TORONTO — It’s not just that go-ahead RBI on Sunday that helped set the stage for Tuesday’s American League wild-card game. Is it just me or at some point did this Toronto Blue Jays team become Troy Tulowitzki’s team? I mean, it certainly feels that way, doesn’t it?
The signs were there in spring training, where it seemed as if he had become the emotional centre of the clubhouse — the position player who also had a foot in the pitcher’s camp. Who knows what the hell it all means, except it seemed that with Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista heading into free agency it was going to be up to Tulowitzki — the guy with the long-term contract and the pedigree, slightly more accessible it seemed than Russell Martin — to make sure the competing personal agendas didn’t get in each other’s way. No one likes it when Tulowitzki snaps; I think we all got a glimpse of that in that series against the Tampa Bay Rays when he rushed wide-eyed and frothing into a verbal altercation between Martin and Steven Souza Jr., that had already been resolved. Tulowitzki … the one guy, I’m told, who seems to be able to figure out Josh Donaldson when that needs doing, too.
September was a disquieting month for the Blue Jays. Donaldson hit .221, Jose Bautista hit .245 and this core group of Blue Jays has never had a winning run hitting the way they have down the stretch. (As an aside, at the risk of being a killjoy, it must be noted that for the Blue Jays, steady success relying on sacrifice flies and such would be out of character.) And through it all it has been Tulowitzki, who became the go-to guy for state of the team stuff and seemed to emerge even as Donaldson in particular shrank into the background.
This is not to get all psychoanalytical about the Blue Jays clubhouse. None of us in the media are that good. Nor, frankly, is it to paint anything as a negative, because when Tulowitzki was traded here that was a sentiment that he never really settled in; that as a creature of habit it was too much of a shock to go from Denver to Toronto. But Toronto stuck with him. He was spared much of the usual fan discontent this city piles on athletes even as he slogged through an awful first half. There are days like Sunday where he seems more irreplaceable than any other position player and, yeah, it surprises me that I feel that way.
LOOK AT ME, A CULPA (Vol. II)
Ben Nicholson-Smith convened a timetable at the start of the year and had us pick our individual award winners. I gave myself a re-do in mid-July … and here’s my final selection:
AL MVP
April: Josh Donaldson, Toronto Blue Jays
July: Donaldson
Year-end: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
In a season in which the playoff-bound teams lacked overwhelming internal MVP candidates, it’s time to rely on Trout and that 10.3 Wins Above Replacement. He’ll start every season of his career as most people’s prohibitive favourite.
AL CY YOUNG
April: Chris Archer, Tampa Bay Rays
July: Danny Salazar, Cleveland Indians
Year-end: Zach Britton, Baltimore Orioles
With 47 saves and absent a dominant AL starter, Britton should become the first reliever to earn Cy Young recognition since Montreal-born Eric Gagne won in 2003. Britton’s is the lowest ERA in history with a minimum of 40 saves.
AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
April: Joey Gallo, Texas Rangers
July: Michael Fulmer, Detroit Tigers
Year-end: Fulmer
Fulmer had the most dominant 10-game run ever for a rookie pitcher between the end of May and July. The Tigers weren’t playing meaningful baseball on Sunday without him.
NL MVP
April: Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
July: Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs
Year-end: Bryant
I’d love to go with our own Joey Votto but … Bryant is the second Cubs player in 85 years with 120 runs, 35 doubles, 39 home runs and 100 RBIs in a single season. Plus, he’s second only to Mike Trout in WAR.
NL CY YOUNG
April: Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants
July: Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
Year-end: Kyle Hendricks, Chicago Cubs
The first Cubs pitcher to lead the majors in ERA since Bill Lee in 1938 has also posted a 1.32 ERA at Wrigley Field, the best since Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander’s mark of 1.11 in 1920.
NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
April: Corey Seager, Los Angeles Dodgers
July: Seager
Year-end: Seager
The easiest award to call, it should be unanimous: Seager’s 193 hits are the most by a major-league rookie since 2001, when Ichiro Suzuki had 242 hits and Albert Pujols had 194.
QUIBBLES AND BITS
And what about two wild-card managers, the New York Mets’ Terry Collins and our own John Gibbons? New Blue Jays president and chief executive officer Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins have turned over the executive suite. They like their “guys” and Gibbons is not theirs. Despite performing a daily balancing act with a rotation many believe will be transcendent, he is viewed as lacking the “royal jelly” to win a World Series.
| BEST MANAGERIAL RECORDS SINCE 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| MANAGER | RECORD | WINNING % |
| JOE MADDON | 200-123 | .619 |
| MIKE MATHENY | 186-138 | .574 |
| JEFF BANISTER | 183-141 | .565 |
| JOHN GIBBONS | 182-142 | .562 |
| TERRY COLLINS | 177-147 | .546 |
| CLINT HURDLE | 176-147 | .545 |
| TERRY FRANCONA | 175-147 | .543 |
| NED YOST | 176-148 | .543 |
| BEST MANAGERIAL RECORDS SINCE 2013 | ||
|---|---|---|
| MANAGER | RECORD | WINNING % |
| MIKE MATHENY | 373-275 | .576 |
| JOE MADDON | 369-279 | .569 |
| CLINT HURDLE | 358-289 | .553 |
| DON MATTINGLY | 357-290 | .552 |
| TERRY FRANCONA | 352-294 | .545 |
| BUCK SHOWALTER | 351-297 | .542 |
| NED YOST | 351-297 | .542 |
| JOE GIRARDI | 340-308 | .525 |
| JOHN FARRELL | 339-309 | .523 |
| JOHN GIBBONS | 339-309 | .523 |
| MIKE SCIOSCIA | 335-315 | .517 |
| BRUCE BOCHY | 335-315 | .517 |
| TERRY COLLINS | 330-318 | .509 |
| BOB MELVIN | 321-327 | .495 |
| ROBIN VENTURA | 290-358 | .448 |
| WALT WEISS | 283-365 | .437 |
CREDIT: Steve Fellin, Sportsnet Stats
Votto, who hit .408 after the all-star break and finished with an OBP of .490, is the first player to bat over .400 in the second half since Ichiro Suzuki in 2004 … which makes you wonder what he would have been capable of without that .213 average through April and May. He’d be a good fit for the Blue Jays this winter; maybe too good.
THE ENDGAME
Pedro Martinez’s role in bringing David Ortiz to the Boston Red Sox is a disputed part of team lore, as is revealed in this fascinating piece by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, but what can’t be disputed is the importance of Martinez’s acquisition from the Montreal Expos in setting the course for modern-day Red Sox history.
I remember chatting with then-Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein during the 2004 World Series when he gave much of the credit for the Red Sox’s turnaround to his predecessor Dan Duquette. I remember Epstein talking about how the acquisition of Martinez "changed the culture" around the Red Sox, and took it to mean that bringing in one of the biggest Latino personalities in the game wiped out any suggestion that the Red Sox’s twisted and contentious legacy with race relations lingered. The Red Sox now have one of the most Latino-friendly clubhouses in the majors.