Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

Nine winless teams? (Oh, shut up. It's only April!)

Yes. it's time for Opening Weekend Overreactions, or as we like to call is here at Da Box, Overreaction Sunday ....

Should anyone be concerned? Or does the headline say it all?

The Boston Red Sox are, right now, the worst team in baseball, as they are 0-2 and have been outscored, 13-2 -- they're the only team in baseball with a double-digit negative run differential.

The Sox' East Coast metropolitan nemeses, The Yankees of New York, share their 0-2 misery, but have been outscored "just" 15-12. On the gloomy side, baseball's All-Time Greatest Closer (TM), Mariano Rivera, blew one of those games in the ninth inning.

Atlanta's Braves, also 0-2, join the Red Sox in offensive futility, having scored just two runs, though they have given up just five.

Other winless teams include the Padres (0-3) and five more 0-2 starters, in the Cubs, Giants, Rockies, Twins and Indians.

Should anyone be inching toward the panic button yet? (Well, no -- of course not. It's early April.) But which of these teams are actually showing a sure-to-be-continuing trend?

Posted by Mick Doherty on Sunday, April 08 2012 @ 01:31 AM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 04/09 06:44PM by greenfrog [42 featured comments]

Purrrfect Night on the Farm

Some games were closer than others, but all the boyz on the farm made us proud on Friday evening. Las Vegas was a winner and so was Lansing, both squeaking in runs in the late innings. The D-Jays behind some great pitching put the shut out hurt on cross town rival Clearwater while New Hampshire put their second win in the books for a good start to their defence of last year's Eastern League Championship.

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Posted by mamboon on Saturday, April 07 2012 @ 07:43 AM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 04/09 10:35AM by Mike Green [13 featured comments]

2012 Blue Jays Preview: Overall

On Monday we took a look at the offense; on Tuesday the defense. Today we bring it all together.

Also, this is your last chance to enter a record prediction and a playing time prediction.

Lastly/elsewhere, the Jays rank as the number nine franchise in baseball, per Fangraphs' annual offseason exercise. Our own Marc Hulet wrote the piece.

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Posted by Anders on Wednesday, April 04 2012 @ 03:00 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 04/05 10:36PM by Richard S.S. [28 featured comments]

2012 Blue Jays Preview: Pitching and Defense

Yesterday we looked at the offense. Today we look at pitching and defense. Feel free to chime in in the comments.

(Note: these comments were mostly made in advance of today's Cecil-related news.)

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Posted by Anders on Tuesday, April 03 2012 @ 02:15 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 04/05 03:06AM by Magpie [14 featured comments]

ESPN Power Rankings debut ... Jays are 12th

ESPN has just released its initial MLB power rankings for 2012. No real surprises at the top -- Yankees, Rangers, Angels and Tigers are the top four. The highest-ranked NL team is the D-Backs at #7, with the Phillies, Cardinals, Giants and Marlins following directly behind, all just a noodge ahead of your #12 Blue Jays. The Rays are #5 and the Red Sox are #6, so 12th in MLB translates here to fourth in the AL East. Bringing up the rear at #30 are your (dreadful?) Houston Astros. Let's go 'stros!

Who looks, to you, to be ranked too high or too low?

My take ...

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Posted by Mick Doherty on Monday, April 02 2012 @ 04:14 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 04/03 04:36PM by bpoz [24 featured comments]

2012 Blue Jays Preview: Offense

We kick off our three-part Jays preview with a look at a couple of offense-related questions.

Feel free to chime in with your own opinions in the comments.

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Posted by Anders on Monday, April 02 2012 @ 01:30 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 04/04 06:58PM by uglyone [18 featured comments]

Ricky: "This team can [be] special ..."

In case you missed it in today's Star...

Blue Jays starter Ricky Romero "sick of going home in October"

Seems like an eminently reasonable remark for a team leader to make publicly, hey?

Posted by Mick Doherty on Saturday, March 31 2012 @ 10:00 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 04/03 10:27AM by China fan [27 featured comments]

I Never Thought That Could Ever Happen

When the Blue Jays came a purler in the 2009 season, turning in a disappointing year where a strong one was expected, it basically destroyed all of my long-term hope for the Jays.

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Posted by Matthew E on Friday, March 30 2012 @ 03:56 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 04/02 05:53PM by vw_fan17 [13 featured comments]

2012 Record Prediction Contest

It's that time again! The results for last year's contest were just posted a couple weeks ago, so go check them out if you haven't seen them, then come back here and make your predictions for this year!

Edit: removed my predictions so as not to influence others... a little late, but whatever.

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Posted by Dave Rutt on Wednesday, March 28 2012 @ 12:56 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 04/05 10:08AM by Thomas [48 featured comments]

Community Playing Time Forecasts 2012

It's time for the annual survey, and I'm hoping you guys work your magic once more.

http://www.tangotiger.net/survey/

Posted by TangoTiger on Wednesday, March 28 2012 @ 09:47 AM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 03/29 11:18PM by TangoTiger [8 featured comments]

Reviewing Some 2011 Predictions

As you've hopefully noticed we've started running our 2012 previews - the other divisions last week, the AL East this week, with the Jays to follow next week. I used this as an opportunity to look back at some of the predictions we made at the start of the 2011 season, and thought that this would be a good opportunity for self mockery. We here at the Box are nothing if not humble.

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Posted by Anders on Tuesday, March 27 2012 @ 02:51 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 03/28 03:27PM by Jonny German [18 featured comments]

2012 Baltimore Orioles Preview

So, Orioles... how've you been this year? Haven't checked in with you since the preview I wrote last year. People were expecting a lot from you, maybe even a fourth-place finish in the East, ahead of those overrated Blue Jays.

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Posted by Matthew E on Monday, March 26 2012 @ 12:08 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 03/27 12:24AM by hypobole [7 featured comments]

Snider and Thames ought to make the team

But they most likely won't.

A few day ago at Fangraphs, Paul Swydan made a convincing case why they should both stay over Ben Francisco. I'm going to add my support here.

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Posted by robertdudek on Tuesday, March 20 2012 @ 08:38 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 03/29 04:35PM by Sano [161 featured comments]

Episode VI: Return of the Boxcast

The baseball season is just a couple of weeks away. And you know what that means... it's fantasy baseball season! The gang was joined by some fantasy friends (I mean real friends we play fantasy with, not friends we pretend to have, I swear) to discuss how playing fantasy sports changes us as fans. In part two, the long-awaited NL East Preview, recorded last week with Alex Obal in New York.

Subscribe here. Listen here.

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Posted by Dave Rutt on Monday, March 19 2012 @ 10:29 AM EDT.
Post a comment [0 featured comments]

Boxcast Episode 5.1: Live Boxcast or Die Hard

A very special "Live from New York" (it's Saturday night! (it actually was Saturday night (well, Saturday afternoon))) episode of the Boxcast this week featuring Da Box's Big Apple correspondent Alex Obal. Given the circumstances, Alex and I decided to chat about New York fandom and how it differs from being a fan in Toronto. In part 2 we took a cue from Matthew Elmsley and gave our predictions for who will get the playing time at left field and who will get the starts in 2012. Listen here.

The discussion was fruitful and free-flowing, so I'm going to save part 3 (NL East Preview) for next Monday so as not to burden listeners with a huge commitment. Also, we plan on going to a weekly schedule once the season starts so this is a good transition to that. Look for the Boxcast every Monday from now on!

Update: We're in the iTunes Store!

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Posted by Dave Rutt on Monday, March 12 2012 @ 01:03 PM EDT.
Most Recent Post: 03/15 11:35AM by Mike Green [11 featured comments]