2014 Toronto Blue Jays Holiday Special

From the YouTube account that brought you recaps of Blue Jays seasons in the style of classic RPG games, it’s the 2014 Blue Jays Holiday Special!  Features Brett Lawrie, Alex Anthopoulos, Jose Bautista, Fergie Oliver, catcher of the future Max Pencarnacion and a special guest appearance by Bob McCown.

John Gibbons rips Jose Bautista for getting ejected in yesterday’s game

This is a sinking ship.

Bautista was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing balls and strikes. Nolan Reimold took his place. Reimold dropped a fly ball in the tenth inning which set up the Rays winning run and he struck out to end the game. Gibbons not only said that Bautista should’ve been in those spots, he took issue with Bautista’s taking issue with the strike zone:

  “The bottom line is we needed him in the game,” Gibbons said of Bautista. “Say your piece and get the hell out of there. We’re trying to get in the playoffs, we need you on the field. He’s a marked man in this game. (Plate ump) Bill Welke? I thought he had a pretty good (strike) zone today. It was steady, he was calling strikes. He was looking to call strikes. But we need you in the game.”

Orbit and Jose Bautista Play With Dolls — Wait, What?

That is really what happened before Saturday night’s Astros-Blue Jays game. Yes, the Astros won 8-2 in a game filled with insanity, home-run robbery, Altuve hustling home from first after two errors, home runs (by Castro and Carter), an inside-the-park home run for Jon Singleton and even an open roof in August (the roof was open in August for the first time since August 6, 2004). But one of the most entertaining highlights took place off the field before the game. When Orbit and Jose Bautista played with dolls. Really. Stay with me here as I bring you through the hilarious sequence of events.

Jose Bautista, Casey Janssen “frustrated” and “disappointed” by Jays’ lack of deadline activity

Who does Bautista want them to bring in, Drax the Destroyer??

Toronto was 38-24 and in first place by six games on June 6, but the Blue Jays have gone 22-26 since then and general manager Alex Anthopoulos did nothing at the trade deadline yesterday.

Several veteran players talked publicly about their unhappiness with the lack of moves, led by closer Casey Janssen telling Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com:

For us not to do anything, most of us had some ideas that we were going to improve this club a little bit. It’s unfortunate we didn’t. At the same time, we just have to do what we have to do to win games and try to find ways to get into the playoffs. Yes, it was frustrating but we have to play tonight.

Star slugger Jose Bautista had a similar but slightly less outspoken take:

Of course it’s a little disappointing that we somehow weren’t able to get anything done, but everybody around us that’s in contention somehow–and even some teams that aren’t in contention, like the Red Sox–somehow figured it out. But there’s still time to get stuff done. We still have a pretty good team put together and we’re hoping to get the guys that are hurt back and that’ll be a good injection of talent for us down the road. … But it’s a little bit of disappointment..