Bluebird Links - The Greatest Blue Jay

by masterkembo on Jan 10, 2011 10:20 AM EST in Toronto Blue Jays Links

Morning everyone. Quick post today because I've got quite a bit on the go right now. Griffin and Perkins at The Star each wrote about their pick as the Greatest Blue Jay on the weekend. Obviously with the cast of players to choose from, there isn't going to be a number one consensus pick, but I enjoy reading about peoples reasoning on the debate anyway.

Check out the articles. Griffin's piece is here. He comes to the conclusion that Delgado was the greatest Blue Jay, and while I disagree with much of his reasoning (especially his reasoning for eliminating pitchers), it's hard to disagree with his selection of Carlos Delgado. Perkins' article, here, drums up support for Dave Steib, narrowly ahead of Roy Halladay.

Who is your pick for the Greatest Blue Jay?

Jays Links

North of the Border
A few tidbits on Litsch (he dropped 12-14 pounds this offseason), Mills, Lind & Arencibia from the Jays beat reporter.

Who’s Your Jose?
Ben Pritchett takes a look at some candidates for a 2011 version of Jose Bautista

When Will Adeiny Hechavarria Arrive in Toronto? | Jays Journal
Mat Germain wonders when Hechavarria will make the bigs. They also have their latest prospect profile up here, with Moises Sierra at number 30.

10,000 days since Toronto’s most embarrassing loss.
For something a little different. I don't think it's actually the teams most embarrassing loss, but it's an interesting story.

Today in Jays History: Alfredo Griffin | Jays Journal | A Toronto Blue Jays Blog
A review of Griffin's career, based on his resigning between the '92 and '93 seasons. They also have an Ernie Whitt piece here.

Winter Tour 2011 | bluejays.com: Fan Forum
The Winter Tour is in Kitchener-Waterloo today and tomorrow for any interested in meeting Snider, JP and Wells.

Around the League

Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - The Year in Review: 1912
An excellent read about the 1912 season. Take a look. I thought this part was funny - I can't imagine Jays broadcasters actually broadcasting a fictional game but apparently, it happened.

The original idea came during the 1994 strike. Believe it or not, with no baseball being played, the radio station actually had Tom Cheek and Jerry Howarth do broadcasts of fictional games. Presumably they got some table game, rolled the dice, got the results and had Tom and Jerry broadcast these made-up games.

Roy Campanella’s 1947 season in Montreal was career turning point " Cooperstowners in Canada
Kevin Glew with a look at Campanella's season with the Montreal Royals.

Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Bert's "Trade"-marked team
A team constructed from players involved in Bert Blyleven trades.

Why the Rays Got Better Today | FanGraphs Baseball
Dave Cameron writes that the Rays got better right away by trading Garza.

Tweet Comment 15 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Delgado for sure

As a pitcher, I would put Stieb. I’ve seen both Roy and Dave pitch (ugh, I am old now) but I would put the jock adjusting mustachioed one ahead of Roy.

If SABRmetrics were around in the 1980s, Dave could have won 4 Cy Youngs in a row. 1982-1985 (at least according to John Thorne.)

In honor of the Jays 2nd Baseman who played with fire in more ways than one.

by Damaso's Burnt Shirt on Jan 10, 2011 12:08 PM EST reply actions

Delgado

I’d lean towards him as well. Longevity plays a factor for sure. I’d always lean towards hitters rather than pitchers, rightly or wrongly.

Stieb and Halladay are pretty close, in my books.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

by Jevant on Jan 10, 2011 12:16 PM EST reply actions

Vern as a breakout candidate?

I’d buy that for a dollar. One more year of eyepopping stats would be nice.

That would be a good kind of scary. Vern and Jose both belting homers like crazy..

In honor of the Jays 2nd Baseman who played with fire in more ways than one.

by Damaso's Burnt Shirt on Jan 10, 2011 12:18 PM EST reply actions

Favorite Jay

I have been a Jays fan since 1979. My favorite Jays pitcher is Dave Steib, Doc a close 2nd….Joe Carter and Aaron Hill are my two favorite non pitchers…

GO JAYS GO

Tom Stewart

by tomstew on Jan 10, 2011 2:30 PM EST reply actions

Jesse litsch dropped 12-14 pounds...

I dropped 10 in one week last September… Such is life for a new father…

Festina Lente

by HESS2479 on Jan 10, 2011 2:40 PM EST reply actions

Stieb

Before I saw either Perkins’ or Griffin’s articles, I noticed the Toronto Star poll. I chose Stieb, and Perkins’ write-up confirmed my choice. Delgado’s not a bad choice though. Nor is Halladay. I even had a sentimental tug for Tony Fernandez, one of my favorite players.

Blue Feathers

by Blue Feathers on Jan 10, 2011 3:43 PM EST reply actions

Fernandez....

best Jay ever to watch day in and day out!

by almantle on Jan 10, 2011 9:17 PM EST reply actions

Yup, Tony Fernandez was pure joy to watch and a great talent.

by jabalong on Jan 10, 2011 11:14 PM EST up reply actions

The Jays Journal Hech story

Reading that Jays Journal story on Hechavarria, this bit if true really boggles my mind:

Buck Martinez answered a question about Adeiny in July of ’10 that dealt with the "$10,000,000 man" and his progress in AA since being called up. He pointed to the fact that the Jays had nobody on the staff, and I mean nobody, who spoke fluently in Spanish in Dunedin to help Adeiny out. Who was teaching him the ropes? Obviously he had to get everything translated from other players, such as Rey Gonzalez, but they’re not always around. So, it’s easy to imagine Adeiny getting about 5% of the instruction he was supposed to be getting. Never mind how that happened in the first place since you’d think that a team would want to make the most out of a $10,000,000 investment (shame, shame), at the very least they recognized their mistake and put him up in AA with Luis Rivera. And just like that, Adeiny’s performance began to creep up. I expect that he’ll blossom even more in 2011 and that we should collectively cut him some slack until after the season.

I don’t rehash the debate here about having a Latin coach for the Jays, but c’mon with all the money at the Jays disposal and just the amount being invested in these young players, how in the world can you possibly not having someone on staff at every level that speaks Spanish? How much does a coach in A-ball make? How does it make any sense to invest millions of dollars in a player like Hech and not spend the I’m guessing of tens of thousands to have a Spanish speaking coach around, even if it’s an unofficial coach (say if Dunedin already has its allotted number of coaches). I don’t get this at all.

by jabalong on Jan 10, 2011 11:12 PM EST reply actions

August 24, 1983

I don’t know if that’s the most embarrassing loss in Jays history, but the top of the ninth in that game on August 24, 1983 sounds like it might have been the Jays’ most embarrassing inning offensively ever – all three outs on guys picked off at first!

by jabalong on Jan 10, 2011 11:20 PM EST reply actions

Just imagine if Cito where the manager in 1983

I sure remember that game. Our manager was the infallible Bobby Cox.

by leonard euler on Jan 11, 2011 9:37 AM EST up reply actions

The trouble was the Orioles had an emergency catcher in

They Jays wanted to run but the umpires were allowing a move to first that wasn’t even a borderline balk….it was clearly a balk but they didn’t call it.

by Tom Dakers on Jan 11, 2011 10:05 AM EST up reply actions

I almost wrote the same thing.

Interesting Tom, I started to write the same things about the emerency catcher and the balks when I caught myself. I realized I was rationalizing to give a break to a manager I thought was the best Blue Jay manager ever, although be it for a short period of time. I think it would be similar to a game where we criticized Gregg for thowing “strike” after strike on the outside corner, knowing that the umpire was (incorrectly) going to call them all “balls” .

by leonard euler on Jan 11, 2011 12:18 PM EST up reply actions

I don't think it had much to do with the manager.

Cox might have been a micro manager, but he didn’t control when the players go back to the bag on a pick off. Blaming the manager on that seems like searching for something bad to say about him.

by Tom Dakers on Jan 11, 2011 1:44 PM EST up reply actions

Delgado

I cried a little when he left Toronto. The only player in baseball, over my 20+ years of watching the game, that has brought me more joy is Kirby Puckett.

Kirby and Carlos were similiar people though. Both had a infectious smile and a mean glare. They loved the game and played it with so much heart it almost hurt.

I could support arguements for Halladay, Steib and Alomar but if I was paying to watch anyone one more time it would be Carlos.

by Oldfinfan on Jan 11, 2011 11:26 AM EST reply actions