ST: Jays vs Rays April 24-26

[Randle McMurphy]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/592426082105696257[/tweet]

If only we had the great Mike Scioscia, then everything would be OK.

[Sifu]

You are simply delusional.

Hey yo, how did you know? But alls good, I'm in therapy and on meds. But feel free to call me out if I'm slipping again. Lol.

[Lateral Quicks]

You are simply delusional.

Attack the argument, not the person. Again, fun having you stop by to troll me.

I'm pretty sure you just called everyone who disagrees with you "garbage clown whiners" in the post right above this, so that's a bit rich.

[Randle McMurphy]

Dude, calm down.

I think everyone is a bit on edge after getting swept but let's not get angry.

Angry? Nah, this is good fun. Everyone jumping on me like this brings me back to the old days on the Raptors board fighting the BC fanatics.

Put this another way, let's talk about what how each of us would fix this team at this moment.


I'll go first:


Send down Castro. Dude needs more seasoning. Move Sanchez to BP. Move Estrada to the rotation - we paid 5 million and a great lefty bat for this guy, let's see what he can do - sink or swim.

Bring Delabar up. With Sanchez and Delabar there, you have two added options that are reasonable to use.


All this without making a single trade. I'm sure others on this board have different opinions, and that's fantastic. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Sanchez to the pen and Estrada to the rotation. Those seem like obvious remedies. I might give Castro another few weeks, though, to see if he can hack it (although not in the same high leverage spots). We've already gone this far with him, might as well go all the way. When he fails, bring up Delabar or whoever is doing the best in AAA.

[Randle McMurphy]

You are simply delusional.

Attack the argument, not the person. Again, fun having you stop by to troll me.

I'm pretty sure you just called everyone who disagrees with you "garbage clown whiners" in the post right above this, so that's a bit rich.

That was me being pretty facetious. Obviously Gibbons has made a few mistakes, but when you're whining about him every game (win or lose) about the most inconsequential things and calling for his firing with regularity, I think it's fair to say you're taking it a bit too far.

The guy is simply not managing any differently than he did for his first 7 years here.

[Nights King]

Dude, calm down.

I think everyone is a bit on edge after getting swept but let's not get angry.

Angry? Nah, this is good fun. Everyone jumping on me like this brings me back to the old days on the Raptors board fighting the BC fanatics.

I think i'd rather be called a garbage clown whiner than be compared to the cesspool that is the Raptors board

[Randle McMurphy]

I think i'd rather be called a garbage clown whiner than be compared to the cesspool that is the Raptors board.

You have a point there. At least most of you guys bring much more to the table than the BC fans did back then. Haven't seen too many better examples of groupthink than that.

[Michael Bradley]

I don't have time to respond to everything here, but at a quick glance, I'm not sure how questioning Gibby's bullpen usage and infatuation with Navarro somehow absolved AA of blame for his responsibility in building the roster. No one ever said Gibbons was the only issue with the team either. But I admire Randle's persistence in defending Gibbons. ERA is misleading...except when Gibbons is blinded by it. Calling someone up from A-ball is insane....unless Gibbons liked what he saw in meaningless spring innings. Defense matters....unless Gibbons wants Navarro's bat in the lineup. Managers don't matter....except Gibbons who the Jays will regret losing because there are few better.

[Randle McMurphy]

ERA is misleading...except when Gibbons is blinded by it.

If you're looking for a manager who doesn't look at runs allowed to evaluate pitchers, you're going to be waiting for a long time. Your issue shouldn't be with Gibbons there, but MLB culture itself.

Calling someone up from A-ball is insane....unless Gibbons liked what he saw in meaningless spring innings.

It was always pretty crazy (and also always completely on AA). But if you're going to criticize Gibbons for using one inexperienced 20 year old RP in high leverage situations, you have to do the same thing with him using the other one in much the same way (who has worked out great). It just doesn't go both ways. With the dearth of quality arms in that bullpen, this is how you find out about them.

Defense matters....unless Gibbons wants Navarro's bat in the lineup.

Smoak isn't even good defensively. To go with his poor offensive numbers in Seattle, he had -12 DRS the last two seasons. You've basically been ridiculously clamoring for one scrub to play over another all season. The insignificant difference between the two is certainly not worth going on about day after day like Smoak is some kind of panacea. For whatever reason, you've been constructing nebulous reasons to bash Gibbons since the opening day win (Loup) and this is another example.

Managers don't matter....except Gibbons who the Jays will regret losing because there are few better.

It's not the Jays who will regret losing him (managers obviously make a negligible difference on win/loss totals), it's me. My enjoyment level watching these games drops off considerably when the team employs a terrible in-game manager like Martinez, Gaston or Farrell who do frustrating things on a nightly basis. I quite like having a reasonably sane manager who does most of the things I would do myself. Gibbons is obviously not perfect (as my ideal robot manager would be), but it could be so, so much worse. And it undoubtedly will be again when some of you get what you wish.

[Sifu]

Ha, robot managers. We should replace Gibby with a laptop. I wonder how that would work out.

[Randle McMurphy]

Ha, robot managers. We should replace Gibby with a laptop. I wonder how that would work out.

It would be totally fine. We're closer to robot umpires becoming a reality than that ever happening, though.