Happy Tuesday. Yesterday I had the first of three ninty minute squash ‘rush remover’ sessions, to get ready for active fall and winter of squash. Today I hurt way more than I should. I also found out that I have a lot of rust. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do all three sessions. Sometimes I have to admit that I’m getting older and I’m not up to going that much squash.
Are we ok with George Springer in the lead off spot yet? I’m good with it, but I can understand people not being ok. Let’s have a poll
Great game last night. I thought Scherzer should have come out of the game earlier, but I can understand letting him have some rope when we had a lead. Of course, the lead shrank in a hurry. You have to like games where we don’t have to use the high-leverage bullpen arms.
I try to remind myself that I’m not as close to the game as the manager, coaches and all, but I really didn’t understand why they didn’t take Ernie Clement out of the game when he got hit on the hand. I’m sure he wanted to stay in the game, but when you have a guy who can’t hang on to the back through his swing, he shouldn’t be playing.
I’d like to think that Clement will have tonight. I know that they have more information than I do, but it isn’t fun playing with a sore hand. I think he could rest it. The Jays have played 132 games, while Clement has played in 129 of them, which seems a lot for a guy with a 93 OPS+. I like his glove and all, but maybe sit him against right-handers some.
He hits lefties at .342/.372/.575 clip he should play everyday against them. Right-handers, he hits .239/.278/.310, which, even with his glove, makes him someone who shouldn’t be playing every day. But, managers have their favourites, just like us fans. John knows he’s not going to lose us a game with his glove. It is hard to find third basemen like that.
It is funny to me that Davis Schneider who doesn’t have as large a left-right split has been cast more in the platoon role. Of course, his glove isn’t as good, but I’d still like to see him get to play a bit more, at least while the bat is working.
Andrés Giménez had a night too last night. It is pretty great that he had such a good day on his bobble-head team.
“Bobblehead night. We’re going to do it again tomorrow,” joked Blue Jays manager John Schneider.
“Oh, my God, I will pay for some of those days if they’re going to be like this,” Gimenez added with a smile.
He talked about using the big leg kick again. I sometimes think that a thing like that can get you a few good days, but it would be tough keep it going for a season (or a career, nice work Jose Bautista), but we’ll see. I just hope that John can resist the urge to have him bat cleanup.
Have to respect the job Alfonso Marquez did last night. It looks to me like that would have been only one or two pitches that would have had someone tapping on their helmet to challenge.
Yesterday was Dave Van Horne’s 86th birthday. On the Mount Rushmore of people who I owe a debt to for my baseball fandom, Van Horne would have a prominent spot. He was the play-by-play guy for the Expos (in English) when I was a child. I enjoyed learning from him and Duke Snider (later Ken Singleton)about baseball. I’m sure I got a lot of misinformation too. I remember one, that doubles were a better indication of a batter’s ability than home runs were. Better hitters hit doubles, not home runs. I know I sort of believed it for a long time. Oh well, you can’t be right all the time.
Dave had a pleasant manner on the broadcast. He took it upon himself to teach us Canadians about the game as part of his job. And he and Duke had a nice sense of humour about the game.
When MLB killed the Expos, I felt worse for him than I did for me. He was their broadcaster for over 30 years. I did hear him occasionally on Marlin radio broadcasts, which gave me a pleasant feeling of nostalgia.
