Refined Spring: Season Opener, Dickey and Other Miscellania



I was going to write about the season opener. which was awesome (6-1!!!!) and a little bit of everything good, but then I read what Stoeten wrote while possibly drunk and figured it was about right:

Two walks and a home run for Devon Travis, though. I mean… come on! So nails.
And Russell Martin plays for the Toronto Blue Jays. And thank fuck Jose Reyes is OK.
(Miguel Castro).
I'll throw in a comment about Encarnacion's homer (and the fan who beaned a fellow fan while she threw the ball back on the field. Don't reject the gifts of Edwin, lady. Only bad things come of it.) And a little comment about how fantastic Drew Hutchison was. Because he was.

Someone in New York was a jerk.
It's a ball that means nothing to this person and something to Travis. Trade it for a different ball, you horror of a human being. How can you be so mean to a kid who has Maestro Fresh Wes as his walk up music? 


John Lott's piece in the National Post reports that tonight's starter, R.A. Dickey, has traded a little bit of velocity for hopefully a few more strikes. Dickey as a Blue Jay has had some sluggish Aprils, giving up more walks than he should.

“That’s something that I’ve really tried to do this spring: how can I consistently throw strikes like I did from 2010 to 2012? That’s one of the things that really helped me (then), was keeping my walks down. If I can do that, then I think that across the board the metrics are going to be better.”

His knuckleball is known to be on the hard side at 80 mph. Tim Wakefield's, by contrast, was 68 mph.

“A lot of times the last couple years I would get in trouble by trying to make a knuckleball go 78 or 80 miles an hour when a 75-mile-an-hour knuckleball is just fine and it’s in the strike zone a much longer amount of time. So being comfortable with that, being comfortable with throwing knuckleballs at lower velocities and keeping them in the strike zone a little bit longer is one of the things I can intentionally do to throw strikes with it.”

A slightly slower knuckle might also be easier to catch for Martin, who is having his first shot at catching Dickey in a game that counts.

As an aside, Dickey must be fun to transcribe on a deadline. The man is verbose.

Here is Cabbie (formerly on the Street) talking and also shampooing Dickey.



I'm not going to rub the Golden Sombrero salt into any Brett Lawrie wounds like some other bloggers did. 

I will mention our current totally awesome third baseman being on MLB Central and saying things like "defensive metrics" and talking about baseball cards.

  I totally forgot about his Machado run in last year until they said something.


The best part of the GIF is Donaldson smiling at the idiotic dick swinging Machado is doing. "You tagged me too hard, bro."  Also, excellent side burns.

I will ignore the kind of idiotic questions. "How important is defensive part of your game?" What did they think is the answer? Not at all important?

Also, has Russell Martin explained about "eh?" What is to explain?

Jose Bautista on WFAN  in New York. He thinks Tanaka will be fine, the Jays lineup is pretty great (though he thinks winning is pitching/defense), the division in general, competitive balance in the league in general and his emergence as a premier hitter. The guy is smart. And he talks a bit more about his Player's Tribune article.  WFAN also got a nice dig in on the Leafs. "Shaves with an AXE?"

Hazlitt Magazine had a MLB preview. Highlights? 


This perfectly crystalizes my feelings. I don't even think I really hate the Sox players (David Ortiz is pretty amazing, actually) but I hate that they are the agents of happiness for the collection of horrors that is their fandom.

Also right on is the description of the Blue Jays.





Speaking of the Montreal Rays, Baseball Empire out of Montreal made a video for Russell Martin chronicling the weekend for him. 


Hearing Denis Coderre, in that video I translated, talk about baseball being part of Quebec heritage made me think. I found this article about Jackie Robinson and his year in Montreal.  

Guy cross legged on the far left in this picture of the 1954 Montreal Royals?



Roberto Clemente. Also, for you Mad Men fans out there, the guy in second row, last on the right is named Dick Whitman. The Dodgers sort of hid Clemente in Montreal. 

Also vital information, Vin Scully talked about "beards these days." This should've gone on for hours.  

My picks for "Franchise Four" are Alomar, Stieb, Delgado and Halladay. Also acceptable is Fernandez.