August to Infinity - The who-gives-a-damn-week thread

[dagger]

So from here on in, we don't even have as much excitement coming watching good teams decimate the Jays

Now it's going to become a convention of the living dead, as Baltimore comes to town.

So rather than a thread per series, this one ought to take us until we know who the September callups are, when things might get a little more interesting.

Monday Aug 20, 7:07 pm EDT
Andrew Cashner (4-10, 4.71 ERA) vs. Marco Estrada (6-9, 4.87 ERA)

Tuesday Aug 21, 7:07 pm EDT
Dylan Bundy (7-11, 4.99 ERA) vs Sam Gaviglio (2-6, 5.13 ERA)

Wednesday Aug 22, 12:37 pm EDT
David Hess (2-7, 5.95 ERA) vs Thomas Pannone (0-0, 4.15 ERA)


Phillies up next for the weekend

[So_Fresh]

quick someone check the attendance for tonight's game. lol

[rotty]

you couldnt pay me to watch this

[Lateral Quicks]

Read on Twitter

[Al_Oliver]

quick someone check the attendance for tonight's game. lol

Attendance: 25,031

51% Capacity: 49,539... maybe tickets sold!

[dagger]

quick someone check the attendance for tonight's game. lol

Attendance: 25,031

51% Capacity: 49,539... maybe tickets sold!

You know for a Monday, that's not especially bad. So tickets sold, yes.

[metafisical]

Just a curiosity -- for those saying that this is unwatchable or the team sucks, are you in favour of tanking or gunning for the playoffs? If the former, this scrub team is exactly what we want (maybe earlier, like last season) and we should actually be happy about this situation. If the latter, yeah, I have no answer for you except that you won't be seeing playoffs for at least the next few seasons.

[So_Fresh]

I don't mind the tanking to get better but man put out a team that is "fun" and "competitive" to watch. None of which applies to the 2018 Toronto Blue Jays. I would rather watch a .500 Blue Jays team in rebuild mode, than a team that is 15 games under .500 and clearly struggling to put some wins together.

All we have to do is look at another AL team that is in it this year and playing there hearts out. Example of a team who wants to win no matter who's on the team and at what cost. The Oakland A's. A team that has half the payroll and competes day in and day out. Why can't we be like them?? Imagine the A's with the payroll flexibility that we have, they'd be a dynasty and multiple World Series Champions!

[rotty]

Just a curiosity -- for those saying that this is unwatchable or the team sucks, are you in favour of tanking or gunning for the playoffs? If the former, this scrub team is exactly what we want (maybe earlier, like last season) and we should actually be happy about this situation. If the latter, yeah, I have no answer for you except that you won't be seeing playoffs for at least the next few seasons.

I was just making a joke because the season is lost (and has been since May).

Baltimore is beyond terrible and the Jays are terrible hence you couldnt pay me to watch this game.

[metafisical]

Just a curiosity -- for those saying that this is unwatchable or the team sucks, are you in favour of tanking or gunning for the playoffs? If the former, this scrub team is exactly what we want (maybe earlier, like last season) and we should actually be happy about this situation. If the latter, yeah, I have no answer for you except that you won't be seeing playoffs for at least the next few seasons.

I was just making a joke because the season is lost (and has been since May).

Baltimore is beyond terrible and the Jays are terrible hence you couldnt pay me to watch this game.

Yeah, no worries. I wasn't targetting you or anyone specific. It was just a curiosity of mine, because I support tanking, so I am happy about these losses, but I find that other people who seem to support tanking aren't happy about the losses. Just wanted to hear others' points of view.

[dagger]

Just a curiosity -- for those saying that this is unwatchable or the team sucks, are you in favour of tanking or gunning for the playoffs? If the former, this scrub team is exactly what we want (maybe earlier, like last season) and we should actually be happy about this situation. If the latter, yeah, I have no answer for you except that you won't be seeing playoffs for at least the next few seasons.

I was just making a joke because the season is lost (and has been since May).

Baltimore is beyond terrible and the Jays are terrible hence you couldnt pay me to watch this game.

Yeah, no worries. I wasn't targetting you or anyone specific. It was just a curiosity of mine, because I support tanking, so I am happy about these losses, but I find that other people who seem to support tanking aren't happy about the losses. Just wanted to hear others' points of view.

There is a lot less value in "tanking" in baseball than there is in basketball or hockey. So if the team wins or loses means less to me than how it approaches rebuilding. I'm glad Jansen is up, and wouldn't mind moving Maile in the off-season because Reese McGuire might well be an adequate backup - he's certainly a sound defender and his been raising his average a bit in AAA. Even Max Pentecost has come alive at the plate in AA, so I wouldn't want to lose a catcher in the Rule 5 draft in order to keep three prospects plus Maile and Martin.

[Schad]

I don't mind the tanking to get better but man put out a team that is "fun" and "competitive" to watch. None of which applies to the 2018 Toronto Blue Jays. I would rather watch a .500 Blue Jays team in rebuild mode, than a team that is 15 games under .500 and clearly struggling to put some wins together.

All we have to do is look at another AL team that is in it this year and playing there hearts out. Example of a team who wants to win no matter who's on the team and at what cost. The Oakland A's. A team that has half the payroll and competes day in and day out. Why can't we be like them?? Imagine the A's with the payroll flexibility that we have, they'd be a dynasty and multiple World Series Champions!

Oakland has spent years assembling cost-controlled players and waiting for the moment where it (well, where their pitching staff, mainly) came together. It's not a model that is easily followed, as evidenced by the bit where Oakland has sucked in the three preceding years. Not at all a slight against Beane: if not for him, it's doubtful that it would have worked at all. But following a model of "dumpster dive for a bunch of castoffs and have them outperform all expectations" is far easily said than done.

[metafisical]

There is a lot less value in "tanking" in baseball than there is in basketball or hockey. So if the team wins or loses means less to me than how it approaches rebuilding. I'm glad Jansen is up, and wouldn't mind moving Maile in the off-season because Reese McGuire might well be an adequate backup - he's certainly a sound defender and his been raising his average a bit in AAA. Even Max Pentecost has come alive at the plate in AA, so I wouldn't want to lose a catcher in the Rule 5 draft in order to keep three prospects plus Maile and Martin.

Ideally, if you were GM for a day, what would be your approach to rebuilding the Blue Jays at this point?

[Marmoset]

Just a curiosity -- for those saying that this is unwatchable or the team sucks, are you in favour of tanking or gunning for the playoffs? If the former, this scrub team is exactly what we want (maybe earlier, like last season) and we should actually be happy about this situation. If the latter, yeah, I have no answer for you except that you won't be seeing playoffs for at least the next few seasons.

I think part of the issue is that you can have a "tank" season where there are still some good, interesting young players to follow who are likely to be a part of the team's future. You can also have a team that plays an entertaining style while losing games. The Jays have been neither for the most part, although we're starting to see some of the young guys now. Nobody is excited watching Morales, Smoak, Pillar, etc. even though some of the guys on the team are solid players.

The Leafs first season with Matthews, Marner, etc. was incredibly exciting even at the beginning of the season when they weren't very good and nobody expected them to be. It was a surprise when they surged later in the season. If that Leafs team had ended up near the bottom almost nobody would have cared because they had young talent showing what the future could be. It just so happened that the team started winning and made the playoffs so they got the best of both worlds.

[vaff87]

LOL, Buck. Obviously championship teams lead in starters wins ... they win the most games!

[Ado05]

orioles are a different level of ass.

just awful

[Schad]

Remove the Orioles and we're 46-68 on the year.

[Tanner]

Everything about this season has been with rebuilding in mind. The entire off season was Shapiro hedging his bets making it easy to pivot in direction depending on how the team performed.

Fact: rebuilding teams have old veterans clogging up spots on the roster in the absence of a ready prospect. Once a prospect is ready and it makes sense to call him up (service time reasons), then dispose of the vet (who is usually cheap enough to dump or trade) and put the prospect in. That is what we will be seeing from now until 2020.

The team you are seeing on the field is a typical rebuilding team that is not quite ready to go with the full youth movement. You may not enjoy watching the vets, but the team's best prospects are either not ready yet, blocked, or are being held back for service time (Vlad). Next season will be a different story, especially around this time.

[Ado05]

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Thats pretty cool

[dagger]

Finally, a mystery solved

https://www.thescore.com/news/1589578