Friday, April 17, 2009

Purcey's poor 4th inning kills Blue Jays

The Blue Jays started out so well in the series opener against the Athletics. Marco Scutaro homered, then Aaron Hill smacked a 2 run shot in the 3rd, followed by a Kevin Millar 2 run double in that same inning. I was at this ball game, and I said to a friend "Purcey has to have a solid next inning. If he gives up any runs this inning following the big offensive outburst, it'll demoralizes the Jays."

Sure enough, Purcey, who battled control problems yet again, surrendered a bases loaded triple and threw a wild pitch which led to another run. Boom. Just like that, the 5-1 lead evaporated...

The young pitcher is still learning, so hopefully he keeps this in the memory bank and doesn't allow a bad outing break his confidence. Purcey can pitch at the big league level, but it's a matter of finding consistency. But throwing away a lead after your team tears it up offensively almost certainly will crush a team's morale, and it did tonight...

Fan experience at Rogers Centre far greater with Skydome open

Now that the phenomenal weather has hit Toronto, hopefully the Rogers Centre dome will be open for balance of the remaining games. The experiences differ so vastly when it's open compared to when the dome is closed...

Baseball is an outdoor sport, it should never be watched indoors. So going to Blue Jays games with a closed roof the experience is so much worse. It's stuffy, there's no view of the great city, not to mention the cool light display on the CN Tower. The ambiance is much poorer. I'm sure the players would rather have it outdoors too.

The Rogers Centre has the wonderful ability to close the roof in the event of inclement weather, but in previous years the dome stayed closed well into May regardless of the temperature. So what if it's a bit chilly at 9 o'clock? Keep the dome open and let the fans enjoy the game the way it was intended...

Oh, and one other thing. The stadium should be called the Skydome, not the Rogers Centre, or any other corporate name for that matter...

Is Ricciardi a good G.M?

Easy there! WOAH! The words "good" and "Ricciardi" have just met in the same sentence for the first time. Ricciardi meet good, good meet Ricciardi. Nice to meet you. Likewise. Let's take things slowly, ok? No need to get frisky just yet...

The Kevin Millar signing by Ricciardi in the off-season was genius. It was only confirmed tonight when he broke open the game with a grand slam in the 7th inning (Jays are 8-3!) He is a valuable power bat off the bench, can face tough left handed batters (platooning with Lyle Overbay at 1st base so far this season), and is a great locker room guy...

Easy there Tiger. Come on there bro. Ricciardi is brutal. Or is he??

He drafted Travis Snider (stud!!!!!!) And Aaron Hill. Not to mention Adam Lind, Shaun Marcum and David Purcey. The list continues with Ricky Romero, Jesse Litsch and Casey Janssen...

What to make of his trades? Yes, they were pretty bad at the start of his Blue Jays tenure. However, he fleeced the San Francisco Giants in the Jeremy Accardo trade. What did he have to give up? Locker room malcontent Shea Hillenbrand and mediocre Vinnie Chulk. Accardo went on to save 30 games for Toronto in the 2007 season. Don't forget the Marco Scutaro deal that netted the Jays the starting shortstop for two bums that call themselves pitchers...

The glaring mistake Ricciardi has on his resume is selecting crusty Rusty Adams in the 2002 draft, but every G.M. hasn't struck out in the first round before...

Ok, back to reality. We were talking about how bad Ricciardi was, right?

Roy Halladay is unbelievable

Doc Halladay is so incredible that there's almost no need for it to be repeated. He is the ultimate professional, always puts together a phenomenal effort, pitches unworldly, and never receives any accolades...

There really is no point in saying how amazing he is. It's not like he can be a strikeout machine when he wants to be, like he was when he struck out the side after putting the first two batters on base in the 5th inning against the Twins tonight...

Roy Halladay is simply one of the greatest pitchers in the game, if not THE best. Ho hum, he's a former Cy Young award winner. Pretty boring stuff, really. Yawn, he's 3-0 to start the season. But no one likes a braggart, right?