Bill Simmons’ The Ringer MLB Show: Blue Jays “not a good team”
By Dan Rankin
The AL East-focused debut of The Ringer MLB Show gave short shrift to the teams not based in Boston or New York, and a hot take on the Toronto Blue Jays.
Bill Simmons’ Melisandre-like spell is finally coming to bear as, from the rotting corpse of Grantland and the BS Report, “The Ringer” is slowly hacking and gasping to life. The B.S. Report has been resurrected into The Bill Simmons Podcast, and a host of familiar voices have been brought in to kick start a number of other podcasts, each focused on a different sport.
The first episode of The Ringer MLB Show debuted earlier this week, with Simmons hosting and his pal, long-suffering Yankees fan Jack-O, as the first guest.
Titled “Yankees and AL East,” Simmons leads off the show indicating each division would get its own episode as more voices take part in the show until its real, full-time MLB expert hosts join up later in the summer. Very mysterious indeed. Then he and Jack-O proceed to swap spit on the Red Sox and Yankees like they always do.
The other three teams in the division get short shrift until later on in the program, when The Ringer Deputy Editor, “After The Thrones” co-host and Baltimore Orioles fan Mallory Rubin joins in. That’s the first time that the defending-division champion squad is mentioned by name, with about five minutes left in the 43-minute long program – and it’s not exactly complimentary.
“The Blue Jays have that, just that feel to me… a team that… it never really made sense to me how they were able to compete last year,” said Rubin, equating a League Championship appearance to being ‘able to compete.’ You know? Like the Orioles were ‘able to compete’ in 2014 until the Royals swept them out of the ALCS?
“I understand how scoring and baseball work, but that’s not a good team,” Rubin continues. “Just having the same player in five spots in your lineup and nothing else, no pitching, a sh**ty bullpen where you’re just cycling through closers. Tulowitzki’s been terrible, as someone who owns him in a fantasy league. He’s got eight home runs I think, but he’s hitting .200, barely.”
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Oof.
Simmons is virtually gushing with love for Toronto in comparison, when he points out that “they’ve been a s**t show, and they’re 22-24; they’re only six games back.” They’ve since improved to 24-25, but remain six games off the pace.
“The Blue Jays spent a ton of money, it’s not like they’re going to suck,” Simmons adds. “It feels like the AL East is all clumped together and all these teams are going to be in it.”
Speaking as a Jays fan who weathered their recent five-game losing streak, and who is more than a little anxious about this upcoming home stand versus Boston and New York, I hope so, Bill. I sure hope so.
Next: Tulo Should Leadoff, Jays Need to Change Offensive Approach
And, obviously, there are some better podcasts to listen to if you are in search of deeply insightful Blue Jays talk.