Personally I'd rather see them finish behind the yankee's and see them draft infront of them next year. It would be nice to finish infront of them and all, but really doesnt mean a thing. Ill still be cheering for them, but wont be that dissapointed if they lose.

Looks like the Jays have officially claimed Santos from the Indians. See here:  http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/504308

Seems that JP has a thing for lefties... Hey, if they can do a Tallet (or pick another reclamation project that worked), that'd be a success. He seems to have stalled at AAA - had good numbers at AA. 2.72 ERA in '07 for Akron, then 3.78 in '08, but 7.20 at AAA Buffalo.

On a related note: I found this thread interesting, particularly to see Yankees fan praise and complain about Halladay and Burnett.

It was a hundred years ago today? Very cool - one of the most notorious and storied events in the game's history.

One hundred years! September 23, 1908 at the Polo Grounds. One of the greatest pennant races in the history of the game, and one of the worst decisions ever made by a major league umpire. The Cubs couldn't have gone to the 1908 World Series if it were not for Merkle's Boner. That they haven't won one since is Merkle's Revenge.

Anyway, a good account of the whole thing is here - it's the New York Times, so while it's free, I believe registration is required.

Is that the play where the player forgot to touch 1B after hitting the game winning hit because he was too quick to celebrate and was called out on a force and the game needed to be continued the next day?

Close. Tie game, bottom of the ninth. Merkle on first, McCormick on third, two out. Bridwell singles to centre to drive in the game-winning run.

The clubhouses in the Polo Grounds were beyond the centre field fence, and it was the custom of the day for the fans to rush out onto the field when the game ended. Merkle, a 19 year old rookie, peeled off for the clubhouses before reaching second base. This was normal - it was what everybody did. It was against the rules, in exactly the same way that the pine tar on George Brett's bat was against the rules. A rule that is never enforced is no rule at all, and to begin enforcing it at random, with no warning, is arbitrary and wrong.

Johnny Evers, the Cubs second baseman, knew the rule and had actually tried the play a few weeks earlier. The umpire, Hank O'Day, hadn't allowed Evers to get away with it - but he told Evers later that he was correct, the rule was there, and the run should not count.

O'Day was the umpire at the Polo Grounds this day, and Evers started screaming for the ball. Joe McGinnity of the Giants figured out what Evers was up to, grabbed the ball and threw it into the stands. (Remember, by the way, that the field is covered with spectators!) One of the Cubs pitchers retrieved it, got it to Evers, who stepped on second and claimed he had recorded the third out and the run did not count.

O'Day reflected on the matter and issued a ruling that evening - Merkle out at second, run does not count. The game is declared a tie, to be replayed if necessary at the end of the season.

Which it was. The Cubs won, went to the World Series, whipped the Tigers for the second year in a row. "Merkle's Boner" went down in history.

I was listening to Wilner tonight and an older sounding gentleman phoned in to complement Mike on the fact that he used stats to backup his opinions. He was of the opinion that most fans just went by how things appeared to them rather than actual stats.

The guy asked Wilner if these stats were available to the general public. Mike told him that baseball-reference.com was a very good source that he used quite often.

The caller said that he didn't have a computer so Mike mentioned some books like the one put out by BP.

As I was listening to this it dawned on me that this guy was probably not an atypical baseball fan. For people like this Pat Tabler must actually sound like a very knowledgeable and competent baseball analyst.

What about the rest of us? When can we get the radio or television broadcast that we want and deserve?

When the majority of fans take to things like ERA+, dERA and the like. Considering most people do not grasp OPS, it'll be a long wait.

I think most fans don't have the time or the energy to ponder over what would appear to them to be the mundane. While I'm sure a select few would be amazed by it, many would move away from the sets if the on-air crew set about discussing the BABIP of each and every player.

There's a time when the information is too much information; that's what (to me) makes this site special, it allows those with a more deep interest to explore it to their heart's content, while allowing fair-weather fans the opportunity to enjoy the game on more simplistic terms; it hardly seems worthwhile (especially to a businessman like Ted Rogers) to manipulate 95% of the team's fanbase to please the other 5%.

Plus it already really irritates me when Jamie Campbell lets us all know where every ballplayer is born and raised, each and every game.

At Tango's site they thought that they just need to start listing the stats as OBP, SLG, OPS. People would get used to it easily in that the higher the number, the better the hitter. It's simple enough and actually much easier than trying to calculate a player's batting avg.

At the Fan audio on demand in the Alex Anthopoulous (sp?) interview (assistant to GM and vice-president of baseball operations), he said that McGowan might break camp with the team. He said conservatively that McGowan would be back by the beginning of May. He said Janssen would break camp with the team. On the MLB site, they announced Purcey is shut down for the year. I think everyone can feel a little better after the shock of finding out about Marcum. The real evaluation part for next year is if Downs or League (Wolfe, etc.) should be stretched out and given a chance to go into the rotation. I would rather League stretched out than having Cecil or Romero have to come up as starters instead of relievers. IMO, if you have a pitcher that can make it through the order 3 times, you have got to put them into the rotation. Everyone should not fall in love so much with the bullpen. A strong rotation will allow the bullpen to not become taxed. Remember, just say 'NO' to Khalil "broken hand" Greene.

Slightly off-topic but in an attempt to cheer myself up after last nights loss I was looking a the Jays prospects at lower levels and saw that Balbino Fuenmayor seems to have made significant strides this year. Baseball America seem to have ignored him on their top 20 list for the GCL (a bit unfair considering he is still only 18?) but maybe a sleeper?...

After thinking about this I thought, 'what international free agents have the Jays signed this year?' but despite looking I can't seem to find a reliable internet source regarding this. Does anyone know a good site that keeps up to date with this sort of thing?

Thanks!

I dont know if there is a specific site that tracks international signings. Usually if it is significant it will be announced. But these kids are really young when they sign so they dont come over to north america for a few years. The jays singed a SS this summer though Gustavo Pierre, a 16 year old from the Dominican. Just google it and you can probably find some info on the few guys they do sign.

 

I've got a question for anyone who watched last night's game - did the strike zone seem big?  I was there in person, and it seemed like there were a lot of borderline calls for strikes (and strike outs), particularly the last pitch to Snider in the 9th.  That said, I didn't have a very good angle, and was wondering if that's how it looked on tv as well.  (Given the number of SOs Litsch had last night, I suspect it was a big strikezone).

did the strike zone seem big?

I didn't see the game but the teams combined for 23 strikeouts, the Jays were caught looking 8 times and Litsch set a personal strikeout high of 8. All of the above would appear to support your observation.

I watched parts of the game and saw a lot of the called third strikes.  They all looked good to me, Snider's too.  In fact, on several occasions I thought we got lucky not to be rung up earlier.  The Jays seemed reluctant to swing at two-strike curves in the middle of the plate, for some reason.

I see Hale has the goods.

"I've got a question for anyone who watched last night's game - did the strike zone seem big?  I was there in person, and it seemed like there were a lot of borderline calls for strikes (and strike outs), particularly the last pitch to Snider in the 9th"

More than big, it was bad. It is rare to have an umpire have such a horrible game. The hitters and pitchers really had no idea what the strike zone actually was as there were pitches that were strikes called balls and pitches that were balls called strikes. It is also rare to see that many Ks in a game and see the pitchers frustrated.

I see Hale has the goods.

The Overbay AB vs. Chamberlain was the only one I saw. The chart is a little confusing, or at least to me. It actually represents the strike zone from the batter's perspective, facing out at the pitcher. All the balls were inside. Strike three was on the outer half of the plate.

I am used to seeing such graphics from the pitcher's perspective.

Earlier in the thread, the issue of statistics on baseball was mentioned.   I have been with the blog for over a year and many of the statistics, abbreviations etc. are not well understood.  I have often wondered whether either blog could have a kind of summary and explanation of key baseball statistics or that it could post somewhere a site that summarizes these, explains them, etc. so that newcomers to the blog like myself could understand things better.

There may be better references out there, but these links have links to most of the stats that you'll see.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_statistics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabermetric

According to the NY Times, Hill has been "symptom-free following three weeks of inactivity." I guess that could be construed as good news (symptom-free) or so-so news (being symptom-free might depend on inactivity).

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-BBA-Yankees-Blue-Jays.html?ref=sports

The Jays have handled Hill's injury supremely.

Can the same be said for Marcum's?

Stay tuned...

greefrog, my non-medical take on that would be positive... unless you're stupid ( or don't konw any better) you DON'T do anything more strenuous than walk around UNTIL there are no symptoms.
once he's cleared for workouts, then you hope he doesn't have any recurrance of symptoms (then that would push everything back - you start over until you can work out without symptoms).
so the fact that Hill is now moving to the next step of recovery is a positive.