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Bluebird Banter

https://www.bluebirdbanter.com/ | 348 entries published

Roster moves R Us.

Latest Entries

Question Time: The Outfield

The Jays have a logjam in their outfield this season. Daulton Varsho is locked into centre, and George Springer looks to mostly man DH, but after that things are up in the air.Addison Barger is probably the priority among the other players. He had a strong rookie season last year, and at 26 with many […]

17 days ago | 8 reads

Wednesday Bantering: Jays Bits

Today’s Jays’ game is not on TV, one of the few that aren’t on TV. The game is at Lakeland, Florida in the Tigers’ spring park, Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium which has to be up there on the list of longest ballpark names, as well as getting two sponsor names into it. It […]

17 days ago | 8 reads

Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-Man Roster: Tyler Rogers

Tyler Rogers is a right-handed, submarine style pitcher. He’s 35. The Jays signed him to a three-year, $37 million contract (with a vesting option for a fourth year at $11 million). Signing a 35-year-old reliever for three or four years, generally, would seem like a bad idea, but then Rogers isn’t your average reliever. We […]

18 days ago | 5 reads

Quick Spring Recap: Jays Lose to Yankees

Yankees 8 Blue Jays 7 We got to see the ball/strike appeal system, several times. It works great. Very quick. Beyond that, well, the Yankees scored a lot of runs. Jays pitchers: Batters: Starters: Subs: Tomorrow’s game isn’t on TV. Can listen on radio if you really are hard cord. The Jays are now 1-3 […]

18 days ago | 3 reads

Spring Game #4 GameThread: Jays @ Yankees

I’m going to post this early because I have to run out this morning, but I should be back about game time. We have an early start time: 1:00 pm Eastern. The Jays are making the stressful bus ride from Dunedin to Tampa Bay to play the Yankees at Steinbrenner Field. I found the worst […]

18 days ago | 2 reads

Quick Recap: Jays Lose To Mets

The important news is that Kazuma Okamoto homered, a two-run shot. Beyond that, Jose Berrios pitched 2.2 innings, allowing 3 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk with 2 strikeouts. It doesn’t sound great, but he allowed them in his third inning of work. And I think he’s the first Jay to throw more than two innings […]

19 days ago | 4 reads

Question Time: Mad Max

The birds are singing, the snow is melting, and pitchers are getting hurt. Spring is here. The Jays have already lost Bowden Francis for the season. Shane Bieber is delayed, and now it sounds like Yimi Garcia will be as well. The Jays wisely invested in depth this winter. Cody Ponce was an interesting signing […]

19 days ago | 3 reads

Spring Game 3 GameThread: Mets @ Jays

No Bo in the Mets’ lineup, which is normal for a road spring game. Teams tend to let veterans skip bus trips. The Jays have set their pitching rotation for the week: Today it is Jose Berrios’ first time on the mound since last September, before he went on the IL and then was left […]

19 days ago | 4 reads

Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-man: Cody Ponce

Cody Ponce is a 6’6”, 31-year-old (32 on April 25th), right-handed pitcher. I wonder if we could get him to recreate the Jon Rauch explosion at umpire Alfonso Marquez where John Farrell tried to hold him back from punching the umpire. The Jays signed Ponce on December 2nd of last year to a three-year, $30 […]

20 days ago | 3 reads

Spring Game #2 GameThread: Jays At Red Sox

Game two of the spring schedule. I was up early and at the bar for the hockey, and that is all I’m saying about it. Though beer at 6:00 in the morning is surprisingly good. The Jays have Fernando Perez as the starting pitcher. He was good in Vancouver last year, 3.05 ERA in 20 […]

20 days ago | 4 reads

Quick Recap: Jays Beat Phillies

Philles 0 Blue Jays 3 As everyone knows, the pitchers are ahead of the hitters at the start of spring training (when the teams score a bunch of runs tomorrow, the opening line will be reversed). Jays allowed just 4 hits and 4 walks. Eric Lauer looked sharp in his inning, giving up a single, […]

21 days ago | 2 reads

Happy Birthday Devon Travis

One of my all-time favourites, Devon Travis, turns 35 today. Travis joined the Blue Jays in a trade with the Tigers on November 13, 2014, with Anthony Gose heading to Detroit. Travis ranked #84 on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects list. Gose, though speedy, had been a disappointment for us, hitting .247/.315/.363 with 34 stolen […]

21 days ago | 3 reads

Spring Game #1 GameThread: Phillies @ Jays

These 1:00 Eastern starts really mess with my day. Being in Alberta, it is an 11:00 start. I like to get a workout in, but I’m not an early riser, so getting a GameThread together and working out before 11:00 is not going to happen. On the other hand, watching an 11:00 start-time game, doing […]

21 days ago | 232 reads

Question Time: Baseball at the Olympics

One more day and we get actual(ish) games. Absent that, I’ve been really glad to have the Winter Olympics to pass the time. It hasn’t been a great year for Canada, although a gold medal in men’s hockey on Sunday morning would do a lot to improve the feeling. That got me thinking about the […]

22 days ago | 1 read

Friday Bantering: Eric Lauer and Other Jays Notes

After that Canada/Finland, I’m sure I’m five pounds lighter. Tomorrow, we get our first real fake baseball game of the year. The Jays are playing the Philles in Dunedin. It is a 1:00 pm start time and it will be on Sportsnet 1. Eric Lauer is listed to start the game. And speaking of Lauer, […]

22 days ago | 4 reads

Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-man: Kazuma Okamoto

Kazuma Okamoto is a 29-year-old, right-handed hitting corner infielder from Gojo, Japan. He’s played 11 seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball. The Jays signed him to a four-year, $60 million contract (Ben Clemens at FanGraphs figured him to sign four years and $72 million). Not that it means much, but he’s shown a nice sense […]

22 days ago | 4 reads

Bluebird Banter: Thursday OpenThread

We are going to try something new. Thursdays, I’m going to put up an open thread to let us all talk about… whatever we feel like. Baseball-related or not. Thursdays are a particularly busy day for me, so something that can be posted quickly works well. You have something about the Jays you want to […]

23 days ago | 4 reads

Blue Jays Claim Ben Cowles From Cubs

The Jays have claimed Ben Cowles off waivers from the Cubs. The Cubs DFAed him Sunday. The Jays put Bowden Francis on the 60-day IL to make room on the 40-man roster. Francis is going to be out all season. Cowles has two options. He’s a right-handed-hitting infielder, 26 years old. He hasn’t played in […]

24 days ago | 3 reads

Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-man: Tommy Nance

Tommy Nancy is a 34-year-old (35 in March), right-handed reliever, from Long Beach, California. He was undrafted (is that a word?), and signed as an amateur free agent in 2016 by the Cubs, after playing in an independent league in 2015. He had a rather slow climb up the minors. When you are undrafted, you […]

24 days ago | 1 read

Wednesday Bantering: Anthony Santander

Happy Wednesday. I have the Canada/Czechia game on this morning. As I’m watching, it is tied in the second. It is far too intense at the moment. The Jays’ news of the morning is that Anthony Santander told reporters that MRIs, last season, didn’t show the tear in his shoulder, but when he started up […]

24 days ago | 5 reads

Happy Birthday John Mayberry and Alex Rios

It is John Mayberry’s 77th birthday. Mayberry was drafted in the 1st round (6th pick overall) in the 1967 amateur draft. The number 1 pick that year was Ron Blomberg by the Yankees, so the Astros could have done much worse. Only Ted Simmons and Bobby Grich, also first-round picks, had better careers than John […]

25 days ago | 6 reads

Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-man: Spencer Miles

Spencer Miles is a 25-year-old right-handed pitcher. The Blue Jays picked him up in the Rule 5 draft on December 10th, 2025 from the Giants. Miles was a fourth-round draft pick in 2022. He missed the 2023 season after back surgery and made just four appearances in 2024 because of a flexor strain, which ended […]

25 days ago | 6 reads

Question Time: Blue Jays Spring Training Advice

Something vaguely resembling a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game will occur on Saturday. Until then, we’re in grainy cell phone video of batting practice land. I’ve actually never been to the Jays’ spring training home in in Dunedin (the Cactus League in and around Phoenix is much more accessible from here in Calgary), but I […]

25 days ago | 6 reads

Tuesday Bantering: Jays Notes

There isn’t a lot of news coming out of the Jays camp yet. The first spring game is this Saturday, 1:00 Eastern, against the Phillies. We get a lot of games with the Phillies, as their spring home is about a 15-minute drive from Dunedin. The big baseball news is that Tony Clark is resigning […]

25 days ago | 7 reads