I was just reading Mike Axisa’s predictions for the 2023 season.. He has the Blue Jays winning the pennant.
I love Toronto’s 1-2-3 rotation punch (Chris Bassitt, Kevin Gausman, Alek Manoah) and the Jays smartly added some much-needed lefty bats (Brandon Belt, Daulton Varsho) to balance out their righty-heavy lineup. The Blue Jays are a much more complete team now, and I think they’re uniquely built to pound the ball and smother opponents with quality starters in a short series.
I never make “I know this will happen” predictions, and I find predictions like “Toronto will beat Houston in the ALCS” ridiculous… but obviously Toronto is one of the better bets to make the playoffs, along with teams like Houston, Cleveland, and the Yankees. The Jays are a solid, balanced team with no real weaknesses.
The outfield defense was last year’s single biggest problem, and that’s been solved.
My breakout candidate is Bo Bichette, who I realize led the league in hits each of the last two years so that’s an odd choice, but I think he’s got an MVP level season in him that might come out this year.
Should be. MLB.tv archives them all I believe, regardless of blackout rules. That’s o it for live broadcast.
well considering how the dodgers made me look like a putz last year my declarations of supremacy are a bit tempered this year …
Opening Day!
Anthony Volpe, the Yanks 21 year old Rookie Shortstop from NJ will be wearing #11, the lowest number left for the Yanks. So if you’re a Yankee fan, much like when Jeter got #2, you’re dreaming this kid is great enough to end up retiring #11. Lefty Gomez was the one prior Yank it could have been retired for.
Most recently worn by fan favorite but hardly an all-time great:
Brett Gardner (2008-2021)
Morgan Ensberg (2008)
Doug Mientkiewicz (2007)
Gary Sheffield (2004-2006)
Curtis Pride (2003)
David Dellucci (2003)
Erick Almonte (2003)
Chris Widger (2002)
Chuck Knoblauch (1998-2001)
Dwight Gooden (1996-1997)
Rick Cerone (1990)
Don Slaught (1988-1989)
Lenn Sakata (1987)
Gary Roenicke (1986)
Billy Sample (1985)
Toby Harrah (1984)
Fred Stanley (1973-1980)
Sandy Alomar (1974)
Bernie Allen (1972-1973)
Danny Walton (1971)
Bill Robinson (1967-1969)
Hector Lopez (1959-1966)
Jerry Lumpe (1956-1959)
Johnny Sain (1951-1955)
Joe Page (1945-1950)
Bob Collins (1944)
Tommy Byrne (1943)
Lefty Gomez (1932-1942)
Waite Hoyt (1930)
Ownie Carroll (1930)
Herb Pennock (1929)
Is there anything in the rules that specifies that players must wear whole numbers?
No idea. Though baseball does allow 0 which the Yanks have not used.
1.11 (a) (1) All players on a team shall wear uniforms identical in color, trim and style, and all players uniforms shall include minimal six inch numbers on their backs. (2) Any part of an undershirt exposed to view shall be of a uniform solid color for all players on a team. Any player other than the pitcher may have numbers, letters, insignia attached to the sleeve of the undershirt. (3) No player whose uniform does not conform to that of his teammates shall be permitted to participate in a game.
From here: Baseball Rules: 1.00 Objectives of the Game
Whenever “experts” make picks for the upcoming baseball season, it’s fun to see how badly they screwed up in previous years. Last year, only one of ESPN’s prognosticators picked Houston to win the AL pennant, and none for the Astros to win the Series.
Based on their latest predictions, look for the Blue Jays to win the AL East.
I think MLB probably soured on that idea after the Browns fiasco.
As of the 2021 rules, Uniforms are covered in section 3.03
I can’t find anything about non-positive integers or the like. Nothing about fractions or decimals. Etc.
I know the Yankees have had a lot of great players but they’re damn quick on retiring numbers; Ruth, DiMaggio, Jeter and Mantle are one thing, but Thurman Munson, Paul O’Neil and Don Mattingly? It’s like if the Blue Jays started retiring numbers for Tony Fernandez, John Olerud and Dave Stieb.
Oh yeah, Opening Day.
Toronto begins on the road for a few weeks because they asked MLB to push their home opener back due to the massive renovations to Rogers Centre. (They will be ready in plenty of time, apparently.)
Today’s starter for Toronto is Alek Manoah, who has less than two years of MLB service time. I thought thjat was unusual, but actually they’ve had some other young hotshots start on Opening Day; Marcus Stroman in 2016, Drew Hutchison in 2015, Ricky Romero in 2011.
For the longest time, the Jays were amazingly good on Opening Days; after 36 seasons they were 26-9. Then, bizarrely, they lost ten Opening Days in a row. They broke that streak last year (and it required a huge comeback to do so) so who the hell knows how these things go.
No disagreement. Though Munson I’ll defend.
But as much as I love Paul & Donny Baseball, no, just no.
Gehrig was first retired of course (1st in baseball in fact) and well deserved.
Actually, I made a chart with my opinion as the last column. Of the 23 retired, I have 10 I wouldn’t have retired.
| # | Player | Date | Year | Worthy? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Lou Gehrig | July 4th, 1939** | 1939 | Yes |
| 3 | Babe Ruth | June 13th, 1948 | 1948 | Yes |
| 5 | Joe DiMaggio | April 18th, 1952 | 1952 | Yes |
| 7 | Mickey Mantle | June 8th, 1969 | 1969 | Yes |
| 37 | Casey Stengel | August 8th, 1970 | 1970 | Yes |
| 8 | Yogi Berra | July 22nd, 1972 | 1972 | Yes |
| 8 | Bill Dickey | July 22nd, 1972 | 1972 | Yes |
| 16 | Whitey Ford | August 3rd, 1974 | 1974 | Yes |
| 15 | Thurman Munson | September 20th, 1980 | 1980 | Yes, 1st Captain since Gehrig, died tragically in career |
| 9 | Roger Maris | July 22nd, 1984* | 1984 | No 6 years |
| 32 | Elston Howard | July 22nd, 1984* | 1984 | Yes, but partially as first black player on Yanks |
| 10 | Phil Rizzuto | August 4th, 1985 | 1985 | Yes, but also 40 years in the booth. |
| 1 | Billy Martin | August 10th, 1986 | 1986 | No, just no |
| 44 | Reggie Jackson | August 14th, 1993 | 1993 | No 5 years |
| 23 | Don Mattingly | August 31st, 1997 | 1997 | No |
| 49 | Ron Guidry | August 23rd, 2003 | 2003 | No |
| 42 | Mariano Rivera | 9/22/2013 | 2013 | Yes |
| 6 | Joe Torre | 8/23/2014 | 2014 | Iffy |
| 20 | Jorge Posada | August 22nd, 2015 | 2015 | No |
| 46 | Andy Pettitte | August 23rd, 2015 | 2015 | No |
| 51 | Bernie Williams | May 24th, 2015 | 2015 | No |
| 2 | Derek Jeter | 5/14/2017 | 2017 | Yes |
| 21 | Paul O’Neill | August 21st, 2022 | 2022 | No |
I disagree about Mattingly. I’m fine with Guidry too.
Mattingly is tough. More deserving than Maris or Reggie honestly, but he really isn’t a Hall of Famer and unlike a Scooter, when his career was done he was gone. But entire career as a Yankee is a big plus. His peak years were amazingly good. It hurts him that he has zero rings I think.
I’m a little more in favor of Guidry. I don’t think that one is terrible.
If every player as accomplished as Don Mattingly had their number retired, there’d be a lot of numbers no one could use. The Blue Jays could be down eight or ten numbers and the team hasn’t been around half as long.
I agree with WE that Guidry is a better choice than Mattingly, pretty much across the board. Again, though, that’s a low standard for this sort of thing. To me, if yoou’re going to literally retire a number, it’s got to be a player who
Is absolutely legendary, an inner circle, central part of baseball history (Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle)
A player who accomplsihed some truly central, pioneering thing, like Jackie Robinson, or
A person who is a central, long term part of the organization and symbolic of the team, e.g. Phil Rizzuto.
Seems to me it’s basically gotta be a guy who, ya know, that’s who you think of when you think of that team. When I think of the Yankees, I think of Ruth, DiMaggio, Jeter, Mantle. Not Elston Howard or Andy Pettite.
And Judge picks right up where he left off.
So does Patrick Corbin. 3 IP, 7 hits, 3 runs, 85 pitches.
The Yankees-Giants game was a brisk 2:33 today. Not a ton of offense, but there were 23 strikeouts. Go pitch clock!
Mikes Mikolas having a terrible first inning against Toronto. Three in, two on, two out.
The strikeouts were partially Diaz though as the home plate Ump. He had a generous and inconsistent strike zone.
But boy was that a well paced game overall.