat packs: what the players did over the first 101 games, and what they did over the final 61. I've got the raw numbers, but I think you can see more clearly what happened if we pro-rate both sets of numbers to a 162 game schedule.

So here are the hitters through July 28, pro-rated to a full season.

Player       G    PA  AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI   BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF  GDP  SB  CS  BAVG  OBP   SLG    OPS    RC/27
                                                                                                   
Donaldson   159  703  627  112  180  40   0  38  109  59    0  136   6   2   8  18   5   0  .286  .350  .535    .885    6.8
Bautista    151  648  521   99  120  29   3  34  106 111    3   99   6   0  10  18   6   3  .231  .366  .492    .859    6.2
Encarnacion 152  642  547   80  130  26   0  30   90   79    2  111   6   0  10  18   2   3  .238  .335  .452    .787    5.1
Martin    138  545  476   90  125  29   3  22   75   53    0  109  10   0   6  18   6   6  .263  .344  .478    .822    5.6
Pillar    160  632  593   80  160  32   3  11   59   29    0   93   3   3   3    8  24   5  .270  .306  .392    .698    4.2
Travis    99  383  350   61  106  29   0  13   56   29    0   69   3   0   2    6   5   2  .303  .360  .495    .855    6.9
Colabello   101  393  364   63  114  21   0  14   61   26    0   98   2   0   2  14   3   0  .313  .359  .489    .848    6.5
Reyes    111  499  462   58  132  27   0   6   55   27    0   61   0   6   3    5  26   3  .285  .322  .385    .708    4.4
Valencia    90  266  250   42   74  21   0  11   47   13    0   59   0   2   2    6   3   2  .295  .327  .513    .840    5.8
Smoak    124  274  245   38   58  11   2  14   45   29    0   77   0   0   0  11   0   0  .235  .316  .471    .786    4.9
Carrera    107  247  221   34   56  8   0   5   34   14    0   56   3   6   2    2   3   2  .254  .307  .355    .662    3.7
Goins    114  348  313   32   69  13   3   3   40   19    0   61   2  10   5  10   0   2  .221  .265  .313    .578    2.4
Navarro    53  183  162   18   35   6   0   3   18   14    2   27   0   0   6    0   0   0  .218  .272  .317    .589    3.1
Pompey    37  146  133   16   26  10   0   3   10   10    0   35   3   0   0    0   3   0  .193  .264  .337    .601    3.2
Tolleson    30  72   66   14   18   8   2   0    5    6    0   14   0   0   0    2   3   0  .268  .333  .439    .772    5.3
Thole    14  47   42    6   11   3   0   0    3    5    0    3   0   0   0    2   0   0  .269  .345  .346    .691    4.3
Saunders    14  58   50    3   10   0   0   0    5    8    0   16   0   0   0    2   0   0  .194  .306  .194    .499    2.4
Kawasaki    19  27   24    3    5   3   0   0    2    3    0    3   0   0   0    2   0   2  .200  .294  .333    .627    2.0
Diaz    6  11   8    0    0   0   0   0    2    2    0    2   0   2   0    0   0   0  .000  .167  .000    .167    0.4

That is one hell of an offense. It was the best offense in baseball already. But, as we know,  it got better. Much, much better. Here's how:

Player       G   PA    AB   R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB   IBB   SO HBP  SH  SF   GDP SB  CS  BAVG   OBP   SLG    OPS    RC/27
                                                                                                   
Encarnacion 135  595  497  117  173 40   0  53  146  74    11   77  13   0  11    8   5   0  .348  .438  .749   1.186   13.7
Donaldson   157  725  608  138  191 42   5  45  146  96    0  127   5   3  13   13   8   0  .314  .404  .624   1.029    9.9
Bautista    157  696  579  122  162 29   3  50  127 109    0  117   3   0   5   21  11   0  .280  .393  .601    .994    8.9
Revere    149  653  600   93  191 24   3   3   50  35    0   74   3   8   8   3  19   5  .319  .354  .381    .734    5.1
Pillar    157  621  574   69  167  29   0  13   50  27    3   72   8   5   8   11  27   3  .292  .328  .412    .740    4.8
Goins    151  560  481   85  135  21   5   8   53  72    0  120   0   3   5   16   5   0  .282  .371  .398    .769    5.6
Colabello   101  305  282   42   96  16   3  16   42  16    0   93   5   0   3   8   0   0  .340  .383  .585    .968    8.7
Tulowitzki  109  486  433   82  104  21   0  13   45  37     3  112  13   0   3   11   3   0  .239  .317  .380    .697    4.3
Smoak    146  417  380   53   82  24   0  24   82  29     0  101   5   0   3   8   0   0  .217  .280  .469    .749    4.4
Martin    114  444  382   53   74  13   0  24   80  53    3  101   5   0   3   29   0   3  .194  .299  .417    .716    3.5
Navarro    56  207  186   16   53   8   0   8   24  21    0   32   0   0   0   0   0   0  .286  .359  .457    .816    6.6
Pennington   88  244  199   24   32   8   0   5   29  29     0   53   3   8   5   5   0   0  .160  .270  .280    .550    2.3
Carrera    61  90   82   13   27   8   0   0   13   5     0   27   0   0   3   0   0   0  .323  .353  .419    .772    5.9
Barney    40  69   61   11   19   3   0   5   11   3     0    5   0   5   0   0   0   0  .304  .333  .609    .942    7.0
Pompey    29  32   29   19   13   5   0   0   0   3    0    3   0   0   0   3   8   3  .455  .500  .636   1.136    9.5
Hague    27  40   32    3    8   3   0   0    0   5    3   11   3   0   0   0   0   0  .250  .400  .333    .733    5.4
Kawasaki    29  45   35   11    8   0   0   0    3   5     0   11   0   5   0   0   0   0  .231  .333  .231    .564    2.4
Valencia     5  19   16    0    5   0   0   0    0   3     0    8   0   0   0   0   0   0  .333  .429  .333    .762    6.5
Diaz    8  24   21    3    5   0   0   0    3   0     0    5   3   0   0   0   0   0  .250  .333  .250    .583    3.4
Thole    24  61   61    3    8   0   0   0    0   0    0   19   0   0   0   3   0   0  .130  .130  .130    .261    0.4

See what happened? It turns out to be pretty simple. Donaldson, Bautista, and Encarnacion were really good in the first part of the season. But over the final two months, they were insanely great. Ridiculously great. Unfathomably awesome. That's really the whole story. Tulowitzki replacing Reyes was a wash. Pillar and, especially, Goins hit better over the final two months, which was good news - but it was good news that was negated by the complete absence of Travis and Russell Martin's struggles with the bat over the final two months. It just didn't matter. This was all about Donaldson, Bautista, and Encarnacion. Three horseman so powerful they brought on the apocalypse by themselves.

I'm not going to pro-rate the pitching numbers - that gets silly. What happened there is also pretty easy to see. Here's the first 101 games:

Player      W   L   ERA    G    GS    SV  HLD  BSV     IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO  HR  HBP   BF    BAVG    OBP    SLG    OPS    BAbip
                                                                                               
Buehrle    11   5   3.29   20   20    0    0    0   134.0  139   54  49   21   67  13   2    548   .270    .298   .419   .718   .286
Dickey    4  10   4.53   20   20    0    0    0   129.0  121   67  65   46   80  17   9    548   .249    .322   .427   .749   .264
Hutchison   9   2   5.42   20   20    0    0    0   108.0  128   70  65   34   98  13   8    481   .296    .353   .448   .801   .351
Estrada    7   6   3.55   21   15    0    0    0    99.0   85   43  39   32   78  11   2    411   .227    .290   .381   .672   .258
Sanchez    6   4   3.44   13   11    0    0    0    68.0   59   28  26   37   44   8   2    288   .239    .341   .385   .726   .260
Osuna    1   4   2.23   42    0    5    7    1    44.1   31   12  11   11   51   2   1    174   .195    .249   .308   .557   .269
Hendriks    2   0   2.64   34    0    0    5    2    44.1   35   15  13    6   45   2   1    173   .212    .243   .285   .528   .277
Loup    2   5   5.19   45    0    0    8    4    34.2   36   22  20    6   38   6   4    149   .261    .311   .457   .767   .319
Cecil    2   4   4.05   37    0    5    3    2    33.1   30   15  15   12   39   4   2    140   .240    .317   .400   .717   .317
Schultz    0   1   2.33   18    0    1    3    2    27.0   17   9   7    7   23   4   1    104   .179    .240   .316   .556   .188
Delabar    2   0   3.33   27    0    1    4    3    27.0   19   12  10   12   29   3   1    111   .198    .291   .354   .645   .246
Tepera    0   1   2.28   21    0    0    0    0    23.2   15    6   6    4   16   4   2   88   .183    .239   .366   .604   .177
Norris    1   1   3.86    5    5    0    0    0    23.1   23   11  10   12   18   3   2    103   .267    .363   .453   .816   .299
Doubront    1   1   4.76    5    4    0    0    0    22.2   32   15  12    5   13   1   1    101   .340    .376   .447   .823   .383
Redmond    0   0   7.31    7    1    0    1    0    16.0   17   13  13    7   13   3   1    72    .266    .347   .500   .847   .292
Copeland    1   1   6.46    5    3    0    0    0    15.1   24   11  11    2    6   1   0     69  .369    .382   .523   .905   .390
Castro    0   2   4.38   13    0    4    1    2    12.1   15    7   6    6   12   2   0    57   .306    .368   .490   .858   .351
Francis    1   2   6.75    8    0    0    0    0    12.0   16   10   9    5   15   1   1     57   .314    .386   .451   .837   .429
Boyd    0   2  14.85    2    2    0    0    0     6.2   15   11  11    1    7   5   0    36   .441    .444   .882  1.327   .435
Hynes    0   0   6.00    5    0    0    0    0    3.0    8    2   2    2    4   0   0     18   .500    .556   .563  1.118   .667
Albers    0   0   3.38    1    0    0    0    0    2.2    1    1   1    2    1   1   0     11 .111    .273   .444   .717   .000
Coke    0   0   3.38    2    0    0    1    0    2.2    1    1   1    2    3   1   0     11  .111    .273   .444   .717   .000
Jenkins    0   0   4.50    1    0    0    0    0    2.0    1    1   1    1    2   0   0    9   .250    .333   .250   .583   .333
Rasmussen   0   0   0.00    1    0    0    0    0    1.0    1    0   0    0    1   0   0     4   .250    .250   .250   .500   .333
Hawkins    0   0   0.00    1    0    0    0    0    1.0    0    0   0    0    1   0   0    3   .000    .000   .000   .000   .000


Not too good. Buehrle was an absolute rock, Hutchison was really lucky, and Estrada (6-6, 3.87 as a starter) was coming on. But Dickey was scuffling, the fifth starter was a revolving door, and the bullpen was one long tryout camp.

And over the final 61:

Player      W   L   ERA    G    GS    SV   HLD  BSV    IP    H    R  ER    BB   SO  HR  HBP   BF    BAVG    OBP    SLG    OPS    BAbip
                                                                                               
Dickey    7   1   2.95  13   13    0    0    0    85.1   74   30  28   15   46   8   2    336   .236    .272   .371   .642   .250
Estrada    6   2   2.63  13   13    0    0    0    82.0   49   24  24   23   53  13   3    314   .173    .240   .342   .582   .164
Price    9   1   2.30  11   11    0    0    0    74.1   57   20  19   18   87   4   0    296   .207    .253   .302   .555   .283
Buehrle    4   3   4.87  12   12    0    0    0    64.2   75   46  35   12   24   9   5    279   .296    .336   .482   .818   .295
Hutchison   4   3   5.95  10    8    0    0    0    42.1   51   33  28   10   31   9   3    183   .300    .350   .535   .885   .323
Stroman    4   0   1.67   4    4    0    0    0    27.0   20    5   5    6   18   2   1    103   .208    .262   .292   .554   .237
Osuna    0   2   3.20  26    0    15    0    2    25.1   17    9   9    5   24   5   0    97   .185    .227   .424   .651   .190
Sanchez    1   2   2.59  28    0    0   10    1    24.1   15    7   7    7   17   1   1     92   .181    .253   .229   .482   .215
Cecil    3   1   0.00  26    0    0    6    1    21.0    9    2   0    1   31   0   0     74   .123    .135   .151   .286   .214
Hendriks    3   0   3.54  24    0    0    1    0    20.1   24    8   8    5   26   1   1    88   .296    .341   .420   .761   .418
Lowe    1   2   3.79  23    0    1    5    2    19.0   15    9   8    1   14   3   0     71   .224    .229   .403   .632   .231
Schultz    0   0   5.63  13    0    0    1    0    16.0   15   10  10    7    8   3   0     69   .246    .319   .443   .761   .235
Hawkins    1   0   2.93  17    0    1    4    0    15.1   22    7   5    3   13   1   0    70   .333    .362   .455   .817   .404
Francis    0   0   5.40    6    0    0    0    0    10.0   11    6   6    4    6   2   0    43   .282    .349   .436   .785   .290
Tepera    0   1   5.79   11    0    1    0    0     9.1    8    8   6    2    6   4   1     40   .216    .275   .541   .816   .148
Loup    0   0   1.17   15    0    0    1    0    7.2   11    2   1    1    8   0   2     37   .333    .389   .424   .813   .440
Delabar    0   0  27.00    4    0    0    1    0     2.1    9    7   7    2    1   2   0     18   .563    .611  1.125  1.736   .538
Jenkins    0   0   5.40    1    0    0    0    0    1.2    1    1   1    2    0   1   0    8   .167    .375   .667  1.032   .000
 
Once again it's almost entirely about three players: David Price, Marco Estrada, and R.A. Dickey. While Mark Buehrle faded over the final six weeks, Dickey and Estrada pitched significantly better in August and September than they had during the first part of the season. Price, of course, was simply a Massive Improvement over the ne'er-do-wells who'd been filling out the rotation. The baffling, frustrating campaign of Drew Hutchison continued on until he was supplanted by the surprising return of Marcus Stroman, who did his very best David Price imitation over the final three weeks. The bullpen was not dramatically better - Roberto Osuna and Liam Hendriks did not pitch as well over the final two months as they had earlier in the year. But the additions of veterans Lowe and Hawkins and the return of Sanchez to the pen - none of whom were great, but all of whom were serviceable - did make the relief corps much deeper, much more reliable, and much more sensible. This meant that the manager was able to define roles for his relievers. Relief pitchers are generally more effective when they understand how they're going to be used, but it was very difficult for Gibbons to sort out the roles in his pen while the tryouts were still going on. In addition, the improved performance of the starters reduced what was required from the relievers.

And Brett Cecil, over the final two months... well, I don't know what to say. Seriously, just  look at those numbers. American League batters hit .123/ .135/ .151 against someone? Really? The guy struck out 31 and walked 1?  That actually happened?

That's got to be about as well as any reliever has ever pitched. Hard to be better, at any rate.
A Tale of Two Seasons | 20 comments | Create New Account
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Mike Green - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 08:31 AM EDT (#312656) #
The pitching numbers were greatly affected by the change in defence with Tulowitzki, Revere  and Goins replacing Reyes, Colabello and Travis.  BABIP by month- .306, .268, .279, .309, .263, .264.  It has always been my theory that if you put a good defence behind decent pitchers, they will perform better than before (you can call it the Red Ruffing theory).  Good defence allows pitchers to nibble less and minimize walks.  There is more to it than that- adjustments were made by the pitching staff which began to have some effect in July.  The team walk totals by month- 83, 80, 70, 42, 53, 69. 
Mike Green - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 08:39 AM EDT (#312657) #
One other thing.  Everything was up in August/September 2015 due in part to unexpectedly warm weather and some other factors which have been unexplained yet.  This makes the offensive performance of the 2015 Blue Jays in August/September less otherworldly (OK, it was merely awesome) and the run prevention side more impressive.  
AWeb - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 08:41 AM EDT (#312658) #
One strength for this offense that KC typically gets all the press for (deservedly so, KC strikes out an absurdly low amount) - they don't strike out much, especially their power hitters (league average is a bit above 20% now). This allows a team with an average BABIP to almost lead the league in batting average (they might have lead if they'd been trying last week in every game), and for a lot of Sac Flies/RBI grounders as well.

One other note, I've seen it mentioned a few places that Jays hitters (I've seen this come up in the Donaldson vs. Trout MVP talk) get more opportunities because they turn the lineup over so much. This is true up to a point (6th in MLB in PA), but the Jays skipped the bottom of the ninth a lot this year, and didn't play many extra innings (only saw the 12th inning once). Playing on winning teams actually functions to lower your chances to bat sometimes...
Mike Green - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 09:43 AM EDT (#312663) #
Off topic, I have a question for somebody who follows the Reds.  What did Billy Hamilton do to offend the BABIP gods?  He had a BABIP of .264 which is a horrible number for a guy with his speed, but he didn't pop up much and he was successful when he bunted (BABIP of .414), so what happened? 

BBRef provides some clues.  When he hit a ground ball, his BABIP was .239.  That's a horrific number for someone of his speed.  When he hit a fly ball, his BABIP was .077 which is about what you would expect.  When he hit a line drive, his BABIP was .406 which has to be the lowest number I have ever seen.  He hit 99 line drives, 42 went for hits including 4 doubles, 3 triples and 3 home runs, 1 was a sacrifice fly and the other were just ordinary outs.  In 2014, his BABIP on line drives was .569 which is a bad number (maybe there is something about his "line drives" that are different from others) but within the normal range.  If he had just managed that same number in 2015, it would have meant an extra 15 hits and a batting average of .262 instead of .226 and an OBP north of .300 instead of well south. 

Dave Till - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 10:34 AM EDT (#312666) #

What did Billy Hamilton do to offend the BABIP gods?

He was on my Rotisserie team. That usually means bad luck for any unfortunate who happens to land there. (Shelby Miller was on it also.)

uglyone - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 10:55 AM EDT (#312671) #
talking about hamilton always reminds me of Gose..so i looked at gose's final numbers this yea4 and see that after all the ups and downs he kinda turned out as expected - around average vRHP (97wrc+) and useless vLHP (51wrc+). Also a pretty good base runner at around a 30 steal pace at around a 70% rate.

which would be quite a useful platoon player except for the fact that frustratingly after a nice uptick in defensive numbers last year, they plummeted to awful again this year, which is crazy given his skillset.
vw_fan17 - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 10:58 AM EDT (#312673) #
Soo... once upon a time there was this bet...  http://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20150601122113171

And here is the reckoning (posted to that thread, summarized here): in conclusion, the 3 teams in the AL that won the most games after that fateful June day: Tor - 68, KC - 65 and Rangers - 60.

If you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I am off to acquire 2 dozen cephalopods plus one..

vw_fan17 - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 11:01 AM EDT (#312675) #
Here's a start: http://www.oceanwideimages.com/categories.asp?cID=64
 

Mike Green - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 11:08 AM EDT (#312676) #
It's awfully big of you to not take the line, "nobody could have predicted the deadline acquisitions which essentially changed the dynamics".   We were talking about luck/inefficiency, and the Blue Jays continued to be unlucky/inefficient (albeit less so) after the bet, but they did become overpoweringly good, so it did not matter. 
Magpie - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 11:11 AM EDT (#312677) #
Slightly surprising to me is that the team's offense actually improved to a (slightly) greater degree over the final 61 than the team's pitching/defense. The offense was so great to start with that it may not have been as evident as the improvement in preventing runs (and there did come a point with this offense when it seemed like they were just piling on.) But geez - you look at how freaking great Jose Bautista was over the final 61. And then you remember that this team had two guys who were hitting even better.
Mike Green - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 11:36 AM EDT (#312678) #
It certainly helped that Gibbons chose to rest Encarnacion at key points when his finger was particularly troubling.  The presence of Colabello made that easier to do.  Along with the brickbats, some flowers are in order all around.  The acquisition of Colabello turned out very well and the later acquisition of Revere made it easier for him to be deployed optimally as a first baseman/DH. 

Encarnacion has now had 4 straight seasons at about the same high level.  He has his hot and cold periods within each season, but the end result each year has been pretty much the same.  It is important that he be given 10-20 games off per year for minor health issues. 
vw_fan17 - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 11:57 AM EDT (#312679) #
Other teams made deadline acquisitions as well, so it's not like the Jays were the only ones. Yes, they got the "best" of the bunch, but that's probably only in hindsight/based on results..Lots of people wanting to get Cueto. They even exceeded KC, so it's not like it was close. I think my main feeling was that they needed something to kick-start them, and the current team wasn't going to find that thing. Price/Tulo/Revere seems to have been that kick-to-the-pants they needed. I even said as much in the original thread: I will be very happy to lose, I just didn't see it as likely..

After 11 years of marriage, I've learned: admit when thou art in the wrong, sooner rather than later, and it willst tend to go better with thee than otherwise :-)
If we had bet $500+ on this, I might try all kinds of excuses, but, then again, I'm not the type to bet $500 (and rarely even $5) on a frivolous exercise in futility :-)
Mike Green - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 12:05 PM EDT (#312680) #
Wouldn't it be nice to have one politician anywhere take that kind of approach?  Mistakes (sometimes horrible ones) are made and 50 years later somebody else apologizes for them.
uglyone - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 12:20 PM EDT (#312681) #
"Yes, they got the "best" of the bunch, but that's probably only in hindsight/based on results.."

eh...can't agree with that. price and tulo were clearly the class of the trade deadline imo.
uglyone - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 12:27 PM EDT (#312682) #
"Soo... once upon a time there was this bet... http://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20150601122113171"

eesh....i sure hope nobody looks up the top of that thread for the other bet.

speaking of reyes....some great discussion on that thread regarding howarth's comments.....and i wonder do maybe we think howarth was right in some way at least?

i do remember my first thought when i heard his comments were "well i don't mind his smiling at all.....but his pouting verge-of-tears response to his glaring mistakes was not exactly the kind of thing that is great for team confidence or chemistry."

anyways, much has been said about how the instant turnaround came not from the price trade, but the tulo trade....aka the reyes trade.

i figure howarth is feeling rather vindicated, deserved or not.
uglyone - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 12:35 PM EDT (#312683) #
who the best hitter on the team is is an interesting question. using wrc+....

2015

7.Donaldson 154
8.Encarnacion 150
9.Bautista 147

2014-15

6.Bautista 154
7.Encarnacion 150
13.Donaldson 141

2013-15

8.Encarnacion 149
9.Bautista 148
11.Donaldson 143

2012-15

7.Encarnacion 149
10.Bautista 146
15.Donaldson 137


which one is the best?
uglyone - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 12:59 PM EDT (#312685) #
Also interesting evaluating the trade deadline.

According to fWAR the deadline additions accumulated 4.8war. let's round to 5.

Reyes had been on pace for about a 2 win season, so let's say that brings us down to 4 wins added.

The replacement SP had been worth about 0.4war, but the replacememt RP had been worth about -1.6war, so about -1 in total, bringing us back to about 5 wins added at the trade deadline.

pretty impressive.
Magpie - Wednesday, October 07 2015 @ 01:30 PM EDT (#312688) #
The pitching numbers were greatly affected by the change in defence with Tulowitzki, Revere and Goins replacing Reyes, Colabello and Travis.

Agreed, and the improvements in the outfield defense (Bautista returning to RF, Revere going to LF, and no more career infielders running around in the outfield ) were especially important because four of the Jays starters are flyball pitchers: Estrada is an extreme flyball pitcher but Price and Dickey aren't very far behind him. Now I very much prefer flyball pitchers. Flyballs are much more likely to turn into outs than groundballs, and I've noticed that most of the best pitchers in the world at any given moment tend to be flyball pitchers. But you do need actual outfielders on the field.
Jonny German - Thursday, October 08 2015 @ 02:51 AM EDT (#312705) #
"about 5 wins added at the trade deadline.

pretty impressive."

Is it tho? The Jays won 93 games, so without those 5 wins they would be at 88 wins, still in 1st place. Why trade so many prospects if you're going to take 1st place anyhow?




(Kidding!)
cybercavalier - Wednesday, October 14 2015 @ 09:28 PM EDT (#313348) #
I do not know if this is on topic.

What if Anthony Gose was not traded. Could Gose replace E. Carrera on playoff roster or even would B. Revere not be traded for ? In other words, Gose take Pompey and Carrera's roles onto himself. Furthermore, because of coincidence, would one of Hague, Barney, Kawasaki, Thole be activated ? Although these questions were not intended to be answered, string of events apparently hinges on one trade.

More importantly and thus asking for an answer, does the Gose for Travis trade make sense now regarding Goins bat satisfactorily okay enough for a 2B starter job ?
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