Holy. If you’re a follower of @BlueJays on Twitter, you’ve been subjected to some serious content ever since the club arrived officially in Dunedin — some of it their own, some of it created by others and not credited (the same photo mentioned by John Lott here shows up uncredited in the Jays’ stream, too *COUGH*).
Saturday was no different, except in that it was photo day for the club, and they’ve put a short clip together showing off some of what it’s like behind the scenes as…um… the players get their pictures taken.
It’s more entertaining than that makes it sound! (*Josh Donaldson at his Owen Wilson-y best alert*)
An inside look at @BlueJays photo day from Dunedin. #ItAllStartsHerehttps://t.co/WXJBx3wg5F
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) February 28, 2016
See what I mean?
Judging by some of the tweets this morning from camp, it’s utterly gorgeous down there today. That is, if you discount Jose Bautista’s ugly left-handed swing. Which also tells us that they haven’t maybe quite gotten down to serious, serious business yet. But it’s coming!
The Jays’ first Grapefruit League game is Tuesday at Bright House Field, the Phillies’ complex in Clearwater. Let’s do this!
Image via @BlueJays… I’m pretty sure.
Ryan Goins is the runner up for most amusing.
Bautista actually decided he’s going to bat lefty this year just to see if anyone will dare to tell him it’s a bad idea.
Sounds like Shapiro won’t make a decision on signing EE or JB until they see what success the Jays have during the season.
Shapiro on Signinf JB and EE
So this is confirmation neither is returning.
Read into it what you may,but it sounds like Shapiro needs to know what revenue is produced, in total, before he can approach Rogers for a payroll increase to sign either,both or none,and that won’t happen until the seasons over.
JB is doing damage control about the “line in the sand” during this interview.( Towards the end, after the 8 min mark)Seems to hint at negotiations.
It’s a stalling tactic by Shapiro. If the team fails to make the playoffs, they can argue they don’t have enough money to sign them. Shapiro could tell fans that they can’t win with those two in the lineup. If the team wins the World Series, chances are Bautista & EE will be a key reason for it , so their contract demands would be even higher than today.
Shapiro then goes & signs Jay Bruce to a 5 year contract extension. :)) I suspect Bruce will be a Jay in a few weeks. Shapiro has tried to get him twice.
This shtick is getting old. Why would Shapiro want to purposely make the Jays worse?
I don’t think he will purposely want to make the Jays worse.
However, I think Rogers hired him because they hope he can get more out of the team while keeping payroll in mid range market , i.e. top 15.
From what I an see so far is that his goal is to diversify the team’s payroll so that we don’t have a “stars & scrubs” roster & “raise the floor” strategy. For example, he was able to get Estrada & Happ for less than the annual salary of David Price.
I don’t think he will be able to convince Rogers to increase the payroll to $175M.
The Jay Bruce – Michael Saunders trade makes sense if the Jays want to get rid of an injury prone OF & replace him with someone who has some power & could replace Bautista in 2017 @ 50% of Bautista’s estimated 2017 salary
Well, Oakville, it seems our time agreeing on things was spectacularly brief.
I had the exact same thought pattern while reading his comments, from a bunch of eye-rolling, to “Whoa, we agree on something!” to “Well, that didn’t last long.”
The Friday evening PTS @ 6 pm discussed the Bautista contract. Damien Cox wants Bautista traded ASAP for a pitcher. Arash Madani said that Bautista could end up getting booed like Vernon Wells during the final years of a contract extension. John Shannen didn’t like the idea of a 5 year contract for Jose.
Mccown wants Bautista to hit leadoff since he has a high OBP.
Damien thought that Tulo was great at leadoff in 2015.
Mccown wants the Jays to see what Bautista would fetch on the trade market but Madani told him that other teams would leak the info that Bautista was being shopped so it would be distraction to the team.
The panel didn’t really know what Bautista was making this year.
McCown said Rogers should realize the value to the Rogers brand if the Jays are successful.He said that cellular & Internet subscribers would stop complaining if the Jays won a World Series.
It’s remarkable that Rogers pays these people to analyze the Jays. SMH
Oakville, we agree on something!
You could write everything Damian Cox knows about baseball on the back of a matchbook with a grease pencil.
PTS has been unlistenable for years now. (TBH I don’t know if there ever was a time when it was even tolerable,but losing Brunt was the nail in the coffin.)
Sanchez really does look huge in his uniform. Let’s just hope it doesn’t mess with his flexibility while throwing.
Jays signed Raphael Soriano. More bullpen depth if he has his health issues figured out.
Sure, why not? If he’s healthy enough, it’s more of a confirmation that Sanchez will come out of camp as a starter.
A healthy Soriano to go with Osuna, Cecil and Storen would still be a pretty kick-azz BP.
I like this move – added depth in the BP. Perhaps the Jays try to stretch out Osuna too. Who knows?
I agree. I am looking forward to see Sanchez in the rotation.
I am curious if Gibby will keep Osuna as closer or whether they will make him a set up man to build his innings & let Storen close.
I think that Storen has an incentive clause in his contract tied to saves, so they must want him to be the closer.
I could see Osuna joining the rotation in 2017 or 2018.
I don’t think he has an incentive clause. The Jays are the one who signed him to the his contract.
Darren Oliver/LaTroy Hawkins quota: filled.
Had to check if Bautista would smile…he made it half way
I think Bautista’s interview with Phillips deserves a full post by Stoeten. There is so much interesting information about how he is approaching his “negotiations”. Jose went into analysing the increasing cost of WAR , player comparables etc. He is aware of the value that he brings to Rogers. He also said that EE & JB make each other better players.
Phillips brought up the difference of negotiating with AA vs Shapiro & Atkins.
Jose said he wants the deal to be a win win for both sides. He dismissed all the numbers that are being rumored.
I love this team.
Watching Pillar explain how to hit a ball so matter-of-factly, made me say to myself
“Yeah. Pillar is going to crush balls this year.”
Totally irrational, I know. But I believe it to be true for some reason.
Is it that irrational to think that Pillar can at least do as well as Revere would hitting leadoff? Revere outperformed his career average as a Jay so opinions might be biased because of that.
I totally think Pillar can improve his line (maybe not SLG) from last year across the board by 5-10 points, and that’s about what you’d expect from Revere.
I think Revere has a higher career OBP than Pillar. I agree that Pillar can improve.
I think Travis will be back by June 1 at the latest , so its not a long term issue
Obp isn’t reliable for revere as it’s an empty obp filled with singles check out wOba and you will see Pillar is equal to Revere.
I more just meant it’s irrational for me to believe that he’s going to put up his best year just because he explained how to hit a ball.
Yeah I just kinda went off on a tangent based on your mentioning Pillar, but it sounds like your sense of rationale is working (which is more than I can say for some people lol)
It’s really flashy around here now.
I Know. I hope I don’t have a seizure.
The more I read about Tulo and Donaldson, the more impressed I get.They talked about 3 times a week in the off season and Donaldson really pushes Tulo to perform at his peak. Other players are blown away by Tulo, his work ethic and communication.
This is going to be fun.
“If we have another season like last year where we are a contending ball club, but we do it this year from day one until the end, the answer probably is yes. That revenues are going to rise to a point where you can afford two guys like that.” -Shapiro
Link: http://bluejayhunter.com/2016/02/monday-morning-blue-jays-link-roundup.html
I posted the original video link above in comment #3.It certainly sounds like there will be no decision until the end of the season.
The interesting thing about Shapiro’s statement is that he already has a good idea how revenues are affected. From observing the revenue increases from the end of last year, to the high ticket demand,increases to preseason sales, so much so that dynamic pricing is now in place.
So what is the magic point for revenues to rise “where you can afford two guys like that”?
Ah, sorry, I missed that.
I interpret it as meaning he’s taking a wait-and-see approach to attendance, ratings, merchandise sales, and other revenue sources.
Put another way, the Jays really only caught on as a ratings and attendance juggernaut for 2 months last year, maybe? I’m sure they want to see if these numbers can be sustained. For instance, if sky-high TV ratings all year means Rogers can bump up their ad fees for 2017, there’s then a new “normal” for projected revenue and payroll can also be adjusted (up!) based on that.
Not to go all Captain Obvious here, but if the Jays go on a tear from Day 1 and the building is full for the duration of the season, it certainly makes going to Rogers for a 2017 payroll bump a lot easier.
man shapiro basically called jose a liar in his tsn interview. then of course his passive/aggressive side took over as he was effusive in his praise otherwise.
http://thebluejaysnation.com/2016/2/28/video-behind-the-scenes-with-the-blue-jays-on-picture-day#comment-832183
How do people only quote one part of a post?
Twitter’s already freaking out about Happ during the intra-squad game.
We need one of those pledges they make parents sign for the kids leagues, make the fans sign a pledge on not over-reacting on the good and the bad stuff during the pre-season.
Ugh.
The Spring Training mantra people need to get drilled into their thick skulls: it’s about the process, not the results.
Twitter has no chill.
(Edited, because my comment got posted twice.)
Colabello has a 4 month old French Bulldog named Clutch.
https://twitter.com/ShiDavidi/status/704360211918655488