Artificial Turf Wars

Greg, Josh and Nick discuss the pending return of baseball. They first discuss the general concept of the sport returning and the challenges that must be overcome in order for play to resume successfully before looking into the 60 game schedule and its accompanying rules affects the Blue Jays. They talk about how the team can take advantage of their pitching depth in the early going, how an out of options player like Anthony Alford could have more chances to show his worth, and how the team can get plenty out of Nate Pearson and still gain the extra year of service. They also answer listener questions.

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Greg and Josh continue their look back at Blue Jays history during the COVID-19 shutdown, this time shining the spotlight on the greatest (and a couple worst) individual game performances over the life of the franchise. They include some of the highest highs, club records, goofy moments and a couple of true disasters that people would like to forget.

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Former Blue Jays' great, Pat Hentgen, stops by to discuss his incredible 1996-1997 seasons (26:35) as part of an overall historical look back at great seasons on underperforming ballclubs. Hentgen talks about his struggles to get going in 1995, the impact of Devon White and Roberto Alomar, learning from Charlie O'Brien and Dave Stieb, the mentality that helped him win the Cy Young Award, "competing" with Roger Clemens and what lessons he took with him to the coaching ranks.

Greg and Josh also look back at some great seasons on "bad" teams from as far back as 1986 and as recently as 2009 and answer a couple of listener questions.

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Throughout the shutdown of MLB caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, ATW will be doing looks back at various aspects of franchise history, from the draft to award winners and snubs to interesting pennant races and more.
This week, Greg and Josh look back at the Toronto Blue Jays history with end of season awards and what they meant to the franchise and fandom at the time. They range from Alfredo Griffin's Rookie of the Year win* in 1979 to Josh Donaldson's MVP in 2015. They also look at some historic snubs, including basically Dave Stieb's entire early-mid 80s run and some awards that the Jays probably shouldn't have gotten.

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Throughout the shutdown of MLB caused by the Covid-19 panic, ATW will be doing looks back at various aspects of franchise history, from the draft to award winners and snubs to interesting pennant races and more.

This week, Greg and Josh look back at the Toronto Blue Jays' trading history. Starting with the slightly slower early era that built to a frenzy from 1990-1993, then a look at some trades that didn't exactly work out in the Blue Jays favour and finishing with a look at the deals that helped build the latest contending teams. They also answer a few listener questions on the Blue Jays trading history.

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Throughout the shutdown of MLB caused by the Covid-19 panic, ATW will be doing looks back at various aspects of franchise history, from big trades to award winners and snubs to interesting pennant races and more.
In the first episode of the series, Greg and Josh look back the the Blue Jays' history with the draft. They discuss the early success that turned into mystifying ineptitude and its impact on the slow build of the expansion squad, some interesting "ones who got away," some picks that for various reasons were poorly made and had poor results, a stretch of really strong picks in the 1990s, and a look at the top bWAR earners in club history.

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Matthew Kory of the Red Sox Coast to Coast Podcast stops by (19:45) to preview the Boston Red Sox for the upcoming season. He discusses the recent injury issues for Chris Sale and the effect on the Red Sox rotation, the still-solid offense and the mercurial Andrew Benintendi, the how and why of the Mookie Betts-David Price trade, the loss of Alex Cora and the pending potential discipline for sign stealing and finally, his prediction for how the season will play out in Boston.

Greg and Josh also discuss the battle for the fifth spot in the Blue Jays rotation, Rafael Dolis' appendectomy and the effect on the bullpen, Jordan Romano's step forward and Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Danny Jansen's recent power displays. Finally, they answer listener questions and give out a Gold Star.

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Greg and Josh go over the stories from the first week of spring training including Hyun-Jin Ryu's first start, Nate Pearson's powerful debut and the inability for fans to watch it, Pearson's extreme unlikelihood to make the opening day roster, Vlad's work to lift the ball more and the early results not reflecting the process, Anthony Alford's early struggles as he hopes to earn a roster spot and the minor league signing of Marc "Scrabble" Rzepczynski. Finally, they answer listener questions and discuss the new blackout baseball games in Canada in the context of larger issues MLB has with reaching and growing its audience.

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Spring Training has arrived, so Greg and Josh discuss some actual news in the World of the Blue Jays (and baseball at large). They go over the surgery undergone by top prospect Eric Pardinho and its effect on his development, the unfortunate incident involving Reese McGuire, a couple of new MiLB reliever signings, the latest in the ongoing Astros' sign-stealing saga, and Charlie Montoyo's stated early favourites in the battle for the final spot in the starting rotation. Finally, they answer listener questions, give a Gold Star to a very unlikely recipient and give out a Do Over to Major League Baseball.

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Greg, Josh and Nick go over some of the recent happenings in the world of the Toronto Blue Jays. They discuss the signing of Rafael Dolis and his potential role in Toronto, the very interesting roster situation that the Jays find themselves in with too many players for too few spots and what that may mean for pursuit of potential bullpen upgrades in free agency, the minor league signing of Joe Panik and finally they look at the various top 100 prospects lists that have come out recently and what they tell us about where the Blue Jays stand as an organization. Finally, they answer listener questions and give a Do Over to the owner of the Colorado Rockies.

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