Hey, Hey, It’s Blue Jays Opening Day! (An Ode to Melvin)
By: Dan Grant (Mark Shapiro steps to the podium. A hush falls over the crowded press conference.) Hello everyone. Thanks for coming. Let’s not sugarcoat anything. Days like this are […]
By: Dan Grant (Mark Shapiro steps to the podium. A hush falls over the crowded press conference.) Hello everyone. Thanks for coming. Let’s not sugarcoat anything. Days like this are […]
By: Dan Grant The Grant Rant in a nutshell. Find all of Grant’s previous rants here. It’s happened all his life, probably. People telling him he’s too short to do this or […]
With Howell and Smith, it’s not really a question of fit. After losing mainstay Brett Cecil, the Jays needed veteran arms, and these are it, for now. Barring injury, they’ll likely be cogs in the Jays rotation for the entirety of 2017. Let’s get to know them a bit better.
Many think that the Jays bullpen is a huge weakness for a team with so much strength in the starting rotation and an offense that’s now rounding into shape. It’s actually not quite as bad as you might think. Let’s take a look at what the Jays actually have in the bullpen right now. Toronto will likely carry seven relievers for most of the season, so we’ll look at those seven spots by role.
Yes, there are holes in the roster right now, but they’re quite fixable. And even though the 2017 version might look quite a bit different than last years team, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There have been some growing pains, but your 2017 Toronto Blue Jays aren’t headed for the dumpster.
Edwin wants a five year deal, which would take him through his age 38 season with Toronto. While he was something of a late bloomer, he’ll already be 34 years old when next season begins. That’s not ‘aging’, it’s old already! It’s a real factor, and is something that could quickly become a slippery slope. Many fans shrug this off, explaining how these deals are less risky now because more and more players are productive as they get older these days. That’s just not true.
Let’s take a deeper look at this Blue Jays off-season. What they’ve done so far, what they need and what their real options are.
Toronto and Cleveland kick off the American League Championship series Friday night, and it has the whiff of a hard-fought series, full of gamesmanship. These are two teams with very specific strengths and weaknesses. Unlike the ALDS, where Cleveland faced a high powered Boston offense that sputtered and the Jays disposed of the smoke-and-mirrors whiny babies Rangers, these teams appear evenly matched.
Here are your four keys to the series. We’re going back to basics on these sweet babies.
Here are the four keys to once again besting this extremely average, smoke-and-mirrors edition of the Texas Rangers, led by their chud-like manager Jeff Banister.
Who will the Jays need the most? How will they game plan against the Orioles, who play a very specific style of baseball, with both tremendous strengths and glaring weaknesses? This is 25 Deep.