J'Accuse

[JDubs]

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)

The difference, of course, is that ALL teams should have a higher OPS at Coors...not just the home team. The Jays are dirty rotten cheaters if this is true.

[NewMarketSean]

4 runs on 4 solo shots.

Even if they were stealing signals the O's would have won if they could hit their way out of a wet paper bag.

[callahan09]

I have never been more convinced in a conspiracy theory in my life than I am that the Blue Jays were stealing signals in this most recent series. There is just no way I buy that they were hitting home runs like that against our pitching staff unless they knew what was coming. Their huge uptick in power at home versus the visiting team's slipping up in their park is just ridiculous. It defies all logic. You can't say they hit better at home because it's a hitter's park, because for every other team that goes in there, it's absolutely not. Something dirty is going on in that stadium.

[orioles119]

I have never been more convinced in a conspiracy theory in my life than I am that the Blue Jays were stealing signals in this most recent series. There is just no way I buy that they were hitting home runs like that against our pitching staff unless they knew what was coming. Their huge uptick in power at home versus the visiting team's slipping up in their park is just ridiculous. It defies all logic. You can't say they hit better at home because it's a hitter's park, because for every other team that goes in there, it's absolutely not. Something dirty is going on in that stadium.

Investigate and force the Jays to forfeit all their home wins this season. That'll teach them.

[NewMarketSean]

I have never been more convinced in a conspiracy theory in my life than I am that the Blue Jays were stealing signals in this most recent series. There is just no way I buy that they were hitting home runs like that against our pitching staff unless they knew what was coming. Their huge uptick in power at home versus the visiting team's slipping up in their park is just ridiculous. It defies all logic. You can't say they hit better at home because it's a hitter's park, because for every other team that goes in there, it's absolutely not. Something dirty is going on in that stadium.

Tommy Hunter was throwing batting practice.

Jake Arrieta is struggling.

Not sure what happened last night, didn't watch the game but I listened to the first half of it.

Even if they are stealing signals, it's on you to change up the signals. If they were stealing signals all the way up to the middle of yesterday's game, shame on the O's for not changing the signals.

It's sore loser talk, IMO.

[cliff]

I'd be curious what their home/away splits are with no one in scoring position. It's much easier to steal signs when the catcher is only giving 1 per pitch.

[brianod]

If I was Dan Duquette, I'd have someone from the warehouse perform a detailed statistical study for the last 3 years. If something is obvious, forward it to mlb. We can conjecture all we want but if your pitchers think something is fishy, there probably is something fishy.

[Aglets]

I figured out a way to use ESPN to show me how other teams hit vs. the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre vs. everywhere else.

So at Rogers Centre the Jays are OPSing .803 while their opponents are OPSing .712.

Everywhere else the Jays are OPSing .660 while their opponents are OPSing .772.

So it LOOKS like the Jays trend of hitting better in Toronto is against the trend of how everyone else hits there. Jays opponents tend to hit Jays pitching harder away from Rogers Centre.

For kicks, here is the Colorado equivalent analysis:

At Coors, Colorado is OPSing .848 and their opponents are hitting .858.

Away from Coors, Colorado is OPSing .669 and their opponents are hitting .803.

So all teams seem to benefit from the "Coors Effect."

The Toronto data so far seems to indicate that only the Jays are benefiting from the "Rogers Effect."

Interesting eh.

[srock]

If your signs are easily stolen, get better signs!

[Todd-O]

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

He could have been tipping his pitches... That's happened to pitchers before. Randy Johnson did it and the O's laced him pretty good in '97.

[Lucky Jim]

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.

Yeah. .130+ going into last night, over .140 now.

I'm not much of a conspiracy guy, but it looked pretty clear to me that something was going on for three reasons: (i) as Hammel said, big cuts on breaking pitches; (ii) all four HRs were w/ no one on, on FBs down; and (iii) the fact that the Jays did very little runners on - all 9 hits were w/ the bases empty.

[The Rick]

Well, this is all interesting - but I think we should pump the brakes a bit. Without any further evidence, it comes across as whining and looking for excuses after getting our asses handed to us in Canada. We swept them there earlier in the season, so I'm not sure what's different now vs. then, other than we're not playing very good right now.

I have to say, the splits, and Hammels comments are intriguing, I'm not denying that, but I wouldn't go around assuming that this is definitely occurring. Personally, I'd have rather Hammel keep it to himself and go through the appropriate channels to lodge a complaint. It doesn't look good.

[Can_of_corn]

Even if they are stealing signals, it's on you to change up the signals. If they were stealing signals all the way up to the middle of yesterday's game, shame on the O's for not changing the signals.

It's sore loser talk, IMO.

He could have been tipping his pitches... That's happened to pitchers before. Randy Johnson did it and the O's laced him pretty good in '97.

There is prior speculation concerning the Jays and stealing signs. Tipping pitches and stealing signs, legally, is part of the game.

Having an outside party steal signs is cheating.

[Lucky Jim]

Well, this is all interesting - but I think we should pump the brakes a bit. Without any further evidence, it comes across as whining and looking for excuses after getting our asses handed to us in Canada. We swept them there earlier in the season, so I'm not sure what's different now vs. then, other than we're not playing very good right now.

I have to say, the splits, and Hammels comments are intriguing, I'm not denying that, but I wouldn't go around assuming that this is definitely occurring. Personally, I'd have rather Hammel keep it to himself and go through the appropriate channels to lodge a complaint. It doesn't look good.

I have no problem w/ him voicing his opinion. At all. The splits are, in fact, pretty remarkable. And what I saw last night was pretty remarkable, too.

[Nigel Tufnel]

How does the baseball code work for players who leave the Jays? If the team were stealing signs, I'd expect ex-Jays to tell their current teams, unless this is against some kind of unwritten rule.