Journalism. Good one.

Or even nuclear physicists.

Maroon.

Actually, the etymology of two bits and pieces of eight is quite interesting. Not Rabbit of Seville interesting mind you.

yep

In the first "half", his K/BB was 72/7. In the second "half", it is 54/29. That's a hell of an improvement.

Making a case that this offense is better than 93 would be a challenge, though I am not sure what the best metric would be to compare the hitters in the two eras.

I was thinking about this question this morning. I think it's a bit like comparing apples and oranges. The 1993 Jays had hitters with much higher averages, and reached base more. But the 2015 Jays have more pure power hitters - there's about six guys in the lineup who will ruin your ballgame if you make one mistake against them.

I think the simplest rating is runs per game. The 1993 Jays scored 5.23 runs per game, which was great, but didn't even lead the league (the Tigers were at 5.55). The 2015 Jays have been scoring 5.46 runs a game, which leads the league by rather a lot (second is the Yankees at 4.67). And 1993 was a better year for hitters than 2015 - the league average was 4.71 runs per game in '93, and is 4.31 now.

So I'd say that the 2015 offense is better. It certainly feels that way to me - I don't recall ever seeing a team anywhere hit like this ever.

have to agree, Sister, that '87 team was THE team and unfortunately they choked in a massive way.

I would rate the 1985 team higher than the 1987 team. The '85 Jays had better starting pitching and a deeper offense. But this may just be my personal bias: I enjoyed watching the '85 Jays more. The Jimy Williams Jays were a bit crankier, from what I recall reading.

As for choking: they had just lost Fernandez and Whitt to injury, which enabled the opposition to pitch around Bell. Without two of their best hitters, the bats died: they scored 2, 4, 3, 2, 3, 2, and 0 runs during those last seven games.

Before the Jays went 3 1/2 up on September 26 (after a seven-game winning streak), the Jays and Tigers had never been more than 2 1/2 games apart since August 2nd. The second-last game of the season went 12 innings. It was one amazing pennant race, even if it turned out badly.

If the Jays dont win the WS this year, then I bet the '93 team had a better offence because they were more clutch in key situations.

I think it's worth emphasizing: the postseason is a crapshoot. It takes 162 games to sort out good teams from bad, so a series of 5 or 7 games means nothing. If the Jays make it to the ALDS, their season counts as a total success in my way of thinking.

Thanks, Mike! I thought Hendriks got more than a bit unlucky yesterday, BABIP'd to death, as they say. Most of the hits were ground balls that just weren't at someone. The Rangers announcers, who I actually enjoyed all series, were saying how most of the hits were on good pitcher's pitches that the hitters just got a bat on. Bautista's reaction after he missed the grounder was fairly priceless, too. The live Rangers broadcast was showing the third base coach stopping the runner, and then changing and waving him in, making me wonder what was going on. Then the camera cut to the back of Bautista's jersey, which was not much fun to see.

I don't have any qualms about giving players the odd day of rest, and a day game after a night game, in searing Texas summer heat, seems the obvious place to do it.  But having decided to give Tulo the day off defensively, he should have given him the entire day off.  Not only did he remove either Colabello's bat (albeit against a righty) or Smoak's glove from the starting lineup, he effectively stapled them to the bench for the entire game.  As neither Pennington nor Goins could later be pinch-hit for without Tulo having to come in defensively, they realistically could only be used to pinch-hit for Revere or Pillar, rather than the two weakest bats in the order (strong recent play from Goins notwithstanding).  I'd have preferred they start Smoak at first, and save Tulowitzki and Colabello for deployment as pinch-hitters, but perhaps with signs (before yesterday) that Tulo's bat was starting to come around they wanted to leave him in there to get his hacks. 

Player Name GP  TG  DNP DH PH/R DR Comments
Mike Trout  124 127 3   4  0    0  Played CF after starting at DH in 1 game
M. Machado  127 127 0   0  0    0
L. Cane     112 126 14  2  1    0
Kiermaier   122 127 5   0  12   7  Stayed and played the field after 10 PH/R appearances
I. Kinsler  125 127 2   0  0    1
A. Eaton    120 126 6   3  1    0  Stayed and played the field after PH appearance
S. Perez    111 127 16  2  1    1  Stayed and played the field after PH appearance
B. Gardner  118 126 8   0  4    2  Stayed and played the field after all PH/R appearances
A. Beltre   107 126 19  1  0    0  All 19 games missed was all consecutive (due to injury?)
N. Cruz     125 128 3   49 0    0
Donaldson   125 127 2   6  1    0
J. Bautista 120 127 7   33 2    0
R. Martin   104 126 22  5  4    1  Stayed and played the field after 1 PH appearance
K. Pillar   126 127 1   0  2    1  Stayed and played the field after 1 PH appearance

Player Name GP  TG  DNP DH PH/R DR Comments
A. Jones    116 127 11  3  0    0  Missed 5 games in a row, also a 3 game stretch, and a 2-gamer; missed a single game once.
F. Freeman  84  127 43  1  1    1  Missed 13 games in a row, and 30 games in a row. Played field after PH (in game back from 30-gamer).
E. Longoria 125 127 2   7  2    0  Played field after his PH appearance.
A. Escobar  117 127 10  0  0    0  Missed 7 games in a row, also a 2 game stretch; missed a single game once.