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It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no I've said too much


I didn't see the game, but it looked like it was a tough one to sit through as the Jays managed just 6 baserunners and lost to the streaking O's 4-0.

* Recaps:
Jays drop opener to O's - Fordin
Jays stumble to another loss - Ryan
Jays can't manage a win - Millson

Anyone who thought Tosca's firing was pointless and a matter of management taking the easy way out has seen nothing to change that view in five games under Gibbons, who was Tosca's first base coach.

The Blue Jays have been shut out 11 times, most in the American League this season. They also lost 2-0 to the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night. That's two shutouts in the past four games. They seem to be regressing, not progressing.


Right or wrong? Fair or unfair? Too early to say?

* Notes:
Gibbons tested early - Fordin
Catalanotto in a struggle - Rutsey

The problem is that Catalanotto is nowhere near being completely healthy from his groin troubles which placed him on the DL on two occassions. He said he's just going to have to grind it out the rest of the season.

"It's going to be a struggle the rest of the year until I get the surgery done," he said.

Catalanotto added that as soon as the season's over he'll have his sensory nerve removed in his right leg and have a Gortex patch installed.


Ouch.

* The Jays have won just once since the firing of Carlos Tosca. Mike Rutsey takes a look at how 'Gibby' plans to manage.

Gibbons said he still intends to mingle and joke with the players, as he did as the first base coach, and the door to his office will always be open to the 25 players on the team.

"I consider myself to be a fair guy," Gibbons said prior to last night's game against Baltimore. "But you're never going to keep everybody happy. Sometimes you have to be an a**hole. I just hope it's not too often."



* Today's Game - Former 'O' Josh Towers will take the mound for the Jays, and he'll be matched up against Baltimore's Dave Borkowski. Game starts at 4:05.
Saturday Roundup - Life is bigger | 15 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
_Andy Martin - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 09:49 AM EDT (#42390) #
The way the Jays are playing you'd think losing was a religous obligation. Perhaps it's just a bad dream.
robertdudek - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 09:55 AM EDT (#42391) #
Have the Jays struggles caused me to lose my (baseball) religion? Not as long as I keep getting my Rem sleep.
Pistol - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 09:57 AM EDT (#42392) #
Props to Andy for getting REM's 'Losing My Religion'.

I figured it was easy, but it was the song that came on when I turned the radio on.
Pistol - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 09:59 AM EDT (#42393) #
Honorable mention to Robert for identifing the group.
_Mike Forbes - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 09:59 AM EDT (#42394) #
Bad deal! I actually knew the song but people said it before me... Maybe some other day.
Mike Green - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 10:30 AM EDT (#42395) #
The team is not winning, so now is probably the best time to say this. I really like how Gibbons manages. It's obviously too early to say whether he'll be back in 2005, but I hope he is.
_superdevin - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 10:52 AM EDT (#42396) #
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/tor/ticketing/connect_form.jsp
i don't know if someone all ready posted this but if you COMN, and sign up for the newsletter on the blue jays official site they will send you 2 free tickets to a jays/a's game. the available dates are sept. 3-5.
_Magpie - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 11:36 AM EDT (#42397) #
The FOX Saturday game this week is NOT St. Louis at Atlanta - because, hey, who would want to see two division leaders going head to head in a playoff preview? Who cares about that?

You got Yankees at Seattle, at 4:00 PM.

Of course.
_Keith Talent - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 12:40 PM EDT (#42398) #
I think that FOX choice is up to the network affiliate. As the affiliate we get is Buffalo, NY they would go for the Yankees game.

How about Buck Martinez? He's still sore at JP Riccardi, slamming him in the Star today.

It's obvious that Gibbons is going to err on letting his pitchers stay in too long, the complete opposite of Tosca. I was at the game last night and it was quite apparent that Batista was out of gas when he started his last inning (7th?). Personally, I would have pulled Batista after that first BB to the leadoff batter in the inning. But he had been walking guys all night and getting out of it. His pitch total was close to 120 by then though.

I'm not complaining about Gibbons, I'd far rather see pitchers try to work out of their own mess than bringing in some reliever with unknown stuff in a volatile inherited-runners situation.

It's just that Batista had thrown so many pitches by that point in the game (add to that he's not 100% - regardless of what Batista himself says, he's gotta be sore).

It's all moot because we didn't score one damn run. Carlos was within two feet of getting what would have then been a game-tying two-run homer.

Do you think in all the excitement of the off-season, with everyone believing that the Jays had improved, that we failed to see that every other club in the American League (except Seattle and KC) had improved as well, perhaps more than us?
Joe - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 01:24 PM EDT (#42399) #
http://me.woot.net
My recollection of the off-season says that EVERYBODY was aware that everybody else had improved, but it was unknown by how much. We expected moderate declines in offense from Myers, Delgado and Wells, and significant improvements from Phelps and Hinske. The fact that all of these people had significant downturns and/or injuries just added to the woes this season.

So, what I'm trying to say is that we went into this aware of the reality, but unaware of the future.
_Chuck Van Den C - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 02:07 PM EDT (#42400) #
It's obvious that Gibbons is going to err on letting his pitchers stay in too long, the complete opposite of Tosca.

In fact, I think he's going to more broadly err on the side of being "too nice" presumably, and perhaps misguidedly, to instill confidence in his players. Players won't be pinch-hit for when they probably should; Speier and especially Ligtenberg are given a fresh start and asked to do things they've not had a lot of success at this season; starting pitchers may be left in too long, etc.

New managers tend to initially be extreme in one direction or the other, assuming one of either the "I'm your boss" or "I'm your friend" roles.

Gibbons seems to be assuming the latter.
_Keith Talent - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 02:32 PM EDT (#42401) #
we went into this aware of the reality, but unaware of the future

I'm loosing my disbelief, coming out of denial. Unfortunately, I think these Blue Jays really are a last-place club. It's not just some blip in the universe that has them behind everyone else. All season I believed it was a fluke that we were temporarily on the bottom. But we're rightfully there. Until the hitting comes...

I'll never stop watching, because this is a great group of ballplayers to watch. The starting rotation is arguably the third best in the AL (next after Oakland and Boston). The bats have been cold all year. And I think Gibbons can handle the bullpen better. It seems when we lose with Gibbons, there's an easy explanation (eg. there weren't enough hits). When we lost with Tosca it felt like the world was imploding and we were coming apart from all ends, helpless.

This is a volatile American League, look at the reversal of fortunes for KC and Texas. Call me crazy, but Boston could be a last-place club next year.

Is Cleveland going to win their divsion now? That's crazy. I definately thought we were better than the Cleveland Indians going into this year.
_RhyZa - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 02:50 PM EDT (#42402) #
too bad we didn't get Jason Marquis... could've used his bat. ; )
_Scott - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 02:52 PM EDT (#42403) #
Did anybody catch the replay of the interview from early April with Paul Godfrey and JP (Mike Wilner also joined in later) on ROBTV this morning? It was so prophetic, it was almost scary.

Paul said that you never know what is going to happen but that they were planning for 2006 and 2007. He said that rebuilding was not a straight-up process and it was possbile they would take a step back, he also said they could get hit with a lot of injuries. Boy was he right.

A caller asked about Josh Phelps and JP mentioned that he wanted to get him 500-600 at-bats but that he was a Super 2 player and that he would cost them some money next year.

It was interesting to see them talk about the season knowing how it has all played out since then.
_Scott - Saturday, August 14 2004 @ 03:06 PM EDT (#42404) #
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/10371551p-11291323c.html
COMN for a story about Bob Geren and the manager position.
Saturday Roundup - Life is bigger | 15 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.