Blog Archive

My God, what a line up

March 31 Line up
March 31 lineup

Would you look at the line up we’re putting out against poor Detroit today. God help them. This is some team.

I can’t remember being this excited going into the year. Maybe 2016? It was the trade deadline in 2015 that made that team come together and make you truly believe, I liked the April lineup but not like I like todays. And if we’re being honest, April 2016 was a little deflating. Price hadn’t stayed. Baustia was a year older. There was the nagging feeling that last year might have been the one.

The 2022 Toronto Blue Jays are STACKED!! I’ve said it before we’re 7 deep in the every day line up. Like you just can’t pitch around it. It must make pitching for the Blue Jays a much easier experience than on other teams. You will routinely be pitching with a lead and there realistically you only need your ERA to be in the 3’s.

I didn’t blog yesterday evening as I took the opportunity to watch the evening start time. Something I’ll have to give up and work around as the season gets going for real I know. But as its the only spring evening game this year I allowed my self the indulgence. I know you can’t get too excited by Spring Training, but it still always brings a smile each and every time we’ve beaten the Yankees this March. Very little will translate to when we go to the Bronx for the first time on April 11th , but I do hope the team takes a real confidence and swagger with them into that series. “We’re the big brother now” type feelings.

Yimi García looked really sharp last night. Visa’s mean he got to camp late. But clearly he was working hard down in the Dominican Republic. It will be interesting to see if he becomes the everyday 8th inning guy, or if we’ll take a rotation approach to the 9th with him and Jordan Romano. Either way seeing him pitch so well has eased some of my nerves about this pen.

Veteran and World Series Champion Dexter Folwer officially joined the Blue Jays on a minor league deal today. Coming off a torn ACL, it looks like he won’t be available until into the summer, but with the expanded 28 man roster, he has a legitimate chance to be with the team once ready. By all accounts he is a good character guy, and with a team so young I do think there is some real importance in just making sure we have a couple of older guys on the bench to give advise to the younger guys.

Gausmen pitched 70+ in a intrasquad game yesterday. Ryu will pitch today in a minor league game. So that looks like we’re set up for José Berríos to take the opening day mound. Followed then by Gausmen and Ryu for the first series.

Tomorrow I’ll lay out my 28-man opening day squad. I don’t expect it will overly shock you. It does seen to be the least competitive camp in years. But we’ll pencil one in all the same.

Til then, thanks for reading.

A measure of composer please.

Let me just begin todays blog with a disclaimer right off the top. DUIs are a VERY big deal. I don’t condone them in any way. As both an avid drinker and driver myself, I never mix the two and always make sure to never leave my self in a position to need to drive after drinking.

So let’s talk about Pete Walker. Thursday Night/Friday Morning Pete was arrested and charged with a DUI. Pete entered a plea of not guilty today and really that’s about all we know for now. I am also a firm believer in innocence until proven guilty, and the details matter. Is Pete Guilty at all? Did he blow 0.00001 over the legal limit or was he 10 sheets to the wind and blowing a solid 4 times the limit? Was the arresting officer a Yankees fan? It all matters.

That’s why I’ve been very disappointed with media coverage of the incident, and how the Blue Jays and Charlie Montoya in particular have been repeatedly questioned. It’s clear and obvious that certain media outlets have already determined guilt and want Pete to loose his job. This really irks me. Firstly because of my said belief in due process but secondly, why does everyone have to loose everything all the time now? It drives me crazy. If you got a DUI, do you think you should loose your job? Unless you drive for a living, what have the two got to do with each other? If guilty, then Pete should loose his license, pay a fine, do some community service, whatever the Florida state law requires just like everyone else would (I have no time for light sentencing due to “fame”) and then be allowed to get on with his life and his job.

Elsewhere

The Blue Jays went 2-2 since I wrote last. Signs are good. For the most part the players we are going to rely on appear to be doing quite well, with more of the Minor League or Non Roster guys being the ones to “blame”. I was very happy to see the Jays hold on, on Saturday to beat the Yankees again. I loved Manoah going into the 4th inning against these guys. He looked great, always in control, no fear. It was really solid. I liked how Vasquez closed it out too. Giving up the 1 run aside, he kept his composer and got the save.

Todays game was interesting too. Although the Blue Jays lost, I really liked the fight back. A winning culture begins in camp and needs everyone bought in. From the sure fire starters to those who could be called up any day during the season. It would be so easy for check out when 5-0 down, so it was great that they didn’t.

Yusei Kikuchi stunk up the joint Saturday. I’m getting such a strong feeling he’s going to be my “hate watch” this year.

I mean.. he came out of the game, and then went back in (thank you spring training) just to give up his third home run of the day!! I really don’t get it. I liked the pick up, but I’ve said from the get go, that his place shouldn’t be assured.

Finally for today, Hazel Mae had some stats from Jose Berrios AAA start today. It was a really good outing, and one he surly needed. But it was AAA, so there is that. Lets hope it did his confidence some good, and we can see a similar line from his next outing. Hopefully we’ll see Gausman’s debut one day this week. I’m really excited to see in live in Blue Jays Blue.

Thanks for reading.

Rain Delayed, but my spirits aren’t dampened

My apologies for missing Wednesdays blog. Similar to yesterdays Blue Jays game we were rain delayed. And Similar to yesterdays game, its unlikely the blog will be made up in a future double post 😉

Truth be told, I had a mild heart attack at the news Tuesday that the Blue Jays we’re in talks with Brett Gardner. I’m still woozy. There honestly isn’t an active player in all of MLB that I sports-hate more!!! He is the epitome of evil to me, and it would be impossible for me to take any joy in a team he is on.

The big news around the Blue Jays today was the announcement of a huge overhaul to Rogers Stadium, this coming winter and the winter of 2023/24. I’m very excited to see what’s planned. I’ve always maintained that the current ballpark just isn’t very good. I don’t enjoy visiting it as a building. So I’ll be really excited to see what they can do. The report still maintains that this is just to buy time until we can build a new stadium.

Unfortunately I just don’t see how that happens while still remaining anywhere close to Toronto. I worry we’ll end up like the Ranges in that sense. The only option would be a year or two away while they rebuild on the existing site. Hopefully with these upgrades though that chilling thought can be pushed back 10+ years.

The other big news of the week was the Randal Grichuk trade. I can’t say I’m surprised. I like Randal, he’s a good player, he’s just never been north of $10m good. And as an obvious (and rightly) fourth choice outfielder, you can’t really be paying that much money. As it stands we’ve had to eat $5m of it still.

Raimel Tapia at $3.9m is a much more reasonable cost for a 4th outfielder. And I think that’s what we’ll see. He won’t be as good I don’t expect as Randal will be this year, but 3 years younger and a lot less money the fit is just better. Who ultimately “wins” this trade will take a year or two, to be seen when we see how and if Adrian Pinto pans out. Overall though I am happy with the move, I think it was a good one to make, and I wish Randal the best of luck in Colorado.

Ryu makes his pre-season debut today, on his birthday no less. With Berrios having a second consecutive bad outing and Gausman yet to go, I’m hoping to see something impressive for Ryu today just to ease my nerves a little.

Lastly before I leave you I’ll just post this….

box score 03/22

Yes its pre season, and yes it means nothing.. but god damn its fun to spank the Yanks. Thanks for reading!

Blue Jays Spring Training Begins

The one thing I like most about spring training baseball is just how hard it is to analyze. The games really don’t mean anything. Obviously its always better to win than loose. That goes without saying. But who played in those wins or losses? And maybe more importantly, who played against us? Did the Blue Jays starters play, and were they against reserves or the best the opposition had to offer?

All of these questions matter, when you are to objectively evaluate the team and how hopefully you want to be for the year ahead. It why an undefeated Spring Training Team can miss the playoffs and a winless team can win it all in come October. The scores themselves only tell a small portion of the story.

So here we stand, at the end of the opening weekend of Spring Training and the Blue Jays are 3-1 (whoop whoop) after the first four games. But our expected starters only played in two of the games (hmmm) and combined for 3.1 innings and an ERA of 18.00 (eeek). But again none of it actually matters (haha).

Arden Zwelling had an interesting piece yesterday about George Springer. I had wondered at him not playing yet, but this makes complete sense. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more of this, this year. As I wrote about last Friday, with the shortened Spring Training the Blue Jays will need to balance out trusting the starters to get themselves ready while giving the fringe players the most opportunities to make the roster. If we have players capable of getting themselves ready by themselves I’m all for it. In fact there is probably merit in it. You can manipulate the number of plate appearances, the types of pitches thrown and really help get the players into the right spots.

Pitching differs a little, so I do find it surprising we’ve not seen more of the starters. They need the routine of the 5 days rotation, the pre game warm up etc more than the everyday guys need to stand around the outfield and only see curve balls because that’s what the opposition pitcher is working today. Perhaps though as I’ll get to later in the blog, the reason we’re not seeing too many starts yet, is because we’ve so many bull pen questions.

Game Highlights

Here are a couple of notes I made over the 4 game thus far.

  • Alejandro Kirk: Not to be a body shamer in any way, but I was disappointed that Kirk didn’t enter camp in better shape. Obviously he’s a big leaguer as he is. He’s doing just fine, but in the same way Vladdy has taken that next leap since transforming his diet, I think Alejandro could benefit form the same. That said.. he’s picked up right where he’s left off and is out preforming Janson and if he keeps it up I expect him to get at least 3 of every 5 behind the plate this year.
  • Vladdy and Chapman: Vladdy just being Vladdy, and Mark showing no signs of the hip issue have both gone long (really long) already. Will there be a better 1-2 punch in the league this year? I doubt it.
  • Nathan Lukes: I bit of a journey man only in camp as an NRI, but he’s took his chances as best you could ask for thus far. Hard to see a spot for him without an injury but I’ve liked what he’s done.
  • 0.60: The teams BB/K over the four games. Look a lot of this will be down to some eager youngsters just up there hacking hoping to hit a big one and make a highlight reel, but plate discipline (a hallmark of the 2021 team) really needs to improve
Rosters

The other fun thing with Spring Training is trying to work out who will break camp with the team. I’m not convinced we know all the pieces in this game this year though.

Right now there are only 38 registered players on the 40 man roster, and while 2 of those spots would be needed should any of the NRI’s make the team, I also think there are more trades to be made, and I’m not convinced the Jays are finished doing business.

Going into the offseason the Jays were in a good position of trade wealth to be able to do some dealing. Thus far only 4 lower level prospects have been traded. All the other acquisition’s came via Free Agency. Not something any of us are overly used to here in Toronto. So maybe that means we don’t need to trade this year? But I still think the bullpen could use at least one more proven solid arm.

It’s that bullpen too that is the only question mark when it comes to the 25 man roster. Though I’ve written previously that I personally would like to see more compaction in the rotation spots, I think we’re set with Berrios, Gausman, Ryu, Kikuchi and Manoah. Like wise the lineup writes itself. Springer, Bichette, Guerrero Jr., Chapman, Gurriel Jr., Hernández and Biggio will be your everyday 7 with 2 of Jansen, Kirk, Espinal or Grichuk depending on the day. That makes 16, leaving just the 9 bullpen spots open for grabs.

There are 13 Non Roster Pitchers in camp, and the current 40 man consists of 10 bullpen (or would/could be starters). 23 into 9 doesn’t go, so that leaves a ton of decisions for Charlie and the front office to make.

Ok we’ll leave it there for today… thanks for reading.

Today is the day

Finally!! Today is the day we get some real life Blue Jay baseball back in our lives. The 166 long dark days of winter are over. It’s game day!

I wondered to myself yesterday what our lineup might look like today. A shortened Spring training adds an extra wrinkle. You’ve less time to see the players on the fringe you want to evaluate, but you’ve also less games to get your sure things prepared. Today at least it looks like it’ll be mostly an evaluation day. Even with Berrios, I don’t expect more that 1 inning.

I wonder if Berrios starting today means he’ll be the season opener also? I think it’s between him and Gausman. As I’m going to the game, I’d personally prefer the opportunity to see Gausman, but Berrios is probably more deserving.

It feels like so much has happened since I last wrote. I guess that’s why people blog daily. But unless I win a lotto sometime soon and can give up the real job, this will just remain a 3-day a week part time passion project. Lets do some quick fire:

Chapman Trade: This was braking as I was writing on Wednesday. I incorrectly guessed that it would cost us Espinal. Turned out it didn’t, and it didn’t cost any big leaguer. Clearly the A’s are looking to cut payroll again, which is really disappointing. Its what I wrote about during the lockout, raising the CBT makes no matter when most clubs were never reaching the old limits anyhow. Only time I guess will tell if this is a good trade or now. Will Chapman stay more than the 2 years. Will we win while he’s here. Will we flip him next year for more (thus making that the comparison) and will any of the 4 that went to Oakland actually turn into anything special.

However long he’s with us, I’m extremely happy he is here. Its such an important spot filled both defensively and in the lineup. Right now I put us 7 deep in guys that could honestly hit for .290+ That’s bonkers!!

Freddie Freeman: So Freddie ended up in LA. $162m. Good for him. Nice to see him get his worth. I never really saw the fit with the Jays, and once the Chapman trade happened, then that was that, if there ever was anything. He’s a great player. It would have obviously nice to have him, but the timing, the fit, the cost just made no sense right now.

Vladdy comments: Vladdy caught some headlines with his comments yesterday, about last year being a trailer, and this year being the movie. I absolutely love the analogy, and it gave me goosebumps for what could be. It scary right now. On paper this team is just so good. Possibly ‘best ever’? I just so desperately want it to translate off the paper now.

Ok that’ll do it for today. Really looking forward to getting to do some game recaps on Monday. Until then, thanks for reading.

Money Money Money

When your team is owned by a Telecommunications Giant values at over $34B, who recently spent $5.2B to exclusively show Goons with Sticks on Ice, to the good people of Canada, then surly spending money on baseball would be a no brainer.. right? Like you’d never be outspent by the Yankees or Red Sox?

That’s what’s always been so frustrating with this team. How are we playing such small ball when absolutely maxing out the CBT each year would be a mere drop in the ocean to Rogers? Thankfully things really have begun to change to in recent years. It pains me to say its probably down to Mark Shapiro (I don’t like him.. one day I’ll give you my WTF did he ever actually do or win in Cleveland rant) but the timing of the spending and his arrival are tied. It began with Grichuk, then Ryu and Springer. Now Berrios, Gausman, Kikuchi and it would appear we are in serious contention for Freddie Freeman who won’t come cheap.

I only hope and pray and hope some more and pray some more that when Bo and Vladdy are up, the money keeps flowing.

To put a bow on Mondays topic, it would seem Kikuchi is hair apparent to the #4 spot. We had the big presser yesterday and lots (and lots) of social media whoha pumping his tires. Obviously I really want him to be successful. I want the whole team to be successful, so lets hope I’m just being overly cautious.

I find the Freeman links confusing. At first I put it down to just the Canadian link, and there being no real substance to it. Then though there were enough reports by journalists I respect that make it feel more real. The interest at least, whether it happens or not is still to be seen. But I don’t get it. Freddie is a 162 guy, who plays 1B. Vladdy is a 162 guy who plays 1B. Are we looking at a full DH role here again spit between the two maybe? Seems short sighted.

We benefited greatly last year letting Springer DH those games as we eased him back from injury. Is Vladdy moving back to 3B? What would that mean for Espinal. Not to mention right as I write this.. Twitter is breaking that a Matt Chapman trade is imminent. I’ll have more thoughts on that on Friday is a) it happens and b) we find out who’s going the other way. (Probably Espinal lol).

A lineup of Freeman 1B, Vladdy DH and Champan 3B wouldn’t be terrible. It would be the very opposite in fact… not terrible. Frightening. Exciting. But a full time DH is a little risky in this day and age, that’s all I’m saying. Don’t be surprised for stories or log jams at DH come June.

Lastly how could I sign off without wishing a Happy Birthday to Vladdy. ¡Feliz cumpleaños!

¡Feliz cumpleaños! Vladdy

Til Friday, thanks for reading.

The road to the 2022 World Series starts here

Spring training officially opened this weekend, and with it a full dose of optimism and hope for the year ahead. The road to the world series really does start here and now. You can’t win it all in Spring Training but you can loose it. Just ask San Diego who are already down their superstar INF for a broken wrist.

The big news of the weekend for the Blue Jays was the addition of RHP Yusei Kikuchi. Even though he did make the All Star teams last year, I won’t lie I don’t recognize the name nor do I know much about him. Seems he fell off quite a bit after the break last year. Obviously that is probably what lead to his availability, but hopefully the Jays scouting team see’s something they feel they can work with.

I choose to remain positive, but I am also skeptical. The American League East is NOT the division to be trying to re-find yourself in. We’ve seen many better pitchers struggle to make it in this division. Most “experts” seem to have Kikuchi penciled into the 4 spot behind Berrios; Gausman; and Ryu, with only the 5th spot up for grabs. I’d like to think he would still need to earn his spot, and is only in the mix for the final two like Manoah; Pearson and Stripling.

Eagle eyed viewers will nothing I went Berrios, Gausman, not Guasman Berrios, for that very same reason. I’m beyond excited for Guasman. His name and history carry far more weight that Kikuchi’s does, but even he too has to show he can do it in this division.

One last point that make me hope Kikuchi isn’t just a made man. Both FanGraphs’ and Baseball-Reference’s 2022 projections aren’t exactly numbers I’d want from my 4th man up on a pennant winning playoff team.

Yusei Kikuchi 2022 projects from https://www.baseball-reference.com/
Yusei Kikuchi 2022 projects from https://www.fangraphs.com/

He doesn’t need to be an all-star again. And with this lineup behind him should see far more decisions that previous years. But personally I’m going to need a little more before I can jump on board.

Another name from the weekend that caught my eye was the return of Joe Biagini. I always thought Joe was better out of the pen, and played well when the team was playing well. Seemed like an emotional kind of player. Obviously he’s only in on a free look right now, no guarantees he breaks camp with the team, but if this squad performs anything like last years (in terms of both wins and team spirit) I think Joe could be really useful. Christ knows we need a serious bull pen upgrade from last year.

One last little nugget from the weekend. The Blue Jays announced their 2022 coaching staff. And I couldn’t help but notice two titles I at least don’t recall ever seeing before. Major League Pitching Strategist and Major League Hitting Strategist. Not coach; Not trainer; Strategist! Maybe there is a route for me into the big leagues after all. Cos god bless me the little I do know about baseball, I can sure as hell Strategies that we Strike them out, and Hit the balls pitched to us. LOL!!

Otherwise I’ve just been refreshing my twitter feed endlessly, looking for new content out of Dunedin, and grinning like the cheshire cat with even photo, video, quote.

I’ll be back Wednesday with a breakdown of my favorite’s.. until then, thanks for reading.

Let’s Play Ball

Three of the greatest word’s in the English Lexicon. “Let’s Play Ball”. Baseball is back baby!!! Whooow. I expected to be able to write this blog on Wednesday but when that didn’t happen, I genuinely never believed I’d get to write it as soon as today.

Hopefully one day we’ll get some insight to just what happened behind the scenes this past week. It really doesn’t make sense to me, how we swag so dramatically in different directions so frequently. The just is no logic to it, so there must be something we’re missing.

The new CBA reportedly includes several changes, according to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich and James Wagner of The New York Times:

  • Expanding to a 12-team playoff field
  • Universal designated hitter
  • Six-team draft lottery
  • New $50-million bonus pool
  • Increases to competitive balance tax thresholds (starting at $230M, rising to $244M)
  • Changes to minimum salary (starting at $700K, rising to $780K)
  • Addressing service-time manipulation
  • Top two Rookie of the Year finalists get full year of service time
  • 20-round amateur draft
  • Players can be optioned to the minor leagues a maximum of five times per year

It’ll be curious to see what exactly “addressing service time manipulation” comes to be, unless it’s just the ROY piece. That’s not great. But I think overall this is a good win for the players. Lot’s of positive progress.

Spring Training officially begins on Sunday but players may report as of today. We’ve seen a bunch on the guys arriving in Dunedin on Twitter. Looks like we’ll get out first game on the 18th whom against I don’t know. Sounds like we’re just going to make up a new schedule. Regular Season beings on April 8th with a home opener now to Texas (instead of a road open in Baltimore, and home opener to Tampa). I’m not sure what this means for ticket holders. It would suck to have paid premium dollars for the Tampa game for it now to just be rescheduled to later in the season, but likewise you can’t screw over the fans who already had the Texas series.

One of the missed series is to be made up throughout the year as double headers, while the other is an additional series at the end of the year. I’m not sure how that will be decided but its sure to cause lots of debate. End at home to Tampa, meaning we end on a 9 game home run… or go to what I expected to be a fairly flat Baltimore team??? Play your double headers at home or on the road? Lots of strategy to consider, if there is any choice given.

The new playoff structure has a nice little wrinkle with the Wild card series only being in one city. Great if you host, kind of sucks if you don’t and you don’t progress. Yes your team made the playoffs, but you didn’t get a single home game. No different I suppose that the one game eliminators we’ve had the past few years.

I’ll leave you with this post from the Blue Jays today… if this doesn’t just get you giddy and put a big smile on your face then you’re dead inside I guess.

Thanks as always for reading, back on Monday when we can really get this blog starting by exclusively talking all things Blue Jays.

Where do we go from here?

It’s been really difficult to write today’s blog. As I write, there is still no baseball. At various points today it seemed we are only moments away from an agreement being met. But then right as I was drafting out my blog full of excitement the news broke, talks have broken down, more games are canceled. Everyone is more pissed off than before. So where do we go from here?

Reports had it that agreements had been made on all the sticking points except international signings. I find it hard to believe that will be the hill anyone is willing to die on. Clearly this was a much larger deal than I could have ever imagined.

MLB announced a new deadline yesterday to save the 162 season. I’m not sure if we’ll ever know what happened exactly to bring the owners back so soon, and to propose a full 162 schedule again. As I wrote about last week, missed April games would really only hurt the players, if anything it saves the owners some money. Once last week’s deadline was missed I genuinely thought we would be in this for the long haul.

Looking to the shortened 2020 season as an example. There were only 60 regular games, but a full playoff schedule. If it weren’t for the decreased ticket revenue for the limited capacity rules in some states, I’m not sure the owners would have been hurt too bad. Owners make the majority of their money from the playoffs, so it got me thinking that at least for one more year they might be willing to go there again. Drag these negotiations out to July. 

I can only hope now that I’m wrong, that the fact we got back to the negation table so soon last time, that we can get there again soon too. My best guess is the public outcry to the announcement of missed games last time, and nobody blaming the players (like MLB had hoped with its media leaks), caused some level of onus within the ownership group to figure this out .. hopefully it’ll be the same this time too. I can’t see how it shakes out any other way.

My mind is like a game of boggle right now. Try as I might, I can’t put any of the letters together to find real words though. Something must have happened. How do you agree to so much and then overswing the other way to pull even more games off the table. Its big boy bully bullshit, and this version of the MLBPA has proven time and again, its not going to fall for any of it, nor will it allow Manfred to spin the media.

If we get one good thing to come out of this lockout, hopefully it will be the end of Manfred. Surely he can’t survive this. Can he? I’ve always thought him to be a lousy Commissioner. His contacted for 2 more years.. not the worst buyout. In general commissioners will always get renewed so long as the owners are happy. You see it in all sports. That’s why bad ones stick around so long. As long as the owners are making money they leave the guy there.

But if I am right, and social perception is playing any part in these negotiations and that is what brought the owners back in so quickly.. then hopefully they will see the benefit in scapegoating him and cutting ties once baseball resumes.

I miss baseball each winter, and look forward to getting to see (and blog about) the Blue Jays playing games again. Hopefully that can happen sooner rather than later.

Thanks as always for reading!

Spring training: Authentic Baseball

The one thing this lockout will steal from me this year no matter how (and when) it ends, is a complete Spring Training. Sure there will be some pre-season training and warmups, the MLBPA will never allow the players to go into meaningful games ice cold, but it’ll be far shorter than it otherwise would have been. I absolutely love spring training. Crazy I know, but I’m a sucker for it. The ‘Single A’ ballparks with the limited camera angles, the stripped down uniforms and hats. I’m all in! It just fells like more of an authentic baseball. And there will be less than there should be this year. 


Some of you no doubt will quip in makes up for the over use of the minor league parks these past two years, and I can’t really argue with that. I can’t wait to see what this team can do with a full year in Toronto, but there is something so nostalgic and simple about minor league parks. Its criminal to think how little games Vlady, Bo and company have actually played in Toronto.


As I mentioned in last Friday’s blog, my first taste on “real” baseball didn’t come until I was 20. Prior to that everything I knew came from movies, such as Eight Men Out, A league of their own, The Natural and The Babe. I find something captivating how in some ways how little the game has changed. During the time I spent at Wrigley Field I couldn’t help but feel the history, thinking about the players that played on that very field up to 100 years before. 


That’s why I love Spring training I guess, it’s so much closer to that raw authentic baseball, without all the commercialization that comes with “The Show”. Hearing stories of players bussing it from park to park reminds me of when away games were attended by train rather than private flight. I listen to most of Spring training on the radio, as so little is televised, (another throwback) as well as all the games are played at 1pm in the daylight. Side note: I listen to a lot of regular season games on the radio too. The Fan 590 team do an amazing job.

Hopefully if I can get to enough games this year, Rogers center will become my most visited ballpark. To date that acclaim still belongs to Nat Bailey Stadium from my time in Vancouver. God I really loved that stadium. “Authentic”. There just isn’t get away from that word, there is something really authentic about these smaller stadiums. The crackly muffled tannoy, the outfield sign for Tom’s Butcher Shop, or Bill’s Barbers. It’s just a feeling no MLB stadium can recreate.

Right before the pandemic hit, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the Intercounty Baseball League. There was the cheesiest smile plastered on may face for the entire game. You sit so close its like you really are in the game. You can smell the pine tar and the resin, ( and the Tabaco spit). You hear everything said in the dugouts. Granted it was no bat flip game, but it was one the most fun professional baseball experiences of my life.

So yeh .. I’m really sad there is going to be less spring training, this year. And this time not because of a health pandemic. No this time instead its because of the pandemic that is the greed of the MLB franchise owners. You know, the more this lockout goes on, the bitter I get. Hopefully we’ll get some good news this week, the weekend bore nothing, not too unexpectedly.

‘Til Wednesday… thanks for reading.