Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Jays 4

Is 4-zip a good enough beating NFH ?

Excellent game for the good guys yesterday, Walker, League, Glynn, Downs and Whiteside combined for a one-hit shutout of Detroit and the Jays won their 14th game of the Spring.

Pete Walker made a strong case for a place on the team, 4 perfect innings and 7 strikeouts. Wilner thinks that puts him on the team, and I agree.

As it is Warren Sawkiw weekend at The Box I listened to the game and was pretty impressed with Warren. He was far better than his appearances on Sportsnet had led me to expect. He wasn't being overly-energetic or sounding too forced. He seemed, as has been said, like a fan hanging out a game, a knowledgeable fan to boot as he had clearly done his homework. He sounded a bit stinted and hesitant at the start going through the lineups, but settled in well later. The 'when I played..' stuff wasn't too overdone, and he added a couple of nice insights - there was a good piece of work explaining the positioning on a play by O-Dog for instance. Clearly he knows he has a lot to learn and knows that he couldn't have a better guy to learn from than Jerry, there was an interesting interlude where he picked 'the old pros' brains about how he scores games as he calls them.
He was fine, I was pleasantly surprised.

On the subject of commentators I'm looking forward to hearing Darrin Fletcher working on Sportsnet, I heard him do a couple of Expos games on the Score last year and he really impressed me. We touched on his work in this game thread early last season. He did a great job of taking you through an at-bat, saying what the pitcher was trying to do, what the hitter was looking for, what he would be calling and why and how adjustments are made as the at-bat progressed. I don't have any thoughts much on the other colour guys, any that bauxites are looking forward to hearing?

Interesting Notes:

Chris Michalak (now a submariner) might be off to Japan if he doesn't make the team.
Mr Butterfield felt he had been too cautious with sending runners home in the spring in past years (he didn't want to get players hurt). This year he's been treating every situation as if it was a regular season game, so the runners are ready for opening day.
The Jays are three games over their pygathorean record for the Spring.

Some links. The first couple I found at Primer and they were so good I wanted to pass them on in case anyone hadn't seen them:
Bill James interview at Sons of Sam Horn, this is extensive and touches on some really interesting areas apart from the normal sabermetric questions. Clearly Bill James knows just about everything.

Eric Neel has a just brilliant piece on Vin Scully, this is one of the best things I've read in forever. If you haven't read it, I'd recommend a look.

Jim Turner has a great piece at the Toronto Baseball Guys site on Robbie Alomar "the best player to ever don the uniform".

Spencer Fordin on Brandon League and the possibility of trades before the end of the Spring.

Geoff Baker joins in the praise of Pete Walker

Posted by Gwyn on Monday, March 28 2005 @ 07:00 AM EST.

Jays 4 - Tigers 0 | 16 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Pistol - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 08:37 AM EST (#107698) #

I'll second the Bill James interview. A lot of interesting stuff in there.

Named For Hank - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 10:38 AM EST (#107706) #

Clearly he knows he has a lot to learn and knows that he couldn't have a better guy to learn from than Jerry, there was an interesting interlude where he picked 'the old pros' brains about how he scores games as he calls them.

I loved the moment, forget which day it was on, where Sawkiw revealed that he had all these colours of highlighter markers because he had seen Campbell using them but then he couldn't figure out what he was supposed to be highlighting.

And yes, that was an acceptable beating.

Thomas - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 10:43 AM EST (#107707) #

Any word on the 2-for-1 Season's Pass deal? If it's been confirmed and if it's still being offered?

Tyler - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 11:09 AM EST (#107708) #

I can confirm that it was being offered as of Thursday. I'd call and browbeat your sales executive until they give it to you.

Rob - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 11:34 AM EST (#107709) #

I thought Jerry had the highlighters. I guess gv27 could have them too, but what I heard on the radio was about Jerry. He used green, orange and red for plays that were bad, okay and good for for the Jays, and anything noteworthy was yellowed so he could find it in a second if he needed to.

R Billie - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 11:48 AM EST (#107710) #

I think if the Jays exposed Miller there's a chance they might lose him. Not a big deal if he's a middle reliever but if he can get back into starting again which is possible then it might be regretable. When he's on he makes a perfect fourth or fifth guy on a good staff, with the stuff to be higher.

Yes he's had all kinds of trouble staying healthy and when his command has disappeared it's been a disaster. But when he's on he's so good that I would lean towards keeping him.

Walker definately deserves to be on this team. But right now I think he's pitching as well as he can possibly pitch. Miller is still up and down but shows flashes. Ideally Miller would make it down to Syracuse as he did last year but it might not happen this time around.

Pistol - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 11:59 AM EST (#107711) #

It seems like the Jays might make a minor move, trading one of the relivers that isn't likely to make the team.

But where would they be looking to upgrade (noting that it'd be a minor move)? The only thing I can think is catcher if they don't think Myers is going to make it.

Joe - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 12:56 PM EST (#107716) #

No browbeating necessary.

Him: Hi, thanks for calling the Blue Jays ticket line.

Me: I'm interested in the 2-for-1 deal on Season's Passes.

Him: No problem, let me get your information.

[information exchange]

Him: OK, your passes will be available under your name at Gate 9 this week.

Rob - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 12:59 PM EST (#107717) #

The front page of today's Globe Sports section has the following teaser at the top:

"Toronto Blue Jays' Scott Walker is making a big pitch to win a job."

Ouch.

Mike Green - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 01:12 PM EST (#107718) #

Baseball America has a note on Gabe Gross' magical spring. Apparently the playful nickname Babe has caught on with at least one Jays official.

GrrBear - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 02:57 PM EST (#107794) #

Thanks for posting the link to the Bill James interview. It's the best interview with James that I've ever read, just for this passage alone:

I believe in a universe that is too complex for any of us to really understand. Each of us has an organized way of thinking about the world�a paradigm, if you will�and we need those, of course; you can�t get through the day unless you have some organized way of thinking about the world. But the problem is that the real world is vastly more complicated than the image of it that we carry around in our heads. Many things are real and important that are not explained by our theories�no matter who we are, no matter how intelligent we are.

If our world had more people with such a flexible mind, it'd be a darn nicer place, especially in these media-fuelled polarized times we're living in.

Nolan - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 05:29 PM EST (#107813) #

Some interesting tidbits:

From the St. Petersburg Times- They report that the Devil Rays have rejected a trade offer from the Rangers that would send Soriano to the Rays for Danys Baez.

In a little blurb from Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball writers, found here, 2 out of the 3 writers contend that the Toronto Blue Jays should be contracted or relocated. Of course this should be taken with a grain of salt as one of these writers also contends that Brandon Webb's 2004 season was a "debacle" based on his won/loss record.

Nolan - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 05:32 PM EST (#107815) #

Hmmm, it would appear that my link did not work, so I'll try again...click on this

VBF - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 06:24 PM EST (#107816) #

From the St. Petersburg Times- They report that the Devil Rays have rejected a trade offer from the Rangers that would send Soriano to the Rays for Danys Baez.

Surely, the Jays could improve on this Tampa offer. Although it would mean an Orlando Hudson departure, since Alfonso insists he plays second. Unless O-dog moved to shortstop, but that might not make alot of sense.

R Billie - Monday, March 28 2005 @ 11:29 PM EST (#107830) #

I'd rather have Orlando than Soriano. Especially at the salary of the latter. His defence is worse and his lack of patience and strikeout-proneness tends to short circuit any value his power and declining baserunning skills would have. Last year he looked disturbingly close to a second base version of Tony Batista.

I think the visions of Soriano going 50-50 from 2 or 3 years ago are gone at this point. What's left is a guy who will make a lot of money for what will likely be solid but less than star production.

Lefty - Tuesday, March 29 2005 @ 01:03 AM EST (#107832) #

Its been no secret the the Rangers have always been prepared to move Soriano. This rumoured deal apparently turned down by T-Bay seems a little lighter than what Texas was thought to aquire in parting with his services.

I think this speaks to a couple of issues. One is Soriano's value to a team plus his cost. But I think one of the real facotrs here is, Texas would like to get Ian Kinsler into the squad. Thereby reducing cost and giving valuable experience to their furture at second base as this team builds for a championship run.

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