That was such a fun game last night. I'm hoping someone that was at the game can put up a fanpost about the atmosphere in Rogers.
On the double steal from last night, Patrick_M said that Parkes commented that it was pointless to do in front of Jose Bautista. I do understand where that is coming from, it did open first base and allowed the Twins to pitch around Jose, if that is what they did. I know last year we wouldn't have done it. But different year, different coach. With the double steal and the walk to Jose, it loaded the bases for our clean up hitter and gave us a lefty/righty match. It also put a ton of pressure on Pavano. I can see it either way but if you are pretty sure you'll be safe, I like the move. Cito wouldn't have done it, and that doesn't mean Cito would be wrong. In baseball there is often more than one right answer.
I see that Travis Snider isn't in the lineup for this afternoon's game. No, I'm not going to panic yet. A lot of managers like to get everybody into a game early in the season. With Nix and Molina playing today, all the batters will have gotten into one of the first two games. I want Travis to play everyday but I understand the reasoning, especially against a tough lefty. But if this starts happening regularly....
I feel a little bad that we didn't get an April Fools post up, I liked last year's so much, but there just wasn't time yesterday. Hugo and I each answered some questions for Twinkie Town, which makes for some interesting comparisons and then I had to do a 'season preview' post that SB wanted and I'd been procrastinating on for about a week. By the time I'd finished those, I didn't want to think about another post.
A couple of links:
- Jeff Blair has a nice profile of Alex Anthopoulos.
- Man am I tired of people casually decided that the Jays can't finish any better than last in the AL East as Baseball Prospectus does here. I have a post coming, comparing the Jays lineup with the Orioles, but there are only a couple of position players on the O's that I'd rather have than their counterpart on the Jays. I'd rather have the Jay's starting rotation and bullpen. I could be wrong, but I don't see how Baltimore passes us.
- AA doesn't like comparisons to Pat Gullick
- John Lott has a rundown of the Jays player development changes