Jolt Country

Key Losses:
Shaun Marcum, RHP, DESTROYED FUCKING ELBOW. Marcum was the AL leader in ERA until like his last start.

Dustin McGowan, RHP, WHO THE FUCK KNOWS, SHOULDER OR SOMETHING. McGowan was shut down at the end of the season with, ah, who the fuck knows, the Jays don't tell us anything. He could be ready in May or NEXT YEAR according to Cito.

Gregg Zaun, C, RELEASED. I am mentioning him mostly to remind myself why I am going to use every fiber of my being and not get a subscription to MLB.tv this year.

On September 6th, 2008, the Blue Jays were tied with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays through 12 innings. Their catcher, Dioner Navarro (spelling most likely incorrect, but fuck the Rays) puts Tampa ahead 4-3. The Jays come to bat in the bottom of the 13th.

The bases are loaded and Zaun hits a fucking walk-off grand slam. This should have been one of the, if not THE, most amazing moment in the season... and as the ball was headed out, MLB.tv inexplicably froze and never recovered.

What a pile of shit.

It takes willpower to not get the MLB.tv subscription for the year at something like $100 a year because the Jays currently feature the best player in franchise history pitching every five days. It's almost worth paying that goddamn extortion money to watch him throw the ball. (And the fact that he lost out on the Cy Young last year to a guy who faced the fucking Royals five times, and the Red Sox and Yankees a combined 2 times actually makes me vomit. I am writing this and vomiting at the same time.

Non-Key Losses
A.J. BURNETT, RHP, FREE AGENCY

Haw haw haw, the Yankees figured out the system: sign a shitload of excellent free agents in the same year, so they only lose draft picks in one year. The joke's on them, since Burnett is a piece of shit who threw the most pitches of anyone last year. He won't make it to the All-Star break without missing a start.


... You know what, I am so enraged with baseball this year, I'm not even going to finish this tonight. Fuck this! I can't ever remember being less psyched for the season to start. Thank fuck Halladay is still on the team, he really is all we have.

MLB Extra Innings is free for the first week of the season, April 6-12.

I'm looking at the Jays schedule:
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/schedul ... p?c_id=tor

And... it says "MLB Extra Inning Preview" for some games that week, not all. Halladay is gonna pitch on April 6 and I assume April 11th, neither of which have the "Preview" thing by them. Thus, by omission, it would seem that if I were to leave work early on Monday to see him pitch I wouldn't be able to, and would be filled with rage. A blissful, red rage.

Additionally, counting every 5 days, Roy would miss the trip at Kansas City, even though they are going to play four games there. Argh.

Hahahaha, FUCK YOU MLB.TV

A Dude on SA wrote:Also, MLB.tv has saw fit to use pre-roll ads. So the service you pay $110/year for now makes you wait 30 seconds when you load it up to watch about an amazing opportunity from Dunkin' Donuts, before it will show you your live game. That takes a lot of gall.

That is so assy. Are you kidding me? Ads on a $110 streaming thing?

I will do a breakdown of how angry I am, once I calm down from POST GAME HIGH. Man, I hate the fucking Tigers.

But my options seem to include:

Directv Extra Innings
MLB.tv
This one app for the iPhone
Radio, maybe?
ESPN... er... gamecast?

I actually got updates from your Facebook page, and the live blogging going on at www.drunkjaysfans.com.

WELLLLL the Jays are 6-2, and everything I predicted for the season has been incorrect.

Here's a post I made on Caltrops which is just a stream-of-consciousness type thing. Baseball hasn't been this much fun in a long time. I forgot what I loved about it in the first place. I would assume that the joy is similar when a guy's wife gets implants or something.

The pitching has not been great, or even good (except for Roy Halladay) but that's OK, it's been fun to simply bash the shit out of people. And we've got till like July before we play anyone in the AL East. We'll figure it out.

You may think that kicking the shit out of teams from the AL Central is its own reward. It sort of is! But what about after the game?

After the game, the iPhone MLB app just sort of stays on WFAN out of Toronto. A gent named Mike Wilner handles the post-game show.

I don't think I'm supposed to be receiving the post-game show through the app, however. I'll get a few minutes into the post-game, when suddenly the audio feed will be cut.

This has led to an exciting ritual! Which will happen first - the feed gets cut, or some woefully ignorant local caller will trash GM J.P. Riccardi?

Also... the emergence of LHP Ricky Romero sort of single-handedly turns around one of the biggest "mistakes" that people gave J.P. shit for. Romero was drafted, in 2005, immedaitely before Troy Tulowitzki, who is a shortstop for the Rockies. Tulo got to the majors in 2007, and was part of the Rocks team that made it to the World Series. Romero finally made the Blue Jays this year, but Christ, he's only 24. I know the theory is that college pitchers will need less time to develop, but whatever, Romero has pitched two great games now.

I love this team. Get by the boring Griffey question, and wait until our second baseman, Aaron Hill, comes up in conversation.


[youtube][/youtube]

Oh, man, that was hilariously awkward.

ELEVEN AND FIVE to start the season. I'm losing my fucking shit here.

Highlights of tonight's game:

The Blue Jays have a relief pitcher who plays the role of the "closer." The closer typically pitches one inning in a game where the Jays are winning by three or less runs.

Our closer is B.J. Ryan. B.J. had arm surgery a couple years ago, and was dominating beforehand - he was okay last year, but doesn't seem to be back to his old self. Anyway, someone on the Internet dubbed B.J. getting the ball to "close" a baseball game in the 9th and final inning "Uncle B.J.'s Wild Ride" and it has been pretty much that the whole season.

Here was the performance tonight. B.J. comes in with the Jays ahead 7-4:

C Davis hit by pitch.

J Saltalamacchia walked, C Davis to second.

I Kinsler grounded into fielder's choice to shortstop, J Saltalamacchia out at second, C Davis to third, C Davis scored, I Kinsler to second on throwing error by second baseman A Hill.

I Kinsler stole third.

J Hamilton grounded out to shortstop, I Kinsler scored.

M Young homered to center.

D Murphy struck out looking.

3 Runs, 1 Hits, 1 Errors


Oh, it's a wild ride, all right.

The Jays ended up winning in the 11th inning, when Kevin Millar hit a double that scored Vernon Wells (the guy being interviewed in the video clip up above). The Jays are 11-5, and I can't remember the last time they started the season so well.

But I guess what I really wanted to do with this post is introduce everyone to the terminology, and freak out about the chance that I might see playoff baseball I give a shit about again in my lifetime.

Eff Why Eye: The Blue Jays are 65-43, the best record in the majors, since Cito Gaston replaced John Gibbons as manager on June 20, 2008.

Also, I'll remind you of this... PACT.

http://www.joltcountry.com/phpBB2/viewt ... ries#46269

A pact indeed! I have a passport now, so it's on.

That old thread is so quaint, talking like the Rockies might ever get to a WS again. Charming! A simpler time.

http://hum-and-chuck.blogspot.com/2009/ ... geups.html

Interview with Roy. He's right about that, even though he's kidding: they fuckin' are paying him a fifth of what he's worth to get other people here.

I only heard the last two innings on the radio, but it sounds like it was a typically masterful performance by Doc, and a typical first-year-in-a-contract performance by Ass Jack Burnett.

I'm beginning to think that what looked like a failed experiment in signing Burnett was actually a 2-3 year hustle perpetrated by Ricciardi on the Yankees.

Yeah, I was at the Rockies game, but trying to keep track of the Jays-Yanks one. Halladay vs Burnett, and Halladay throws a complete game allowing one run. GODDAMN I can't believe this team is playing this well. Roy better get MVP votes.

Speaking of "raging hate," I posted this in a status comment on a friend's social networking page, and thought it deserved a wider audience. This is in regard to the Jays recent series loss to the Yankees:

There are very few things in the world that are truly knowable, and they are as follows: 1.) The Jays have the best record in baseball since Cito took over last June. 2.) No, but really, the entire baseball world is waiting with bated breath to see who Girardi's replacement will be next year. Who will the co-presidents with daddy issues pick next? Billy Martin's corpse? Thurman Munson's air traffic controller? If the Yankees are to continue their long death spiral, they might as well get someone more experienced with same.

Ha ha ha!

It sucked that we lost the series, but yeah, we need our pitchers back. (Though that had no effect on last night's 3-2 loss.) I think Tallet won himself a permanent spot in the lineup, so I'd go:

Halladay, Cecil, Tallet, Romero and Janssen for starters. Richmond can't get lefties out, but honestly, we sort of needed another ROOGY, so right on, he still has a place on the team.

Robert Ray can go back to Vegas, I guess, and then we'll see how Romero and Janssen are doing when Litsch comes back.

I will confess that Cito is starting to kill me with his inability to pinch-hit. Rivera closed last night and he left Lind, Snider and Overbay on the bench. Why was Barajas taking cuts up there in the bottom of the ninth??!?! Yes, he's playing his ass off this season, but Jesus Christ, Lind is the team's best hitter (and I know he was in the on-deck circle for Johnny Mac when the game ended) but come on.