Thursday bantering

Yesterday the Jays lost 8-3 to the A’s, and were swept by Oakland across an entire season series for the first time in franchise history. Toronto went 0-7 vs. the A’s this season and were outscored 51-18.

And we now stand at 48-59. And even the Rays are above us.

Oh and we don’t have a starter for today’s series opener vs Mariners... (anybody got Kraemer’s number??)

Questions and problems

I thought there would be a big clear out at the trade deadline, but it seemed only piecemeal. The Jays might prove active in the August trade market, and maybe that might clear room for some youngsters to come up to the club.

If this does happen and Toronto gears up for a complete overhaul, it begs the question: is John Gibbons the right manager to oversee this? (my personal opinion is no).

Right now, the trades, the injuries and the current roster seem have, according to Richard Griffin, left the Jays unarmed for battle.

Shi Davidi has an equally depressing piece stating that the Jays pitching staff is drowning and running out of life vests - it sounds as if something Shea Hillenbrand might have written.

And there is a whole bunch of ex and current Jays who have their say on the trade deadline sell off.

The kids are alright

So while there isn’t a whole lot of positivity around the big league club, at least the Bisons and Fisher Cats can be relied upon to cheer us up.

The Bisons split the doubleheader wit the Iron Pigs yesterday. In game 1 (a 1-0 loss) Sean Reid-Foley threw 6.1 innings and yielded one run on four hits while striking out six batters. VladJr. went 1-3 and got his first AAA hit:

In Game 2 the Bisons won 3-2 with catcher Danny Jansen homering for the second straight night. And newly acquired Billy McKinney showed off his arm.

Down at AA the Fisher Cats feasted on the New Hampshire Flying Squirrels (that’s a real team name?!) winning 14-3. The Cats had 17 hits with seven doubles.

Cavan Biggio finished the day 3-for-5 with two home runs, a double and a career-high five RBIs. Bo Bichette, Andrew Guillote and Forrest Wall also had 3 hits. Jon Harris went seven innings, allowing three runs on three hits with three walks and six strikeouts.

Former Jays news:

Quite a bit of news regarding former Jays today:

Drew Hutchison has opted out of his minor league contract with the Dodgers. He did pitch well with AAA Oklahoma City, logging a 2.14 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 42 innings at that level and also had a 23-inning scoreless streak to end his time there.

Adam Lind has opted out of his Red Sox contract and is now on the open market. In 189 plate appearances at Triple-A Pawtucket, he carries only a .216/.270/.398 slash with eight home runs.

The Rays have DFA’ed Adeiny Hechavarria to make room for newly acquired Tommy Pham. He has only hit .258/.289/.332 in 237 plate appearances this year in Tampa Bay.

The A’s have also DFA’ed Carlos Ramirez who only made 3 appearances before going down to AAA Nashville where he has gained a 3.50 ERA with 9.5 K/9 against 4.5 BB/9 in 46 1/3 innings.

Scrabble AKA Marc Rzepczynski has been signed to a minor league deal with the Mariners.

Play of the day

Caleb Joseph tries to channel Chris Coghlan...and fails miserably.

Matt W’s Addendum

This isn’t significant enough to merit its own post, so I’m taking the liberty of appending it to this morning’s post...but think the Jays losses have been tough? Consider what happened to Vancouver last night:

• Jumped out a 2-0 lead and were clinging to the 2-1 lead going to the bottom of the 7th
• After a pair of walks, the tying run scores on a grounder thrown away trying to turn two
• The inning should have ended with no further damage on a check swing where both Hillsboro (opposing team) broadcasters thought the hitter went, but the umpire didn’t call it
• That batter walks and the next batter hits a double just past the third baseman down the line to cash two go-ahead runs
• The score stays at 4-2 to the 9th, where Vancouver makes the first two outs on three pitches
• The pitcher loses the zone, walks the next two hitters on nine pitches total
• That brings up the #9 hitter (who shouldn’t be hitting 9th, but that’s another story), and Otto Lopez crushes a three run home run to take the lead
• The bottom of the 9th starts with two walks, Vancouver then turns a double play that puts the tying run at third but Vancouver just needs an out
• ...but the first pitch to the next batter goes right to the backstop, scoring the tying run
• The very next pitch is smacked for a double, followed by an intentional walk
• And then a walkoff, three run home run. That folks, is a gutpunch.