Monday, April 30, 2012

Weekly Standings Check In: Total Wins and Losses Edition

We're just about  month into the season and it looks like all of MLB is treading water at .500 with 328 wins and 328 losses. Let's hope they can pull things together and a get winning record this year. Very disappointing...

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

A Theory About the Baltimore Orioles

So the Jays are in Baltimore tonight and last time they faced each other, the Orioles won 2 out of 3 games. I'm hoping that things turnout better this time around, but it also got me thinking. How is it even possible that Baltimore can have a winning record this late in the season? And I know the answer. It could be because I've recently watched The Wire in its entirety, but I'm convinced that the commissioner has influenced Baltimore's front office to somehow juke the stats so that they come out looking like winners. It's a classic case of short term thinking in the Charm City.

As an alternate theory, I'm pretty sure that detective McNulty is influencing Baltimore's record, by changing the box score after the games are over, but that's OK because he's awesome...

Monday, April 23, 2012

Weekly Standings Check In: Alphabetical Edition


This week, we examine what happens if the standings were to be seeded alphabetically. The biggest losers are all the relocated and rebranded teams. Had Miami kept Florida as it's region, it would have been in the top ten. Same with the Angels, who originally were known as the California Angels, would have been in the top five. And they would have been first overall had they kept Anaheim in their name instead of attempting to compete with the Dodgers for the hearts of Los Angeles. Speaking of the Dodgers, had they stayed in Brooklyn, they also would have been among the top teams in baseball. The biggest loser is the last place Washington Nationals, considering they would have been ahead of the New York Yankees had they stayed in Montreal.

Also, too bad for the Blue Jays. After all the hope the fans harboured for improvement this year, they end up 2nd last in the entire league. Next year, I anticipate we'll see some teams moving to Albuquerque and Alaska...


Monday, April 16, 2012

Weekly Standings Check In: Wild Early Projection Edition



This is obviously going to be a record breaking season! The Dodgers are on pace to get 145 wins and the Rangers will be close behind with 130!  Too bad for the Padres though, they're on pace for only 30 wins. 

Oooh, and it was so close, but the Orioles will win the East based on their head to head record against the Jays. And what a quick rebuild by the White Sox, getting the wild card after trading away Sergio Santos, Carlos Quentin and Ozzie Guillen? Some smart moves by Kenny Williams.

Wow! This year is exciting, too bad it's over already...


Monday, April 9, 2012

Weekly Standings Check in: Existential Version


It all means nothing...

Opening Weekend Thoughts

An easy way to summarize the first weekend of the Jays season would be to say, it could have ended in disaster. But Toronto's bullpen and bats came through and bailed out the starting pitching. My favourite moment of the weekend had to be when Jose Bautista homered immediately after Masterson threw inside twice to Kelly Johnson. Also, Edwin Encarnacion has been amazing in the clutch so far.

The big story for me was that Joel Carreno was sent down to AAA. My immediate reaction was that Alex Anthopoulos has high expectations for the starting rotation. And if you think about it, Carreno wasn't horrible considering that it was only his first career start and the two home runs he gave up were to the same player. After sleeping on it, I think that the Jays are sending him down to get at least one start until later in April. Until then, the Jays can get by with a four man rotation. I think we'll see Carreno get recalled later this month.

Overall the Jays bats were relatively cold this weekend. It could be due to the weather, or it could have also been caused by all the sinker-ball pitchers Cleveland threw at them. It'll be interesting to see how the lineup fairs indoors at Rogers Centre tonight versus the Red Sox.

So here are the 3 Stars for the weekend series:

1. The Bullpen
2. Edwin Encarnacion
3. Kelly Johnson