Maybe this would be better as a fanshot, but I'm not sure how long it will end up being.

I found it interesting as I scanned through my newsfeed that there was both bad news and good news on the racism/tolerance front:

After Joel Ward scored the winning goal for the Capitals, racist tweets started showing up. There's no need to reproduce them here - I'm sure you can find them if you really need to read the verbal train-wrecks.

Maybe my view of "sport" is fairy-tale and sugar-coated. To me the word "sport" should reflect fun and fair-play. The strongest imprints on my mind about the word "sport" were formed as a child with phrases like "being a good sport" and "a sporting chance". Indeed, when I was young, we participated in sports purely as recreational activities and there wasn't the same obsession with winning I have seen in my children's generation.

Sure, professional sport is about winning, because winning teams generally make more money and these franchises are more valuable. I can dislike the Boston Red Sox uniform and kid my student that wears a Red Sox hat to class every day that he's hurting his grade, but to hate the "Greek God of Walks" (who isn't Greek) because he wears that uniform, is dumb. I don't like seeing Yankees clothing around the university, but people are entitled to their opinion. I don't think ARod is a jerk because of his uniform, but because I despise it when people with enormous talent, like him, still feel the need to cheat to gain an advantage.

(BTW, the two Hall of Famers I would most like to talk with are Hank Greenberg and Jackie Robinson, two great talents that kept their dignity despite facing racist attacks for much of their careers.)

Then there is the trial of Anders Behring Breivik, whose atrocious attack was motivated by a perverse, racist view of Norwegian society. At one point, he lashed out at the song "Children of the Rainbow", which espouses views diametrically opposed to his. I loved the Norwegian response: an estimated 40,000 people filled the square near the court house in rainy weather to sing the song.

Mr. John as our new golden child Colby has taken to calling him, looks to me, to be much more comfortable behind the bench this season. I was checking out some Jay news and noticed that he has given Edwin clean-up duties full-time, this was great news, thank you Mr. John.

Last season at times he seemed tentative to make moves that needed to be done, whether it was Patterson hitting second or rauch closing, there were days that i screamed at my t.v. in the vain hope that Mr. Farrell would hear me AND actually listen.

This year however he seems much more content with his managing, he has been mixing and matching our lineups for either righty or lefty, something we never saw last year. He is making all the right subs when they needed to be made that more than likely have already won us a game or two. i think his BP use up to now has been much better, he is already using Perez in higher leverage situations which i feel wouldnt have happened last year until around august. Sure he could use Casey a little more but thats what happens when u have 7-8 BP guys and your starters are all going past six.

Up to now t he only bad moves that stick out in my mind is two games in a row when he pinch hit for Thames with Davis against a righty, i didnt get that, but hey if his bad moves are given Davis a few extra ABs here and there, whatev.

All in all i give Farrell a B+ for his performance up to now( no formula, that just seems right) and am hoping to

After Hutch's up-and-down debut on Saturday in which he ultimately secured the win, I wanted to look a little deeper using some Pitchf/x analysis. At this point, only Brooks Baseball had the data uploaded, so I am going off their data. They take Gameday data and apply their own classification algorithms, so it may be a little different than what is seen elsewhere, but I find their algorithm is usually a little more accurate.

Using their excellent player cards, there's two things main things I want to look at for Hutchison. First, the characteristics of the pitches he threw:

Unsurprisingly, we saw the four pitch mix the scouting report told us to expect: 2 fastballs, a four seamer and two seamer (labelled as a sinker here), change-up and slider. Two things stick out to me - first, that the fastball was used almost 80% of the time, which is pretty high. Second, the similar average velocity of the two fastballs. The scouting reports on him usually say he sits 90-92 with the two seamer, so it was on average a fair bit quicker that.

Next, we can look at the outcomes of each pitch type:

There's some pretty interesting information here. First, as was noted in the game thread, both home runs were hit on change-ups, which is supposed to be Hutchison's best secondary. One of the other two change-ups put in play was lined to KJ in the 4th, I don't know if it was hard hit or not. It was suggested in the game thread that KC may have been sitting on it, despite the HRs I don't think this was the case after reviewing the pitch-by-pitch data

The biggest thing that sticks out to me is that he seemed to have trouble command the twoseam fastball, as less than half went for strikes. Significantly, of the 25 that were taken, 80% went for balls, which suggests he was generally missing significantly. He failed to generate a single swinging strike, and gave up a couple of line drives. My understanding is this is his bread-and-butter pitch, so if he was having trouble with it, it could explain some of the struggles.

By contrast, the four seamer was pretty good, generating a swinging strike rate of roughly 10%, which is about the major league average, and generating all grounders on the 3 balls in play. I downloaded the Excel data in order to look at the inning-by-inning use of pitch types, as well as which type of fastball. This is unadjusted MLBAM data, so the counts of the two fastballs don't precisely tie in, but it's close enough to give an idea:

Hutchison had very easy innings in the first (HR excepted, and it was a change), third and fourth innings. In those innings, he used less FBs overall, and used more four seamers relative to two seamers. He got into some trouble when he used a high proportion of FB and tried to mix in the two seamer.

Finally, the slider is supposed to be his most inconsistent pitch - it flashes plus. It was actually decent, giving up only single on 5 balls in play, of which 4 were fly ball. Interestingly, if there was a pitch KC batter were sitting on, it appeared to be this one, as 7 of 11 were put in play (and 3 of the other 4 were balls) and there were a number of fly balls so location ma have been an issue.

Some other notes (all using unadjusted MLBAM data) :

• Hutchison threw first pitch strikes to only 9 of 26 batter (35%, major league average is 50% this season).
• Of the 17 batters who saw ball 1, 10 went to 2-0. When 38% of the batters have a 2-0 count, that's never going to work out well. Of those 10 batters to go 2-0, 5 saw another ball, 2 took a called strike, one ball was fouled off, and the two balls put into play went for a double and the Hosmer HR in the 5th.
• The four seamer was used equally to lefties (21) and righties (21)
• The two seamer was used much more against lefties (28) than righties (8)
• Of the 10 change-ups, 3 were even in the count, 4 were behind in the count and 3 were ahead in the count. All but one were to lefties.
• Of the 11 sliders, 7 were even in the count (5 were first pitch), 3 were ahead in the count (2 outs and a foul), and 1 was behind in the count, and it was only one to go for a hit. Also, 9 of the 11 were to righties.
• Of the 14 lefty batters, 3 got hits, but they did damage, being the triple and the two HR. All 3 BB were to them, which follows from the fact that he used the two seamer against them and had trouble throwing for strikes. Perhaps the KC lefties knew he wouldn't use the slider, and were sitting on the two seam/change-up plane.
• Of the 12 righty batters, 5 got hits, including two doubles and the HBP.

Assuming Hutchison gets another start, I will be watcing for two things in particular - throwing first pitch strikes, and command of the two seamer. I'll be watching the results on the change-up too, but it seems to the me that the first two are more critical. Any other thoughts or criticisms, please leave in the comments

Hello Kidlets,

It's poll time! Let's see who has fans and who doesn't.

Are we over the thrill of Eric Thames's good run last year and his massive guns? He of the wild routes to balls in the air. Who pines for the return of the red cheeked wonder boy that faltered? The kid who can play all outfield positions well but can't hit a breaking ball to save his life.

Time to pick a side.

CHOOSE NOW:

Poll

Who's band wagon are you on?

11%

Eric Thames

122 votes

83%

Travis Snider

882 votes

4%

Ben Francisco

52 votes

1056 votes | Poll has closed

Hello everyone

My name is Austin and I have been reading BBB for just over a year now but haven't really contributed too often. I was recently told a story that I would love to share with you. I've been a dedicated Blue Jays fan for about 6 years or so (I'm 19 so that's a significant portion of my life), however I used to watch Blue Jays games with my (late) grandfather as far back as I can remember. My first coherent blue jay memory is watching Alex Rios hit a really long home run at the Rogers Centre and him quickly becoming my favourite player (I know that's a bit embarrassing but what can you do). Obviously when I started paying closer attention to baseball and baseball statistics (such as batting average) I realized there were much better players out there.

Now for my first ACTUAL blue jay experience. I was recently having dinner with my father when he described to me how exciting it was when the Jays won the back to back World Series'. Being born in November 1992 I was a third trimester fetus at the time the Jays won the 1992 World Series. I was, however, a strapping 11-month year old lad when they won the 1993 world series. My father was recounting watching Carter hit the walk-off Home Run. His vivid description wowed me up until the part where he told me that I was on his lap when it happened. Apparently he stood up cheering and I went flying onto the floor. Now it is never a good thing when a parent tells you they dropped you as a child but for some reason I found this deeply satisfying. Perhaps, due to the traumatizing connection I had with the Jays, I was destined to become a lifelong fan. Know one can know for sure but all I can say is that I am hopeful to see another World Series win for our Bluebirds at some point in the near future. I hope that I have better control of bodily functions than the last time they won and that I too can feel joyful enough that I would drop an infant in celebration(of course I don't actually mean that part). Thanks for hearing my memory and for being an awesome community of fans.

Austin

Talking with a Red Sox friend of mine and his theory is that the Sox are using Bobby V as a bridge to John Farrell. I asked why JF would leave the jays when they have a deeper pool of young players, a better FO to work for and a fan base that is not full of Pink Hat brigaders and Red Sox Nation. (I lived in NE for 6 years and their fans are the most annoying and offputting group of fans I have come across. Raiders and Cowboys are next in that line) He countered with the payroll potential and the manager salary. I can't wrap my head around why JF would leave the potential and longevity of the Jays for the atmosphere of Boston. Not to mention, what players are left on the Sox roster should JF take the position after BbyV runs a bunch of the talent out of town? I can't make the conclusion that JF leaves for Boston, what do others think?

In Lansing, the Lugnuts sent Noah Syndergaard and Anthony DeSciafani to the hill for their usual 3 innings a piece.

Noah Syndergaard's line for the night:

3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 2 SO, 0, HR, 6:1 GO:AO

The Dayton Dragons only managed 1 unearned run against the big Texan flamethrower after an errant pickoff attempt allowed one of his walks to move to third after a SB and eventually score on a ground out. The SO:BB wasn't quite as sparkling as his last outing but he got 6:1 GOs to AOs which is hard to complain about. He's held opponents to a .182 BA against thus far in his first two games and there is no reason to believe he won't be facing stiffer competition again before too long.

Anthony DeSciafani (BBB #43):

3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 1 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR, 4:1 GO:AO

DeSciafani gave up two singles in the 1st inning and a SB which allowed the Dragons to score their only run against the talented 6th rounder. Scalafani's ERA sits at a tidy 1.50 so far in his professional debut with the Lugnuts and could move up the prospect rankings in he can harness some of the potential scouts have raved about in his stuff.

The best for last out of Dunedin after the Jump:

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If I were to tell you last week, that six games in, a candidate for our most valuable position player would be Rajai Davis, I'm sure you would have laughed.

Ok, that was a stretch.

However, with all due respect to Edwin Encarnacion and Kelly Johnson, I'm in love with Rajai's play thus far. He's fast, he's exciting, and he really can change the game coming off the bench. It's a sign of how good the Jays are getting when a player like Rajai is on the bench. There's a couple reasons why I love him this year though, and they aren't just limited to his speed. Follow me over the jump...

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To all members of Bluebird Banter:

Let me start by congratulating you on creating a warm and inviting environment. I was hesitant to join a baseball blog on SBN (having been drawn to SBN by the network's Chelsea FC blog, We Ain't Got No History), but your excellent site has convinced me to join and, in a shocking twist of events, contribute to this atmosphere.

But enough with the pleasantries. There are confessions to be made.

My name is Dan, and I am a shameless fair-weather fan.

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I am cautiosly optomistic as we head into the season.We have a very good (young) team.They are going to create a lot of exciting moments for us fans.If they can keep their focus without being too intense they will do well.apparently Kyle D. has learned this lesson.We will see.There is no doubt that we can count on Joey Bats,Edwin E. Kelly J. The other guys have yet to really prove themselves over a full season.The pitching would appear to be more than adequate.I do not like talk of awards for any individuals this early in the season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tThis a team sport .KEEP IT THAT WAY FOR THE YEAR.