Tag Archives: Toronto Blue Jays

AL East: Off-season so far

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The Baltimore Orioles won 96 regular season games in 2014 and won the AL East division by 12 games ahead of the New York Yankees.

At first glance you might think that they didn’t need to do much to keep ahead of the pack, yet that’s not how things work in a division containing two giants (Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees), another big market team (Toronto Blue Jays) and a team that has proved more than capable of punching above its weight (Tampa Bay Rays).

The Orioles were unable to hold on to free agents Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis and, so far, are yet to replace them. The only Major League addition they’ve made is bringing back Delmon Young (who can contribute, yet only in a limited way), which puts great importance on Manny Machado and Matt Wieters making quick and successful returns from the injuries that curtailed their 2014 campaigns.

The core of Baltimore’s 96-win team is still in place, but it would be surprising if they didn’t add an outfield bat before the season begins as the rest of the division isn’t sitting back.

The Boston Red Sox have responded to their disastrous 91-loss season by adding established Major League regulars in Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, Rick Porcello, Wade Miley and Justin Masterson. Although failing to re-sign Jon Lester was a blow, the Red Sox won a World Series in 2013 after adding some solid experienced players and they’ve made similar steps to bolster a roster with some exciting young talent (led by Xander Bogaerts and Mookie Betts) so that another worst to first turnaround is possible.

The Toronto Blue Jays have also been active, adding Canadian Russell Martin as a free agent and trading for Josh Donaldson from the A’s to make a formidable batting core alongside Jose Reyes, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. They appear set to go with their current mix of youth (Marcus Stroman, Drew Hutchison) and experience (Mark Buehrle, R.A. Dickey) on the pitching staff, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another hurler signed too.

The same may also be true of the New York Yankees. Max Scherzer would improve any team and, however much they may publicly distance themselves from the possibility, the Yankees are always a contender to spend on a star talent. CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka both suffered injuries in 2014 and if either reports any lingering issues when throwing in January, that could open the door to the Yankees being the team to offer Scherzer and his agent Scott Boras the big contract they are holding out for.

The Yankees have spent money on the free agent market by signing Andrew Miller to replace the departed David Robertson in the bullpen. Didi Gregorius was acquired in a trade to be the man to replace Derek Jeter at shortstop, whilst the impending return of Alex Rodriguez will be the big news when Spring Training camps begin.

The three main storylines coming out of the Tampa Bay Rays over the past few months have been about key individuals leaving. David Price was traded to Detroit during the past-season, General Manager Andrew Friedman was lured away early in the off-season by the appeal of the huge revenues to exploit at the LA Dodgers, whilst Manager Joe Maddon was also tempted away by the money and opportunities afforded by the Chicago Cubs.

The changes have continued with young outfielder Wil Myers being traded away and the recent signing of free agent Asdrubal Cabrera has prompted numerous rumours about Ben Zobrist being the next key contributor to be moved on before he becomes a free agent at the end of the 2015 season.

Amidst it all, it says a lot about the Rays that they will still be fielding a competitive team in 2015, led by an exciting young starting rotation. If everything clicks, including a return to form by Evan Longoria, then the Rays should not be counted out despite once again having an offseason that will not immediately gain much attention.

Winter Meetings create a rumour wonderland

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The MLB Winter Meetings, which begin on Monday 8 December, are a pre-Christmas treat for baseball fans.

It’s the annual event, being held in San Diego this year, where all MLB teams gather alongside agents and some players as they discuss potential trades and free agent signings alongside general housekeeping around rules and procedures.

There were no major deals announced during the event last year – the three-team trade between the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels involving Mark Trumbo, Adam Eaton, Tyler Skaggs and Hector Santiago was the main deal agreed – yet the week plays an important role in setting up deals to be completed in the week or two afterwards.

And, more than anything, hordes of reporters flock to the meetings and generate copious amount of rumours for us to devour.

Free agents

Quite a few of the free agent hitters have already found new homes this offseason.

Deals completed so far include Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez signing for the Boston Red Sox, Russell Martin moving to the Toronto Blue Jays, Nelson Cruz joining the Seattle Mariners and Victor Martinez opting to stay with the Detroit Tiger.

In the past few days, two more names came off the free agent list with Nick Markakis agreeing a deal with the Atlanta Braves and Torii Hunter reuniting with the Minnesota Twins.

Consequently teams looking for position players – which is all of the teams – will be looking for potential trade partners and the free agent activity is going to focus more on the pitchers.

Jon Lester appears to be the most likely pitcher domino to fall first based on the growing rumours around alleged contracts being offered to him. Once Lester makes his decision, those that miss out may well move quickly to capture James Shields as a very capable substitute.

Max Scherzer will continue to play a waiting game unless a team throws a monumental contract offer onto the table this week, although his agent Scott Boras is sure to be a high-profile figure during the Winter Meetings.

AL East bearing its teeth

The New York Yankees broke their unusual silence this on Friday.

First they acquired shortstop Didi Gregorius as part of a three-team trade and then they signed relief pitcher Andrew Miller on a four-year contract worth $36m (just over £111k per week).

The moves are no surprise considering how competitive the AL East is likely to be in 2015.

The Boston Red Sox were woeful in 2014 and have wasted no time in improving their roster with Sandoval and Ramirez joining their lineup and plenty of rumours abounding about potential deals to come.

Meanwhile the Toronto Blue Jays have already added Russell Martin and Josh Donaldson to their lineup and, again, reports suggest they are far from finished when it comes to adding new players this offseason.

The Tampa Bay Rays are taking a more considered approach to a probably modest offseason trading period, although they made an important decision this week in appointing 36-year-old ex-catcher Kevin Cash to replace Joe Maddon as their new manager.

Which leaves us looking at the reigning division champions waiting for them to react. The Baltimore Orioles have lost Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis this week and, even with catcher Matt Wieters and third baseman Manny Machado returning from injuries, that means they have two notable holes to fill, at least, if they are to avoid being overtaken by their division rivals.

Reading list

With the baseball games all dried up – including the MLB Japan All-Star series this year – and Christmas lists being compiled, early December is the main time of year that I spend considering additions to my baseball book library.

The Hardball Times annual is always on my list and I’ve been eagerly dipping into my 2015 copy over the last couple of days since it came through the post.

Even just from the opening three chapters reviewing the American League side of the 2014 season, I’ve learned more about the success the Cleveland Indians have had in recent years through player trades, how the Toronto Blue Jays really missed a trick in failing to improve their roster mid-season, and been reminded of some of the young players that made a mark in the American League such as the Rays’ Kevin Kiermaier, the Angels’ Kole Calhoun and the Astros’ Collin McHugh.

Baseball historian John Thorn’s book ‘Baseball in the Garden of Eden’ has been waiting on my shelf to be read for a while so I’ll be looking to get to that one soon. ‘Baseball Explained’ by Phillip Mahony also looks like being a good contender as a key book for Brits new to the game based on my initial flick through.

I’ll put together some reviews once I’ve had a chance to enjoy reading them over the next few weeks. If you’ve got any other suggestions for books to catch up on, please pass them on.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Streaking teams

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WHGB11Playoff places can be determined by slim margins in MLB and that’s always something to keep in mind when looking at each team’s marathon 162 regular season game schedule.

One thing British sports fans have to adjust to when coming to baseball is that in an MLB season individual wins and losses aren’t celebrated or bemoaned with much emotion until we get into the final couple of weeks of September.

A great come-from-behind win or a depressing late loss certainly creates strong feelings when the final out or walk-off-run occurs, yet the next game comes along so quickly – normally the very next day – that it can, in and for the players must, be quickly forgotten.

However, winning or losing streaks are a bit different. Every streak will come to an end but it’s length can be important as the season moves on.

Whether there is a significant impact on a team of professional players from a few wins or losses is up for debate. Every day is a new day on which the worst team can, and sometimes does, beat the best, so whilst we may make assumptions that five previous consecutive losses played a part in the sixth defeat, that may just be a narrative we’re applying to a series of coincidences.

Whatever the reason for them, long streaks do have an impact because they either put wins on the board that can put future losses into perspective, or they can put you in a hole in which the hard work of several wins is clouded by the fact that the victories are only helping you to make up ground you had already lost.

The Boston Red Sox’s last sixteen games are a great case in point.

A 9-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday 14 May took them one game above .500 (20-19) and moved them to within half a game of the AL East division-leading Baltimore Orioles. When the Red Sox came off the field last Sunday after an 8-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays things were very different. Ten consecutive losses had plunged them to the bottom of the division with a 20-29 record and an eight game deficit to the revitalised Toronto Blue Jays (more on them in a moment).

The impact in the standings wasn’t the main issue. Boston still had 113 regular season games to play after that tenth defeat so there was, and still is, a lot of time to make up lost ground. What hurt the Red Sox was that they had put themselves into a position where they needed to put a series of wins on the board just to get back to where they were (one game above .500).

The reigning World Series-champs are a good way along the process of achieving this. Last night’s 7-1 victory over the Rays made it six wins in a row so they’ll go into their Sunday game with a win-loss record of 26-29; however they know they cannot be complacent. A win for Tampa Bay today followed by a 2-1 series defeat in Cleveland during the first half of next week and the benefit of those six victories would still be set within a 27-32 record that is not what they would have been hoping for from their first 59 games before the season began.

It’s an obvious point perhaps, but the aim of every team is to accept you’ll lose your share of games (the Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals shared the Major League lead for wins last season with 97, so even the best still tasted defeat 65 times) but to keep the losing sequences short so that your winning periods really count.

It also depends on your expectations for the season. The Red Sox’s streakiness is all-the-more frustrating due to their rightful status as a World Series contender heading into the campaign.

For the Houston Astros, their seven-game winning streak this week (ended last night by the Baltimore Orioles) still left them bottom of the pile in the AL West, yet as a rebuilding team they can enjoy the fun of the winning run regardless of the losses that come around it. That’s particularly the case as it was driven by an incredible week from rookie George Springer who homered six times over those seven wins. Springer’s exploits will not lead Houston to a winning season in 2014, but they may well offer a glimpse to a very bright future a couple of seasons down the line.

Whilst the Astros’ recent run isn’t going to change their fortunes in 2014, the Toronto Blue Jays are a different story. They put together a five-game winning streak earlier in May and followed it up with a nine-game streak that came to an end on Thursday. With a few wins and losses in between they put together a Major-League best 21-9 win-loss record for May and launched themselves to the top of the AL East, with Edwin Encarnacion launching 16 home runs in the process.

It may be a bit much to expect the Blue Jays to put together a similar month in June, yet they look like a team that could be turning 2014 into the sort of competitive year that they were supposed to have in 2013. That’s the sort of impact that winning streaks can have.

Offseason so far: AL East

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Over the past few days I’ve done everything I could to avoid watching any sporting action from the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Another humiliating batting collapse condemned the England cricket team to a 5-0 Ashes series whitewash.  Based on the way the first four test matches had gone, it was a crushingly inevitable way to end a wretched series for the tourists and I had no desire to watch the carnage.

Yet in 74 days it will be a very different story. I’ll be glued to my TV – or PC depending on the coverage – as the SCG hosts the first of two regular season MLB games between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Now the calendar has switched to 2014, it’s a good time to catch up on the comings and goings at the 30 MLB teams so far this offseason. We start today with the AL East division.

Boston Red Sox

The 2013 World Series champs haven’t made any major moves so far and that has been as expected. It didn’t even look too likely that they would make a strong push to retain centrefielder Jacoby Ellsbury when he hit the free agent market and, sure enough, he will not be wearing a Boston uniform in 2014 and beyond.

The fact that he’ll be wearing a Yankee uniform instead will sting a bit, but the Red Sox have every reason to be confident that making a few solid signings – bringing back Mike Napoli on a two-year contract and adding reliever Edward Mujica and catcher A.J. Pierzynski – whilst giving youngsters Xander Bogaerts, Will Middlebrooks and Jackie Bradley the chance to play regularly will see them continue to be one of the favourites to win it all again in 2014.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays’ offseason so far has been dominated by a major move that hasn’t happened. Ace starting pitcher David Price is under contract for two more years and the financially-limited Rays will trade him if they receive a suitably impressive package of players. Right now he’s still set to lead their rotation and Tampa Bay will be happy enough with that, with the option still open to trade him during the season or over next winter.

First baseman James Loney returns on a three-year deal and outfielder David DeJesus has also signed a two-year deal to remain with the team, whilst catcher Ryan Hanigan and closer Heath Bell have been acquired via trades. Last year’s closer, Fernando Rodney, is still on the free agent market looking for a team.

Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles made a surprise return to the playoffs in 2012 after more than a decade in the doldrums; however they were not able to build on that achievement in 2013 and look like they are going backwards in 2014. They’ve made no notable additions so far and pulled out of the one deal they looked like completing, signing former Oakland A’s closer Grant Balfour, on highly questionable medical grounds.

Balfour was supposed to replace Jim Johnson, who the Orioles traded to the A’s for second baseman Jemile Weeks, and the team has also lost Scott Feldman (to the Astros) and Nate McLouth (to the Nationals). It is a depressingly familiar tale in Baltimore under owner Peter Angelos.

New York Yankees

It’s been a typically busy offseason so far in the Bronx. Multi-millions have been invested in Jacoby Ellsbrury, ex-Braves catcher Brian McCann, ex-Cardinal outfielder Carlos Beltran and a return for pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, as well as several other free agents (Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, Matt Thornton etc).

However, the Yankees were sensationally out-bid by the Seattle Mariners for Robinson Cano and still look vulnerable following the retirements of Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte, the pending drug-suspension hanging over Alex Rodriguez and continuing fitness doubts over Derek Jeter. Don’t be surprised if they come out on top in the bidding for Japanese pitcher Mashiro Tankaka in the coming weeks.

Toronto Blue Jays

What a difference a year makes. The Blue Jays dominated the 2012/13 offseason with headline-grabbing trades and free agent signings. The result of all that hard work was a last-placed finish in the AL East, with a 74-88 record, and little room for manoeuvre in terms of payroll and trading chips this offseason. Catcher Dioner Navarro is the one offseason addition so far likely to become a regular on the 2014 team, whilst pitcher Josh Johnson will take his ace-type potential and long injury list to the San Diego Padres after he left Toronto as a free agent.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Kawasaki power

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Munenori Kawasaki’s surname may be on plenty of bright green superbikes, but his name is unlikely to feature prominently in any baseball history books.

In fact, the current Toronto Blue Jays player may not even have his name on a Major League roster in a few weeks time when Jose Reyes returns from the Disabled List and regains his starting spot at shortstop.

However, whilst we all love watching the bright stars of the game doing things that leave us speechless in admiration, it’s sometimes players like Kawasaki that can make watching a ballgame so much fun.

Rajai Davis got the walk-off, game-winning hit for the Blue Jays against the Orioles on Friday night – securing the team’s ninth win in a row – but it was Kawasaki’s game-tying home run in the seventh inning that gained pride of place in the highlight reel.

The Japanese infielder came over to the States last year as a 31-year-old after a ten-year career in the Nippon Professional Baseball league. Whilst he showed some good fielding skills at the demanding shortstop position with the Seattle Mariners, he managed only one extra base hit in his 61 games with the club and was released at the end of the season.

Kawasaki signed a Minor League contract with the Blue Jays over the offseason and figured to only find time with the Big League club as a defensive option if temporary cover was needed in the infield. He might have expected to be with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons – playing alongside ex-Great Britain catcher Mike Nickeas – for quite a while, yet opportunity knocked after he had played only two games.

Jose Reyes was the most exciting addition among all of the players acquired by the Blue Jays over the offseason. Seeing him suffer an ankle injury on 12 April, just ten games into the season, was a sickener for Blue Jays fans and came to typify a deflating start to the season that had been preceded by so much optimism.

As the losses piled up and the days spent at the bottom of the AL East continued to mount, so those turning up at the Rogers Centre searched for any crumb of comfort they could find to put a smile on their faces. Kawasaki soon won them over with his personality; his shortcomings were accepted and every hit, good fielding play or stolen base provided a reason to cheer.

The fans were cheering when he stepped into the batter’s box in the seventh inning on Friday, more in hope than in expectation. The Blue Jays trailed 6-4 with two outs and a runner on first base and they were running out of time to keep their winning streak going.

There’s always a rush of anticipation and excitement when a ball flies off the bat, heading high into the sky and potentially over the fence for a home run. In this case, it was almost a collective gasp, 35,000+ people thinking ‘he couldn’t have, could he?’ all at the same time.

Kawasaki’s 2-for-4 night still left him hitting only .229 over his 57 games (with a mere .333 slugging percentage) and even fans holding up signs bearing his name will be keen for Reyes to be back on the diamond as soon as possible in his place.

However, in ten years time, something will spark one of those 35,000 fans to dig back into the memory banks, turn to a friend or loved one and say ‘hey, do you remember when …’.

Those are the moments that make watching any sport so much fun, whether it’s an all-time great making history or a bit-part player having an unlikely brush with glory.

Injured All-Stars

My daily ritual of logging onto MLB.com over breakfast is currently being spoiled slightly by the nagging fear that the News headlines will show that yet another player on one of my fantasy teams has suffered an injury.

There are plenty of players on the Disabled List right now and with the All-Star voting now in full swing, I tried to put together DL All-Star teams for both leagues. I couldn’t quite manage it as I found only one All-Star outfielder in the AL (Curtis Granderson) and no All-Star catcher in the NL. That still left plenty of All-Stars to include though.

American League

C. Alex Avila, 1B. Mark Teixeira, 2B. Brian Roberts, 3B. Alex Rodriguez, SS. Jose Reyes (or Derek Jeter), OF. Curtis Granderson (Austin Jackson and Franklin Gutierrez would be the non-All-Stars to make up the team). SP. David Price, Jake Peavy, Clay Buchholz, Matt Harrison, Michael Pineda. CL. Neftali Feliz.

National League

C. (Wilson Ramos as the non-All-Star), 1B. Corey Hart, 2B. Aaron Hill, 3B. Pablo Sandoval, SS. Troy Tulowitzki, OF. Matt Kemp, Ryan Braun, Bryce Harper. SP. Chris Carpenter, Roy Halladay, Chad Billingsley, Ryan Vogelsong, Johan Santana. CL. J.J. Putz.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Upton away

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Every football fan knows the feeling of foreboding created by an ex-striker of your team coming back home to face you for the first time since their departure.

Whether you try to put him off through jeers or try to win him over with cheers, you know he’s going to score against you. Returning strikers always do.

Fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks must have had that exact same feeling last Monday when Justin Upton returned to Chase Field for the first time since being traded to the Atlanta Braves over the off-season.

A ground-out and a single in his first two at-bats suggested his first game back wouldn’t be too explosive. Then in the sixth inning Wade Miley hit B.J. Upton with a pitch as brother Justin waited in the on-deck circle.

That was Miley’s first mistake. The second came on a 2-0 change-up that Miley left up in the zone.

Justin Upton absolutely hammered it over the high wall in centre field for a two-run bomb; a swinging statement if ever there was one.

The D-Backs’ determination to trade away the gifted younger Upton brother remains one of the most perplexing roster decisions of recent times. It’s the sort of move that you would expect to be shrouded in rumours of the player being a ‘clubhouse cancer’, but reported comments from former teammates show that couldn’t be further from the truth. Arizona’s Front Office simply decided the organization was better off trading Upton for other pieces.

The team has had a promising start to the season, with Paul Goldschmidt really coming into his own as a leading hitter in the National League and Gerardo Parra reveling in a starting role manning the spot in right field that had previously been Upton’s. Martin Prado, the main established Brave that came Arizona’s way in the trade, has struggled so far and we’ll have to wait several years before finding out if the Minor League prospects they obtained will come good.

Whatever the thought process was behind the trade, the early returns from Arizona’s perspective have been decent and the Braves are certainly not complaining either. Upton has been everything they’d hoped he would be, leading the Majors in homers with 14, whilst Chris Johnson has been a more-than-useful contributor so far too, including whacking a two-run longball of his own against his former team on Monday.

Maybe it will turn out to be a trade in which both teams ‘win’. Still, I’d sooner have Justin Upton in my team for the next few years and his home run on Monday may well not be the last time he makes Arizona regret their decision to part with him.

One brother to another

Justin Upton’s blistering form has been a big help to his older brother. B.J.’s early days with his new team have been distinctly underwhelming. Signed to a five-year, $75.25m contract over the offseason, B.J. Upton was ‘hitting’ just .145/.237/.239 heading into the Braves’ game on Sunday,

His struggles have shown that spending money on a leading free agent doesn’t guarantee you instant returns. If you’re going to spend money to improve your roster, it has to be done as part of a wider plan to make sure that an injury or loss of form for your new recruit doesn’t completely scupper a season.

The Yankees’ fountain of youth

The Toronto Blue Jays thought they had followed that line of thinking to the letter when they brought in a whole host of new players over the offseason. Unfortunately for them, even the best laid plans can unravel.

Despite a four-game winning streak at the start of the last week, the Blue Jays sit dead last in the AL East. They lost the first two games of their series in New York before Sunday’s game was rained out, putting them ten games behind their opponents in the standings and 1-7 against the Yankees so far this season.

What is it about those magical pinstripes that brings the best out of players? Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay and Travis Hafner are the latest three discarded veterans to have found a new lease of life in the Bronx.  The Yankees haven’t yet found a lucky charm to turn around their Disabled List misfortunes, Andy Pettitte being the latest addition to the crowded treatment room, but Curtis Granderson made his season debut last week and both Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis shouldn’t be too far behind in returning to the field.

If Wells and co can continue to keep this team firmly in contention, the Yankees could really come on strong in the second half. My prediction that the Yankees will win the AL East might not turn out to be such a reach after all.

Harvey backs up the hype

The Yankees’ surprisingly strong start to the season isn’t quite the biggest baseball story in New York. That award has to go to the New York Mets’ young phenom Matt Harvey.

A day-game against the Chicago Cubs on Friday provided the perfect opportunity to watch Harvey at work and, after a slightly wayward first inning, he settled in and showed exactly why everyone is talking about him. Harvey even showed a flair for the dramatic by breaking a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning when he singled home the go-ahead run that decided the game and improved his win-loss record to 5-0.

ESPN America took the SNY feed for the game and co-commentator Keith Hernandez provided an insight into what Harvey is like as a character. Hernandez noted that whilst the young pitcher is keeping his head down among more experienced team mates, inside there is a steely confidence that drives his determination to not simply be a quality Major League starter, but to be the very best.

He’s got a long way to go to get there, but the early signs are that he has all the tools necessary to give it a good shot.

Reward for Rizzo

Finally, the only Cubs batter to get an extra-base hit against Harvey was Anthony Rizzo. He had an excellent week off-the-field too as the Cubs announced he had signed a seven-year contract with the team worth at least $41m (£26.6m).

It’s a well-deserved deal that will provide financial security for the player who, after his enthusiastic play for Italy during the recent World Baseball Classic, can surely be claimed by us as an honorary European.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Pennant winners

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Baseball writer Joe Posnanski and Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane are united in their belief that Major League Baseball could learn from the Premier League when it comes to rewarding successful teams.

They are drawn to the simple logic of recognising champions on the basis of their entire season, rather than solely a handful of games at the end.

It is odd when you stop and think about it; each team battles their way through 162 gruelling games in a marathon season and all it counts for is a ticket – for 10 of the 30 teams – into the playoffs.  Whilst the additional Wild Card round, introduced last year, has recaptured some of the importance of winning a division, there’s still a curious imbalance to the overall season.

The team that plays the best over six months gets little for their efforts. It’s the team that gets hot at the right time over, at most, 20 games or as little as 11 games that takes all the glory.

Just ask the Washington Nationals. For all the pride they should feel in winning the most games (98) in the 2012 regular season, they received little credit for the achievement.

Up until 1969, the best team in each league was suitably rewarded. You had to outplay the rest of your league to be crowned a pennant winner and that gave you the chance to face the best team from the other league in the World Series to be crowned as the best in baseball. That changed in 1969 when each league was split into two divisions, creating the division series stage of the postseason, and has evolved over time to the current 10-team set-up.

Posnanski sees the playoffs as something that fits with the American psyche, but you only have to drop down into the second tier of English football to see why playoffs are so appealing. They guarantee a dramatic end to every season and, in creating additional opportunities for glory, ensure that more teams have something to play for as the season enters the closing stages.

The playoffs unquestionably add plenty of excitement to MLB – Posnanski and Beane certainly are not advocating scrapping them completely – but that shouldn’t come at the expense of giving little recognition to the team that won the most games in each league.

The best team in each league does get the benefit of avoiding the Wild Card ‘play-in’ game and having home field advantage in the Division and League Championship Series, but why not add to that to make the regular season count for something as a competition in its own right.

Why shouldn’t the ‘pennant winner’ be the team with the best regular season record rather the team that wins the League Championship Series?

Just as in the pre-1969 days, winning the pennant would come with a slightly hollow feeling if it wasn’t followed by a triumph in the World Series, but at least a team’s success over the course of the season would be acknowledged in a way that currently isn’t the case.

Trouble in Toronto

A pennant win and a trip to the postseason look a long way off for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The 2013 Blue Jays were always going to look similar to the 2012 Miami Marlins after the two teams completed their blockbuster trade in mid-November.

Five regular starting players from the 2012 Marlins made their way over to Toronto and even though one of those – catcher John Buck – was shipped on to New York before suiting up in a Blue Jays uniform, fans could be forgiven for looking at the players and getting confused.

Wasn’t this the team that was put together to win in Miami?

Sadly for Toronto fans, the similarities between the two teams do not end with the names on the back of the uniforms.  Just as the bubble quickly burst in Miami, the sky-high expectations in Toronto seemingly have been dashed before we’ve even made it far into May. Heading into Sunday’s games, only the Houston Astros had a worse record in the American League than the team pegged by many to be a World Series contender.

The Blue Jays can bemoan some bad luck with injuries to key players. Losing Jose Reyes for several months was a big blow and it’s also reasonable to assume that the ailments R.A. Dickey is battling through are the main reason for his 2012 Cy Young form deserting him.

However, Josh Johnson’s trip to the DL can hardly be seen as a surprise considering his recent injury history and, more than anything, there are teams throughout the Majors having to deal with injuries to potential key contributors right now. The New York Yankees are the obvious example of a team that has still managed to keep afloat in the early going despite their ship heading into the rocks and taking on plenty of water.

With so much of the season left to play, it’s foolish to completely write off a team that still has talented and experienced players on their roster. It’s not impossible for the Blue Jays to win enough games from here to grab a Wild Card, but the signs of a dramatic resurgence don’t seem present.

Toronto’s plight, replicating the Marlins’ flop of a year ago, once again shows that ‘winning the offseason’ doesn’t necessarily count for much. If your team does go all out over the winter months and grabs plenty of headlines, it might actually be wise to bask in the attention and to enjoy the optimism while it lasts.

Recent history suggests you may as well celebrate your team winning the offseason as it’s likely to be the only thing you’ll have to celebrate that year.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Shouldering responsibility

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The list of baseball incidents likely to catch the attention of the British press is a short one, topped by steroid scandals that over the past decade have sadly ‘won’ the sport a fair few column inches across the pond.

A 50-man plus, bench-clearing brawl is on that little list – who doesn’t enjoy seeing a good old dust-up? – and if you add in an injury to an expensively-acquired player an extra paragraph or two will be tacked on to the story.

As Carlos Quentin charged into Zack Greinke recently and everyone else began the familiar shoving match, the thought that came to mind was that it’s a wonder so few brawls (if we can really call them that) end up with an injury being suffered. In Greinke’s situation, you would not expect the player to come out from underneath the heap unscathed.

Against the odds, often a few bumps and bruises are the sum total of the damage done, but it wasn’t long after the bitter Dodgers-Padres clash ended that we found out Greinke had not been so lucky. Initial estimates propose that he will be out of action for at least eight weeks after undergoing surgery on his broken left collarbone.

Manager Don Mattingly’s emotional post-game opinion that Quentin should be banned for as long as the time Greinke has to miss was understandable, if never the least bit likely. When you invest $147m in a top-line pitcher, you’re going to be upset to see him injured in such a bizarre way.

Plenty of debate has been had about any intent on Greinke’s part with the high-and-inside pitch and Quentin’s decision to charge the mound, but in hindsight you would also have to question Greinke’s decision to meet Quentin by putting his shoulder into the well-built outfielder. It has shades of the macho stance that still leads some catchers to block the plate as a baserunner comes barrelling down the third-base line trying to smash him into next week.

That approach may please the masochists, but it isn’t clever to put yourself at such an extreme risk of injury that could cost your team dear. The smart catcher can skilfully tag the runner without putting himself in harm’s way. Greinke would have been wise – rather than a wimp – to have displayed a quick bit of footwork to sell Quentin the dummy before the cavalry came to smother out the danger.

Some may see it as a kill-joy, health-and-safety-gone-mad stance, but this isn’t rounding the edges off those dangerous pointy flapjacks. The Dodgers aren’t paying Greinke $147m to be a nightclub bouncer, they are paying him to pitch and he won’t be doing that for the next couple of months.

Replay the instant replay debate

The Premier League announced last week that they will be implementing HawkEye technology for goal line decisions from next season. MLB has apparently ruled out the use of such technology for fair/foul line calls, but it is expected that an increased use of instant replay will be adopted for the 2014 season.

The game-ending call between the Rays and Rangers last Monday raises an interesting question as to how that should be implemented.

At first glance, umpire Marty Foster’s decision to call the Rays’ Ben Zobrist out on strikes is exactly the sort of play that instant replay should be there for. It came at an important time (the final out of the game with the Rays trailing 4-3 with a runner on first) and was a clearly incorrect call. Nobody wants to see a blatant mistake by an umpire play a crucial part in the outcome of a game, especially the umpire that has to live with the mistake.

However, we don’t yet know whether an expanded instant replay referral system would include balls and strikes calls. My guess would be that the Umpires’ Union, and quite probably the MLB Commissioner’s Office too, would be dead-set against it.

The incorrect strike call on Zobrist was a freak event; most disputed calls on balls and strikes are more marginal. Most, if not probably all, cameras looking towards home plate do so at an angle that distorts the perception of the path of the pitch, so you couldn’t use the standard camera angles. That brings in the prospect of a PITCHf/x type tracking system being used and whilst some fans would be happy for computers to call all pitches, it’s safe to say the umpires would not agree.

As things currently stand, any new referral system would need to be introduced with the approval of the Umpires’ Union and opening the door to the use of a pitch-tracking system is likely to be refused.

It’s possible that the new system would give the umpires ultimate discretion to check any call and therefore a completely baffling error such as the one Foster made could be rechecked (i.e. with the umpire knowing that they had blown it and so referring it themselves), but don’t be surprised if the new system still results in such a call being met only with the consolation of an apology from the umpire.

Which for the team in question is no consolation at all.

Replay on Rajai

Another potential replay scenario cropped up during last week’s series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers.

The Blue Jays’ speedster Rajai Davis attempted to steal second base and was called safe. On first viewing I thought the umpire had got the close call exactly right and I maintained that view having watched a replay. However, a second angle revealed that after narrowly beating the throw, Davis actually came off the bag briefly whilst Omar Infante kept the tag applied.

Infante didn’t make a big deal of it, but maybe he would have done had there been an option to refer the decision to a replay process.

Rule changes typically lead to changes in the way a game is played and the expanded use of instant replay will be no different. Every baserunner tries to stay on the bag when sliding in, just as every infielder knows they should keep the tag applied, but once instant replay comes into effect you should see players refining their technique.

The demand for additional replay has grown deafening as technological developments in TV coverage have hugely magnified the slightest error by an umpire. What shouldn’t be overlooked is that expanded replay will cast the same level of inspection on the players and slight mistakes that they presently get away with may come back to haunt them.

Marlins misery continues

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I was writing up some notes on Tuesday evening for my next MLB round-up column and it was a relatively modest list of news items. Knowing that I might need a distraction from the England friendly, I decided to leave writing it to Wednesday evening.

I was very glad I had made that decision when I looked at MLB.com over breakfast on Wednesday morning.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Miami Marlins have agreed a blockbuster trade that will greatly raise the spirits of Blue Jays fans and further demoralise a Marlins fan base that has been kicked in the teeth time and time again.

ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick summed it up perfectly: “The franchise that knows no shame — and has a long and illustrious history of slashing and burning — has sunk to new and previously unimaginable depths”.

There is a place for considered rebuilding by teams that don’t have the highest payrolls. Sacrificing a few years to build up a collection of good young talent is a sensible strategy and we’ve seen recently how it has turned around the fortunes of the other Florida team, the Tampa Bay Rays.

However, what the Marlins are doing is little short of disgraceful from a sporting perspective. They are making a mockery of being called a Major League team in a way that is especially distasteful considering their circumstances.

What sort of an organization moves into a new $515m ballpark, in part paid for with $360 million in public money, and then completely blows up their roster – the Marlins have now dealt pretty much all of the estabilshed players earning more than the MLB minimum salary – less than a year after it has first opened?

Attendances didn’t rise as much as hoped in the first season of the new Marlins Ballpark, but it wasn’t simply the poor facilities in their previous home that were putting people off. The owner and Front Office have alienated many potential fans and the team often wasn’t performing on the field, giving fans an excuse to spend their money elsewhere.

The underlying problem here is that whilst we can all lambast the Marlins, because of the way MLB works they are exploiting an understandable strategy.

There is no penalty whatsoever for owner Jeffrey Loria and his Front Office to act in this way. They’ve got their ballpark and they’ll continue to rake in millions of dollars in revenue sharing money. If they didn’t think their team would really be competing for a playoff spot over the next couple of seasons, why bother to spend the money on the Major League payroll?

You could say they owe it to the fans and the integrity of the competition, but since when did such thoughts get in the way of making money?

It doesn’t feel right and it’s not right, yet MLB aren’t going to do anything about it so why should Loria care?

The safeguard against such behaviour in football is the threat of relegation. You cannot punt a season or two because if you go down your revenues plummet over night, as does the value of the business.  With no true pyramid from which to promote another team, that’s never going to be an option in MLB.

I suspect there may be owners among the larger spending teams that would be quite happy to see some of the pooled money taken away from teams like the Marlins that are doing precious little to contribute to the pot, but we all know that’s not going to happen any time soon either.

The only potential way to stop a team acting in this way would be some sort of contractual clause that effectively forced an owner to sell the team in certain circumstances, such as lowering the payroll below a specific level.  Whilst the MLB Commissioner’s Office does wield some power, for all intents and purposes it is there to do the bidding of the 30 ownership groups. The owners would have to approve such a clause and that’s as likely as a Norfolk Bronze turkey buying shares in Bernard Matthews.

MLB did effectively force former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to sell the team against his wishes recently but that sorry saga showed exactly how unfair the system can be. McCourt was a complete and utter embarrasment during his ownership and no sane person would let him run a bath, never mind one of the most historic sports teams in the world.

McCourt’s ultimate punishment was to sell the team, that he bought for $430m, for $2.15bn. Just like Loria, he’ll happily take all the negative publicity on his shoulders whilst trousering all the money.

One team’s blow-up is another team’s opportunity though and, to end on a positive note, the bounty received by the Blue Jays will make the AL East even more interesting in 2013.

Only a few days ago I was being a bit rude about General Manager Alex Anthopoulos in likening his signing of Maicer Izturis to buying a toaster. In fairness to myself, I didn’t know at the time that he was buying a toaster to complement a brand new fitted kitchen.

Keeping score on a train

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I was stuck on a train on early Sunday evening with my pocket DAB radio at least allowing me to drift off to Toronto. The Blue Jays were hosting the Yankees and thanks to BBC 5 Live Sports Extra I could listen in while on the move.

I had tried the same diversionary tactic the previous Sunday only to be plagued by a less-than helpful commentary team that constantly skipped over the important details of the game (number of outs, runners on base etc), which is not what you need when sitting in a noisy carriage.

Click the image for an enlarged view

This time I came prepared with an A6 notebook and a biro so that I could both keep a track of the game action and keep a hold on my sanity above the din and inconvenience of a group of parents and kids treating the train like their front room (in a house I’d gladly avoid).

My impromptu scoring method involved simply noting down the outcome of each plate appearance, underlining ones ending or turning into an out. This allowed me to be sure at any moment where we were in the game, how many outs there were and how many people were on base.

I didn’t keep a track of stolen bases, such as the pair stolen by Rajai Davis in the fourth inning, so I didn’t always know exactly where the runners were, but it was much better than nothing.

I also didn’t include player names, batting orders and the like as the commentators were always good at mentioning them (in fairness, the commentators in this game were much better than the previous Sunday and did keep a decent regular check on the game situation) and this wasn’t a scorecard I would be creating stats from.

It’s just a simple running log of what happened as the game went along to accompany the commentary, with runs shown by a circle around each plate appearance that came around to score and dots where a plate appearance resulted in that player gaining any RBI.

The game had reached the end of the fourth inning at the point when I turned off my radio before alighting at my destination. Phil Hughes had just been bludgeoned for six runs in the inning to give the Blue Jays a 7-0 lead and the game ended in a 10-7 victory for Toronto.

I didn’t catch those remaining innings and my ‘scorecard’ is therefore imperfect in many ways, but as a simple scoring method devised on the fly it worked perfectly well enough.