Monday, May 30, 2011

Blue Jays Twitter Power Rankings!

It's not that we're bereft of actual baseball stuff to discuss. We've just wanted to do this for months now, and we'd prefer not to discuss Hawk Harrelson or John Danks, or whether if the One Man Gang could stand to chill in the middle of a blow out. (Though others might wish to go there.)

We'll note that unlike some others we know, we do not have a proprietary system which helps to analyze the influence and reach of each of these accounts. We're pretty much shooting from the hip. (Though we'd guess that we're smarter than your algorithm anyhow.)

Let's rank 'em up!

1. J.P. Arencibia ( - Followers: 24,481 ; Following: 69

The Lowdown: Crown Prince of Blue Jays tweeters. Originator of the #beastmode hashtag. Instigator of Twitter tomfoolery. Not above commenting on the issues of the day (such as they are.) Uses the tool as it was supposed to be used. Seems like a genuinely fun guy. Asks followers for helpful advice on living in Toronto, Canada.

Will he follow you? Are you a hot chick?

Will he RT me? Maybe. Helps if you are a hot chick. Or if it involves children loving baseball.

Worth a follow? Absolutely. Above all others.

2. Brandon Morrow () - Followers: 12,681 ; Following: 35

The Lowdown: Literate, and legitimately witty. Creates anagrams just for fun. Doesn't tweet often, but is often re-tweetable. Ongoing dialogue between he and his wife (@lilymorrow21) is amusing, like the best episodes of Mad About You. (Okay, probably better than that. And there is a dog involved.)

Will he follow you? Probably not. Unless you are a teammate, baseball writer or a purveyor of hilarious comedy music video madness.

Will he RT me? Are you his teammate?

Worth a follow? Yes. But expect quality as opposed to quantity.

3. Travis Snider () Followers: 20,273 ; Following: 74

The Lowdown: Early season Twitter MVP. Trip to Las Vegas slowed down tweeting output. Still has significant Twitter upside. Fully embraced #MeatsDontClash meme, and made it his own. Seems like a genuinely cool guy.

Will he follow you? Not likely. Sticks to circle of Jays, friends of Jays and other big leaguers.

Will he RT me? Yes, for a good cause.

Worth a follow? Yes, though his absence from the twitosphere may give you some sadness.

4. Ricky Romero () - Followers: 25,144 ; Following: 51

The Lowdown: That "Los Fearless" Nike ad he did? That's pretty much what you can expect from RickRo's tweets: Intensely inspirational. Pumps up teammates with #beastmode or #HustleandHeart hashtags.

Will he follow you? Are you the reigning Miss USA?

Will he RT me? Yes. Just ask for an RT for whatever reason, and he's happy to oblige.

Worth a follow? Sure. Just prepare yourself for the sad spectacle of people dumber than you begging for RTs.

5. José Bautista () - Followers: 30,295 ; Following: 48

The Lowdown: Enthusiastic!! Enjoys the use of exclamation!!

Will he follow you? You should know better by now.

Will he RT me? No. And he's a better man for it.

Worth a follow? Who are we kidding. Of course you are following him already.

6. Brett Cecil () - Followers: 13,298 ; Following: 71

The Lowdown: Happy (though homesick) dad. Enthusiastic Washington Capitals fan. Provides honest self-criticism following games. Occasionally takes on idiot trolls.

Will he follow you? Perhaps if you don't mind letting him beat you at NHL 11.

Will he RT me? Nope. Go beg for RTs from those prats from Glee.

Worth a follow? Sure.

7. Brett Lawrie (@blawrie13) - Followers: 8,392 ; Following: 14

The Lowdown: Dude. Party time. Excellent. Less interesting than his sister's tweets, though fewer emo moments as well.

Will he follow you? We're not sure he knows how.

Will he RT me? What's an RT?

Worth a follow? You can probably wait until he gets his promotion.

8. Jesse Litsch (@JesseLitsch) - Followers: 13,745 ; Following: 81

The Lowdown: Happy to be hear sometimes he uses words funny and run on sentences and stuff alright.

Will he follow you? As likely as anyone to do so. Helps if you're a chick. (Hotness not as much a concern.)

Will he RT me? Are you the MLBPA?

Worth a follow? He's agile like a kitty! How could you not?

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We suppose we could have added a few other minor leaguers to this list (@jakemarisnick for instance), but we're reasonably certain that you've already stopped reading by now. And if you have stuck it through to the finish: Hey there! Happy Monday, y'all!

16 comments:

Drew said...

You officially converted me on JPA. I know follow.

Drew said...

Whoops. Now follow.

Joanna said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
joanna said...

I have been @ replied by Ricky Romero (Whiz Khalifa is our thing), retweeted by Vernon Wells (and it wasn't because I begged for one) but given JPA non-acknowledged yoga spot suggestions when he asked for them. ODog and I tweeted back and forth a few times, mostly me trying and failing to find him soul food in San Diego.

joanna said...

Some bad, bad grammar there. Sorry. #grammarfail

The Ack said...

Zaunie has to be the unquestioned frontrunner in the "Alumni turned broadcaster" category.

Doron said...

This was great.

I agree with your rankings, though I may have Morrow on top. Lawrie's the only one of the bunch that got himself the boot from my following.

Meredith said...

I’m following JPA now too. He was tweeting about Bixi bikes (I think). One of us! One of us! Urban lemming!

Tao of Stieb said...

You kids and your BIXI bikes. DONT U KNOW THERES NO HELMETZ YUR GONNA KILL YOUR BRAINXZ ON THOSE THINGS.

Although you could also get hit by a car in the lobby of the new Hotel St. Germain in Maple Leaf Square.

I'd like to think that JPA would take it as a badge of honour that he's at the top of the Power Rankings.

Gruber's Mullet said...

Morrow just tweeted about where to get a goat or a chicken before tonights game. That tweet alone should bump him up to #1.

The Southpaw said...

I follow all Blue jays, and Blue jays' minor leaguers, however remote their chance of making the majors.

I was even following Eiland until he was cut.

I stopped following Zaunie because i got tired of the endless string of "must be jam" and the like cluttering up my feed. I have a hard enough time keeping up
without useless spam.

And you mention in passing my #1 pet peeve about twitter: the massively irritating "please re-tweet me for my entierlly irrelevant reason that no one who follows you cares about" -

"It's my birthday can I get a re-tweet"

"My son's first little league game, re-tweet?"

"will you retweet me because my girlfriend doesn't hate baseball?"

"i just dropped my spaghetti in my lap, can I get a sympathy re-tweet?"

ENOGH!!!!!!

(you can tell maybe I'm a bit passionate on this point)

Chad said...

I (@dpriest)was at tweeted a few times by Vernon Wells and Cecil and his wife.

I've also been at tweeted and then blocked by Boy George.

If it wasn't for for hapless social media marketing types, I would probably have 7 followers. You don't know what you're missing, kids!

Scrappy said...

Agree with Gruber's Mullet, Morrow's tweets about the goats tonight were wicked.

Xave said...

But are you sure JPA's TwOBA isn't just TWABIP luck?

Greg W said...

I asked Zaun to tweet pics of all the different pitch grips during a rain delay, and he actually did! With his massive WS ring on his hand in the studio. If that isn't Twitter friendly, I don't know what is.

KP said...

Honourable mention to Zaun for never ever using the shift key on whatever device he tweets from.

Also, much love for the Litchisms... "Finally landed in Texas terrible weather turbulence whole flight but I made it so that's good time to get after the Texas rangers"... apparently they don't include punctuation in batboy training.