Monday Bantering: Links

Another day with no Blue Jays news makes Tom something something.

Buster Olney, at ESPN, wonders why the Rockies aren’t shopping Trevor Story the way Cleveland is shopping Francisco Lindor. Story will be making $18.5 million this year and will be a free agent next year. Which made some think the Jays should change their target from Lindor to Story.

The obvious issue is Story’s home/road splits. Trevor, career has hit .304/.370/.624 at home and .250/.315/.445. Coors Field a batter friendly park, but not that big, but obviously Story likes hitting there. I’m sure he would learn to like hitting at Rogers Centre too. I’m guess not to that extent though.

He is a good defensive shortstop.

But I don’t think I’d consider Lindor and Story equals as trade targets.

The Toronto Sun picked the Blue Jays as Postmedia Team of the Year, for perseverance through the rather weird season.

I have a criticism of the story as written in the Sun. No where does it say the scope of the Award. Is it only for Toronto teams? Canadian teams? North American? Any sport? Just pro sports?

I’ll guess Canadian teams. If so, did the Jays face more challenges than the Raptors? I guess the Jays faced challenges that were different than all the other teams in the MLB, while the Raptors faced much the same challenges as every other NBA team.

But, I think the Jays are deserving (I think we all deserve an award for persevering through that mess of a year). The Jays could have easily thrown in the towel at many points of that season. I’m sure Buffalo wasn’t as comfortable as Toronto would have been. Starting the season playing home games in the other team’s parks can’t have been easy.

Congratulations Jays, I hope the award comes with a big fat cheque. Maybe enough to pay the first couple of seasons of a big contract to George Springer?

After the Padres made all their moves, BetOnline.ag sent out new betting odds to win the World Series. The Padres odds went from 8/1 to 6/1, but the Dodger’s odds didn’t change at all.

The Rays odds got worse, going from 10/1 to 16/1, while the Jays odds got better, going from 50/1 to 28/1.

Here are all the odds:

I like that the Pirates odds went from 300/1 to 200/1, likely meaning some people decided to take the long odds.

I’ve been watching football more intently than any other year. I don’t have a favorite team and normally I like that because I live and die on every Jays game, so it is good to watch a sport and not care. But this year, I think I’ll pick a playoff team to follow. Might as well have a team to be disappointed in.