Know Your Jays: Josh Donaldson

Josh Donaldson. Son of Donald. Dosh Jonaldson. Our Savior. He Who Gets It Done. The Bringer of Rain. Bringer of Homers. Bringer of Walk-offs. MVP! MVP! For some reason I always want to call him Joshy Don, but I'm sure he would not like that, so I don't do it (because sometimes he scares me a little). If you ask anyone who just began following the Blue Jays this year, he's responsible for literally every win they've had.

As you probably already know, he was traded for Brett Lawrie (and friends) before the 2015 season, which surprised a lot of people because A) A lot of people loved Brett Lawrie and B) A lot of people were surprised Oakland would let him go for such a low price.

His hair is kinda weird, but that's OK because he's the best and we love him. At least it's not that bizarre mohawk/rattail he had the last few years with the A's. What's not OK is the Yankees' Twitter mocking said hair, because that's just douchey. We do it with love. It's like how it's fine for you to tease your family, but if anyone else does it, you'll kick their ass. Not cool, Yankees.

Does he have Twitter?: Yup, and it's where the 'Bringer of Rain' handle came from - he gave it to himself. He's semi-active online when he doesn't have a game to play, and pretty sassy, too. I asked the Jays to play all day games so that he could devote his evenings to tweeting, but no luck.

Irrelevant Facts: The nickname 'Bringer of Rain' came from the TV show Spartacus, which he apparently is a huge fan of. And considering how much I love TV, anyone who names themselves after their favourite show is pretty awesome in my book.

He also appears to be friends with Freddie Prinze, Jr. Lucky guy. (Or is Freddie Prinze Jr, the lucky one because he's friends with Josh Donaldson?)

@RealFPJr it's a tough game. Good thing my about having teammates is they can go deep too. 😂😂

— Josh Donaldson (@BringerOfRain20) August 13, 2015

During his first two seasons in Oakland, he was a catcher. Which seems weird to me. That would be like Kevin Pillar playing shortstop. It's just wrong. I would, however, love to see JD in catcher's gear at some point (although hopefully not during an important game... because that would mean something bad happened to Martin and/or Navarro, and besides - who the hell would play third?!). Solely for selfish reasons, because catchers are my favourite.

Best Quotes: (On Edwin Encarnacion, said at 2 a.m. EST while possibly falling asleep) "He's a guy who... hits balls really hard." 

(On learning he'd been traded to the Jays) "I seen on Twitter somebody put me in one of those Toronto Blue Jays uniforms — the all-white one. I tell you what: those uniforms are pretty sexy.”

What he's good at: He hits lots of things, like home runs. He hits in important situations, like late innings in close games, or to start off the scoring in a game. Have I mentioned that he hits a lot of home runs? Because he does. (True fact: just after I typed that sentence, he hit another one. I'm not kidding. August 18th, 2015. First inning in Philly. Look it up).

He's had so many home runs this year that it's hard to pick a favourite, so here are a bunch from the first half of the season handily compiled together. My favourite part of these astonishing feats of power are his reactions - particularly around 0:29 and 1:15. The way that smile creeps across his face is just beautiful.

He also doesn't need no stinking glove to be one of the best 3rd basemen in all of baseball. He snags, he jumps, he stretches, he pivots, he dives, he leaps, and he throws. Sometimes he does more than one of those things at a time.

I mean at this point, the glove is just a formality.

An accessory, at most...

His spray chart is astonishing, in that it's so evenly spread-out. Most right-handed hitters tend to hit to the left side of the diamond, but other than on balls he's been thrown out on, that doesn't seem to be the case. You can never really predict where he's going to hit to, which is probably why he keeps everyone on the opposing team on their toes. His home runs, in particular, are more perfectly distributed than sprinkles on a cake. (Fun fact: Once during BP, he batted from his left side, just to see what it was like - and he hit a home run. Because of course he did. He's Josh Donaldson.)





What he's not so good at: Keeping the ball inside the park. Mwahaha.

He's also got the most errors per games played for any Jays player not named Jose Reyes in 2015. Many of those are throwing errors, overshooting the first baseman in his haste to be rid of a ball. Fortunately, most of these errors didn't end up costing the team. The haste also calmed down a fair bit in the second half of the season, which is good. But it's still something to be concerned about. If his glove (or other hand, as the case may be) are so steady, why doesn't he have time to prepare the throw? Sometimes it's completely necessary, like when the runner is crazy fast, but it's generally better to be accurate than to be early.

Though he's fairly mild-mannered and smiley once the game is over, he's intense to the point of scary at times when playing. Like a tightly wound spring being released, he explodes with energy, either with his bat or his arm or, on occasion, his mouth. Who can forget the storm of curses which turned us all into lip-readers that he unleashed in the direction of the LA Angels dugout? Who even knows what exactly provoked that?
I'm always concerned that that kind of thing is going to get him in trouble, especially when he's angry at an umpire, or one of the numerous pitchers who mistook him for the catcher's mitt. Obviously, having a guy throw at your head is not to be taken lightly (especially when that guy has zero repercussion for it, as happened with the Royals) and I absolutely expect him to get mad in those cases. But if a fight were to break out in a close game, the Jays can't really afford to lose their biggest masher to an ejection. I'm worried that one day, he's going to cuss out the wrong person, and said person will send him packing. This is another reason I appreciate Jose Bautista's efforts to insert himself between Donaldson and the object of his anger. A step back and few deep breaths in those moments could go a long way.

Why I love him: Did you not see the thing about all the homers he hits?



The ritual of 'throwing up the six' after crossing home plate each time he homers is a tribute to his buddy, starting pitcher (and #6) Marcus Stroman, who was out injured for most of the season. Every time, we were reminded that even though Stroman couldn't be with the team, he was nonetheless a part of it, and Donaldson was making sure he wasn't forgotten.

He puts 100% of himself into everything he does on the field. Even when the Jays are winning by a huge margin, he goes all-in on a play, or smacks the ball as hard as it will go, just because he can. He's incredibly intense, focused and dedicated - and that's really hard not to respect.

He's also astonishingly modest considering all his impressive skills. When asked about the MVP chants that fans were sending his way, he pointed out that baseball is a team sport and he expects himself to play well for the purpose of helping out his teammates. He wants to win, obviously, but it's not about personal glory or taking all the credit. He was blown away by the support of Canadian fans voting him into the All-Star Game and really just seemed thrilled to be there.

He deserved every single vote he got. And in his own words, Canada 'got it done'.

2015 Season highlights: His previous record for home runs came last year with 29. On August 5th he hit his 29th of this season, and 2015 Josh Donaldson took a look at 2014 Josh Donaldson, nodded, and kept right on going. He hit his 30th two days later. He eventually reached 41 homers in the regular season, more than any of his teammates.

His home runs seem to come at the most timely of times, with the majority of them either tying the game or giving the Jays the lead. Two such homers were responsible for impressive walk-off victories, including the Jays' first walk-off of the season, on April 18th in the 10th inning against the Braves. A second came, on May 25th, that scored three runs in a game it didn't seem the Jays would be able to win over the White Sox. It was his second homer in that game.

He also caused a third walk-off on July 31st facing the Royals when he hit a single that scored Troy Tulowitzki from second base in the 11th inning.

On June 23rd, in Tampa Bay, pitcher Marco Estrada had a seven-inning perfect game going when David DeJesus hit a foul ball. It was well over the line, into the stands, but Donaldson wanted so badly for Estrada to get his perfect game that he launched himself into the seats and snagged the ball. Considering all the stupid and recurring injuries Jays players had suffered this year, I was afraid he had broken something, but he emerged triumphantly, grinning and holding the ball aloft. The guy is indestructible.

That turned out to be the last out of the perfect-game bid, as the next batter hit a single that JD couldn't get to first base in time, but no matter. That catch went down as one of the most impressive of the Jays' season, and gave Estrada something to smile about even after being unsuccessful.

On August 22nd, Josh became the first player in the MLB to reach 100 RBI this season, which made him only the second Blue Jay ever (after Carlos Delgado in 2003) to accomplish that feat before everyone else. He also beat his own personal best for RBI in a season - 94 - that game. The same day, he became the first Blue Jays third baseman since Kelly Gruber to have six RBI in the same game.

Also in the month of August, Josh and Edwin Encarnacion became only the third pair of teammates ever in MLB history to both have more than ten home runs and 35 or more RBIs in the same month. (The 35 RBIs in one month are a Blue Jays record). They joined on that list pairs such as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, aaaaand... Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. That's it. Ever. How insane is that?!

Off-field antics: His wicked sense of humour, and the sneaky smile that accompanies it, are two of my favourite things about him. He's perhaps the guy, out of the entire team, who's the most different in person from his intense on-field persona. Just watch this video:

Look at that cheeky grin. Just look at it. LOOK AT IT! 

A bunch of Twitter people made up 'Josh Donaldson as your boyfriend' stories one night, because they were bored. I, unfortunately did not get in on this until it was too late, but it was one of the most awesome running jokes I've ever seen. Somehow they turned him into John Bender. (If you don't know who that is, away with you and don't you dare come back until you've watched The Breakfast Club in its entirety).

As if that weren't enough, the man himself actually responded to it:

@MissStaceyMay @steven_lebron Oh my! How do you all know so much about me? 😂😂

— Josh Donaldson (@BringerOfRain20) August 19, 2015

Then there's the time the entirety of Canada rallied behind him to elect him to the All-Star Game - breaking the all-time record for votes for a single player in the process. He also had the help of two Canadian celebs who used their popularity to push the non-baseball-watching general public to vote for him: Don Cherry and actor Stephen Amell.
To officially cement just how much the country loves JD, he caught a ceremonial first pitch thrown out by Cherry, on Canada Day, no less. The Hockey Night in Canada host was nervous about embarrassing himself, and Donaldson apparently told him 'Don't worry, I won't let you look bad.'

Amell was present at a different game, where the two of them hung out during batting practise, and Donaldson challenged Amell to hit a home run, which he did. Amell then asked Donaldson if he would hit a home run during the game that day - and lo and behold, he did.

JD also took part in a recurring bit at the SkyDome where they show a brief video between innings called 'The Roof Report with Josh Donaldson'. I thought this was only a one-time thing (I only ever heard about them using it at the home opener) but then my sister went to a game, and then I went to a game - and apparently they use it every day! It's awesome!
Much in the same vein as Captain Obvious, it's literally a 3-second clip where he sits at a desk and informs the live audience whether the roof is open or closed. The intro and closing portions (wherein an announcer says "And now, The Roof Report with the Bringer of Rain, Josh Donaldson" and "This has been The Roof Report with Josh Donaldson") are longer than the part featuring JD himself.
If you haven't caught on yet, the joke is the fact that the audience are IN the SkyDome, and therefore fully aware of whether the roof is open or closed. For some reason I find this utterly hilarious.

Fictional/cartoon character he resembles: I'm gonna go with Sonic the Hedgehog, because of the spiky hair and the perpetually-arched eyebrows. Also because he looks good in blue.

Hopefully he'll also excel at collecting rings. (Get it? Championship rings?? Teehee)

He's as clutch as clutch can be, and brings whatever kind of precipitation is necessary to win a ballgame. No matter the city, no matter the weather, our boy can make it rain.

In closing, I'm just gonna leave these here*:

*Although not to burst anyone's bubble (including my own) I'm pretty sure he's just blinking. 

[GIFs created by the Blue Jay Hunter]