84 - 78. Book it.

Let's be honest, predictions are really silly. You can say whatever you want at the start of the season and be right. Last year I thought your Toronto Blue Jays were going to be just awful. I went on record with this shitstain: 

Dead last in the AL East, maybe even the entire AL. 

We won 75 games last season and that included contributions from Scott Rolen and Alex Rios for roughly two thirds of the season.  We replaced them with Edwin Encarnasion and Jose Bautista.  That win total also includes a full season of Roy Halladay and Marco Scutaro.  We replaced them with Brandon Morrow and Alex Gonzalez. I hate to be so negative before the season even starts but I think we may be in danger of flirting with the teams fourth 100 loss season.

I also had Adam Lind as the team MVP. 

Huh. How about that?

Naturally, I took bets. The line was set at the 2009 win total of 75 minus a half point. I had the under. There turned out to be only one taker. A friend from work, when asked for his thoughts, dropped an 85 on me. After I finished laughing directly at him we promptly put 20 bucks on it. He liked the young arms and thought they would come together.

So for this year, I have decided to look past all the perceived holes and question marks facing the mighty Blue Jays. I refuse to acknowledge that the unbalanced schedule and inter league play hurts our chances of victory. All I did was ask "Mr 85 wins out of fucking nowhere in 2010" for his thoughts again this year minus the whole betting thing. This is what he came back with: 

I have 84 in my mind. I gotta believe that the way Johnny is gonna run this year that we'll win about the same but just a little differently.

And Down The Stretch They Come

I think it's fair to say that this years edition of the 25 Man Roster Challenge has been sponsored by injuries. It's basically a 22 Man Roster Challenge now because 3 (Morrow, Francisco and Dotel) of the 17 players that every ballot had making the Opening Day Roster are a lock to start the year on the DL, with special attention being placed on 2Frank. 15 of the 17 competitors selected him as the closer, which happens to be the primary tie breaker. Team April and Team OKBluejays are looking good with the Jon Rauch prediction. Hat tip for taking the long-shot guys. Speaking of long-shots, how about yours truly taking Jo-Jo in the rotation!

Maybe I'm not such an idiot after all eh?

Please take a moment to look over the ballots and get your vote in for which one you think will win it.

A Completely Unreasonable Request?

I can't believe this only has 2,300 hits on YouTube. Shocked in fact.

A good friend of mine showed me this clip and inevitably the conversation came to a point where we discussed going to see the Red Sux play in the Dome and all that it entails.

• Packed house
• Paying more for a ticket
• 50/50 split on the cheering
• Full parking lots
• Red Sux gear being sold by the vendors

You know the deal.

I actually caught myself saying that I prefer not to be in attendance. How can that be?

I must say there was a time when I relished seeing our free spending fucking divisional rivals. It didn't matter to me how pathetic the turnout of fellow Blue Jay faithful was. I had no issue making up for the home side. Taunting Red Sux fans was awesome fun. They were such easy targets. So. Much. Material.

Nowadays the shitshow that is the entire downtown core when Red Sox Nation is in town - especially when it's a weekend - should be completely avoided whenever possible. Just a friendly suggestion. I would be interested to see whether or not there is a spike in crime in the city on those weekends.

As I was writing this up, something donned on me. Just gonna go ahead and throw it out there. If we all stopped going to see this perennial powerhouse play baseball around 10 times a year - every year - would the cheap bastards @ Rogers start thinking that maybe division realignment is the way to go? I figure the revenue that these games bring in is the only reason why that hasn't happened yet.

Please note: at any point in this post feel free to substitute Red Sux or Red Sox Nation with the words Skankees or Evil Empire. It still works.

Young Studs

Just in case you missed it, the team over at Jays Journal put together the list of all lists when it comes to your Toronto Blue Jays prospects. There is no other list in existence of the internet that is as detailed and complete. Whether or not you agree with every ranking is completely irrelevant. The amount of time and effort that must have gone into compiling a masterpiece of that magnitude is what you should be focusing on.

In hono(u)r of St. Patty's and all it's glory, I thought what a great opportunity to point out the fact that a whole bunch of players in our Minor League system are fairly young. Like needing fake ID to get into the bar young.

Check out all the players from the Jays Journal Top 50 list - including the near misses - that will begin the 2011 season at the age of 20 or younger.

Henderson Alvarez 04/18/1990
A.J. Jimenez 05/01/1990
Marcus Knecht 06/21/1990
K.C. Hobson 08/02/1990 
Anthony Gose 08/10/1990
Drew Hutchison 08/22/1990
Carlos Perez 10/27/1990 
Michael Crouse 11/22/1990 
Griffin Murphy 01/16/1991 
Jake Marisnick 03/30/1991
Christopher Hawkins 08/17/1991
Kellen Sweeney 09/14/1991
Dickie Thon 11/16/1991
Justin Nicolino 11/22/1991
Gustavo Pierre 12/28/1991
Shane Optiz 01/10/1992
Mitchell Taylor 05/11/1992 

The newly affiliated Vancouver Canadians play every home game in British Columbia where the drinking age is a much more civilized 19. When their season starts at home on June 17th, every name from this point on would not be able to legally have a drink in Canada. 

Brandon Mims 06/18/1992 
Aaron Sanchez 07/01/1992
Deivy Estrada 08/22/1992 
Noah Syndergaard 08/29/1992
Adaric Kelly 12/01/1992
Santiago Nessy 12/08/1992

Unless of course they decide visit Alberta, Manitoba or Quebec where the age of majority is only 18. These guys wouldn't even be able to get served there. 

Gabriel Cenas 10/16/1993
Adonis Cardona 01/16/1994

I remember the time I got busted using fake ID at a bar. That was pretty embarrassing. Thanks very much for your time.

CBHFM Fantasy Baseball Pool

It's about that time.....

Fantasy season is upon us. Who doesn't love it? It gives you a damn good reason to pour over the boxscores every morning guilt free. The only down side - if you can even call it that - is that the baseball season is very long compared to other sports and some managers tend to lose interest which in turn ruins the league for everyone. That and the obvious "help your buddy out" one sided trades.

A while back, my buddy at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum called me and made it known that he was interested in starting up a fantasy pool. I told him two things. One: keep it cheap and simple. Two: offer unique prizes. 

That phone call was over 4 years ago.

Please take a moment and check out the 2011 edition. It's only 10 bucks to join and this years first prize is pretty kick ass. The thing I like most about this pool is the near zero maintenance. Simply pick your players and wait for the e-mail updates every week.

Just for fun, I had my guy go over the results from the previous years pools. Check out the head to head results. Even with the shit stain I put up last year, I am still ahead and I'm hungry for another top 5 finish in 2011.

Me: 

2007: 19

2008: 36

2009: 5

2010: 82

For an average of 36th place

Him: 

2007: 47

2008: 33

2009: 30

2010: 53

For an average of 41st place

His boss:

2007: 74

2008: 142

2009: 108

2010: 38

For an average of 91st place