Royals 6, Blue Jays 4: But I'm Not Trying to Hear That Right Now

Patience, my pets. Patience.

When I turned the game on last night, the Blue Jays were down 6-0. Brandon Morrow was out of the game, and Bruce Chen yeah Bruce Chen was totally carving up the Blue Jays lineup. I turned it off, thinking I had all the Blue Jays news I needed. Not so! Much to my surprise -- to everyone's surprise, I think -- the Blue Jays shipped Aaron Hill and John McDonald to Arizona in exchange for Kelly Johnson. The way the story goes, the Diamondbacks came calling for Johnny Mac, looking for his smooth-as-silk glove work no doubt, and Alex Anthopolous was pretty much like, " . . . so I heard you liked underperforming second basemen?" and Kevin Towers was like "not really, we've got one of those already" and then AA was like "Aaron Hill is the underperforming second baseman you are looking for, not Kelly Johnson" and Kevin Towers was like "Aaron Hill is the underperforming second baseman we are looking for, not Kelly Johnson," and the deal was done. I don't know anyone who has taken any pleasure at all in the lingering demise of Aaron Hill, who used to be straight-up awesome, but now can't hit a thing, and, what's more, isn't fielding the position well at all, as in, the guy isn't getting the ball out of his glove on double plays. It's awful, and makes me feel bad. Kelly Johnson is also bad, but better, and John McDonald has already indicated he wants to come back in the offseason. Here's how Eric Seidman summarized the deal at Fangraphs:


On the surface, this deal seems completely about the 2011 season, and under that guise it makes very little sense for the Diamondbacks. They downgraded at second base in a more significant way than they upgraded at shortstop, and potentially lost out on better compensation picks in the process. This is a head-scratcher.


I'm with Eric Seidman on this one. This is not a major deal in any way for either team, but I can't see how this makes any sense for Arizona, and I say that as a guy under no illusions on the subject of Kelly Johnson. In a minor way, Alex Anthopolous has totally done it again. The only thing that concerns me is how Jerry Howarth is handling all of this. That guy loves John McDonald like . . . like I don't even know, man. He just loves that guy.


KS

Blue Jays 13, Mariners 7: The Raveled Sleeve of Care

damn it is #35 haters

Such is my shaken/shook state that even after a six-run, bat-around first inning last night, I still had serious doubts. Half an inning later, it was 6-3, and it felt like we were already losing. Had I not then gone immediately to bed, and stayed up for the Mariners' next three-run inning to pull even, I don't know man, I don't even know. Fortunately, the Blue Jays kept hitting, and between Hill homering, Lawrie going 3-4, and Jose Bautista going 2-2 with a HR and three walks, everything was, in the end, cool. Pretty unassailable work from the 'pen last night, too, with Perez and Camp allowing only one run in  six innings of work (wow, six innings out of the bullpen, ye gods that's hideous). The bullpen is much changed these days, too, with Jon Rauch on the DL and Trevor Miller, uh, gone forever. 


Hey also, Alan Ashby is doing TV this road trip, so it's Howarth and Zaun on the radio, and while I am still far, far, far from a fan of Gregg Zaun, he's clearly getting better. Like, when he is on I am not necessarily overcome by hate or anything anymore. As much.


KS

Blue Jays 7, Phillies 4 and Blue Jays 9, Red Sox 7: Jays Break Out the Bats on Mr. Sub Sports Bag Day, Keep Them Out For Lesser Holiday A Day Later

Have never liked the black uniforms; have always liked dingers. You can see the bind I'm in.

Cliff Lee's utterly ridiculous streak of thirty-four consecutive innings without allowing a run -- the man allowed a grand total of one run in June, by the way -- came to an end in pretty dramatic fashion yesterday, as the Blue Jays thundered to a 7-4 win powered by three home runs in the eighth, from Eric Thames, who fills me with hope, Jose Bautista, who fills me with pride, and Edwin Encarnacion, who fills me with stomach cramps but it's not his fault. Had Jo-Jo been able to keep it together for like a second longer, he totally would have picked up a win over Cliff Lee, which would probably have been the coolest thing ever, but nevertheless, a big day! And even bigger because it all came on Mr. Sub Sports Bag Day. 


Mr. Sub Sports Bag Day has been an annual occurrence for pretty much as long as anums have occurred. For those of you not familiar with this whole situation, Mr. Sub are the purveyors of seriously the worst possible sandwiches, and I am not being stuck up about that. I enjoy Subway. Quizno's can be good. But Mr. Sub can never, ever be good. In my experience, Mr. Sub is a dank pit of strangely wet meat, genuinely questionable vegetables, and injudiciously applied condiments. I hate it and it is awful. But their sports bags, given away at Blue Jays games annually, serve a pretty interesting social function in the city: if you see someone on the streetcar or wherever, and they're rocking a Mr. Sub Sports Bag of any vintage at all, it is like "woah ok we've got a 500 here," which is to say, a citizen of the 500-level upper deck seats. I'm not hating, because that's where I usually sat, too; but generally speaking the 500s are a place for oddballs, drifters, and broke fanatics. The term "500s" applied to people outside the context of the stadium itself is a useful classification for, say, the kind of not-entirely-together but certainly not-entirely-untogether kind of slightly odd person you not uncommonly encounter at the public library, say. You know what I mean? Anyway, these people, this broader meaning of "500s," very, very often are in possession of Mr. Sub Sports Bags when you see them doing their thing, and yesterday is the day all those people got new ones. Somewhere, I have like five.  


Then today things got pretty rad in Boston, too! Brandon Morrow was pretty OK for a bit; Jason Frasor wasn't, really; and "The Closer" Frank Francisco had me uttering foul oaths but ultimately struck out three in the ninth after allowing a leadoff single and a stolen base. Aaron Hill went three-for-five with a home run, and please please please let this be the start of a torrid second-half pace for Aaron Hill, because this has been brutal. Also, Travis Snider is back up, and he too went three-for-five with two doubles. Let this be real. OK?


KS

Phillies 7, Blue Jays 6: This Will Lack Structure

Compared to the rest of these bums J. P. Arencibia is a defensive stalwart

There are all kinds of ways for a team to be bad, and most of them are roughly equally frustrating, except for a staggering inability to catch and throw the ball, which is the most galling thing that can afflict a team that you, in your foolishness, have chosen to attend to. Yesterday it became too much to bear. Aaron Hill has completely lost it, and it's baffling. John McDonald, who only exists to put his glove on balls and then swiftly transfer that ball to his throwing hand and then deliver it to a base at which a force play is in effect -- literally that is the only reason he is there -- is having a terrible time doing that. Rajai Davis refuses to charge hard at anything, which removes the possibility of not just potential fly outs but also plays at bases on balls that drop. Oh, and balls are dropping: it's gotten to the point that Ashby and Howarth were speculating on the radio that maybe Corey Patteron's mild speaking voice is the reason there's so much confusion in the outfield on catchable balls dropping in between outfielders. And Juan Rivera, motherfucking Juan Rivera completely misplayed an entirely catchable, routine fly ball in the ninth inning yesterday, which is exactly the kind of thing that can't happen when Frank "The Closer" Francisco is out there walking the leadoff man in the ninth with a one-run lead. 

A disaster, yesterday, a disaster. Romero was good enough to win, had he any defense behind him, and even without it, he almost did: Jose Bautista launched a two-run shot to put the Blue Jays ahead in the seventh and that should totally have been enough to send 45,512 people home happy on Canada Day.

But no, that wasn't nearly enough, because nobody here can catch the damn ball. If my life wasn't perfect in literally every other respect I couldn't do this anymore. But it is, so I will. But I will register my displeasure on the internet.

KS

Tigers 4, Blue Jays 2: W(h)ither Aaron Hill

Jim Leyland was wrong, but it felt so right.

Perhaps oddly, the eighth inning in which the Mark Rzepcynski and Shawn Camp combined to blow it and allow the go-ahead runs didn't get my goat nearly as goatingly as the broken dreams of the top of the sixth. Here's how that one went: Escobar singled, youngster Eric Thames struck out (these things happen), Bautista ripped one down the line and passed the diving haters, so that's runners on first and third, one out. Adam Lind was quite rightly intentionally walked -- for serious, Lind has been a beast of a dude for weeks now -- setting the stage for an Aaron Hill first-pitch dribbler to the right side and a double play that went Cabrera --> Avila --> Cabrera --> despair to end the inning.


If it were only that Aaron Hill was not hitting, that would be awful enough, in that Hill seemed as though he would be our everyday second baseman for years. But it's more than that: he's having more trouble in the field than you could ever expected, too. Hill, at his best out there, is terrific. But when he's not getting a handle on the ball turning (or not turning, in fact) the double play, it is like, what is the deal Aaron Hill? He is just in no way going to be our second baseman going forward. His pretty team-friendly contract is structured such that the Blue Jays have to decide after this season whether or not they want him for several more years at rates that seemed completely reasonable based on the career trajectory it looked like he was on. But his actual career trajectory is shaped like a tragically disappointed and unstirrable wang.


It's sad.


KS