Series Thread: Pirates @ Jays (June 28-30)

[Lateral Quicks]

I for one am willing to try Snider in CF, if and only if he brings it with the stick. Gose probably won't be ready until 2013 at the earliest, so unless Snider is absolutely brutal there why not give him a shot? The alternative is Rajai Davis/Corey Patterson, or perhaps even Adam Loewen. I'll take Snider there over any of those guys.

I'd be most content with a Thames/Snider/Bautista OF for the next year or two, and I hope that's what we see by the end of this year.

End of year lineup should be something like:
SS Escobar
LF Thames
RF Bautista
1B Lind
3B Lawrie
CF Snider
DH Encarnacion
C Arencibia
2B Hill

Somehow the team already has the 9th most runs score this year. That lineup should do much better than that.. potentially top 5.

[kwamebargnani]

How come this team is just so bad with runners in scoring position? Bautista and Lind choke.

[Back2back2back]

WHAT THE PHUCK WAS THAT??? MY GOD!

[sonn]

Every fielding error has Patterson involved somehow.

[kwamebargnani]

Patterson and Davis, how long will these clowns be here?

[spykelee]

Really that should have been escobar's ball. Usually on plays like that, the middle infielder takes control... seeing as how Escobar was backing off though, that should have been Patterson's. Bautista should have pulled off.

[kwamebargnani]

lol @ this circus. Please get rid of worthless scrubs AA. Should have done it months ago.

[LittleOzzy]

Need a new series thread!

[James_Raptors]

Bautista should've backed off on that play. Patterson was there and called for it several times.

[dagger]

I had to sit through that lame spectacle. Beautiful night, but frankly, my wife rarely goes to sports and I coaxed her to go to the game and she pronounced it "not as interesting as basketball". And she is ho hum about the Raptors. I thought she'd like the slower pace of a baseball game. She'd actually played baseball as a kid and had a bit of basic understanding of the game, which she didn't have at first going to a Raps game.

But this is the minor league Jays. We actually have a good thread following the major league Jays at Las Vegas down through the Gulf Coast League. Instead, the paying customer - these were $62 seats behind the Jays dugout, although they were bought as part of seasons seats - gets to watch the Keystone Kops play defence, a manager leave a pitcher one inning too long even though you knew disaster would strike as he did, and a bunch of hitters swinging for the fences instead of getting on base and manufacturing runs as the Pirates did.

As much as any game I've seen this season, Farrell was out managed. The Pirates have less talent - although Clint has them playing like a team, with a purpose, and they happen to have some good pitching. The Jays took first pitch strikes all night, letting Karstens have control of the count. Normally, looking at first pitches, stretching out the count, etc, is a good strategy if the pitcher isn't on, but Karstens has had a brilliant month and it would have been smart, especially after going through the order once, to attack him and not give him an automatic 0-1 count. It also would have been smart to concentrate on getting runners in instead of swinging for the fences every time.

And the defence? Simply horrible, like the first week of spring training.

Frankly, if we're going to be subjected to such ineptitude, clean out those turkeys and bring in the major leaguers from the minors. Patterson, Davis, and whomever we have DHing constitute a third of the lineup that is beyond inept offensively. Throw in Hill, who should be batting eighth, and we're just appalling to watch once we get past Lind. Yes, Arencibia has power, but he's hitting for low average, and you can only have one or two of those in the lineup, not five, if you hope to win.

[Randle McMurphy]

And the defence? Simply horrible, like the first week of spring training.

That's because, for all intents and purposes, it is. They've changed the defensive formation of the team for little reason that I can see and it backfired in two games of this series.

[LBJSeizedMyID]

Escobar laid off the play because Bautista appeared to have called for it, but really it should've been Patterson's ball.

The next play think Thames didn't take the best route to the ball.

I'm all for working the count to get pitchers to pitch deep into ball games but really when you're facing control pitchers like Karstens and Maholm, most of the time they're going to be in the strikezone, so take advantage so agree with the Dag on that one.

[Michael Bradley]

It is remarkable how exciting the 2010 season was, to me at least, with so many moments that stand out despite only winning 85 games and finishing fourth (Cito's farewell, Bautista's surprise season, Morrow's 17 K start, JPA's debut, Marcum back from injury, the Gonzalez/Escobar trade, etc). Yet 2011 gives me the exact opposite vibe. It has been completely forgettable and often frustrating to sit through, and it is only July 1st.

I really hope they get rid of the Super Two rule soon because seeing Lawrie, Thames, etc, from May on-wards would have been a hell of a lot more interesting.