The 2012 Blue Jays, part I

On to actually writing about this year's edition of the Blue birds.

Ok, the 2012 Blue Jays were not what you'd call fantastic, but they were definitely interesting.

Notable shit that went down:*

Paging Dr. Andrews!  The pitching staff goes down like their bodies consist of rotting zombie flesh (I've been watching a lot of The Walking Dead lately).

Brett goes Berzerk! Brett Lawrie loses it and tosses his helmet in the vicinity of umpire Bill Miller.  Helmet hits Miller.  Lawrie sits in the metaphorical penalty box and feels shame.

EE!  Encarnacion hits the ball.  Ball leaves park.  42 times.  That's what I call a breakout.

NoScobar! Yunel Escobar (or YEscobar to some) writes offensive Spanish word on eyeblack.  Team gets angry.  Yunel sits in the metaphorical penalty box and feels shame.

Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye! Red Sox tempt Farrell.  Blue Jays let him follow his dream.  Get utility infielder in return.

Heeeere Pitcher Pitcher Pitcher Pitcher!  AA trades everyone for bullpen help.  Ok, not everyone.  Just all the outfielders not named Jose Bautista and Colby Rasmus.  And a bunch of minor leaguers.

Is There a Doctor in the House? ** JPA, Joey Bats, Brett Lawrie, Adam Lind and more spend time on the DL.

Vegas Baby!  Adam Lind gets shipped out to a magical land where the ball flies forever. Young players travel to our home and native land where they are surprised that the ball doesn't go so far and the opponents can exploit their weaknesses.

Vegas Baby, pt 2! Jays leave the Pitcher's Nightmare for the Promised Land of Buffalo.

A Tale of Two Brandons!*** Brandon League has a decent year for a reliever, gets $22.5 million.  Brandon Morrow could be a true Ace (and already had a contract guaranteeing $22 million).  I'll take the Morrow.

Oh Ricky, You're so Fine, You're so Fine You Blow My Mind! Whah Hahpened?  Injury?  Or just a bad year?

Oh Mar, How Could You?  Omar can't hit.  Omar doesn't play. Omar criticizes management.  

 All this, and (probably) more!  If I'm forgetting something, be the first to interact and leave a comment!

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*I'm doing this from memory, so if I forget stuff, just pipe up!

**While the tone of this blog is humorous, I don't want to diminish the tragedy of a fan who passed away after suffering a heart attack at the Rogers Centre on August 16.

*** I'm copyrighting that sucker for another blog I might write.

My Blue Jays Cap

This is my Blue Jays Cap.  

Since my schedule over here is very flexible until I return to Toronto at the end of the month, I thought I'd go on some adventures with my Jays cap before I leave Berlin.  We'll see some of the sights, do the "tourist thing," and just party it up Berlin-style for a few weeks.  We'll also try to make some new friends along the way!

Blue Jays from Away

I've been a Blue Jays fan my whole life.  Toronto born and raised with a few stints living abroad.  I spent 4 years (well, school years) in Kingston, Ontario.  I played ball at various levels of competitiveness from the time I was 5 until I was 17, at which point, I "retired" and moved into umpiring.

After I finished university I  went on a road trip that covered about 10 ballparks in the Northeast between Chicago, Baltimore, Boston, and Montreal.  Unfortunately, this trip was before the latest generation of great ballparks was built in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and before Washington had the Nationals.  It was, however, my first visit to Fenway, Camden Yards, and Wrigley.  And two solid weeks of baseball (and driving) was pretty damn great. 

A glutton for punishment, after a couple of years off of school, I went back for more.  This time I spent two years in the baseball mecca of Boston.  Being a baseball fan in Boston was fantastic.  I lived next to Fenway Park (one of the two years) and worked out at Gold's Gym across from the stadium.  At Gold's during the baseball season, I would catch visiting ballplayers working out from time to time.  It was an especially big thrill when the Jays were in town.  I met and spoke to Cory Thurman and Pete Walker a little bit, and saw an (allegedly) 'roidy Jason Giambi in living colour.*  I went to several games at the glorious Fenway but even living in Boston couldn't knock the Blue Jays fan out of me.**

I spent most of the 2012 baseball season living in Berlin, Germany (although I did get to a couple of early season games in Toronto) and let me tell you, it's not easy following the Jays when the games start at 1am local time.  I bought the MLB.tv package to watch online, but I have to admit that I didn't get nearly the value out of it that I had hoped to.  I tried to watch archived games the next day but just couldn't do it.  Aside from the random mid-week day game, I was stuck watching on the weekends when I didn't have something else going on.

So I get my Blue Jays fix from the multitude of great Blue Jays blogs out there.  And I thought that I could have a somewhat unique view on the Blue Jays and maybe contribute something to the blogosphere. 

While I'm returning to Toronto at the end of November, my future career trajectory is uncertain and will probably be away from Toronto, so I think the title of this blog still seems apt.  And it rhymes.  So I'm not changing it.

So that's about as much about me as I'm willing to tell y'all right now.

What can you expect from this blog?  Ummmm Blue Jays?  But basically, I'm not a professional sportswriter, so I don't have access to anyone important.  Everything that I write will be my own interpretation of information that I've gathered from other freely available sources.   Profound?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  A bunch of stuff to read to pass the time?  Sure!  Will it be well written?  Hope so! 

What else?  If you're looking for some SABR rattling here, you probably won't get your fill.  Head on over to Beyond the Box Score for some great numbers crunching.  I appreciate (and even understand some) advanced metrics and will probably throw around acronyms like FIP, OPS, OPS+, ISO, WAR, etc., but I'm not a numbers guy. 

There may be profanity.  Especially if players and/or management do things to anger me.  Beware.  You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. 

Finally, I'll try to write fairly regularly.  And tweet.  I've got a brand-spankin-new Twitter account that you can follow (@jaysfromaway).  Again, profundity not guaranteed.

Aside from that, sit back, enjoy and let's go Blue Jays!

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* Yes. I'm going to use Canadian spellings.  And Giambi was HUGE.

** It was generally safe to wear a Blue Jays cap at Fenway.  Just don't wear a Yankees cap or jersey, or you'll be subjected to calls of "Jetah sucks!"  If you've lived in Boston you know what I'm talking about.