La la la la la! We can't hear you!When you say that José Bautista is hitting home runs, and so is Vernon Wells, and so is Randy Ruiz, we can't hear you. And don't even bother trying to tell us that Shaun Marcum pitched well in his first outing, or that Dustin McGowan looked like he might be showing some progress and may be on his way back. We're not going to hear you.
We're blocking out any such good news in the early going because we wouldn't want such news to find purchase in our mind, and start to grow visions of success. We would prefer to look at this all as a fluke, and to pretend that the Jays are playing bantam-level players in out-sized big league uniforms.
We should know better than to get enthusiastic in March. This is a lesson that should have been driven home by last year's squad, which was still sitting in first in May before completely falling apart and playing like the worst team in the Majors for the final three months of the season.
Still, the hopeless romantic in us wants to believe that there is something to the things that we're hearing out of Dunedin.
Marginalia - Notes on how we make editorial choices
We'd initially written something here about "don't let us look at the Fake Games results". Then we went looking for a photo of someone with a blindfold on. And that's when we realized that there are a lot of effed-up pictures of blindfolded people on the internet, and we didn't want to parse through those pictures anymore.
A weekend in The Show
So we picked up our copy of MLB 10 The Show this weekend, which was a very new and interesting experience after having played the MLB 2K games on the Wii for the past several years. If there is one thing that a uniform nerd like myself could fully appreciate, it was playing my first game and seeing Jo-Bau in his new number 19, and Randy Ruiz wearing his new number 21. The rosters hadn't quite been updated to the point of having Kevin Gregg in the bullpen, although we'll take that as a positive at this point. At least we didn't have to see last year's staff ace still on the roster, taunting us with his digital presence.
Now if we can only get the hang of this whole pitching meter thing. Because that shit is driving us nuts.
I'm trying hard to NOT pick up Bautista or Ruiz in my fantasy league. I know it's spring training but it's getting harder to resist knowing that The Manager is going to keep him in the lead off spot and having Bautista getting lots of at bats. Will he turn in the same type of season as Scutaro? I'm still doubtful as to how much The Manager will play Ruiz even if he makes the big league roster at the end of spring training. Argh...
ReplyDeleteJust figuring all this out myself, but the rosters get updated if you play The Show online. You can also save those rosters for single-player stuff. (Gregg is in those.)
ReplyDeleteCheck the stats on Ruiz though...dude mashes.
Two words, Tao: Safe. Search.
ReplyDeleteUpdated Rosters come out every Monday until the end of the season!
ReplyDeleteFor Free!
Meter pitching in MLB10 I have been playing this game for a year and a half and have only now learned how to pitch properly.
ReplyDeleteOK so when the meter goes up there is a yellow and red part click there and when the meter almost hits the top you have to click again. You will also notice that when you have men on base it is a lot harder to click the buttons and get the line where you want them. I guess because of the stress of having players on base.
Since I figured this out my pitching has gotten a bit better.
you can't stop the awesomeness that is Mike McCoy, Tao
ReplyDeletehttp://img704.imageshack.us/img704/1594/torontobattingchamps.jpg
I'm still trying to figure out how to hit in MLB '09. Needless to say, it's not going well.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think I need a solid, uninterrupted weekend to figure this thing out.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Mrs. Tao might need some convincing on the relative usefulness of such a pursuit, especially given all the time I invested in bringing the Senators to the Cup in NHL 10.
(Don't talk to me about priorities.)
That's surely the only Stanley Cup the Ottawa Senators are winning, Tao.
ReplyDeleteA world away, I am taking much joy in reading that Romero is pitching well, that Ruiz is mashing, and that JoBau might actually be a decent leadoff hitter. I'm very much looking forward to coming home and finding the Blue Jays in first place.