The Daily Duce: Tuesday, May 31st
7 years ago
Daily???!?!?
Hey, look at this! Jose Bautista told Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated that he’d “be stupid to leave” Toronto. That’s great! Let’s just move on from there and not– oh, wait, what’s this other part here? “That being said, I think teams utilize that a lot against players, [seeking] a discount or bargain price, and I think that’s extremely unfair, especially to have your biggest contributors on the field and try to take advantage of the fact that they like it there and negotiate a tougher deal.” I wonder if he’s talking about himself or Edwin.
Speaking of Bautista, Dayn Perry of CBS Sports goes over the often grainy videotape in order to determine whether Rougned Odor intentionally tried to throw at him before the great dustup. Bautista certainly thinks that’s what happened — as he said to Verducci in the conversation at SI noted above. “I’ve been playing baseball for a long time,” Bautista said. “I know exactly what he was trying to do when he threw the ball. He tried a hundred percent to hit me in the face. And it’s not the first time he’s done it against me or some of my teammates. And there’s video to prove that.”
John Lott provides Jays fans with another gem over at Vice Sports, as he looks at the club’s offence, and how it has been plagued by bad luck so far — luck that, if the last few games are any indication, seems to be turning.
Outstanding stuff from BP Toronto, as Greg Wisniewski goes pitch-by-pitch through Russell Martin’s at-bat against Craig Kimbrel in Saturday’s wild Jays win over the Red Sox. Also cool from BP Toronto is Mike Sonne’s latest Stuff Report on Jays pitchers.
Jim Bowden of ESPN.com (Insider only) lists John Gibbons among his five managers on the hot seat, though he ascribes Gibbers’ place there almost entirely to the fact that he’s not Mark Shapiro’s handpicked guy. Can’t fire him the way things are going now though, can ya?
Bluebird Banter looks at what Marcus Stroman could do to change the fact that he’s struggled mightily at home this season, and has been outstanding on the road. It gets into some interesting details that are worth looking at regardless of whether you figure it’s mostly just a small sample coincidence — which it almost certainly is (and always is when players have huge disparities in their home and road splits).
Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet talks at length to Goins after his big role in the Jays win over the Yankees on Monday night. If nothing else, you certainly get a sense of why Goins seems to be so liked by those on and around the team.
Elsewhere at Sportsnet, Jeff Blair talks to David Price about his run with the Jays last season and his struggles so far in his new home, fucking Boston.
Brendan Kenedy of the Toronto Star talks to some of the great sluggers of Jays past (and Jose Cruz Jr.) about their biggest hits as Blue Jays.
Elsewhere at the Star, Richard Griffin looks at the Jays’ impending logjam in the middle infield, where he says that Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Goins, Darwin Barney, and Devon Travis can’t coexist, which… since Goins has options kinda solves itself, doesn’t it?
Baseball Reddit tweets an image of teams who’ve thrown headhunter pitches this season, and the Jays are lagging behind everybody. Interesting. I’d guess it’s a product of guys who don’t throw particularly hard (Dickey, Estrada), and guys really focussed on keeping the ball down (Sanchez, Stroman), having logged the most innings for them, rather than anything we’d actually care to try to have a hot take about.
Interesting stuff from Steve Buffery of the Toronto Sun, as he talks to Kevin Pillar about his old high school nemesis on the baseball field: the great Giancarlo Stanton.
I can’t dump too much on Jose Cruz (wasn’t I?), I think, because elsewhere in the Sun, Bob Elliott talks to him about his sons, both of whom are eligible to play internationally for Canada, which they both say they’d love to.
Gregor Chisholm tweets that he’s doing an Inbox post for Thursday, so SEND HIM QUESTIONS AND I WILL MAKE FUN OF YOU!
Awesome stuff on the “Angry Birds” phenomenon — i.e. the thing where people apparently don’t like the Jays or how they play with a collective chip on their shoulder — from Blue Jays After Dark. Read it!
I can’t pass up an opportunity to watch the Joe Carter home run, especially when the great @James_in_TO has dug up a clip with the legendary Vin Scully making the call! Tom Cheek it is not, but that’s still pretty amazing. Watch here.
Lastly, a couple of plugs, as I’ve been added to the lineup for Thursday’s Pitch Talks event at the Phoenix in Toronto. I was told that Hazel Mae dropped out, and so naturally I’m the first person they thought of as a replacement! Ross Atkins will be there! (No word if Mark Shapiro will be above the stage pulling the strings. And Duane Ward and Pat Hentgen will be there, too! Plus a bunch of Jays media types. Tickets are still available, so check out the info at HomestandSports.com.
Aaaaand, Peterborough types: I’m also on the lineup for the June 20th show in my hometown, which will be at Boston Pizza (not the Chemong Road on — the other one). Check it out! Stephen Brunt, Jeff Blair, and Scott MacArthur will be there, too. Details and tickets, again, are at HomestandSports.com!
Recent articles from Andrew Stoeten
