ST: Orioles @ Blue Jays Sept 26-28

[Lateral Quicks]

Dat Pillar OPS ascent tho.

Dat Pillar slide tho.

[Geddy]

Janssen entering the game to ruin a pleasant afternoon

[RapsFanInVA]

Tied for 2nd place! Successful season!

[MikeM]

Let's run that 5 WAR Pompey/Pillar platoon next year.

[tecumseh18]

[Lind] cannot pinpoint a precise reason [for the loss of power], although he suspects the philosophy of new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer may have led to him trading power for average and OBP.

Yeah, the Royals really suffered after losing the great Kevin Seitzer as their hitting coach.

For the Royals, team OPS dropped from .694 in 2013 to .689 in 2014. Slugging % went down from .379 in 2013 to .376 in 2014.

kevin seitzer wasn't the royals hitting coach last season, as he was only there from 2009-2012. during that period the royals had .729 OPS and a 95 wRC+. since then they've posted a .691 OPS and 91 wRC+. not 100% sure if the bolded part is sarcasm, and how much credit you want to give seitzer (shouldn't be much in any case) is up to you, but yeah -- it does appear the royals really did suffer after losing him as their hitting coach

Well yes, there was some bitter sarcasm there, but more over the overall situation (perennial losers KC surpassing us and snatching the last WC spot) than with respect to any person. For some reason I had been under the impression that Seitzer had been the Royals batting coach last season, and that the Jays scored an enormous coup in stealing him away. I forgot that he was actually unemployed for all of 2013. Thanks for correcting me.

But the substance of my post was to figure out the vanilla statistical effect Seitzer actually had on the Jays generally and Lind individually. And to rebut Lind's attempt to throw his batting coach under a bus.

[BigLeagueChew]

SS Jose Reyes (S)
RF Jose Bautista (R)
DH E. Encarnacion (R)
1B Adam Lind (L)
LF Dalton Pompey (S)
3B M. Kawasaki (L)
CF Anthony Gose (L)
C Josh Thole (L)
2B Ryan Goins (L)

Thank you everyone for another good season.

[bballsparkin]

^^I sure hope the second half of the batting lineup looks better than that next season.

[distracted]

^^I sure hope the second half of the batting lineup looks better than that next season.

Add Melky and Lawrie (both question marks) and it looks a lot better.

[Waylon Mercy]

Who just saw the fat chick with the "I love BJ's" shirt?

[bballsparkin]

Add Melky and Lawrie (both question marks) and it looks a lot better.

Well that's true. Lawrie needs to lift that average and stay healthy though. Hopefully the Jays retain Melky with a fair contract.

[Randle McMurphy]

Pinch running fat Juan over Colby in the 9th was the final insult of this ridiculous month.

[Raptor_Guy]

Pinch running fat Juan over Colby in the 9th was the final insult of this ridiculous month.

I had no idea what the hell was going on there, I thought Gibbons was actually trolling or something.

[Randle McMurphy]

Pinch running fat Juan over Colby in the 9th was the final insult of this ridiculous month.

I had no idea what the hell was going on there, I thought Gibbons was actually trolling or something.

Pretty sure he was. There's literally no other reason to pinch run Francisco with all the other options other than insulting Colby.

Apparently it wasn't enough to leave Colby dead and buried, Gibbons had to spit on his grave too. I'm even more interested now to find out what he did.

[MikeM]

Or he could have been trolling Fat Juan because, you know, he made him run.

[s e n s i]

Apparently it wasn't enough to leave Colby dead and buried, Gibbons had to spit on his grave too. I'm even more interested now to find out what he did.

yeah, i too am waiting patiently to find out what exactly colby did to deserve being exiled to **** alcatraz in the middle of a playoff race. it probably isn't as bad as we'd like to hope i'm guessing, which is just horrible if so. wish rasmus a monster rest-of-his-career, guy handled the entire situation like a total pro and wish it could've worked out better

[Randle McMurphy]

Apparently it wasn't enough to leave Colby dead and buried, Gibbons had to spit on his grave too. I'm even more interested now to find out what he did.

yeah, i too am waiting patiently to find out what exactly colby did to deserve being exiled to **** alcatraz in the middle of a playoff race. it probably isn't as bad as we'd like to hope i'm guessing, which is just horrible if so. wish rasmus a monster rest-of-his-career, guy handled the entire situation like a total pro and wish it could've worked out better

In September, it almost seemed the season became less about winning games and more about sticking it to Colby (he didn't even get in a single game after the TSN interview). If it wasn't something bad that he did, you have to start seriously questioning this team's management beyond just the regular criticism about player moves and roster construction.

[Lateral Quicks]

I thought Francisco had been placed in cryogenic stasis, or perhaps was engaged in a month-long meditation on how to hit off-speed pitches. I fear the reason the Jays kept him is because they plan to platoon him and Valencia at 3B next year.

[Michael Bradley]

I'm not sure why they didn't platoon Francisco and Valencia in August and September. I realize Fat Juan was slumping badly and not a real 3B, but there was no other option, and acquiring Valencia was pointless if they were going to play him everyday and acquire Mayberry later on anyway.

Davidi needs to write a book about the 2014 season. That would be much more fascinating (assuming it's factual and unbiased) than reading about 2013. The corporate politics and management sabotaging needs to be explained somehow. If Adam Lind is the only one who discusses it at all, then that would be a travesty.