Bluebird Banter

Some of you might be too young to remember the name Epy Guerrero but without him you would never have known George Bell, Tony Fernandez, Alfredo Griffin, Juan Guzman, and Carlos Delgado as Blue Jay—just to name a few. Epifanio Obdulio "Epy" Guerrero died today at 71 and he goes to his grave as possibly the most prolific baseball scout...

May 23, 2013, 3:30 pm EDT via bluebirdbanter.com

Fresh blood! Brandon Morrow will go up against MLB debutant Kevin Gausman tonight. Tom couldn't have asked for a better pitching matchup to start his vacation in Toronto. Gausman was drafted last year 4th overall out of LSU and signed for $4.32 million right at the deadline. Gausman had only just finished his sophomore season, but was eligible for the...

May 23, 2013, 12:02 pm EDT via bluebirdbanter.com

Who will be the Toronto Blue Jays' starting pitcher this Friday against the Orioles? Nobody outside of the organization does. As John Gibbons said, the candidate is "top secret." Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star went to do some snooping and found a piece of note on Gibbons' desk that may provide a clue: A piece of paper on Gibby's...

May 23, 2013, 11:14 am EDT via bluebirdbanter.com

4-4 with 2 home runs, a walk and even a stolen base. That was Jose Bautista's night. All other Blue Jays managed a 3-30 with two walks and five strikeouts. Wow. JAYS LINKS Jose Bautista's big day helps Blue Jays down Tampa Bay Rays | Blue Jays | Sports | Toronto SunA recap of Bautista's fantastic evening. Jays' Johnson to...

May 23, 2013, 8:00 am EDT via bluebirdbanter.com

Rays 3 Jose Bautista 4 (10 innings) So Jose Bautista gets thrown out trying to tag up from first on a fly ball, in the first inning, a really bad move. Then he goes on to hit 2 home runs, one to tie the game in the 4th, another to tie the game in the 9th. Then he gets a...

May 22, 2013, 8:04 pm EDT via bluebirdbanter.com

Mark Buehrle has struggled immensely in his brief tenure as a Blue Jay. Although it’s almost impossible that he’s as bad as he's been so far, you won't find many Jays fans optimistic about his future. His numbers are way down in almost every meaningful category and he hasn't given many signs of coming out of this funk. Buehrle is...

May 22, 2013, 11:00 am EDT via bluebirdbanter.com

Social media hero J.P. Arencibia has picked up in 2013 where he left off 2012, not being very good for the Toronto Blue Jays. While people (like the hot air balloon of Gregg Zaun) like to talk about how Arencibia's power makes up for his numerous other shortcomings, it's become pretty clear that a winning team should probably have someone...

May 22, 2013, 9:02 am EDT via bluebirdbanter.com

Our minor league system went 2-2 today. Buffalo Bisons (26-18) beat Charlotte Knights 8-7 Ricky Romero pitched 5 pretty good innings, but then he walked 4 straight batters to start the 6th (apparently the first one on 5 balls, the umpire messed up). Before that he went 5 innings, allowed 2 walks, 4 hits, 2 k, 2 earned, which would...

May 22, 2013, 1:52 am EDT via bluebirdbanter.com

Rays 4 Blue Jays 3 Well, that sucked. Before we get to the most painful suckage, let’s look back at the most important suckage. It’s the eighth inning, and the Jays trail the Rays 4-1. This screen grab is courtesy of Fangraphs, showing the leverage index for each plate appearances, as well as the team’s win expectancy at the end...

May 21, 2013, 11:00 pm EDT via bluebirdbanter.com

The Jays finally cut back from the stupid 8-man bullpen, sent Mickey Storey back to Buffalo and surprised us by calling up Anthony Gose. Earlier they told us they wouldn't call up Gose unless he was here to stay. Baseball teams should stop saying things like that, because they can't see the future. Yes, in a perfect world, they'd like...

May 21, 2013, 6:21 pm EDT via bluebirdbanter.com