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Tough game 1 for the Jays. Making the first game of a playoff series a bullpen day was a pretty big gamble, but pitching wasn't the issue. They held the Rays to 3 runs. (That 2-run HR late really hurt though) They just couldn't get anything going at the plate and didn't capitalize on the few run scoring chances that they had According to the stats, the Jays are not a good fastball hitting team. Once the league figured that out in September, they've seen a steady diet of heaters and still haven't quite figured it out. The Rays have quite a few hard throwers. The Jays' hitters need to figure something out tonight - do or die! Here's hoping Ryu can pitch a gem. He was fantastic in his last outing.

The Jays' weekend series with the Phillies is cancelled. The Marlins of course still aren't playing. Just saw an article about the Cards on The Athletic: Another team down Apparently they're planning to play the games Saturday/Sunday as long as the rest of the Cards test negative. A negative test isn't really worth much though. Players could still start exhibiting symptoms and test positive just a few days later. A negative test today is don't mean much when they've recently been in contact with teammates who had the virus. The league ought to know better than this. It's getting harder and harder to imagine this shortened season actually getting finished.

Hard to imagine the Angels catching the Astros for 2nd in the AL West, but I guess stranger things have happened. Seattle is already eliminated: https://www.mlb.com/standings/postseason

Yeah, this is definitely the summer of the bullpen. What I'd like to see when it comes to position players pitching, is the team on the other side of the blowout also putting a position player out on the mound. When the Yanks were were up like 19-3 last night and they pulled their starter, why even bother with a reliever from the bullpen? Especially if the guys in the 'pen need a bit of rest. Just put a backup infielder on the mound for a couple innings. The game was over.

The bracket! I hope all Wild Card Series go 3 games. I want to see some fun, exciting, crazy baseball. So many weird things can happen in a short series. There's definitely a chance for some upsets. All it takes is for one random dude to go off for a bunch of hits, or pitch a few scoreless innings, and next thing you know the underdog has won a game.

The Tigers named AJ Hinch as their manager last week and reports are out today that the Red Sox are going to bring back Alex Cora to manage again... I wasn't sure how the fallout from the Astros cheating thing would affect these guys long term, but I guess at least some teams have no problems bringing them back. I'm curious to see how it goes for both teams.

Hand had a 2.05 ERA in 23 games this summer, 22 IP and 16 saves. 0 HRs allowed, 29 Ks and only 4 BB. He's a pretty damn good reliever! And he's only 30 years old. Obviously $10 million isn't nothing, but it's not unreasonable amount for a talented reliever like Hand in today's game. This really doesn't bode well.

I definitely think they should have left Snell out there. He's gone over 100 pitches a couple times this summer I think, and he was only at 73 when the pulled him last night. If you're gonna lose anyways, it might as well be with one of your best pitchers on the mound instead of a reliever. I'm not sure if Cash actually made that decision though

Barves scored 4 runs in the 9th last night to beat the Dodgers 5-1. And now Kershaw is scratched for today's game (back spasms). Could be a quick 2-0 lead for Atlanta, though they also have a pretty long history now of postseason disappointments so I would not be shocked to see L.A. punch back and even it out. Which team can out-choke the other?

Stupid Astros

I haven't paid as much attention to the rest of the league this summer as I normally would. Most of my sports watching time has gone to basketball. But I still catch parts of Jays games and listen to Jays podcasts. I look forward to the postseason though, hopefully I will find the time to see more of the other (good) teams play. Toronto is up 4-0 now in the 6th, so they can clinch their spot as long the bullpen doesn't blow it.

Yep. From an ESPN article: MLB is implementing an expanded 16-team playoff format for the 2020 postseason. The top two teams in each division, plus the two remaining teams with the best records in each league, will make up the eight-team fields in the American and National Leagues. The division winners will be the top three seeds in each league, with the second-place teams slotted as seeds four through six, and the remaining two qualifiers seeded Nos. 7 and 8. The first-round matchups will follow a 1-vs.-8, 2-vs.-7 format and will be best-of-three series, giving things a March Madness feel. Even if the Jays drop behind the Yanks in the AL East standings, they're in a good position to be one of the 7/8 seeds - unless they really fall apart down the stretch. I like Toronto's chances in a best-of-3 series. They don't have the starting pitching depth for a longer series, but they do have Ryu and a bunch of very solid arms in the bullpen. And the ability to score runs. I can see them stealing a first round series from a better team. If the next round goes to best-of-7, then it's a different story. In any case, it's all very exciting and I'll be happy even with a first round exit as long as the games are competitive. 2015 was supposed to be their time, stupid Royals The 2020 Jays team is very young. Lots of potential, but also quite a few holes that need to be plugged. If the young core keeps developing and they add some more complementary pieces to the team, then I think they could really be competitive in another year or two. This year expectations are lower and just making it into the postseason is a victory.

Steve Cohen to buy the Mets Congrats Mets fans, the franchise might finally turn around once the Wilpons are out of the picture. Still one more hurdle to get over before it's actually final, but if there was any real concern about the other owners not approving of the sale then I doubt things would progressed this far.

And the Jays are 1-0!

Did you guys know that the Platinum Glove Award was a thing? Ten years they've been doing it and I swear I've never heard about it once Basically, all of the Gold Glove winners are eligible for it and it's a fan vote to decide who the #1 defensive players are in the AL and NL. This year's winners were Alex Gordon, Royals LF (WTF ) and Nolan Arenado, Rockies 3B. How the hell does a LF win the award for top defensive player in a league!? LF is basically where you hide your weakest defender who can't play the infield, doesn't have enough range to cover CF, and doesn't have a good enough arm to make throws from RF. Obviously it's because it's a fan vote, but my mind is blown that Gordon has won this award twice (!!) as a LFer...

Teams are declining options on players' contracts left, right, and centre. Good players, bad players, doesn't seem to matter how much or little the options are for. I think free agency and the winter is going to be pretty ugly. Seems like all the teams are crying poor. Sucks big time for the players.

Yeah I'm not sure how much incentive he has to practice But even if he does keep up his training regimen, if he starts losing bat speed like many aging players do, there's not much he can do about that. It can be hard for dudes in their late 30's to keep up with 100 mph fastballs. MLB offseason has been so boring so far. NBA free agency was a crazy weekend with trades and signings all over the place, just constant movement. The Blue Jays are getting tied to some impact players - both because they've said they want to add an impact player and because everybody knows they have the money to do it - but it's hard to say how legit the reports are. Get somebody already so I have something to get excited about please, Blue Jays

But still Rays ALCS: Rays vs. Astros NLCS: Dodgers vs. Braves Who ya got going through to the World Series? I think the Rays were clearly better than the Astros in the regular season, but the Astros do still have quite a bit of talent on their roster. I'm leaning Rays here. On the NL side, while the Braves are very good with a lot of talent in their own right, the Dodgers are just too good. Their run differential is nuts. I think they had the second fewest runs against in all of the MLB, and the most runs scored - though the Braves scored a ton of runs too. So it could be a bit of a bloodbath if the Dodger's pitching lets them down. I want to see a Rays vs. Dodgers World Series. Two very good teams, one running one of the lowest payrolls in the whole league up against one of the biggest spenders in the league. Let's do it.

So many bullpen days this summer I'm still excited that baseball is back, but I have to admit that I haven't _really_ enjoyed what I've watched. Not as much as I used to. It feels like the games have gotten even slower if that's possible. The pace of play rule changes don't appear to be working. Pitchers seem to be throwing fewer fastballs - lots of breaking stuff and other slop - and so many at bats go long, full counts, etc. I guess with all the homeruns these days, pitchers are not willing to give in and throw fastballs as much because the hitters will make them pay. They lean more on their breaking pitches. It really is a three true outcome game now. And with so many pitching changes every game, it feels like nobody - pitcher, hitter, or us fans watching at home - can get into the rhythm of the game. I dunno, maybe they need to deaden the balls a bit. I think they're juiced

I'm OK with sign stealing in the traditional sense, it's just another way of trying to win the game. And I agree about going back to basics, but I guess I don't think "back to basics" includes cameras and other technology. If a baserunner can figure out the catcher's signs, or if players/coaches in the dugout can see a pitcher's tells, then I'm all for them trying to relay that info to the batter with their own signs. But I don't like people in the dugout/clubhouse using video, cameras, etc. to accomplish that.

Baseball playoff series are so random.

Interesting article re: the Yankees on The Athletic: As Yankees fight release of MLB letter, Randy Levine to argue for team in court As the Yankees continue to fight a court-ordered release of “the Yankees Letter,” they’re taking an uncommon step: The team’s president, Randy Levine, plans to argue the case himself. “I’ve argued cases in the court of appeals before,” Levine said Monday. “I enjoy the experience, and I’m really looking forward to presenting our case. It should be a really interesting argument.” In June, Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York said the Yankees and Major League Baseball must make public a 2017 letter sent by Commissioner Rob Manfred to the Yankees that detailed the findings of a league investigation into the team. During discovery, the letter grabbed the attention of plaintiffs who had brought a lawsuit against MLB, the Astros and the Red Sox following the sign-stealing scandals. The plaintiffs alleged that, although the Yankees are not a party to the case, the letter contained proof that the Yankees had engaged in a more serious sign-stealing scheme than what the league announced in 2017, thereby proving Manfred’s duplicity. ... If the team's president is involved, there must be some damning evidence in this letter that suggests the Yanks were also stealing signs like the Astros and Red Sox. In 2017 they beat the Twins in the Wild Card game, and then the Clevelands in the ALDS before losing to the Astros in the ALCS. If the WC and ALDS wins were aided by sign stealing schemes then those other teams are going to be a little bit pissed off (assuming that the Twins and Clevelands were not also stealing signs... for all we know every team in the league was doing it in one way or another!)

Turner gets off without punishment Sounds like there was quite a bit of confusion and miscommunication at the time. He made a (IMO) poor decision, but you can't lay all of the blame just on him for it. Also the new Mets owner isn't wasting time, already shaking things up. Apparently Van Wagenen is out as the GM, which I think is a good start. Get a more competent GM in there. BVW can go back to being an agent.

Why did the Red Sox trade Mookie Betts Of all the teams to cry poor. Everybody else dreams of having a guy that talented on their team. He's a big contract player, but they could have afforded it I think. Dodgers 2 outs away now, up 3-1. Can't believe I'm still awake. *** Dodgers win! Urias is a stud. Totally shut the Rays down at the end there. Bye bye baseball until next year (maybe, who knows what will happen when?)

The Dodgers are only one game away now No game tonight so both bullpens will get a bit of rest. The Rays are gonna throw the kitchen sink at the Dodgers on Tuesday night to try to force a game 7. According to MLB.com, the probably starters for Tuesday are Snell and Gonsolin, so I think that definitely favours the Rays.