Win some, lose some, it's all the same to me. The pleasure is to play...

... but nine in a row would be pretty sweet. How did the Orioles become the most fun team to watch in the division, anyway? That was fast.

Don't think this has been posted, although I've been travelling for a couple of weeks so may have missed it.

Toronto Life has an interesting profile (print edition and online) of Jose Bautista by Trevor Cole.  A few items..

• Cole does explore Bautista's well-known temper issues, and where some of it comes from
• Bautista was clearly dedicated from an early age to "making it" -- playing in MLB, being recognized for his talent, and being paid for it. He spent a lot of effort getting into an American college in order to be drafted.. and to make sure he got a good signing bonus
• He was his college team's closer, and in one game, despite having never extended his innings pitched, filled in for the starter, wouldn't come out, and ended up throwing a complete game
• In Pittsburg, he used his bilingual position, and familiarity with both Latin and American cultures to try to bridge that gap in the clubhouse, so some of the new Latin guys didn't get in trouble through misunderstanding
• He tried following Pittsburgh's "rules", from hitting to the opposite field, to how to wear his baseball pants. Eventually, he found one was hurting him, so tried pulling hits (not successfully there), to wearing his pants the way he wanted. Ended up with a "problem" label.
• After Gaston & Murphy started wotking on his timing, it was Vernon Wells who finally made him click.

Interesting read.

B-R's Preview of the game shows Hammel has done fairly well vs the Jays - 2.48 ERA over his last 5 vs the Jays.  His 'pounding' was 4 runs over 6 2/3 IP.  His last 7 starts he has a 6.46 ERA and a 5.24 overall ERA.  Dickey was pounded by Baltimore the last time he saw them  (May 25th - 6 runs) but threw a complete game shutout vs them when he was with the Mets last year. 

Everyone obviously had a day off in the pen, with Cecil, Delabar, Janssen, and Wagner used the day before.  Delabar could probably use another night off as he had pitched the previous 2.  Perez is begging for work by now, having 4 days off since he last pitched.

McGowan threw 15 pitches 6 days ago, and both Oliver and Loup have thrown 18- pitches in the last week. There's no need for 8 relievers.

Pardon me while life interrupts baseball for a moment, but for any other Bauxites who, like myself call Calgary and Southern Alberta home, I hope you and your loved ones are safe today after this little spat with Mother Nature. Where is a matinee game when you need one?

Excellent read JohnL - thanks for pointing it out.  Interesting advise from Wells.  Often the best way to get someone to try something is to push them to do it 'for fun' - hopefully Wells will come to spring training once retired and help some of the kids for a week or two (he has suggested the minute his contract is up that will be it). 

Remember when everyone agreed that the 2012 Orioles were a fluke, and they'd be awful or mediocre in 2013?

Tonight would be a good time for Dickey v.2012 to come back.

They were a fluke. You don't go 93-69 with a +7 run differential without a tremendous amount of luck. This year they're playing a lot better.

More should be said about Chris Davis.  What he has done is knocked down his K rate, hit more fly balls, hit more of them for home runs, continued to hit lot of line drives, and most amazingly of all knocked down his pop-up rate to almost nothing. 

The only good thing is that he may be particularly vulnerable to the knuckleball.  I am glad that Dickey is starting tonight.

While talking about excellent O's, how about Manny Machado and his 33 doubles already? At this pace he could challenge the record of 67 in a season. In contrast, the Blue Jays leader in doubles is Adam Lind at 14.

The Orioles & Cardinals are the most fun teams to watch - Manny Machado is fantastic, right up there with Trout/Harper - he is what Jays fans dream about Lawrie - James Taillon may become a TOR pitcher, but imagine Pittsburgh with Machado at short, they must be regretting that decision ( that was a big debate leading up to the 2010 draft). The Orioles have  the best young talent in the AL East, if Bundy & Gausman live up to their billings, this team will have a long run.  Dan Duquette has really done a good job of finding cheap talent to augment the core.

At this point, I don't put anyone in Trout's category, nor will I until the Royals officially sign Superman to a contract. Of course, the Royals would just ruin him so even then Trout would stand alone.

I never thought of the Crash Test Dummies being "striding to the plate music". I also wonder if Jeff Kent has a son.

I know that we shouldn't necessarily count on Wang and Rogers to continue their sterling work indefinitely, but let me just savor something for a moment: the Jays have won 8 consecutive games without the benefit of Morrow, Happ or Romero. Imagine if someone had suggested this scenario a few months ago.

And remember also that this means that those same three pitchers -- Morrow, Happ, Romero -- are now the back-ups if the current rotation falters in the second half of the season. For all their flaws, those three pitchers are still potentially pretty good mid-season depth options to have around.

Speaking of features, John Lott has a nice piece in today's National Post on the well-read Neil Wagner.

The Man in White lends Adam Lind a helping hand.

Speaking of features, John Lott has a nice piece in today's National Post on the well-read Neil Wagner

I don't know, man. Dan Brown? Dickinson, sure. Frost? Right on. But Dan Brown? Dan effing Brown?

I wonder if the Rangers miss Davis.

Dickey is now at 17 HR in 100 IP.

Well the Os are good at hitting home runs, but Dickey is sure good at throwing meatballs.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina.... Jose Reyes grounded out, popped out, doubled and scored.

Monny? Moony?

That was fun.

Gotta love the little guy. sorta like your little brother who is only on the team because you needed one more player and he was the last guy left to pick.

Dan effing Brown?

I prefer to focus on the positives and give Wagner a mulligan on that one.

Dan effing Brown?

There is a certain kind of reading you do when you're sitting on a bus or a plane with 25 other people and lots of distractions.

Hey, had 'em all the way.

Dickey is actually terrible.  Discuss.

Crooked hatted relievers get what they deserve.

I came to the game late but was rewarded anyway.  There was a lot to like- Cecil again, Josh Thole's bunt, Kawasaki as usual hanging in and so on.  Nine in a row is pretty impressive.

.500!! Woot. Hopefully we can stay above that level.

Josh Thole's bunt

It was almost shocking to see someone demonstrate such excellent bunting technique. That was simply tectbook. He was holding the bat properly, he held it in the right place (top of the strike zone), he didn't jab at the ball but rather caught it with his bat...

And as for Kawasaki... you can not possibly stop him. You can only hope to contain him.

"Hunter throws so goddamn hard, if Kawasaki's ever going to hit a homer in the majors it's going to be right now..."

What a game.

On deeper inspection, twas a cutter. Right call, wrong reasoning.

Some love is in order for Rajai Davis, walkoff machine, and Mark DeRosa's evasion of the tag on Kawasaki's groundout to second in the 9th. Also, when the Jays play the O's in the ALCS, they absolutely have to carry Kawasaki on the roster, correct?

The Division-winning Blue Jays are playing who?

Had to head out for a bit and missed the end.  Gotta love it though.  When things are going well the impossible happens and Kawasaki hitting one out certainly lands in that category.  What possible incentive do the Jays have for keeping Bonifacio or Izturis over Kawasaki? 

Kawasaki now is up to 229/341/333 : 7 SB 1 CS
Bonifacio: 204/231/312 lifetime 261/320/340 : 9 SB 3 CS
Izturis: 227/263/320 lifetime 269/331/376 : 0 SB 2 CS

I see nothing pushing Bonifacio above Kawasaki at the moment.  Speed?  Kawasaki is more effective on the basepaths.  Ability to get on base or power?  Kawasaki is right htere with Bonifacio.  Izturis is hitting a bit better than Bonifacio but still well back of Kawasaki and has shown nothing special on the bases.  The defense has been horrible for both Boni and Izturis but acceptable for Kawasaki. 

At this point, if the Jays enjoy winning they should find a way to keep Kawasaki and put him at 2B once Reyes is back while finding somewhere to hide Bonifacio and/or Izturis.

There is a certain kind of reading you do when you're sitting on a bus or a plane with 25 other people and lots of distractions.

He'd be better off reading Trevor Cole. Norman Bray? Practical Jean? Excellent novels. Plus I hear he's a fan.

Izturis has been great lately. I'll take him over Kawasaki any day.

Kawasaki in June: .219/.359/.375
Izturis in June: .246/.270/.328
Bonifiacio in June: .175/.195/.225

If we put Bonafacio down, does he have to clear waivers?  Wouldn't we possibly lose him then?

Ick.... Bonifacio has been that bad in June? 420 ops? Izturis I thought was doing bad but for 2013 his June 598 ops is solid :p. Kawasaki as I thought has been the best of the 3 at 734. Mix in that his defence is solid (doubt anyone feels that way about Izturis or Bonifacio) and his baserunning has been solid too and I have trouble seeing why you keep the two who have flopped over him.

Coming into the season, there was a lot of buzz that scouts really liked Bonifacio's tools and he's the sort of guy that a bottom feeder team might feel quite inclined to take a chance on, so yeah, he'd get claimed on waivers and it's not completely insane to think we could get a little something - a flyer of some sort - in a trade.

Which I'd be okay with, even though you'd lose a little bit on the depth issue.

I'm swinging around to the view that the Jays should keep Kawasaki.... Wagner has options, so send him down when Reyes comes back (barring a collapse by the starting pitchers this weekend).

Didn't see the game, so I have a question - Was Gibbons being too differential to the Dickey of last year - given Dickey's performance so far, his HR tendency, Davis monster season and a fully rested BP that's on a roll, should Gibbons not have had a lefty face Davis in that crucial situation?
My guess is that when Reyes returns, the 7 man BP is back, Barring a meltdown of the rotation

The idea of keeping an 8th reliever around once Reyes returns with the starting pitching going like this is one I don't understand at all.

If the Jays were to lose a reliever, I'd either pursue a trade for Oliver or send down Perez. Admittedly, I think the team would likely lose Perez on waivers, but I think Wagner is important to this bullpen. With the workload preferences/restrictions on Janssen and Delabar and the fact I don't think Gibbons fully trusts McGowan yet, I'd like to have a third righty available to do short relief. Perez functions as a longer reliever, but that's also a role that McGowan could fill and he seems to be behind the other three lefties in terms of short relief and set-up duties.

The Jays will likely eventually have an Izturis/Bonifacio/Kawasaki debate once Lawrie is ready to return, but right now an 8th man in the pen is redundant. As mediocre as Dickey was last night, he still went 6 innings, which was the 19th time in the last 23 games started by he, Buehrle or Johnson that they've gone at least 6 and they've not gone less than 5 in the other 4 games.

I concur.  It is pretty clear that Izturis will share third base with DeRosa until Lawrie returns.  The lively immediate question is who plays second base (at least against RHP) when Reyes returns, Bonifacio or Kawasaki.  Managers say sometimes that players end up writing the lineup for you in many cases; I would have thought that this is one of those cases.

Kawasaki at this point has a higher IsoP than Rajai Davis over the season.  He's now doing enough of that to keep defences honest, and can mix in a few bunts more successfully.  When you combine that with his intense and disciplined approach to the strike zone, you have yourself a hitter.  He doesn't look like anyobdy's version of a hitter, but...I also think he'll be an above average defensive second baseman. 

Was Gibbons being too differential to the Dickey of last year

Was Gibbons being deferential? Dickey had been pitching fairly well, though he did put a few runners on in the 6th inning. When Davis came to bat, Dickey had logged only 5.1 innings. So even if Dickey is not exactly looking like his 2012 self, that would have been awfully early in the game for Gibbons to have pulled the plug. I'm not sure there is any starter (save for the scrubs like Ortiz, Jenkins, etc.) whom Gibbons would have removed that early to get a platoon advantage against Davis.

Also, Davis was 0 for 2 with 2 k's and I believe he has bad numbers vs KB's in his career.

Magpie, Jose was in Buffalo last night, not NC.

No. He was just trying to integrate him into the team

"Manny Machado is fantastic, right up there with Trout/Harper - he is what Jays fans dream about Lawrie"

I like Machado, but IMO he's nowhere near what Trout is.

Machado's line this year is heavily dependant on an unsustainable .370babip. He doesn't walk nearly enough, and his power at this point is mediocre. And as that babip comes down, so will that .321 batting average.

Age 19

Trout: 135pa, 5hr, 16rbi, 4/4sb, 6.7bb%, 22.2k%, .247babip, .220/.281/.390/.671, .296woba, 87wRC+
Machado: 202pa, 7hr, 26rbi, 2/2sb, 4.5bb%, 18.8k%, .293babip, .262/.294/.445/.739, .317woba, 96wRC+

Age 20

Trout: 639pa, 30hr, 83rbi, 49/54sb, 10.5bb%, 21.8k%, .383babip, .326/.399/.564/.963, .409woba, 166wRC+
Machado: 345pa, 5hr, 38rbi, 6/10sb, 4.3bb%, 14.8k%, .369babip, .321/.353/.481/.834, .361woba, 127wRC+

Age 21

Trout: 343pa, 12hr, 44rbi, 16/19sb, 11.4bb%, 17.5k%, .352babip, .313/.391/.549/.940, .400woba, 160wRC+
Machado: ???



As for how he compares to Lawrie...picking which year to match up is tough because Lawrie is a January baby and Machado a July baby, so they're half a year apart no matter what.

But if we compare Lawrie's 2011 to Machado's 2013, acknowledging that Lawrie is half a year older in this comparison:

Machado: 345pa, 5hr, 38rbi, 6/10sb, 4.3bb%, 14.8k%, .369babip, .321/.353/.481/.834, .361woba, 127wRC+
Lawrie: 171pa, 9hr, 25rbi, 7/8sb, 9.4bb%, 18.1k%, .318babip, .293/.373/.580/.953, .407woba, 158wRC+

It's too bad, but I think people are already forgetting how amazing Lawrie was to start. He was the one putting up Trout-like numbers, and not needing a crazy babip to do it....while Machado is not really performing in that same stratosphere.