Sounding more like Bats Battaglia than Joey Bats…

“I think it’s a cheap shot and uncalled for to say something like that without having some sort of evidence to back it up,” Bautista said Friday in the visitor’s clubhouse at Fenway Park. “Comments and articles like that is what sometimes makes us wonder what’s the true intention of somebody that’s in the media. It blows my mind that somebody would just go out there and do something like that, and write an article where you’re ...

I haven’t seen a Romero ruined this badly…since Cesar Romero’s Pretty Willie Wetzchahofsky got shatzed-on in “Love That Brute”!

The call to return Ricky to the bigs was an absolute mishandling of a career on the part of the Blue Jays.

If you’re going to overhaul a player, and you know that player’s confidence is a factor, how can you, in good conscience, throw him back into the fiercest competition after only a single outing in High A?

Any baseball man worth his salt knows the true test ...

Tough watch.

A simply horrifying turn of events in Tuesday night’s Toronto-Tampa Bay game: Jays starter J.A. Happ was wheeled off on a stretcher after being struck flush on the side of the head by Desmond Jennings’s line drive. The play occurred in the second inning. Please be warned that the following footage will be disturbing for some:

Moments after impact, Happ appeared to be bleeding profusely from his ear or the area around his ear. He was attended to on the field for several minutes ...

Actual headline: “The Truth About Clay Buchholz.”  Said truth?  That not only was he doctoring the ball last night, he’s been doctoring it all season long…and that the start of this behavior mysteriously coincides with his sudden effectiveness as a starter.

Thanks to accusations from Toronto broadcasters and former pitchers Dirk Hayhurst and Jack Morris, Boston pitcher Clay Buchholz has reignited an ageless debate about what constitutes “cheating” in baseball. [...]

It’s unclear exactly what ...

Gibbons hawking effect…just not taking hold yet.

Any gripes any fan has would only be the result of the current record. There is not one single substantial thing to hang on Gibby for this start.

Could it be that the team is actually as cold and playing as bad as we analysts keep saying, and that’s all? No evil mastermind bringing them down from within? That the pitchforks and torches are unwarranted?

Seriously, all this #firegibby talk, as if he’s the kryptonite of the club; it’s ...

Casey Janssen ponders his fate as he looks at the baseball world for the time being. And sees only darkness.

Mention the numbers to Casey Janssen, and he’s quick to point out how early it is, and how the baseball schedule will eventually even everything out.

There’s a lot of that kind of talk going on right now with the Toronto Blue Jays, only while many of his teammates are expecting a natural progression to the mean, he instead raises the matter in reference to a regression.

Confused? ...

Maybe Frenchy can hook up Burnett with some Delta miles.

Go back to last October and the number reaches 20, making general manager Alex Anthopoulos the undisputed heavyweight champion of the baseball world in bottom-feeding.

“Alex claims everybody,” Baltimore Orioles general manager Dan Duquette said with a hearty laugh…..

While clever from a management perspective, it can be trying for players caught in the cycle, like right-hander Alex Burnett.

Claimed by the Blue Jays from the ...

“They’re getting drunker, and drunker and drunker” I gotta check…but this might be lifted from a Taang! comp or something.

Boorish behaviour at Blue Jays games has risen to alarming levels, according to Gregg Zaun.

The fans, especially in the 500 level, “are developing a reputation,” Zaun told Torstar News.

“It’s very, very prevalent at the Rogers Centre, especially in the later innings when the Jays are losing that people lose their minds,” Zaun said.

He said some fans are ...

The Colby cheese problem.

Colby Rasmus is amazing. Still just 26, and an elite-level talent, Rasmus is presently slugging .536. He’s a center fielder who clubs like a DH, and his slugging percentage is beating those of Albert Pujols and Anthony Rizzo. Rasmus owns a 135 wRC+, which was Joe Morgan‘s career wRC+. It’s a better wRC+ than those being posted by Carlos Beltran, Andrew McCutchen, and Michael Morse. Rasmus is finally coming into his own, and he’s looking like the superstar the ...

In some ways the remade Toronto Blue Jays owe the visiting Chicago White Sox a debt of gratitude, since it was their exploration of trade possibilities for Jake Peavy back in October that helped set the stage for Alex Anthopoulos to pull off November’s blockbuster with the Miami Marlins.

A few weeks before that franchise-altering deal went down, the general manager was close to acquiring the 2007 NL Cy Young Award winner from the South Siders, whose $22-million club option for 2013 was due ...

According to MLB network…“Out 1 to 3 months…”

The Blue Jays’ wobbly start took a grim turn Friday night when an ankle injury drove shortstop Jose Reyes from the game.

Reyes, attempting to steal second in the sixth inning in what turned out to be an 8-4 victory over Kansas City, rolled his left ankle on his trailing leg as he made an awkward slide into second. The Jays shortstop was writhing in agony after the slide and after several minutes was taken from the field on a cart.

The Jays ...

The Toronto Blue Jays announced that the left-hander has been optioned to single-A Dunedin of the Florida State League.

The move came shortly after Romero picked up the win in Toronto’s 6-3 victory over Pittsburgh. It was considered a make-or-break start for Romero, who had a decent outing but didn’t do enough to make up for his spring struggles.

Just two guys, talking baseball, presumably at a Tim Horton’s.

RG: When you talk to agents or other GMs now do you detect a different vibe than when you were starting out? Do they know where you’re coming from before you even come from there?
AA: I never thought about it that way. Over time you get to know them better and they get to know me better. So, from a working relationship standpoint it’s better that way. I think having dealt with (Marlins GM) Larry Beinfest trying to get Dan Uggla ...

Divide your investments among many places,
for you do not know what risks might lie ahead for .320 OBP types.

The Jays finished fifth in the American League with 198 home runs last year, but also fifth in strikeouts with 1,251.

“If you can put the ball in play and run a little bit, you don’t always have to hit the ball hard [to score runs],” general manager Alex Anthopolous said. “You can force the other team to make an error, break a bat and still get a single, to keep a rally going. ...

“We’re both believers,” Arencibia says. Dickey brought the oversize mitt that he carries around like a traveling salesman and his suitcase of samples; Arencibia brought only his mask. He decided that he wouldn’t wear his shin guards or chest protector. He had also chosen, very purposefully, not to wear his cup.

To understand why Arencibia went jockless—well, there’s really no understanding it.

[...]

So Arencibia, in his unprotected undercarriage, was sending a message right back. “I don’t ...

If dogs run free, then why not Buehrle.

I see his residency decision quite differently than they did. Whereas they see him as some sort of hero, I see him as a well-intentioned but ultimately bad parent. I love animals, but I love humans a lot more. To me, the real family – mother, son, and daughter – should take precedence over Slater.

Being an absentee father in order to cater to a dog isn’t touching. It’s touched. What sort of father would not want to spend his days with his 5-year ...

Well, opening day is still more than a month hence, and already the story of the 2013 Blue Jays has been told in glorious Nintendo fashion. Come with me, won’t you?

Seriously, you need to watch this

Direct link to the video.

They mean an actual horror movie, not a comeback with the current Royals.

Former Royals outfielder and Blue Springs High School graduate Brian McRae is set to appear in a horror movie called “Gravedigger.”

Couldn’t be that Brian McRae, right? The International Movie Database (imdb.com) cast list includes that McRae, who played for the Royals from 1990-94, before going to the Cubs, Mets, Rockies and Blue Jays.

McRae won’t be the only former major leaguer in the flick. Billy Sample, ...

Now, as for the rest of you slack (whips dirty needle out…drops on Superchunk)...

On Saturday morning, those four formed a batting-practice group. Bautista led a lively round of Spanish repartee throughout the session. While one sprayed line drives, the other three chatted happily (and noisily) around the batting cage.

“Just like any other Latin American [group] close to the equator, we’re a high-energy, warm, passionate people at anything that we do,” Bautista said earlier, addressing ...

and then quickly rushes back to a slinky Hoboken discoprophagia where some random Wall Street dude from Ho-Ho-Kus will end up gutterfisted!

“Last season ended for me when I admitted taking a banned substance and accepted and served my punishment of a 50 game suspension. Since that day, my goals have been to serve my punishment and to put that mistake behind me, and to work hard to be the best baseball player I can be. At the end of last season, when it became clear that I would win the batting ...

A little-known aspect of the CBA — the market-disqualification program — is helping force a select group of teams to operate more competitively than they did in the past.

The way the program works, revenue-sharing proceeds for teams in the 15 largest markets will decline by set percentages over the next three years, and disappear entirely by 2016.

Teams that previously received such funds — Toronto, Atlanta and Washington, among them — had little incentive to field better clubs. Why ...

Yikes! This is longer than the full text of the Gibbons v. Ogden opinion! #toot-toot

RG: So you just didn’t go back to the Mets (after ‘01). You didn’t want to be there anymore.

JG: Yeah, I’d been with the Mets as Triple-A manager for three years. (Bobby) Valentine was managing at that time. Every year they were going through at least one coach, maybe two. I didn’t get one of the jobs and, I mean, that’s the way it goes. He wanted one of his people. But usually a Triple-A manager slides in ...

Baiting the Public: We’re going to rebuild it our own way!

John Gibbons revealed his likely starting rotation, and it will be headed by the defending National League Cy Young Award winner, R.A. Dickey. Brandon Morrow will be next, followed by Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson and Ricky Romero.

It’s quite the fall from grace for Romero, who had been the Blue Jays’ Opening Day starter each of the past two seasons, but given his performance last year, it’s warranted. Romero wanted badly to be the ...

And to honor this historic Jack Morris event…Sportsnet 590 will now be called Sportsnet 3.90!

Welcome back, Jack.  A familiar face is returning to Toronto as former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jack Morris returns to the city where he won two World Series titles as Sportsnet’s newest Blue Jays analyst. Morris will provide analysis for Sportsnet 590 The FAN’s Blue Jays radio broadcasts, and will also make appearances on Sportsnet’s Blue Jays game telecasts, Blue Jays Central, Baseball ...

If you are a veteran broadcaster and former MLB player who loves the game, talking about it on air, on television and in social media, Sportsnet Radio The FAN 590, home of Toronto Blue Jays baseball in in Toronto has a rare employment opportunity. The perfect candidate will be compelling, entertaining, engaging, witty, thought-provoking, insightful, opinionated, and must know and love everything about baseball. And that’s just for starters. We want a person or team that want to win. We want ...