Tag Archives: Alex Rios

WPA: A stat for everyone (except Francisco Cordero)

Posted on by
1

I understand a lot of the resistance from old-school baseball people and fans to advanced stats. I really do. Advanced stats can be confusing and, because of both their naming and the math that goes into them, intimidating. There’s also the problem that, dammit, I just want to talk baseball and not what somebody might theoretically do over the next so many years, especially considering this or that park factor.

Can’t we just talk about what happened last night?

Can’t we just talk about where our team is in the standings and how they got there?

If the above describes how you feel, I sympathize. I’m not in total agreement, but I do share your feelings to a certain degree. And I have good news — if you’re like me and seeking a middle ground, at least — there is an advanced stat just for you! Continue reading →

About these ads

Alex Rios v2.0?

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been working on a post about how I’m ready for the trades to begin. About how I’m ready for the roster to turn over, for the team to officially give up the chase for the playoffs this year and start really rebuilding.

I was hoping the Jays would move people like Bautista, Buck, Overbay and Gonzalez.

Especially Gonzalez.

Nothing against him personally, it’s just that I was hoping to see Johnny Mac on a daily basis again.

Well, I got my wish. Alex Gonzalez is gone. But, just like wishes granted that wish-granting monkey claw, the wish backfired. Johnny Mac isn’t going to get the daily start at shortstop.

Yunel Escobar is coming back. Not having more than basic cable means I don’t watch the ridiculously high amount of Braves games that I used to, so I don’t know much about him at all. General consensus seems to be that the Braves are selling low; that Escobar’s got a ton of talent — at the plate and in the field — but that he’s just having an off year.

Escobar’s also got the reputation of being a space cadet.

Alex Rios v2.0? If Toronto is to Escobar as Chicago is to Rios, I think we can all be pretty happy with this trade. (Except that we’re not going to see Johnny Mac on a daily basis.)

There were more parts to the trade!

Tim Collins is gone. The other two guys, I don’t really care about. I am sad to lose this great story though.

Collinsecum!!!1 no more.

The last post before embracing the building

Posted on by
1

So Brandon League has joined the ranks of the fallen along with Scott Rolen, Alex Rios, Rod Barajas, Marco (Stroodles) Scutaro and Roy Halladay.

I’m a bit out of the loop right now — not so much that I don’t know that the trade happened, but enough that I’ve got nothing useful to say about it. I guess spending 6+ hours on an airplane for what is supposed to be a two-hour flight will do that to you.

Ah, air travel during Canadian winters.

In honour of the fallen and in lieu of anything useful to say, I’ll give you an animated gif. I’m sure you’ve all seen it before, but it is definitely worth seeing again: The moment I called my favourite of the year, Stroodles stealing second on a walk…

And that’s that. We’ll probably be off until the new year. And when we’re back, we’re embracing building and we’re looking forward.

PLAYOFFS!!!1

My internal monologue about Jason Bay

Posted on by
6

The other night on Prime Time Sports (I know, I know…), as the topic of Alex Rios’s departure was being discussed, Bob McCown made a passing, un-followed-up remark about the possibility of the Jays making an offseason trade: Financial Flexibility in exchange for Jason Bay. My frenzied internal monologue fired up almost immediately, whereupon my idea for this printed back-and-forth was born (or, I flipped channels and stole “Formidable Opponent” from Stephen Colbert, either way…)

From a dumbly simplistic patriotic point of view, it sure would be cool to have a legitimate Canadian superstar playing for the Jays. By that, you mean a recently-anointed dual citizen, whose family clearly isn’t too perturbed about the prospect of living south of the 49. Either way, the man’s an all-star and did represent us at the WBC. So, what, Scott Richmond isn’t a legitimate Canadian superstar? Then why did they “save” him for that all-or-nothing matchup against the Venezuelans, which never happened? Too soon, jerk, too soon. In seriousness, Bay has said he’d welcome a move to the Jays at some point. Yeah, that’s when he played for the Pirates, numbnuts. I’m sure he would have welcomed a move to the Sioux City Gonorrhea Peddlers if it could have gotten him out of Pittsburgh. Continue reading →

We are the (clean) champions, my friend

Posted on by
Reply

world series champsWhat’s so special about the teams celebrated at the recent Back 2 Back weekend? I mean other than the obvious fact that they were Blue Jays teams that won the World Series back-to-back?

According to the The 35th Street Review, every team since then to have won the World Series has been linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

It’s an interesting post, but my only beef is that it’s titled In Search of the Last Clean Champions and it fails to say that your Toronto Blue Jays are, in fact (to the best of anyone’s knowledge anyway) the last clean champions.

P.S. Also on that ChiSox blog, Drew of Ghostrunner fame prepares the Windy City for the Alex Rios era.

Addendum: Yes, our man Ed Sprague has admitted to using steroids, but if you take him at his word, he didn’t start using until 1996. And yes, the case may be the same for some other teams on that list (players starting use after the championship), but I’m not interested in doing the research to find when each and every one of these guys started using. I’m just to enjoy this until someone shatters my delsuion for reals.