Hope it is a good day where you are, me, well, my little outpost apparently moved to the South Pole while I slept. Woke up this morning to a good foot of wet snow and 90 k winds. Makes me think longingly back on January, when it might not have been warm but you didn't have to put a rock on the car to make sure it didn't blow away.
Before we get to a bunch of links, I want to give a reminder of the rules around here. Basically all the rules revolve around one thought, that this place is our living room, don't say anything on here that you wouldn't say in our living room. We all get a little grumpy when the team loses but try to remember we are all fans of the Jays. Or at least should be, if you aren't, this is not the place for you.
Our members are great. Our game threads occasionally might get a little testier than normal with us losing but that is part of life. None of us enjoy losing and sometimes that makes it a little harder to deal with different personalities.
All that said, this morning I banned someone for the first time in a long time, I don't even remember the last time I banned someone, other than spammers. We get folks that think this is a great place to put up posts selling their website/dating service/purses, those ones get banned quick. I don't know why folks would think this is the place to sell purses. I mean, my wife does read occasionally (just enough to tell me off when I say something stupid) but even she can't keep a business that sells purses running all by herself. And she's tried (kidding, kidding).
How can you get yourself banned? Basic trolling would do it. After each loss post about how smart you were to be the only one that thought the Jays would suck (because clearly that was the minority opinion on the internet), remind how you said we'd lose 100+ games (funny that even after a 5 game losing skid we are at a rate to lose 88 games) and tell us you were the only person on earth that thought we'd have poor attendance (because everyone on this site had us down for 4 million paying customers). After doing that a bunch of times you'll be banned. And then you'll wonder why, since the rules clearly say 'act like this is our living room and saying over and over how my team sucks in my living room is a good way to get invited back.
Remember this is a Jays fan site, if you are here you are expected to cheer for us, not take glee in our losses. It isn't a free speech issue. You want to say the Jays suck, you are welcome to, go start your own blog and do it. If you are only here to tell us how bad we are, we have ESPN.com to do that for you.
Some links to warm a cold day, after the jump.
- Bluejays.com has some new on our injured players: Tallet will 'be a while'. Encarnacion is playing in extended spring training, will be 'a week or two'. Rzepczynski has no 'timetable for return'.
- Jeff Blair discusses our hitting troubles. A taste:
Let's be honest, there are four everyday players who matter here: Aaron Hill, Lind, Wells and Travis Snider. The rest are fine human beings and all that, but they won't be anywhere near Toronto when the games will mean something.
- Richard Griffin writes about the inactivity of our bench players. I love this bit where Cito makes it sound like he has no control over playing time:
"Sometimes it's really hard," Gaston said. "You've got guys like Gonzalez who really don't want to miss any games. Hill's back and he doesn't want to miss a ballgame and Vernon's pretty much the same. Because of injuries, we've been able to get some of the guys in there. If I could (start them) twice a week it would be great, but it's hard to do."
- If you forget that players are people too, Jeremy Sandler in the Post talks about how happy Rommie Lewis is to be here.
- Beyond the Boxscore's Week 4 Power Ranking is out. We dropped 5 spots in the week to 10th on the list.
- The Post also talks about Jose Bautista's ability to drive in runs.
- Something smells in the Jays dugout.
- Jordan Bastian talks about Cito's use of pinch hitters, among other things related to baseball only.
Only three times over the course of Toronto's first 21 games did Gaston use a pinch hitter. In the eighth on Wednesday, Gaston used three pinch hitters in a row
- Want a listing of the most hated teams in baseball? Here. Not that I believe any list that doesn't lead off with the Yankees or Red Sox.
- MLB is making changes to the All-Star game.
- And in non baseball stuff, Bryan Adams will be the 'headliner' for the World Cup closing concert. From all Canadians, I apologize. I guess it could have been worse, could have been Shania Twain or Celine Dion.