Tag-Archive for » Travis Snider «

The Rosin Bag: The Quick Fade of the 2009 Blue Jays

Friday, July 10th, 2009 | Author:

There comes a time in the season where the most ardent supporter, the most “glass-half filled” fan has to just let it go and accept that his team is not a playoff contender. That time has come for me.

The Jays gave it a good run, but ultimately they could not defeat the injury reaper, where every single one of the five starting pitchers spent time on the disabled list. They fought bravely for two-plus months, but eventually suffered from the vertigo that afflicts some teams when they reach heights beyond their means.

It was foolish to believe that a collection of pitchers consisting of Scott Richmond, Brett Cecil, Brad Mills, Brian Tallet and  Marc Rzepczynski could provide enough  support for Roy Halladay and the emerging Ricky Romero. Folly, yes – but they did perform admirably for the first two months of the season.

Inevitably, though, the Blue Jays just could not maintain the excellence needed to keep up with the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays. Career years by Aaron Hill, Marco Scutaro, Adam Lind have been offset by mega-suckage from Vernon Wells and Alex Rios. Travis Snider failed to make the most of his first real chance at stardom, and is toiling away in the minors trying to find his form.

And now we are treated to the three-ring sideshow that is the baseball media falling over themselves trying to create news where none exists. I haven’t commented on the whole Roy Halladay thing yet because to me it’s a non-issue. J.P. Ricciardi merely said what you would expect any GM to say when it comes to trade speculation of an “untouchable” player: he will listen to offers. The shit-show that has ensued has resulted in me not watching a baseball game in a week, knowing that my blood pressure could not handle the idle speculation surrounding the best pitcher in baseball.

All I need to put my heart at ease with this issue is to repeat this to myself: f the Jays traded Roy Halladay on a Monday, what would be the Jays greatest need beginning Tuesday? Answer: an ace in their starting rotation.

I realize that his value will never be higher as it is right now, with 1 1/2 years left in his contract, but that doesn’t matter to me. What matters is that trading Roy Halladay is Jays management telling its fanbase that it really isn’t trying to build a winner anymore, a signal much like the one Expos management sent by trading Pedro Martinez.

There’s a case to be made that the city of Toronto and its populace don’t deserve Roy Halladay. Attendance, which is low to begin with, doesn’t see a significant bump when he takes the mound. I agree to a certain extent, but Blue Jays telecasts have seen a rise in ratings this season and that’s because the Blue Jays continue to establish themselves as Canada’s team. I see more and more Blue Jays caps and jerseys here in Ottawa so something is brewing. It would be a shame to punish the rest of the country’s Jays fans for the shortcomings of Toronto sports fans.

As stated earlier, my feeling is this is a whole bunch of nonsense from a media corps that is bored in the dead of summer and wanted to create excitement. When Fox’s Ken Rosenthal wrote that Halladay was “as good as gone”, his brethren finally had something to write about beyond steroids and All-Star voting.

I will continue to avert my eyes for the time being. Roy isn’t going anywhere, and may even sign long-term in the offseason, and we will continue to have faith that Rogers will eventually put a winning product on the field. We’re really not that far away from that, if you look at things objectively.

Category: The Rosin Bag  | Tags: , , , ,  | One Comment

The Rosin Bag: Record Night

Wednesday, June 03rd, 2009 | Author:
Best in the business

Best in the business

Roy Halladay’s 14 strikeout, 133 pitch performance last night was yet another example of his dominance over every other pitcher in the league. It was an example of why the Jays must re-sign him in the off-season and why he will most likely be the American League’s starting pitcher in the All-Star game and probably win his second Cy Young award.

Bold predictions? Not really. Barring a cataclysmic occurrence of which I will not speak (kinda like Lord Voldemort), Halladay is the front runner for these accolades. I have never seen him in such dominant form, and that’s saying something. Every five days you get the feeling you can’t lose.

Before the season started, when almost everyone was predicting a gloomy season for the Jays, I mentioned that if these dire predictions rang true at least we would get to see a masterful performance every five days. It turns out these performances are the gravy on our mash potatoes, and they’re occuring in Toronto (take that Billy Bob). The mash potatoes are the fact that it’s June and the Jays are  still deeply involved in the divisional race.

I only caught the end of the game last night (Gargoyle duty), but what I saw will remain imprinted on my brain for a long time: a clearly winded Halladay, taking a seat between the eighth and ninth innings, having thrown over 115 pitches, Cito taking a seat next to him and having a chat with him. At one point they both nodded and started chuckling. I’d love to know what Cito said to him, because it’s the first time I’ve ever seen Halladay smile during a game. He then trotted out to the mound, looking a little sluggish but deadly as always. I hope there are additional indelible images coming our way this season, but that was the second one (the first being the Travis Snider bomb at the Metrodome).

JP, sign this man in the offseason. Rogers, do what must be done to retain his services. Step number one would be to show a willingness to go out and improve the team, and Sager over at Out of Left Field has a nice wishlist.

Category: The Rosin Bag  | Tags: , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment

The Twit: MONDAY! (shoot me now) Edition

Monday, May 04th, 2009 | Author:
Aaron Hill: Boys and girls take note

Aaron Hill: Boys and girls take note

‘Twas s nice little weekend in sport, that. Let’s dive right in with another edition of The Twit!

- Robert Ray made his Major League debut and went (almost) 6 innings, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits. Best part is that he seemed to settle down after conceding a first inning home run to Adam Jones.

- If you have a young child, and you are looking for a professional athlete for them to treat as a role model (careful now), look no further than Jays 2nd baseman Aaron Hill. As far as I can tell he is loved equally by his teammates, management and the members of the media who cover him (and probably his Mom). Plus he delivers heroics as witnessed in the bottom of the 10th and 11th innings of Saturday’s game. First he booted the ball in the top of the 10th, spotting the O’s a one run lead, only to homer in the bottom frame to tie it again and in the 11th sealed the game with a walk-off base hit. NAILS.

- It was extremely difficult to juggle between watching the Jays game and the Pens-Caps opener. My brain was saying “playoff hockey is special, it only comes once a year (for two months, but still), and this series will be the most compelling story”. My heart was singing:

I managed to do a decent job as I didn’t miss any of the goals, and caught most of the pertinent Jays moments. Most importantly I got to watch every second of extra innings.

- Here’s hoping that the Pens/Caps series continues to be as good as the first game. Crosby and Ovechkin scoring, physical play from both sides, and the goalies stood on their heads (and sticks). If you haven’t yet seen the amazing save by Varlamov that preserved the final score, here it is in all its glory:

- I think there was a horse race or something. People wore hats. Not sure on the details though.

- The Jays  and Scott Richmond (4-0) just kept on rolling Sunday, getting the brooms out in what surprisingly was their first sweep of 2009. Goodbye Orioles, come back soon! They Jays now have eight of the 14 wins I requested when their current 20 games in 20 days started. Two more wins and they go .500 for that stretch. Starting tonight the Jays will see the Indians twice, the Angels twice and finish up with a three game set against the Athletics. Something tells me they can scratch two wins out of those games.

- Triple overtime in the Ducks-Red Wings game yesterday was pretty cool, and once again was the scene for two outstanding goalie performances. Chris Osgood held up a middle finger to all his critics and Jonas Hiller showed everyone why he was the right choice over Jean-Sébastien Giguère.

Snider: Take a long term view?

Snider: Take a long term view?

- I’ll come right out and be the first to say it. Maybe it’s time for Travis Snider to head to Las Vegas to work on his swing. I realize this comes after a weekend in which he made some spectacular plays in the outfield (Brian Roberts won’t soon forget The Travis). However, he’s in a 6-for-33 slump which leaves him with a .229 average. My reasoning includes an excuse to send him down six weeks, which would give the Jays an extra year of control over Travis, as Bart Given explained before the season began. Everyone kinda forgot about it after Snider jumped out to a fantastic rookie-of-the-year-ish start, but now the question needs to be asked: Would a platoon of Jose Bautista and Joe Inglett really be a downgrade at this point?

- Caught the last period of Bruins/Canes last night and it was highly entertaining. Cam Ward (recurring theme alert) was spectacular facing wave after wave of Winnie The Pooh attacks. At one point during a series of successive Ward saves, the usually staid Gord Miller ran out of octaves to which he could climb. Doesn’t get better than that.

- The Jays send Brian Tallet (1-1) to the mound tonight, and the Jays hitters will face Fausto Carmona (1-3).

Category: The Twit  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  | 4 Comments

The Rosin Bag: The Kids Are Alright

Tuesday, April 07th, 2009 | Author:

I guess now we know why the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario revoked the Rogers Centre’s liquor licence for a couple of games this year. Some Toronto fans brought themselves into disrepute last night after causing a 10-minute delay in which Jim Leyland pulled his players off the field because of projectiles being thrown onto the surface. Stay classy, Toronto.

It’s easy to scold these miscreants, but which is better: the lifeless suits who fill Air Canada Centre for every Leafs game, or the small group of Toronto FC agitators who got themselves pepper-spayed and tasered in Columbus*, or these yahoos who threw baseballs at Detroit Tigers outfielders? Fan passion is a needed ingredient to a healthy sports franchise (just ask Toronto FC), but some residents of society’s underbelly mistake passion for drunken tomfoolery. The crowd I was a part of for the USA v. Canada game at Rogers Centre presented a much better example of desired fan behaviour; passionate support that never crossed the line (despite much alcohol being consumed on that festive day as well).

The incident occurred in the bottom of the eighth, and for a time I thought the story might end up being how Jays fans at the game refused to let their dire predictions for the season go unfulfilled, and snatch victory from the players by forfeiting the game through hooliganism. Thankfully calm was restored and the Jays were able to claim their first victory of the season on the strength of young bats inserted into this season’s lineup.

It’s a strange occurrence when Roy Halladay is not the story on a night that he’s the starter. No; this night belonged to the Jays bats, namely Adam Lind (4-5, 6 RBI) and Travis Snider (2-4, HR, 2B), who pushed 12 runs across, including eight against an over-matched Justin Verlander. Every Jay got a hit last night. It was great to see Aaron Hill turn a double play again and Lyle Overbay bashing a double to the gap, great to see Vernon Wells and Alex Rios having good performances overshadowed. Let’s hope this fight for the spotlight happens many more times this year.

For at least one day the Jays are ahead of the Yankees (snicker, snicker C.C. Sabathia), Red Sox and Devil Rays. Tonight, another youngster features for the Jays. David Purcey takes to the mound and we’ll get to evaluate whether his hot Spring was as irrelevant as most Spring statistics. Here’s hoping he can mesmerize the Tigers hitters and keep this good feeling going.

Viewing note: Sportsnet dropped the ball last night. The game was NOT available in HD in the Ottawa region. Viewers had to tune in to Sportsnet Pacific to watch the game because the Ottawa Senators were playing, but here’s what’s puzzling; the Senators game was in standard definition. It boggles the mind as to why Sportsnet would put the Sens game on their HD feed and their Jays telecast on standard def. Only once the Sens game ended did the HD channel carry the remainder of the Jays game. What a debacle. Oh, and Sportsnet – that “beautiful” camera view from the 5th deck? There’s a reason those are the cheapest seats in the place – you can’t see shit.

*For the record, I believe the incident in Columbus had more to do with badly trained police officers, but it does point to a disturbing trend for Toronto sports fans. You can also point to the incident at the FIFA Under World Cup involving the Chilean National team. Perhaps Toronto fans have been going to too many Bills games at Orchard park and this is learned behaviour.

Category: The Rosin Bag  | Tags: , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment

The Rosin Bag: Toronto Blue Jays Forecast

Friday, April 03rd, 2009 | Author:

Doom and gloom abounds when sifting through the piles of MLB previews and predictions concerning your 2009 Toronto Blue Jays. The obvious steps backwards taken by the franchise are easy to point out: losing A.J. Burnett, Shaun Marcum out for the year, Dustin McGowan doubtful in his ability contribute this year, two rookies in the starting rotation, no free agent activity to speak of…yup, that’s the easy part.

The front office has announced that they’re working towards contending – in 2010. The media has done a bang-up job of toeing the company line, predicting a dire 2009 season. Most outlets predict a finish no better than 4th place in the American League East. With the Rays, Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles rounding out the division, I can see the logic in that.

So with no expectations and such dire predictions to live up to, where are we really?

Pitching:

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2009 Blue Jays starting rotation:

1. Roy Halladay
2. David Purcey
3. Jesse Litsch
4. Ricky Romero
5. Scott Richmond

Although this does seem like the Jays are going into the season light on arms, it’s not all that bad according to Batter’s Box. Reading his post really lifted my spirits concerning this starting grid, and if things work out with just one of the youngsters, the Jays shouldn’t be too far off of what they were in 2008.

The bullpen poses a lot of questions, mind you. Jeremy Accardo was just sent down to the minors and B.J. Ryan hasn’t been able to hit any higher than 87 m.p.h. on the radar gun in Florida. Cito has actually begun musing about using Scott Downs in the closer role. Brandon League has had a fantastic Spring and Casey Janssen should be back to 100% after suffering through injuries. Jason Frasor is what he is, and the rest of the cast should be shuttling back and forth between Toronto and Las Vegas.

I get the feeling that watching the Jays pitch this summer will be anything but dull. How Brad Arnsberg manages the arms will be fun to monitor, and if one of the youngsters emerges as a stud we could be in for a heck of a fun ride.

Hitting:

Here’s what I’ve got for a batting order this year:

1. Aaron Hill
2. Adam Lind
3. Alex Rios
4. Vernon Wells
5. Scott Rolen
6. Travis Snider
7. Lyle Overbay
8. Rod Barajas
9. Marco Scutaro

The Jays were near the basement in offense last season. Should a few “if’s” come through, it will be fairly easy to surpass last year’s numbers. The “if’s” are the following:

- if Aaron Hill overcomes his concussion to return to 2007 form;
- if Adam Lind continues to improve;
- if Scott Rolen stays healthy and re-emerges as a slugging 3rd baseman;
- if Travis Snider is as good as advertised;
- if Lyle Overbay can start hitting doubles again;

If none of these happen, we have the 2008 Jays offense; nothing lost, nothing gained. If however some of these “if’s” pull through, we’ve got something to cheer about it. It means the Jays can score more than one or two runs in support of Halladay. It means the young pitching staff can pitch with a lead on occasion. It means Wells and Rios can start taking more risks on the basepaths.

It means; a better offensive ball club than last year.

My advice to Jays fans watching their team this year is this; enjoy watching these young kids develop. It’s going to be a hell of treat to watch Purcey, Lind, Snider and Romero come of age. Sprinkle a little greatness with Halladay, Wells and Rios and you’ve got a compelling product to follow. Some days will be frustrating, as stupid mistakes are inevitable with such a young team. But whatever you do, don’t get down on these guys. Cito Gaston and Gene Tenace are going to work this bunch into a hitting powerhouse, and by the end of the season we’ll have no trouble imagining a pennant in 2010.

My prediction for 2009? 84 wins and 3rd place in the division. That’s right, only two wins less than last year. That’s how much I think we’ve improved on offense, and I don’t think we’re as terrible on the mound as some are saying. The Yankees are nowhere near as good as advertised, and will miss the playoffs; they’re the team the Blue Jays will beat for 3rd place.

Can’t wait until Monday.

Category: The Rosin Bag  | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment

The Rosin Bag: Spring Is In the Air

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 | Author:

Ok, well maybe not in Ottawa where it’s currently 2 Celsius, but everywhere I look I see signs of baseball’s return (again, not in Ottawa). The purpose of this post isn’t to offer you my Blue Jays Season Forecast (I won’t go so far as to call it a preview – calling it a forecast gives me as much leeway as a weatherman’s predictions), but rather to plug a fantastic blog I’ve been reading the past couple weeks.

It’s called Inside the Majors, and it’s written by former Toronto Blue Jays Assistant General Manager Bart Given (that’s a lot of CAPS). There’s a tonne of great insight from a front office perspective – stuff you wouldn’t see from beat reporters or other media sources.

I’ve added it to my Points of Interest for your to peruse, but a couple of posts that I particularly enjoyed were Second Guessing Managerial Decisions, which lifts the veil of secrecy on a Jim Fregosi “decision” from a few years ago, and You Be The GM – Travis Snider (pictured above). From the former:

After the game the media asked Fregosi about the move, and he replied with a statement along the line of “Sometimes the players make the decisions for you.”

No one presses him on it.

Well after the game, I found out the whole story.

It turns out Fregosi had no intention of hitting for Fullmer, but he never showed and none of the staff could find him in the clubhouse. I’m not sure exactly where he was, but knowing the ultra-intense Fullmer – he was likely waggling a bat somewhere working on his swing.

And from the latter:

A MLB player becomes eligible for free agency once he has amassed six full seasons of service time. If Snider breaks camp with the Blue Jays, he is on schedule to become a free agent after the 2014 season. If optioned until May 15, he wouldn’t have the ability to become a free agent until after the 2015 season. Isn’t six weeks of not having Snider in 2009 worth having him for six months in 2015?

It’s rare to get such candor from a front-office type. As a fan, it’s refreshing to get a look inside the nuts and bolts. Now that I’ve distracted you, I need to get to work on my “forecast”.

Category: The Rosin Bag  | Tags: , , ,  | Leave a Comment