I keep running into stories that I want to link to, so why don't we put them all in one post instead of cluttering up the site with fanshots.
Over at Richard Griffin's Blue Jay blog on the Star, Richard talks about Ozzie Guillen's suspension for praising Fidel Castro. Now, Ozzie says stupid stuff all the time. Suspending him for saying something dumb is makes you wonder if the Marlins had any idea of who they were hiring. Really, Ozzie wasn't suspended for what he said, he was suspended because he could cost the Marlins millions of dollars, if Cubans in the Miami area decide to boycott the team. The moral, you can say all the crazy stuff you want, as long as it doesn't cost your employer money.
Richard's mailbag follows the story, where he answers such important questions as 'On opening day, Brett Lawrie wasn't singing along with the National Anthem, what gives?' 'Were we sold a bill of goods with Sergio Santos?' And 'why were the Jays too cheap to sign Prince Fielder?'
At MLB Traderumors let's us know it is a 'make or break' season for Adam Lind.
Toronto has already prepared itself for the post-Lind era, so the pressure is on the 28-year-old to show that he deserves to not just keep his job now, but also that he deserves to play for the contender that the Jays fancy themselves to be in the near future.
I'm not sure the team has prepared itself for 'post-Lind' but there are number of ways they could replace him after this season.
Ken Fidlin, in the Sun, says the Jays pitching picture is scary good. Well, to be fair, it was the headline writer that said that, not Fidlin. I'm pretty sure Fidlin is too smart to suggest our pitching is scary good, but he talks about the nice job our starters have done, so far, and how good our pitching prospects look. Talking about Lansing's rotation:
High-end prospects in Lansing include Noah Syndergaard, 19, Anthony DeSclafani, 21, Justin Nicolino, 20, Aaron Sanchez, 19 and Jesse Hernandez, 23. With the exception of Hernandez, those young arms are being stretched out slowly and are being piggy-backed in games. Syndergaard is paired with DeSclafani; Nicolino with Sanchez. Right now, they are limited to three innings each, per game.
It sounds like MLB wants to stop the GIF bringers.
Monday is Jackie Robinson Day across the MLB. Richard Justice has a great post up about the man.
We use those words because they're the best we can do. In truth, it's impossible to know or understand what he endured. He was spit on and cursed, routinely. Pitchers threw at his head, routinely. He was drilled in the legs and ribs for sport. Fans threatened him, often loudly. He was constantly confronted with people who despised him because of the color of his skin and nothing else.
It is hard to believe so much has changed so much in such a, relatively, short time. There are still idiots out there but we've improved so much as a society. We can always get better, but we've come a long way in 65 years, and a lot of it is because of Jackie Robinson.