J'Accuse

[luismatos4prez]

Hammel says what everyone's thinking

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-orioles-starter-jason-hammel-jays-took-strong-swings-on-breaking-balls-like-they-knew-they-were-coming-20120530,0,3125471.story

“When you’re locating your fastball, youre going to give up some home runs there, but the swings they were taking on he breaking stuff, it was pretty amazing to me,” Hammel said. “I don’t think you can take swings like that not knowing they’re coming. I don’t know. That’s all I can say.

“There’s rumors and things like that,” he said. “I don’t know. I can’t speak on that, but they were taking very, very big strong hacks on breaking stuff.

“It was something I’ve never seen before.”

[Going Underground]

Cito Gaston was a master at this. Stealing signs. Nice article on the Blue Jays and sign stealing.

Nonetheless, four players have confirmed they witnessed Toronto hitters being relayed signs from the Rogers Centre stands.

"I wouldn't have believed it unless I saw it myself," said one of those witnesses. Another of the players was so bothered by what he saw last year that he sent a text message to Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson, telling him to look out for someone at Rogers Centre relaying signs. Granderson recently confirmed that he received that text and says he was looking from the bench during one game when he was serving as DH. "From where I was sitting in the dugout, 300, 400 feet away, I couldn't see anything," he said.

So what can we see from the numbers? Statistically, the Blue Jays look like a team swinging out of their cleats at Rogers, with an unusual home-field advantage in hitting home runs.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/6837424/baseball-toronto-blue-jays-suspicion-again-stealing-signs-rogers-centre

[OFFNY]

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I said in last night's game thread that IF the Blue Jays did indeed know what was coming last night, then it is pretty amazing that Hammel pitched as well as he did, going 6.67 innings and giving up 4 runs, all on solo shots.

[weams]

Cito Gaston was a master at this. Stealing signs. Nice article on the Blue Jays and sign stealing.

Nonetheless, four players have confirmed they witnessed Toronto hitters being relayed signs from the Rogers Centre stands.

"I wouldn't have believed it unless I saw it myself," said one of those witnesses. Another of the players was so bothered by what he saw last year that he sent a text message to Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson, telling him to look out for someone at Rogers Centre relaying signs. Granderson recently confirmed that he received that text and says he was looking from the bench during one game when he was serving as DH. "From where I was sitting in the dugout, 300, 400 feet away, I couldn't see anything," he said.

So what can we see from the numbers? Statistically, the Blue Jays look like a team swinging out of their cleats at Rogers, with an unusual home-field advantage in hitting home runs.

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/6837424/baseball-toronto-blue-jays-suspicion-again-stealing-signs-rogers-centre

They also have Canadian Medicine.

[crowmst3k!]

This is on Wieters and Paulino, now. They have to change their signs regularly. Seriously, Jason had some good stuff last night, giving up four solo shots is nothing to be ashamed of, especially if the Jays were being dishonest.

Stealing signs and giving Edwin Encarnacion Canadian pharmaceuticals

[LA2]

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I said in last night's game thread that IF the Blue Jays did indeed know what was coming last night, then it is pretty amazing that Hammel pitched as well as he did, going 6.67 innings and giving up 4 runs, all on solo shots.

Hammel is the real thing. We've needed someone as resilient as him in the rotation for a long, long time. I hope we aren't over-burdening his knee b/c we're so desperate to have him pitch....

[Can_of_corn]

This is on Wieters and Paulino, now. They have to change their signs regularly. Seriously, Jason had some good stuff last night, giving up four solo shots is nothing to be ashamed of, especially if the Jays were being dishonest.

Stealing signs and giving Edwin Encarnacion Canadian pharmaceuticals

Actually it should be on MLB if the Jays are in fact cheating.

[LA2]

Hammel says what everyone's thinking

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-orioles-starter-jason-hammel-jays-took-strong-swings-on-breaking-balls-like-they-knew-they-were-coming-20120530,0,3125471.story

Hammel is too humble. If the Jays knew that a certain pitch was NOT going to be a breaking ball (the spotter NOT raising his arms in the stands), it would make their fastball-hitting better, too. I wonder what Bautista's home-away figures have been the last few years.

[Going Underground]

I think it was also one of the reasons,Hammel threw a pitch at Bautista. He dusted him off the plate and I don't think it was because of Jones being hit..

[luismatos4prez]

I'm doing some research on this. It seems to me that with so much smoke, there has to be a fire. The numbers don't indicate a huge difference though in their home/away splits.

[Can_of_corn]

I'm doing some research on this. It seems to me that with so much smoke, there has to be a fire. The numbers don't indicate a huge difference though in their home/away splits.

It was discussed in the game thread yesterday. Someone stated that the Jays, as a team, had a home OPS more then a 100 points higher then on the road.

[Hank Scorpio]

If I was a pitcher and I thought the opposition was stealing signs, I would place a fastball firmly between someone's shoulder blades.

[crowmst3k!]

Actually it should be on MLB if the Jays are in fact cheating.

Right, but we all know how quick MLB is to react to players cheating the game...

[OFFNY]

.

Something else that I mentioned in last night's game thread that may be connected to all of this is the fact that even though we lost 2 out of 3 games to the Royals, our starting pitching for those 3 games was pretty solid. Hammel and Chen pitched well on Friday and Saturday respectively, and even Matusz threw a decent game on Sunday, giving up 3 earned runs in 6 innings. Our starting pitching didn't really get blasted badly until we played the Blue Jays on Monday and Tuesday. And then we had Hammel yesterday, of which he is questioning whether or not they (the Blue Jays) knew what was coming, which obviously would explain the 4 solo home runs, plus the several near-home runs that were crushed, but just went foul.

[Aglets]

It was discussed in the game thread yesterday. Someone stated that the Jays, as a team, had a home OPS more then a 100 points higher then on the road.

This is a fact.

So far this year the Jays are OPSing .803 at Home (5th in MLB) but only .660 on the road (24th in MLB).

Colorado's is pretty funny too though. Apparently Coors Field is even better than cheating?

.848 (2nd in MLB) while only .669 on the road (27th in MLB)