Series Thread: Jays @ Yankees | April 29 - May 1

[LittleOzzy]

Friday, April 29, 7:05 PM ET Sportsnet
Ricky Romero vs. Freddy Garcia


Saturday, April 30, 4:05 PM ET Sportsnet
Kyle Drabek vs. A.J. Burnett


Sunday, May 1, 1:05 PM ET Sportsnet
Jesse Litsch vs. Ivan Nova

[evilRyu]

sweet, we miss CC again

oh, and FIRST!!

[Raider917]

Drabek vs Burnett again.

[Wo1verine]

NICE! We get to face Nova

[DonVitoMan]

Lets take this series. HUUUGEE

[Lateral Quicks]

If it weren't for Bartolo Colon, the Yanks would be close in with the rest of the pack right now. I don't see him keeping it up all year, though, but I suppose it's possible considering he's done it many times before.

I like the matchups, and say we take 2 of 3 at least, despite our rather anemic lineups at the moment. I'm so happy to see that good Morrow has returned from the IL, and Morrow-Romero-Drabek-Litsch should give us a good chance to win each time out from here on in. Now if we could just get the lineup healthy and performing like they can.

[baulderdash77]

I like our chance to take 2 out of 3 in this one. We're really lucky to miss Colon and Sabathia.

[CapeCrusader]

Hoping for two...but I don't have a good feeling about this series.

[Geddy]

I'm not worried about the Yankees starters and hopefully they can get 2 of 3 at least.

[Avenger]

we're facing two bums and AJ Burnett ? Jays are getting pretty lucky when it comes to pitching matchups.

[Raider917]

the jays bullpen is looking good again. they have a league leading 2.84 era now

[Lateral Quicks]

I think we can chalk that walk-a-thon vs. Seattle up to bullpen fatigue/over-use. I've said it many times before, but the bullpen should be a strong suit for the club this year. If anything, there's too much high quality depth. I hope Dotel is the one to go, but I doubt it

[Randle McMurphy]

Dotel is fine, as long as he isn't used against lefties in high leverage situations. Then he becomes a complete disaster.

The problem, though, is that John Farrell has insanely been using him against lefties in high leverage situations.

[Schad]

Dotel is fine, as long as he isn't used against lefties in high leverage situations. Then he becomes a complete disaster.

The problem, though, is that John Farrell has insanely been using him against lefties in high leverage situations.

48.5% of hitters faced by Dotel have been lefties; league-wide, lefties comprise 46.7% of plate appearances. If he's even aware that Dotel can't get lefties out, he doesn't show it.

Though perhaps he just wants to let him work through it...he's a young 37 year old kid, and needs to learn how to turn his negatives into positives.

[U_Mad]

We got this

[evilRyu]

dam, I did not know lefties comprise 46.7% of plate appearances.. i thought it'd be much lower than that..

[Homer Jay]

Does it look like it is shaping up to being Rivera in LF and Cooper DHing?

These are three guys I think Lind can knock around the park, hopefully he builds on his great Rangers series.

[Graham's Cracker]

So David Cooper is going to come up to DH with the suddenly red-hot Juan Rivera moving to left field for the time being. Rivera’s poor defense may be mitigated by the return of Rajai Davis, who will be back in the line-up tonight, but it also may not.

Cooper put himself back on the Blue Jays’ radar last July by sitting down with former Jays Scouting Director Jon Lalonde and watching some video of the swing he had in college then trying to get back to it. It worked, and he had a strong final two months of 2010, then came to Spring Training and opened a ton of eyes, hitting .378/.400/.511 in 45 at-bats. His strong spring carried into the start of the season at Las Vegas, where he hit .395/.438/.617 over the first 20 games, with more walks (7) than strikeouts (6), which is one of the things that stood out to Anthopoulos.

Asked about the decision to choose Cooper over Brett Lawrie and Eric Thames, Alex cited Cooper’s strong approach. He said that Lawrie and, to a lesser extent, Thames, are getting by on their talent rather than their approaches right now, and they have to get those things right before getting the call to the bigs. Lawrie has struck out 21 times and only walked four (despite his 1.090 OPS), while Thames with his 1.069 OPS has 10 walks and 19 strikeouts.

Cooper is the latest first-round “bust” to make it to the majors with the Blue Jays, and he beat Ricky Romero by a year. That bust has worked out pretty well, as it turns out.

http://blog.rogersbroadcasting.com/mikewilner/2011/04/29/it-dont-mean-a-thing/

[MGD24]

Tonight's lineup;

Davis-CF
Escobar-SS
Bautista-RF
Lind-1B
Rivera-LF
Encarnacion-3B
Cooper-DH
Arencibia-C
McDonald-2B

[s e n s i]

lol that's actually not one of the worst line-ups ive seen all year...far from it even